Democrats belatedly publish 2024 presidential election autopsy report

Michael Thomson admitted to breaching a restraining order by selling a range of luxury itemsThe former boss of collapsed investment firm London Capital & Finance (LC&F) has been imprisoned for six months for contempt of court, after admitting breaching a restraining order by selling luxury items including horse saddles and a hot tub.Michael Thomson’s actions were characterised by Judge Milne as an attack on the administration of justice. Thomson was sentenced alongside his wife, Debbie, who also admitted to the offences but whose six-month sentence was suspended for a period of two years. Continue reading...

Israel’s far-right national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has triggered global outrage after sharing footage of himself taunting bound activists who had been detained as they tried to sail to Gaza with aid. The video has been widely condemned by world leaders, including the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and by Israeli politicians, among them the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu.Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s chief Middle East correspondent, Emma Graham-Harrison – watch on YouTube Continue reading...

Top Republicans fear diverting taxpayer dollars toward the White House ballroom will alienate voters before midtermsSenate Republican leaders are expected to ditch a $1bn proposal for security measures tied to Donald Trump’s White House ballroom following a backlash from members of their own party.Under pressure from Trump, top Republican lawmakers tried to latch the proposal on to a roughly $70bn bill to restore funding to US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the border patrol. Continue reading...

Tony Carruthers’s lawyers say no evidence tied him to 1994 crimes he was convicted of and is mentally incompetentSign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailTennessee is scheduled on Thursday to execute a prison inmate whose lawyers claim there was no physical evidence tying him to the crimes he was convicted of and is mentally incompetent. Additionally, the inmate’s lawyers believe that the state may be using expired lethal injection drugs to carry out the sentence.Tony Carruthers, 57, was sentenced to death after being found guilty of the 1994 kidnappings and murders of Marcellos Anderson; his mother, Delois Anderson; and Frederick Tucker, in Memphis. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Any attempt to use the budget measures as an excuse to raise rent is opportunistic profiteering, housing advocates sayGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia’s peak community and housing groups have urged federal parliament to quickly pass Labor’s changes to negative gearing and capital gains tax, saying the reforms would improve fairness for renters and young homebuyers.The government may introduce its negative gearing and CGT changes into parliament as soon as the coming sitting fortnight, with hopes of passing the legislation soon after with the support of the Greens. Continue reading...

Péter Magyar’s draft amendment would prevent Viktor Orbán from returning to the roleEurope live – latest updatesHungary’s new government, led by Péter Magyar, has put forward a constitutional amendment that would limit prime ministers to a maximum of eight years in office, effectively barring Viktor Orbán from returning to the role.The draft amendment was submitted on Wednesday, just over a week after the new government took office. It marked Magyar and his Tisza party’s first step in dismantling a constitution that was unilaterally rewritten and amended more than a dozen times as Orbán and his Fidesz party worked to turn Hungary into a “petri dish for illiberalism”. Continue reading...

ASX-listed company announced in February it would lay off almost 30% of its 7,000-strong workforce across 40 countriesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastWiseTech has begun informing staff that they will lose their jobs as part of redundancies the company has said is due to artificial intelligence advancements – although an email to staff in China omitted the word “AI” after a court case against another company in the country.Staff at WiseTech have been waiting almost three months to be told if they are among the 2,000 people the logistics software company is to cut due to advances in AI. The Australian Stock Exchange-listed company announced in late February it would lay off almost 30% of its 7,000-strong workforce across 40 countries. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Documents seen by Guardian Australia also show new branches and members will be subject to strict gag ordersGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastOne Nation’s rapid expansion of local branches across the country is in disarray, with the party being forced to dissolve and re-establish its new network less than eight months after the ambitious roll out began.Documents seen by Guardian Australia show the party’s new general manager, Kelvin Morton, issued a directive to the party’s branches in April ordering committee members to properly reconstitute their branches after an internal review uncovered “significant risks”. Continue reading...

Prosecutors opt not to pursue hate-crime charges over February incident despite anti-gay slurs captured on videoNew Orleans state prosecutors on Thursday filed formal misdemeanor battery charges against Shia LaBeouf, four months after police officers there arrested him on allegations that he struck three men at a bar.That move from the office of local district attorney Jason Williams means prosecutors opted to not pursue hate-crime charges against LaBeouf, the star of the Transformers film franchise, despite claims evidently supported by video that LaBeouf aimed anti-gay slurs at the alleged victims. Continue reading...

Demands grow for launch of formal discussion process on how country should address legacies of enslavementEmmanuel Macron is under pressure to open discussions on reparatory justice for France’s role in hundreds of years of enslavement of African people as he makes a key speech on the legacy of slavery.On Thursday the French president will celebrate the 25th anniversary of France becoming the first country in the world to recognise the slave trade and slavery as crimes against humanity in a 2001 law brought by Christiane Taubira, a leading MP from French Guiana. Continue reading...

Satirical project is viral sensation and outlet for protest on social media as it taps into young people’s frustrationIt began as a satirical online project after a high court judge compared unemployed young people to cockroaches. Now millions of young Indians are flocking to it as an outlet for their frustration.A parody political party with the insect as its symbol has exploded across India’s social media by turning absurdist humour into protest. Memes and short videos mocking corruption, joblessness and political dysfunction have flooded social media sites, where millions of users are embracing the cockroach – an insect known for its ability to survive harsh conditions – as a tongue-in-cheek symbol of endurance. Continue reading...