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Today — 29 June 2024World News

‘Arrogant’ tech companies must ‘fess up’ to harm done to children by social media, Albanese says

28 June 2024 at 22:54

Meta’s claims that social media doesn’t harm children ‘can’t be taken seriously’, inquiry told

Tech executives need to “fess up” to the damage their platforms have caused, the prime minister says, while taking aim at the “arrogant” and “out of touch” social media companies.

Anthony Albanese’s comments come after Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, told a parliamentary inquiry in Canberra it didn’t think social media had harmed children.

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© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

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© Photograph: Lukas Coch/AAP

Bolivia coup attempt: ex-army chief given six months ‘preventive detention’, says prosecutor

28 June 2024 at 22:33

Juan José Zúñiga Macías has been handed charges of terrorism and armed uprising, says prosecutor, as president again rejects claims of ‘self-coup’ to boost popularity

A Bolivian former army chief accused of leading a failed coup attempt has been given six months “preventive detention”, a top prosecutor said on Friday, as the president again denied the attack was a “self-coup” designed to boost his flagging popularity.

General Juan José Zúñiga Macías has been handed charges of terrorism and armed uprising, state prosecutor Cesar Siles said. Zúñiga has said he was following an order from the president, Luis Arce, following Wednesday’s fleeting insurrection in La Paz. In the moments before he was detained, the ex-army chief claimed: “The president told me the situation was fucked and that he needed something to boost his popularity.”.

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© Photograph: Aizar Raldes/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Aizar Raldes/AFP/Getty Images

Martin Mull, Arrested Development and Roseanne actor, dies aged 80

28 June 2024 at 21:49

Mull, known for his droll and esoteric comedy, dies after ‘valiant fight against a long illness’, says daughter

Martin Mull, whose droll, esoteric comedy and acting made him a hip sensation in the 1970s and later a beloved guest star on sitcoms including Roseanne and Arrested Development, has died, his daughter said Friday. He was 80 years old.

Mull’s daughter, TV writer and comic artist Maggie Mull, said her father died at home on Thursday after “a valiant fight against a long illness”.

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© Photograph: Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP

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© Photograph: Willy Sanjuan/Invision/AP

Ukraine war briefing: multiple casualties in Russian attack on Dnipro apartment block

28 June 2024 at 21:17

Infant among six injured, with at least one dead and more trapped in building in central Ukraine; 10 Ukrainian civilians freed from Russia and Belarus jails in Vatican-mediated deal. What we know on day 857

A Russian missile strike hit a nine-storey residential building in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Friday, killing at least one person and injuring six others, officials said. The death toll would likely rise as more people remained trapped in the building, where four upper storeys collapsed as a result of the attack, said the interior minister, Ihor Klymenko. A photo posted on Telegram by the governor, Serhiy Lysak, and other images on social media showed a badly damaged building that had smoke rising from a gaping hole in its upper storeys. A seven-month-old infant was among the injured, Lysak said. Three people were in severe condition.

Volodymyr Zelenskiy said 10 civilians including a politician and two priests taken prisoner in Russia and Belarus had been freed in a deal mediated by the Vatican. Russia and Ukraine have exchanged hundreds of prisoners throughout their two-year conflict but the release of civilian prisoners is rarer. “We managed to return 10 more of our people from Russian captivity,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram. It was not immediately clear if the release was part of an exchange deal involving Russian prisoners held in Ukraine. Some of those released had been in prison since 2017, he said, arrested in Russian-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine that at the time were run by Moscow-backed separatists.

Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces had taken control of the settlement of Rozdolivka in eastern Ukraine, but the Ukrainian military said heavy fighting was raging in areas around the settlement. The Russian ministry said on Friday that Russia’s “southern” military grouping had taken up what it called more favourable positions after pushing Ukrainian forces out of the settlement. Rozdolivka is in the Donetsk region, the focal point of Russia’s slow advance across eastern Ukraine. It lies north of Bakhmut and Soledar, two localities brought under Russian control last year.

The Ukrainian military’s general staff said Russian forces had launched 19 attacks in a broad sector that included Rozdolivka. “Our soldiers resolutely held their defences and repelled 15 of the assaults,” the evening report on Friday said. “Four armed confrontations are continuing.” The battlefield accounts from either side could not be verified.

The Biden administration will provide Ukraine with $150m worth of weapons and ammunition, including Hawk air defence interceptors and 155mm artillery munitions, two US officials said. The weapons aid package was expected be unveiled on Monday, they said on Friday, declining to be named. The administration is responding to Ukraine’s desperate requests for air defence support as Russia has pounded Ukrainian energy facilities in recent weeks via aerial attacks.

Vladimir Putin said Russia should start producing short- and intermediate-range missiles that were previously banned under a now-defunct arms treaty with the US. The Russian president was referring to missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500km (300-3,400 miles) that were banned under the cold war-era intermediate-range nuclear forces (INF) treaty. Washington withdrew from the deal in 2019, citing Russia’s failure to comply. The Kremlin said at the time that it would abide by a moratorium on production if the US did not deploy missiles within striking distance of Russia. In a televised address to his top security officials on Friday, Putin said the US had started using such missiles in training exercises in Denmark and “we need to react to this”.

Russia’s defence minister has ordered officials to prepare a “response” to US drone flights over the Black Sea, the ministry said, in an apparent warning that Moscow may take forceful action to ward off the American reconnaissance aircraft. The Russian defence ministry noted a recent “increased intensity” of US drones over the Black Sea, saying they “conduct intelligence and targeting for precision weapons supplied to the Ukrainian military by western countries for strikes on Russian facilities”.

The International Monetary Fund’s executive board has voted to approve a $2.2bn payout for Ukraine under an existing loan programme, and lowered its growth outlook following “devastating” Russian attacks against the country’s energy infrastructure. The much-needed funds would be used for “budget support” and bring the total amount disbursed under the 48-month loan agreement to about $7.6b, the IMF said on Friday.

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© Photograph: Mykola Synelnykov/Reuters

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© Photograph: Mykola Synelnykov/Reuters

Dua Lipa at Glastonbury review – headliners are rarely this hook-laden and hedonistic

28 June 2024 at 20:14

Pyramid stage
The British singer’s Friday night set underlines her claim to be one of the world’s great current pop stars, with a cast-iron hit always around the corner

According to the most intriguing bit of her between-song chat, Dua Lipa’s headlining Glastonbury slot came about as a result of an act of childhood manifesting. The singer claims she wrote out her desire to top the bill on the Pyramid stage in detail, up to and including what night said event should take place on: a Friday, so she “could spend the rest of the weekend partying”. And now here we are: watching a slightly peculiar video of Dua Lipa signing her name and writing the words “GLASTO 24” on a pane of glass, then licking it.

Whether you buy the stuff about manifesting or not, Dua Lipa has clearly spent a lot of time carefully studying and absorbing how a successful Glastonbury headline set works, and putting what she’s gleaned to good use. The announcement of her appearance led to a degree of consternation, particularly after her most recent album, Radical Optimism, failed to replicate the kind of world-beating success afforded its predecessor, the lockdown smash Future Nostalgia. But she already has a stockpile of inescapable hits, from New Rules to her Elton John collaboration Cold Heart, which is half the battle won. And furthermore she throws everything she has at her set in order to lend it a sense of event, rather than it being simply another pop show transposed to a field in Somerset, another stop-off on a world tour that happens to be on a farm.

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© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

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© Photograph: David Levene/The Guardian

Mushroom gummies: powerful cannabis product could have caused ‘disturbing hallucinations’ and hospitalisations

28 June 2024 at 20:00

The recall of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies has sparked concerns that the product contains psychoactive cannabinoids

A cannabis product could be to blame for more than six people being hospitalised with symptoms including seizure-like twitching, vomiting and hallucinations after consuming gummies marketed as containing mushrooms, according to experts.

The Cordyceps and Lion’s Mane flavours of Uncle Frog’s Mushroom Gummies were recalled this week by Food Standards Australia New Zealand after reports of hospitalisations in New South Wales, South Australia and Victoria.

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© Photograph: NSW Food Authority

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© Photograph: NSW Food Authority

By reflecting a world in crisis, art can be a powerful part of the climate solution

28 June 2024 at 20:00

Artists can open hearts and minds to inspire environmental action, and help grieve the loss and damage already inflicted

The Climate Guardians appeared in Westernport Bay in southern Victoria in February 2021, standing in solidarity with the locals protesting plans by energy company AGL to build a new gas hub in nearby Ramsar-listed wetlands.

They appeared again in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris that same year defying the state of emergency ban placed on protesters around the Cop21 and then in the heart of Melbourne throughout Extinction Rebellion’s recent autumn activism.

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© Photograph: Sudipta Das/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: Sudipta Das/NurPhoto/REX/Shutterstock

Yesterday — 28 June 2024World News

Gordon straight back in saddle to help England move through the gears

28 June 2024 at 17:30

Winger is strong believer in mental preparation and will not let bike accident affect him if picked against Slovakia

There is, frankly, only one place to start with Anthony Gordon and it is not only because he is handed a pair of stabilisers as a present when he walks in to address the media – a reference to his much talked-about and laughed-about bike crash on Wednesday during England’s recovery day.

It is hard to ignore the cuts and grazes, especially the deep red one in the middle of his chin. There are some on the Newcastle winger’s nose and arms, while they are also all over his hands. When somebody goes to shake with him, he pulls away defensively, which does not suggest he is battle-ready for Sunday’s last-16 tie against Slovakia. It turns out to be wrong. He says he is completely fine. So what happened?

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© Photograph: Thanassis Stavrakis/AP

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© Photograph: Thanassis Stavrakis/AP

Could Cole Palmer’s off-the-cuff talent prove to be the answer for England?

After a fine debut season with Chelsea the winger is unfazed by his late miss on his tournament debut against Slovenia

By the time our 20 minutes with Cole Palmer are up, the England winger has managed to rave about Riyad Mahrez’s first touch, reveal that Austria have been one of his favourite teams at Euro 2024, claim Londoners are way moodier than northerners, talk about getting on for 20 minutes against Slovenia, praise Mauricio Pochettino’s time at Chelsea, elaborate on his relationship with Enzo Maresca and, most importantly of all, correct erroneous reports that he has an obsession with baked beans.

The answers are short, sweet and often pretty illuminating. Palmer does not skip a beat before revealing that his first position was left-back. It was a throwaway comment, but he suddenly looks horrified. He glances at the press officer sitting to his left and wonders if he has put his foot in it. Is Gareth Southgate about to stumble upon the answer to England’s problem position? “I am talking under-10s!” Palmer says. “Under-10s! I have never played left-back since. I was tiny and I just got put left-back. When I was 12 I moved further and further up.”

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© Photograph: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Chris Brunskill/Fantasista/Getty Images

Aston Villa sign left-back Ian Maatsen from Chelsea for reported £37.5m fee

By: PA Media
28 June 2024 at 16:15
  • 22-year-old is at Euro 2024 with the Netherlands
  • Maatsen spent second half of last season at Dortmund

Aston Villa have announced the signing of left-back Ian Maatsen from Premier League rivals Chelsea for a reported £37.5m. The Netherlands international was part of the Borussia Dortmund team beaten by Real Madrid in last season’s Champions League final during a season-long loan move from Stamford Bridge.

Maatsen, who is currently with his country at Euro 2024 in Germany, becomes Unai Emery’s second summer signing following the arrival of forward Lewis Dobbin from Everton. Villa are preparing for Champions League football next season after finishing fourth in the top flight.

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© Photograph: dts News Agency Germany/REX/Shutterstock

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© Photograph: dts News Agency Germany/REX/Shutterstock

Box-office Bumrah will give India edge in T20 World Cup final against South Africa | Mark Ramprakash

28 June 2024 at 16:00

England lost to the tournament’s best team in the semi-final and India’s display makes them favourites to win the trophy

A washout in Guyana on Thursday, for the semi-final between England and India, would have been disastrous for this T20 World Cup. It really isn’t ideal that one semi-final, played between South Africa and Afghanistan, had a reserve day and the other didn’t. The ruling that the side that topped their Super Eight group advanced to the final in case of an abandonment is also unconvincing. It must also seem strange to people that India knew before the tournament where their semi-final would be held if they got that far. I’m just glad the match got played.

The conditions on offer were probably the most difficult this England side could have faced. The pitch didn’t suit their natural style of cricket and was more like one you would find in India as opposed to England. Given that India got a score that was 15, possibly 20, runs above par, England were right to go hard in the powerplay. But it is a high-risk policy, and it was unfortunate their shots didn’t come off. Axar Patel was the star man for India, but Kuldeep Yadav bowled beautifully. He has improved so much, particularly in the past two years, with his variations of pace, and Jasprit Bumrah’s wonderful cutter to get rid of Phil Salt set the tone.

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© Photograph: Randy Brooks/AFP/Getty Images

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© Photograph: Randy Brooks/AFP/Getty Images

John Swinney voices concern over postal vote delays in Scotland

28 June 2024 at 15:54

First minister says voters being disfranchised because some ballots yet to arrive with school holidays due to begin

John Swinney, the Scottish first minister, has raised concerns that voters are being disfranchised because of delays in receiving postal votes.

Voters in some parts of the UK, particularly Scotland, have not received their postal ballots ahead of the election on 4 July. Postal vote requests are particularly high in Scotland because schools are on holiday next week.

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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

‘Give unconditional love to each other’: artist Marina Abramović silences Glastonbury for seven minutes

28 June 2024 at 15:53

Serbian performance artist tells Pyramid stage crowd to confront cyclical violence in thousands-strong ‘collaboration’

It’s been home to some of the UK’s loudest singalongs, most propulsive rap lyrics and most cacophonous guitar solos. But the Pyramid stage at Glastonbury experienced something almost unprecedented in its history on Friday: total silence.

The Serbian artist Marina Abramović, invited by festival organisers Michael and Emily Eavis, led the audience in what she called a “collaboration” called Seven Minutes of Collective Silence, to “see how we can feel positive energy in the entire universe” and act as a bulwark against the horrors of war and violence.

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© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

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© Photograph: Yui Mok/PA

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