World news | The Guardian

Northern Irish developer Moyallen owns 52% of Victoria Square development at centre of local authority’s financial meltdownWoking council plans to sever ties with the Northern Irish developer behind a skyscraper venture that helped tip the tiny Surrey local authority into effective bankruptcy.Amid ballooning costs and delays, a dramatic plunge in the value of the council’s Victoria Square development – which is 52% owned by Moyallen, a business from Dungannon, County Tyrone – is at the centre of the local authority’s financial meltdown. Continue reading...

Exclusive: redundancies are the first mass job losses at the corporation since 2020

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Compensation decision follows Ofgem review that found ‘severe weaknesses’ in complaint handlingThe power supplier E.ON Next has been ordered to pay £5m in compensation to consumers for poor customer services, the energy watchdog for Great Britain has announced.Ofgem said a review of customer service standards and complaint handling across the sector uncovered “severe weaknesses” at E.ON Next, with customers facing long call waiting times and a high level of unanswered calls. Continue reading...

Labor senators urged Coalition to consider if probing Katy Gallagher’s relationship with Higgins’ partner, David Sharaz, was ‘ethical’

Rise of China and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine prompt more coordination between Europe, North America and the Indo-Pacific, expert says

Names for boys and girls like Charlie, Riley, Jordan, Jesse, Casey, Morgan are rising up the top 100 list, research shows

Author of Blood Meridian, The Road and No Country for Old Men died in his home of natural causes, publisher announcesCormac McCarthy, the revered novelist whose bleakly violent, apocalyptic visions of the American south drew him fans from Oprah Winfrey to Saul Bellow, has died at the age of 89.McCarthy died in his home of natural causes. His son John confirmed the death. Continue reading...

Judge says Aaron Baslangic’s offending was so unsophisticated ‘a year 12 student could have worked out’ where money was going

Abdul Eneser described incident at Manchester Piccadilly as ‘most traumatic experience’A blind man who fell on to rail tracks and was nearly hit my a freight train is suing Network Rail for failing to put in place tactile paving to protect him.Abdul Eneser, 20, says he fell on to the tracks at Manchester Piccadilly station as he was unable to feel where the platform edge was due to the lack of metal studs or adhesive tiles. He was also not provided with passenger assist support, which helps disabled people navigate a station, due to a train delay. Continue reading...

‘The most tolled capital city in the world’ may have to pay Transurban compensation, says roads minister

US-based comic Jocelyn Chia strains relations between Singapore and Malaysia with joke about how Malaysia’s planes cannot flyMalaysian police will seek Interpol’s help to track down a US-based comedian who mocked the country and joked about the missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370.Jocelyn Chia will be investigated under the country’s laws relating to insulting speech and offensive or obscene online content, Malaysia’s state news agency Bernama reported. Police chief Acryl Sani Abdullah Sani was quoted as saying that the police would ask Interpol for assistance in finding out her full identity and whereabouts. Continue reading...

Emergency contraception, HIV-prevention and abortion drugs are locked in a warehouse in Khartoum – leaving women to turn to desperate measuresRape survivors in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, are struggling to get hold of emergency contraception and abortion medication.Access to a warehouse where 47,000 medical post-rape kits are stored has been cut off since the conflict began in April. Women are using social media to share information about where to find drugs to prevent pregnancies and infections – or are using herbal remedies. Continue reading...

Volunteers in the area saved 108 people in 2022 as charity unveils new equipment to get 20 people from water in 90 secondsAlmost a third of all people saved by lifeboat crews in the UK and Ireland last year were rescued from the Channel as they tried to cross in dinghies and other small vessels, the RNLI has revealed.Publishing the figures for the first time, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution said its volunteers saved the lives of 108 men, women and children who were crossing in small boats. Continue reading...

Ministers launch inquiry into use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC)Ministers have launched a UK government-wide inquiry into the use of crumbling concrete in public buildings following fears that nurseries, offices, shops and leisure facilities are in danger of collapse.Every Whitehall department has been ordered to assign a civil servant to identify the use of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) across the £158bn government estate, the Guardian has learned. Continue reading...

Group stormed by Italian special forces included a pregnant woman and two minors with hypothermiaA group of alleged hijackers on a cargo ship stormed by Italian special forces were in fact malnourished asylum seekers – including a pregnant woman and two minors suffering from hypothermia – who did not represent a threat and sneaked on to the vessel in the hope of reaching Europe, prosecutors in Naples have concluded.Italy’s far-right defense minister Guido Crosetto announced on Saturday that he had deployed three military ships, dozens of special forces units and two attack helicopters to overpower a group of “pirates” who had attempted to hijack the Turkish vessel. Continue reading...

Gathering in Vilnius is likely to result in post-war security guarantees and easier route to join alliance when the time comesUkraine will not be offered a timeline with specific dates by which it can join Nato at its summit in Vilnius next month but instead may be offered a shorter route when an offer of membership is made. The proposal, reflecting a gathering consensus of key partners in the western defence alliance, will come as a disappointment to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.Nato members, but outside formal Nato structures, will also offer post-conflict security guarantees to Ukraine, which are likely to take the shape of broad commitments to protect Ukraine from assaults by Russia. They are also expected to continue to provide ammunition and to help the Ukrainian armed forces become more convergent with Nato. But the commitments are likely to take a broad high level form rather than be specific offers of weaponry. Continue reading...

Badiucao calls for Australian support after Chinese government asked Poland to close Warsaw exhibitionA Chinese-Australian artist has called for more support from the Australian government after Chinese officials tried to shut down his latest show in Poland.The artist, who goes by the name Badiucao, is due to launch his latest exhibition at the Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art in Warsaw on Friday. Continue reading...

Disney has shuffled plans for its biggest franchises, with new Star Wars and Avengers films also delayedIt may have taken Avatar: The Way of Water more than a decade to finally arrive in theatres in 2022, but the long parade of Avatar delays isn’t over yet.On Tuesday, the Walt Disney Co. announced it has pushed the release of Avatar 3 back a year, bumping it from December 2024 to December 2025. The timeline is stretched even further for the next planned instalments. Avatar 4 is now slated to hit theatres in December 2029; Avatar 5 is set to arrive in December 2031. Continue reading...

Chris Minns visits devastated town as Singleton Roosters say support from wider community has been ‘overwhelming’

Tobias Friedrich Moran is no longer accused of killing his girlfriend Simone Strobel in 2005

After months of bitter divisions in the world of professional golf, a major deal has resulted in victory for Saudi Arabia and its bid to influence the future of the sport. Ewan Murray reportsFor years professional golf has been a lucrative but fairly placid affair. That all changed with the advent of LIV golf – a new entity that encouraged some of the sport’s biggest names to play its new-format tournaments and sign multi-million dollar contracts. It was lavishly backed by Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund and it left the world of professional golf reeling. Friendships ended as players either signed up for the new competitions or decided to stay loyal to their traditional paymasters, the PGA tour.As golf correspondent Ewan Murray tells Michael Safi, when the two sides put aside their bitter differences last week to announce a merger, it came completely out of the blue. Now with peace agreed and a massive cash injection beckoning, is the future of golf in safe hands? Continue reading...

Governance Institute report finds executive salary increases at some of the largest companies more than double rate of inflation

Andrew Bragg and Bridget Archer make call after Network Ten asks AFP to investigate alleged leaking of evidence in Bruce Lehrmann trial

City train stations at 70% of pre-pandemic capacity amid warnings of potential effects of bringing workers back full-time

Volodmyr Zelenskiy meets head of UN nuclear watchdog; US House of Representatives votes unanimously to call for return of detained US journalist

Police have issued an amber alert for a missing child after two women were seen taking a baby from Ipswich hospital

Exclusive: methodology used by Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism risks undermining media in global south, says RessaNobel peace laureate Maria Ressa has claimed Oxford University’s leading journalism institute is publishing flawed research that puts journalists and independent outlets at risk, particularly in the global south.One of the world’s most prominent and respected journalists, Ressa said she resigned last year from the advisory board of the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ), because of deep concerns about how it compiles an annual Digital News Report. Continue reading...

Two 19-year-old students and man is his 50s die in early morning attack with 31-year-old held on suspicion of murder

Police find body of Brisbane woman Julia-Mary Lane, 25, who had been living in Alberta, near Bear Lake in British ColumbiaAn Australian hiker has been found dead in Canadian bear country after a Mounties search that deployed police dogs and a drone.Twenty-five-year-old Julia-Mary Lane, from Brisbane, had been living in Canmore, Alberta since January. Continue reading...

The long-running investigations into murder allegations in Afghanistan will be replaced by new inquiries because of concerns about evidence

Actor, 82, also comments she ‘wouldn’t want to be straight for anything’ as she appears on the cover of Vogue for the first timeMiriam Margolyes has said she “never had any shame about being gay” as she makes her British Vogue cover debut at the age of 82.The award-winning actor, known for her foul mouth and lovable eccentricity, said gay people are “not conventional” and she “wouldn’t want to be straight for anything”. Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak says creative industries are ‘going like gangbusters’ and are a unique strength for UKThe government is boosting the UK’s creative industries by £77m as part of a plan to support the next Adele or Ed Sheeran in a sector that is “going like gangbusters”, according to the prime minister.The funding will be spread among hundreds of grassroots music venues, new video games studios, fashion, film and other creative ventures. Continue reading...

Almost £150m to be spent on research labs to help future-proof industry and lift creative economyThe government is seeking to future-proof the UK’s multibillion-pound film and TV production industry by investing almost £150m in a network of research labs across the country tasked with developing the next generation of special effects using tech such as artificial intelligence.The scheme aims to build on Britain’s reputation for producing hi-tech hits from Star Wars to Harry Potter, and is part of wide-ranging plans to drive the UK creative economy. The government has earmarked millions to support grassroots music venues hammered by the Covid pandemic, and is tripling a fund designed to find and support the next generation of homegrown superstars like Adele and Ed Sheeran. Continue reading...

Anglesey deputy leader apologises for comment condemned as ‘appalling’ by area’s Conservative MPThe deputy leader of a Welsh council has stepped down after saying during a meeting that “all Tories should be shot”.Ieuan Williams, an independent councillor in Anglesey, north Wales, has apologised since making the comment on Monday morning and referred himself to the council’s standards committee. Continue reading...

Wilson the Belgian shepherd featured prominently in drawings by Indigenous children as they recover in Bogotá hospitalThe four Indigenous children who survived a plane crash and 40 days alone in the Colombian Amazon are continuing their recovery in Bogotá’s military hospital, and the oldest two have been well enough to pick up crayons.In their first pictures released by Colombia’s armed forces, a four-legged figure jumps from the page: Wilson, the Belgian shepherd dog who helped lead rescuers to their location – and who remains missing in the jungle. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Three asylum seekers and refugee advocates say government has flagged a 30 June goal

Oscar-winning writer and director of Women Talking in discussions with studio to update much-loved animationOscar-winner Sarah Polley is in talks to direct a live-action Bambi film for Disney.According to Deadline, the writer-director, who recently won the Academy award for best adapted screenplay for Women Talking, is in discussions with the studio on the project which would use photorealistic CGI. Continue reading...

Some students fearful to leave their homes after two 19-year-olds from University of Nottingham confirmed among dead

Leading expert warns of ‘sustained attacks’ on reproductive rights after sentence imposed on MondayLeading women’s health experts have warned of an attack on women’s reproductive rights and the potential for more prosecutions, following the jailing of a woman for terminating her pregnancy after the legal time limit.The president of the UK’s leading body for sexual health professionals said that women should be “more worried than they are” following the sentencing, adding that it could lead to sustained attacks on established rights, and efforts to curtail reforms. Continue reading...

President admits Russia has lost 54 tanks in the opening assaults but insists Ukraine’s losses are greater

Gabriel Fortin, 48, is alleged to have killed two HR directors and a jobs centre worker and wounded a fourth person in 2021 attacksAn unemployed French engineer has gone on trial accused of shooting dead three women he blamed for his failure to find a job.Gabriel Fortin, 48, allegedly killed two human resources directors and a jobs centre employee, and attempted to kill another worker, after a string of dismissals. Continue reading...

Exclusive: plan to bolt PM’s five pledges on to a range of campaigns seen as too political within Whitehall, source saysNo 10 is planning a multimillion-pound taxpayer-funded campaign to promote Rishi Sunak’s “five priorities”, despite some within the civil service having questioned whether it was too political.No 10 has been in discussions for months about a campaign from the government communications service supporting Sunak’s missions, on which he has based his prime ministership – halving inflation, expanding the economy, reducing debt, cutting waiting lists and stopping small boats crossing the Channel. Continue reading...

Russian president says Russia needs to ‘fight enemy agents’ inside its own territory; several Russian military bloggers report Maj Gen Sergei Goryachev killed by UK-supplied Storm Shadow cruise missileWhat we know on day 475 of the wayA fire broke out at an oil refinery in Russia’s Krasnodar region overnight, Russia’s RBK news outlet reported, citing the local city administration.RBK reported that the fire was now contained and its cause was not immediately clear.This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com. Continue reading...

More than 600 people still missing, authorities say, amid reports pastor ordered followers to starve themselvesThe death toll linked to a Kenyan pastor accused of ordering his followers to starve themselves to death to meet Jesus has passed 300, with the figure expected to increase as more exhumations are planned.Authorities say the dead were members of the Good News international church, led by Paul Mackenzie, who is accused of ordering his followers to starve themselves and their children to death so they could go to heaven before the end of the world. Continue reading...

Covid inquiry hears that from 2018 planning for UK’s disorderly exit from EU ‘drained resources and capacity’Planning for a no-deal Brexit from 2018 “crowded out” government efforts to prepare for a pandemic and contributed to leaving the country unready, the first evidence session of the Covid public inquiry has heard.UK government pandemic planning failed to show “proper foresight” and “even at this stage, before hearing the evidence, it is apparent that we might not have been very well prepared at all”, Hugo Keith KC, counsel to the inquiry, said. Continue reading...

Connor Chapman used submachine gun to fire at group from rival estate last Christmas Eve, says prosecutionA woman who was shot dead while celebrating Christmas Eve with friends at a pub in Wirral was a “wholly innocent bystander” caught up in a gang feud, a court has heard.Connor Chapman, 23, is on trial at Liverpool crown court charged with the murder of Elle Edwards, 26, who was on an “enjoyable night out” with friends at the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village on 24 December last year. Continue reading...

Amanda Spielman defends failure to spot mistreatment at residential facility for disabled children as she is grilled by MPsOfsted’s chief inspector has told MPs its inspection system “did not work as well as it should,” as she defended the watchdog’s failure to spot mistreatment of more than 100 youngsters over several years at a large residential school for disabled children.Amanda Spielman was quizzed by the education select committee over why Ofsted had rated three Doncaster educational facilities run by the Hesley Group as “good” in 2019 despite evidence of a string of complaints and serious incidents going back to 2015. Continue reading...

Ukraine’s brigades record videos of flag-raisings in a series of villages but its fundamental challenge of a lack of combat aircraft remains

Henry Hendron, whose clients have included the Earl of Cardigan and Nadine Dorries, sentenced to 14 monthsA barrister whose clients have included Nadine Dorries has been jailed for 14 months after trying to buy drugs from two men he represented over drug supply allegations.Henry Hendron, 42, asked to buy class A methamphetamine and then class C GBL from Arno Smit and another man, messages found on his mobile phone revealed. Continue reading...