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Bill authorizes pay raises, strips coverage of trans medical treatments for children and aims to counter China’s powerThe Senate passed a defense bill on Wednesday that authorizes significant pay raises for junior enlisted service members, aims to counter China’s growing power and boosts overall military spending to $895bn while also stripping coverage of transgender medical treatments for children of military members.The annual defense authorization...

This live blog is now closed. For more on the US defense spending bill, you can read the full report here:US Senate passes defense bill that raises troop pay and strips trans care for kids of militaryBennie Thompson, the Democratic chair of the January 6 committee, has also condemned the House Republican report critical of the panel’s now-concluded investigation.Speaking to Fox News, Thompson said:Representative...

Foreign affairs minister Penny Wong says ambassador to Ukraine to return to Kyiv in January and Russia war affects security of Indo-PacificGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastAustralia’s support for Ukraine will surpass $1.5bn as it offers more aid and reveals an embassy will reopen in the war-torn country for the first time since 2022.The ambassador to Ukraine, Paul Lehmann,...

Her election is first action in moves to form new coalition government after no party won majority in general electionVerona Murphy has become the first female speaker of the Irish parliament as part of attempts to form a coalition government.Murphy, an independent TD for Wexford, defeated two Fianna Fáil candidates and one from Sinn Féin to win the €255,000 (£210,000) a year position of...

Dominique Pelicot likely to be given 20 years for drugging his ex-wife and inviting strangers to rape her over a decadeThe mass rape trial that has sent shockwaves through France and horrified the world is expected to end on Thursday with the conviction of Dominique Pelicot, who has admitted drugging his ex-wife, Gisèle, and inviting strangers into their bedroom to rape her.Pelicot, a 72-year-old...

Image of man leaning into boot of a car on a street in northern Spain helps lead police to make two arrestsOn a nearly deserted street in northern Spain, the images appeared to show a man hunched over the back of a red Rover car, gingerly loading a bulky white sack into the boot.A passing Google Maps camera car happened to snap the suspicious...

Powerful storm in drought-hit region confirmed to have killed 45 people in Mozambique and 13 in MalawiMayotte before and after: satellite images show damageThe death toll from Cyclone Chido has continued to rise, with authorities confirming that 45 people were killed in Mozambique and 13 in Malawi.French officials said the number of deaths on the Mayotte archipelago remained unclear, having previously expressed fears that...

Study finds 9,000-year-old remains in Americas hold genomes of bacteria family that causes diseaseAfter the French king Charles VIII invaded Italy in 1494, an unknown and disfiguring disease erupted in the army camps and duly spread across Europe when the men returned to their homelands the following year.The epidemic is regarded as the first historical account of syphilis, but where the disease came from...

Exclusive: Lawsuit brought by former moderators against parent company Meta and outsourcer Samasource KenyaPTSD, depression and anxiety: why former Facebook moderators in Kenya are taking legal action‘The work damaged me’: ex-Facebook moderators describe effect of horrific contentMore than 140 Facebook content moderators have been diagnosed with severe post-traumatic stress disorder caused by exposure to graphic social media content including murders, suicides, child sexual abuse...

Former workers at Samasource say violent, graphic and sexually explicit videos left them fearful to go outsideMore than 140 Kenya Facebook moderators sue after diagnoses of severe PTSDPTSD, depression and anxiety: why former Facebook moderators in Kenya are taking legal actionWhen James Irungu took on a new job for the tech outsourcing company Samasource, his manager provided scant details before his training began. But...

Climate-vulnerable pair add weight to proposed treaty seeking transition from coal, oil and gas in equitable wayPakistan and the Bahamas have joined a growing bloc of climate-vulnerable countries seeking to broker a global pact to phase out fossil fuels in an equitable way, the Guardian can reveal.The Bahamas is the 15th nation to fully endorse the proposed fossil-fuel non-proliferation treaty, which would provide a...

A chronicle of Jabaliya’s destruction, using eyewitness accounts, satellite imagery and video footageOn the morning of 9 October 2023, the Trans area of the open market in Jabaliya refugee camp was bustling. Two days into the Gaza war triggered by Hamas’s surprise attack in Israel, it had yet to be hit by Israeli jets.The camp, just north of the city of the same name,...

Imagination Technologies had licences with two Chinese firms – but said it had not ‘implemented transactions’ that would enable the use of technology for military purposesChinese engineers developing chips for artificial intelligence that can be used in “advanced weapons systems” have gained access to cutting-edge UK technology, the Guardian can reveal.Described by analysts as “China’s premier AI chip designers”, Moore Threads and Biren Technology...

Israeli PM on visit to Mount Hermon says troops will remain until ‘another arrangement’ for security is foundMiddle East crisis – live updatesBenjamin Netanyahu has said Israeli troops will occupy a recently seized buffer zone in Syria for the foreseeable future, as intense efforts continued to reach a ceasefire deal in Gaza.The Israeli prime minister made the remarks on Tuesday night while touring Mount...

Chancellor and PM have both defended not to pay compensation to Waspi womenGood morning. Keir Starmer is facing his last PMQs of the year and, if he takes a glance at the papers this morning, he will find that he is being attacked by the Tory papers for not implementing a Jeremy Corbyn manifesto promise. Here are two of the headlines about yesterday’s announcement...

Marsden’s death was confirmed in a letter from one of two schools he founded saying: ‘He died at his desk in his home, doing what he loved, writing’The Australian author, John Marsden, beloved for young adult novels including the Tomorrow series and The Rabbits, has died aged 74.Alice Miller School, one of two schools that Marsden founded in Victoria, confirmed his death in a...

The 29-year-old had been recruited by Ukrainian special services, Moscow saysFor today’s Guardian newsletter, Nimo Omer spoke with the Guardian’s Russian affairs correspondent, Pjotr Sauer, about the significance of this attack and its potential ramifications:Ukrainian officials say Kirillov, who had been the head of Russia’s nuclear protection forces since 2017, was targeted specifically because he presided over “the massive use of banned chemical weapons”...

Chancellor says high cost of compensation cannot be justified because most of women affected had known pension changes were comingImproving public services is a higher priority than spending £10bn compensating Waspi women, the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, has said, as MPs and campaigners criticised the decision to reject the watchdog’s recommendation for a flat-rate compensation scheme.Her comments came after campaigners accused Labour of hypocrisy for...

Israeli negotiating team in Qatar; Hamas, US and Arab officials all suggesting deal may be within reachThe first flight since the ouster of Syria’s president Bashar al-Assad has taken off on from Damascus airport to Aleppo in the country’s north, AFP journalists at the scene are reporting.Forty-three people, including journalists, were on board the Syrian Air Airbus plane. Continue reading...

Yoon Suk Yeol was summoned for questioning over attempt to impose martial law earlier this monthSouth Korea’s impeached president, Yoon Suk Yeol, failed to appear before the country’s corruption watchdog on Wednesday, it said, after he was summoned for questioning over his attempt to impose martial law.Yoon was stripped of his duties by parliament over the weekend following his short-lived 3 December martial law...

National Grid, SSE and ScottishPower submit plans amid global race to shift from fossil fuels to clean electricityEnergy companies have promised to spend almost £70bn over five years to help rewire Great Britain’s electricity infrastructure in the global race to shift from fossil fuels to clean electricity.The companies that own the high-voltage power system – National Grid, SSE and ScottishPower – have submitted spending...

Australia urged to remove the word ‘spike’ from its recently upgraded travel warning to the popular Pacific holiday destinationGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastA test of drinks consumed by seven people in Fiji who fell ill and were hospitalised found no illicit substances or methanol, officials said.The deputy prime minister and minister for tourism, Viliame Gavoka, said tests found...

Annual increase in November driven by rising cost of petrol and groceries and hike in tobacco duty in budgetBusiness live – latest updatesUK inflation has risen to its highest level in eight months, adding to pressure on the Bank of England to keep interest rates unchanged on Thursday despite a slowdown in the British economy.The consumer prices index rose by 2.6% last month from...

In today’s newsletter: Kyiv assassinated Igor Kirillov inside enemy territory, in its most audacious operation since the war began – how will Russia respond?Good morning.In the early hours of yesterday morning, Russian general Igor Kirillov and his deputy were killed when a bomb concealed in an e-scooter detonated as they left an apartment. Ukraine’s SBU security service swiftly claimed responsibility for the attack, which...