The Guardian

Parlex is one of several artificial intelligence systems being developed within the governmentA new artificial intelligence tool can warn ministers whether policies are likely to be very unpopular with their party’s MPs, using a search described as a “parliamentary vibe check”.Parlex is one of a suite of AI tools– called Humphrey, after the Yes Minister character – being developed for ministers and civil servants which allow them to predict which topics might cause them difficulty with their own backbenchers, and pinpoint specific MPs who feel passionately about a given subject. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/20/ai-tool-can-give-ministers-vibe-check-on-whether-mps-will-like-policies

Author : Jessica Elgot and Robert Booth

Publish date : 2025-01-20 22:30:00

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Family members, Gen Mark Milley, Anthony Fauci, Liz Cheney and January 6 committee members pardonedDonald Trump inauguration – live updatesFormer President Biden’s last-minute pardons – of family members, members of the January 6 Capitol attack investigative committee, the former chair of the joint chiefs of staff Mark Milley, the former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, and the former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney – are drawing heat from both sides of the political divide.The Missouri Republican senator Eric Schmitt said Biden’s actions showed that “the guy who claimed he would ‘protect norms’ continues to bulldoze them and the Constitution until the bitter end.”Trump sworn in as 47th president – follow live inauguration updatesA who’s who of far-right leaders in WashingtonMigrant groups at US-Mexico border await mass deportations‘Doge’ violates federal transparency rules, lawsuit claims Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/biden-pardons-jan-6-family-reaction

Author : Edward Helmore

Publish date : 2025-01-20 21:21:34

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President plans to sign an order to change the name within the US – but other countries would not have to follow suitIn his inaugural speech, Donald Trump repeated his intention to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the Gulf of America.The ocean basin – bounded by the US Gulf coast, Mexico’s eastern states and the island of Cuba – is an an important centre of economic activity, including fishing, maritime transport, and oil and gas production, which perhaps offers an explanation for Trump’s interest.Trump sworn in as 47th president – follow live inauguration updatesFactchecking Trump’s speechA who’s who of far-right leaders in WashingtonMigrant groups at US-Mexico border await mass deportations‘Doge’ violates federal transparency rules, lawsuit claims Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/trump-gulf-mexico-executive-order

Author : Tiago Rogero

Publish date : 2025-01-20 20:38:32

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News mogul joins tech billionaires present in Washington DC to mark inauguration day. Follow today’s news liveGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastGood morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it’ll be Emily Wind with the main action.Rupert Murdoch was among the parade of tech billionaires and influential businessmen in Washington DC to mark the inauguration of Donald Trump. The media tycoon was spotted at a church service on the morning of the event – as well as Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg, Apple’s Tim Cook, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Fifa’s Gianni Infantino – and in the select audience at the inauguration itself. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2025/jan/21/australia-news-politics-live-rupert-murdoch-trump-president-anthony-albanese-peter-dutton-election-campaign

Author : Martin Farrer

Publish date : 2025-01-20 19:36:54

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Report uncovered ‘sadistic’ sect-like abuses of power at Sodalitium of Christian LifePope Francis has taken the remarkable step of dissolving a Peruvian-based Catholic movement, the Sodalitium of Christian Life (SCV), after years of attempts at reform and a Vatican investigation. The investigation uncovered sexual abuses by its founder, financial mismanagement by its leaders and spiritual abuses by its top members.The Sodalitium on Monday confirmed the dissolution, which was conveyed to an assembly of its members in Aparecida, Brazil, at the weekend by the pope’s top legal adviser, Cardinal Gianfranco Ghirlanda. In revealing the dissolution in a statement, the group lamented that news of Francis’s decision had been leaked by two members attending the assembly, who were “definitively expelled”. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/20/pope-dissolves-sodalitium-of-christian-life-peru-catholic-movement-vatican-investigation

Author : Associated Press in Rome

Publish date : 2025-01-20 18:27:58

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Trump promises a blitz of executive orders, radical shake-up of the global order and ‘revolution of common sense’US politics live – latest updatesThe United States was bracing for a new era of disruption and division on Monday with Donald Trump scheduled to be sworn in as its 47th president, promising a blitz of executive orders, a radical shake-up of the global order and a “revolution of common sense”.The United States was launched on a fresh course of disruption and division on Monday as Donald Trump was sworn in as its 47th president, promising a blitz of executive orders, a radical shake-up of the global order and a “revolution of common sense”. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/trump-division-vengeance-inauguration

Author : Joan E Greve, David Smith and Robert Tait in Washington

Publish date : 2025-01-20 17:03:32

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Yellow warning for parts of the country with potential power cuts, travel disruption and damage from ThursdayA “weather bomb” is forecast to hit parts of the UK later this week, bringing strong winds, heavy rain and snow.The first half of the week will be “benign” with cloudy weather and outbreaks of rain for much of the country before the arrival of more unsettled conditions, the Met Office said. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/20/weather-bomb-forecast-to-bring-high-winds-heavy-rain-and-snow-to-uk

Author : Sammy Gecsoyler

Publish date : 2025-01-20 15:49:39

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Rudakubana, 18, pleads guilty to murders of Alice da Silva Aguiar, Bebe King and Elsie Dot Stancombe and 10 charges of attempted murderAxel Rudakubana: ‘ticking timebomb’ who murdered three girls in SouthportAxel Rudakubana has pleaded guilty to murdering three young girls and attempting to murder 10 others at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class, in the worst targeted attack on children in Britain since the Dunblane massacre.Rudakubana, who was 17 at the time of the stabbings in Southport last summer, also pleaded guilty to possessing terrorist material and producing the toxin ricin. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025/jan/20/southport-attacker-axel-rudakubana-admits-murdering-three-girls

Author : Josh Halliday and Robyn Vinter

Publish date : 2025-01-20 14:07:26

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Decision by Biden comes after Trump warned of enemies list, including people who investigated Capitol attackJoe Biden has issued pre-emtive pardons for Anthony Fauci, retired Gen Mark Milley and members of the House committee that investigated the January 6 attack on the US Capitol, using the extraordinary powers of his office in his final hours to guard against potential “revenge” by the incoming Trump administration.The pardons included two leading Republicans who have been critical of Trump, former representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and who could face reprisals from the incoming president. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jan/20/biden-pardons-fauci-milley

Author : Associated Press

Publish date : 2025-01-20 13:06:20

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Bitcoin rises by 4% past $109,000, reversing earlier losses; Donald Trump meme coin price tanks after wife Melania also launches tokenThe UK chancellor, Rachel Reeves, will travel to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos this week in the hope of convincing some of the world’s largest companies to invest, with allies saying she will use spending cuts rather than further tax increases to meet her own fiscal rules.At the same time, the Treasury is considering a push to cut the benefits bill, in a move that is causing nervousness among Labour MPs. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/business/live/2025/jan/20/bitcoin-record-high-dollar-dips-trump-coin-business-live

Author : Julia Kollewe

Publish date : 2025-01-20 12:01:08

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Washington ceremony expected to take place indoors at from 11.30am (4.30pm GMT)Trump inauguration: what to know and how to watch itTrump promises ‘historic’ day one with barrage of executive ordersMy colleague Joseph Gedeon in Washington DC also had this look at what Trump might have planned for day one:In the grand theatre of American politics, presidential inaugurations typically follow a familiar script: the oath, the speech, a few carefully chosen executive orders to satisfy campaign promises. Franklin D Roosevelt used his first day to tackle the banking crisis. Barack Obama moved to close Guantánamo Bay (though it remains open). Donald Trump’s first term began with a single executive order targeting Obamacare. Joe Biden signed 17 executive orders on his first day in 2021. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/jan/20/president-trump-inauguration-swearing-in-timing-schedule-live-updates

Author : Martin Belam

Publish date : 2025-01-20 10:48:45

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Westminster is preparing for Donald Trump’s second term ahead of the US president’s inauguration in WashingtonGood morning. Donald Trump becomes president of the United States for the second time today and in Westminster, as across the rest of the word, supporters are giddy with excitement, while opponents feel this is a moment for epoch-defining dread. Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader and Britain’s leading Trump evangelist, has got so carried away that he has told an interviewer he thinks there is a 20/25% chance that he could be prime minister by the time Trump leaves office (January 2029). It’s not impossible; but few other people would put his chances as high as one in four.Most people in Labour politics, privately at least, regard Trump with horror, but the government has to work with him and Keir Starmer, who has invested a lot of effort in trying to establish a decent personal relationship with the new president, has issued a statement sending Trump his “warmest congratulations” on his inauguration. David Lammy, the foreign secretary, was on the Today programme this morning and, when asked if he he had changed his mind about Trump since the days when he used to denounce him in the strongest possible terms, he said his approach to foreign policy was grounded in “progressive realism”, taking the world as it is. He went on to praise the Trump he met when he and Starmer had dinner with him in New York in September last year.The Donald Trump I met … had incredible grace, generosity, very keen to be a good host, very funny, very, very, very friendly, very warm, I have to say, about the UK, our royal family, Scotland, his relationship with Scotland, his mother. That was the Donald Trump I found.There was a survey this week – 70% of the world welcomed Donald Trump coming to power, 70% of the world, much of that worried about authoritarian actors, actually quite like the fact that Donald Trump keeps them guessing.I think surrendering the Chagos Islands, or putting the Chagos Islands in a situation where they can easily be coerced, by the Chinese Communist Party for example, I hope it’s a position that we see reversed here by Donald Trump, and by the UK government.The Pentagon, the State Department and the White House under the last administration pored through this deal. There was an interagency process, [they] said it was a good deal. It’s right and proper that the new administration is able to consider it.But having gone through the deal in detail, it’s the right deal to keep the global community safe, and I emphasize the importance of that military base and those assets on Diego Garcia that we’ve been working together with with the United States now for all of my lifetime. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2025/jan/20/us-chagos-islands-deal-david-lammy-uk-politics-live-news-updates

Author : Andrew Sparrow

Publish date : 2025-01-20 09:35:10

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State asks Industrial Relations Commission to urgently arbitrate on the matter before resignations take effect from WednesdayGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastThe New South Wales government will make an 11th-hour attempt to postpone the mass resignation of the state’s psychiatrists by asking the Industrial Relations Commission to urgently intervene.With one in three psychiatrist positions in the state already vacant, psychiatrists have been in negotiations with the government for more than 16 months on how to solve the workforce crisis, arguing higher salaries were needed to attract new doctors and retain those currently working in the public system.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/jan/20/nsw-government-in-11th-hour-bid-to-postpone-mass-resignation-of-psychiatrists

Author : Natasha May Health reporter

Publish date : 2025-01-20 08:10:16

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Palestinian detainees greeted with joy in West Bank after earlier release of three Israeli hostages on Sunday Full report: Palestinians celebrate as prisoners freed‘I can’t believe I have survived’: the day the Gaza ceasefire finally arrivedIf you are just catching up on the latest on the Gaza ceasefire, here is what you need to know.Ninety Palestinian prisoners were released early on Monday as part of the ceasefire deal. Those freed from Israeli prisons included 69 women and 21 teenage boys from the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to Hamas. The prisoners, most of whom were freed from Ofer prison in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, were welcomed by thousands of people celebrating.It followed the release of three Israeli women held hostage by Hamas in tunnels beneath Gaza after being abducted by Hamas on 7 October 2023. Among those released was joint British national Emily Damari, 28, who was freed alongside Romi Gonen, 24 and Doron Steinbrecher, 31. The women have been reunited with their mothers after being handed over by the International Committee for the Red Cross.As the fighting ceased, hundreds of aid trucks queued to enter Gaza to deliver supplies to its 2.3 million residents, 90% of whom have been displaced by the conflict, many multiple times.The World Health Organization says it is ready to pour much-needed aid into Gaza during the Israel-Hamas truce, but that it would need “systematic access” across the territory to do so. Much of the Gaza Strip’s health infrastructure has been destroyed by Israeli attacks over the more than year-long war.The first phase of the truce took effect after a three-hour delay during which Israeli warplanes and artillery pounded the Gaza Strip. At least 13 people were killed, Palestinian health authorities said. Al Jazeera reported that at least two missiles hit a family travelling on a donkey cart as they tried to return home.Thousands of displaced Palestinian people have started to return home, many to destroyed buildings and homes in ruins. There is no detailed plan in place to govern Gaza after the war, much less rebuild it. Nine in 10 homes have been destroyed as well as schools, hospitals, shops, mosques and cemeteries.Under the first phase of the ceasefire deal, which is to last 42 days, Hamas has agreed to release 33 hostages including children, women (including female soldiers) and men aged over 50, in exchange for hundreds of Palestinians held in Israeli jails.In the second phase, the remaining living hostages are due to be sent back and a corresponding ratio of Palestinian prisoners will be freed, and Israel will completely withdraw from the territory. The specifics are subject to further negotiations, which are due to start 16 days into the first phase.The third phase will address the exchange of bodies of deceased hostages and Hamas members, and a reconstruction plan for Gaza will be launched. Arrangements for future governance of the strip remain hazy. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/jan/20/israel-gaza-ceasefire-live-blog-updates-hostages-palestinian-detainees-released

Author : Kate Lamb

Publish date : 2025-01-20 07:15:01

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Journalists and broadcasters at Sana wait for ‘actions, not words’ but look to future after fall of Assad governmentZyad Mahameed finally has the job he always wanted. In his previous role in the media team for the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, he often thought about the Syrian state news agency – an Assad regime mouthpiece he considered his opposition – and what he would do if he was in charge there. Now he is.As an appointee of the HTS-led caretaker government, his position is at present temporary but his plans for the Syrian Arab News Agency (Sana) stretch far into the future. Continue reading…



Source link : https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/20/syria-sana-state-news-agency-media-new-era

Author : Ruth Michaelson and Obaida Hamad in Damascus

Publish date : 2025-01-20 06:00:16

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