Slowdown in Arctic ice melt ends after largest winter decline on record

• The US Central Command conducted airstrikes for the ninth consecutive night, targeting Iranian missile sites, air defense systems, and military command centers. • Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei dismissed the interim ceasefire deal signed by Donald Trump as "worthless and invalid," while Iranian negotiators announced the suspension of their commitments.

• Russia launched a deadly attack near Odesa, Ukraine, contributing to ongoing conflict and regional instability. • In legal news, Mexican drug kingpin Ismael Zambada has been sentenced in the United States, marking a significant blow to organized crime networks.

• The United States and Iran are locked in a persistent "grey zone" conflict characterized by a cycle of military pressure and diplomatic overtures. • Despite Donald Trump's previous promises to avoid "forever wars," the current strategy suggests that diplomacy is being used to manage the conflict rather than resolve it.

Vertical Aerospace says government has given £10m backing, taking its total investment in the project to £48mBritish flying taxi startup Vertical Aerospace has said the UK government has expressed interest in buying a military variant of its aircraft as it races to gain approval for flights with paying passengers.Vertical also welcomed another £10m grant from the government, taking its total UK state funding to £48m. Continue reading...

George Foster tells royal commission Australia’s democratic institutions fundamentally different ‘but I can’t ignore certain disturbing parallels in the social atmosphere’Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA rise in antisemitism across Australia has “disturbing parallels” with the social climate of Nazi Germany, the president of the Australian Holocaust survivors association says.George Foster, the president of Australian Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants, told the antisemitism royal commission that he did not believe Australia was “becoming another Germany in the 1930s”. Continue reading...

People gather at cafes and outdoor screenings to support team after Spain’s backing for Palestinian rights The Spanish football team’s World Cup win has been celebrated in the streets of Gaza, where Spain’s support for Palestinian rights and Israel’s backing for the Argentinian team turned the competition into more than a football showdown.Gathered at cafes and outdoor screenings, Palestinians defied the risk of Israeli attacks to cheer on a team they had taken to their hearts. Continue reading...

In today’s newsletter: As the new prime minister enters No 10, our journalists take you through what it was like covering his first hours in powerGood morning, and let’s abandon all conditional tenses because finally Andy Burnham is UK prime minister and, on a day of ceremony and celebration, he pledged his government would be “a circuit breaker for Britain”.A defining characteristic of Team Burnham thus far has been the concentrated silence at its heart – a vacuum filled by increasingly frenzied speculation in recent days about his cabinet picks and policy priorities. As the black box finally cracked open on Monday, with his first instruction as prime minister – to end rough sleeping – and his surprise choice of chancellor, I was at the Guardian’s head office in London, speaking to editors and correspondents covering the early hours of Burnham’s premiership about what they might reveal for the country.UK news | A 28-year-old man from Rotherham has been charged with the murder of the former MP and Reform UK party spokesperson Ann Widdecombe.Technology | Cases of predators coercing children into harming themselves or producing sexual photos and videos of themselves have surged globally in the past year, child safety experts and law enforcement officials warn.Iran | Nearly 100 US service members have been injured over the last two weeks of escalating strikes on Iran, the Pentagon has said, as Tehran launched a wave of reprisals to the tenth consecutive night of attacks.Ryanair | The airline has reassured travellers that its planes are safe after a passenger was almost sucked out of a window mid-flight this month, and have reported strong summer bookings after a profits slump.UK politics | Reform UK MP, Sarah Pochin, has complained that the standards system investigating Nigel Farage over undeclared gifts is a “kangaroo court” and that “the media, the British state and the old parties have mounted a vicious and desperate campaign to stop Reform UK”. Continue reading...

Revolutionary Guard claims attack on oil tanker and two other ships; Houthis in Yemen say they are imposing an immediate maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia in the Red SeaFull report: Almost 100 troops injured in recent weeks, Pentagon admits, as Iran launches reprisals on US alliesWelcome to our live coverage of the latest developments in the Middle East crisis.Iran attacked a tanker in the strait of Hormuz early on Tuesday, forcing its crew to abandon the ship, as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis announced they were imposing an immediate maritime blockade of Saudi Arabia in the Red Sea after the two sides traded fire last week for the first time in years.The latest US strikes came hours after Donald Trump said Iran would pay “many times over” for killing US soldiers after multiple service members ‌were killed ​in ⁠action ​over the ​weekend.A tanker came under attack early Tuesday in the Hormuz strait off Oman, forcing the crew to abandon the vessel, the British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre said. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards claimed the attack as well as two other attacks on ships in the waterway on Monday.The US military’s Central Command said its latest airstrikes were to “degrade” Iran’s ability to attack commercial shipping in the strait and included hitting military command centres and missile and drone launch sites.Iranian media reported strikes in parts of the country including Bandar Abbas, Tabriz and Bushehr, home to the country’s only operational civilian nuclear power.Iran’s launched attacks in response against Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan, which all host US forces.Oil prices softened after hitting their highest levels in more than a month in the previous session. Brent crude futures eased 0.4% to $88.87 ⁠a barrel by 0052 GMT on Tuesday while US West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery was steady at $82.47 a barrel.Democrats have seized on the deaths of three US troops killed in Iranian strikes to urge Trump to urgently reverse his resumption of the war with Iran amid widespread anxiety over climbing casualties.The Lebanese army began taking charge of security in three southern villages, the US said, as a deal to secure an Israeli withdrawal from southern Lebanon and the disarmament of Hezbollah faced its first test on the ground. Continue reading...

Research during Hungary election shows AI recommended parties not running and gave highly volatile answers to identical promptsAI chatbots provide inaccurate, inconsistent and unreliable guidance to voters asking which party they should back, a study suggests, often recommending the wrong party, not mentioning the right one, or listing parties not even running.“The results raise serious concerns about the reliability of general-purpose AI systems in electoral contexts,” the study, published by the civil liberties group Liberties and based on research during this year’s Hungarian parliamentary elections, concluded. Continue reading...

Experts urge ministers to update legislation to prevent intended parents resorting to riskier arrangements abroadSurrogates, parents and children are being failed by the UK’s archaic laws, which are “creaking at the seams” as demand for surrogacy grows rapidly, experts have said.Figures obtained by the Guardian show there were just under 1,000 children born to surrogates in 2025, double the number in 2015. The rise has been driven by a rise in the number of gay couples seeking to be parents, increasing infertility and shifting cultural attitudes. Continue reading...

Interim report not able to draw ‘nexus’ between matters referred to child protection and circumstances leading to five-year-old’s alleged murder•Warning: This story contains references to Indigenous Australians who have diedFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastKumanjayi Little Baby’s mother was “effectively” left alone to protect her children while also experiencing domestic violence, because child protection authorities failed to adequately assess multiple threats to her safety, a draft review has found.But the interim report, tabled in parliament on Tuesday, found that despite those conclusions, the review was unable to draw a link between the child protection referrals and the five-year-old Warlpiri girl’s death. Continue reading...

Revamped Ripon attraction reopens as a more immersive experience telling ‘national story’ of poverty and welfareVisitors to one of Britain’s most complete surviving Victorian workhouses won’t have to strip and bathe in someone else’s bath water. But they might get some gruel, they can sweep the yard and there are “schoolmaster” volunteers happy to tell children how to behave.“You are literally going to walk in the footsteps of people who have experienced this place,” said the director of the Ripon Museums Trust, Alexa Vernon. Continue reading...