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Stephen Flynn’s comments contrast with view of Westminster colleague Alyn Smith who said rebels should quit the partyScottish National party politicians’ opposition to gender recognition reform should be “respected like any other conscience issue”, according to its new Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn.Discussing the issue that has convulsed the SNP since he was elected Westminster group leader in December, the Aberdeen South MP said: “Ultimately, they are a member of the Scottish National Party just as much as I am”. Continue reading...

Government declines to act on call for legal duty of care for all students after death of Natasha Abrahart in 2018The parents of Natasha Abrahart, who took her own life while studying at the University of Bristol, have reacted with “absolute horror” to the government’s response to their petition calling for a statutory legal duty of care for all students in higher education.The Abraharts are one of 25 bereaved families who helped launch a parliamentary petition last October, calling on ministers to pass legislation to better protect students and arguing that their mental health, safety and wellbeing should be a government priority. Continue reading...

DfT also says bids for new £200m funding pot for England could include plans for better school routes and inclusive street designsCouncil bids for a £200m funding pot to boost walking and cycling must “take women’s safety into account”, according to the Department for Transport (DfT).A 2021 Office for National Statistics study showed half of women felt unsafe walking after dark in a quiet street near their home. Continue reading...

Was Beijing trying to sabotage talks with the US, monitor the speed of its military response, or just test Joe Biden’s mettle?Now the Chinese balloon has been brought down in a puff of smoke and debris by a US air-launched missile, after perplexing Washington with its three-day odyssey over the continental United States, the question is: what was it all for?Once the balloon was spotted, Beijing claimed it was a weather observation airship that had been blown off course, drawing a snort of derision from the Pentagon, which said the balloon was able to manoeuvre and had made some deliberate turns, bringing it at one point over Montana, home of some of the US arsenal of silo-based nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Continue reading...

Publisher says staff is ‘dispirited’ and that readers and fans feel let down as ticket prices went as high as $4,000-$5,000 for showsA leading Bruce Springsteen fanzine has announced that it will close after 43 years, citing among other reasons unchecked ticket price hikes the editors say many fans can no longer afford.In a letter to readers, Christopher Phillips, publisher and editor-in-chief of Backstreets magazine, said staff had been “dispirited, downhearted, and, yes, disillusioned” since tickets for 2023 shows by Springsteen, a singer known for his loyalty to his blue collar roots in New Jersey, went on sale last summer. Continue reading...

Former PM not trying to keep a low profile, but former allies have their own ambitions and few would risk a returnLiz Truss has been a looming presence in Westminster ever since her time in No 10 was cut short with the UK on the precipice of economic meltdown.Unlike her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who has barely been sighted, Truss has not hidden away from Westminster and is seen frequently strolling through the atrium of Portcullis House and lunching in popular SW1 restaurants, including at the newly opened Old Queen Street Cafe, which is owned by the website Unherd. Continue reading...

Arming Ukraine is swiftest path to peace, says UK foreign secretary; Ukraine warns of renewed Russian offensive this month

More than 1,100 workers who were left destitute to be compensated by owner of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin KleinMore than 1,100 garment workers in Haiti are sharing $1m (£830,000) in compensation from the owner of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein after being left destitute by the closure of a factory.PVH, which was one of several brand owners sourcing from the Vald’or factory in the Caribbean country, agreed to pay the sum to cover missed severance pay, pension contributions directly to workers and the government pension fund after involvement by the Worker Rights Consortium lobby group. Continue reading...

Officials locked in talks with tech firm’s Japanese owner, SoftBank, according to Sunday Times reportThe City watchdog is considering easing rules in an attempt to win the $40bn (£34bn) listing of Cambridge-based technology firm Arm Holdings, it has been reported.Officials are said to be locked in talks in a last-ditch attempt to persuade the semiconductor chip-maker’s Japanese owner SoftBank to consider a dual listing on the London Stock Exchange alongside New York’s Nasdaq technology market, according to the Sunday Times. Continue reading...

Sixty-six people hurt and 1,500 seeking refuge in shelters after 800 homes were destroyedRecord summer temperatures of more than 40C (104F) are hampering efforts to tackle dozens of wildfires across central Chile that have killed at least 23 people, destroyed 800 homes and prompted the declaration of a state of emergency in three regions.Sixty-six people have been hurt in the fires, while almost 1,500 others are seeking refuge in shelters, according to an update on Sunday from the national forestry agency, Conaf. The state body said 87 fires were being still fought and 148 had been brought under control. Continue reading...

Former governor general and archbishop of Brisbane expected to have fate in Anglican church decided in hearing due to begin on Monday

Push by parliamentary MPs to take up IHRA interpretation has been criticised as an ‘outright attack on academic freedom’

HM inspector of constabulary Matt Parr says entrants include those with links to criminality, and misogynistsOfficers with prior convictions and close links with criminals are among hundreds who have joined the police in the last three years who should not have been allowed in, according to the head of the police watchdog.HM inspector of constabulary Matt Parr also said that there was a real problem with misogyny within the police that had to be tackled, adding that most, if not all, serving female police officers had had to endure sexual assault and inappropriate behaviour from fellow officers. “The culture of misogyny within policing is something that is there, it’s real and it has absolutely got to be dealt with,” he said. Continue reading...

Police still looking for Jericho Labonte of British Columbia after he was released from hospital after ‘odd 48 hours’A man saved by a US coast guard rescue swimmer at the mouth of the Columbia river as a massive wave rolled the yacht he was piloting on Friday was wanted for a bizarre incident in which police said he left a dead fish at the Astoria, Oregon, home featured in the classic 1985 film, The Goonies.Officers had been looking for the man since Wednesday, when an acquaintance alerted them to a video he posted on social media of himself leaving the fish at the house and then dancing around the property, said the Astoria police chief, Stacy Kelly. Continue reading...

Naftali Bennett says Putin also dropped vow to seek disarmament of Ukraine and Zelenskiy agreed to give up on joining Nato

More than 100 people fall ill after eating tortilla de patatas dish at well-known Madrid restaurantSpaniards with a taste for oozing, fleetingly cooked tortilla de patatas have been urged to take care after more than 100 people fell ill with suspected salmonella poisoning from eating the famous egg and potato omelettes at a well-known restaurant in Madrid.So far, 101 people have become ill – 13 of whom have required hospital treatment – after eating at Casa Dani, a longstanding gastronomic institution in the Spanish capital. Continue reading...

Sharon Graham accuses Grant Shapps over ambulance cover remarks and says PM and Steven Barclay not engaging in pay talksThe Unite union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, has accused the government of lying about the state of NHS strike negotiations and said no talks on pay were happening “at any level”.Other unions, including Unison and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), have said the government has not made any further moves towards ending industrial action since talks in early January. Continue reading...

Woman tells how people-smugglers launched three children, aged 14, nine and five, on dinghy and left her behindThe mother of three Eritrean children seeking asylum, who were forced to cross the Channel from northern France in a dinghy without her after smugglers separated the family, has arrived in the UK and is desperate to reunite with her children.The woman, 31, was staying in northern France with her children in December last year, hoping to reach the UK. She paid smugglers for places on a dinghy for herself and the children, a boy aged 14 and two girls aged nine and five, to cross the Channel on 16 December. Continue reading...

Business secretary responds to former prime minister’s article about her decisions in No 10Liz Truss’s tax-cutting agenda “clearly wasn’t the right approach” before the government had tackled inflation, the business secretary, Grant Shapps, has said in a retort to an essay by the former prime minister.Truss, in her first major intervention since leaving office, wrote that she had “not [been] given a realistic chance to enact my policies by a very powerful economic establishment, coupled with a lack of political support”. Continue reading...

Military ruler, one of country’s most divisive leaders after seizing power in coup, has died in exile in DubaiPervez Musharraf, the former army general and president of Pakistan who ruled for almost a decade after seizing power in a coup in 1999, has died in Dubai after a long illness.The Pakistani military confirmed his death in a statement, expressing “heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of Gen Pervez Musharraf, former president, CJCSC and chief of army staff”. Continue reading...

Sandy Powell, who will be made a Bafta fellow this month, fears that a cash-starved fringe scene is stifling artistic risksThe multi-Oscar-winning English costume designer Sandy Powell, who will make film history this month when she accepts a prestigious Bafta fellowship, is “terrified” by the lack of experimental live performance being staged in Britain, she says.Powell is one of film’s most garlanded talents, working regularly with Martin Scorsese, but she now fears that the connection between a thriving alternative theatre scene and the commercial world of mass entertainment has been cut. Continue reading...

Being on a government board should be about what you know, not who you know, minister Katy Gallagher says

Three years on, the reality of the split with the EU has changed minds. But dashed hopes could come to haunt Labour, tooBrexit is three years old and less popular than ever. More people are unhappy with Brexit outcomes to date, and pessimistic about the gains to come today than at any point in the Brexit process so far. “Rejoin” has opened up a double-digit lead over staying out in polls asking voters how they would choose in a second referendum on EU membership.While voters have swung against Brexit before, the current shift is different. Earlier remain gains were driven by abstainers and those too young to vote in 2016 breaking against Brexit and by demographic changes which have slowly pulled the electorate in a pro-EU direction. The vast majority of leave and remain voters have hitherto stood by the choices they made in June 2016. That is now changing, and it is Brexiters who are reconsidering. One in five leave voters now say they would vote to rejoin the EU, while remain switching has stayed much lower. The scales of opinion are being tipped against Brexit by growing doubts among its original supporters. Continue reading...

The scale of the mental health crisis is revealed as nurses and ambulance workers prepare to strike this week“Burnout” and stress among doctors, nurses, paramedics and other health staff has cost the NHS in England more than 15m lost working days since March 2020, about 50% more than the days lost to Covid infections and self-isolation, analysis of official figures by the Observer reveals.NHS sickness figures show that between March 2020, the month of the first Covid lockdown, and last September, 15.4m working days have been lost in the NHS because of stress-related absences, compared with 9.8m days lost from staff who were required to self-isolate or were ill with Covid. Continue reading...

Doctors, paramedics and nurses explain the stress and anxiety of working in a system that has reached breaking point“Frustration with the system was why I went off in the end,” said Conor Calby, 26, a paramedic and Unison rep in southwest England, who was recently off work for a month with burnout. “I felt like I couldn’t do my job and was letting patients down. After a difficult few years it was challenging.”While he usually manages to keep a distinct divide between work and home life, burnout eroded that line. He also lost his sleep pattern and appetite. Continue reading...

Companies facing backlash amid warning of mid-contract price rises of up to 17% during cost of living crisisBritain’s telecoms regulator is being urged to intervene over concerns that mobile and broadband operators are “lining their pockets” with £2.2bn of above-inflation price rises during the cost of living crisis.While ministers have urged employees to show pay restraint, the mobile phone and broadband firms are facing a consumer backlash as they announce record price increases. Continue reading...

Zimbabwean worker whose visa relies on job says government disclosed confidential details of interview to employerA victim of suspected labour abuse who confidentially disclosed details of exploitation to government investigators says she has been subjected to threats and intimidation after she was outed to her employer.The Zimbabwean national, 25, was interviewed by Home Office compliance officers for an investigation into illegal recruitment practices and told them she had paid a fee of about £1,500 to an agent who arranged for a care home in Surrey to sponsor her visa. Continue reading...

Some officials were signed off for ‘extended periods’ while others stayed at work to protect colleagues, says complaint made by 27 staff at Ministry of JusticeA single official complaint regarding the behaviour of the deputy prime minister Dominic Raab represented the concerns of 27 of his officials, the Observer has been told.The group of Ministry of Justice officials are understood to be represented by a memo warning that some colleagues had been forced to take time off for “extended periods” as a result of having to deal with Raab. It states that others affected felt they needed to stay at work to stop extra pressure being placed on their colleagues. Continue reading...

Treasurer says 2023 priorities include cost-of-living relief, a tax expenditure statement and the intergenerational report and wellbeing framework

Police had released CCTV images of a woman pushing a pram near where the dog walker went missing, urging her to get in touchA woman described as a “key witness” by police searching for missing mother Nicola Bulley has come forward, as the force warned against “totally unacceptable” speculation and abuse on social media.On Saturday, officers released CCTV images of a woman, dressed in a yellow coat and pushing a pram, who was in St Michael’s on Wyre on the morning of 27 January, when Bulley was last seen. Continue reading...

Speaking ahead of the opening of the parliamentary year, the PM dismisses the notion of having a constitutional convention before the referendum

Dominic Perrottet says homes will be able to receive the rebate if they compare energy providers

Protests were held in 20 cities across Israel, with demonstrators also decrying proposed settlement expansion in the West BankThousands of Israelis gathered in Tel Aviv for the fifth consecutive week to demonstrate against controversial legal reforms touted by Benjamin Netanyahu’s rightwing government.Crowds carrying blue and white Israeli flags filled the city’s central Kaplan Street on Saturday, with signs labelling the new government a “threat to world peace”. Continue reading...

Health minister hits back at criticism from AMA that government report had no immediate recommendations to help Australians access more affordable care

Hazardous materials being carried on freight train leads to evacuation order and state of emergencyFreight train cars continued to burn on Saturday, sending up heavy smoke, following a derailment that prompted an evacuation order and a declaration of a state of emergency in an Ohio village near the Pennsylvania state line in the US.About 50 cars derailed in East Palestine at about 9pm EST on Friday as a train was carrying products from Madison, Illinois, to Conway, Pennsylvania, rail operator Norfolk Southern said on Saturday. There was no immediate information about what caused the derailment. No injuries or damage to structures were reported. Continue reading...

In a speech on Sunday, PM to argue referendum comes at a time of increasing polarisation when democracy needs to be ‘protected’

Actor says he was sexually abused by his youth pastor at age 13 in first interview since 2021 and denies any criminal wrongdoingArmie Hammer gave his first interview since the beginning of 2021, when multiple sexual misconduct and abuse allegations were made against the actor, saying all the encounters involved were consensual while acknowledging he was emotionally abusive in his relationships.“I had a very intense and extreme lifestyle,” Hammer told Air Mail, a digital newsletter. “I would scoop up these women, bring them into it – into this whirlwind of travel and sex and drugs and big emotions flying around – and then as soon as I was done, I’d just drop them off and move on to the next woman, leaving that woman feeling abandoned or used.” Continue reading...

Leading European politicians have warned that the prime minister’s plan to ditch EU legislation will trigger retaliatory countermeasures, including imposing tariffs on goodsRishi Sunak’s plan to scrap thousands of EU laws by the end of this year risks triggering a full-scale trade war between the UK and Brussels, senior figures in the European Union have warned.Letters from leading EU politicians, seen by the Observer, reveal deep concern that the UK is about to lower standards in areas such as environmental protection and workers’ rights – breaching “level playing field” provisions that were at the heart of the post-Brexit trade and cooperation agreement (TCA). Continue reading...

Two-man business contacted by lawyers of Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns rights to Lord of the RingsA refuse firm in Brighton called Lord of the Bins has been ordered by lawyers to change its name after being accused of breaching trademark laws.The two-man waste collection business was contacted by Middle-earth Enterprises, which owns the worldwide rights to The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Continue reading...

Australian police say 16-year-old jumped from her jetski to swim after possible dolphin sighting nearbyA teenage girl has been killed in a suspected shark attack in Western Australia after she jumped from her jetski into a river, police said.The 16-year-old was pulled from the Swan River in Perth with critical injuries. Emergency personnel provided medical assistance at the scene but she died, said Insp Paul Robinson, of Western Australia police. Continue reading...

Fernando Johnson, 23, was shot at an address in Rosebank Way, Acton on 26 January and died at the sceneA 23-year-old man who was shot dead in west London has been named by police.Fernando Johnson was found seriously injured after officers were called to an address in Rosebank Way in Acton at 2.15am on 26 January, the Metropolitan police said. Continue reading...

Thirty-year-old Bobi snatched title from US pup in upset; longevity credited to human food and ‘calm, peaceful environment’It’s a dog’s life for one small US pup this weekend after a European rival essentially stole his bone.Two weeks ago, Spike, an Ohio-based chihuahua mix rescue dog, was crowned the world’s oldest dog. But two days ago Bobi, a dog that guards livestock in Portugal, grabbed the title faster than a string of sausages, CNN reported. Continue reading...

Defence minister Richard Marles says Aukus partners will all benefit from ‘three-way ecosystem’ as he meets with US counterpart Lloyd Austin

We look at the best cosy and climate-friendly options that are less likely to land you with a £300 fineAs wood-burning stoves have become a talking point in England after warnings about the pollution they emit, those who installed them and feel guilt may worry about how to replace their beloved burner.However, there are good options that are just as cosy-looking and warm but emit fewer particulates and are less likely to land you with a £300 fine. Continue reading...

Already overburdened system is struggling with ‘constant disruption’ of walkouts, says NHS ConfederationHospitals will struggle to clear treatment backlogs and improve emergency care unless the NHS pay dispute is settle soon, health service bosses have warned in advance of next week’s series of walkouts.The “intensifying wave of industrial” action is leading to thousands of operations and outpatient appointments having to be rescheduled, putting extra strain on an already overburdened system. Continue reading...

This weekend’s assemblage of the biggest names in music could make Beyoncé the most awarded artist in Grammy history with Adele and Harry Styles also tipped for successIt’s days before the curtain rises on the 65th annual Grammy awards ceremony and producer Ben Winston is putting the finishing touches on the production.“I was doing the table plans last night, which is always a funny thing,” Winston said during a brief respite in between his obligations at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles. “It’s like a bar mitzvah or a wedding, only you’re plotting where people like Beyoncé, Adele and the Rock are going to sit. Who’s Cardi B gonna be next to? It’s really fun.” Continue reading...

Jake Berry’s comments will heap pressure on deputy PM amid investigation into bullying allegationsA former cabinet minister and Conservative party chair has become the most senior Tory MP yet to call for Dominic Raab to step aside from his ministerial roles while he is investigated over multiple allegations of bullying and intimidating behaviour.Jake Berry, who was party chair and minister without portfolio in Liz Truss’s cabinet, said it would be “very bizarre” if someone in a similar position to Raab in any other workplace remained in their role amid such claims. Continue reading...

Poet and broadcaster says Rachel de Souza should be pushing ministers to do much moreLemn Sissay, the poet and broadcaster, has launched a bruising attack on the children’s commissioner for England, accusing her of failing to champion children in care at a crucial time and “smothering the voice of her own office”.Sissay, whose bestselling memoir My Name is Why was a reflection on his own childhood in care, tweeted that Rachel de Souza, a former headteacher and advocate of academy schools appointed to the role by Boris Johnson in 2020, was producing “so much fudge I could set up a stall”. Continue reading...

People in NSW town are being urged to stay well away from downed power lines and to stay at home unless travel is necessary. Follow latest updatesA “mini-cyclone” has left significant damage across the coastal NSW city of Port Macquarie, with trees and powerlines downed and roofs ripped from buildings, AAP’s Phoebe Loomes reports.Multiple emergency crews responded after the sudden sudden storm hit the coastal city just after 3pm on Friday. Some 60 calls for help were made to the State Emergency Service in the 30 minutes to 4pm, with reports of roofs blown from buildings, fallen trees and requests for flood rescues. Continue reading...