9 h. ago ‘Slap on the wrist’: critics decry weak penalties on Google after landmark monopoly trial

Judge said tech giant had monopoly but let it keep Chrome and Android; critics cried foul while Wall Street cheeredA judge ruled on Tuesday that Google would not be forced to sell its Chrome browser or the Android operating system, saving the tech giant from the most severe penalties sought by the US government. The same judge had ruled in favor of US prosecutors nearly a year ago, finding that Google built and maintained an illegal monopoly with its namesake search engine.Groups critical of Google’s dominance in the internet search and online advertising industry are furious. They contend the judge missed an opportunity to enact meaningful change in an industry that has suffocated under the crushing weight of its heaviest player. Tech industry groups and investors, by contrast, are thrilled. Shares in Alphabet, Google’s parent company, have risen 9% since Tuesday afternoon. Continue reading...

Politics

13 h. ago Epstein abuse survivors urge lawmakers to back bill that would release all files

Co-author says bill almost has signatures needed to bypass leadership as survivor says this legislation ‘really matters’US politics live – latest updatesSeveral survivors of Jeffrey Epstein’s abuse signaled their support on Wednesday for a bipartisan resolution to release all the files related to the convicted sex offender, who died in a Manhattan prison in 2019.Speaking outside the US Capitol, Anouska De Georgiou, a survivor of both Epstein and his co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell, said that while “every day of this journey toward healing has come at a profound cost to my mental health,” she chose to be there because this legislation “really matters”. Continue reading...

Events

13 h. ago The Guardian view on fiscal rules and financial myths: Britain must stop fearing imaginary bond vigilantes | Editorial

Liz Truss fell not for borrowing, but for incompetence. Rachel Reeves mustn’t repeat the mistake with rules markets don’t demandIn 1995, Nick Leeson, a 28-year-old trader for Barings Bank, brought down the City’s oldest finance house by, among other things, betting that the Bank of Japan (BoJ) couldn’t keep rates low forever after its financial crash led to a borrowing spree. The devastating Kobe earthquake was the final blow. The BoJ cut rates, bond prices rose and his losses spiralled to $1.4bn. His bet that markets would beat Japan brought down the bank.Barings’ collapse is perhaps a spectacular example of the “widowmaker” trade, where speculators think they can outsmart Japanese authorities. They’ve ended up with egg on their face as their gamble on Japan losing fiscal control proved misguided. Japan, with its own currency and a central bank working with the government, shows how the state shapes markets, not the other way round.Do you have an opinion on the issue...

Politics

14 h. ago ‘Ketamine Queen’ pleads guilty to selling fatal dose to Matthew Perry

Jasveen Sangha changed her previous not guilty plea in the October 2023 overdose death of the Friends starA woman who has come to be known as the “Ketamine Queen” pleaded guilty on Wednesday to selling Matthew Perry the drug that killed him.Jasveen Sangha changed her previous not guilty plea at a federal court in Los Angeles and became the fifth and final defendant charged in the overdose death of the Friends star to plead guilty after a deal with prosecutors. Continue reading...

Politics

15 h. ago Judge makes blockbuster DNA decision in Gilgo Beach ‘serial killer’ case against Rex Heuermann

Prosecutors say the new technique is reliable and helped link Heuermann to victims whose bodies were discovered along Ocean Parkway in 2010

Events

15 h. ago Scots Tinder rapist who 'staged his own death' convicted of attacking two women

James Clachan went missing in May 2022, and fled to Spain, where he was arrested two years later.

Events

15 h. ago Man who faked his own death to escape justice convicted of raping two women

James Clacher was traced to Spain after attempting to convince the authorities of his death.

Events

15 h. ago Gym boss who violently raped two women before faking his own death and fleeing to the Costa del Sol is finally brought to justice

James Clacher, 57, violently raped two women in Troon, South Ayrshire in August 2019 and in Glasgow in September 2020. He matched with them on dating apps.

Events

16 h. ago Big blow to accused serial killer Rex Heuermann’s defense after judge rules on evidence in Gilgo beach murders trial

Prosecutors say the new technique is reliable and helped link Heuermann to victims whose bodies were discovered along Ocean Parkway in 2010

Events

17 h. ago Epstein files LIVE as victims demands for info release piles pressure on Andrew

A new push by several women to make the US government release more files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein could see the pressure mount on Prince Andrew, who has denied all allegations against him

Events

18 h. ago Mother of knifeman who stabbed footballer to death 'tried to help him flee to Jamaica following murder', court told

Kami Carpenter, 22, was convicted of murdering 23-year-old Cody Fisher, who was knifed on the dance floor of The Crane nightclub in Digbeth, Birmingham , during a Boxing Day 2022.

Events

20 h. ago Ozzy Osbourne theft case dropped after court told man permitted to take flowers

The case against Parviz Jafari was withdrawn after prosecutors reviewed evidence and accepted they could not prove he acted dishonestly.

Events

25 h. ago ‘Ketamine Queen’ set to plead guilty in Matthew Perry death case

Perry bought large amounts of ketamine from Jasveen Sangha, including 25 vials for $6,000 in cash four days before his death, prosecutors said

Politics

31 h. ago US House committee releases more than 33,000 pages of Jeffrey Epstein files

Files appear to contain information already in public domain as calls grow for release of all pertinent documents The US House of Representatives oversight committee on Tuesday released thousands of pages of records related to the disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein from the department of justice.The release comes as the Trump administration has been embroiled in months of controversy over its decision not to release additional files in the case. Epstein died by suicide in 2019 while awaiting trial on sex-trafficking charges and was alleged to have abused hundreds of girls. Continue reading...

Politics

33 h. ago Trader Joe’s issues warning to customers about popular frozen pizza product

Product is imported from Italy

Events

39 h. ago Portobello review – Marco Bellocchio’s glorious saga of TV stars, mafia prisoners and lace doilies

Venice film festivalIn the first two episodes of a six-part series, the stardom of 80s primetime host Enzo Tortora is cleverly crosscut with the scramble of a mob secretary who implicates him – and his parrot – in drug traffickingMarco Bellocchio, the tireless warhorse of Italian cinema, kicks up a swirling dust cloud of corruption with this fabulous, stranger-than-fiction account of an 80s TV star convicted of conspiring with the Camorra. Shot for the streaming service HBO Max, it is the director’s second historical miniseries after 2022’s Exterior Night, about the kidnapping of Aldo Moro, and features the same lead player in Fabrizio Gifuni, an actor who has surely cornered the market in playing glossy public figures whose lives are about to take a hellish turn. Bellocchio’s dramas typically inhabit this kind of shonky, venal moral universe. The ground is liable to drop away pretty much at any moment.Gifuni stars as Enzo Tortora, a primetime TV presenter in the twinkling Terry Wog...

Events

39 h. ago Man jailed for murder of former Manchester Grammar School teacher to have conviction reviewed

Benjamin Field was jailed in October 2019 after being convicted of the murder of Peter Farquhar

Events

40 h. ago Defendant tells jury he didn’t pay much attention to ‘rubbish’ bomb

Prosecutors allege Adam Mahmood is guilty of having a recording likely to be useful to a person preparing an act of terrorism.

Events

40 h. ago Celebrated, imprisoned, reviled, rebuilt: Fernand Pouillon, the lost architect of France

From designing enormous postwar housing projects to escaping from prison using a rope, Pouillon’s life had high drama. A new documentary charts the extraordinary rise, fall – and rise again – of France’s ‘most wanted’ creativeVariously described as an “architect, painter, novelist, communist and convicted fraudster”, Fernand Pouillon’s life was punctuated by abrupt reversals of fortune that might have sprung from the pages of Dickens or Dumas. Throughout an eventful career, he ricocheted from intoxicating success, to financial scandal, prison, exile and eventual rehabilitation.In 1985, when Pouillon was in his early 70s, he was awarded the Légion d’Honneur by President François Mitterrand. Yet just over 20 years earlier, Pouillon found himself in custody awaiting trial on charges of corruption. As a prolific architect-developer who had designed gargantuan housing schemes in France and Algeria, he was accused of funding irregularities and violating laws contrived to keep the processe...

Events

41 h. ago Gerard Depardieu to face trial for alleged rape of fellow actor

It comes after he was convicted of sexual assault in a separate case in May

Events