Labour needs ‘system reset’ to tackle youth unemployment, report to say

• Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Indian External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar held a joint press availability at the State Department in Washington on May 25, signaling continued high-level US-India engagement. • The meeting comes as Washington and New Delhi manage trade, security, and Indo-Pacific coordination, with the two governments seeking to keep diplomatic channels active on strategic issues.

• Iran International reported on May 25 that political pressure in Tehran has increased as talk of a possible US-Iran agreement has intensified. • Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday that negotiators should “not rush into a deal,” adding that “time is on our side.”

Seven have been stuck in flooded cave in central Laos for five days after heavy rain caused landslidesDivers who helped in the dramatic rescue of a young Thai football team in 2018 have joined efforts to free seven people who have been trapped for five days inside a remote, flooded cave in central Laos.The group entered the cave in Xaysomboun province on Wednesday to hunt for wildlife and search for gold, reports suggest. Heavy rain led to landslides, which blocked the cave entrance. Continue reading...

Villages of Charing, Challock and Molash worst affected as South East Water says shortages due to extra demandHundreds of homes in Kent and Sussex have been left without water by a company that MPs recently accused of incompetence.South East Water said the hot weather and extra demand for water meant it was having to pump more drinking water than usual to higher ground. Continue reading...

The now 88-year-old is urging Australian governments to throw their support behind a new national plan for Stolen Generations survivors as they enter their final yearsGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAunty Lorraine Peeters only remembers the metal gates opening as she was driven away from her home, at Brewarrina mission in north-west New South Wales. She was taken, along with her brothers and sisters, at just four years old.Her home for the next six years would be the Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls Home, where she was separated from her siblings, trained as a domestic servant and systematically brainwashed to be white. Continue reading...

Figures raise questions over ministers’ plans to raise qualifying period for settled status from five years to 10Higher-earning immigrants are less likely to remain in the UK long-term and could be further deterred from staying by the government’s planned crackdown on settlement rights, analysis has revealed.A report from the Migration Advisory Committee’s , Who Stays, Who Leaves?, follows about 900,000 journeys between 2014 and 2024. Continue reading...

Tom Kopke, from Germany, out-tumbled local hero Chris Anderson to win his third roll on hot day in GloucestershireIt was billed as the great cheese-off; a helter-skelter, bone-jarring downhill race between the all-time champ and a young upstart.After the hype and hyperbole, youth won out, as the 24-year-old German YouTuber Tom Kopke beat 38-year-old local hero Chris Anderson at the annual cheese-rolling event in the English West Country. Continue reading...

Region adapting to diminished US power after Washington fails to land knockout blow on Tehran or safeguard alliesMiddle East crisis – live updatesThe shock of the Iran war and its fallout has driven rivals in the Middle East to get behind a peace deal, pushing the Trump administration to accept a tentative agreement in the face of furious opposition from Israel and its supporters in Washington.The diplomatic efforts come as the region is reshaping to adapt to diminished US power after Washington’s inability to land a knockout blow on Iran, force the opening of the Strait of Hormuz or safeguard its Gulf allies. Tehran has few friends in the region, but the regime’s survival has meant that its neighbours have had to find an accommodation. Continue reading...

Tehran says ‘contradictory statements’ from US and Israeli interference hindering negotiationsIran has poured cold water on suggestions that a deal with the US is imminent, pointing to the confusion in US positions and Israeli interference as key factors in why a complete agreement is proving difficult to secure.Speaking at the weekly foreign ministry press briefing, Esmail Baghaei, the spokesperson for Iran’s negotiating team, also said future management of the strait of Hormuz was a matter for Oman and Iran to reach agreement on, and that it was not tolls that were being proposed but “fees for navigational services”. Continue reading...

US officials hope damaged tank at California aerospace site will relieve pressure and avert blast riskA damaged chemical tank in southern California cracked over the weekend, which authorities were hopeful would relieve pressure and reduce the risk of an explosion.Some 50,000 residents in Garden Grove, a city of roughly 170,000 about 40 miles (60km) south of downtown Los Angeles, have been evacuated and are waiting for a resolution. Continue reading...

Scientists say record-breaking heat is a reminder of how climate crisis is affecting livesThe fierce heat sweeping Europe over the bank holiday weekend has beaten the UK’s all-time temperature record for May, with highs of up to 35C still to come on Monday afternoon.A temperature of 33.5C was recorded at London’s Heathrow on Monday lunchtime, according to provisional data from the Met Offfice, beating the previous May record that was set in Camden Square in 1922 and reached again in Tunbridge Wells and Regent’s Park in 1944. Continue reading...