Accuses

US military claims it targeted sites responsible for attacks on its forces and ‘unprovoked’ hostilities by TehranIran has accused the US of violating the ceasefire by targeting two ships at the strait of Hormuz and attacking civilian areas, as the US insists it struck in retaliation.The US military said it targeted sites that it said were responsible for attacking US forces in what it called “unprovoked” hostilities by Tehran. Continue reading...

Green leader said he hosted fundraisers for the Red Cross but accepts he should not have described himself as a spokesperson for itGood morning. Zack Polanski was largely unknown until he became the Green party leader in September last year and since then, as his party has soared in the polls, there has been intense scrutiny of his pre-politics career. The best-known embarrassing revelation about his past is the fact that he once told a woman he could enlarge her breasts if she listened to his hypnotherapy spiel. Nigel Farage, who also leads a dispruption party enjoying spectacular success, has scandals in his past too, and Polanski’s allies would argue that they are worse. Farage took a £5m donation from a political supporter which he did not declare, he still has not provided as good explanation as to how his partner was able to afford to buy a home in Farage’s Clacton constituency and arguably he told 30 million women that he could enlarge the size of their bank balances if they listened to his spiel on Brexit. Guardian readers can decide for themselves who is more dodgy.But, as we tell our children, life isn’t fair. And it certainly isn’t fair for leftwing politicians campaigning in an environment where the rightwing media have considerable influence. Polanski discovered that again last night when the Times printed a story with various claims about him, of which the main one related to an allegation about his embellishing his CV. Here is our version by Jessica Elgot.I hosted various fundraisers for the British Red Cross, and indeed I would go on stage and speak for them about the amazing work they do tackling humanitarian crises, on the climate crisis and indeed for refugees all around the world.I used the wrong word and I accept that.It feels some of these stories feel like scraping the barrel to go back 10, 15 years.I’ve had so many friends – I’m literally talking maybe 20 or 30 in the last few weeks – who have phoned me and said a Times journalist has been phoning and they’ve been desperately trying to find things about your past. They asked me lots of questions and seem disappointed that I didn’t have some juicy, dirty gossip. Continue reading...

US president directs fresh criticism at pontiff days before secretary of state Marco Rubio’s visit to VaticanMiddle East crisis – live updatesDonald Trump has issued a fresh verbal attack against Pope Leo XIV, accusing the pontiff of “endangering a lot of Catholics” because “he thinks it’s fine for Iran to have a nuclear weapon”.The remarks come two days before Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, meets Leo at the Vatican in an effort to ease the tensions sparked by Trump’s previous broadside against the Chicago-born pontiff over his condemnation of the US-Israeli war on Iran. Continue reading...

Claim by environment minister opens new report into profound ecological damage allegedly done by IDF forces Lebanon’s minister for the environment has accused Israel’s military of committing “an act of ecocide” in the foreword to a report detailing the harm done to the country’s natural resources during the invasion of 2023 to 2024.Israeli military aggression “reshaped both the physical and ecological landscape” of southern Lebanon, according to the report, which does not consider the impacts of Israel’s latest barrage of attacks this spring.Damaged 5,000 hectares (12,350 acres) of forest cover, including broadleaf, pine and stone pine stands, destroying habitats, disregulating local climates and causing soil erosion.Destroyed $118m (£87m) of physical agriculture assets, including crops, livestock facilities, forestry resources, fisheries and aquaculture infrastructure.Caused further losses of $586m (£433m) in lost agricultural production as a result of disrupted harvests and reduced yields.Destroyed 2,154 hectares (5,320 acres) of orchards, including 814 hectares of olive groves and 637 hectares of citrus plantations, and caused extensive damage to banana plantations.Contaminated soils with phosphorus concentrations up to 1,858 parts a million, with particular contamination hotspots in south Lebanon and Bekaa valley in the east.Caused widespread air pollution episodes extending well beyond immediate strike zones and releasing particulates; sulphur and nitrogen oxides; and toxic compounds such as dioxins and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Continue reading...

First lady calls for ABC to ‘take a stand’ against comedian in aftermath of White House press dinner shootingIn the aftermath of the White House correspondents’ dinner shooting, Melania Trump accused Jimmy Kimmel of “hateful and violent rhetoric” and said it was “time for ABC to take a stand” against the comedian who has long been critical of Donald Trump and his policies.The first lady appeared to be referring to a monologue by Kimmel broadcast that happened before the Saturday attack on the White House correspondents’ dinner, in which he referred to Melania Trump as an “expectant widow” in a speech otherwise largely about the Trumps’ connections to Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading...

• Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard intensified accusations that former President Barack Obama and top administration officials—including former FBI Director James Comey, DNI James Clapper, and CIA Director John Brennan—conspired to subvert Trump's 2016 election victory. • Gabbard claimed to have unveiled new evidence of a plot to undermine the democratic will of the American people through intelligence community actions. • The allegations signal continued politicization of intelligence agencies and ongoing disputes over 2016 election interference investigations.

• The White House stated China steals US AI technology at industrial scale via joint ventures, cyber intrusions, talent poaching, and front companies targeting universities and labs. • Tactics include spear-phishing, zero-day exploits in software pipelines, and supply chain diversion of AI hardware like GPUs, fueling China's surveillance and weapons programs. • Impacts could erode US AI competitive advantage, raise R&D costs for cybersecurity, and devalue intellectual property incentives for American firms.

Journalists Amal Khalil and Zeinab Faraj were both caught in an Israeli attack in southern Lebanon, with the former trapped under rubble for hoursIsraeli strikes in southern Lebanon wounded one journalist and left another trapped under rubble on Wednesday with rescuers temporarily blocked from reaching her by ongoing Israeli fire, Lebanon’s health ministry, a senior military official and press advocates said.Israel’s military said in a statement it had received reports that two journalists were injured as a result of its strikes, and denied it was preventing rescue teams from reaching the area. Continue reading...

• Venezuela's government issued an arrest warrant for opposition leader Carlos Mendoza, accusing him of inciting foreign intervention, shortly after he met with US State Department officials in neighboring Colombia. • US officials condemned the warrant as politically motivated persecution, calling for Mendoza's immediate release and warning of further diplomatic consequences if he is detained. • The incident escalates tensions between Washington and Caracas, with human rights organizations documenting increased arrests of political opponents and independent journalists under President Maduro's administration.

PM admits he made mistake in choice of ambassador as he makes high-stakes statement to parliament over scandalKeir Starmer has accused Olly Robbins of deliberately and repeatedly obstructing the truth about the Mandelson vetting scandal before a high-jeopardy appearance of the sacked top official before MPs on Tuesday.Six days after the prime minister said he had learned that his pick for Washington ambassador had failed security vetting, Starmer admitted his decision to appoint him had been a fundamental mistake. Continue reading...

Justin Sun said World Liberty Financial built a ‘backdoor blacklisting function’ that froze his account. ‘We have the truth. See you in court,’ the company respondedSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe largest investor in Donald Trump’s crypto venture has claimed that the firm “secretly” implemented a tool to unilaterally freeze his holdings of its cryptocurrency. He claimed the company could do the same to any other user.In posts on social media platform X on Sunday, crypto entrepreneur Justin Sun said, without offering evidence, that World Liberty Financial had embedded what he described as a “backdoor blacklisting function” in the blockchain-based contracts used for the WLFI tokens. Continue reading...

Suit alleges the billionaire’s AI company is illegally spewing toxic pollutants from its datacenter in the Memphis areaA new lawsuit accuses Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company of illegally spewing toxic pollutants into the Black neighborhoods on the border of Tennessee and Mississippi.The suit, filed Tuesday in Mississippi federal court, alleges xAI is violating the Clean Air Act due to emissions from its enormous datacenter in Southaven, Mississippi. The plaintiff – storied civil rights group the NAACP, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center – says xAI has been polluting the surrounding historically Black communities by using dozens of methane gas generators without permits. The organization is seeking to force the company to stop operating its unpermitted turbines in Southaven. Continue reading...

Remarks come as Italian PM suspends defence agreement with Israel amid growing domestic pressure over conflictDonald Trump lashed out at one of his closest allies on Tuesday, saying Italy’s Giorgia Meloni lacked courage in light of her failure to join the US in attacking Iran.“I’m shocked at her. I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” the US president said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera. Continue reading...

US vice-president rails against ‘bureaucrats in Brussels’ interfering in Sunday’s vote as he arrives in BudapestJD Vance has railed against the EU, accusing it of blatantly interfering in Hungary’s upcoming elections, even as the US vice-president said he had travelled to Budapest to “help” Viktor Orbán win Sunday’s vote.Speaking to reporters shortly after landing in Budapest on Tuesday, Vance’s tone was combative as he alleged that the EU was responsible for “one of the worst examples of foreign election interference” he had ever seen. Continue reading...

The health secretary and the BMA trade accusations over who bears responsibility for the collapse of talksGood morning. Resident doctors in English hospitals started a six-day strike at 7am this morning. Many of them will continue to work, but there will be enough of them joining the strike to have a significant impact on the care hospitals can deliver. It is the 15th resident doctors (who used to be known as junior doctors) have been on stage since they launched a campaign in 2023 to get their pay back to the equivalent level it used to be before austerity kicked in after the financial crash.This morning Wes Streeting, the health secretary, deployed a new statistic in his PR battle against the BMA, the doctors’ union organised the strikes. He confirmed a figure highlighted in the Daily Mail’s splash saying strikes by resident doctors have now cost the country £3bn.We think that strikes cost £50m a day. And so that is, an accurate reflection of the cost of these strikes.What is true is that in order to deliver a full pay restoration back to 2008 levels, using the RPI account of inflation, it would cost in the order of £3bn a year.Let’s then assume that other NHS staff would understandably demand the same. Then that cost would be more like £30bn a year. That is more than the entire cost of the Ministry of Justice’s entire budget for running the criminal justice system. Continue reading...

Republican Tony Gonzales ended re-election bid in March after admitting to having affair with a different aideSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxA second former female staffer for Tony Gonzales, a Republican congressman from Texas, has come forward claiming Gonzales sent her sexually explicit messages.The San Antonio Express-News first reported the text messages on Monday and NBC News later confirmed the report. Continue reading...

Grandson of Reese’s cups inventor claims Hershey faked a pledge to switch back to original chocolate recipesThe grandson of HB Reese, the inventor of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, has accused the chocolate giant Hershey of faking a pledge to investors to switch back the recipes of its popular products – including KitKat – to the original milk and dark chocolate ones.A confectionary-focused dust-up between Brad Reese and the $42bn Pennsylvania-based company began in February when Reese, 70, accused the company of “quietly replacing” the ingredients – or “architecture” – in his grandfather’s invention with cheaper “compound coatings” and “peanut-butter-style crèmes”. Continue reading...

Tehran says it will confront any land attack, as Trump says regime’s export hub on Kharg Island could be taken ‘very easily’. Plus, how Americans can rebuild its once robust peace movementGood morning.Iran has warned the US that it is prepared to confront any ground assault, accusing Washington of secretly planning a land attack while publicly seeking talks, as the war that has killed thousands of people and caused the biggest ever disruption to global energy supplies entered its second month.What has Donald Trump said? In an interview published last night, the US president did little to assuage those concerns, telling the Financial Times that his “preference would be to take the oil” in Iran, and saying of Iran’s crucial export hub on Kharg Island: “We could take it very easily.”This is a developing story. Follow the liveblog here.Why is this important to Cuba? The thousands of barrels of crude would provide significant relief to Cuba, which, according to the president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has not received any oil imports for three months, leading to strict rationing of gasoline and exacerbating an energy crisis that has resulted in multiple power outages across the country. Continue reading...

Tehran says it will confront any land attack, as Houthi missiles fired at Israel signal further escalation in regionMiddle East crisis – live updatesIran has warned the US that it is prepared to confront any ground assault, accusing Washington of secretly planning a land attack while publicly seeking talks, as the war that has killed thousands of people and caused the biggest-ever disruption to global energy supplies entered its second month.As efforts to find a negotiated conclusion to hostilities inched forward with a meeting of regional powers in Pakistan, there were signs of further escalation over the weekend as Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis entered the conflict for the first time, and the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his country was widening its invasion of southern Lebanon. Continue reading...

Lawyers say agency made misrepresentations in affidavit to obtain search warrant for January raid of election officesLawyers arguing in federal court for the FBI to return Fulton county’s 2020 election records said the agency’s affidavit to obtain a search warrant relied on misrepresentations that rise to the legal standard of a “callous disregard” for the county’s rights.“The only element that turns the election into a crime is intent, and nothing in the affidavit shows intent,” Abbe Lowell, who is representing Fulton county, said during the Friday hearing at the Richard Russell courthouse in Atlanta. He argued that the FBI is pursuing crimes for which the statute of limitations has expired. Continue reading...

Lib Dems will focus on ‘rolling up their sleeves and getting things done’, leader says at launch of local election campaignEd Davey has accused Reform UK and the Conservatives of importing “Trump-style divisive politics” as he launched the Liberal Democrats’ 7 May local elections campaign, promising the party would focus on “fixing things for your community”.He also raised concerns that energy bill support being considered by the UK government would not include people on middle incomes who he said are being “hammered” by price rises caused by the war on Iran. Continue reading...

Péter Magyar, who is leading in polls, says Orbán’s government is ‘betraying Hungarian and European interests’Europe live – latest updatesThe candidate leading the polls in Hungary’s upcoming elections has said the alleged sharing of confidential EU information between Budapest and Moscow should be investigated as possible “treason”, while the European Commission has called for “clarifications” over the alleged leaks.Péter Magyar, a conservative anti-corruption campaigner, who is mounting the most serious challenge to Viktor Orbán’s 16-year-long grip on the Hungarian premiership, said the government appeared to be colluding with Russia, “thereby betraying Hungarian and European interests”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Tariq Ahmad says he has raised concerns with party leadership after shadow justice secretary’s remarksThe shadow justice secretary, Nick Timothy, has been accused by a Conservative peer and former counter-extremism minister of “instilling fear” among Muslims with his comments about public prayer.British Muslims were openly talking about leaving the Conservative party, added Tariq Ahmad, who said he had raised his concerns with the party leadership and expected action to be taken. Continue reading...

• Iranian state media reported US and Israeli attacks on the world's largest natural gas field at South Pars and other energy facilities on March 18, 2026. • The strikes coincide with US deployment of 5,000-pound bunker-buster bombs on Iranian missile sites near the Strait of Hormuz to reopen oil routes. • Escalation threatens global energy supplies, with oil prices surging and political pressure mounting on President Trump.

Relations deteriorate as Gustavo Petro claims government of Trump ally Daniel Noboa bombing targets in ColombiaPresident Gustavo Petro has accused Ecuador of bombing targets inside Colombian territory, saying later that the burned remains of nearly 30 people had been found near the border, in a sharp deterioration in relations between the two neighbouring countries.The Colombian leader said on Tuesday that an attack which had left “27 charred bodies” did not appear to have been carried out by Colombia’s own forces or any illegal armed groups which he said do not have armed planes. Continue reading...

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated Friday that Iran is exercising 'sheer desperation' in counterattacks against the US and Israel, following the crash of a refueling plane in western Iraq that killed six airmen. The incident raises the total US troop deaths in the operation to 13, with officials confirming no hostile fire involvement. Hegseth's remarks precede reports of 2,500 Marines and a warship deploying to the region, signaling escalation. Analysts warn of prolonged conflict risks amid rising casualties and regional instability.