California sheriff who seized ballots ordered to halt election investigation

Loyalists rush to defend president for ‘outsmarting the critics’ but others decry deal as ‘a negative for our country’Donald Trump’s acceptance of a two-week ceasefire in Iran has exposed fresh divisions in his Make America Great Again (Maga) movement, with some supporters expressing vindication and others accusing the US president of betrayal.The US and Iran both claimed victory after the two countries agreed to pause hostilities following more than a month of war. But the strait of Hormuz remained closed on Wednesday and fighting was still taking place as Israel launched its biggest attacks yet on Lebanon. Continue reading...

Paul Solway ignited explosion that damaged total of six terrace houses in Derby after his partner had kicked him out A man who blew up a terrace house by causing gas to leak from a pipe and setting fire to a chair after his partner kicked him out has been jailed for 11 years.Paul Solway was having a “meltdown” when he caused the explosion at his partner Joanne Waterfall’s home in Alvaston in Derby on the evening of 10 June last year. Continue reading...

Delo, pardoned by Trump after violating US banking law, describes himself as champion of free speechA British billionaire convicted in the US for failing to implement adequate anti-money-laundering controls in his cryptocurrency business has given £4m to Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.Ben Delo, 42, who is now based in Hong Kong, wrote in the Telegraph that he had made the donation since the start of the year, before the government’s cap on donations to political parties by British citizens living abroad. Continue reading...

Situation still volatile as Tehran and Washington issue conflicting messages about opening of Hormuz channelA plunge in the oil price, stock market rally and renewed hopes for the global economic outlook. After the announcement of a two-week ceasefire in the Iran war, the relief in financial markets was palpable. But it is far from absolute.For the past six weeks, the economic damage had been steadily mounting, as the effective closure of the strait of Hormuz by Tehran triggered the worst energy crisis of the modern era. Continue reading...

Over 70 Democratic lawmakers are calling for amendment to be invoked to remove Trump from office amid warDemocratic party leaders have vowed to renew the effort to curb Donald Trump’s war in Iran next week after several days of escalating tactics that culminated in a temporary ceasefire on Tuesday evening.In recent months, several war powers resolutions have failed in Congress after a handful of Democrats continued to vote alongside Republicans. But Trump’s aggressive overtures this week – including a Truth Social post that said “a whole civilization” could be wiped out if Iran didn’t agree to demands, have pushed some to act. Continue reading...

Pakistani officials defy the skeptics to lead a breakthrough in negotiations and help avert catastrophe in Iran Middle East crisis – live updatesPakistan’s leaders had almost lost hope. After more than two weeks of frantic negotiations, phonecalls and diplomatic summits to try to end the US-Israeli war with Iran, it looked like the conflict might instead be escalating into Islamabad’s worst nightmare.In a cabinet meeting held around 5pm on Tuesday, Pakistan’s prime minister Shehbaz Sharif was morose. “We should brace ourselves for the impact of the war,” he told his cabinet ministers. “The situation has really become very bleak. The chance of peace has become dim.” Continue reading...

Dozens of dogs were found crammed into single living room space at property in undisclosed location in UKMore than 250 dogs have been found at a property in scenes so shocking that the RSPCA was forced to deny allegations that the images were faked by artificial intelligence.The animal welfare charity said it took in 87 dogs from the property at an undisclosed location in the UK and the remainder went to the Dogs Trust, another charity. Continue reading...

PM is in Saudi Arabia at start of an expected wider trip to Gulf allies, who may view him as more reliable than TrumpMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe UK has a “job” to help reopen the strait of Hormuz, Keir Starmer has said, as Iranian reports said the key shipping route was closed again just hours after a supposed ceasefire.The prime minister met UK and local personnel at an airbase in Taif, Saudi Arabia, at the start of what is expected to be a wider trip to Gulf allies, one billed as a mirror to his efforts to pull together a plan for how a ceasefire might operate in Ukraine. Continue reading...

New York Times report claimed London-born Adam Back was creator of the cryptocurrency after comparing writingsA British computer scientist has insisted that he is not the elusive developer of bitcoin after a report claimed to unmask him as its creator.The story, in the New York Times, details a years-long effort to unmask Satoshi Nakamoto, the mysterious author of the bitcoin whitepaper which laid the theoretical foundations for modern digital currencies. Continue reading...

High of 26.5C recorded in Kew Gardens in south-west London, but rain and cooler conditions are on the wayMany across the UK witnessed soaring temperatures as the country recorded its warmest day of the year so far – and one of the hottest April days in the last 80 years.Temperatures reached a high of 26.5C (79.7F) in Kew Gardens, south-west London, on Wednesday, the Met Office said. It was the hottest day recorded in the first half of April since 1946, according to the forecaster. Continue reading...

AI company says purpose of its Claude Mythos model is to bolster defenses against hacking in common applicationsAnthropic on Tuesday said its yet-to-be-released artificial intelligence model called Claude Mythos has proven keenly adept at exposing software weaknesses.Mythos has laid bare thousands of vulnerabilities in commonly used applications for which no patch or fix exists, prompting the San Francisco-based AI startup to form an alliance with cybersecurity specialists to bolster defenses against hacking and withhold wide distribution. Continue reading...