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Exclusive: court of appeal ruling into disciplinary procedures may mean sacked officers need to be reinstated or compensated

Swedish police pressing ahead with removal of Kathleen Poole, 74, due to incomplete post-Brexit paperworkThe family of a woman with Alzheimer’s who is threatened with deportation from Sweden have vowed to do anything they can to stop her removal because of a promise they made to their children.Kathleen Poole, 74, is facing forced removal from Sweden, her home for 18 years, after immigration authorities rejected an application by her family to stay in the country post-Brexit on the grounds her paperwork was incomplete. Continue reading...

Former New Zealand prime minister will push initiative she created in wake of 2019 terrorist attackFormer New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern will take on a new role working alongside international governments and social media companies to target extremism and terrorist content online.Prime minister Chris Hipkins announced on Tuesday evening that he had appointed Ardern as special envoy for the Christchurch Call, a newly created position. Continue reading...

Home affairs minister announces the launch of a new series of exercises to respond to attacks on critical infrastructureAustralia must prepare for a “dystopian future” in which increasingly digitally connected cities may be “held hostage through interference in everything from traffic lights to surgery schedules”, a senior minister has warned.Clare O’Neil said the Medicare, Optus and Latitude data breaches were only the “tip of the iceberg” in the cyber threats Australia faced in the years ahead. Continue reading...

Building that closed after disaster off Cornish coast in which 16 people lost their lives granted Grade II-listed statusWeather-battered oilskins still hang on the boathouse drying rack; the tools in the mechanic’s workshop are carefully ordered as if ready to be used at any moment; and the service boards recording decades of gallant rescues retain their polished finish.Forty-two years after the Penlee lifeboat disaster, in which 16 people died including the eight Royal National Lifeboat Institution crew members, the old rescue station at Penlee Point looks much as it did in 1981 and is now to be preserved for the nation. Continue reading...

ACT supreme court considers whether to publish sentencing remarks about former official jailed for disclosure of confidential information

Losing more nurses from workforce already facing shortages and burnout could reduce quality of patient care, union organiser saysThousands of New Zealand nurses are registering to work in Australia in pursuit of better pay and conditions, amid staffing shortages and industrial action in their home country.Almost 5,000 New Zealand nurses have registered to practise in Australia since August, a spokesperson from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (Ahpra) and the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia confirmed on Tuesday. While not every nurse who registers will make the move, they make up about 8% of the approximately 65,000 nurses registered in New Zealand. Continue reading...

The torso of alleged murder victim Geoffrey McLean was discovered at a vacant block at Salisbury South in October

Prohibition of Chinese social media app follows similar bans in other western countries

Novelist compares UK to Hungary in Radio Times interview, while Ken Bruce criticises handling of Radio 2 exitThe BBC is “under threat, politically,” the novelist Ian McEwan has said, as he compared sections of the Conservative party to the populist right in Hungary.The author of Amsterdam, On Chesil Beach and Atonement recently collaborated with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for an evening of words and music at the Barbican. The event came as the BBC’s classical music performing groups faced “catastrophic” cuts, and the corporation’s high-profile presenters including Gary Lineker clashed with the government over its policies. Continue reading...

The Bibby Stockholm is said to have more than 220 bedrooms and facilities including a gym and barThe Home Office is poised to reveal a barge as its first offshore accommodation for asylum seekers, the Guardian understands.The Bibby Stockholm has been used “all over Europe” to accommodate asylum seekers, according to sources close to the Barbados Maritime ship registry, which oversees the use of this vessel. It currently has a gym, a well-furnished bar and more than 220 en-suite bedrooms over three decks. Continue reading...

Figures show usage has barely shifted in a year, despite rising food poverty in UKThe government has missed its target to increase the take-up of NHS healthy food vouchers aimed at vulnerable parents of young children, it has emerged, despite soaring grocery prices and rising food poverty.The latest figures show that take-up of the ill-starred Healthy Start scheme, designed to help pregnant women and parents of under-fours in low-income families pay for fruit, vegetables, milk, and baby milk powder, has barely shifted in a year. Continue reading...

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Petteri Orpo’s NCP pushes party of predecessor Sanna Marin into third place in tight electionFinland’s probable new conservative prime minister, Petteri Orpo, will this week start exploring coalition options after a narrow election win that shifted the Nordic country’s politics to the right and pushed the party of his predecessor Sanna Marin, a star of Europe’s left, into third place.Final results showed Orpo’s National Conservative party (NCP), which campaigned on a platform of reining in public spending, won 48 seats in the 200-seat parliament, with the far-right, anti-immigration Finns party (PS) getting 46 and Marin’s Social Democrats (SDP) 43. Continue reading...

Exclusive: More than a dozen women raise concerns about different men – with one woman alleging she was raped at staff partyMore than a dozen women claim to have been victims of various forms of sexual misconduct by senior figures at the Confederation of British Industry, including one who alleges she was raped at a staff party on a boat on the River Thames.The women, who all work at the CBI or worked there in recent years, approached the Guardian with fresh concerns about what they describe as a toxic culture at Britain’s most influential business lobbying organisation.An attempted sexual assault by a manager at the same staff boat party in 2019.A senior manager sending explicit images to junior female staff over several years.Other senior managers behaving unprofessionally and inappropriately towards much younger female colleagues: alleged instances include a former board member touching a female employee’s bottom and making what was seen as a sexualised remark to another woman in earshot of several colleagues.A manager propositioning women after they felt he pushed them to drink more alcohol, while they were already drunk.Widespread use of cocaine at official CBI events. Continue reading...

Apo Whang-Od appears on front of Philippine edition and is credited with keeping batok form of art aliveAn Indigenous tattooist in the Philippines credited with helping to keep alive a form of the art known as batok has become the oldest Vogue cover star after appearing in the Philippine edition of the magazine at the age of 106.Apo Whang-Od, who is from Buscalan, a remote, mountainous village in the Kalinga province of the northern Philippines, began tattooing at 16. Once described as the last remaining mambabatok, or traditional Kalinga tattooist, she has since inspired a new generation to learn batok, said Vogue. Batok involves tapping the tattoo into the skin by hand, using a thorn, which is dipped in soot and natural dye, and is attached to a bamboo stick. Continue reading...

In city where they make up 14.8% of the population, Black people occupy just 4.6% of top public positions, analysis finds

Sir Peter Wanless welcomes creation of taskforce but says ‘there must be a focus on more than just race’

Opposition leader blames state division for result, while Victorian MPs say lack of distinct policy direction hindered candidate

Only 18 of 382 councils have minimum gender representation parity, say equality charitiesThe vast majority (95%) of local authorities across the UK are dominated by men, while only just over a third of local councillors are women, according to figures that highlight the gender disparities of local government.The analysis, conducted by the Fawcett Society and Democracy Club in the run-up to local elections in May, reveal only 18 of 382 councils have the minimum gender representation parity. Continue reading...

Palaszczuk government accepts report into law that enabled Brisbane’s Citipointe Christian College to warn teachers they could be fired for being openly homosexual

Report says significantly fewer dwellings will be completed over the next few years, even as the number of new households continues to increase

Jurors on Monday handed down mixed verdicts, convicting Leifer of 18 offences against two students, and acquitting her of nine charges

Palestinian women are fighting back, despite personal losses and scarcity of opportunities in the conservative territoryRouzan al-Najjar, a paramedic from the Gaza Strip, knew that her work saving lives during the 2018 protests on the frontier with Israel challenged assumptions in the highly conservative Palestinian territory about the role of women.“Being a medic is not only a job for a man,” the 21-year-old said in an interview shortly before she was shot and killed by an Israeli sniper. Continue reading...

Pair of suspected ‘illegals’ are thought to have been a married couple living separate lives in Brazil and GreeceHalfway through a trip to Malaysia in January, Gerhard Daniel Campos Wittich stopped messaging his girlfriend back home in Rio de Janeiro and she promptly launched a frantic search for her missing partner.A Brazilian of Austrian heritage, Campos Wittich ran a series of 3D printing companies in Rio that made, among other things, novelty resin sculptures for the Brazilian military and sausage dog key chains. Continue reading...

The machine in the northern prefecture of Akita sells locally killed wild bear captured by huntersJapan has added to its large and eclectic pool of vending machines with one a new model that sells fresh bear meat – and which has proved an unlikely hit.The machine, in the northern prefecture of Akita, has attracted a steady stream of customers since it was installed at the end of last year, according to media reports. Continue reading...

Federal Nationals leader’s comments come as Latham announces he is on leave until NSW upper house results are finalised

Consumer group finds Australia’s best-performing bog rolls come at a high price – but the worst-ranked does too

Vladlen Tatarsky, who had over 560,000 followers on Telegram, dies in explosion that injures about 30 people

Pre-budget funding announcement follows a groundswell of support for cultural institutions after decades of budget cuts

Marin says ‘democracy is always a wonderful thing’ as her Social Democrats come third behind rightwing NCP and nationalist Finns partiesFinland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, has lost her battle to stay in power after her centre-left Social Democratic party (SDP) was narrowly beaten into third place in a cliffhanger election by its conservative and far-right rivals.With all of the votes counted on Sunday, the right-wing National Coalition party (NCP) won 20.8% of the vote, with the populist, nation-first Finns party scoring 20.1%. Marin’s SDP took 19.9% of the vote. Voter turnout was 71.9%. Continue reading...

Former PM says ‘electoral catastrophe’ follows party ‘being told by its media backers to move further and further to the right’

Washington, which has ties with the island nation but has been represented by diplomats based in New Guinea, also plans embassies in Kiribati and Tonga

UK study will look at patch’s effect on boosting libido associated with hormone level drop, which could transform lives globallyThe UK is to launch the world’s first clinical trials of a new testosterone patch aimed at boosting libido in women with symptoms of the menopause, in a move researchers believe could transform lives globally.Testosterone is an essential hormone for women and its production drops heavily after menopause. Continue reading...

Number of firms disclosing anti-slavery measures within supply chains has nearly halved, says CipsEfforts to tackle modern day slavery are stalling with nearly half the number of companies disclosing anti-slavery measures within their supply chains, according to the international procurement body.Only 29% of organisations required to produce a modern slavery statement have submitted it to the UK government registry for 2022, an analysis by the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (Cips) found. Continue reading...

National Education Union reports findings before result of vote that could trigger further strikes and school closuresTeachers have said they are facing “unmanageable” levels of stress and workload, before the result of a crucial vote that could trigger further strikes and school closures in England in the coming weeks.Some teachers surveyed by the National Education Union (NEU) reported turning to antidepressants to cope, while 48% said their workload was unmanageable all or most of the time. In contrast, just 1% of teachers said their workload was always manageable. Continue reading...

Former PM cautions against ‘top down’ changes to Northern Ireland peace deal to protect power sharingThe Good Friday agreement should only be changed with cross-community consent in Northern Ireland, Tony Blair has said, amid calls to amend the peace deal to prevent political parties from collapsing power sharing in the province.The former prime minister, who played a pivotal role in negotiating the historic agreement in 1998, acknowledged that there was a case for reforming the devolved structures at Stormont, given the regularity of collapses in governance in the region over the last 25 years. Continue reading...

Actor soon to step aboard the Tardis pips Alice Oseman and Huw Edwards to be named most powerful person on British televisionDoctor Who star Ncuti Gatwa has been named the most powerful person on British television, beating broadcaster Huw Edwards to the top spot.The 30-year-old actor topped the RadioTimes.com TV 100 power list, after rising to prominence for his role as Eric in the Netflix series Sex Education and being set to debut as the Doctor at the end of this year. Continue reading...

Cancelled treatment causing a ‘lifelong’ impact on children’s health, senior doctor warns

CoreLogic research director Tim Lawless says rising migration levels are also playing a role

Results show 90% support for ridding Paris of ‘self-service scooters’ whose riders are accused of flouting rules of the roadParisians have voted to rid the streets of the French capital of rental electric scooters, with an overwhelming 90% of votes cast supporting a ban, official results show.Paris was a pioneer when it introduced e-scooters, or trottinettes, in 2018 as the city’s authorities sought to promote non-polluting forms of urban transport. Continue reading...

Shadow home secretary reveals proposals including more neighbourhood policing and introduction of ‘respect orders’Labour has announced a series of proposals to tackle antisocial behaviour, as it said ministers were failing to address the problem.The new plans include increasing neighbourhood policing and introducing new “respect orders” giving the police more power to punish adults who breach antisocial behaviour injunctions. Continue reading...

Taskforce to offer ethnicity data to police as Suella Braverman accused of ‘dog whistle’ rhetoric over child sexual exploitationRishi Sunak is to announce new measures to tackle grooming gangs on Monday, claiming that “political correctness” would not get in the way of a crackdown, while his home secretary was accused of “dog whistle” rhetoric over child sexual exploitation.A new grooming gang taskforce will be set up with specialist officers, supported by the National Crime Agency, helping local forces and offering the use of ethnicity data to assist police investigations. Continue reading...

Veteran actor, awarded Olivier for lifetime achievement, says cost must not prohibit putting ‘bums on seats’

Calls described as ‘great relief’ after Kevin Cornwell, 53, and an unnamed man were detained in AfghanistanThe families of two British men held in custody by the Taliban in Afghanistan have been able to speak to them for the first time since their arrest.Kevin Cornwell, a 53-year-old charity medic, and another British national, who has not been named, were detained by the Taliban’s secret police on 11 January. Continue reading...

Russian news agency reports Vladlen Tatarsky died in blast that also injured at least 16 peopleWe reported earlier on the Ukrainian claims of deaths as a result of Russian shelling in Kostiantynivka. Ukrainian officials have now put the death toll at six people, with a further eight wounded, Reuters says.Zelenskiy’s office say 16 apartment buildings, eight private houses, a school and an administrative building were damaged. An official posted photos showing the partial destruction of buildings and craters from explosions on the Telegram messaging app. Reuters could not independently verify the authenticity of the photos or the number of casualties.Gershkovich’s unwarranted and unjust arrest is a significant escalation in your government’s anti-press actions. Russia is sending the message that journalism within your borders is criminalised and that foreign correspondents seeking to report from Russia do not enjoy the benefits of the rule of law. Continue reading...

National Coalition party has slight lead over Sanna Marin’s Social Democrats with 40% of votes countedFinland’s prime minister, Sanna Marin, was facing a battle to hold on to power on Sunday with the country’s conservative opposition National Coalition party (NCP) holding a narrow early lead in a knife-edge general election.Among the 40% of voters who cast their ballots before election day, the NCP garnered a score of 20.8%, fractionally ahead of Marin’s centre-left Social Democrats (SDP) on 20.7%. The far-right nationalist Finns party scored 18.6%. Continue reading...

Home secretary says Brexit did not cause chaos seen at port as angry customers see trips cancelled

Families of pupils whose foreign trips were cancelled owing to the delays blame border staff, Brexit and ferry companies

Exclusive: 240-year-old scrap of indigo woollen cloth identified as fabric made in Yorkshire to clothe millions of enslaved peopleIt is a scrap of indigo woollen cloth that is slightly moth-eaten and so tiny that few would give it a second glance, but a 1783 note on its reverse has revealed its chilling significance.Discovered in a public record office in England, it has been identified as the only surviving fragment of its kind used to clothe millions of enslaved people in the Caribbean and North America for almost 200 years. This coarse fabric, known as “slave” or “negro” cloth, was woven in West Yorkshire, close to the town of Penistone, from which it derives its name. Continue reading...