News | The Observer

Health

NHS announces sweeping changes to prevent sexual abuse in surgery

The health secretary plans to ensure doctors convicted of serious sexual offences will be struck off. Although questions remain, many female patients and doctors are relieved the government is finally listening

By Rachel Sylvester

Iran

Oliver Marsden

Father who lost four daughters to Israel’s strikes on Lebanon curses ‘war on children’

Isabel Coles

Trump had no grounds to believe Iranian regime’s nuclear programme posed ‘imminent threat’

Ruth Michaelson

The killing of Iran’s security chief marks a turning point

National

Tech

Rachel Sylvester

Inside Palantir’s growing grip on UK public services

The US data analytics company is being used to fight crime, cut hospital waiting lists and bolster asymmetrical warfare, but its use is raising wider questions about control and surveillance

Islamophobia

John Simpson

Social media ‘cesspits’ stoke anti-Muslim hostility, says ex-law chief

As the government finally agree on how to define anti-Muslim hatred, many Muslims continue to face abuse online

Gambling

Jon Ungoed-Thomas

‘People need a place to deposit money, not gamble with it’

Anger as Whitby’s last bank is set to become an all-night gambling site despite local opposition

Health

James Tapper

Meningitis almost killed Olivia. How do we protect against an infection that strikes so quickly?

Experts fear stretched services will struggle to tackle the condition that has left a teacher ‘chronically ill for ever’

Politics

Leaders flip-flop over Iran war as party falls out of step with supporters

Reform and Farage are losing support. There are two key reasons why

Starmer is getting a powerful new enemy. It could be the making of him

As Reeves turns towards Europe, Greens start to think harder about fiscal policy

When ‘never again’ happens again

Hedi Argent, a 96-year-old who fled Nazi persecution with her family, recalls how she first encountered antisemitism as a child and speaks to Erica Wagner about its rise

The Observer walk

Hedi Argent: ‘I’m glad my parents didn’t live to go through all these threats to Jews again’

The Observer walk

Hedi Argent: ‘I’m glad my parents didn’t live to go through all these threats to Jews again’

International

Ireland

John Ware

Adams welcomes end of IRA victims’ case, but evidence told its own story

The collapse of the civil case against him means the former Sinn Féin leader did not have to risk facing a verdict

Hungary

Lili Rutai

The pastor and the populist were once allies. Now Orbán wants his old friend silenced

Gábor Iványi’s attacks on the prime minister have put him in the firing line weeks before key elections

Lebanon

Oliver Marsden

Familiar fear grips Lebanese villagers living in the firing line

In southern Lebanon, residents find themselves once again in the crosshairs of worsening war between Israel and Hezbollah

Russia

Evan Moffitt

‘Politics camouflaged as art’: Russia returns to the Venice Biennale

Ukraine will exhibit a deer sculpture rescued from attacks in Donetsk at the same festival, opening a new frontline in the battle over Russia’s cultural rehabilitation