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UK 'inadvertently helped neuter' Middle East ally the Iraqi Kurds Ministers told of precise links between Iran and Baghdad-backed Shia militia operating in Iraq, claims former UK and Nato official Foreign Office ministers inadvertently helped neutralise the Iraqi  Kurds , one of Britain’s most effective allies in efforts to limit Iranian influence in the Middle East, a former UK and Nato official has claimed. The claims, which refer to the weeks in September and October 2017 when the Iraqi government moved against Kurdish militia after an independence referendum, are expected to be raised with the Foreign Office minister Alistair Burt at a parliamentary hearing on Tuesday in which the UK government will be asked to justify its assertion that Baghdad has recaptured disputed Kurd-held territory with “limited clashes and loss of life”. Kurdistan, against overwhelming international advice, held a vote on independence in September that prompted Baghdad to react by forcibly ta

The astronaut John Young, who walked on the moon and commanded the first space shuttle flight, has died. He was 87. In a statement, the former president George HW Bush said Young was “a fearless patriot whose courage and commitment to duty helped our nation push back the horizon of discovery at a critical time”. Nasa said Young died at home in Houston on Friday night following complications from pneumonia. The space agency said Young was the only agency astronaut to go into space as part of the Gemini, Apollo and space shuttle programs, and the first to fly into space six times. He was the ninth man to walk on the moon. Young was in Nasa’s second astronaut class, chosen in 1962, along with the likes of Neil Armstrong, Pete Conrad and James Lovell. “Today, Nasa and the world have lost a pioneer,” Nasa administrator Robert Lightfoot said in a statement. “Astronaut John Young’s storied career spanned three generations of spaceflight. “John was one of that group of early space pionee

'Swatting' death: accused man has made other false reports to police, officials say Tyler Barriss, who allegedly made a hoax 911 call that led to a man’s death, has made about 20 previous false claims including bomb threats, records show A man accused of making a hoax 911 call that led to another man’s death in Kansas has a history of making similarly false reports to the police, including bomb hoaxes centered around two schools and an ABC affiliate TV station, according to authorities. Tyler Barriss, 25, is set to be transferred to custody in Kansas from Los Angeles, where he allegedly made the call to police that ended with an officer fatally shooting Andrew Finch, an unarmed Wichita man with no known connection to Barriss. Police in Wichita said they received a call on the evening of 28 December claiming a man had been shot and two others had been taken hostage. When officers arrived at Finch’s home, the man reached towards his waistband when told to raise his hands and

Brutally cold conditions are expected to envelop the US east coast most of this weekend, prompting wind chill warnings from Virginia to Vermont . Temperatures will reach close to 0F from Philadelphia to Boston through Saturday night, with wind chills making it feel like -10F (-23C) to -20F (-29C). Even more temperate locations will not escape the cold, with the mercury dipping into the single digits in Baltimore and Washington DC – about 20F below normal for this time of year. The blast of cold air, which comes just days after a storm dumped as much as 18in (46cm) of snow in some places, could bring the feeling of real jaw-clenching temperatures to people living further north. At least 10 people died in weather-related accidents surrounding the storm. Many Massachusetts coastal communities experienced damaging flooding. The National Weather Service (NWS) said on Friday that temperatures in the Berkshire mountains in western Massachusetts could seem like -35F (-37C), parts of New Ha

Donald Trump mounts extraordinary defence of his 'mental stability' President boasts of being ‘a very stable genius’ and calls Michael Wolff a ‘fraud’ but author says his explosive book will ‘finally end this presidency’ In an extraordinary public defence of his own mental stability, Donald Trump issued a volley of tweets that seemed guaranteed to add fuel to a raging political fire. “Actually,” the president added, “throughout my life, my two greatest assets have been mental stability and being, like, really smart.” He also said he “would qualify as not smart, but genius ... and a very stable genius at that!” The book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House, by Michael Wolff, burst into the public consciousness on Wednesday, when the Guardian reported excerpts nearly a week ahead of publication. Trump threatened to sue but succeeded only in prompting the publisher Henry Holt to bring the book forward. Wolff presents a picture of a doomed administration lurching from