Author: Emmanuel
A British national has been arrested in Namibia for allegedly sexually molesting minors and taking nude photographs of them. Douglas Robert Brook is also accused of touching the children’s private parts while on a holiday in central Namibia. Police said the suspect targeted young boys and girls from the indigenous San community in the central Otjozondjupa region.The 65-year old Briton faces 38 charges, including rape, indecent assault and child exploitation, Namibia local media reported. The British national, who arrived in Namibia last week for a holiday, is yet to respond to the charges. He was arrested on Sunday after he allegedly lured 34 young children with sweets and money to take their photos while they were naked. Maureen Mbeha, a regional police boss, told state media that the tourist sexually abused 16 teenage girls and 14 boys.Some of the nude photographs of the children were reportedly found on the Briton’s camera, which was confiscated by police after his arrest. He appeared in the Grootfontein Magistrate court, north of the capital, Windhoek, on Tuesday where he was denied bail and remanded in custody, the Namibia Press Agency reported. The case was postponed to next month after the state prosecutor requested more time for investigations.”The tourist remains in police custody,” Information Minister Emma Theofelus told the BBC. The UK embassy in Namibia said it had “no information beyond what has been reported in the media”. In a statement, the Namibian Ministry of Environment and Tourism said the actions were “deeply disrespectful to the cultural heritage of the San community”. “It is unacceptable for any visitor, foreign or local, to exploit or objectify indigenous communities or their children for any purpose, including photography,” the ministry said in a statement cited by Informanté newspaper. The southern African country is a popular tourism destination for its breath-taking desert landscapes and rich cultural heritage.
A former leading Ukrainian official has been shot dead outside an American school in the Spanish capital Madrid, reports say.The 51-year-old man, named by Ukrainian and Spanish sources as Andriy Portnov, had just dropped his children off at the school in the Pozuelo de Alarcón area of the city, reports say.At least one unidentified attacker fired several shots at the victim before fleeing into a wooded area in a nearby public park, Spanish reports said.Portnov had been an MP and deputy head in the administration of Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian president ousted in 2014 after months of protests. He had previously been an MP in Yulia Tymoshenko’s governing party.He left Ukraine after the revolution only to return in 2019 after Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president. He then left Ukraine again, and in 2021 was sanctioned by the US Treasury, which said he had been “widely known as a court fixer” who had taken steps to control the judiciary and undermine reform efforts.The European Union had earlier imposed sanctions on Portnov, but he challenged the move in court and won the case.It was not clear who was behind the shooting that took place at about 09:15 local time (07:15 GMT) on Wednesday, reportedly as children were still entering the school.Police drones and a helicopter searched the area for a gunman who, according to witnesses, was a thin man in a blue tracksuit. Spanish reports suggested the gunman may have had at least one accomplice riding on a motorbike.A similar gun attack took place in 2018, when a Colombian drug trafficker was fatally shot outside a British Council school a few kilometres away.But the motive behind Wednesday’s attack is not yet known. Emergency services at the scene could only confirm that that Portnov had suffered several bullet wounds in the back and the head.Portnov’s black Mercedes car was cordoned off and the school wrote to parents to confirm that all the students inside were safe.Although Ukraine’s intelligence services have been linked to several killings in Russia and occupied areas of Ukraine, a fatal attack in Spain in February last year was linked to Russian hitmen.The victim, a Russian helicopter pilot, was shot dead near Alicante, months after defecting to Ukraine.Authorities in Kyiv said they had offered to protect Maxim Kuzminov in Ukraine, but he is believed to have moved to Spain’s south-east coast under a false identity.
NewsFeedPope Leo has called for humanitarian aid to be sent into Gaza to ease the hunger crisis caused by Israel’s blockade. The Pope is the latest world leader to criticise Israel’s weaponisation of food aid, after the UK, France and Canada threatened to impose sanctions.Published On 21 May 202521 May 2025
The UK’s oldest polar bear, and the first in the country to give birth to a cub in 25 years, has been put down because of age-related health problems.Victoria was 28 and had been kept in Highland Wildlife Park near Aviemore in the Scottish Highlands since 2015. Vets at the park took the decision to euthanise her on Tuesday morning after an assessment about her quality of life and wellbeing. Since December she had been receiving geriatric care after showing signs of arthritis.Victoria initially responded well to medication, but was put to sleep after a deterioration in her health. In the wild polar bears rarely live beyond the age of 18, but can live for longer in captivity.Debby, believed to be world’s oldest polar bear, died in 2008 aged 41 or 42, after living almost all of her life in Assiniboine Park zoo in Winnipeg, Canada.Victoria was born at Rostock zoo in Germany in December 1996 and first gave birth in 2008 at Aalborg zoo in Denmark to a female named Malik.In 2015 she was move moved to the Highlands park, run by the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland (RZSS). Two years later she gave birth to Hamish, who according to the RZSS, was the first polar cub born in the UK since 1990. In 2021 she gave birth to another cub called Brodie.David Field, the chief executive of RZSS, said: “Victoria was an excellent mother and seeing her bring up two big, healthy boys has been a joy for our charity’s dedicated teams and the hundreds of thousands of visitors who have flocked to see the family and learn more about the threats these amazing animals face in the wild.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe charity said Victoria had left an “incredible legacy” through her cubs, who continued to play an essential role in the European breeding programme. It said the initiative aimed to promote a genetically diverse population of polar bears in captivity.
Kyiv, Ukraine – United States President Donald Trump sounded jubilant on Monday when he announced the beginning of direct talks between Ukraine and Russia.“Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations towards a ceasefire, and, more importantly, bring an END to the war,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
The statement seemed to fit Trump’s art-of-the-deal canon – it would bring about a fast and efficient peace settlement to Europe’s hottest armed conflict since World War II and would benefit global security.
But European and Ukrainian observers interviewed by Al Jazeera, including a former Russian diplomat and a Ukrainian top ex-military official, said by agreeing to resume the direct talks that were abandoned in 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin scored a taciturn diplomatic triumph over Trump.
They said Putin has thwarted a ceasefire that his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, has been insisting upon for months, and excluded Washington from the negotiations. Advertisement
The Russian leader is likely to drag the talks on indefinitely while amassing tens of thousands of new servicemen, in a bid to carve out more Ukrainian territory until rains and snow stop this year’s offensive, they said.
Moreover, by seemingly bending to Trump’s demands to communicate with Kyiv directly, Putin has escaped further US sanctions – while creating an illusion of talks.
“Putin essentially uses Trump just to create a picture that Putin or Russia are ready to negotiate,” Anton Shekhovtsov, head of the Centre for Democratic Integrity, a Vienna-based think tank, told Al Jazeera.
However, the “only thing that Russia is ready to negotiate is the capitulation of Ukraine, nothing else,” he said.
“I don’t see what Putin can talk with Zelenskyy about, [as] Putin doesn’t consider Zelenskyy a person worthy of communication,” he added. “I don’t see any progress here.”
Putin has for years dismissed Zelenskyy as a “political puppet” whose “neo-Nazi junta” allegedly forces naturally pro-Russian Ukrainians to accept destructive Western values.
On Monday night, after a two-hour phone conversation with Trump, Putin appeared on Russian television to thank Trump for “his support in resuming direct talks” and to declare the Kremlin’s intention to work out a “memorandum of the future accord” and a “possible ceasefire”.
‘Moscow doesn’t want real talks with Kyiv’
A former Russian diplomat who quit his Ministry of Foreign Affairs job to protest against Moscow’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine called Putin’s readiness an “imitation”. Advertisement
“The talks won’t be talks because Moscow doesn’t want real talks with Kyiv,” Boris Bondarev told Al Jazeera.
To Putin, “Ukraine is but a tool, a proxy, a satellite that doesn’t decide a thing by itself.”
That is why Putin appointed Vladimir Medinsky, a former culture minister, as lead negotiator, he said.
Medinsky, who has authored history books criticised for factual inaccuracy, has not sounded diplomatic so far.
On May 16, he threatened that the war would last “as long as it takes” and told Ukrainian diplomats that Russia fought Sweden for 21 years in 1700-21 to occupy today’s Baltic states and build its new imperial capital, St Petersburg, on former Swedish lands.
Thus, the peace process Trump announced as his accomplishment is in fact “the main thing Putin achieved”, Bondarev said.
“This is an imitation so that someone in the West thinks that the peace process has begun, and that’s why there’s no need to help Ukraine, to pressure Putin and to impose new sanctions,” he said.
Putin also managed to escape a lull in hostilities that would have helped Ukrainian forces to fortify their positions along the 1,100km (700-mile) front line, according to Nikolay Mitrokhin, a researcher at Germany’s Bremen University.
“Apparently, Putin succeeded in nullifying a very disadvantageous initiative by Zelenskyy to immediately start a 30 days-long ceasefire,” he told Al Jazeera.
While negotiating, clarifying and delaying the talks, Putin may try to seize more land in eastern and northern Ukraine and even restore the giant Kakhovka Dam that used to supply water to annexed Crimea before being destroyed in 2023, he said. Advertisement
Meanwhile, Moscow has conscripted 160,000 servicemen and keeps recruiting some 50,000 soldiers monthly, in part thanks to the offer of hefty enlistment bonuses, according to Ihor Romanenko, former deputy chief of Ukraine’s general staff.
“They will need to be trained at least a little so that they don’t die that quickly, and so by the end of June, [Moscow] may amass a new resource,” he told Al Jazeera.
‘Trump agreed with Putin’: Pro-Russia observers
Europe was unimpressed by what Trump and Putin agreed upon and introduced the 17th round of sanctions against Moscow on Tuesday.
Brussels and London said the sanctions would target Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of tankers, the financial institutions that help Moscow avoid earlier sanctions, and the supply chains for Russian arms producers.
However, the European sanctions will be less effective without US measures as Putin “acts in the divide-and-rule way”, Romanenko said.
“He wanted everyone [in the West] to step aside from Ukraine, so that there are no arms supplies, and then he could carry out yet another imperial takeover” of Ukrainian territories, he concluded.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that Trump is reluctant to slap new sanctions on Russia.
“If, in fact, it’s clear that the Russians are not interested in a peace deal and they just want to keep fighting a war, it may very well come to that point,” Rubio told the US Senate.
He also insisted Putin “hasn’t gotten a single concession” from Trump.
Meanwhile, pro-Kremlin observers are ecstatic. Advertisement
“These were very successful talks. They may result in Ukrainian regime’s forced acceptance of Russia’s conditions, and thus peace will be reached,” Moscow-based analyst Sergey Markov wrote on Telegram on Monday.
“The Ukrainian regime and European leaders are shocked by the talks, they consider them a disaster for Ukraine. They think that Trump agreed with Putin on almost everything,” he wrote.
Ballet dancers at a top German company have reportedly written an excoriating critique of their new artistic director, accusing him of creating a “toxic work environment.”More than half of the 63 dancers making up the troupe have complained of untenable working conditions under Hamburg Ballet’s artistic director, Demis Volpi, who joined the company last September, taking over from the US choreographer John Neumeier.Neumeier, who retired last year at the age of 86 after 51 years in the role, is credited with having taken the German company from relative obscurity to a position of world renown in the dance world.But the mood at the company is now restive, according to a letter written last month to Hamburg’s minister of culture, Carsten Brosda, and seen by reputable German media.Five of its 11 first soloists, considered the stars of the ensemble, have announced their resignation, and are due to leave the company at the end of the current season.View image in fullscreenBoth collectively and individually, they have complained of Volpi’s lack of leadership and artistic expertise, and the “deep mistrust that [he] has towards his employees”.“The current leadership is creating increasing internal problems and a toxic working environment through poor communication, a lack of transparency and an often dismissive attitude,” the letter reads.The criticisms have been echoed by dancers from the company Ballett am Rhein in Düsseldorf, where Volpi was at the helm for four years. They say they were moved by their counterparts in Hamburg to open up about their own similar experiences with him.In a letter also addressed to Brosda, 17 Rhein dancers wrote: “During his time with us, we found that Mr Volpi created a work environment characterised by inconsistent communication, a lack of transparency, and an atmosphere of fear and uncertainty.“Constructive feedback was often met with negative consequences, which made open exchange difficult and undermined trust.”The dancers warn in the letter: “It is only a matter of time until not only John Neumeier’s legacy will be lost, but also the high standard and the international reputation that the company enjoys.”Hamburg’s first soloist, Alexandr Trusch, who came to the company aged 12, after moving to Hamburg from Ukraine, said he was “abandoning everything” by leaving after 23 years because he could not tolerate the existing situation.“I’m giving up everything, my career, my work, because I can’t support such behaviour and such a low level of artistry which is in danger of destroying everything,” he told broadcaster NDR, saying he did not have a new post in place. He accused Volpi of being someone who “is very good at selling his visions, but the quality he delivers is abysmal”.The other soloists to have announced their departure are Madoka Sugai, Jacopo Bellussi, Christopher Evans and Alessandro Frola.Sugai, 30, from Atsugi City, Japan, confirmed in an interview with Die Zeit that her departure was related to Volpi’s style of leadership.Evans, 30, from Loveland, Colorado, who was the first soloist to announce his resignation, told the newspaper: “I don’t feel like Volpi understands us or has any idea how much work we put in and how much passion we put into our work.”Volpi, 39, who is German-Argentinian, denied the accusations in an interview last week with the Hamburger Abendblatt. More recently, he told the Rheinische Post: “Intensive discussions are possible and are taking place right now.”He told Die Zeit he would like to respond to the dancers’ letter, but said they had yet to send it to him.“I don’t have the letter,” he said, adding that he was “willing to work on things”, but for that to happen “the criticism must be brought to my attention”.A coach “who specialises in processes of change” in the field of the performing arts had been appointed at the ballet, Volpi said, whose job would be to mediate between the parties.Volpi was approached by the Guardian for comment through the Hamburg Ballet. Requests for information to the company have been directed to Brosda.In a written statement, Brosda said: “We take the accusations very seriously and are carrying out lots of discussions behind the scenes. The management and the company must now quickly find solutions together to prevent further damage to everyone.”Meanwhile, the company is continuing to rehearse for the first ballet production choreographed by Volpi for Hamburg in July, an adaptation of the Hermann Hesse novel Demian, a coming-of-age tale that investigates the themes of identity and morality. Dance critics are expected to be paying far more attention than usual.
Moody’s ratings agency has stripped the US of its last perfect credit rating.United States debt has long been considered the safest of all safe havens.But, Washington has just lost its pristine reputation as a borrower.Moody’s has downgraded the nation from its top-notch AAA rating, becoming the last of the big three agencies to do so.The ratings agency has cited the United States’s growing debt – now at $36 trillion, almost 120 percent of gross domestic product – and rising debt service costs.Against this backdrop, President Donald Trump is pushing what he calls the “one big, beautiful bill”.Critics warn his tax cut package could add trillions more to the already ballooning deficit.
Good morning.A former Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has said that what Israel “is doing now in Gaza is very close to a war crime”.Olmert, prime minister from 2006 to 2009, said in an interview with the BBC that the “obvious appearance” of the campaign was that Israel was killing many Palestinians, and that “from every point of view, this is obnoxious and outrageous”. His comments came after the leader of Israel’s center-left Democrats party said his country was becoming a pariah nation that “kills babies as a hobby”.Echoing warnings from the UN on Tuesday over Israel continuing to block food from starving Palestinians, the MSF aid group on Wednesday said that the volume of aid Israel had begun to allow into the Gaza Strip was completely insufficient and was being used as “a smokescreen to pretend the siege is over”.
How are other countries responding? The UK on Tuesday suspended talks over a new free trade deal, while the EU – Israel’s largest trading partner – said it would review its agreement with Israel.
Trump rolls out Golden Dome missile defense projectView image in fullscreenDonald Trump said on Tuesday that he would be pressing ahead with a missile defense system that could cost up to $540bn.Referred to as the “Golden Dome”, Trump imagines the system as shielding the US from strikes using ground and space-based weapons. He said Republicans had agreed to allocate $25bn in initial funding.The congressional budget office estimates that the final cost could be more than 20 times that over the next two decades.
Who will lead it? Trump announced that Gen Michael Guetlein of the US Space Force would oversee the implementation of the project.
What will it look like? That is still unclear. In general it appears similar to Israel’s “Iron Dome”, but Trump has yet to decide which of the three Pentagon proposals – small, medium or large – he wants to pursue.
Judge orders US officials to keep custody of migrants flown to South SudanView image in fullscreenA federal judge on Tuesday ordered the Trump administration to keep a group of migrants being flown to South Sudan in the custody of US immigration authorities after saying their deportation appeared to be in breach of a court order.In an eleventh-hour virtual hearing, the US district judge Brian Murphy in Boston said officials could be held in criminal contempt if he found they violated his previous order banning the rapid deportation of migrants to states that were not their country of origin, before they could voice concerns about the risk of torture or persecution.
How could authorities comply with the request? They could turn the plane around, or they could keep the migrants in the airplane on the tarmac when it lands.
What’s the situation in South Sudan? There are fears that a civil war could erupt again soon. Conditions are dangerous even for local people.
In other news …View image in fullscreen
Aid cuts driven by the dismantling of USAID are threatening efforts to reduce maternal deaths in Nigeria, which has nearly a third of the total globally.
The world’s first gonorrhoea vaccine will be introduced in England amid rising cases of the sexually transmitted infection.
The private secretary and an adviser to Mexico City’s mayor have been shot dead in an ambush in broad daylight in a central neighborhood.
Most AI chatbots can be easily tricked into giving harmful responses, a study has found, allowing them to help users commit crimes.
Stat of the day: Almost half a billion young people ‘will be obese or overweight by 2030’View image in fullscreenYoung people’s health has reached a “tipping point”, the authors of new research have warned, with 464 million people aged between 10 and 24 predicted to be obese or overweight by 2030 – 143 million more than in 2015. Rather than being “just a matter of individual choices”, the authors said the rise was being caused by poor food and health systems.Don’t miss this: How amputee football supports Ukraine’s survivorsView image in fullscreenBefore Russia’s invasion in February 2022, Ukraine had just 10 registered amputee footballers. But with estimates suggesting up to 50,000 people have lost limbs since then, there are now 170 Ukrainian amputee footballers. One described a new player who came to a session with his young daughter: “I took the ball, kicked it towards the little girl and told her to pass it to her father. They started to play between themselves, and that’s how I first saw him smile after his injury. Now he’s the soul of the party and a totally different person.”Climate check: Fires last year caused record loss of world’s forestsView image in fullscreenFires, resulting from global heating, overtook agriculture and logging to become the main cause of the destruction of the world’s forests last year, according to new data. The loss of forests has reached its highest level, with an area the size of Italy disappearing from burning, farming, logging and mining.Last Thing: Surviving New York’s 50-hour, non-stop techno festivalWith New York’s reputation as a techno hub on the decline, the Guardian’s Michelle Hyun Kim reported back from the city’s 50-hour Wire festival, where she subsisted off “fig bars and electrolyte packets” as there was no food on offer. “Amid incense smoke and overlapping limbs stretched across astroturf, I felt like my skin could eventually grow moss if I stayed long enough,” she writes of the ambient stage.Sign upFirst Thing is delivered to thousands of inboxes every weekday. If you’re not already signed up, subscribe now.Get in touchIf you have any questions or comments about any of our newsletters please email newsletters@theguardian.com
A team of doctors and vets in Pakistan has developed a novel treatment for a pair of elephants suffering from tuberculosis that involves feeding them at least 400 pills a day. The jumbo effort by staff at the Karachi Safari Park involves administering the tablets — the same as those used to treat TB in humans — hidden inside food ranging from apples and bananas to Pakistani sweets The amount of medication is adjusted to account for the weight of the 8,800-pound elephants. But it’s taken Madhubala and Malika several weeks to settle into the treatment after spitting out the first few doses they tasted of the bitter medicine and crankily charging their keepers.
Photo taken on May 16, 2025 shows Ali Baloch, a minder, feeding a medicated meal to Malika, an elephant who has tuberculosis, at the Safari Park in Karachi. A team of Pakistani doctors is treating the stubborn sisters at least 400 pills each a day.
RIZWAN TABASSUM / AFP via Getty Images
“Giving treatment for TB to elephants is always challenging. Each day we use different methods,” said Buddhika Bandara, a veterinary surgeon from Sri Lanka who flew in to oversee the treatment.
“The animals showed some stress in the beginning, but gradually they adapted to the procedure,” said Bandara, who has helped more than a dozen elephants recover from the illness in Sri Lanka. Ali Baloch, a minder, wakes early each day to stew rice and lentils, mixed with plenty of sugar cane molasses, and rolls the concoction into dozens of balls pierced with the tablets. “I know the pills are bitter,” the 22-year-old said, watching the elephants splashing under a hose to keep cool.Karachi’s history of TB in elephantsFour African elephants — captured very young in the wild in Tanzania — arrived in Karachi in 2009.
Noor Jehan died in 2023 at the age of 17, and another, Sonia, followed at the end of 2024. An autopsy showed she had contracted tuberculosis, which is endemic in Pakistan. Tests carried out on Madhubala and Malika also came back positive and the city council — which owns the safari park — assembled a team to care for the pachyderms.
Photo taken on May 16, 2025 shows Ali Baloch, right, a minder, preparing medicated meals for Madhubala and Malika, elephants who have tuberculosis, at the Safari Park in Karachi. A team of Pakistani doctors is treating them at least 400 pills each a day.
RIZWAN TABASSUM / AFP via Getty Images
Bandara said it’s not uncommon for elephants to contract the contagious illness from humans, but that Sonia — and now Madhubala and Malika — had shown no symptoms. “It was surprising for me that elephants have TB,” said Naseem Salahuddin, head of the Infectious Disease Department at the Indus Hospital and Health Network, who was enrolled to monitor staff. “This is an interesting case for me and my students — everyone wants to know about the procedure and its progress,” she told AFP. The team of four minders wear face masks and scrubs when feeding the elephants to avoid contracting a disease that infects more than 500,000 humans a year. Karachi Safari Park has long been criticized for the mistreatment of captive animals — including an elephant evacuated after a campaign by American singer Cher — but is hoping its last two elephants will overcome the illness with a year-long treatment plan.
The Nationals were divided on the decision to abandon the Coalition, David Littleproud has conceded, as the leader also levelled veiled criticism at Peter Dutton over policy failures during the disastrous election campaign.Some MPs have publicly called for the Coalition to be reunited, including former leader and Nationals MP Michael McCormack, who told Guardian Australia that he spoke out against the split.“I spoke against it, and I’m not going to deny that, because I feel, as John Howard does, that Australia is best served under a Coalition government of Liberals and Nationals,” he said.
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“But we’ve decided to take a break for the time being … and I accept that decision.”McCormack said he would continue to advocate publicly and privately for the Coalition to reunite.Guardian Australia understands Littleproud will allocate portfolios as soon as Thursday with the Nationals set to wage their own arguments on the economy, industrial relations and energy.The Nationals’ decision to break up the Coalition has sent shock waves through the conservative side of politics, with Howard joined by fellow former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott in urging a rapid reconciliation.“History shows that the Liberals and the Nationals win together and fail separately,” Abbott wrote on X.Negotiations on a new Coalition agreement collapsed after the new Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, refused to immediately sign up to the country party’s policy demands or grant Nationals MPs in shadow cabinet members the freedom to break ranks.On Tuesday morning, Littleproud communicated Ley’s firm position to colleagues who then agreed to abandon negotiations and blow up the Coalition.The Nationals did not disclose the result of the party room vote but Littleproud and the deputy leader, Kevin Hogan, conceded on Wednesday that it was not unanimous.“I think you’d be naive to think any party room would get a unanimous decision,” Littleproud told reporters in Canberra.Hogan said the party room was “not unanimous but was quite conclusive”.Littleproud staunchly defended the “principled” decision to cut ties with the Liberals over its refusal to immediately re-commit to positions on nuclear power, a $20bn regional future fund, powers to break up supermarkets, and reliable phone and internet access in the bush.But on Wednesday night, the reason for the split remained in dispute as Ley swiftly denied Bridget McKenzie’s claim that allowing Nationals shadow cabinet members to vote against shadow cabinet decisions in the parliament was not part of the Nationals’ demands.Asked on ABC’s 7.30 program if Ley was lying when stating Nationals’ shadow ministers wanted to break cabinet solidarity as a condition of a new agreement, McKenzie said it was “not part of our consideration” and Nationals’ demands were limited to the four policy ultimatums.“Sussan Ley wasn’t part of our party room discussions. I was,” McKenzie said. “I won’t go into the details of that, but I can categorically tell you why we made the decision we did and what that was based on. It’s why we sought, in writing from the Liberal leader, her guarantee around those four policy areas.”The 7.30 host, Sarah Ferguson, then shared a statement from Ley’s office in response that said it was “not correct to subject that shadow cabinet solidarity was not a sticking point”.“And they – that is, Sussan Ley’s office – have that in writing,” Ferguson added.Earlier on Wednesday, Nationals MP Darren Chester told the ABC the Coalition should be reunited before the next election.“If we go to the next sitting of parliament being two divided party rooms we are giving a free pass to the prime minister,” he said.“I would suggest let’s have these conversations sooner rather than later. The longer this goes on, I think it becomes harder to reconcile the differences.”skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionThe break will have major ramifications for senior Nationals MPs, who will lose shadow cabinet positions and the extra pay and staffing numbers that come with them.Littleproud is expected to allocate portfolios on Thursday or Friday, with the split from the Liberals allowing the Nationals to branch out beyond their traditional areas of agriculture, water, trade, transport and resources.The split has reopened wounds from the Coalition’s disastrous election campaign.Littleproud said the Peter Dutton-led campaign failed to combat Anthony Albanese’s “lie” about a $600bn price for nuclear reactors or mount the case that the Coalition’s energy plan would be cheaper than Labor’s renewables-focused approach.“We couldn’t sell that. We didn’t sell that,” he told ABC’s RN Breakfast.The Nationals leader also criticised the “fiasco” surrounding the Coalition’s plan to restrict work-from-home for public servants, which was ultimately abandoned mid-campaign after a major backlash.The junior Coalition partner was blind-sided by the policy, which was not endorsed by shadow cabinet before it was announced.Guardian Australia has learned senior Nationals were privately seething at the policy, which threatened to disrupt regional families who relied on flexible work arrangements, including to commute from the regions to the city.In government, the Nationals successfully lobbied for commonwealth public servants and agencies, such as the Murray-Darling Basin Authority, to be shifted to the regions.The breakup could make it harder to retain Senate seats in Victoria and NSW, where the Nationals run joint tickets with the Liberals.Even if the parties were not reunited before the next election, due in 2028, Littleproud hinted that state officials could still thrash out a deal to run candidates under the one ticket.But he acknowledged the threat of losing seats was one of the risks that was weighed up during the party room debate.“I can assure you that when we had discussions in the party room, all those risks and factors were put on the table,” he said.“We still got to the decision because you know what? We’re here for a reason.”