Olly Robbins refused to hand Mandelson vetting summary to Cabinet Office, says Cat Little

Suspect is one of three ex-senior leaders also arrested last year on suspicion of gross negligence manslaughterA former boss at the hospital where Lucy Letby worked has been arrested on suspicion of perverting the course of justice.Police arrested the suspect on Wednesday as part of an investigation into allegations of gross negligence manslaughter by ex-senior leaders at the Countess of Chester hospital. Continue reading...

Iran seizes two ships in critical waterway as Washington and Tehran maintain separate blockades. Plus, Jodi Kantor on how to find a career you loveGood morning.Iranian forces have seized two ships in the strait of Hormuz as the US and Iran doubled down on imposing separate blockades of the shipping waterway.What has Donald Trump said? The US president announced that the US would extend the ceasefire with Iran until the country’s leaders came up with a “unified proposal” to US negotiating positions amid Tehran’s “seriously fractured” government. He had earlier threatened to renew bombing. White House press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, said Trump was “satisfied” with the US naval blockade of Iranian ports and “understands Iran is in a very weak position”.This is a developing story. Follow the liveblog here.Who took part in the debate? The primetime showdown, hosted by Nexstar Media Group, featured two Republicans – Steve Hilton, the former Fox News host and director of strategy to the former UK prime minister David Cameron, and Chad Bianco, the sheriff of Riverside County – and the four leading Democrats: the billionaire Tom Steyer, the former health secretary Xavier Becerra, the former congresswoman Katie Porter and the San Jose mayor, Matt Mahan. Continue reading...

30m adults hitting 150 minutes moderate activity a weekBut report shows progress not being felt equallyLevels of physical activity in England have broken new records, with more than 30 million adults now meeting the recommended 150 minutes of moderate activity a week, the latest Active Lives survey has revealed.The 10th edition of the gold standard report finds a striking rise in activity among older people with 11% growth among the over-75s in the past decade. There is also a consistent improvement among people with disabilities. But other inequalities have proven stubborn, with no change among black and asian communities in 10 years and a decline in activity among the least affluent over that period. Continue reading...

FoI data reveals that 438 people with criminal convictions were given licences in Wolverhampton, UK’s ‘taxi capital’More than 150 people convicted of violent crimes were granted taxi licences last year by Wolverhampton city council, dubbed the UK’s “taxi capital”, data has revealed.The Guardian obtained data via a freedom of information request that revealed 438 people with criminal convictions were last year granted taxi and private hire driver licences by the West Midlands local authority – which has issued far more taxi licences than any other authority. Continue reading...

Brand, who will be tried in October over allegations of rape and sexual assault, tells podcast he slept with 16-year-old when he was 30Russell Brand said he had “exploitative” consensual sex with a 16-year-old girl at the height of his fame.The comedian, actor and podcaster, 50, will be tried in the autumn over allegations of rape and sexual assault made against him by six women. Brand denies all the charges, which date from 1999 to 2009. Speaking about his past actions in an appearance on the YouTube show of the US journalist Megyn Kelly, Brand described himself “selfish” and an “exploiter of women”. Continue reading...

Reduction procedures and implant removals reflect shift toward comfort and more active lifestyles, surgeons sayBreast reductions and implant removals have overtaken enlargements for the first time, data shows, as experts link the shift to more active lifestyles.The latest annual audit from the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) shows there were 4,761 breast enlargement procedures in 2025, down 8% on the previous year. Continue reading...

Judge’s repeal of Trump ban on gender-affirming care for children ‘a meaningful win for patients’, experts sayA federal judge overturned the Trump administration’s ban on gender-affirming care for children on Saturday, decrying Robert F Kennedy Jr’s “wanton disregard” for the law that “causes very real harm to very real people”.It’s another loss for Kennedy’s agenda as secretary for the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under the second Trump administration – an agenda that has focused on restricting healthcare, including vaccines, abortion and gender-affirming care. Continue reading...

Republicans deploy measure known as budget reconciliation to push through plan without backing from Democrats during lengthy late-night voteHello and welcome to the US politics live blog.The Senate voted to adopt a $70bn budget plan to fund ICE and Border Patrol as part of a new effort to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).We have a multistep process ahead of us, but at the end Republicans will have helped ensure that America’s borders are secure and prevented Democrats from defunding these important agencies.Instead of pumping hundreds of billions of dollars into ICE and Border Patrol, Republicans should be working with Democrats to lower out-of-pocket costs.The Pentagon announced, without explanation, that “Secretary of the Navy John C Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately”. The head of the US navy, which is now enforcing a wartime blockade of Iranian ports, was replaced by a former Maga political candidate, Hung Cao, now acting secretary of the navy.The surprise announcement brought renewed attention to Cao’s 2023 comments that that “witchcraft” had “taken over” Monterey, California.Virginia’s attorney general, Jay Jones, promised to appeal an injunction issued by a circuit court judge that temporarily blocks the state from certifying the results of the Tuesday’s redistricting referendum.As jet fuel prices spike amid the ongoing energy crisis sparked by Donald Trump’s war on Iran, two Republican senators, Ted Cruz and Tom Cotton, denounced a proposed US government bailout of budget carrier Spirit Airlines.Representative David Scott, a Democrat from Georgia, has died at the age of 80. He is the fifth member of Congress to die in office within the last year. Continue reading...

Hard line on immigration adopted by People’s party as right seeks to overthrow socialist government in 2027Europe live – latest updatesSpain’s opposition conservatives are rekindling their regional pacts with the far-right Vox party by adopting the latter’s hard line on immigration less than two years after disagreements over the issue led to the collapse of coalition administrations in five of the country’s self-governing regions.The renewal of the regional deals between the People’s party (PP) and Vox comes ahead of next year’s general election and as Spain’s socialist government seeks to extol the benefits of immigration by regularising the status of at least 500,000 undocumented migrants. Continue reading...

Australia’s Corporate Travel Management is ‘negotiating commercial arrangements’ to refund the moneyThe Australian company that ran the Bibby Stockholm asylum barge has admitted it overcharged the British government by £118m.Corporate Travel Management (CTM) said its auditor had found evidence of “erroneous billing” of its UK clients, increasing its estimate of how much it owes the government by £40m. Continue reading...

Report from Elizabeth Warren calls Trump administration cuts to Social Security Administration ‘catastrophic’Sign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxCuts to the Social Security Administration have caused “customer service chaos” for millions of older Americans and those with disabilities who rely on the agency’s services, according to a new report from a group of Democratic senators.An investigation found that phone wait times were more than 10 times higher than what the agency claimed on its website, if the calls were even answered at all. Continue reading...