World news | The Guardian

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has a history of dramatic statements, says troops will leave fiercely contested city on 10 May. This live blog is closed

Teenager who attacked woman and three girls on walk home from school to be sent to therapeutic unit for at least 18 monthsA 13-year-old boy who carried out sexual attacks on a woman and three teenage girls as he walked home in his school uniform has avoided a custodial sentence but will be sent to a specialist therapeutic unit for at least 18 months.A judge told Shrewsbury crown court on Friday he had “absolutely no idea” why the boy attacked a 16-year-old, two 17-year-olds and a woman in her 30s in four separate incidents in Telford, Shropshire. Continue reading...

Shock for party chair who had previously expected everything to be all right on the night and learned not to try too hardFirst manage your expectations.When the Tory party chair, Greg Hands, announced last week that he expected the Conservatives to lose 1,000 seats in the local elections, he was being characteristically disingenuous. What he really meant was that the Tories would lose between 500 and 600 seats and he would be able to take to the airwaves and crow about his party having done far better than anyone imagined. The plucky Conservatives yet again seizing triumph from a potential disaster. And it would all be down to him and his idiotic tweets of a 13-year-old Liam Byrne gag. At least we won’t be seeing them again. Continue reading...

Glen Matlock says he could make up lyrics as he goes along when he plays version of 1977 hit on coronation dayGod Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols is the only track in chart history to be have been listed with a blank title to avoid offence. Now, the band’s former bassist is drawing another blank as he tries to rework the lyrics before King Charles’s coronation.Glen Matlock, who will perform God Save the King at the 100 Club in London on Saturday, indicated he was struggling with one or two of the rhymes. Continue reading...

In extraordinary video tirade, Yevgeny Prigozhin attacks defence minister and chief of armed forces

Rachel Simpson from Newport accessed computer systems to obtain information about police drugs operationsA Crown Prosecution Service officer who leaked sensitive files about complex police investigations that were passed to members of organised crime gangs has been jailed for six years.Rachel Simpson, 39, from Newport in south Wales, repeatedly accessed CPS and crown court computer systems searching for information about investigations into major police drugs operations and money laundering. Continue reading...

Rescue deal for publisher would wipe out existing shareholders, including James Murdoch

Thousands evacuated to army camps as authorities struggle to bring inter-ethnic tensions under controlIndian troops have been deployed to the north-eastern state of Manipur with orders to “shoot on sight” and enforce a curfew as deadly clashes between tribal and non-tribal groups continue for the third day.The violence and arson has forced about 9,000 people to flee their homes in the remote state, which borders Myanmar. The state government has not given the number of deaths but the chief minister, N Biren Singh, said that “precious lives have been lost” and at least 20 people were reportedly injured, including two local politicians. Continue reading...

Nurse allegedly killed five-day-old boy before poisoning his twin brother with insulinLucy Letby sobbed in court as she recalled the “traumatic” death of a baby boy she allegedly murdered before poisoning his twin brother with insulin.The nurse wiped away tears with a tissue as she told the jury she had “never seen a baby bleed in that way before” when the five-day-old boy died in front of his parents. Continue reading...

Royals surprise those camped outside the palace following lunch with Commonwealth leaders

Among sweeping security measures, police expected to use radar to detect rogue objects in the airThe authorities have banned drone flights in central London as part of the sweeping range of security measures being taken to protect the king’s coronation from possible disruption at lunchtime on Saturday.The action comes a couple of days after two drones, most likely operated by pro-Ukrainian groups, managed to fly over presidential offices at the Kremlin in Moscow, the historic centre of Russian government. Continue reading...

Police investigate whether Vincenzo Costanzo was gunned down by rival clan or shot by accidentThe 26-year-old son of a mafia boss was shot dead and more than a hundred people were injured on Thursday during delirious celebrations by football fans in Naples, after the city’s team won its first Serie A title in 33 years.Vincenzo Costanzo, who was known to police and had a “significant” criminal record, was gunned down during the spontaneous street partying that took place across the city after Napoli were crowned champions. Continue reading...

Party takes back control of council in ‘red wall’ territory it aims to regain at next general electionIt was clear that a decisive win in Stoke-on-Trent was very important to Keir Starmer. In the weeks running up to the election, the Labour party poured a huge amount of resources into its campaign in the city, and its leader visited multiple times.High-profile MPs such as the Birmingham MP Jess Phillips and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, were drafted in for door-knocking in the final hours before polls closed. The candidates had been chosen early to given them maximum time for campaigning. Continue reading...

Judge says Ike Ekweremadu was ‘driving force’ in scheme to obtain kidney for his sick daughterA senior Nigerian politician has been sentenced to nine years and eight months in prison in the UK for being the “driving force” in a plot to harvest a kidney for his sick daughter from a young man he had trafficked to London.Ike Ekweremadu, 60, a former deputy president of the Nigerian senate, his wife, Beatrice, 56, and Dr Obinna Obeta, 51, were found guilty by an Old Bailey jury in March in the first organ trafficking conviction under the Modern Slavery Act. Continue reading...

Caldicot had planned to hold street celebration but organisers got zero donations on crowdfunding pageIt had been billed as “the party of the year” but a Welsh market town has been forced to cancel its coronation celebration after failing to raise any money to cover costs.Caldicot, in south-east Wales, was planning a “massive street party” with a big screen to watch the coronation of King Charles, a “fully decorated town centre”, entertainment, children’s activities and competitions. Continue reading...

Lib Dems urge Derbyshire police to investigate clip of Johnson urging Conservatives to vote

Government accused of racism for forcing sale of social housing in Copenhagen’s Mjølnerparken estateA trendy neighbourhood in Copenhagen named the “coolest in the world” is bracing itself for a major protest over an anti-ghetto law that critics say is racist and pushing out the remaining social housing residents.Hundreds of demonstrators, supported by the Danish capital’s mayor for the environment, Line Barfod, are expected to mass on the edges of the Mjølnerparken housing estate, in the popular Nørrebro area, on Saturday. Continue reading...

Citizens of Kherson stock up on food and water as Ukraine forces step up shelling of Russian positions• Russia-Ukraine war – latest news updatesResidents of the key southern Ukrainian city of Kherson are stocking up on food and water after another night of heavy Russian shelling and before an announced 56-hour curfew due to begin on Friday evening.A number said they planned to stay indoors before the curfew and planned closure of the city, adding that they had slept in their clothes or gone to shelters because of the intensity of the Russian attack. Continue reading...

Police Scotland has told officers to shave off facial hair by end of May so they can use FFP3 face masksAt least four officers are pursuing discrimination claims after Police Scotland announced plans for a “clean-shaven” policy without adequate consultation, according to their professional body.Officers are being told to shave off their beards and moustaches so they can use a particular type of protective face mask, which is face-fitted and requires the wearer to be clean-shaven. Continue reading...

Younger collectors drive up prices of ‘kitsch’ ceramic animals as Victoriana look returns yet againPairs of Staffordshire ceramic dogs, once commonplace on Victorian mantelpieces, are having a sudden resurgence with a boom in demand from a new generation.The vintage marketplace Vinterior reports that searches for Staffordshire dog statues is up 115% year-on-year. When Vinterior launched a recent pop-up store in London’s Selfridges, it was the dogs not the Danish dining chairs that were the first items to sell out. Continue reading...

The actor will take to the stage as the Scottish king in December, in the last production of the London theatre’s 30th-anniversary seasonHot on the heels of the news that Ralph Fiennes will play Macbeth in a tour of repurposed UK warehouses comes the announcement that David Tennant will also star as the Scottish king at London’s Donmar Warehouse.It is the Scottish actor’s first Shakespearean stage role since he played Richard II for the Royal Shakespeare Company, on and off, from 2013 to 2016. In 2022 he was Macbeth in a two-part BBC Radio 4 broadcast. The Donmar production will be directed by Max Webster and will conclude the 30th-anniversary season for the London theatre, which was previously home to a banana-ripening warehouse. Continue reading...

Rain forecast for UK over bank holiday weekend, including in London as Charles III is crowned

‘He said “I’m going to kill you” and that’s when I saw the axe,’ Mari Buci told the jury of the attack

Margaret Dale Hawke will spend at least 25 years in jail for killing her daughter and two sons in the family’s Port Hedland home

Broadcaster and friend calls invitation to pay allegiance ‘well-intentioned and rather ill-advised’King Charles would find the idea of people paying homage to him “abhorrent”, his friend Jonathan Dimbleby has said while seeking to pin the blame for the proposal on the archbishop of Canterbury.There has been a widespread backlash against the idea of a “homage of the people”, in which the general public is invited to swear allegiance to the king during the coronation on Saturday. Continue reading...

Federal leader refuses to rule out federal intervention after John Pesutto declines to respond to Deeming threat

A 37-year-old man was arrested by police after stabbing at service centre in Haymarket

As the results come in, find out how Conservatives, Labour, Lib Dems and other parties fared in Thursday’s polls for hundreds of English councils

Unanimous decision announced at the Art Gallery of NSW, where all finalists will be exhibited from Saturday

Judge finds Australian Catholic order should not benefit from its ‘own inaction’ in not speaking to known abuser before he died

Opposition leader supports diplomatic intervention in WikiLeaks founder’s case, saying it has ‘gone on too long’

The Reserve Bank’s quarterly statement on monetary policy predicts that the underlying inflation rate will end the year at 4%

The novel, written with Kathy Lette in the 1970s when both were teenagers, was a landmark in Australian fiction

Greens and unions raise spectre of potential conflicts of interest as consultancy firm defends against tax scandal

Bankstown association to commence trial of body cameras after Khodr Yaghi had three teeth knocked out

Just one of 199 trusts analysed in England has a specific sexual harassment module, report findsOnly one NHS trust in England provides dedicated training to prevent sexual harassment, according to research, raising concerns that the NHS is failing to adequately protect staff and patients.According to health union figures, sexual harassment of staff is pervasive. A 2019 survey by Unison found that one in 12 NHS staff had experienced sexual harassment at work during the past year, with more than half saying the perpetrator was a co-worker. In a recent BMA survey, 91% of female doctors reported sexism, 31% had experienced unwanted physical contact and 56% unwanted verbal comments. Continue reading...

Onlookers cheered as drone, initially believed to be Russian, was taken down by air defence over the capital

TSB says 80% of cases in its main fraud categories come from scams on Meta platforms including InstagramMeta has been urged to take action to protect customers from fraud, after TSB said scams via the social media company’s platforms Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram have soared.The UK bank said there had been a huge jump in the number of scams originating from Meta-owned sites and apps, releasing research that shows they now account for 80% of cases within TSB’s three largest fraud categories: impersonation, purchase and investment. Continue reading...

Results from 230 councils expected to trickle in throughout Friday, with study of new voter ID rules due in JuneVoting has closed in local elections which marked Rishi Sunak’s debut as an electoral figurehead for the Conservatives, as well as for the full rollout of new rules obliging people to show photo identification at the polling booth.The ID regulations saw reports of dozens of people being turned away for lacking the necessary documents, but did not result in the chaos or potential disorder feared by some electoral officials. Continue reading...

Foreign affairs minister says Cong Peiwu was summoned to express frustration over attempts to meddle in Canadian politicsCanada has summoned China’s ambassador as Justin Trudeau’s government considers expelling a Chinese diplomat accused of involvement in a harassment campaign against a MP lawmaker and his family in retaliation for the lawmaker’s criticisms of Beijing.The foreign affairs minister, Mélanie Joly, told a parliamentary committee on Thursday that her office had summoned Chinese ambassador Cong Peiwu to express frustration over attempts to meddle in Canada’s domestic politics. Continue reading...

Nine out of 10 votes cast across 14 train operating companies in favour of holding more industrial action over next six monthsTrain passengers face further disruption this summer after members of the RMT rail union voted overwhelmingly for further strike action.A ballot of members working across 14 train operating companies “massively reaffirmed a mandate for further strike action”, the union said on Thursday, with 90% of votes cast in favour of holding more strikes over the next six months. Continue reading...

Ruling against Microsoft Activision merger looks like warning shot as CMA takes on task of regulating big tech after BrexitSarah Cardell’s CV carries all the hallmarks of a career honed in the UK: an Oxford university education; partnership at a magic circle law firm; and senior roles at British regulatory authorities.But the chief executive of the Competition and Markets Authority now presides over an organisation with global ambitions. And big tech knows it. Continue reading...

Historian claims Rishi Sunak’s religion has influenced a perceived lack of interest in the event from governmentThe historian David Starkey has claimed Rishi Sunak has not engaged with the coronation because he is “not fully grounded in our culture”.Speaking to GB News on Thursday, Starkey, who has been accused of making racist remarks in the past, was discussing a perceived lack of interest in King Charles’s coronation from the government. A minority of MPs have been invited to the ceremony on Saturday, according to reports. Continue reading...

Prosecutors say all suspects belong to group of strong supporters of Islamic StateBelgian police have arrested seven people suspected of supporting Islamic State (IS) and plotting a terrorist attack, prosecutors have said.Almost all the suspects are ethnic Chechens, and three possess Belgian nationality, prosecutors said in a statement. Continue reading...

Extremist Hellenes party dubbed successor of now defunct Golden Dawn, whose neo-Nazi leaders are serving jail termsA decision to disqualify a far-right group from participating in Greece’s forthcoming general election was taken in the interests of safeguarding democracy, the country’s supreme court has said.The nation’s highest legal body said the extremist Hellenes party was clearly “the successor” of the now defunct Golden Dawn, whose neo-Nazi leaders are serving jail terms for crimes ranging from murder to assault. Continue reading...

After Moscow accuses US of being behind Kremlin drone attack, White House says: ‘We had nothing to do with this’. This live blog is closedHere is more on the oil refinery attack from Tass and Reuters.Part of an oil refinery in southern Russia is on fire after it was hit by a drone attack, Tass news agency cited local emergency services as saying early on Thursday.

Craig Best and Roger Pilling sentenced to more than five years for trying to illegally sell coins worth £766,000Two metal detector enthusiasts who conspired to illegally sell a cache of Anglo Saxon coins which help change our understanding of Alfred the Great have been jailed for more than five years.Roger Pilling, 75, and Craig Best, 46, were caught in an undercover police sting trying to sell coins, likely buried by a Viking, which should have been declared as treasure and handed to the crown. Continue reading...

The incident may remain a mystery for some time, but despite Zelenskiy’s denials it mirrors Kyiv’s tacticsWho precisely flew two drones over the Kremlin at around 3am on Wednesday morning is likely to be one of many questions that will remain unanswered until the Ukraine war ends, if not some while after that.But it is curious how many want to speculate about a Kremlin false flag operation, given how embarrassing it is to see videos of drones flying over the Senate dome, housing Vladimir Putin’s presidential offices, before they were blown up. Continue reading...

The 59-year-old was arrested on suspicion of possessing a knife and ammunition on TuesdayA man arrested outside Buckingham Palace after throwing suspected shotgun cartridges into the grounds has been detained under the Mental Health Act.The 59-year-old was arrested on suspicion of possessing a knife and ammunition on Tuesday after he asked to speak to a soldier before warning police to handle his rucksack carefully. Continue reading...

Rebecca Steer died of ‘catastrophic injuries’ after Stephen McHugh deliberately drove into crowd outside takeawayA convicted drug dealer who deliberately drove into a crowd of pedestrians outside a takeaway, killing a 22-year-old woman, has been found guilty of murder.Stephen McHugh, 28, who has never had a driving licence, had taken cocaine and drunk six beers and 10 double shots of spirits before driving on to the pavement in Oswestry, Shropshire in October. Continue reading...