Prioritise new jobs over green targets to win public contracts, firms told

Andy Burnham will tell firms bidding for public contracts to prove they are creating jobs rather than meeting green and social targets in a bid to get more people into work.

How Israeli restrictions on Palestinians’ movement break up the West Bank

Every Palestinian born in the West Bank before the start of the occupation in 1967 has witnessed the extent to which Israel has transformed the landscape through spatial planning, military closures, and settlement, infrastructure and road construction. Sixty years on, what used to be a straightforward journey from point A to point B within the West Bank has become an arduous and frequently hazardous undertaking.

Russian attacks kill 17, exploiting Ukraine’s lack of missile interceptors

Russia has pounded Kyiv and surrounding areas with ballistic missiles and drones, killing at least 17 people, as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warns lives could have been saved had allies replenished its stocks of missile interceptors.

Australia news live: Victorian corruption watchdog report finds ‘serious and concerning’ conduct by Andrews government but no evidence premier was blackmailed

From

Victorian corruption watchdog finds ‘concerning’ conduct by Andrews government but no evidence premier was blackmailed in tabled report

Benita Kolovos

Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog has tabled a long-awaited report into the former Daniel Andrews government’s dealings with the United Firefighters Union and its secretary Peter Marshall.

Armed man arrested at Trump's golf course ahead of president's visit

Authorities in California have arrested a man who was seen near a golf course owned by President Donald Trump in the Los Angeles area, ahead of the president's visit for a fundraising dinner there.

Leeds: The city closing down streets so children can play

Sri Lanka shuts schools as floods and mudslides kill 7

Torrential rains and flooding have damaged 129 houses and forced the evacuation of nearly 3,500 people, officials say. 

Sri Lanka has shut down schools across its central highlands after torrential rains triggered deadly mudslides and flash floods, killing at least seven people and injuring several others.

The cost of being single – and how friends are teaming up to beat it

Kenya elephant deaths: Behind the poisoning and the pesticide mystery

Mysterious elephant deaths in Kenya raise questions around pesticides

ByThomas Mukhwana

Africa correspondentReporting fromAmboseli

Updated 1 hour ago

News that the recent deaths of 15 elephants may have been caused by pesticides sprayed on tomato crops surrounding Amboseli National Park has raised concerns and questions in Kenya.

Charity Commission to investigate donations to illegal Israeli settlements

An official investigation has been launched into charities in England and Wales donating funds to illegal Israeli settlements in Palestine.

The Charity Commission will aim to establish the amount of charitable funds going to illegal settlements, whether the spending was in furtherance of their purposes and any regulatory action that may be necessary.