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OBR has reportedly downgraded predictions after review that blames lack of investment under Tories

Ike Ekweremadu serving prison sentence after being found guilty of conspiring to exploit a man for his kidneyThe UK government has rejected a request by Nigeria to deport a former senior Nigerian politician convicted of organ trafficking.Ike Ekweremadu, 63, a former deputy president of the Nigerian senate and ally of the former president Goodluck Jonathan, is serving a sentence of nine years and eight months after being found guilty in 2023 of conspiring to exploit a man for his kidney. Continue reading...

IOPC said four officers may potentially have breached standards in handling abuse claims by Brella, 24, found dead last yearFour Northamptonshire police officers are facing misconduct hearings due to their handling of abuse claims by Harshita Brella, who was found dead last year.Brella, a 24-year-old from Corby, was found dead in a car boot in Ilford, east London, on 14 November 2024. It is suspected she was strangled in Corby, Northamptonshire on 10 November. Continue reading...

Providers report a median operating loss of nearly 4% in the last financial year - with losses totalling about 12% over five years

Research by Choice suggests 53% of people either regretted a purchase or had a negative experience during the sales, as other experts warn against overspending and scams

Jon M Chu's sequel, starring Ariana Grande and Cynthia Erivo, is the second biggest US opening of the year and the biggest international opening for a stage musical adaptationThe extraordinary promotional juggernaut for Wicked: For Good, Jon M Chu's sequel to the 2024 first instalment of his Broadway adaptation, appears to have paid off, with the film this weekend smashing box office records held by its predecessor.Its global total at the end of the weekend stands at $226m, considerably up on the $164.2m earned by its predecessor. The major change was in the domestic takings: while last year's film took more than double its initial take in the US - $114m to $50.2m overseas - this concluding instalment has corrected that overindexing, with $76m banked from international territories. Continue reading...

Late singer's personal effects up for sale including a trunk gifted to her by Carrie Fisher, and artworks by Anita Pallenberg and Marlene DumasDiaries and a gift from actor Carrie Fisher are among the personal items from Marianne Faithfull that are going up for auction in London.The musician died in January aged 78, leaving behind a cache of fascinating portraits, photographs and ephemera from a glamorous, sometimes troubled life. Each piece tells a story and reflects her spirit and inimitable taste," her son Nicholas Dunbar said. It is time now for these belongings to find new homes and I hope that they will bring as much joy to their new owners as they did Marianne." Continue reading...

Embassy's employment of Gila Ben-Yakov Phillips is potentially violation of UK sanctions law, say expertsThe British embassy in Tel Aviv may have broken both UK sanctions law and UK government security policies by employing an Israeli citizen who owns a home in an illegal settlement in occupied Palestine, legal experts have said.The embassy's deputy head of corporate services and HR, Gila Ben-Yakov Phillips, moved to Kerem Reim in 2022. She listed a house she bought there as her home address on financial documents at the time. Continue reading...

Bureau of Meteorology warns damaging to destructive winds' possible as thunderstorms track across state

Survivor tells how she was trapped under hot machinery' in the wreckage after the choppers crashed over the Gold Coast

Blow to leftist coalition government of PM Pedro Sanchez, who appointed Alvaro Garcia Ortiz in 2022Spain's chief prosecutor has announced his resignation after the supreme court found him guilty last week of leaking confidential information in a case involving a leading opposition figure's partner.The unprecedented case is a blow to the leftist coalition government of the prime minister, Pedro Sanchez, who appointed Alvaro Garcia Ortiz in 2022 and has defended his innocence repeatedly. Continue reading...

Sydney band, as well as Ninajirachi and rapper Barkaa, win new state government awards aiming to support local musicians against international competition

FTSE 100-listed miner forces Australian company to walk away from takeover after rebuffing second approachBHP has walked away from another attempt to take over rival miner Anglo American after it was again rebuffed, failing in a last-minute effort to disrupt the planned merger with Canadian mining business Teck Resources.The Australian mining company reportedly became interested in making another offer for FTSE 100-listed Anglo last week, more than a year after abandoning a 39bn attempt to buy the business. Continue reading...

Nationals senator Matt Canavan says One Nation leader debased' parliament while independent Fatima Payman says she is disrespecting Muslim Australians'

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University leaders says planned levy on international student fees will leave many institutions even worse offUniversity students in England get just two-thirds of the funding they would have received a decade ago, after inflation and government cuts have reduced the resources available for teaching, according to vice-chancellors.University leaders said the situation was likely to get worse if the government went ahead with a new levy on international student fees in Wednesday's budget. Continue reading...

Liberal party senator calls Department of Parliamentary Services email incredibly concerning'

Actor who appeared in My Own Private Idaho, Blade, Armageddon and Dogville, as well as Madonna music videos and video games, died on SundayUdo Kier, the German actor who appeared in 275 roles across Hollywood and European cinema, including multiple films by Rainer Werner Fassbinder, Gus Van Sant and Lars von Trier, has died aged 81.Kier died on Sunday morning, his partner Delbert McBride told Variety. The actor died in hospital in Palm Springs, California, his friend the photographer Michael Childers announced on social media. No cause of death was given. Continue reading...

MPs will examine Michael Prescott's claims of liberal bias in coverage of Gaza, racial diversity and trans issuesThe BBC has been plunged into crisis by the sudden resignation of its director general, Tim Davie, and the head of news, Deborah Turness. Their departure followed a disagreement over how to respond to a memo from its former external adviser Michael Prescott, in which he claimed there were serious and systemic problems" at the corporation. He alleged liberal bias in its coverage of the US election, Gaza and racial diversity and transgender issues.Their decision shocked many in New Broadcasting House, but what emerged in the hours after their departure was talk of a rightwing coup", board splits and crippling delays. Continue reading...

Former PM to examine issue of trust in politics and Oscar-winning actor's show will discuss AIThe former prime minister Theresa May is to guest edit Radio 4's Today programme and use it to explore the issue of dwindling trust in politics.May, who resigned in 2019 with a tearful statement about the honour she felt in holding the office, will edit Today on New Year's Eve. Continue reading...

Musicologist Peter Wollny chanced upon the manuscripts in 1992 and authenticating them took half of his lifetimeThe best fictional detectives are famed for their intuition, an ability to spot some seemingly ineffable discrepancy. Peter Wollny, the musicologist behind last week's world sensational" revelation of two previously unknown works by Johann Sebastian Bach, had a funny feeling when he chanced upon two intriguing sheets of music in a dusty library in 1992.His equivalent of the Columbo turn, from mere hunch to unravelling a secret, would take up half his life. Continue reading...

Competition-winning apartment building plans should be approved twice as quickly by NSW councils, and will be three to six storeys high

Australian foreign minister echoes European call for sovereignty to be respected and for end to Russia's illegal and immoral war'

Charities say vulnerable young people are being failed by local authorities, the police and central governmentMore than 2,000 children who have been trafficked or who arrived in the UK alone to claim asylum disappeared from social services' care last year, according to freedom of information data shared with the Guardian.The authors of a report, Until Harm Ends, submitted FoI requests to children's services departments in councils across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland asking for information about trafficked children and those who arrived alone in the UK and claimed asylum, who then went missing after being taken into care. Continue reading...

In-app notifications go out this week to users believed to be aged under 16 ahead of 10 December social media ban

Move aims to bring in extra 1.2bn of savings as government seeks to head off criticism over welfare spending

US-Ukraine statement comes hours after European countries propose their own alternative peaceThe US and Ukraine said they had created an updated and refined peace framework" to end the war with Russia, hours after European countries proposed their own radical alternative that omitted some of the pro-Russia points made in an original US-backed document that was leaked last week.The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, emerged from a meeting in Switzerland late on Sunday with a Ukrainian delegation led by Volodymyr Zelenskyy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, saying he was very optimistic" about the progress of the talks. A joint statement between the two countries said that any eventual deal would fully uphold" Ukraine's sovereignty. Continue reading...

Tributes paid to culinary visionary' who was early celebrity proponent of using local and seasonal ingredientsTributes have been paid to the pioneering chef and restaurant proprietor Skye Gyngell, who has died aged 62.The Australian was an early celebrity proponent of using local and seasonal ingredients and built a garden restaurant from scratch, the Petersham Nurseries Cafe in Richmond, south-west London, which went on to win a Michelin star. Continue reading...

Re:State report says role hospitals play needs fundamental reinvention' to deliver better care for patientsHospitals need to become smaller, with fewer beds, to help save the NHS from its permacrisis", a thinktank has said.The role hospitals play needs to undergo a fundamental reinvention" to help them escape the overcrowding that has become widespread over the last decade, according to the thinktank Re:State. Continue reading...

Planned overhaul of editorial guidelines committee would dilute influence of Tory board appointment Robbie GibbThe BBC is planning to overhaul the way it investigates editorial concerns, in a move that will dilute the influence of a Conservative figure accused of trying to sway its political impartiality.A new deputy director general post is also expected to be created to aid Tim Davie's successor as director general, after concerns that the task of overseeing the corporation has become too big for one person. Continue reading...

Brazil's former president says he took a soldering iron to electronic tag as he was hallucinating that it was buggedBrazil's far-right former president Jair Bolsonaro has claimed he took a soldering iron to his electronic ankle monitor after having a substance-induced psychotic attack" that caused him to hallucinate that the device was bugged.Bolsonaro made the claim during a custody hearing on Sunday, 24 hours after he was arrested at his home in the capital, Brasilia, amid suspicions he was planning to abscond to a foreign embassy to avoid being sent to jail to serve a 27-year sentence for masterminding a failed coup. Continue reading...

Sarah Forrester, 55, was found unresponsive at a home in Moredon, with a 13-year-old girl arrested and later bailedPolice have named a woman whose death has sparked a murder investigation.Sarah Forrester, 55, a mental health counsellor, died after an incident at a house in Moredon, Swindon, on Friday evening. Continue reading...

Fifty groups write letter calling for policy in high-profile cases in England and Wales to be scrappedThe police's decision to reveal the ethnicity and nationality of suspects in high-profile crimes has had a devastating effect" and is helping to spread prejudice, racial justice campaigners say.The warning comes from the Runnymede Trust and 50 other groups demanding that the policy in England and Wales is scrapped, in a letter sent to the home secretary and police chiefs on Friday. Continue reading...

People rightly want to get get paid for their work, says Liz Kendall, in apparent change of tack to predecessorThe technology secretary, Liz Kendall, has indicated she is sympathetic to artists' demands not to have their copyrighted works scraped by AI companies without payment and said she wanted to reset" the debate.In remarks that suggest a change in approach from her predecessor, Peter Kyle, who had hoped to require artists to actively opt out of having their work ingested by generative AI systems, she said people rightly want to get paid for the work that they do" and we have to find a way that both sectors can grow and thrive in future". Continue reading...

Chancellor Friedrich Merz says we are still a long way from that' as Trump blasts Ukrainian leadership on social mediaThe Ukrainian delegation has held talks with European security officials in Geneva, according to the head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy's office, Andriy Yermak.Overall, a series of meetings in various formats is planned for today. We continue working together to achieve a lasting and just peace for Ukraine," Yermak wrote in a post on X. The next meeting is with the US delegation. We are in a very constructive mood." Continue reading...

TUC calls on chancellor to focus on child poverty and upping minimum wageUnions have urged the chancellor to keep focused on raising living standards, targeting child poverty and upping the national minimum wage, in the face of renewed calls from business to change course on employment rights.The TUC said that Rachel Reeves must deliver a living standards budget" on Wednesday to ease the pressure on working households whose incomes have remained stagnant in more than a decade. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Man box' stereotype of appearing tough and believing in rigid gender roles linked to likelihood of committing acts of abuse, new report finds

Unable to reunite with their families in Gaza due to the closed border, Palestinian workers have spent two years in a refugee camp at Nablus stadiumInside a dim locker room at the Nablus municipal stadium, in the occupied West Bank, the television rarely goes dark, streaming day and night the relentless news from Gaza. Gathered in front of it are a group of men from Khan Younis. For more than two years, they have lived in this stadium converted into a refugee camp, their lives suspended between exile and the war they watched on a screen.They are mostly construction workers who were in Israel on the morning of 7 October 2023 when Hamas launched its attack. As Israel rounded up Palestinians from Gaza, they fled to the West Bank, where they remain - cut off from wives and children living in makeshift tents inside the strip. With very few exceptions, civilians are not currently allowed in or out of Gaza. Continue reading...

TV personality wants homeowners and businesses to shun dishonest' firms Arconic, Kingspan and CelotexGrenfell United and the TV architect George Clarke are calling on businesses and homeowners to take a moral decision" and boycott the companies criticised in the Grenfell inquiry for systematic dishonesty".Clarke, best known for his series George Clarke's Amazing Spaces, said he had made the decision not to use products from Arconic, Kingspan and Celotex, three companies that were heavily criticised in the findings of the Grenfell inquiry published last year and who have continued to deny wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Jason Clare says new powers will ensure information is accurate, comprehensive and representative' to help government deliver evidence-based reforms'

Artworks to go on display in January at Bethlem Museum of the Mind, in the world's oldest psychiatric hospitalFrom images of empty community rooms and a colourful canvas crammed with caricatures to a baby linked by an umbilical-like cord to a seated stranger, artworks on the subject of mental health are to go on display in an exhibition that examines social bonds against the backdrop of today's polarised times.Artists have long drawn on their own experiences of mental ill health. Staged at the Bethlem Museum of the Mind, in the world's oldest psychiatric hospital, in south-east London, Kindred will explore the power of communities to make people feel comforted as well as isolated. Continue reading...

Standoff between China and EU over supply of chips for car industry underlines value of sector requiring huge financial investmentKeir Starmer has announced a critical minerals and rare earths strategy to build resilience against China, which has a stranglehold on supplies of materials including magnets critical to everything from car doors to fridges.For too long, Britain has been dependent on a handful of overseas suppliers, leaving our economy and national security exposed to global shocks," the prime minister said. Continue reading...

Severe lack' in territory where Israeli strikes have killed more than 50 people and injured over 100 in recent daysHospitals in Gaza are running out of essential supplies, with new waves of Israeli airstrikes killing more than 50 people and injuring more than 100 in recent days, medical and aid workers in the devastated Palestinian territory have said.Medics told the Guardian on Sunday that stocks of gauze, antiseptics, thermometers and antibiotics were running low. Continue reading...

Did the talks succeed or fail? The verdict must take account of the geopolitical minefield they took place inCop30 in Belem wrapped up on Saturday night more than 24 hours later than planned, and with an Amazonian rainstorm thundering down on the conference centre. The United Nations structure just about held, as it has done these past three weeks despite fire, savage tropical heat and blistering political attacks on the multilateral system of global environmental governance.Dozens of agreements were gavelled through on the final day, as the most collective form of humanity worked to resolve the most complex and dangerous challenge that our species has ever faced. It was chaotic. The process very nearly collapsed and had to be rescued by last-ditch talks that lasted into the early morning. Veteran observers told me the Paris agreement was on life-support. Continue reading...

Professionals say claims about birth, including excessive bleeding, blue babies and placenta care, are dangerous Full story: How the FBS is linked to baby deaths around the worldThe Free Birth Society (FBS) is a multimillion-dollar business that promotes the idea of women giving birth with no medical assistance.It is led by two ex-doulas turned social media influencers: Emilee Saldaya and Yolande Norris-Clark. Neither have midwifery or medical training, but they claim to have extensive experience from attending the births of other women. Continue reading...

Calls for Rachel Reeves to increase taxes in budget as estimate outstrips duties collected from online casinosBritish gambling companies spent an astronomic" 2bn on advertising and marketing last year, according to a new estimate that has intensified calls for the chancellor to increase taxes on the sector.Bookmakers, online casinos and slot machine companies spent the sum through a mixture of print and digital promotions, as well as affiliate programmes, where third parties are paid to steer gamblers towards particular operators in return for a fee. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Member of homeland security group says anti-terrorism Prevent scheme risks being overwhelmed by Palestine advocatesThe anti-terrorism Prevent programme risks being overwhelmed because of the government's ban on Palestine Action and could lead to people being wrongly criminalised, a member of the Home Office's homeland security group has warned.The official said there was already confusion among counter-terrorism police, officials and in schools and hospitals as a result of the proscription of the direct action group, which makes being a member of - or showing support for - it a criminal offence under the Terrorism Act. Continue reading...

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Environment ministry says most of the deaths were in the mountainous central province of Dak LakThe death toll from major flooding in Vietnam has risen to 90, with 12 more people missing, the environment ministry said on Sunday after days of heavy rain and landslides.Relentless rain has lashed south-central Vietnam since late October and popular holiday destinations have been hit by several rounds of flooding. Continue reading...