Australia’s centre-left prime minister, Anthony Albanese, has won a second term with a crushing victory over the opposition, whose rightwing leader, Peter Dutton, failed to brush off comparisons with Donald Trump and ended up losing his own seat.

Albanese’s Labor party scored an unexpectedly comfortable win on Saturday, after a five-week election campaign dominated by the cost of living and global economic uncertainty.

At the turn of the year, Labor was struggling in the polls, but Dutton ran a campaign derided by commentators as one of the worst in Australian political history, and the former police detective struggled to clearly dissociate himself from some Trump-like rhetoric and policies.

Albanese, 62, had pitched himself as a steady hand to guide Australia through a period of global turbulence turbocharged by Trump’s tariff war. He becomes the first Australian prime minister to serve consecutive terms since 2004.

With counting continuing into Sunday morning, Labor was projected to win comfortably more than 76 of the 150 lower house seats needed to form a majority government, with an increased share of votes bucking a recent trend against the two major parties.

Addressing the party faithful in Sydney, Albanese said voters had chosen Australian values, including “fairness, aspiration and opportunity for all”.

“Australians have voted for a future that holds true to these values, a future built on everything that brings us together as Australians, and everything that sets our nation apart from the world,” he said.

In an apparent reference to Trump’s policies, Albanese said he would “choose the Australian way”.

“We do not need to beg or borrow or copy from anywhere else. We do not seek our inspiration from overseas. We find it right here in our values and in our people,” he said.

Labor was certain to add to the 77 seats it held going into the election, with the opposition Liberal/National Coalition projected to receive its lowest ever national vote and to lose further seats.

In a six-minute concession speech, Dutton accepted “full responsibility” for the party’s wipeout, which included losing his own seat, and said that the party had unfortunately been “defined by our opponents in this election”.

“It’s not our night, as I point out, and there are good members, good candidates, who have lost their seats or their ambition, and I’m sorry for that … we have an amazing party, and we’ll rebuild.”

The Australian conservative party’s loss mirrored that of the recent election in Canada where the centre-left Liberal party won a fourth-term despite being well behind in the polls in the leadup to the election.

Like Dutton, Canada’s Conservative leader, Pierre Poilievre, lost the seat he had held since 2004 in an election dominated by the impact of Trump’s presidency.

Meanwhile, most if not all of the inner-city “teal” independents elected at the previous poll in 2022 seemed certain to retain their seats, with several other independents, some in regional areas, having a good chance of adding to their number.

However, it was a disappointing night for the Greens, who were projected to lose two of the three Brisbane seats they sensationally won in 2022, even as their national vote remained static at around 13%. Even the apparently safe Melbourne seat of their leader, Adam Bandt, seemed in a certain amount of jeopardy.

Dutton was first elected in 2001 and is one of his party’s most senior members. He has held a number of ministerial positions, including defence and immigration, since 2013.

He had consistently led in the national polls since the end of 2023, but the US’s decision to place tariffs on Australian exports made associations with Trump detrimental to the opposition party’s brand.

The opposition leader avoided mentioning the US president during the election campaign, even as some of his senior colleagues referred to Trump’s slogans at political rallies.

Months before the campaign officially kicked off, Dutton had announced a government efficiency unit to scale back “waste”, mirroring the Elon Musk-led so-called “department of government efficiency” in the US.

The opposition’s Indigenous affairs spokesperson, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, who used Trump’s slogan during the campaign, accused the media of “slinging mud” and “smearing” the party for making links to the US president.

“Donald Trump doesn’t own those four words,” the senator said on ABC, referring to the Make Australia Great Again slogan she used.

Counting to determine the final shape of the House of Representatives and the Senate (the upper house) will take several days, if not weeks in the case of a few seats.

Voting is compulsory in Australia and is based on a preferential voting system. Voters number candidates in order of their preferences for both houses.

The rise of independent challengers has complicated the counting process, with complex preference flows requiring more time to determine the final two candidates.

Australia has had six different prime ministers in two decades after a series of leadership changes amid internal politics.

Journalists on the campaign trail were feeling queasy as Anthony Albanese motored on a boat towards Green Island, a protected marine site about 30km off the coast of Cairns.

It was a sunny day in mid-April and the waters above Queensland’s Great Barrier Reef were choppy as the Labor campaign picked up speed ahead of Australia’s federal election. If Albanese’s stomach was churning, he wasn’t letting on.

“Keep your eyes on the horizon,” he counselled, reflecting on a difficult first term and explaining how he would navigate another three years in power.

Seeking to become the first Australian prime minister to serve two full consecutive terms since John Howard in the early 2000s, Albanese said uneven economic and geopolitical conditions required calm and considered leadership at home.

The message echoed his larger pitch to voters in the five-week campaign: now was no time to change the government.

History was against him and against Labor, with expectations the government would slip into minority after the 3 May poll.

A creature of Canberra politics for more than three decades, his 2022 election victory ended nearly 10 years of conservative rule. But the former student politician and party functionary struggled in the spotlight, with voters angry at persistent inflation and rising energy bills. They delivered Albanese a political body blow in 2023, with the thumping defeat of his referendum on recognition of Indigenous Australians in the constitution.

Raised by a single mother living in public housing in Sydney, the 62-year-old is fond of saying he was imbued with three great faiths from an early age: the Catholic church, the South Sydney Rabbitohs football club and the Australian Labor party.

Albanese was the product of a cruise ship romance. He grew up believing his father had died in a car accident before he was born, only learning the truth as a teenager and later travelling to Italy for an emotional reunion just a few years before Carlo Albanese died.

He worked for Labor minister Tom Uren, and survived the bitter leadership wars between prime ministers Kevin Rudd and Julia Gillard, serving as infrastructure minister and later deputy prime minister.

After two election losses for Labor under Bill Shorten, Albanese’s elevation in 2022 was less an endorsement of his agenda than a repudiation of the sitting Liberal prime minister, Scott Morrison.

Securing power with a modest policy agenda, Albanese got to work seeking to end Australia’s climate wars, prioritised letting cabinet ministers run their portfolios, and worked to restore Australian leadership in the Pacific region, while calming tensions with China.

Describing himself as “a reformist, not a revolutionary”, his first term left many voters unimpressed, with one of Labor’s few political wins coming in the form of a backdown on changes to personal income tax rates. Albanese was dogged by an abandoned promise to cut household electricity bills by $275, and struggled with a surge in hate crimes against Jews in the wake of the war in Gaza.

His opponent, the Liberal leader, Peter Dutton, promised muscular leadership, dubbing his Labor opponent weak and dithering, raising the prospect that his conservative coalition could be the first opposition to oust a government after one term since the Great Depression.

But Donald Trump’s return to the White House, and the US president’s erratic moods and trade sanctions shifted the outlook of voters. Dutton’s campaign struggled to launch, with the Coalition forced to recall unpopular policies and flailing through the first weeks of intense scrutiny from voters and the media.

Albanese looked confident from the outset, insisting Dutton was not ready for government and had not done sufficient policy work to lead the country. Voters arrived at the same conclusion, smashing the Coalition and booting Dutton from his own seat in Queensland.

Albanese often argues that he has been underestimated his entire life. His decisive victory, with an increased second-term majority, proves the 31st prime minister might have been right all along.

Just as Australians were returning from the calm of summer holidays, Labor and the Coalition both held their breath as Donald Trump took the presidential oath of office in Washington.

With a federal election year under way and the Albanese government desperate to restart Labor’s flagging political prospects, Trump’s victory had emboldened conservatives in the Coalition and rightwing minor parties. Along with sections of the Australia media, they pushed for a version of Trump’s unapologetic politics here.

Sensing a shift to the right across the electorate, Peter Dutton and the Coalition finalised policies to slash the federal public service and root out “woke” ideology in schools and social policy. They fine-tuned messages about the Indigenous welcome to country and accused Labor of dangerous overreach in the transition to renewable energy.

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But, despite predictions of an inevitable slide into minority for Labor, Anthony Albanese’s remarkable election victory showed voters aren’t interested in appeals to the fringes. Instead, Australians were eager to reward a focus on the mainstream.

For months, Labor’s national secretary, Paul Erickson, had been building an election campaign around cost-of-living assistance and better Medicare services, encouraging Albanese to talk up urgent care medical clinics and cheaper childcare and Tafe courses.

While the Coalition sought to demonise public servants supposedly slacking off in Canberra and struggled to explain Dutton’s plan to build seven nuclear power plants, Labor smashed them for voting against household payments and tax cuts announced in the March budget. The unpopular work from home policy, which led too many voters to believe their own workplace flexibility was under threat, will be remembered as one of the great stinkers of Australian election campaigning.

Like John Howard before him, the times look like they suit Albanese. Few leaders will get as lucky, in the form of a truly terrible opposition campaign.

But his experience showed as well. Trump’s “liberation day” tariffs announcement had loomed as a risk to Albanese’s reelection bid, but he successfully managed the hit, criticising Trump’s plans and pledging to negotiate a better deal for exporters once he was back in The Lodge.

As Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency slashed and burned, Labor played havoc with Dutton’s approval rating, deriding him as “Dogey Dutton” and accusing the Liberals of harbouring even more radical ideas. The now former member for Dickson wasn’t helped by frontbencher Jacinta Nampijinpa Price and her promise to “make Australia great again.”

Like the undecided voter who asked Albanese and Dutton how they would protect Australia from Trump’s erratic decision-making in the first leaders’ debate on 10 April, fear of an unstable world was front-of-mind around the country.

Albanese successfully argued calm leadership was Australia’s best approach to the unpredictability the US president has cultivated as his personal calling card. His unflashy approach to the job might be regarded as a key asset.

Albanese’s victory speech alluded to Dutton’s flirtation with the Maga approach. He told the Labor faithful his government would continue to choose an Australian way forward. One of his biggest cheers came as he promised to continue to recognise Indigenous heritage and leadership every day in the job.

The politics of division might be front of mind for the Coalition as they pick up the pieces. Queensland senator James McGrath, hardly a moderate in the joint party room, had the unenviable task of explaining the historic loss on the ABC’s broadcast.

He warned the Coalition should be firmly in the centre-right, and avoid importing division and distrust. “We must resist that path [and] focus on where middle Australia is,” he said.

That’s where the voters are too. Just ask Labor.

A leading immunologist warned of a “post-herd-immunity world”, as measles outbreaks affect communities with low vaccination rates in the American south-west, Mexico and Canada.

The US is enduring the largest measles outbreak in a quarter-century. Centered in west Texas, the measles outbreak has killed two unvaccinated children and one adult and spread to neighboring states including New Mexico and Oklahoma.

“We’re living in a post-herd-immunity world. I think the measles outbreak proves that,” said Dr Paul Offit, an expert on infectious disease and immunology and director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

“Measles – because it is the most contagious of the vaccine-preventable diseases, the most contagious human disease really – it is the first to come back.”

The US eliminated measles in 2000. Elimination status would be lost if the US had 12 months of sustained transmission of the virus. As of 1 May, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported 935 confirmed measles cases across 30 jurisdictions. Nearly one in three children under five years old involved in the outbreak, or 285 young children, have been hospitalized.

Three large outbreaks in Canada, Mexico and the US now account for the overwhelming majority of roughly 2,300 measles cases across the World Health Organization’s six-country Americas region, according to the health authority’s update this week. Risk of measles is considered high in the Americas, and has grown 11-fold compared with 2024.

Only slightly behind, data released earlier this week from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and WHO also noted that measles cases across Europe were up tenfold in 2024 compared to 2023. That data also indicated that the 2024 measles cases in Europe followed a seasonal pattern, which was not previously noted in 2021 through 2023.

Of the European cases, which reportedly hit 35,212 for 2024, 87% were reported in Romania. The ECDC said the dip in vaccine rates has impacted the recent spike in measles, with only three countries, Hungary, Malta and Portugal, having coverage of 95% or more for both doses of the measles vaccine.

“This virus was imported, traveling country to country,” said Leticia Ruíz, the director of prevention and disease control in Chihuahua, Mexico, according to the Associated Press.

Many cases are in areas with large populations of tight-knit Mennonite communities. The religious group has a history of migration through the American south-west, Mexico and Canada.

Mennonite teaching does not explicitly prohibit immunization, according to an expert in the religion. However, as some in the Mennonite community in Texas resist assimilation and speak a dialect of Low German, community members may have limited contact with public health authorities, leading to lower vaccination rates.

Immunologists fear the rate of infection of such diseases – and the unnecessary suffering they bring – will increase as the US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy Jr, spreads misleading claims about vaccines and vaccine-preventable diseases, undermines public confidence in vaccines’ benefits, threatens to make some vaccines less accessible, guts public health infrastructure and pushes leading vaccine experts out of the department.

The National Institutes of Health said it would launch a “universal” influenza vaccine trial with $500m in funding, but the news comes as the administration displays hostility toward Covid-19 vaccines.

“Here, Robert F Kennedy Jr is exactly who he has been for the last 20 years. He’s an anti-vaccine activist, he is a science denialist and a conspiracy theorist,” said Offit.

“He has a fixed belief that vaccines are doing more harm than good – as he’s said over and over again.”

Although Kennedy has tepidly endorsed the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine to prevent measles, he has also made false and inflammatory claims about the vaccine. Just this week, Kennedy told a crowd that it contains “aborted fetus debris”. The rubella vaccine, like many others, is produced using decades-old sterile fetal cell lines derived from two elective terminations in the 1960s.

Kennedy’s health department also stated this week that it would implement new safety surveillance systems and approval requirements for vaccines, but did not provide any specifics about the design.

Experts said running certain trials, such as for a decades-old vaccine like MMR, would be unethical because it could expose people to a dangerous disease when an intervention is known to be safe.

Kennedy recently visited the most affected community in Texas, centered in Gaines county, in his capacity as health secretary. There, he made misleading claims about measles treatment, including that the antibiotic clarithromycin and steroid budesonide had led to “miraculous and instantaneous recovery”.

The overwhelming scientific consensus is that the best way to treat measles is through prevention with the MMR vaccine, which is 97% effective. Still, Kennedy has said he will ask the CDC to study vitamins and drugs to treat the viral disease.

Measles is a virus. There is no cure for the viral disease and it is not considered “treatable” by leading physicians’ groups, such as the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).

“There is no cure for measles, and it can result in serious complications. It’s misleading and dangerous to promote the idea that measles is easily treated using unproven and ineffective therapies like budesonide and clarithromycin,” the AAP has said of Kennedy’s claims.

Measles kills about one in 1,000 children who become infected with the disease, and has similar rates of brain swelling, called encephalitis, that can result in lifelong disability. Measles infection suppresses the immune system, which can lead to other infections.

Measles vaccination is believed to have saved more than 93 million lives worldwide between 1974 and 2024 and reduced overall childhood mortality.

• Russia launched a mass drone attack on Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv late on Friday, hitting a high-rise apartment block, triggering fires and injuring 46 people, officials said. There were strikes in 12 locations in four central districts of the city, the mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said on Telegram. Volodymyr Zelenskyy denounced the attacks, saying dozens of drones had been launched and issuing a fresh appeal to beef up Ukraine’s air defence capability. “There were no military targets, nor could there be any,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram. “Russia strikes dwellings when Ukrainians are in their homes, when they are putting their children to bed.” Terekhov said a house had also been hit in the city, 30km from the country’s north-eastern border, and an 11-year-old child was among those hurt. The number of injured could rise, said the regional governor, Oleh Syniehubov. The attacks came hours after Russian strikes on the southern city of Zaporizhzhia wounded more than 20 people.

• The US state department has approved the potential sale of F-16 training and sustainment as well as related equipment to Ukraine for $310m, the Pentagon said. Friday’s move comes just days after Ukraine and the US signed a much-discussed agreement to share proceeds from the sale of Ukrainian minerals and rare earths and fund investment in Ukraine’s reconstruction. Ukraine has previously received F-16 jets from US allies under a jet transfer authorised by former president Joe Biden’s administration, while Trump paused all Ukraine-related military aid shortly after taking office.

• Ukraine’s parliament will hold a vote on 8 May to ratify the minerals deal, a legislator said on Friday, while the prime minister, Denys Shmyhal, suggested the agreement would help Kyiv with air defences. “This agreement will allow us to better defend our country here and now – to better protect our skies thanks to American air defence systems,” Shmyhal said at the governmental meeting.

• Ukraine’s internal security agency accused Russian intelligence of orchestrating an attempt to assassinate a prominent Ukrainian blogger, accusing a 45-year-old woman of carrying out the failed hit. The attempt to kill internet personality Serhii Sternenko took place on Thursday. The SBU security agency said on Telegram on Friday that the woman – whom it did not name – had fired several shots with a pistol, one of which hit Sternenko in the leg. The blogger said there was no danger to his life. The woman’s lawyer said in court that she did not contest the facts of the case. Russia’s FSB security service and its military intelligence agency did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comment.

• Four people were injured in a Russian joint drone and artillery attack on localities east of Nikopol in south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, regional authorities said. In southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, a village resident died when a fallen drone exploded as he was trying to carry it away from a house.

• In Russia, the Black Sea coast of the Krasnodar region was struck in a “massive attack” from Ukrainian forces, the regional governor said. Three apartment blocks in Novorossiysk were damaged, Veniamin Kondratyev said, and according to a preliminary toll four people were injured, including two children.

• Russia’s defence ministry said on Friday its forces were continuing to create a “security strip” in border areas of northern Ukraine’s Sumy region after driving Ukrainian troops out of the Kursk region, just across the border in western Russia. Ukraine says its forces still have a foothold in Kursk but it is concerned about a possible Russian advance into Sumy. Two Majors, a pro-Russian war blogger, said Russia was developing an offensive from Zhuravka to Bilovody, two villages just over the border in Sumy. The reports could not be verified.

• People from the west African nation of Togo have been captured and detained by Ukrainian armed forces after taking part “in military operations alongside Russian armed forces”, Togolese authorities said Friday. The “majority of compatriots, in particular young students, had left Togo under alleged scholarships offered by structures claiming to be based in Russia”, the foreign ministry said in a statement. The Martin Luther King Movement, Togo’s leading human rights organisation, alerted authorities in March to the case of a Togolese student captured on the battlefield and imprisoned in Ukraine.

• US officials have finalised new economic sanctions against Russia, including banking and energy measures, to intensify pressure on Moscow to embrace Donald Trump’s efforts to end its war on Ukraine, according to three US officials and a source familiar with the issue. Reuters reports the targets include state-owned Russian energy company Gazprom and major entities involved in the natural resources and banking sectors, one official said, requesting anonymity. But it was not clear if the package would get Trump’s approval, the official said.

• Greek authorities have remanded in custody a man suspected of photographing supply convoys on behalf of Russia in the Greek port city of Alexandroupolis, a judicial source said. The 59-year-old Greek man of Georgian descent was arrested Tuesday and taken before an investigating magistrate for a hearing on Friday. A police source alleged to Agence France-Presse that the suspect was targeting military convoys to Ukraine, according to footage retrieved from his mobile phone. But during Friday’s hearing the suspect said he had “done nothing illegal”, according to a judicial source.

The Duke of Sussex has said it is “impossible” for him to bring his wife and children back to the UK after losing his legal challenge over personal security, and revealed he would “love” a reconciliation with his family.

In an emotional interview with the BBC, Prince Harry said his father, King Charles, would not speak to him “because of the security stuff”, but said he wanted reconciliation as life was “precious” and he did not know how long his father, who has been diagnosed with cancer, had left to live.

Speaking in California, where he now lives, Harry, 40, said: “For the time being, it’s impossible for me to take my family back to the UK safely.”

He added: “I can’t see a world in which I would be bringing my wife and children back to the UK at this point … I love my country. I always have done, despite what some people in that country have done. I miss the UK. And it’s really quite sad I won’t be able to show my children my homeland.”

Harry had sought to overturn changes to his security provision while in the UK, which were made after he and the Duchess of Sussex stepped away from royal duties in 2020.

He was offered “bespoke” security, which he felt was inferior and claimed the Executive Committee for the Protection of Royalty and Public Figures (known as Ravec), which authorises security measures, had breached its own terms of reference by not conducting a risk management board (RMB) before making the decision.

He insisted his father could help resolve the issue, though he had not asked him to intervene. “I can only come to the UK safely if I am invited, and there is a lot of control and ability in my father’s hands.

“Ultimately, this whole thing could be resolved through him, not by intervening, but by stepping aside and allowing the experts to do what is necessary and to carry out an RMB,” he said.

It is understood it would have been constitutionally improper for the king to intervene while the matter was being considered by the government and reviewed by the courts.

Although the royal household provides representation and input into the Ravec decision, Friday’s judgment laid out that the chair of the Ravec committee was the decision maker on the provision of security. Royal private offices and private secretaries should be consulted as to the practicalities of the protection measures agreed, the ruling said.

Harry appealed to the prime minister, Keir Starmer, saying: “This all was initiated under a previous government. There is now a new government. I have had it described to me by people who know about the facts that this is a good old-fashioned establishment stitch-up. And that’s what it feels like.”

Asked whether the prime minister should “step in”, he replied: “Yes, I would ask the prime minister to step in.

“I would ask Yvette Cooper, the home secretary, to look at this very, very carefully and I would ask her to review Ravec and its members, because if it is an expert body, then what is the royal household’s role there if it is not to influence and decide what they want for the members of their household?”

The prime minister would be “quite reluctant” to become involved in decisions about Harry’s security, a senior cabinet minister said on Friday night. Pat McFadden told Sky News: “I think he would be quite reluctant to make a judgment about someone’s personal security needs. We have experts who do that for a reason, and I’m not sure it’s a good idea for any politician to be saying that that person requires this level or that level of security.”

On his family rift, Harry said: “There have been so many disagreements, differences between me and some of my family. This current situation, that has been ongoing now for five years with regard to human life and safety as the sticking point. It is the only thing that’s left.

“Of course some members of my family will never forgive me for writing a book, of course they will never forgive me for lots of things, but … I would love reconciliation with my family.

“There’s no point in continuing to fight any more. Life is precious. I don’t know how much longer my father has. He won’t speak to me because of this security stuff. But it would be nice to reconcile.”

He added: “If they want that, it’s entirely up to them.”

Harry said he could never leave the royal family, though he had left the “institution” because “I had to”.

He continued: “Whether I have an official role or not is irrelevant to the threats, risk and impact on the reputation of the UK if something was to happen. What really worries me more than anything else about today’s decision [is that] it set a new precedent that security can be used to control members of the family, and effectively, what it does is imprison other members of the family from being able to choose a different life.”

He claimed that, through the court disclosure process, he had “discovered that some people want history to repeat itself, which is pretty dark”. Asked who he meant, Harry declined to answer.

In a statement released on the Sussexes’ website, Harry said: “Ravec’s ability to make decisions outside of its own policies and the so-called political sensitivities of my case have prevailed over the need for fair and consistent decision-making. The court has decided to defer to this, revealing a sad truth: my hands are tied in seeking legal recourse against the establishment.

“This all comes from the same institutions that preyed upon my mother, that openly campaigned for the removal of our security, and that continue to incite hatred towards me, my wife and even our children, while at the same time protecting the very power that they should be holding accountable.”

He told the BBC he was “devastated” by the court’s decision, adding: “Not so much devastated with the loss [as] about the people behind the decision feeling as though this is OK. Is it a win for them? I’m sure there are some people out there, probably most likely the people that wish me harm, [who] consider this a huge win.”

He indicated that he would not be seeking a further legal challenge, saying Friday’s ruling had “proven that there was no way to win this through the courts”.

A spokesperson for Buckingham Palace said: “All of these issues have been examined repeatedly and meticulously by the courts, with the same conclusion reached on each occasion.”

It was three weeks after Christmas when the bombshell letter arrived. Guy Shahar and his wife, Oksana, looked at each other in stunned disbelief.

They had followed the Guardian’s investigation into the carer’s allowance scandal that has left thousands of families with crippling debts and criminal records. Not once did they think they would join them.

“Important,” it read in big bold type. “You have been paid more carer’s allowance than you are entitled to. You now need to pay this money back”.

The sum being demanded by the government was staggering: £10,180.45.

“It just didn’t seem real,” said Guy, 53. “It was so surreal and outrageous we assumed there must have been some sort of mistake”.

There was no mistake. The family, from Feltham in west London, had unwittingly breached the strict earnings limit that has left hundreds of thousands of carers paying back huge sums to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in a saga that has been compared to the Post Office scandal.

Oksana, 53, had overstepped the earnings limit by just £1.92 a week on average while juggling caring for their son Daniel, 15, who has autism, with part-time roles as a school dinner lady and a zero-hours contract at Sports Direct.

In some weeks, she was paid just 38p more than the threshold – but for that tiny infraction she is being forced to repay £64.60 each time, the rate of carer’s allowance at the time.

Unpaid carers are allowed to work as long as their earnings do not breach the strictly enforced weekly threshold, which is £196. If their income exceeds this limit, even by as little as 1p, they must repay the whole week of carer’s allowance – meaning a breach of even 1p would trigger a fine of £83.30.

This so-called “cliff-edge” approach has been widely condemned as “cruel and nonsensical” and “perverse” after a Guardian investigation exposed how scores of unpaid carers had been caught in the trap, leaving many saddled with five-figure debts and others with criminal convictions.

As of February, nearly 100,000 carers across the UK were repaying sums as high as £20,000 after breaching earnings rules, according to the latest official figures.

A Guardian analysis of five years of Oksana’s earnings show that on average she was paid less than the DWP’s strict threshold for three of those years. In another year, her earnings exceeded the limit by an average of just 83p a week – but for this infraction they must repay £1,938 for the year.

Across the whole five-year period, she earned a total of £505 more than the rules allow – an average of £1.92 a week. Yet instead of repaying £505, the DWP is demanding £10,130.45 – plus a £50 “civil penalty”.

“It will devastate us financially,” said Guy, who founded the charity Transforming Autism. “It just seems so unfair that it’s not even real. It just feels like this actually can’t go through. In any sort of ethical world, this would not happen.”

The well-documented failure of the DWP to alert carers immediately to these overpayments meant that instead of being notified in 2018, when they first began, the Shahars were not told until January – nearly seven years later.

This meant they unknowingly accrued debt until 2023, when they stopped receiving carer’s allowance after Shahar notified the DWP that she had been able to increase her hours at Sports Direct.

The DWP’s top official, Peter Schofield, promised MPs in 2019 to end the delays that have left scores of carers incurring enormous debts by accident – yet six years later the failure is continuing.

“They never alerted us – not even once,” said Guy. “They let it build up and then more than six years later they’re slapping this enormous fine on us. I feel really let down by the system.”

The DWP is supposed to consider a carer’s average earnings when deciding whether they have broken the rules. However, the way officials do this is inconsistent.

In Oksana’s case, they punished her on the basis of her individual weekly pay rather than her average earnings despite this approach being criticised as unfair by tribunal judges.

“It’s like it’s set up to be a booby-trapped benefits system. It’s inhumane,” said Shahar. “It traps families into long-term debt, anxiety and mental health issues and leaving us much worse off rather than better off to look after the people we’re supposed to be caring for.”

Liz Kendall, the welfare secretary, ordered an independent inquiry into carer’s allowance last year after the Guardian’s investigation. The review, by the former Disability Rights UK chief executive Liz Sayce, is due to report within weeks.

Earlier this month the DWP said it was boosting staff numbers in an attempt to clear the huge backlog of thousands of unpaid carers who have unwittingly exceeded the earning limit – and will almost certainly now be punished.

The family appealed against the £10,000 fine but it was rejected by the DWP. They are now awaiting the outcome of a second challenge.

Guy said the government’s “unfair persecution” had left them distressed and devastated: “It was like the whole foundation of the life that we’d created, which is a very simple life and it’s on fragile foundations anyway – it’s like those foundations were just being taken away. And they’re being taken away by people who’d been telling us all along that they were there to support us”.

Helen Walker, the chief executive of Carers UK, urged the DWP to write off debts in cases like the Shahars’ – and said the case highlighted the need for wide-ranging reform.

“I’m saddened and concerned by the fact that we’re still hearing of fresh instances of those, like Guy and his family, who have fallen foul of an inflexible and unfair system,” she said. “This is a clear demonstration of why we need to see a better alternative to the current ‘cliff-edge’.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “We have paused the recovery of Mrs Shahar’s overpayment pending the outcome of her appeal.

“We understand the struggles facing so many carers, which is why have launched an independent review of carer’s allowance, to explore how earnings-related overpayments have occurred and what changes can be made. This is due to report in the summer and the government will consider its findings following its conclusion.”

It was three weeks after Christmas when the bombshell letter arrived. Guy Shahar and his wife, Oksana, looked at each other in stunned disbelief.

They had followed the Guardian’s investigation into the carer’s allowance scandal that has left thousands of families with crippling debts and criminal records. Not once did they think they would join them.

“Important,” it read in big bold type. “You have been paid more carer’s allowance than you are entitled to. You now need to pay this money back”.

The sum being demanded by the government was staggering: £10,180.45.

“It just didn’t seem real,” said Guy, 53. “It was so surreal and outrageous we assumed there must have been some sort of mistake”.

There was no mistake. The family, from Feltham in west London, had unwittingly breached the strict earnings limit that has left hundreds of thousands of carers paying back huge sums to the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) in a saga that has been compared to the Post Office scandal.

Oksana, 53, had overstepped the earnings limit by just £1.92 a week on average while juggling caring for their son Daniel, 15, who has autism, with part-time roles as a school dinner lady and a zero-hours contract at Sports Direct.

In some weeks, she was paid just 38p more than the threshold – but for that tiny infraction she is being forced to repay £64.60 each time, the rate of carer’s allowance at the time.

Unpaid carers are allowed to work as long as their earnings do not breach the strictly enforced weekly threshold, which is £196. If their income exceeds this limit, even by as little as 1p, they must repay the whole week of carer’s allowance – meaning a breach of even 1p would trigger a fine of £83.30.

This so-called “cliff-edge” approach has been widely condemned as “cruel and nonsensical” and “perverse” after a Guardian investigation exposed how scores of unpaid carers had been caught in the trap, leaving many saddled with five-figure debts and others with criminal convictions.

As of February, nearly 100,000 carers across the UK were repaying sums as high as £20,000 after breaching earnings rules, according to the latest official figures.

A Guardian analysis of five years of Oksana’s earnings show that on average she was paid less than the DWP’s strict threshold for three of those years. In another year, her earnings exceeded the limit by an average of just 83p a week – but for this infraction they must repay £1,938 for the year.

Across the whole five-year period, she earned a total of £505 more than the rules allow – an average of £1.92 a week. Yet instead of repaying £505, the DWP is demanding £10,130.45 – plus a £50 “civil penalty”.

“It will devastate us financially,” said Guy, who founded the charity Transforming Autism. “It just seems so unfair that it’s not even real. It just feels like this actually can’t go through. In any sort of ethical world, this would not happen.”

The well-documented failure of the DWP to alert carers immediately to these overpayments meant that instead of being notified in 2018, when they first began, the Shahars were not told until January – nearly seven years later.

This meant they unknowingly accrued debt until 2023, when they stopped receiving carer’s allowance after Shahar notified the DWP that she had been able to increase her hours at Sports Direct.

The DWP’s top official, Peter Schofield, promised MPs in 2019 to end the delays that have left scores of carers incurring enormous debts by accident – yet six years later the failure is continuing.

“They never alerted us – not even once,” said Guy. “They let it build up and then more than six years later they’re slapping this enormous fine on us. I feel really let down by the system.”

The DWP is supposed to consider a carer’s average earnings when deciding whether they have broken the rules. However, the way officials do this is inconsistent.

In Oksana’s case, they punished her on the basis of her individual weekly pay rather than her average earnings despite this approach being criticised as unfair by tribunal judges.

“It’s like it’s set up to be a booby-trapped benefits system. It’s inhumane,” said Shahar. “It traps families into long-term debt, anxiety and mental health issues and leaving us much worse off rather than better off to look after the people we’re supposed to be caring for.”

Liz Kendall, the welfare secretary, ordered an independent inquiry into carer’s allowance last year after the Guardian’s investigation. The review, by the former Disability Rights UK chief executive Liz Sayce, is due to report within weeks.

Earlier this month the DWP said it was boosting staff numbers in an attempt to clear the huge backlog of thousands of unpaid carers who have unwittingly exceeded the earning limit – and will almost certainly now be punished.

The family appealed against the £10,000 fine but it was rejected by the DWP. They are now awaiting the outcome of a second challenge.

Guy said the government’s “unfair persecution” had left them distressed and devastated: “It was like the whole foundation of the life that we’d created, which is a very simple life and it’s on fragile foundations anyway – it’s like those foundations were just being taken away. And they’re being taken away by people who’d been telling us all along that they were there to support us”.

Helen Walker, the chief executive of Carers UK, urged the DWP to write off debts in cases like the Shahars’ – and said the case highlighted the need for wide-ranging reform.

“I’m saddened and concerned by the fact that we’re still hearing of fresh instances of those, like Guy and his family, who have fallen foul of an inflexible and unfair system,” she said. “This is a clear demonstration of why we need to see a better alternative to the current ‘cliff-edge’.”

A DWP spokesperson said: “We have paused the recovery of Mrs Shahar’s overpayment pending the outcome of her appeal.

“We understand the struggles facing so many carers, which is why have launched an independent review of carer’s allowance, to explore how earnings-related overpayments have occurred and what changes can be made. This is due to report in the summer and the government will consider its findings following its conclusion.”

A factory processing US hazardous waste in Mexico has promised to relocate what authorities call its “most polluting” operations following a Guardian investigation.

The plant in the Monterrey metropolitan area recycles toxic steel dust sent by the US steel industry and recovers zinc, according to that reporting, which was produced in partnership with Quinto Elemento Lab, a Mexico investigative journalism unit. It revealed evidence of heavy-metals pollution in the surrounding neighborhoods.

The factory, Zinc Nacional, has since been contending with inspections and threats of closures by environmental regulators, court actions and media scrutiny.

Neighbors have held repeated demonstrations outside the plant, carrying signs with slogans such as “Take your mess to the US” and “Your millions are not worth our lives.”

The company has said that it operates “in compliance with every applicable regulation”, and that by recovering zinc from the by-products of the steel industry it saves valuable materials from going to landfills.

In a letter to authorities of the state of Nuevo León, the company has now vowed to move its most “intensive” operations away from its current location in the middle of the Monterrey metropolitan area within two years. It did not specify where to, except that it would be “outside the Monterrey metropolitan area” and that the company would maintain “more than one thousand jobs”. It also promised to build a huge enclosure to contain its materials on its existing site, some of which currently sit uncovered, and to plant more trees around its land.

Zinc Nacional did not provide answers to questions from reporters about details of the plan.

“It’s something that has never happened before – companies starting to shut down operations voluntarily,” said Eugenio Peña, Zinc Nacional’s director of operations, according to recordings of a meeting with neighbors and the secretary of the environment for the Mexican state of Nuevo León last week. He said the move is a small step in solving the Monterrey region’s “complex environmental problem”.

“For us, it’s a very important step, and it involves a monstrous amount of money. We want to continue collaborating, to be an open company.”

Some neighbors expressed scepticism that the company would actually follow through with its promises. Many of them say they have been contending with dust and smoke from the plant for years and they fear pollution is causing illness, especially for children and elderly people in the neighborhood.

“In their proposal, there’s no mention of the affected citizens, much less any talk about health or damage reparations,” said Ricardo González, a neighborhood activist, who wonders if contamination from the plant may have contributed to years of illness his mother has faced. He said the company continues to maintain “that they comply and do everything properly”.

“So, for me, that proposal is completely disconnected from reality,” he said.

Soil sampling conducted by a university toxicologist in collaboration with the investigation showed high levels of lead, cadmium and arsenic in homes, schools and yards in the neighborhood – including one elementary school that had 1,760 times the US action level for lead dust in its window sills. The company’s emission reports to the government show that it releases lead, cadmium and arsenic into the air.

But Peña told neighbors that despite Zinc Nacional’s relocation plans, it disputes the toxicology research that found heavy metals near its plant. He said more samples should have been taken and that the university lab that analysed the soil did not have certification from federal environmental agencies for such industrial samples.

“We haven’t gone public to discredit it yet, but at some point the truth will come out,” he said. “Because it affects people – it scares the neighbors.”

“Obviously, the competent authorities should conduct a more complete study, one that follows all legal protocols, so you can build a solid case,” he said.

The researcher, Martín Soto Jiménez, a professor at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, said that he has always been willing to explain his methodology, certifications and conclusions to the company.

“We raised the alarm about the pollution that was occurring,” he said. “But all the decisions regarding closure, whether temporary or permanent, were based and supported on site by the inspectors’ observations.”

Mexico’s federal environmental investigation agency, known as Profepa, is conducting investigations into Zinc Nacional on several fronts, including air and soil testing. It declined to renew the company’s “clean industry” certificate, which it has held for years, and announced an audit of the environmental consultants whom the company hired to obtain it. “Profepa seeks to ensure that all companies with a Profepa certification actually have good environmental performance,” the agency said in a statement.

Twice in the past two months, the state government has said it closed furnaces at the plant.

The company said it had cooperated with inspectors and had presented a plan to accelerate pollution control investments and lower its environmental footprint. On 11 April, it won an interim court order that will allow it to remain operating while the matter moves through the courts.

Glen Zambrano, the director of parks and wildlife for the state, lives near the plant and has been vocal against the pollution.

“It was predictable they would fight – it’s a massive company. And we anticipated it,” he said in an interview.

He said that soil and wildlife in the area are also being tested for heavy metal contamination.

“We’re analyzing soil samples and blood from mammals we captured in the area.”

Families with schoolchildren in the area have also been seeking blood testing and information about pollutants and their effects on health.

Cristóbal Palacios, a neighborhood leader, said some residents hope to form a committee to ensure progress is made on issues surrounding Zinc Nacional, in conjunction with professional researchers who can assess the pollution in the area and its effects.

“There is currently no consensus,” said Palacios. “Some people believe that what Zinc is proposing today is merely a plan to further grow as a company. The deal seems convenient for them, but completely ignores the population that has already been affected.”

Voice of America (VoA), the US-taxpayer funded news service for overseas listeners, could be back on the air as soon as next week, after a federal appeals court granted a temporary stay on an executive order dismantling the broadcaster.

VoA was effectively shut down after Trump signed an order on 14 March dismantling or shrinking seven agencies including the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM).

The USAGM is an independent government agency that oversees VoA and distributes congressionally appropriated funds to several non-profit broadcasters which provide news and information in almost 50 languages in countries with limited or no access to independent media sources.

After nearly every affected network sued, US district judge Royce Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, granted a preliminary injunction in late April, ruling that the executive order was arbitrary and likely exceeded the president’s authority.

The Department of Justice appealed. On Thursday, a Washington DC federal appeals court, which included two Trump appointees, partly upheld the lower court ruling that will enable VoA to resume broadcasting while the appeal plays out.

VoA staff can begin a “phased return” to the office and resume programming next week, according to an email from the justice department shared with the Washington Post. Some VoA and USAGM staff have had access to their government email accounts restored.

But the latest court ruling was bad news for the other publicly funded broadcasters.

The Trump administration’s freeze on congressionally approved funds for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Radio Free Asia and Middle East Broadcasting Networks will remain in place while the lawsuit makes its way through the court.

While VoA is a federal entity, the other broadcasters are private non-profit organizations. The funding freeze has already forced them to make staffing cuts and reduce content.

The USAGA had, until now, enjoyed bipartisan support, due to the vital role VoA and the other foreign-news broadcasters play in advancing democracy and US interests by reaching about 360 million people in countries that have little to no independent press.

The Guardian has contacted both the USAGA and VoA for comment.

Voters in a small patch of south Texas are casting their ballots on Saturday in an election that could give Elon Musk a town to call his own. The vote would officially create a new city called Starbase in the area where Musk’s SpaceX holds its Texas rocket launches.

A couple of hundred residents of what was previously known as Boca Chica will decide whether to make their unincorporated neighborhoods into a town that would grant them the authority to pass city ordinances. The outcome, which will be decided almost entirely by SpaceX employees and their families, who make up the majority of the local population, is nearly guaranteed to result in incorporation.

The creation of Starbase would put Musk in the unusual position of holding sway over a company town, a distinction that has more in common with Gilded Age industrialists than most modern US businesses. It would be a small victory for the world’s richest man as he pivots away from his job as de facto leader of the “department of government efficiency” – a role that has elicited furious backlash and hurt his public image as well as his businesses.

Much like with Doge, Musk will not officially be in charge of Starbase. The entirety of the future city revolves around SpaceX, however, and it is almost entirely made up of the company’s employees and their kin. The Starbase population, as of 2025, is a little over 500 people, some 260 of which are SpaceX employees. The others are mostly family members of workers, according to Bloomberg.

The town’s proposed mayor, 36-year-old Bobby Peden, has worked at SpaceX since 2013 and is vice-president of test and launch operations in Texas. Peden, along with two other city commissioner candidates who are also SpaceX employees, are all running unopposed.

Starbase sits on a tiny piece of land near the Mexican border on a small bay that feeds into the Gulf of Mexico. Prefabricated houses, airstreams and palm trees line the streets. An imperious golden bust of Musk stands nine feet tall outside the town. A plaque on its pedestal reads “ELON aka Memelord”.

Last month, vandals defaced the statue by peeling off layers of foam and fiberglass from its cheeks. There is an employee-only restaurant called Astropub with a neon red “Occupy Mars” sign behind the bar. One of the main boulevards is called “Memes Street”.

Although creating Starbase is likely somewhat of a vanity project, one which Musk has been touting for years, it does grant the potential city and its SpaceX leadership powers over what to do with the land. Company workers submitted identical statements to a legislative hearing in April arguing that creating the town would help with logistics and coordination around issues such as road closures during test launches, the Associated Press reported.

Opposing Starbase

Even though the incorporation of Starbase is extremely likely, given who can vote in the election, it has also faced protests and pushback from others in the area. The South Texas Environmental Justice Network activist group has been holding protests and urging Texans to email their state representatives to oppose the incorporation. The group argues that creating Starbase will allow SpaceX to close access to the public beach in the town whenever it wants and block others from using the public land.

“Boca Chica Beach is meant for the people, not Elon Musk to control,” the organization said in a statement on its site. “For generations, residents have visited Boca Chica beach for fishing, swimming, recreation, and the Carrizo/Comecrudo Tribe has spiritual ties to the beach. They should be able to keep access.”

Musk has in previous years made grand pronouncements about the future of Starbase while urging employees to move to the town. “Starbase will grow by several thousand people over the next year or two,” he posted on Twitter in 2021.

SpaceX has become an increasingly valuable part of Musk’s empire as Tesla’s performance has tanked and the government has turned to SpaceX for billions of dollars in contracts related to space travel.

Musk has relocated his primary residence and businesses to Texas in recent years. He lives in a $35m sprawling compound in Austin that houses three separate mansions. During his backing of Trump’s re-election last year, he temporarily uprooted and moved to the swing state of Pennsylvania.

Musk then took up residence in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building while serving as senior adviser to Donald Trump, but left the White House in late April as he shifts back to overseeing his companies.

A UN judge has been jailed for six years and four months after forcing a young woman to work as a slave in the UK.

Lydia Mugambe, 50, was found to have taken advantage of her status in relation to the Ugandan woman in the “most egregious way” while Mugambe studied for a PhD in law at the University of Oxford.

Mugambe was found guilty in March of conspiring to facilitate the commission of a breach of UK immigration law, facilitating travel with a view to exploitation, forcing someone to work, and conspiracy to intimidate a witness after a trial.

Mugambe, who is also a high court judge in Uganda, stopped the woman holding down steady employment and forced her to work as her maid and provide childcare, prosecutors said.

Judge Foxton, sentencing Mugambe at Oxford crown court on Friday, said it was a “very sad case”, outlining Mugambe’s legal accomplishments including work concerning the protection of human rights.

Foxton said the defendant “showed absolutely no remorse” for her conduct and that she had looked to “forcibly blame” the victim for what happened.

He gave Mugambe a restraining order with terms saying she cannot directly or indirectly contact the victim.

In a written statement read to the court by the prosecutor Caroline Haughey KC, the victim described living in “almost constant fear” due to Mugambe’s powerful standing in Uganda.

The young woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said she could not go back to Uganda due to concerns of what could happen to her, and said she may never see her mother again.

Haughey said Mugambe exploited her victim by taking advantage of the woman’s lack of knowledge about employment rights and misleading her about why she came to the UK.

The prosecutor said on Friday there was a “clear and significant imbalance of power within the relationship” between Mugambe and her victim.

Haughey told the court that the victim had been granted asylum in the UK on the basis that she had a well-founded fear of persecution in Uganda.

Paul Raudnitz KC, defending, spoke of Mugambe’s “glittering legal career” and told of the great support she had received since her conviction.

A small crowd held placards and chanted “Justice for Lydia Mugambe” outside the court before the hearing took place.

Raudnitz also said Mugambe had resigned as a UN judge.

According to her profile on the UN website, Mugambe was appointed to the body’s judicial roster in May 2023, three months after police were called to her address in Oxfordshire.

A playdate between the world’s tallest and smallest living dogs went the way of most dog park encounters despite the 3ft (0.91-meter) height difference – lots of tail wagging, sniffing and scampering.

Reginald, a seven-year-old great dane from Idaho, and Pearl, a chihuahua from Florida, are both certified winners in their respective height titles by Guinness World Records. The fact that Reginald is the size of a small horse and Pearl is as small as an apple didn’t stop them from getting along famously.

Pearl, a four-year-old who stands at 3.59in (9.14cm), comes from a long line of short dogs. Her aunt Millie, a previous record holder in the same category, until she died in 2020, also was under 4in (10.16cm) tall.

Both Millie and Pearl weighed 1oz (28.35 grams) at birth.

“I was not expecting to once again have the record,” said Vanesa Semler of Orlando, Florida, owner of both tiny dogs. “That would be like unbelievable.”

Guinness arranged the two-day meet-up between Pearl and Reginald – who also goes by Reggie and measures in at a whopping 3ft 3in (1 meter) – last month at his home in Idaho Falls.

Even though Pearl loves dogs, even big dogs, Semler said she was anxious because of Reginald’s size.

“For me, [it] was a huge, pleasant surprise from day one because Reggie is like Pearl, in bigger size,” she said. “He is so gentle, so friendly.”

Reggie, for his part, might have been more interested in the Guinness film crew that accompanied Pearl than the tiny dog herself.

“I would say he likes people a little bit more than he likes other dogs,” said Sam Johnson Reiss, his owner.

Pearl’s tiny size was also strange for the big boy.

“He was like very cautious, like a little anxious,” Reiss said. “He was very careful, like he didn’t step on her or anything or anything crazy. He was just very aware that she was there.”

Reggie’s super size was evident early on, especially on a dog park visit when he towered over other great danes despite being only nine months old.

“They would be shorter than him, and they were like full-grown,” Reiss said.

There might have been a little jealousy shown over toys and beds, but Reggie and Pearl found common ground during their two days roaming the Idaho farm together.

“I think she found a good friend,” Semler said.

Semler said Pearl is her prima donna, with the chihuahua even picking out the clothes she wants to wear every day by placing her paw on the outfits laid out before her. That comes in handy when news crews are lining up for interviews.

“For us, she was always our diva,” Semler said. “Now she’s a diva for everyone.”

Pearl doesn’t have the top diva title quite yet, with Reiss saying Reggie – who has a new Instagram account – has his own diva moments.

“He’s pretty high maintenance,” Reiss said. “Reggie’s just cheeky, like he’s kind of mischievous and silly and definitely tells you when he wants something.”