UK News
Middle East crisis live: Israel-Lebanon talks begin in Washington as conflict continues | Lebanon
Israel-Lebanon talks begin in Washington – report
The fourth round of negotiations between Israeli and Lebanese officials have begun in Washington, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA).
NNA has just reported the talks “began a short while ago” at the US state department headquarters.
We will bring you more as we get it.
Key events
US secretary of state Marco Rubio faced chants from protesters who urged him to “stop killing Cubans” when he entered a Senate briefing room on Tuesday.
The protesters were quickly pulled from the room. Their chants also included “Let Cuba live!” as well as, “Repent Marco Rubio. God will forgive you for your sins. Stop killing Cubans.”
He is expected to face a litany of questions about the Trump administration’s fragile or stalling diplomatic efforts around the world when he appears for back-to-back hearings on Capitol Hill for the first time since the Iran war began.
Meanwhile, Donald Trump has tapped a close ally to serve as the country’s top intelligence official, days after Tulsi Gabbard announced her exit from the role.
The US president said that Bill Pulte, head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), and heir to a home construction company fortune, will serve as acting director of national intelligence.
Pulte has used his role at the FHFA to publicly level of a string of extraordinary allegations at Trump’s political opponents and enemies.
“William has deep experience managing the most sensitive matters in America,” Trump said on his Truth Social Platform.
Pulte will remain director of the FHFA, Trump said.
Gabbard, herself a controversial pick for the job, resigned last month, ending a tenure that saw her appear to be at odds with Trump over Iran war.
We have an early image of the ambassadors of Israel and Lebanon ahead of a new round of direct talks in Washington:
Israel-Lebanon talks begin in Washington – report
The fourth round of negotiations between Israeli and Lebanese officials have begun in Washington, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA).
NNA has just reported the talks “began a short while ago” at the US state department headquarters.
We will bring you more as we get it.
Lebanon’s health ministry said Tuesday that Israeli strikes a day earlier near a hospital in the southern city of Tyre killed four people and wounded 127 others, including 39 staff from the facility.
The ministry statement said the wounded staff at the Jabal Amel hospital were “four doctors, 27 nurses, and eight [administrative] employees – four of whom are in critical condition and receiving treatment in intensive care”.
The attack “also caused severe and extensive damage across the hospital’s various floors, departments and parking lot,” it added.
German chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday called on Israel to exercise restraint in its campaign in southern Lebanon, where a three-month war with Hezbollah has killed more than 3,400 and uprooted over 1.2m people.
Merz said Germany viewed the latest escalation in the south with great concern and urged Hezbollah to lay down its arms.
Israel’s weapons exports has reached an all-time high for a fifth year running, according to the country’s defence ministry.
In a statement, it said: “Israel’s all-time defence export record has been broken for the fifth consecutive year, with $19.2bn in 2025 – a nearly 30% surge compared to the previous year, more than doubling in five years and quadrupling in a decade.”
Israeli defence minister says US backs striking Beirut suburbs if Hezbollah attacks northern Israel
The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, said the US has backed plans to strike Beirut’s southern suburbs if Hezbollah attacks northern Israel.
The remarks came after Israel appeared to pull back from immediate threats of attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs, known as Dahiyeh, following an intervention by US president Donald Trump.
In a speech during a defence export conference, as reported by Israel’s i24 news, Katz said:
Prime minister Netanyahu and I, together with the IDF, led a move aimed at establishing a new equation: Beirut’s Dahiyeh district will be treated the same as Israel’s northern communities. If Israeli towns continue to come under attack, we will evacuate and strike Beirut’s Dahiyeh district, Hezbollah’s main stronghold.
He added:
The United States endorsed this principle and conveyed it to the Lebanese government and all relevant parties. The test of this policy will become clear in the coming days: either the attacks on Israeli communities stop, or if they continue and we strike Dahiyeh, the equation will have been enforced.
Katz also acknowledged that the IDF has issued warnings for people to flee their homes, saying it has led to “the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of residents – 600,000 out of 950,000 by last night”.
Here are the latest images from the site of an Israeli airstrike in the southern Lebanese city of Tyre, where the Jabal Amel hospital sustained severe damage from yesterday’s bombing on nearby buildings.
The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) has once again issued a warning telling people in the southern Lebanese city of Nabatieh to flee their homes and move north ahead of strikes.
It is the third such warning in a week for one of southern Lebanon’s largest cities, home to tens of thousands of people, which has seen continued Israeli strikes in recent weeks despite a ceasefire.
Patrick Wintour
The UK government has let the Palestinian people down and failed to make it economically impossible for Israel to continue to act with impunity in the West Bank and Gaza, the Labour chair of the foreign affairs select committee, Emily Thornberry, has said.
She accused her own government of lacking ambition and wringing its hands on the Palestinian crisis, and she also chastised Donald Trump for declaring a ceasefire in Gaza and then walking away, leaving Gazans to live in rubble.
Thornberry has never been this critical of the government’s Middle East policy before and her remarks may find resonance in a potential Labour leadership contest that has so far included little mention of foreign policy.
She said the significant decision taken more than eight months ago to recognise Palestine as a state should have been only the first step of many but nothing further had been done since to help bring about a two-state solution.
Read more:
Netanyahu: ‘Iran has paid a very heavy price and is destined to fall’
In a message to David Barnea, the outgoing director of the Mossad (Israel’s national intelligence agency), Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Iran has paid a “very heavy” price and is “destined to fall”.
He wrote on X:
Yesterday we bid farewell to the outgoing head of the Mossad, Dedi Barnea.
The price Iran has already paid is a very heavy one. The foundations of this regime of terror in Iran have been shaken. It will never be what it once was, and I tell you – it is destined to fall.
On my own behalf, and on behalf of the entire nation, I have come to say to Dedi – thank you. Thank you for 30 years of dedicated service to the Mossad, and a special thank you for the last few years, which have yielded outstanding successes and achievements for the benefit of Israel’s security.
The Lebanese armed forces said two soldiers were injured “as a result of being targeted by a hostile Israeli drone” on a road between the towns of Habbouch and Deir ez-Zahrani in southern Lebanon.
There was no immediate comment from the Israeli military.
At least 8 people killed in Israeli strikes in southern Lebanon – reports
Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA) has reported at least eight deaths this morning from Israeli bombings in southern Lebanon.
That is despite Donald Trump announcing an agreement to halt attacks that neither Israel or Hezbollah have publicly accepted.
Israeli attacks were reported in the southern Lebanese towns of Jibchit, Toul and Kfar Sir just north of the Litani River, according to NNA. Other areas in the Nabatieh region were also targeted, NNA reported.
An Israeli airstrike on Tyre yesterday killed at least four people and severely damaged the city’s Jabal Amel hospital, according to NNA.
The French foreign minister, Jean-Noël Barrot, has condemned Israel’s occupation of parts of Lebanon after Israeli troops seized the Beaufort, a Crusades-era castle south of the country.
“Nothing can justify the continuation of military operations and Israel’s prolonged occupation deep inside Lebanese territory,” he told France TV.
“That is why we have, of course, called for a ceasefire: that Hezbollah cease attacking Israel, that Israel cease attacking Lebanon, and that this dialogue, which has begun for the first time in so long between the Israeli and Lebanese governments, can continue.”
A fourth round of US-hosted direct negotiations between Israel and Lebanon is scheduled to begin today.
Summary: Conflict in Lebanon continues despite Trump hailing Israeli-Hezbollah de-escalation
Hello and welcome to the Guardian’s continuing coverage of the crisis in the Middle East.
Donald Trump has hailed an agreement to de-escalate the fighting in Lebanon, which has killed thousands of people and inflamed tensions in the broader US-Israeli war with Iran.
Trump said Hezbollah, through intermediaries, had pledged not to attack Israel, while Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to pull back any troops preparing to attack Beirut.
“Let’s see how long that lasts – Hopefully it will be for ETERNITY!” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
According to Lebanon’s embassy in Washington, the agreement would not end the conflict in that country. But it calls for Israel to refrain from strikes on Beirut and its suburbs controlled by Hezbollah, while the Iran-aligned group would halt its attacks on Israel.
Despite the agreement, hostilities in southern Lebanon – which Israel invaded in March – appeared to continue. This morning, the Israeli military said that it intercepted two projectiles that crossed from Lebanon into northern Israel, and that no injuries were reported.
After Trump’s announcement, Netanyahu said Israel would continue military operations in southern Lebanon, where ground forces are pushing toward the Zahrani River, their deepest incursion in Lebanon in 25 years. His statement made no mention of a new ceasefire.
Hezbollah lawmaker Hassan Fadlallah said the group would support a full ceasefire across all Lebanon as a precursor to the withdrawal of Israeli troops. He did not say whether the group would stop its strikes on Israeli territory.
Lebanon said it would seek to expand the ceasefire in talks with Israel in Washington tomorrow. That could clear the path for renewed efforts to end the three-month-old war that began with US and Israeli attacks on Iran. The process has been stuck in limbo for weeks under a fragile ceasefire as negotiators have been unable to agree on an initial framework for peace talks.
In other developments:
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Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) threatened to open “new fronts” and keep the strait of Hormuz closed over Israel’s offensive in Lebanon, state media reported. “Iran considers crossing the red lines in Lebanon and Gaza to mean direct war,” state TV quoted the IRGC’ intelligence organisation as saying.
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The ceasefire already in place between Iran and the US is unequivocally a ceasefire on all fronts, including in Lebanon, Iran’s top diplomat said yesterday after Netanyahu ordered attacks on the Hezbollah-controlled southern suburbs of Beirut. “Violation on one front is a violation of the ceasefire on all fronts. The US and Israel are responsible for the consequences of any violation,” foreign minister Abbas Araghchi wrote on X.
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US secretary of state Marco Rubio will face questions at Congress today for the first time since the Iran war began. He will testify before House and Senate committees on the state department’s 2027 budget request, where he is expected to face questions about Trump’s war efforts and shifting diplomatic goals.
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Oil prices jumped and equities slid as Middle East peace talks stumbled and tensions mounted between Iran and the US. Crude futures shot more than 5% higher yesterday as an Iranian news agency announced Tehran had suspended the negotiations with the US via mediators, AFP reported.
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US forces intercepted two Iranian ballistic missiles targeting American forces based in Kuwait late on Sunday, the US military said yesterday. No American personnel were harmed, it added.
UK News
England v India: third and deciding women’s T20 cricket international – live | Women’s cricket
Key events
16th over: India 140-4 (Harmanpreet 40, Sharma 14) Chase that! Harmanpreet takes a balletic step and flames Dean through the offside for four. But Deepti Sharma hasn’t got in the zone yet and is unable to reach the boundary with the same regularity.
15th over: India 132-4 (Harmanpreet 32, Sharma 12 The wind is really billowing the flags now. Deepti goes down the ground, but doesn’t get enough omphph on Smith to reach the rope. But Harmanpreet does – a mightly slap four four.
14th over: India 122-4 (Harmanpreet 29, Sharma 8) Gibson starts with a wide, but follows up with a couple of dots. She’s an energetic fielder off her own bowling, bounding left and right. India remain boundary-less untill Harmanpreet pulls Gibson’s last ball with some welly past the chasing fielder.
Stephen Nicols gets in touch to reply to Kevin Wilson (over five).
“I’m hoping there are a few more runs left in our batting line-up before we pension them all off. A chase of 200-ish tonight will be hard work, and more good prep for the batters before the World Cup. And I reckon we’ll need all the batting experience we can get for the Test Match at Lord’s.”
13th over: India 113-4 (Harmanpreet 22, Sharma 7) India are in danger of running into a boundary-less patch – as they did at Bristol. The sun is out now, but India can only milk five from Ecclestone.
12th over: India 108-4 (Harmanpreet 18, Sharma 5) Seven from Dean’s over, including a wide and a run-out chance – if Gibson had hit, Deepti could have been in trouble, diving and travelling like a truck through treacle. She is patched up.
11th over: India 101-4 (Harmanpreet 17, Sharma 1) Bell with the rebuild over and rebuild she does. Rodrigues had just pulled her for four before losing her timbers. Deepti Sharma leapfrogs the order to come in next.
WICKET! Rodrigues b Bell 29 (India 100-4)
Flummoxed by the slower ball, an advancing Rodrigues can only turn around to confirm her miserable fate. A delighted Bell punches the air.
10th over: India 94-3 (Rodrigues 24, Harmanpreet 16) Harmanpreet chomps into a short ball from Smith, thrashing it square past two diving England fielders, then dispatches the last offering before drinks for another four through point.
9th over: India 82-3 (Rodrigues 23, Harmanpreet 5) England can’t keep Rodrigues still in the crease, and her ceaseless movements gives her options. She ramps Gibson for four, then swots a short ball past a diving Smith for another.
Harmanpreet today overtakes Susie Bates as the most capped player in women’s cricket – with 368 games for India under her belt.
8th over: India 71-3 (Rodrigues 14, Harmanpreet 3) Harmanpreet and Rodrigues make for a stylish duo at the crease. A fistful of singles from Eclestone’s second over, then Rodrigues shimmies a wider final ball with dancing wrists to the backward point boundary.
7th over: India 63-3 (Rodrigues 8, Harmanpreet 1) Dani Gibson stops the flow of boundaries, and the run out of Bhatia could be crucial.
WICKET! Bhatia run out (Ecclestone) 32 (India 60-3)
Ecclestone with her left hand, a fishtail plait running down her back, runs out the lumbering Bhatia with a throw to the non-striker’s end . A vital wicket for England, Bhatia was in the zone
6th over: India 57-2 (Bhatia 32, Rodrigues 3) Bhatia signs off from the power play with three more boundaries, this time off Dean. An off-balanced sweep, a here-we-go up and over, and finally hammering her down the ground like a rogue nail
5th over: India 45-2 (Bhatia 20, Rodrigues 3) Bhatia, dealing mostly in boundaries this evening, slog-sweeps Ecclestone to pick up four. Four singles on top keeps the scoring rate perky.
Hello Kevin Wilson! “England probably decided a while back not to roll the dice before a home World Cup but they should probably move on from DWH, Knight, NSB and Jones after this tournament. The side has suffered from moving too many batters around in the past. Time to bring new players in, in fixed positions. I’m not sure I see a role for Gibson. England have plenty of batters who can bowl. Wong has been out of sorts for a while. Invest in Gaur instead.”
4th over: India 37-2 (Bhatia 9, Rodrigues 1) Dean makes the breakthrough in her first over – India are scoring quickly, but losing wickets.
WICKET! Mandhana lbw Dean 8 (India 36-2)
The dog changes the channel by leaping off the sofa with one paw on the controller, when I put it back on, India have appealed an lbw decision. Madhana had gone to sweep, it looks pretty out – even Mandhana looks like she thinks it is out – and out it is.
3rd over: India 31-1 (Mandhana 8, Bhatia 9) Two wides and two fours from Bell’s second over as she gets some punishment from Bhatia, through point and deep third.
WICKET! Verma c Dean b Smith 11 (India 19-1)
Verma is eager for more runs but cramped for room, gets an outside edge ball which holds up in the wind and Charlie Dean collects at point. Clever bowling
2nd over: India 19-1 (Mandhana 7, Bhatia 0) Linsey Smith in sunglasses from the other end. Mandhana clips her off her toes, over the leaping Bell at midwicket for four. Then Verma joins in hawking her through backward square for four more. But then the wicket!
1st over: India 10-0 (Mandhana 2, Verma 7) Lauren Bell directs the field at the top of her mark. The wind ruffles her shirt, the sun suddenly out and glinting on her bun as the church of St James looks on. Mandhana hoiks Bell up and just over mid on, but Verma earns the style points, delicately angling the ball down to the rope. A handful of singles and a wide.
“There’s a good crowd building,” says Raf. “I’m told they’re expecting at least 5,000 people which will be near capacity.”
Selection talk
Sky’s crew talk England selection for the World Cup – they put Capsey/Dunkley/Knight//Gibson/Wong/Corteen-Coleman and Filer up for discussion.
Charlie Dagnall. “I think Capsey accesses more areas of the field, can manipulate the surface a bit more, better against pace and spin, Dunkley is a little bit more one dimensional. Kate Cross agrees, “Capsey can hit areas of the ground where it needs to go, Dunkley doesn’t have that many more options than hitting over the top.”
Tash Farrant “Dunkley and Wyatt Hodge run really well together,I’d back her, tell her she needs to get off to a fast start. She does look quite tentative at the moment though.” She would pick Capsey and Dunkley and leave Knight out, also Capsey and Dunkley are better in the field and running quick singles.
Cross goes for Knight because you need experienced players, despite her lack of strike rate. “There is no space for anchors any more in the women’s game.”
Dagnall says he’d go for Knight as she’s a better player with NSB in the side.
Farrant says Edwards needs to be more flexible with the batting order.
Dunkley goes for Wong “a difference maker, a big game player.”
Farrant would pick Dani Gibson as England need to stack the batting. As would Cross who says Gibson is more of the future of England cricket than Wong.
And here comes Sue Redfern and the teams.
I’ve just disturbed Raf mid-forkful of white chocolate cheesecake in the Taunton media centre.
“We’ve watched two brilliant warm-up acts – we had drummers earlier and now we’ve got a group of dancers with Indian flags. Overcast and windy at the moment, but it’s been dry all afternoon.”
India XI
India make one change, seamer Kranti Gaud comes in for spinner Shreyanka Patil.
India: Smriti Mandhana, Shafali Verma, Yastika Bhatia, Harmanpreet Kaur (c), Jemimah Rodrigues (wk), Richa Ghosh, Deepti Sharma, Arundhati Reddy, Kranti Gaud, Sree Charani, Nandni Sharma.
England XI
No changes from Bristol.
England: Sophia Dunkley, Danni Wyatt-Hodge, Amy Jones (wk), Alice Capsey, Heather Knight, Freya Kemp, Danielle Gibson, Charlie Dean (c), Sophie Ecclestone, Linsey Smith, Lauren Bell.
England win the toss and bowl!
It’s blowy out there. Charlie Dean looks pleased. “The win at Bristol was brilliant for us, a confidence builder, hopefully we can do more of the same today.” England play the same team.
Preamble
Roll up, roll up for the final game in this T20 World Cup warm-up series. Happily for the crowd, it’s a decider with meaning, England and India both have a point in the purse – and the winner will take the momentum with them into the tournament proper. They’ll toss the coin at 6pm BST, with play starting half an hour later. Pull up a chair and join us!
The 18-year-old’s murder has sparked debate among politicians over attitudes in policing.
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UK News
Starmer says he ‘felt sick’ watching video of Henry Nowak’s arrest – UK politics live | Politics
Starmer says he felt ‘sick’ watching Nowak video – but criticises Farage for saying response to his murder should be ‘pure rage’
Keir Starmer has condemned Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, for saying that people should respond to the murder of Henry Nowak with “with pure cold rage”.
In a pooled TV interview, Starmer said that was “the wrong reaction”. He went on:
I start my answer to your question through the eyes of the family. They have said they do not want this whipped up. They have been through the most extraordinary, awful experience. They don’t want this whipped up, and Nigel Farage is completely wrong to use this to try and create division.
He would be wrong in any circumstances, but when Henry’s family are saying, ‘Please don’t do that, it’s our son,’ then really, as politicians, as human beings, we should start where they start, and that’s where I start.
Asked if he agreed with Kemi Badenoch that there should be a Macpherson-style inquiry into whether the anti-racist culture in the police should go too far, Starmer said that he was not ruling that out. But he said the Independent Office of Police Conduct should be allowed to finish their inquiry into how officers handled this case first.
Starmer also said he felt “sick” watching the video footage of Nowak being handcuffed as he lay dying.
I have seen the body cam footage, it’s harrowing, and I have to say, as a father of a 17-year-old boy, I felt sick watching it.
It is absolutely right that the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct) are looking at this.
There are clearly serious questions that need to be addressed, not least how accusations of racism informed the decision making in this case.
But my thoughts, I am sure the thoughts of everybody in this country, are with Henry’s family.
His life has been stolen and they are understandably devastated, and that is where I start in this.
Key events
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Afternoon summary
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Starmer says he felt ‘sick’ watching Nowak video – but criticises Farage for saying response to his murder should be ‘pure rage’
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More than 100 MPs sign amendment to elections bill calling for national commission on PR
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Starmer says government to update cabinet manual
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Labour figures who wrote competing ‘manifestos’ join forces to warn against tribalism
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Burnham condemns ‘profiteering’ by water companies
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Mahmood tells Reform UK not to ‘pit white Britons against non-white Britons’ in response to Nowak murder
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Lib Dems condemn Farage for using Nowak case ‘to divide British communities’
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Mahmood says she won’t accept ‘differential treatment’ from police – but warns against over-correcting in response to Nowak case
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Shadow home secretary Chris Philp says Nowak case shows police anti-racism commitment must go
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Mahmood condemns those seeking ‘political profit’ from Nowak tragedy
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Mahmood condemns ‘dangerous’ commentary, saying one officer wrongly linked to Nowak case has faced death threats
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Mahmood says ‘everyone equal before law’, and police must operate ‘without fear or favour’
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Mahmood says police arrest footage ‘disturbing’, but police watchdog must be allowed to investigate
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Mahmood says murder of Nowak ‘horrifying act’, and further charges pending against family members
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No 10 says Starmer uses disappearing messages on WhatsApp, provided proper record keeping not affected
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Shabana Mahmood to give Commons statement on Henry Nowak murder
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Starmer says police watchdog probe into how officers handled Henry Nowak murder must happen ‘as quickly as possible’
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Labour ‘not looking to raise taxes to fund benefits’ as Mandelson messages suggest, minister says
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SNP embezzlement scandal ’embarrassing internationally’ for Scotland, says former first minister Jack McConnell
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Tories accuse Cooper of ‘cosying up’ to Chinese Communist party
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UK and China have ‘shared interest’ in rules-based international order, Cooper says during talks in Beijing
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Mandelson should never have been appointed ambassador, says Cooper, as she ducks questions about whether his Starmer criticisms correct
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Miliband confirms UK’s latest carbon budget, aiming for 87% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2042
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Andy Burnham would not call snap election if he became PM, spokesperson says
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Murrell used false accounting records and fake invoices to cover up his embezzlement, court told
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Motorhome bought by Murrell with SNP money only driven for four miles, court told
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Court hears details of Peter Murrell’s spending with money embezzled from SNP
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No 10 urged to review religious knife rules after Henry Nowak murder
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UK government has failed Palestinian people, says senior Labour MP
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Tories accuse Starmer of not revealing all his Mandelson messages
Afternoon summary
Let me assure you, I’ve complied with the humble address. All the messages I hold have been passed over. I went through the same process as everybody else, and many people, not just in politics, use disappearing messages.
For a full list of all the stories covered on the blog today, do scroll through the list of key event headlines near the top of the blog.
Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Starmer says he felt ‘sick’ watching Nowak video – but criticises Farage for saying response to his murder should be ‘pure rage’
Keir Starmer has condemned Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, for saying that people should respond to the murder of Henry Nowak with “with pure cold rage”.
In a pooled TV interview, Starmer said that was “the wrong reaction”. He went on:
I start my answer to your question through the eyes of the family. They have said they do not want this whipped up. They have been through the most extraordinary, awful experience. They don’t want this whipped up, and Nigel Farage is completely wrong to use this to try and create division.
He would be wrong in any circumstances, but when Henry’s family are saying, ‘Please don’t do that, it’s our son,’ then really, as politicians, as human beings, we should start where they start, and that’s where I start.
Asked if he agreed with Kemi Badenoch that there should be a Macpherson-style inquiry into whether the anti-racist culture in the police should go too far, Starmer said that he was not ruling that out. But he said the Independent Office of Police Conduct should be allowed to finish their inquiry into how officers handled this case first.
Starmer also said he felt “sick” watching the video footage of Nowak being handcuffed as he lay dying.
I have seen the body cam footage, it’s harrowing, and I have to say, as a father of a 17-year-old boy, I felt sick watching it.
It is absolutely right that the IOPC (Independent Office for Police Conduct) are looking at this.
There are clearly serious questions that need to be addressed, not least how accusations of racism informed the decision making in this case.
But my thoughts, I am sure the thoughts of everybody in this country, are with Henry’s family.
His life has been stolen and they are understandably devastated, and that is where I start in this.
More than 100 MPs sign amendment to elections bill calling for national commission on PR
Andy Burnham, who is campaigning to be Labour MP for Makerfield on the basis that he could replace Keir Starmer as PM soon after the byelection, is in favour of proportional representation (PR). He says, if he were to become PM, he would include this in Labour’s next election.
In parliament, supporters of PR claim the popularity of their cause is growing. The all-party parliamentary group for fair elections says more than 100 MPs have now signed an amendment to the representation of the people bill a National Commission on Electoral Reform.
Alex Sobel, the Labour MP show chairs the APPG, says:
We’ve got two thirds of seats [in parliament], the Labour party, on a third of the vote.
If you look at recent council elections, Reform won two-thirds of the seats on a third of the vote in more than one local authority.
So the system is shattered. It’s a 19th century voting system in a 21st century political reality, and the two things need to come to a head.
So far the amendent has been signed by 72 Labour MPs, 24 Lib Dems, all five Green MPs, and the one Alliance MP.
Starmer says government to update cabinet manual
Keir Starmer has announced that the government is going to update the cabinet manual, the guide for ministers explaining the laws and conventions that determine how the government operates. In a written ministerial statement, he says the current text is 15 years old and out of date. He says
The manual was first published in 2011 and has not been updated since. As a result, it has become significantly out of date, most notably in its descriptions of general elections, the UK’s relationship with the EU, and the devolution settlements. Its value for ministers and officials, helping them navigate the UK’s constitutional arrangements, has been diminished by this lack of accuracy. An update will therefore restore the manual’s status as an authoritative guide.
When the manual was published in 2011, the UK was still in the EU. And elections were governed by the Fixed-term Parliaments Act, which had just been passed. The Scottish parliament and the Senedd have both obtained new powers since 2011 too.
Rhun ap Iorwerth, the new Welsh first minister, has used his first question time in the Senedd to say that he intends to get rid of the longest hospital waits in Wales within months, the BBC reports.
Labour figures who wrote competing ‘manifestos’ join forces to warn against tribalism
Two of Labour’s leading policy figures, who put forward “manifestos” for Andy Burnham and a centrist grouping, are to join forces to help forge new ideas for a future government, Jessica Elgot reports.
Mathew Lawrence, the director of Common Wealth, who authored the Manchesterism essay, and Mark McVitie, who wrote the Labour Growth Group’s An Honest Day, said Labour must reject the idea of “tribes” – such as blue Labour, new Labour and soft left – and find common ground in opposing high everyday costs and predatory capitalism.
They have written a joint article for the New Statesman. Here’s an extract.
Our diagnosis is the same. Britain pays too much for the basics because the state has lost control of the foundations ordinary life and enterprise depend on. Housing, energy, water, transport, care and local infrastructure have become too expensive, too fragile and too extractive. Government then spends ever more compensating people for costs it has failed to remove at source. That is the maintenance of decline, and left unbroken it leads to only one political outcome: a total takeover by the forces of populism.
The answer is where our ideas can converge. This lies in remaking what the state is for – not distributing while the pie shrinks, but creating the conditions for cheap and reliable essentials, where contribution is rewarded, extraction is disciplined and Britain can build the productive assets it needs. A state that sets out to be productive before it has become capable will fail. It will hand its new public corporation the same planning delays, legal timidity and procurement failures that already frustrate reform. But a state that recovers its capability and then refuses to use it for its people has won a barren victory. One of us has written about how the state recovers the power to act, the other about what it should do with that power where the market has stopped serving the public. A state that wants to be productive must first become capable. A state that has become capable has no excuse not to be productive. We believe in the power of markets. We want more challengers, more productive risk-taking, more firms able to scale, more entrepreneurs building in Britain – rather than selling early and leaving.
There are 11 Sikh MPs in parliament, all Labour. They have put out a joint statement today expressing support for the family of Henry Nowak and saying people should not allow his murder to “divide communities or fuel hostility towards innocent people”. The letter has been been organised by Jas Athwal, chair of the all-party parliamentary group for British Sikhs. He says:
Henry Nowak was brutally murdered in a senseless act of violence by Vickrum Digwa.
The Sikh community stands with Henry’s family and friends as they come to terms with his loss.
We share the grief, shock and anger at his murder and stand with his family in the pursuit of truth and justice.
We urge people to not allow the actions of this one murderer to divide communities and fuel hostility towards innocent people.
Burnham condemns ‘profiteering’ by water companies
Andy Burnham criticised “profiteering” by water companies, citing the industry as a classic example of where privatisation has failed consumers.
While campaigning in the Makerfield byelection today, Burnham said United Utilities, which is based in the north-west, should cancel the final dividend due to be paid to shareholders in August and redistribute the money to lower costs for consumers instead, after the company’s profits surged following an increase in bills.
He said:
There is simply no justification for profiteering on this scale when people are struggling with the cost-of-living crisis.
This confirms why people feel the system is rigged against them. It makes the case for essential public services coming back under public control.
He said water was a “classic case” where privatisation had failed.
Forty years of neoliberalism in Britain has left us with essential services, which the public have no choice but to use, which work to serve private vested interests over the public interest.
The water industry is a classic case of one where the shareholders always win and the bill payers always lose.
People are right to be angry that they are being asked to pay for bill hikes they cannot afford, only for their hard-earned cash to pour into the pockets of shareholders.
He said excess profits in the sector were “unjustifiable” and added: “Water companies should put these surging profits into lowering bills, improving services and protecting communities.”
As the Press Association reports, Burnham also called on the government to make it mandatory for housing developers to implement the highest standards for flood resilience at project and household level in areas at risk of flooding. Residents in the Makerfield constituency faced flooding in 2015 and 2025, with some still not able to return to their homes, Burnham said.
Mahmood tells Reform UK not to ‘pit white Britons against non-white Britons’ in response to Nowak murder
Robert Jenrick, the Reform UK Treasury spokesperson who used to be the Tory justice spokeperson, said the police officer who handcuffed Henry Nowak should be “prosecuted for a total dereliction of duty”.
But what mattered was why the officer acted like that, he said. Like Chris Philp (see 2.22pm), he also mentioned Valdo Calocane and Axel Rudakubana. He claimed there was “a sickness rooted in the anti-racism agenda” and he urged Mahmood to root it out.
Mahmood replies:
I don’t think this is a moment to pit white Britons against non-white Britons. This is a moment to reflect on a horrific tragedy.
She said everyone should be equal before the law.
That applies whether you’re a non-white British family that arrived here 50 years ago or 10 years ago, or if you’re a white Brit whose family have been here for about 300 years or more; we are all equal before the law of our land, and we should all support that principle.
Labour’s Tan Dhesi also condemned Reform UK for their response to the Nowak murder. He told MPs:
What’s very galling is that the likes of Reform, Restore and the far-right decided to politicise people’s pain, attacking the Sikh community for wearing the kirpan and wanting it banned – even though the kirpan was not used in this violent attack.
And they’ve decided to scapegoat and throw under the bus an entire community based on the actions of one violent murderer.
In her response to Wilkinson (see 2.51pm), Mahmood endorsed what he said about Nigel Farage – but without referencing him directly.
She said:
Anyone using this tragedy, this horrific, vile act of murder, in order to stoke further division in our country should be rejected by everyone across this house.
Political grandstanding and further division is not what is needed.
Clear-eyed action, and a commitment to ensuring all of our citizens are equal before the law of our collective land, is what is needed.
Lib Dems condemn Farage for using Nowak case ‘to divide British communities’
Max Wilkinson, the Lib Dem home affairs spokesperson, told MPs that most politicians had responded to the Henry Nowak case with sensitivyt. But not Nigel Farage, he said.
Referring to the Reform UK leader, Wilkinson said:
It is therefore all the more disturbing that we have seen [Farage] once again using tragedy to divide British communities. We all know why he does this. He’s made a career out of this and has become rich as a result.
But we are also well aware, as he is, that his actions are divisive, dangerous and fundamentally and un-British.
Mahmood says she won’t accept ‘differential treatment’ from police – but warns against over-correcting in response to Nowak case
In response to Philip, Mahmood said that the government was considering its response to the first report from the inquiry into the Southport killings, and the Nottingham inquiry is still taking place.
On the police anti-racism commitment (see 2.22pm), she said that initiative began life when the Tories were in power. She went on:
In fact, I’m old enough to remember when Theresa May called out disproportionate use of stop and search for black communities in particular.
She said the police should maintain the confidence of all communites.
Philp should accept the “context here relating to racism and the police”, she said.
Whatever changes are made, it is important that nobody over-corrects or course-corrects such that all of us as citizens are no longer equal before the law.
She said Philp should not ignore the “historic and legitimate concerns” from some communities about policing. She went on:
I condemn all types of differential and every type of differential, treatment. I do not stand for it.
My own track record as a government minister shows I will always act when there is evidence of differential treatment. And it is absolutely vital that that message is heard loud and clear across the whole of our country.
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