A total of 16 women have accused Copperfield of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior spanning decades. More than half said they were teenagers at the time. Copperfield’s lawyers say the allegations are ‘not only completely false but also entirely implausible’

• ‘I honest to God believe I was drugged’: magician David Copperfield’s alleged victims speak out

The celebrated American magician David Copperfield has been accused by 16 women of engaging in sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior, according to a Guardian US investigation.

More than half of the allegations are from women who said they were under 18 at the time of the incidents. Some said they were as young as 15, although he may not have known their ages.

Robert Fico taken to hospital after four shots reported to have been fired after government meeting in Handlova

• Prime minister of Slovakia shot and injured
• Who is Robert Fico?

Salome Zourabichvili, Georgia’s president, said she spoke with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

After a delay, the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, and the neighborhood commissioner, Olivér Várhelyi, issued a statement on Georgia.

The adoption of this law negatively impacts Georgia’s progress on the EU path. The choice on the way forward is in Georgia’s hands. We urge the Georgian authorities to withdraw the law, uphold their commitment to the EU path and advance the necessary reforms detailed in the 9 steps.

Exclusive: Russian customs records suggest firm owned by major Tory donor kept supplying machines after ‘voluntary pause’

The British digger maker JCB, owned by the billionaire Bamford family, continued to build and supply equipment for the Russian market months after saying it had stopped exports because of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian can reveal.

Russian customs records show that JCB, whose owners are major donors to the Conservative party, continued to make new products available for Russian dealers well after 2 March 2022, when the company publicly stated that it had “voluntarily paused exports” to Russia.

Keir Starmer calls early release scheme a ‘get-out-of-jail’ card for dangerous prisoners as Labour calls PM’s claims ‘factually inaccurate’

Labour says the Ministry of Justice’s decision to delay court hearings because of prison overcrowing (see 10.39am) shows that people are “less safe” under the Tories. That’s a very convenient retort to Rishi Sunak, because only two days ago he gave a major speech arguing that security was a key reason why his party deserved to win the election.

In a statement, Shabana Mahmood, the shadow justice secretary, said:

The Tories continue to make major and unprecedented changes to the justice system without so much as a word to the public. It’s completely unacceptable and the public will be alarmed at this latest panic measures.

The government is stalling justice and leaving victims in limbo because of the mess they have created. This comes days after they hid from the public that they’re now letting criminals out of jail earlier than ever before.

The government is completely failing [on knife crime]. We’ve had an 80% increase since 2015 and rises all around the country. That’s the first point.

On stop and search, that is intelligence lead and evidence-based and is a really important tool. We’ve had, for example, the Inspectorate of Constabulary, an independent organisation, looking at this saying that what’s essential is that it is done in that targeted way.

Sleepwalking expert Ramya Nagesh said she was suffering from post-Covid fatigue

A barrister who wrote a book on sleepwalking who fell asleep during a coroner’s inquest has been cleared of all professional misconduct charges.

Ramya Nagesh, a member of commercial chambers in Gray’s Inn Square in London, was accused by the Bar standards board (BSB) of harming the public’s trust in the profession after falling asleep during a virtual hearing.

Exclusive: Judge accused Robert Courts of ‘mischaracterising evidence’ against Trudi Warner

The government’s most senior law officer is to appeal against a decision not to allow a contempt of court action against climate campaigner Trudi Warner for holding a placard on the rights of jurors outside a British court, the Guardian can reveal.

Mr Justice Saini ruled at the high court last month there was no basis to take action against Warner, 69, for holding up the sign informing jurors of their right to acquit a defendant based on their conscience. He said the government’s claim that her behaviour fell into the category of criminal contempt was “fanciful”.

Main suspect in Madeleine McCann case in court in Germany charged with three rapes and two indecent assaults

A woman who was raped at knifepoint by a masked man in Portugal 20 years ago has told a German court trying the main suspect in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann how she had feared for her life and had to shut down her emotions to deal with the ordeal.

Hazel Behan, 40, described how a man dressed in black had entered her holiday apartment in Praia da Rocha in the Algarve at 3am on 16 June 2004, stood over her bed and called her name before starting the hours-long attack. Delivering a harrowing and graphic account through an interpreter for more than 80 minutes, Behan had to pause several times as she became emotional, describing the incident, which occurred when she was 20 and working as a holiday representative.

Court told that Sophie Harvey and boyfriend, then 19, bought pills to end 28-week pregnancy in 2018

A teenager accused of taking a pill to illegally abort a baby told police she had reconciled herself to the idea of having the child but suffered a stillbirth, a jury has heard.

Sophie Harvey, who was 19 at the time, said she panicked and wrapped the dead baby in a towel, put it in a plastic bag and placed it in a bin at the family home in Gloucestershire.

New Křetínský bid creates headache for UK government amid growing scrutiny on foreign takeovers of critical infrastructure

The owner of Royal Mail has accepted a £3.5bn bid for the postal company from a Czech billionaire after he ramped up the value of the takeover, creating a political headache for the government.

Last month, Royal Mail’s parent company, International Distributions Services (IDS), rejected a preliminary offer worth 320p a share, or £3.1bn, from Daniel Křetínský, an energy tycoon whose company, EP Group, is its largest shareholder.

South West Water has detected ‘small traces’ of parasite in drinking supply that can cause diarrhoea-type disease

Boil your tap water before you drink it, residents in Devon have been told, after 22 cases of a parasitic disease were confirmed.

South West Water has detected what it calls “small traces” of a parasite that can cause a diarrhoea-type disease in the drinking supply around the town of Brixham.