Alan Jones trial: complainant wants to ‘humiliate’ broadcaster by revealing intimate details of alleged assaults, defence tells court

• Pakistan has offered to host renewed diplomatic negotiations between the United States and Iran in Islamabad to facilitate a resolution to their ongoing tensions. • This move signals a strategic shift for Islamabad, which is attempting to transition from a reactive player to a responsible stakeholder in regional stability.

• Gulf monarchies are shifting their strategy toward Iran from direct confrontation to "strategic containment," aiming to limit Tehran's regional influence without triggering a total state collapse. • This shift follows over 40 years of zero-sum rivalry characterized by Iran's nuclear ambitions, ballistic missile development, and support for non-state armed actors.

• Manoah Esipisu transitioned from a career in international journalism to high-level government service, eventually serving as the spokesperson for former President Uhuru Kenyatta. • His background reporting from conflict zones and politically sensitive regions provided critical insights into governance, humanitarian crises, and African politics.

• Federal University Dutsin-Ma hosted its maiden International Conference on Political Science on Wednesday, July 29, 2026, focusing on regional integration and security dynamics in West Africa. • The conference addressed a wide array of critical threats, including terrorism, violent extremism, insurgency, cybercrime, and unconstitutional changes of government.

• Tensions between the United States and Iran have escalated, undermining the stability hoped for following a recently signed memorandum of understanding. • Gulf nations are increasingly analyzing the conflict in Ukraine to understand how global geopolitical shifts and converging conflicts impact their own regional security.

With the debate over prison overcrowding and what to do about it raging, one initiative offers an alternative solutionAs the prison overcrowding crisis shows no sign of abating and the debate rages over early releases, an initiative in the West Midlands offers an alternative to custodial sentences.The Guardian was offered rare access to the project, under which, instead of being sent to prison, convicted offenders work on the improvement of waterways and green spaces around Smethwick. It is a small part of the community payback scheme, which in total clocked up an estimated 5m hours across England and Wales in the last year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Neet crisis review to call for teachers to be asked to spot those at risk of leaving education jobless at 16What can Dublin teach us? Milburn goes on quest to learnPrimary schools in England should be required to identify children at risk of leaving education at 16 without finding a job, a government review is to recommend.Alan Milburn, who is leading a review into Britain’s crisis in youth worklessness, said he would call for sweeping changes in education policy alongside a shake-up of the benefits system to address the problem. Continue reading...

Visits down 3.8% after 6.2% fall in June, with many choosing to buy online instead, research for retail body findsShoppers stayed away from UK high streets during last month’s heatwave temperatures, with many choosing to buy online instead as the mercury in some areas rose into the mid-30Cs.Trips to high streets were down by 3.8% year on year in July after a 6.2% fall in June, according to research from the monitoring firm Sensormatic for the British Retail Consortium (BRC). Continue reading...

Slovakia reaches new high of 42C as authorities in Poland forced to shut down Kozienice and Połaniec power plantsTemperature records have been broken in several countries across central and eastern Europe as the extreme weather that has caused wildfires and droughts across the continent continues.Countries including Slovakia, Austria and Hungary registered record temperatures. On Thursday, the Slovakian hydrometeorological agency said a new high of 42C (108F) had been reached in Dolné Plachtince. Continue reading...

Donald Trump’s second term is unlike his first. The politicians who challenged him are gone. The lawyers who once pushed back now choose their battles. What remains is an imperial president with almost no internal checks, using executive power to reshape everything from the economy, immigration and even the presidency itself.Few journalists have covered Trump as closely as the New York Times journalist Jonathan Swan. Jonathan Freedland speaks to him about how the president has consolidated such power – and what it could mean for the US and the worldWatch Jonathan Freedland on our new Politics Weekly YouTube channelYou can find Jonathan Swan and Maggie Habermans’ book Regime Change hereSend your questions and feedback to [email protected] Continue reading...

Nominees to face off in November in redistricted seat central to Trump’s bid to retain slim Republican majorityTennessee primary voters picked a pair of Memphis-area lawmakers to square off in a dramatically reconfigured US House seat central to Donald Trump’s plan to try to hold on to a slim Republican majority in the midterm congressional elections.Republicans chose state senator Brent Taylor, who was endorsed by Trump, to be their nominee in the revamped 9th congressional district. Democrats picked state representative Justin Pearson, who gained national prominence three years ago when he was expelled from the Tennessee House for protesting in support of gun control measures. Continue reading...