Evidence

Hollywood star expected to testify about claim a fellow actor confided in her that she was uncomfortable about a bathing request from another colleagueFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastHollywood star Rebel Wilson has entered a courthouse ahead of giving evidence in her high-profile defamation battle against the star of her directorial debut.The Pitch Perfect star is being sued by Charlotte MacInnes, the Australian lead actor of musical comedy The Deb. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Some donations to 2024 Tory leadership campaign allegedly originated from US businessman in breach of electoral rulesPolice are assessing evidence about donations to Robert Jenrick’s campaign to become Conservative leader in 2024 after a referral from the elections watchdog, the Guardian can reveal.The information was passed on by the Electoral Commission, which the Guardian understands has been investigating allegations that almost £40,000 of donations to Jenrick’s leadership campaign before he defected to Reform UK, were from a foreign source in breach of electoral rules. Continue reading...

Chief property and security officer Ian Collard set to submit written answers to foreign affairs committee questionsA key figure in the row over Peter Mandelson’s appointment as UK ambassador to Washington will not appear before a parliamentary committee of MPs to give evidence.Dame Emily Thornberry had requested that Ian Collard speak to the foreign affairs committee (FAC) on Tuesday, but confirmed on Saturday that he would submit written answers instead.Whether he felt under pressure to deliver Lord Mandelson’s clearance, after Sir Olly said there was an “atmosphere of pressure” and “constant chasing” from Downing Street.Whether he had seen the cover form for Lord Mandelson’s vetting by UK Security Vetting (UKSV), the agency responsible for checks on candidates for sensitive posts, in which it had ticked two red boxes – meaning they had “high concern” and recommended “clearance denied or withdrawn”.If he was asked by anyone in the Foreign Office, Downing Street or the Cabinet Office for advice about whether Lord Mandelson required vetting for the post given he was a member of the House of Lords.If he advised on how Lord Mandelson should be treated during the period between his appointment being announced and his clearance coming through. Continue reading...

Where Olly Robbins relied on recollections, Cabinet Office’s top civil servant was at pains to link her account to paper trail Seen through the Westminster bubble, the Peter Mandelson vetting affair looks like an age-old conflict pitting ministers against mandarins. Yet the latest top civil servant to testify to parliament over what some are now calling “Mandygate” gave an intriguing account that suggested it has never been as simple as that.Cat Little, the top civil servant at the Cabinet Office, did not put it in these terms, but what she revealed was an extraordinary dispute between the country’s most senior civil servants. Continue reading...

Top civil servant reveals more details of vetting process and lack of paper trail for approval of Mandelson’s appointment UK politics live – latest updatesIn more than 90 minutes of evidence to the foreign affairs select committee about the Peter Mandelson scandal, Cat Little, the head civil servant in the Cabinet Office, was low key and often cautious.But she did reveal several pieces of new information – or at times information different to that given to the same committee by Olly Robbins, the former permanent secretary at the Foreign Office. Continue reading...

Permanent secretary, Cat Little, to give evidence to foreign affairs committee as pressure increases on Keir Starmer The UK government budget came in below its annual borrowing target by £700m, official figures show – but the Iran war is likely to blow a hole in Rachel Reeves’s carefully calculated fiscal “headroom” over the coming months. Tom Knowles has the story.Good morning. As Kiran Stacey, Pippa Crerar and Jessica Elgot report in the Guardian’s splash, “Keir Starmer is looking increasingly isolated over his handling of the Peter Mandelson scandal with divisions emerging in cabinet over his decision to sack the Foreign Office civil servant Olly Robbins.” Continue reading...

Independent inquiry into Bristol Brunel Academy found visit by Damien Egan was postponed solely on safeguarding groundsAn independent inquiry into a Bristol secondary school, which found itself at the centre of a media storm after postponing a visit by a local Jewish MP, has found no evidence of antisemitism or influence from lobby groups.Damien Egan, the Labour MP for Bristol North East and vice-chair of Labour Friends of Israel, was due to visit Bristol Brunel Academy (BBA) last September to talk to students about democracy and his work in parliament. Continue reading...

Former cabinet secretary Mark Sedwill has called for Robbins to be reinstated at the Foreign Office after his evidence to MPsGood morning. Keir Starmer faces PMQs today with the Peter Mandelson vetting row still dominating the Westminster agenda and – in the view of most observers familiar with the views of Labour MPs – the wagons of doom circling in, ever closer, on the Starmer premiership. In an ideal world, the fate of prime ministers would be decided by the big issues, not arcane scandals and personality spats. But we don’t live in the ideal world; we live in 21st century Britain, where everyone has social media on their phone. And even if you don’t care much about Mandelson, there is a link between how Starmer has handled this and wider government failures.Starmer’s position got worse yesterday as Olly Robbins, the person he sacked as Foreign Office permanent secretary, gave evidence to MPs. Here is our overnight story about it by Pippa Crerar and Kiran Stacey.The prime minister appointed Peter Mandelson against official advice, announced that appointment without security vetting having been completed and claims that he would have changed his mind had he been told that the vetting process had raised the concerns about Mandelson’s previous conduct of which he was already well aware.As Robbins explained yesterday, the question for him was not whether to tell the prime minister what he already knew, but whether those issues could be mitigated enough to allow Mandelson access to the secret intelligence necessary to do his job. He made the professional judgment that they could. Unwisely as it turned out, he shouldered his responsibilities rather than shunting them. Continue reading...

Reports of alleged crime led to protests in the Surrey town this week, after claims woman in her 20s attackedPolice investigating a rape incident in Epsom have said they have “not found any evidence” of the offence as reported. The reports prompted protests in the Surrey town this week.Sarah Grahame, assistant chief constable at Surrey police, said the force is continuing to investigate a report that a woman in her 20s was raped and attacked by a group of men on 11 April in Epsom after she left the Labyrinth Epsom nightclub. The alleged attack is said to have happened between 2am and 4am outside a Methodist church. Continue reading...

A skull fragment found in a tray of unsorted fossils collected more than a century ago leads to discoveryFollow our Australia news live blog for latest updatesGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA prehistoric fossil, hiding in plain sight in museum storage for more than a century, has revealed that giant echidnas once roamed Victoria.The Owen’s giant echidna, Megalibgwilia owenii, lived during the Pleistocene, a geological epoch that began 2.5m years ago. It grew to about 1 metre long and weighed up to 15kg – about twice the size of Australia’s modern echidnas. Continue reading...

Labor is under pressure to impose a new 25% export tax amid soaring prices from the global fuel shockGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe bosses of resources giants including Santos, Woodside, Chevron and Shell could be compelled to face an inquiry into export tax settings, as the Greens ramp up pressure on Labor ahead of the budget.The chief executives of the companies, along with the bosses of gas exporters Inpex and ConocoPhillips, have been requested to give evidence to a Greens-led inquiry sitting in Canberra and Perth later this month. Under Senate rules, they could be compelled to attend if they choose not to give evidence voluntarily. Continue reading...

No 10 understood to be ready to drop block on Security Service being covered after concerns from families and Labour MPsThe delayed Hillsborough law could come into force after a shift by the government on forcing intelligence services to give evidence to public inquiries. Disagreement on the issue had seen the bill’s progress halted earlier this year.Downing Street is understood to be willing to give way over a block on intelligence staff coming under the law’s terms, which enforces a duty of candour on public officials and contractors in the aftermath of disasters. Continue reading...

Ukraine’s president tells podcast he has tried to draw White House’s attention to collaboration between Moscow and Tehran over strikes on US basesHow the Ukraine and Iran wars are starting to overlapThe US has ignored compelling evidence that Russia has been helping Iran to target US bases in the Middle East because it “trusts” Vladimir Putin, according to the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Speaking in an interview with Alastair Campbell on The Rest is Politics podcast, Zelenskyy said he had tried to draw the White House’s attention to the close collaboration between Moscow and Tehran. Continue reading...

Influencers and athletes are among those claiming substances can help with injury repair, weight loss and angi-ageingMedicines watchdog to investigate UK peptide clinics over health claims From influencers to athletes, high-profile figures are hailing peptides as the route to wellness, claiming they help with injury repair, weight loss, anti-ageing and mood. We take a look at what these substances are, and the murky industry surrounding them. Continue reading...

Request comes at the start of a two-week inquest into the death of Noongar man Jeffrey Winmar in MelbourneGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastEleven police officers called to give evidence into the death of an Aboriginal man in custody have sought certificates to protect themselves from self-incrimination.The request from the Victoria police chief commissioner came at the start of a two-week inquest into the death of Noongar man Jeffrey Winmar. Continue reading...

Claimants say lost documents hide scale of alleged unlawful information gathering at publisher of the Daily MailThe amount of lost or destroyed documents relating to the Daily Mail publisher’s use of private investigators is “stark in the extreme”, the high court has heard.However, the thin surviving evidence of payments to private investigators contains “conspicuous and often shocking evidence”, according to lawyers for a group of claimants accusing the publisher of using unlawful techniques. Continue reading...

Reform UK had asked GMP to investigate after reports of ‘concerningly high levels’ of so-called family votingPolice have found no evidence of criminality in the Gorton and Denton byelection after claims by Nigel Farage that it was “a victory for cheating”.Greater Manchester police (GMP) had been asked by Reform UK to investigate allegations of corrupt voting in the Greater Manchester contest, which was won by the Green party. Continue reading...

• New York University Abu Dhabi team discovered clues of subsurface water on Mars in Gale Crater using NASA's Curiosity rover data, indicating habitability lasted longer than previously thought. • Ancient sand dunes hardened into rock billions of years ago after interacting with groundwater, confirmed by comparing Martian formations to UAE desert analogs. • Led by Dimitra Atri, the study published in Journal of Geophysical Research - Planets highlights underground sites as prime locations for past life evidence.

Pouring 65,000 litres of sodium hydroxide into the Gulf of Maine removed up to 10 tonnes of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere without harming wildlife, according to the researchers behind an ocean alkalinity enhancement test