Female film-makers still being squeezed out of industry, London film festival director says

• France, serving as the President of the Security Council for September, announced a work programme focused on addressing critical issues in Haiti, Iran, and Sudan. • The agenda was detailed by the French representative during a press conference held at the UN Headquarters.

• Member states of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) convened for a summit in Bishkek, where they condemned sanctions and attacks targeting Iran. • The group asserted their "inalienable right" to develop, produce, and utilize atomic energy for peaceful purposes, arguing that restrictive measures are contrary to international law.

British tourists reportedly discovered Luger pistol that is latest in long line of potential leads in mystery of al-Hilli deathsExperts are examining a gun found by tourists to determine whether it might have been used to kill a British family in the French Alps 14 years ago.In what remains an unsolved murder case, Saad al-Hilli, 50, his wife, Ikbal, 47, and her mother Suhaila al-Allaf, 74, were shot dead on a road near Annecy, a remote Alpine village in eastern France in September 2012. Continue reading...

Party leader in England and Wales seen as favourite to contest Holborn and St Pancras after Starmer’s resignationZack Polanski moved a step closer in his quest to become an MP on Wednesday, with local Green party members supporting him to become the party’s candidate in the Holborn and St Pancras byelection.The party leader in England and Wales started campaigning alongside his fellow Green, Hannah Spencer, the MP for Gorton and Denton, in the Holborn area on Tuesday, and is seriously considering putting himself forward as the party’s candidate in the seat vacated by Keir Starmer on Monday. Continue reading...

Monarch tells Emmanuel Macron at the British Museum in London that the two nations will share a future ‘woven together’ by history and shared valuesThe loan of the Bayeux tapestry was the “the best possible symbol” of the “entente amicale” between France and the UK, King Charles said as he visited the famous embroidered masterpiece at the British Museum in London.Though the tapestry recounts a conflict, “here it is today, nearly 1,000 years later, as a precious symbol of trust, at a time when trust seems sadly to be in short supply between nations,” he said. Continue reading...

Defence minister says he believes US backing could tip regional balance in favour of forced resettlementIsrael’s defence minister has said his country is seeking Donald Trump’s support to approve plans to expel Palestinians from the Gaza Strip in what has widely been condemned as a potential war crime.Israel Katz said there was “no real solution for Gaza in the end without this migration” during a conference hosted by the Israeli news site Ynet and the newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth. He said the Israeli government was “organised and prepared to get them out by sea, by air, by every way possible”. Continue reading...

Experts have expressed deep concerns that the practice runs afoul of the fourth amendment’s right to privacyFederal prosecutors have declined to say whether they secretly obtained phone records for the journalist Don Lemon using an unusual administrative summons, his lawyers said in a Monday court filing, highlighting concern about a controversial legal authority the government has claimed to gather information as it charged Lemon and dozens of others it has charged with civil rights crimes in connection to a January protest at a St Paul church.In January, officials served Verizon with an administrative summons for a log of Lemon’s phone records between 19 December and 20 January. The subpoena didn’t come from a grand jury, as is typical in criminal investigation, and also wasn’t a court-approved search warrant. Instead, it was a unilateral request from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which said it was requesting the information under 19 USC 1509 – an obscure law that gives the department power to investigate records related to customs issues. Experts say the government is abusing that authority to gather records on journalists, activists, unions, non-profits and online critics, and have expressed deep concerns that the practice runs afoul of the fourth amendment’s right to privacy. Continue reading...

Paul Miller, an openly racist fighter, derided Ben Azoulay, and a spectator was ejected for waving a swastika flagDemocrats in Florida have condemned a professional mixed martial arts event in Orlando at which an openly racist fighter derided his beaten opponent as “a short little fucking Jew prick”, and a spectator was ejected for waving a giant swastika flag.Anna Eskamani, a Democratic state representative running to become the city’s mayor, said Saturday’s event, and the assertion by city officials that they were compelled to host it, were unacceptable. Continue reading...

Yorgen Fenech cleared on both charges he faced over 2017 killing of journalist that prompted global outrageOne of Malta’s richest men has been found not guilty of involvement in the murder of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.The verdict, which is expected to be appealed against by the prosecution, will come as a blow not only to the victim’s family, but to the politicians and campaigners who regard the case as a landmark action in the fight to protect press freedom in Europe. Continue reading...

Jury deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial have resumed for a fifth daySign up for the Breaking News US newsletter emailJury deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial resumed for a fifth day on Wednesday after the judge questioned jurors one by one following the arrest of a woman accused of filming them as they left the courthouse the previous day.A former labor and delivery nurse, Clancy doesn’t deny strangling her three young children at the family’s Massachusetts home in 2023, but she says postpartum psychosis led to her actions. Prosecutors argue that she knew what she was doing. Clancy, 36, has pleaded not guilty by reason of lack of criminal responsibility. Continue reading...

The government’s increasingly hostile stance towards the Kremlin has drawn criticism from the far right – and the far leftEven before the German government laid the blame this week on Russia for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport, the topic of German ties to Moscow was high on the political agenda.But the timing of the unsurprising yet explosive Leipzig announcement – days before a key regional vote – has exposed the extent to which German politics is polarised on the issue. Continue reading...