World News

Tehran awaits official response to plan, but US president is said to expect renewed strikes after midtermsIran is ⁠awaiting an official US response to its proposal to reopen the strait of Hormuz and end fighting in the Middle East war as Donald Trump was reported to have rejected the deal.Iran raised the diplomatic initiative at the UN general assembly in New York, saying it had been transmitted ⁠to the Americans via Qatari mediators and could ⁠reopen the strategic waterway and put an end ​to hostilities in the region within seven days. Continue reading…

Only 26% of PHEVs sold across top 20 models can use chargers with power of 50kW or more, analysis findsThree-quarters of the 20 top-selling plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) in the UK cannot use rapid chargers, research has found, amid concerns that many are essentially “petrol cars pulling round a heavy battery”.The cars, which can run on electric batteries as well as combustion engines, have been promoted by carmakers as a way to cover long distances in a single drive – unlike fully electric cars – while still reducing emissions. Continue reading…

Alan Milburn said 16- to 24-year-olds with most complex needs should not have to keep proving they cannot workYoung people whose complex disabilities mean they have little prospect of getting a paid job should get fast-track access to disability benefits, an official review of youth employment will say.The review, by the former Labour health secretary Alan Milburn, will say 16- to 24-year-olds with the most severe lifelong needs should be guaranteed swift and unconditional benefit support rather than having to prove they cannot work. Continue reading…

President’s ‘hard, drastic and necessary measure’, likely to attract widespread public support, polls suggestThe Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has signed an order banning fixed-odds sports betting just over a week before the first round of the presidential election, in a move he said was designed to tackle the pervasive problem of families falling into debt.The decision ends the operation, offering, intermediation and advertising of betting. Continue reading…

Exclusive: Dog Painting 17 is believed to be one of only six of works from Dog Series in private hands and first to be auctionedDavid Hockney adored his dachshunds Stanley and Boodgie and let them run riot – so much so that after one had an accident in the LA home of the actor Dennis Hopper, the painter is said to have quipped: “It’ll be dry in the morning, luv, and you can just pick it up.”But Hockney did not just indulge his four-legged companions, he treated them as portrait subjects for a series of paintings, one of which is to be sold by Christie’s. Continue reading…