A Kurdish militant group whose attacks and insurgency against Turkey have spanned more than four decades has declared it will disarm and disband, after a call from its jailed leader earlier this year. The Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) announced the decision to dissolve its guerrilla forces, heeding a watershed announcement from Abdullah Öcalan three months…
The UK risks becoming an “island of strangers” without tougher controls on who enters the country, Keir Starmer has said, as he unveiled a set of policies meant to significantly drive down net migration. The prime minister said his government would “take back control of our borders” and close the book on a “squalid chapter”…
A legal campaign group is planning a judicial review against the UK government’s new planning bill, arguing it will result in a weakening of environmental protections which were fought for and created over decades. Wild Justice is calling on the housing minister, Angela Rayner, to correct a parliamentary statement in which she told MPs the…
Key events Show key events only Please turn on JavaScript to use this feature Israeli strike on school used as shelter kills 16, mostly women and children, after Hamas agrees to release last living American hostage in Gaza An Israeli strike on a school-turned-shelter in the Gaza Strip killed at least 16 people early on…
An Australian man has been killed while working for a humanitarian organisation in Ukraine. The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, on Monday confirmed the 28-year-old former soldier had died. Albanese expressed his “deepest condolences and sympathies” to the man’s family and friends. He said the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Dfat) was assisting the man’s…
Former Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen will visit Britain this week at the invitation of British politicians, a trip that comes as London is trying to improve ties with Beijing and China ramps up efforts to diplomatically isolate the island. Britain, like most countries, has no official diplomatic ties with Taiwan, but the economic and political…
The independent MP Monique Ryan has won Kooyong in Melbourne, holding off her Liberal challenger, but Nicolette Boele, another Climate 200-backed candidate, is expected to fall short on Sydney’s north shore. The ABC’s election analyst, Antony Green, on Monday projected that Ryan would maintain her slim lead in the Melbourne seat, where she led by…
New mapping of England’s peatlands has revealed that 80% of the habitats are dry and degraded. Scientists mapped England’s peatlands and peaty soils for the first time using satellite imagery, artificial intelligence and in-depth data analysis to create the most complete map to date, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said. The…
Millions of Filipinos began voting on Monday in a midterm election widely seen as a referendum on the explosive feud between President Ferdinand Marcos and impeached vice-president Sara Duterte. Workers in the capital, Manila, were busily setting up polling stations on Sunday for a race that will decide more than 18,000 posts, from seats in…
Less than 1% of the government’s biosecurity budget goes on tackling invasive species, despite the danger they pose to British wildlife, figures suggest. Conservationists warned the funding to address non-native plants and animals was failing to match the risk they posed to “cherished” native species, from water voles to ladybirds, as well as to waterways,…
