Thai rescuers join effort to free seven people trapped in Laos cave

• 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.”

• 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.

Ciaran Martin says Reform UK leader’s allegation over Guardian report on £5m gift ‘entirely unsubstantiated’Nigel Farage’s claim that a Russian hack was behind a Guardian report on the £5m gift he received from a crypto billionaire has been described as “without any merit” by a former head of the National Cyber Security Centre.Ciaran Martin, founding chief executive of the agency, which is part of GCHQ, said Farage’s allegation, if true, would have major implications for UK policy towards Russia but that the Reform UK leader had yet to provide “a shred of evidence”. Continue reading...

Parts of Spain could also see the mercury climb to 40C by the end of the weekMore than 20 towns in France have recorded their highest-ever May temperatures and the UK set a national heat record amid an extreme early-summer heat event that could see the mercury climb to 40C in parts of Spain by the end of the week.The UK’s Met Office said the country’s all-time temperature record for May was broken on Monday when a temperature of 33.5C was recorded at Heathrow near London, with highs of up to 35C expected later on Monday and on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Two other small British children who stayed at same hotel fell critically ill from same condition months earlierThe travel company Tui is under scrutiny over its safety protocols after a British baby girl died from a gastric illness following a stay at an Egyptian hotel – the same resort where two other children were left critically ill from the same condition months earlier.Ariella Mann, one, died in January from a kidney condition linked to E coli after falling ill at the five‑star Jaz Makadi Aquaviva hotel in Hurghada on an all‑inclusive two‑week package holiday booked through Tui. Continue reading...

Changes to political funding and the need for crossbenchers to remain relevant are driving discussions but some independents are opposedGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastIt is a tag that has been unfairly – and incorrectly – attached to the band of teal MPs since their arrival en-masse in federal parliament in 2022, a slur deployed by their political opponents in an attempt to undermine their independence.The “teal party”. Continue reading...

John A Walko was identified through DNA and brought home to Pennsylvania 80 years after his WWII deathThe remains of a US soldier killed during the second world war were returned to his Pennsylvania hometown more than 80 years after he died after DNA analysis identified him.John A Walko, a US army Pfc who died on 20 October 1944 during the Battle of Aachen in Germany, was escorted from the Pittsburgh airport to Commodore, Pennsylvania by a veteran’s motorcycle group earlier this month, according to Cleveland.com. 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...

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...