Dark clouds, protests and resignations dampen start of 61st Venice Biennale

Police investigate incident on Thursday after witness claims seeing Raise the Colours logo on side of vehiclePolice are investigating an incident where a man was run over by a van after a group of people were taking down union flags put up by Raise the Colours campaigners in Birmingham.A man, in his 30s, suffered a broken leg that required surgery. He remains in hospital after the incident on Thursday evening in the Birmingham suburb of Stirchley, police said. Continue reading...

Officials of Social Circle, population 5,000, file lawsuit over plan to turn warehouse into 10,000-capacity facilityOfficials in the small Georgia town of Social Circle have filed a lawsuit against federal immigration agencies over plans for a huge immigration detention facility, arguing the project threatens to overburden local services and damage the environment.The complaint, filed on Wednesday in US district court for the middle district of Georgia, accuses US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) of moving ahead with the project without completing mandatory environmental assessments. Continue reading...

Talks lead to 45-day extension to shaky truce between Israel and Hezbollah militant group, state department saysIsrael and Lebanon have agreed to a 45-day extension of their ceasefire after another round of talks in Washington, the US state department has said.It came after two “productive” days of talks, and more negotiations would be held from 2-3 June, the department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said. Continue reading...

At one stage the northern mayor looked to be locked out of parliament, again, but he is still only one step along the road to his No 10 ambitionsFor weeks, Andy Burnham’s supporters had told MPs to “hold the line”, that he had a seat in parliament in his sights and that he would be a contender in any leadership contest. That was never the full truth.His path to No 10 – if he makes it – is littered with more failed attempts than almost any other politician. Two leadership contests, a block on a return in Gorton and Denton, and quite a few aggrieved MPs in the north west who have had to spend weeks batting off suggestions they will give their seats up for him. Continue reading...

Animal wedged upside down nicknamed ‘lucky’ Lucy after being freed with only superficial cut on foot“There’s a deer trapped in an escalator” was not a phrase anyone at Hillside Animal Sanctuary in Norfolk was expecting to hear when staff at a Marks & Spencer department store in central Norwich called last Tuesday.“In Norfolk, deers often get themselves in trouble,” said the sanctuary’s founder, Wendy Valentine. “They get stuck between walls and sheds, and in gates. It’s quite common for deer to get trapped … But ‘trapped in an escalator’ was a first.” Continue reading...

Leon Botstein announced his retirement on the day the results of the inquiry into his connections with Epstein were releasedBard College’s board of trustees “voted to end” the 51-year tenure of Leon Botstein, the school’s president, last month after board members were presented with the results of an independent review of his relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, according to emails seen by the Guardian. Botstein framed his departure as a long-planned retirement in a statement on 1 May.The move appears to have created a rift within the liberal arts college’s board of trustees. Continue reading...

Autumn conference in Liverpool targeted for victorious homecoming but Reform UK to fight hard in byelection Andy Burnham will push to become prime minister in time to address Labour’s autumn party conference in Liverpool, his supporters have said.The Greater Manchester mayor cleared his first hurdle to becoming the candidate in the Makerfield byelection on Friday as Labour’s ruling body gave him permission to stand for the seat. Continue reading...

Trump administration move echoes indictment of Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro as fuel crisis racks CubaTensions between Cuba and US seem set to rise further amid reports that Raúl Castro, the country’s 94-year-old former president, may soon face the type of indictment that led to the US abduction of the Venezuelan leader, Nicolás Maduro, in January.Although Raúl is officially retired, he remains the most potent figure in Cuban politics following the death of his brother Fidel in 2016, and by targeting him Washington appears to be heaping pressure on Cuba’s communist leadership at the end of an already extraordinarily intense week. Continue reading...

All 46 Council of Europe members sign agreement ‘deplored’ by human rights organisationsThe UK and 45 other European countries have signed an agreement that explicitly endorses plans to send unwanted asylum seekers to third country hubs.A political declaration from the 46 members of the Council of Europe, the body that oversees the European convention on human rights (ECHR), said states had an “undeniable sovereign right” to control their borders. Continue reading...

Prosecutors have described fatal shooting outside of DC’s Capital Jewish Museum last year as calculated and plannedThe US justice department will seek the death penalty for the man accused of fatally shooting two staff members of the Israeli embassy in Washington outside a Jewish museum, prosecutors said in a court filing on Friday.Elias Rodriguez faces federal hate crime and murder charges in the killings of Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim as they left an event at the museum last May. Rodriguez shouted “free Palestine” during the shooting and later told police, “I did it for Palestine, I did it for Gaza,” according to his indictment. Continue reading...

Weinstein has been convicted of other crimes in the US and is already behind bars but move leaves rape charge in limboHarvey Weinstein’s retrial in New York on a rape charge ended in a mistrial on Friday after the jury deadlocked in the closely watched criminal case that another jury had already failed to decide last year.The disgraced former Hollywood mogul has been convicted of other sex crimes on the US east and west coasts and is already in jail. But Friday’s declaration of another mistrial leaves the New York rape charge in limbo after three trials. Continue reading...

The mayor of Greater Manchester is the latest in a long line of politicians to try to show he’s on the right track … etcPoliticians, as we know, love a metaphor. But do they have to be so literal? No sooner had the Greater Manchester mayor, Andy Burnham, announced that he wanted to run for parliament than … Look! Out he popped from his house on Friday morning in jogging gear, because he’s full of energy and on the right track and hitting the ground running and … oh, do keep up.What is it that persuades a 56-year-old man who is leading every news bulletin in Britain and knows there is a throng of photographers outside to put on some terrible shorts and a 1980s Everton strip and expose his paunch and Lancashire tan to the world? Continue reading...