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French president, speaking alongside Spanish counterpart, Pedro Sánchez, says EU bid would be good news for UK and Europeans * UK politics live – latest updates The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has reacted warmly to Andy Burnham’s suggestion that the UK could rejoin the EU. “Welcome back,” the French leader said in English with a smile. Speaking at a news conference in Madrid on Wednesday, Macron continued (in French): “If the British want to come back and if the prime minister is moving in that direction, I think that is very good news, both for his country and for the Europeans.” Continue reading...

The Russian shipments, which haven’t been previously reported, underscore the deepening strategic alliance between Moscow and Tehran.

UK prime minister is the first head of a major nation to call on the under-pressure Fifa president to step down * UK politics live – latest updates Andy Burnham has called on the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, to resign over his “outrageous” plans to sell a stake in the World Cup. Infantino faces growing pressure over his proposals, which triggered a backlash among major football bodies and prompted the resignation on Friday of a key advisor. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer will give his final speech from Downing Street before Burnham arrives and is appointed as new PM Good morning. Today we are getting a new PM. It is the sixth time this has happened in just over a decade (Theresa May replaced David Cameron on 13 July 2016), and so in some respects there is nothing very new or surprising about this. Yet the process has been unusual. In the past, when parties in power have replaced a PM, generally they have opted for someone popular with their own MPs, but less popular than their predecessor with the public at large (Liz Truss, Theresa May, Gordon Brown), or for someone more popular with the public, but less liked by their own activists (John Major, Rishi Sunak). At the start of the year, anyone looking at polling would have concluded that the logical choice for Labour would have been to replace Keir Starmer with Andy Burnham. Labour is not always noted for taking decisions that will be electorally beneficial, but in this case that is what it has achieved. It has replaced a PM who had become an electoral millstone with one of the most admired politicians in the country, and with someone – for the moment at least – with his whole party behind him. That may not be the case by the end of the day, after Burnham has named his cabinet. We’ll have to see. Here is Rowena Mason’s overnight story about what to expect today. This week [Burnham] will tell us of his “ten-year plan for the country”. Perhaps his premiership won’t last that long, he conceded. “I’m not saying that means I’m setting out to say I’m going to be here for ten years … it’s more that we’re not in the right place structurally, we’re not in the right place as a country. I think people can feel that.” One thing I heard most on the doorsteps in Makerfield was frustration about the personal allowance, frozen at £12,570 … [That complaint] lodged in my mind. They’re just characterising me as a tax raiser. Well, again, it’s never that simplistic, is it? Continue reading...

The actors Lindsay Duncan and Charles Dance, alongside director Peter Webber, pay tribute to a practical joker, unpretentious craftsman and ‘very cool guy’

Murnaghan ‘died peacefully’ at his home in London on Saturday, says his family The TV presenter Dermot Murnaghan “died peacefully” at his home in north London on Saturday morning “following a period of illness with prostate cancer”, his family said in a statement. More details to follow … Continue reading...

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Court rules against Trump administration on policy that people born in the United States are citizens * Supreme court decisions – live updates * Sign up for the Breaking News US email The US supreme court has upheld the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship, affirming that nearly all people born on US soil are American citizens and rejecting a central pillar of Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda. The president had issued an executive order on the first day of his second term that sought to deny automatic citizenship to the children born to undocumented immigrants and temporary foreign residents. Writing for the majority, Chief Justice John Roberts said this order violated the 14th amendment of the US constitution. Continue reading...

He’s the only person who can keep Nigel Farage out of Downing Street, so let’s embrace his unique blend of optimism and realism, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee

The Beatles - All You Need Is Love (1967)

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Surgeons who worked in European and al-Aqsa hospitals describe extensive wounds caused by ‘fragmentation’ shrapnel experts say is designed to maximize casualties

Contracting documents obtained by Mother Jones indicate the price was nearly double the government's estimate.

The ruling voided “in its entirety” a policy from September requiring companies to pay $100,000 fees for H1-B visa petitions.

Exclusive: Labour’s Makerfield byelection candidate advocates public ownership of water companies as he prepares for potential leadership bid Thames Water should be nationalised, Andy Burnham has said, revealing public ownership of water companies would “absolutely be an option” under his potential leadership of the Labour party. Burnham, Labour’s candidate in the Makerfield byelection, has previously called for “greater public control” over the companies. In an interview with the Guardian, he has confirmed this could mean nationalisation. Continue reading...