Trump says Bolsonaro ‘not guilty of anything’ amid Brazil coup trial

President Lula rejects foreign ‘interference’ as Trump claims far-right former leader victim of ‘witch-hunt’

Donald Trump has issued his strongest defence to date of Brazil’s former president Jair Bolsonaro, claiming the far-right leader is the victim of a “witch-hunt” in his home country.

Posting on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday, the US president claimed that Bolsonaro – often dubbed the “Trump of the Tropics” – is “not guilty of anything”, in an apparent reference to the legal cases Bolsonaro is facing in Brazil.

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Man kidnapped by Argentina’s military regime as baby is reunited with relatives

Forty-nine-year-old is 140th child found by Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo, who search for people ‘disappeared’ under 1976-83 dictatorship

A man taken from his mother as a newborn by Argentina’s military has been reunited with his relatives after almost 50 years.

The man, 49, whose identity was not disclosed for privacy reasons, was identified after he took a DNA test.

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Former Tory cabinet minister David Jones joins Reform UK

Ex-MP for Clwyd West says he will not stand for election and joined ‘as a private individual’

The former Conservative cabinet minister David Jones has joined Reform UK.

Jones, who was the MP for Clwyd West from 2005 until standing down in 2024, said he had quit the Tories after “more than 50 years of continuous membership”.

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Continue ReadingFormer Tory cabinet minister David Jones joins Reform UK

João Pedro makes early mark for Chelsea but Blues forwards must avoid seeing red

New signing made a bright Club World Cup debut and now eyes Fluminense, one of his former sides, on Tuesday

Estêvão Willian was not the only Brazilian attacker to offer a tantalising glimpse of the future during Chelsea’s win against Palmeiras in the quarter-finals of the Club World Cup. There was also a bright cameo from João Pedro, who came on for Liam Delap just after Estêvão’s equaliser early in the second half and proceeded to change the game with his brawn and intelligent link-up play.

It was an eye-catching performance from the forward given that his £60m move to Chelsea had been announced two days earlier. What had the 23-year-old been doing during his time off? Lifting logs and existing on a diet of raw steak, presumably. The aggression from João Pedro was startling. He was raring to go after a couple of training sessions with his new teammates and, while he was not involved in the winning goal, his bustling forward play was a vital part of Chelsea reasserting their dominance after Palmeiras pulled the score back to 1-1.

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Continue ReadingJoão Pedro makes early mark for Chelsea but Blues forwards must avoid seeing red

Lauren James’s genius offers England hope but also presents a tricky dilemma

Sarina Wiegman must quickly find a way to make her midfield click – whether that’s with or without one of her brightest stars

There is no doubting that Lauren James is a generational talent. There is natural ability in abundance. She is also an example of what technically gifted women’s players can be when given elite-level coaching from a young age. She is an example of what is to come, an outlier among her peers, having benefited from her father, Nigel, being a Uefa-qualified coach with his own coaching programme that is, in his own words, “about pure ball mastery and delivery with panache, to ultimately create elite technicians of the game”.

James is effusive about her father’s input into her career, saying on the Nigel James Elite Coaching website that she is “grateful to my dad for all the time, effort and love that he has put into my football by coaching me in order to help me reach the very best level and fulfil my full potential”.

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Continue ReadingLauren James’s genius offers England hope but also presents a tricky dilemma

Welfare bill will now lift 50,000 out of poverty after U-turns, assessment finds

Revised bill passed after UK government rowed back on cuts will mean fewer rather than more people in relative poverty in 2030

The changes the government made to the welfare bill in the face of a mounting rebellion over its proposals to cut disability benefits will lift 50,000 people out of poverty, an updated impact assessment has found.

The prime minister was forced to abandon the central plank of his welfare bill – cuts to the personal independence payment (Pip) – to avert a large Labour rebellion in the House of Commons last week.

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Continue ReadingWelfare bill will now lift 50,000 out of poverty after U-turns, assessment finds