Tourist accused of hurling rock at endangered Hawaiian seal was trying to protect sea turtles, lawyer says

Anne Keast-Butler says Russian forces are ‘going backwards on the battlefield’ for first time since late 2022Nearly half a million Russian soldiers have been killed in Ukraine since the start of Vladimir Putin’s invasion more than four years ago, according to a new estimate from the head of the British spy agency GCHQ.Anne Keast-Butler, the chief of the electronic intelligence agency, said in her first speech in the job that Russian forces were “going backwards on the battlefield” inside Ukraine for the first time since late 2022. Continue reading...

Sharyn Alfonsi confirms contract expiration after decrying network over ‘the spread of corporate meddling’ last monthThe Veteran 60 Minutes correspondent Sharyn Alfonsi has accused CBS News of penalizing her for “refusing to sanitize factually accurate reporting” and sending a “chilling message” to the newsroom by declining to renew her contract for the show.Alfonsi was at the center of a national firestorm after the CBS News editor-in-chief, Bari Weiss, shelved a segment she had reported on a notorious prison in El Salvador. She confirmed to the Guardian that she had not been offered a contract to return for the show’s 59th season, which begins in the fall. Continue reading...

People in Longton, Stoke-on-Trent say school that the signage on their street relates to moved long agoHassan Ali was on holiday in Budapest when he was contacted by his neighbour about a sign that had been painted on the road directly outside his semi-detached home in Staffordshire.The bright yellow sign, which read: “School: Keep Clear”, was painted on Greendock Street in the early hours of Friday morning, his neighbour informed him – a bewildering update considering there was no school to keep clear of and had not been one for the past 15 years. Continue reading...

Relatives pay tribute to Shanice Brookes, 30, a charity worker and mum who had ‘energy you could never forget’The family of a woman who was an innocent bystander when she was fatally shot outside a bar in Sheffield city centre at the weekend have paid tribute to her.South Yorkshire police on Wednesday named the victim as Shanice Brookes, a 30-year-old charity worker. Her family described Brookes, who lived in Sheffield, as “one of a kind” with the “biggest heart” and “energy you could never forget”. Continue reading...

Robert Kenyon castigated Brexit as an economically self-harming project on rugby league forum in 2016Reform UK’s candidate for the Makerfield byelection has castigated Brexit as an economically self-harming project promoted by politicians who “peddled the nationalistic pish”, raising more doubts about his commitment to Nigel Farage’s signature achievement.The comments by Robert Kenyon, unearthed on a defunct rugby league forum and first reported by the Telegraph, follow the emergence of another post in which he said people would be wrong to assume he had voted for Brexit. Continue reading...

Publicly accessible Facebook images dating back to 2018 appear to show the symbol on Andy Arnold’s armA newly elected Reform UK councillor in Barnsley has come under pressure to resign after photographs emerged appearing to show him with a swastika tattoo.Andy Arnold, who was elected to Barnsley council earlier this month to represent Wombwell, can be seen with what appears to be the symbol tattooed on his arm in a series of publicly accessible Facebook images dating back to 2018. Continue reading...

Authorities say no hope for survivors after tank containing a chemical solution ruptured and killed one personCrews were set to resume searching Wednesday for nine workers at a Washington state paper mill where a tank imploded, but authorities said there was no hope in finding any more survivors.One person was confirmed dead and nine people were reported injured on Tuesday after a tank at Nippon Dynawave Packaging Co in Longview imploded, releasing a highly destructive chemical mixture called “white liquor”. But nine other workers remained missing. Continue reading...

After winning the Grand Prix at Cannes film festival, the exiled auteur sent a direct message to the Russian president urging him to stop the warAccoladed director Andrey Zvyagintsev has sent a direct message to Vladimir Putin urging him to start listening to the Russian people and end the “senseless” war in Ukraine, continuing a war of words between Russia’s most revered living film-maker and the Kremlin that started at the Cannes film festival awards ceremony over the weekend.“Except for the limbs torn off from your fellow citizens in the name of an illusory goal, except for the massacre of young people that the country needs to build life and the future – nothing good is on the horizon if we don’t stop,” the exiled auteur said in a message sent to the Russian president’s press secretary through official channels on Tuesday. Continue reading...

There will be ‘no cherrypicking’ of policies, EU says, after Starmer says he hopes to negotiate single market for goodsEurope live – latest updatesThe UK will get no special treatment in its future economic relationship with the EU, European ministers have said, in a further blow to Keir Starmer’s hopes of negotiating a single market for goods.The EU’s ministers for Europe, who met on Tuesday, said they wanted deeper cooperation with the UK, but this had to be in line with fundamental principles, including no cherrypicking of EU policies, according to three diplomatic sources, who spoke about the private discussions. Continue reading...

Treasury select committee hears that interest rate and repayment terms are ‘extortionate’ and ‘not reasonable’Thousands of graduates have told an official inquiry their horror stories and bad experiences relating to student loans, underlining what the chair of an MPs’ committee called massive levels of “frustration and upset”.Amid an ongoing row over the ballooning cost of degree course debts, more than 52,000 people responded to a call for evidence by the Commons Treasury select committee as part of its inquiry into student loans and the taxation of graduates. Continue reading...

Mark Carney announces purchase of Saab’s GlobalEye early warning aircraft to patrol Arctic territoryCanada has announced plans to buy a fleet of early warning planes from Sweden’s Saab rather than a competing option from Boeing, as the country seeks to reduce reliance on US defence firms.Mark Carney, the prime minister, said on Wednesday that Canada would opt for Saab’s GlobalEye, which is based on Bombardier’s Global 6500 jet. Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail plane – which has suffered from delays and cost overruns – had also been in contention. Continue reading...