General News

A top federal prosecutor has quit after refusing to launch what she called a politically driven investigation into Biden-era climate spending, exposing deepening rifts in the US’s premier law enforcement agency. Denise Cheung, head of criminal prosecutions in Washington, resigned on Tuesday after Trump appointees demanded she open a grand jury investigation into Environmental Protection…

Sudanese paramilitaries have killed more than 200 people in a three-day assault south of Khartoum, according to a lawyers’ network, while the army-backed government put the death toll at more than double that figure. The Emergency Lawyers network, which has documented human rights abuses during 22 months of fighting between the rival security forces, said…

A civil servant who blew the whistle about the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and Boris Johnson’s involvement in a decision to evacuate a pet charity from Kabul has won her case for unfair dismissal against the government in a legal first. An employment panel of three judges unanimously found the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office…

The Native American activist Leonard Peltier – convicted in 1975 for the killings of two FBI agents – was released from federal prison on Tuesday after Joe Biden commuted his sentence at the end of his presidency in January. In a statement, Peltier said that he was “finally free!” “They may have imprisoned me but…

The head of the food division at the US Food and Drug Administration has quit in protest over sweeping staff cuts that he warns will hamper the agency’s ability to protect public health. Jim Jones, who joined the agency in September 2023, cited “indiscriminate” layoffs to 89 staff members, including key technical experts. In his…

A British couple detained in Iran have been charged with espionage after travelling to the country as part of a round-the-world motorbike trip. The Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency said Craig and Lindsay Foreman, who are in their early 50s, had been charged after allegedly gathering information in different locations in the country. The couple…

Thousands of tourists have flocked to Mount Etna to watch spectacular eruptions on the volcano, but some people are blocking streets and preventing rescue services from reaching those in need of assistance, the local authorities have said. Sicily’s head of regional civil protection, Salvo Cocina, described the tourism of recent days at Etna as “wild”…

UnitedHealth Group is attempting to swat down a non-binding shareholder proposal that asked the company to prepare reports on the costs of delayed and denied healthcare. The proposal, filed by members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), represents a new frontier in seeking to hold insurance companies accountable for the “macroeconomic costs” of…

Thames Water has won court approval for an emergency debt package worth up to £3bn that should stave off the collapse of Britain’s biggest water company for at least another few months. London’s high court said on Tuesday the deal could proceed, after hearing four days of complex arguments earlier this month over whether it…

A woman accused of murdering an Indigenous teen sent messages inquiring about the welfare of another boy allegedly beaten up by two of her co-accused, a court has been told. Cassius Turvey, a 15-year-old Noongar Yamatji boy, died in hospital 10 days after prosecutors say he was chased, knocked to the ground and “deliberately struck…