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Appointment confirmed by plenary vote in Senedd after party ended 100 years of Labour rule in last week’s electionRhun ap Iorwerth has been voted first minister of Wales after Plaid Cymru’s Senedd electoral victory ended 100 years of Labour hegemony and held off Reform UK.Ap Iorwerth was confirmed after a plenary vote on Tuesday with the support of the 43 Senedd members of his party and two Greens. Continue reading...

Rhun ap Iorwerth says he hopes to work with other parties and press the UK government for extra powersUK politics live – latest updatesThe leader of Plaid Cymru, Rhun ap Iorwerth, has vowed to form a stable minority government in the Senedd and said he would seek out mature cooperation from all opposition parties.Ap Iorwerth said his administration would press the UK government for extra powers over policy areas such as policing and justice and focus on results rather than engaging in political rows with Westminster. Continue reading...

Rhun ap Iowerth says he hopes his party’s programme for government will get backing from across the SeneddUK politics live – latest updatesThe leader of Plaid Cymru is hoping to become Welsh first minister as early as Tuesday after his party won a historic victory in the Senedd elections, soundly beating Labour and holding off Reform UK.Plaid fell short of winning a majority in the Welsh parliament but Rhun ap Iorwerth said on Sunday he hoped that other parties would work with him and told UK Labour not to punish Wales over the result. Continue reading...

First time Welsh nationalist party has enough support to run Wales, while also blocking momentum of Reform UKElection 2026 live: latest news updatesFull results from England, Scotland and WalesPlaid Cymru is on course to declare victory in the Welsh Senedd elections, a result that would simultaneously end nearly 30 years of Labour dominance in devolved politics in Wales and block the momentum of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK.By early Friday evening, with 14 of 16 constituencies declared, the centre-left Welsh nationalist party appeared poised to win enough support to lead the nation, replacing Welsh Labour, which had won the largest vote share in every electoral contest in Wales for more than 100 years. Continue reading...

In inner London boroughs such as Camden, home to PM’s constituency, Greens hope to capitalise on collapse in Labour supportMay elections: What’s at stake across England, Wales and Scotland?In Highgate New Town, a north London housing estate whose brutalist architecture has been a fixture of film shoots, the enormous scale of the challenge Labour faces in the capital from the Greens was starkly evident.“I’ve always voted Labour. My entire family has, but it feels like a time for a change,” said Cynthia Boampong after opening her door to Lorna Jane Russell, for now the only Green member on the local Camden council but who could be returned after 7 May at the head of a much larger group. With support for Zack Polanski’s party expected to surge across the capital, nearby Hackney council is tipped to be the centre of a realignment of progressive voters, with polling suggesting the Greens could take the mayoralty and end up the largest party. The Labour bastions of Lambeth and Lewisham are also under siege. Continue reading...

Polls suggest Reform could win most seats in Senedd election but party is unlikely to be able to form governmentUK politics live – latest updatesOn a sunny but cold evening in a shopping centre car park on the outskirts of Merthyr Tydfil, Reform UK supporters enjoyed free pizza and loud music as they waited for what the party leader, Nigel Farage, said was his last big speech before Thursday’s Welsh Senedd, Scottish parliament and English local elections.Reform could win the most seats under Wales’s new more proportional voting system but it is unlikely to be able to form a government, as other parties have ruled out going into coalition with it. Yet Farage’s outfit is the first rightwing party with a shot at winning in Wales since the 1850s. The surge in support for a party that got 1% of the vote in the last Senedd election is impossible to ignore. Continue reading...

Robert Cyr Jr, a US navy airman, had gone missing in 1944 when his seaplane crashed in the Segond channelThe remains of a US military aviator who went missing after his crew crashed during the second world war were recovered and identified through DNA analysis and his family recently laid him to rest in Florida, according to officials.US navy airman Robert Cyr Jr’s burial in Clearwater, Florida, brought to an end a decades-long saga that began on 22 January 1944, when he and eight fellow crewmates crashed while they were aboard a seaplane as it took off in the Segond channel in what is now the south Pacific’s Republic of Vanuatu. Continue reading...

Briefings obtained by freedom of information warned a ‘cascade of withdrawals’ could lead to collapse of 2026 South Australian festivalGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAdelaide writers’ week was sacrificed to save the 2026 Adelaide festival, an event that ploughs more than $60m into South Australia’s economy each year, documents show.After the 8 January announcement by the Adelaide festival board that controversial Palestinian Australian academic Randa Abdel-Fattah had been dumped from the AWW program, it wasn’t just fellow Australian and international guest writers and academics who began pulling out in droves. Continue reading...

Mystery of who the child known as Baby Auckland was and how he died has not been solvedA baby boy whose skeletal remains were found wrapped in a 1910 newspaper and with twine around his neck has, finally, been laid to rest.The child has become known as Baby Auckland after he was found at a property in the centre of Bishop Auckland, County Durham. Continue reading...

Rosemarie Milsom, who formed and runs Newcastle writers festival, will take over from Louise Adler after the literary festival imploded over invitation to Randa Abdel-FattahIn January, as the implosion of Adelaide writers’ week made headlines around Australia and the world, Rosemarie Milsom was watching closely.The Adelaide festival board, which oversees AWW, had overridden the literary festival’s director, Louise Adler, and disinvited the Palestinian-Australian author Randa Abdel-Fattah over past comments she’d made about Israel and Zionism. This decision resulted not in a quieter, less-controversial festival as the board members may have hoped, but a boycott by 200-odd writers, the resignation of Adler – followed by the whole board – a potential defamation lawsuit against the South Australian premier and the collapse of AWW. Continue reading...

Sgt Celestino Chavez Jr, accounted for in 2025, given full burial honors and posthumous medals in New MexicoThe remains of a US soldier who went missing in action during the Korean war were identified by DNA analysis, and he was recently laid to rest in his hometown of Gallup, New Mexico, authorities said.US army Sgt Celestino Chavez Jr’s burial ended a decades-long saga that began with him being wounded while defending his post near the Changjin (Chosin) Reservoir in North Korea and then being taken to an aid station on 30 November 1950. Chavez, 19, was then reported missing in action three days later, when enemy fighters attacked his convoy. Continue reading...

Head of newly formed institution questions whether naming is ‘reflective of our current reality’ amid criticism of ‘shameful’ fossil fuel company promotionGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe newly formed Adelaide University is considering removing gas company Santos’s name from one of its buildings.On Saturday, students and conservationists rallied outside the Santos Petroleum Engineering building, calling on the university to dump the name because of the company’s new gas projects. Continue reading...

Governments spending $2.13bn annually on low quality food in public settings, report saysGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastReptile remains, believed to be from a crocodile, have been found dumped on the side of the road in Adelaide.A spokesperson for the state’s environment and water department confirmed in a statement that department staff had “collected the remains of a reptile at Waterloo Corner.” They said:The remains, which were dumped on the side of the road at Coleman Road, will be analysed in an effort to confirm the species and any other information.“It is not currently known how the remains came to be located at the site.A different approach can increase the use of fresh, local produce, redirect spending to Australian farmers and producers, support the people working in public food service kitchens, and generate real benefits for Australia.Better public food procurement is not about spending more, it’s about spending smarter. The evidence is clear, public support is strong, and the solutions exist. Given the threat to our food system caused by the global fuel and fertiliser crisis, now is the moment for leadership. Continue reading...

Iran dropped explosives in the waterway erratically and may not have marked where it put all of them, US suggestsMiddle East crisis – live updatesIran is unable to find the mines it laid in the strait of Hormuz and does not have the capacity to remove the explosives, preventing Iran from allowing more traffic through the waterway, the New York Times reported, citing US officials.The opening of the strait of Hormuz – a chokepoint for a fifth of the world’s oil supply – is a primary demand of the US to end the war in Iran. The virtual closure of the strait sent fuel prices soaring, creating the world’s largest energy crisis in decades and putting pressure on US president Donald Trump at home. Continue reading...

Rhun ap Iorwerth launches party’s manifesto and says he is unconcerned by Reform UK threat in Welsh electionsUK politics live – latest updatesPlaid Cymru’s leader has promised “no more bending to Westminster’s will” as the nationalist party stands on the brink of taking office for the first time in next month’s Senedd elections.Speaking at Plaid Cymru’s manifesto launch in Wrexham on Thursday – chosen because of its football team, which has showcased Wales’s potential to the world – Rhun ap Iorwerth told a packed room of supporters there would be “no more toeing the London party line, no more defending the status quo and no more saying no to Wales”. Continue reading...