Burnham cuts VAT on electricity bills in first major policy announcement – UK politics live

• An internal power struggle is unfolding within Iran as factions debate how to handle the ongoing 47-year conflict with the United States. • Pragmatists within the government argue that the window to settle the conflict from a position of strength is rapidly closing.

Rights group claims 300 homes were destroyed in Tibet and number of missing people is ‘far higher’ than Beijing admitsA Tibetan advocacy group says hundreds of homes were destroyed on the Tibetan side of the border in last week’s deadly floods, raising questions about Beijing’s official account of the scale of the disaster.Public discussion about the flash floods has been restricted, with security officials in Tibet announcing on Sunday that it had penalised at least 10 people for sharing “false disaster information”. There was no further information on the nature of the penalties. Continue reading...

Julius Mugabo launches landmark case as union says thousands in capital lost incomes due to ‘broken system’An Uber driver who got into thousands of pounds of debt and feared losing his home due to delays in Transport for London renewing his licence to pick up passengers is taking on the organisation in the high court in the first challenge of its kind.Julius Mugabo, 55, has been an Uber driver licensed by TfL since 2016. Under the Private Hire Vehicles (London) Act 1998, all minicab drivers cannot work lawfully unless TfL has carried out checks on them and issued or renewed their licences. These licences must be renewed every three years. Continue reading...

Concern among staff that fragile artwork’s scarce ‘light hours’ given to someone with no known interest in museumThe British Museum privately hosted the Donald Trump-supporting tech billionaire Peter Thiel in the exhibition space of the Bayeux tapestry earlier this month, the Guardian understands.The museum’s director of development, Charlotte Appleyard, hosted the PayPal founder at a VIP viewing of the tapestry, which is yet to open to the public, on 18 August. Continue reading...

Organisers say world must revive its spiritual relationship with food as climate crisis and conflict disrupt food securityMending the broken food system under the threat of climate-driven weather extremes will require more than economic fixes and intensive agriculture, and the world must revive its spiritual relationship with food, according to the organisers of a pioneering summit this week.Delegates from more than 60 countries and the UN will gather for the next five days in Paro, in the tiny Himalayan nation of Bhutan, for the world’s first “conscious food summit”, which will bring together governments and farmers, mindfulness experts and yoga therapists. Continue reading...

More than 200mm of rain forecast in parts of South Korea, while parts of southern Europe to be 10C above averageSouth Korea’s prime minister, Han Seong-sook, met officials to prepare for heavy rain expected this week, with rainfall totals across central and northern parts of the country forecast to exceed 200mm in some areas.South Korea was battered by heavy rainfall earlier this month and some areas were particularly hard hit. Over the weekend further thunderstorms pushed into the region and these are expected to cause disruption through Monday. This heavy rain is caused by a series of severe thunderstorms that developed over the Yellow Sea, on the western side of South Korea, and will slowly push eastwards on Monday before easing on Tuesday. These storms have been strengthened by the very warm Yellow Sea, which now has a surface temperature of 29C, 4C above the climatological average. Continue reading...

US targets Iran’s Larak Island in first exchange of fire in more than a month, sparking reprisals against US forces in Jordan and UAEUS strikes Iranian launchers in strait of Hormuz, prompting Iranian retaliatory attacksWelcome to our live coverage as hostilities between the US and Iran flared again for the first time in a month, with American strikes on Iran prompting retaliation from Tehran.A supertanker caught ⁠fire and was brought to a complete ⁠halt after ⁠hitting two naval mines in ⁠the southern strait of Hormuz, Iran state ⁠TV reported on Monday, ​citing ‌a statement ‌from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.Iran’s supreme leader called the US and Israel enemies of all Islamic nations. In a written message issued six months on from the start of the war, Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei also urged rulers of Muslim nations to “know your real enemy, understand its plans and confront it”, the official Irna news agency reported.Israel’s Shin Bet security agency says it urgently evacuated prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s oldest son from the US due to a threat against him. In a brief statement the Associated Press obtained on Sunday, the Shin Bet confirmed there had been a “significant threat” to Yair Netanyahu, without elaborating.US treasury secretary Scott Bessent will step up efforts to isolate Iran economically as he hosts G20 counterparts this week, a US official has said.Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian is due to take part in a summit starting on Monday of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, a regional bloc that seeks to be a counter-influence to the west. Russia’s Vladimir Putin is expected to hold separate bilateral talks with Pezeshkian and China’s Xi Jinping, among other leaders, a Kremlin spokesperson said. Continue reading...

Secretive state begins repairs on ageing facilities after being revealed as worst country for leaks of potent greenhouse gasTurkmenistan has started plugging the mega-leaks of methane that spew from its ageing oil and gas facilities, the latest UN data shows, in a move hailed as a breakthrough.Methane, also called natural or fossil gas, is a potent greenhouse gas. It traps 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide and causes 25% of global heating today. Stopping leaks can be quick and cheap and, because methane breaks down in the atmosphere far quicker than CO2, this has a rapid impact, with some experts calling it the climate “emergency brake”. Continue reading...

As families await news after the catastrophe, community members appeal for compassion in the face of hateful rhetoricA slew of racist social media comments have been made towards Australians missing in the catastrophic Nepal-Tibet floods, prompting calls for greater accountability of major platforms to remove hateful rhetoric.On Monday, the total number of Australians missing after flash floods triggered by a massive glacier collapse in the Himalayas rose to 43, and the overall death toll was at least 810 people. Continue reading...

Perrottet disagrees when counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC claims brother of former NSW premier is not truthful and ‘constructing evidence’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA brother of former premier Dominic Perrottet has told Icac he would lie to a property developer about delivering political outcomes “to keep him on side”, but Charles Perrottet has denied lying to the New South Wales anti-corruption watchdog.Charles Perrottet, who is among three Liberal figures alleged to have anticipated receiving $2m in prohibited political donations from Jean Nassif, told the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) on Monday that he “made up” updates for the property developer. Continue reading...

The long-running drama reaches Hitler’s rise to power in its final season as its creators reflect on the unsettling parallels between Weimar Germany and the present dayIt’s the global hit TV series that pulled audiences straight into the chaotic hedonism of 1920s Germany, dramatising the brilliance and brittleness of a newly built democratic system with unprecedented ambition.But in the 13 years that the German makers of Babylon Berlin have worked on the show, modern democracies from the US to Hungary to South Korea have come under pressure in ways the creators say they could never have imagined when they started. Continue reading...

Police urge mother to attend hospital after baby’s body discovered in Harrow Road in AuburnFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastNew South Wales police have appealed for information to find the mother of a newborn baby boy, whose body was discovered in a rubbish bin in Auburn in Sydney’s south-west on Monday morning.Police said emergency services responded to reports of the body of a baby located in a rubbish bin along Harrow Road in Auburn at 11.20am, with officers from the Auburn police area command finding the body of a newborn boy. Continue reading...