Australian woman has pleaded not guilty to charges of murder and attempted murder relating to a lunch she served at her Leongatha home in 2023. Follow live updates
As Valerie is reunited with her owners, mystery remains over how the miniature dachshund braved more than 500 days in Kangaroo Island’s rugged wilderness only to emerge healthy, happy – and larger than before.
Valerie captured the world’s attention when she was spotted 529 days after going missing on the South Australian island, with people worldwide avidly following the story of her capture.
The Guardian’s Harriet Sherwood talks through the pomp and the politics of the conclave: the process to elect Pope Francis’s successor
On Wednesday, 133 cardinals will gather in the Sistine Chapel to select the next pope.
It is called the conclave and it is one of the oldest election processes in the world. For days – perhaps even weeks – the cardinals in Rome will vote again and again until one candidate wins a two-thirds majority. Then, and only then, will they be named as the successor to Pope Francis.
Secretary of state says opponents of Maduro have left diplomatic compound in Caracas and are ‘safely on US soil’
Five members of Venezuela’s political opposition have left the Argentinian diplomatic compound in their country’s capital, Caracas, where they had sheltered for more than a year to avoid arrest, and were in the United States on Tuesday, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said.
Rubio did not provide details of the group’s movements to reach the US, but he described the event as a rescue operation.
Countries have fought three wars over Himalayan region, which is divided by heavily armed border
Control of Kashmir, in the foothills of the Himalayas, has been disputed since India and Pakistan gained independence from Britain in 1947.
Both claim it in full, but each controls a section of the territory, separated by one of the world’s most heavily militarised borders: the “line of control” based on a ceasefire border established after their 1947-48 war.
Exclusive: Conservatives ask Keir Starmer to stand ‘against indefinite occupation’ and ‘reinforce international law’
More than a dozen senior Conservative MPs and peers have written to the prime minister calling for the UK to immediately recognise Palestine as a state, breaking ranks with their own party to do so.
Seven MPs and six members of the House of Lords have signed the letter to Keir Starmer urging him to defy the Israeli government and give formal recognition to Palestine in advance of key UN talks next month.
At least eight people, including a child, have been killed and 35 injured after India launched attacks on what it claimed were nine sites of “terrorist infrastructure” inside Pakistan, in a sharp escalation of hostilities between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
India had accused Pakistan of involvement in an attack on Hindu tourists in Indian Kashmir last month which killed 26 people. “We are living up to the commitment that those responsible for this attack will be held accountable,” said the Indian defence ministry.
Missile attack against Kyiv after deadly strike on Sumy; Zelenskyy seeks ramp-up of drone interceptor development. What we know on day 1,169
The Pentagon under Pete Hegseth stopped arms shipments to Ukraine in February without being ordered to do so by Donald Trump, the newly inaugurated president, Reuters reports. The order – which the news agency said blindsided top US national security officials, and the Ukrainians – was reversed within a week, but it cost up to $US2.2m to cancel the 11 flights involved, according to records. Reuters said records showed Hegseth gave a verbal order for the stoppage after a 30 January Oval Office meeting where only the idea of stopping military assistance was discussed.
Ukraine’s air defence units were trying repel a missile attack on Kyiv, the mayor said, after explosions shook the city just after 1am local time on Wednesday. A Russian ballistic missile attack killed three people including a childat Sumy in Ukraine and wounded 10 other people – most of them children, one of whom was in a severe condition, Ukrainian officials said.
A Ukrainian drone barrage forced Russia to close a dozen airports deep behind the frontline on Tuesday as foreign leaders began gathering in Moscow for a second world war “Victory Day” parade. Moscow said Ukraine had launched more than 100 drones targeting a dozen regions, including on the Russian capital. Kyiv, meanwhile, said Russia attacked with 136 drones.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked his government to seek help from Ukraine’s western allies to finance and develop interceptor drones to knock down attack dronessuch as Russia’s Iranian-designed Shaheds. “We will develop this direction as much as possible and each region will have its own responsibility specifically for this task,” said the Ukrainian president. Ukraine already has some capability, with videos regularly posted online showing Ukrainian UAVs pursuing and ramming Russian attack drones out of the air, while other interceptors can fire shotgun cartridges to shoot down enemy UAVs.
Catholic cardinals gathered in Rome ahead of the conclave to elect a new pope called on Tuesday for a ceasefire and negotiations without preconditions. Their statement “noted with regret that there has not been progress in promoting peace in Ukraine, the Middle East and many other parts of the world”, while offering their “heartfelt appeal to all parties involved to reach as soon as possible a permanent ceasefire and to negotiate, without pre-conditions” a longer-term peace.
Ukraine and Russia handed over 205 prisoners of war each in an exchange on Tuesday, both sides announced.
Ex-housekeepers accuse Motown legend of sexual battery, false imprisonment, negligence and gender violence
Motown legend William “Smokey” Robinson has been accused of sexual assault and misconduct by four women – identified only as Jane Does 1, 2, 3 and 4 – who worked as housekeepers for the Robinsons.
A complaint filed in Los Angeles superior court on 6 May lists charges including sexual battery, false imprisonment, negligence and gender violence. The complaint seeks $50m total in damages for the four women.
Trump convenes first meeting of World Cup task force
President hails windfall despite questions over readiness
US president Donald Trump convened the first meeting of his administration’s 2026 World Cup task force on Tuesday in a public event in which he revealed that he did not know Russia had been banned from Fifa competitions and insisted the tournament would go off without a hitch.
Boasting repeatedly that the 2026 World Cup, due to be co-hosted by the United States, Canada and Mexico, will be the “biggest, safest and most extraordinary soccer tournament in history”, Trump went on to claim that the tournament would generate “tens of billions of dollars in economic activities for local businesses” and “thousands and thousands of jobs for American workers”.
Inter defeat Barcelona after seeing off Bayern in quarters
Inzaghi: ‘Arsenal or PSG, it’s going to be a great final’
Simone Inzaghi claimed that his Inter team had beaten “the best two sides in Europe” on their way to the club’s seventh European Cup final.
Inter beat Barcelona 4-3 in extra time here, and 7-6 on aggregate in a spectacular semi-final. Inzaghi’s side also put out Bayern Munich in the quarter-finals, and although the Inter coach was wary of the threat posed by Paris Saint-Germain or Arsenal, he was also keen to recognise the scale of their achievement so far.
Indian missile strikes on Pakistan and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir mark dramatic escalation in long-simmering conflict
India has conducted what it has described as “precision strikes” in neighbouring Pakistan and Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, days after it blamed Islamabad for a deadly attack on the Indian side of the contested region that killed 26 people.
Eight people, including a child, were killed in missile strikes and 35 others have been injured, according to a Pakistani military spokesperson.
The Indian government said in a statement that nine non-military targets had been hitin the strikes, in what it called “Operation Sindoor.” “A little while ago, the Indian armed forces launched ‘OPERATION SINDOOR’, hitting terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir from where terrorist attacks against India have been planned and directed,” the Indian government said.
New Delhi said its actions had been “focused, measured and non-escalatory in nature”. It had displayed “considerable restraint in selection of targets and method of execution”, it added. The Indian army, in a video on X, said “justice is served.”
Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif said the “deceitful enemy has carried out cowardly attacks at five locations in Pakistan” and that his country would retaliate. “Pakistan has every right to give a robust response to this act of war imposed by India, and a strong response is indeed being given,” Sharif said.
Sharif has convened a meeting of the National Security Committeefor Wednesday morning. He said his country and its forces “know very well how to deal with the enemy. . … We will never let the enemy succeed in its nefarious objectives.”
Pakistan had shot at least two Indian air force jets down, the director general of the media wing of Pakistan’s armed forces Lt General Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry said. Separately a senior security official, requesting anonymity, told the Guardian that the military had shot down three Indian jets.
The United Nations has called for maximum restraint from both India and Pakistan. “The secretary-general [António Guterres] is very concerned about the Indian military operations across the Line of Control and international border. He calls for maximum military restraint from both countries,” the spokesperson said. “The world cannot afford a military confrontation between India and Pakistan.”
The development marks a dramatic escalation in the long-simmering conflict between the neighbouring nuclear powers. Bilateral ties between the two countries plummeted after gunmen killed 26 mainly Hindu civilians in Indian-administered Kashmir last month.
Cross-border exchanges of fire started two days after that attackat a small meadow near Pahalgam in Indian-controlled part of the territory, with gunfire exchanged nightly since 24 April along the de facto border in Kashmir.
The two sides also announced sweeping tit-for-tat punitive diplomatic sanctions – including cancelling visas for each other’s citizens.
Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, on Tuesday warned that water from India flowing into neighbouring countries including Pakistan would be stopped, days after suspending a key water treaty with Islamabad.
The research also raises questions over whether the UK continued to sell F-35 parts directly to Israel in breach of an undertaking only to sell them to the US manufacturers Lockheed Martin as a way of ensuring the fighter jet’s global supply chain was not disrupted, something the government said was essential for national security and Nato.
The findings have led the former Labour shadow chancellor John McDonnell to call for a full investigation, adding it was a resigning matter if the foreign secretary, David Lammy, was shown to have misled parliament in breach of the ministerial code when he told MPs in September that much of what the UK sends to Israel was “defensive in nature”.
McDonnell said “The government has shrouded its arms supplies to Israel in secrecy. They must finally come clean in response to this extremely concerning evidence and halt all British arms exports to Israel to ensure no British-made weapons are used in Netanyahu’s new and terrifying plans to annex the Gaza Strip and ethnically cleanse the land.”
British team says new study ‘radically transforms’ understanding of bronze age trade networks
In about 1300BC, the major civilisations of the eastern Mediterranean made a cultural and technological leap forward when they began using bronze much more widely for weapons, tools and jewellery. While a form of the metal had previously been used in smaller quantities by the Mycenaeans and Egyptians among others, bronze was now abundant – but how?
Most bronze is an alloy of copper and tin, but while the former was widely available in antiquity, tin is a rare element, with no large sources within thousands of kilometres. This left one big question, referred to by archaeologists as the “tin problem”. Where were the bronze age societies of the Mediterranean getting the tin for their bronze?
Kentucky Derby winner Sovereignty will not run in the Preakness Stakes, officials announced Tuesday, meaning there won’t be a Triple Crown champion for a seventh consecutive year.
“We received a call today from trainer Bill Mott that Sovereignty will not be competing in the Preakness,” said Mike Rogers, executive VP of 1/ST Racing, which operates the Preakness. “We extend our congratulations to the connections of Sovereignty and respect their decision.”
Damages awarded after earlier ruling found NSO unlawfully exploited a bug in WhatsApp to spy on users
Meta Platforms won a $168m verdict against the Israeli surveillance firm NSO, the company said on Tuesday, capping a six-year arm-wrestling match between the US’s biggest social-networking platform and the world’s best-known spyware company.
Meta had already won after a December ruling found that NSO had unlawfully exploited a bug in its messaging service WhatsApp to plant spy software on its users’ phones. On Tuesday, a jury in California ruled that NSO owed Meta $444,719 in compensatory damages – and $167.3m in punitive damages, Meta said.
Fittingly, after three-and-a-half hours, the 13 goals and the three invasions from the substitutes’ bench, the heavens opened: a downpour that also felt like a kind of baptism. Inter and Barcelona had drained themselves many times over, and discovered every time that they still had more to give. We were in a place beyond plans and maps, beyond shapes and tactics, beyond sanity.
And so ended what turned out to be less a Champions League semi-final and more of an elongated scream, the sort of game that emerges when both sides give up on perfection and in so doing somehow manage to produce it.
Germany’s new chancellor issued warning after far-right AfD received strong backing from Donald Trump allies
Germany’s new chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned the US to “stay out” of his country’s politics after the far-right AfD received strong backing from allies of the US president, Donald Trump.
Pakistani PM calls India’s missile attack on Pakistan and Pakistan-administered Kashmir ‘cowardly’; defence minister says ‘We are in the process of retaliating’
Briatore to return 17 years after Crashgate scandal
Driver Doohan expected to be replaced by Colapinto
The Alpine team principal, Oliver Oakes, has resigned from the team with Flavio Briatore, the Italian who was once given a lifetime ban from Formula One, set to step up to assume team principal duties.
Oakes was appointed only nine months ago and the 37-year-old’s resignation, which a statement from Alpine read they had accepted with “immediate effect”, comes with the team expected to replace their driver Jack Doohan with Franco Colapinto before the next round at Imola.
UAE insists it does not provide arms to paramilitary group as Sudanese ambassador recalled
Sudan’s security and defence council has declared that it will break diplomatic relations with the United Arab Emirates over its alleged backing of the paramilitary Sudanese Rapid Support Forces.
During a televised speech on Tuesday, Sudan’s defence minister, Yassin Ibrahim, said Sudan was “severing diplomatic relations with the UAE” and recalling its ambassador, claiming the Gulf nation had breached Sudan’s sovereignty through its RSF “proxy”, which has been fighting the army in a bloody civil war since April 2023.
It may seem a victory to some, but experts worry a win will allow the government to be coy about future attacks
The Trump administration on Monday asked a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit that takes aim at the abortion pill mifepristone – a move that stunned many observers for what seemed a defense of the drug by a president who has overseen the most dramatic rollback of abortion rights in modern US history.
At first blush, it may seem a victory for abortion access – but experts worry that, in reality, the move preserves the administration’s ability to play coy about any future plans to attack abortion rights.
Justices rule ban can be enforced while challenge plays out in court, a decision that could lead to thousands discharged
The Trump administration can begin to enforce a ban on transgender troops serving in the military while a challenge to the policy plays out in the courts, the supreme court ruled on Tuesday, a significant decision that could lead to the discharge of thousands of military members.
The court’s order was unsigned and gave no explanation for its reasoning, which is typical of decisions the justices reach on an emergency basis. The court’s three liberal members – Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – all noted their dissent from the decision.
For months now, Trump has waged a campaign of diplomatic and commercial intimidation against his northern neighbour, launching a trade war and belittling Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau.
Kathy Hochul announces ‘first-ever’ plans to distribute $2bn, as well as plans for free meals for 2.7 million students
New York governor, Kathy Hochul, announced that the state will be distributing inflation refund checks to more than 8 million New Yorkers.
Last week, as part of New York’s fiscal year 2026 budget, Hochul announced the state’s “first-ever inflation refund checks” which is slated to put $2bn back into the pockets of millions of New Yorkers.
Pundit said Arsenal have ‘psychological fear’ of trophies
Thomas Partey to play in deeper midfield role in Paris
Declan Rice has rejected Wayne Rooney’s claim that Arsenal have a “psychological fear” of winning trophies and insisted they are capable of overturning a one-goal deficit against Paris Saint-Germain to reach the Champions League final.
Mikel Arteta’s side were criticised by the former England forward after losing the first leg 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium last week after an early goal from Ousmane Dembélé, with Rooney stating in his role as a pundit for Amazon that Arsenal are “used to getting to a certain stage of the season and things fall away”. But having already beaten PSV Eindhoven and Real Madrid away in the knockout stages this season, Rice was adamant that they have the belief to get past PSG after their comfortable 2-0 victory against Luis Enrique’s side in the group stage back in October.
Daniel Lozano-Camargo, 20, was deported in March in violation of a legal settlement over his asylum application
The identity of a second man illegally deported from the US by the Trump administration in defiance of a court order and now in detention in El Salvador has been revealed.
Daniel Lozano-Camargo, a 20-year-old Venezuelan, was deported to El Salvador’s notorious Cecot terrorism confinement facility in March under the White House’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, Politico reported.
Donald Trump has said he “just want[s] to be friends with Canada” after his first post-election meeting with the country’s prime minister, Mark Carney – who used the gathering to shoot down any prospect of his country becoming the 51st state.
Speaking in the Oval Office, Trump praised Carney – whose Liberal party won the federal election last week – for one of the “greatest political comebacks of all time”, and described the prime minister’s visit as “an honour” for the White House.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport rejected appeals from Grupo Pachuca and potential replacement club Alajuelense
Mexican soccer club León finally lost their legal match against Fifa on Tuesday and are officially out of the Club World Cup. Major League Soccer side Los Angeles FC or another Mexican team, Club América, will likely be the late replacement in the United States next month after a yet-to-be-scheduled one-game playoff.
The Court of Arbitration for Sport said its judges rejected León’s attempt to overturn being removed by Fifa from the 32-team tournament for being in the same ownership group as another Club World Cup qualifier, Pachuca.
Advocacy groups say gutting EPA’s scientific research arm would turn it into a purely political agency
Americans’ health is being put at risk after new cuts were announced by Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reduce staffing to 1980s levels and gut its scientific research arm, experts and advocacy groups warned.
The EPA’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, announced on Friday that the agency would slash its budget by $300m in the fiscal year 2026 as part of a broad overhaul that he said was designed to cut it to levels resembling those in the Reagan administration.
Union captain Lisa Heiseler, who has been at the club since she was 13, talks about promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga
“I can’t describe how I feel,” Lisa Heiseler says as she reflects on a momentous weekend for Union Berlin Women. Just three days after her side secured a historic promotion to the Frauen-Bundesliga, the captain is clearly still processing everything that has happened to her and her teammates.
27 April 2025 will be a date for ever etched in the memories of Union Berlin’s women’s team and their supporters. A 6-1 victory over Borussia Mönchengladbach in front of more than 14,000 jubilant fans at the Stadion An der Alte Försterei saw Ailien Poese’s side secure promotion with three games to spare, one that will see them play in the top echelon of German football for the first time and at the first time of asking.
The Houthis have agreed to stop targeting commercial shipping in the Red Sea, but said attacks against Israel will continue
The US will halt its bombing campaign against Yemen’s Houthis after the Iran-aligned group agreed to stop targeting shipping in the Red Sea.
The halt – announced by the US president, Donald Trump, during an Oval Office meeting with Mark Carney, Canada’s prime minister, came on a day in which Israel claimed its jets had fully disabled Yemen’s main airport, including three civilian aircraft on the ground, in retaliation for a missile strike on Sunday that hit within the perimeter of Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport.
20 secs: Inter started quickly in Barcelona; Barca nearly return the favour here. Torres is found in space in the Inter box down the right, but the flag pops up for offside before he can roll a pass across for Raphinha to tap home.
Inter get the ball rolling. Another 3-3 draw, please! We’ll have extra time and possibly penalties if so.
Talks between Rwanda and the US to host deported migrants are the latest move by the African country to position itself as a useful option for the anti-migration policies of allied governments.
Previous high-profile attempts, however, including with the UK, Israel and Denmark, failed after becoming beset by controversy.
Homeland security chief says people without new ID ‘may be diverted to a different line, have an extra step’
Kristi Noem, the head of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), said on Tuesday that travelers without a REAL ID will still be able to fly when the updated identity system comes into effect on 7 May, but they may face extra scrutiny at transportation security agency (TSA) checkpoints.
Noem told lawmakers that 81% of travelers already have IDs that comply with the REAL ID requirements, and that those that don’t “may be diverted to a different line, have an extra step”.
The initial failure of coalition members to back the new chancellor in sufficient numbers was a bad beginning at a treacherous moment for the nation
The election of Friedrich Merz as chancellor by German legislators on Tuesday morning was meant to end months of political instability, since the collapse of Olaf Scholz’s government half a year ago – itself the result of bitter infighting at the top. Many fear that this could be the last chance to keep out the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). But the humiliating result of the first ballot – in which Mr Merz became the first chancellor designate to fail to secure the majority needed in the Bundestag since the second world war – was a bad beginning.
It was supposed to be a straightforward confirmation; instead, he was hobbled by rebels from his own coalition. Only 310 of its 328 legislators backed him, short of the 316 required. He was approved by 325 in a hastily scheduled second vote, hours later.
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Radio 4’s Today programme did not include responses from Home Office and Buckingham Palace to ‘stitch-up’ claims
The BBC has admitted to “a lapse in our usual high editorial standards” over its coverage on Radio 4’s Today programme of the broadcaster’s recent interview with the Duke of Sussex.
The admission came after it failed to include responses from the Home Office and Buckingham Palace to allegations made by the duke.
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