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Tsai Ing-wen to meet the US House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, which China has called a ‘provocation’Pro and anti-Taiwan protesters gathered at Los Angeles airport for the arrival of Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, before a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with the US House speaker, Kevin McCarthy.Protesters also crowded outside Tsai’s LA hotel on Tuesday evening, banging drums, chanting and holding Taiwanese flags and photos of the president, who shook hands with supporters as she entered. A smaller, pro-Beijing group gathered nearby on the pavement, separated by a police line, at times chanting “One China”. Continue reading...

Toxicology report for pilot who was flying chopper that crashed and killed cast member tendered as evidence in Matt Wright’s court case

Lehrmann previously threatened to sue over broadcast of Brittany Higgins’ and Grace Tame’s address to National Press Club

Former New Zealand PM calls for politics to be opened up for all in emotional address to parliament

Ofcom proposes to refer sector to CMA amid ‘significant concerns’ about behaviour of some providersAmazon and Microsoft are facing a referral to the UK’s competition regulator over allegedly harming competition in the online cloud services market, amid “significant concerns” that big tech companies are abusing their positions.The British communications regulator, Ofcom, said it was proposing to refer the whole sector to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), adding that it was “particularly concerned about the practices of Amazon and Microsoft because of their market position”. Continue reading...

Head of UK Statistics Authority says outstanding cases had risen, not halved as PM had claimedRishi Sunak and his immigration minister have been scolded by the UK statistics watchdog for using inaccurate figures to back up spurious claims about asylum seekers.In a statement to the House of Commons in December, the prime minister claimed that the asylum backlog – 132,000 cases at the time – was half the size of the backlog left by the departing Labour government in 2010. This implied the backlog in 2010 would have been about 260,000. Continue reading...

Opposition leader says he will actively campaign against the voice, claiming it ‘won’t deliver outcomes to people on the ground’

Arrests over prank at beef bowl restaurant in Osaka come in wake of ‘sushi terrorism’ revelations that have gripped Japan’s food industryJapan’s crackdown on errant diners in the wake of “sushi terrorism” has intensified after two men were arrested for using their chopsticks to remove a condiment from a communal container at a restaurant in Osaka.The arrests of Toshihide Oka and Ryu Shimazu came as the country’s budget food service sector attempts to contain a wave of bad behaviour among clientele that began early this year at popular chain restaurants. Continue reading...

NEU survey also finds one in five teachers aged 29 or under have taken on a second job as pay fails to keep up with cost of livingOne in three young teachers in England are skipping meals and spending less on food because their pay has failed to keep up with the rising cost of living, while others are taking second jobs, a survey has found.More than 8,000 state school teachers in England contacted by the National Education Union revealed that 34% of teachers aged 29 or younger said they have been forced to skip meals to make ends meet, with one in five saying they have taken on a second job in addition to teaching full-time. Continue reading...

People on small island of Portland say scheme would be bad for them and bad for those on the vesselPoliticians, businesspeople and residents have said housing asylum seekers on a barge off a Dorset island will be inhumane, put pressure on creaking local services, create a security risk and could lead to demonstrations by rightwing campaigners.A string of people on Portland, which is linked to the mainland by the sweep of Chesil beach, argued that anchoring the barge in an area that has some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the south of England would be terrible for those assigned to the vessel and bad for residents. Continue reading...

Those hoping for a stress-free getaway might want to give Thursday afternoon a miss and leave early Friday instead

Emma Walters, who has denied all allegations, appeared in a court bail hearing over charges of incitement to commit conspiracy to murder the union boss

The death of headteacher Ruth Perry after a devastating report from schools watchdog Ofsted has prompted a growing backlash. Michelle Sheehy, headteacher of Millfield primary school in the West Midlands, explains whyWhen Ofsted inspectors visited Ruth Perry’s primary school in Reading last year, they told her it would be downgraded to the lowest ranking because of gaps they found in the school’s safeguarding administration. Perry’s death last month has led to an outpouring of anger.Her sister Julia Waters said her family were in no doubt she had taken her life in January as a “direct result” of the pressure put on her by the Ofsted inspection. Continue reading...

Painter Agnieszka Pilat and her trained robots join a lineup that includes Yoko Ono, Tracey Emin and fashion house Schiaparelli

Poor investigative practices and unacceptable delays leave children vulnerable, official report findsPolice can take up to 18 months to make an arrest after becoming aware that a child is at risk of online sexual abuse, an official report has concluded.His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found that forces’ investigative practices are “often poor [and] unacceptable delays are commonplace”, leaving children vulnerable and allowing offenders to escape justice. Continue reading...

Billionaire media mogul, 92, abruptly ends engagement to radio host Ann Lesley Smith, 66, after announcing plan for fifth marriageRupert Murdoch has abruptly ended his engagement with the wedding only months away, according to sources close to the 92-year-old media mogul.Vanity Fair reported the news about the four-times-married Fox Corporation chairman’s engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, 66, a former San Francisco police chaplain turned conservative radio host, which was reported only last month. Continue reading...

Redefinition of sex as ‘biological sex’ in Equality Act would enable single-sex restrictions against trans peopleKemi Badenoch is considering changing the Equality Act to allow organisations to bar trans women from single-sex spaces and events, including hospital wards and sports.The change by the equalities secretary would redefine sex in the 2010 act to specifically refer to legal protections for “biological sex” – the sex assigned at birth. Continue reading...

Provider said most problems were resolved but customers reported continuing glitches with internet, phone and TVThousands of Virgin Media customers across the UK experienced widespread internet, telephone and TV outages throughout Tuesday.Downdetector, which tracks outages, said around 50,000 people had reported problems with their services at one point, with the glitch first noticed by some customers shortly after 1am BST. Continue reading...

Recognising work in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, the $175,000 awards aim to free writers to work without financial pressuresBooker prize-shortlisted author Percival Everett and Iñupiaq-Inuit poet dg nanouk okpik are among the recipients of this year’s Windham-Campbell prizes.The prizes are awarded to eight writers each year for literary achievement across four categories – fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. Each recipient receives $175,000 (£140,000); this is up $10,000 from last year. Continue reading...

Baroque music and performing arts group performed Pergolesi’s lyrical sequence Stabat Mater combined with pole and dance actsA French priest has received death threats after a sold-out pole dance performance that the local paper called “sexy” was held in his church.Daniel Boessenbacher, the priest at the Protestant Saint-Guillaume church in Strasbourg, eastern France, told AFP he had alerted police to the threats after receiving two anonymous letters. Continue reading...

Judge says Sean Hogg, 17 when he committed the crime and now 21, would have been jailed if he had been over 25Campaigners and politicians have expressed outrage after a man who raped a 13-year-old girl in a Scottish park when he was 17 was not given a jail sentence.Sean Hogg, now 21, was given a 270-hour community payback order when he was sentenced at the high court in Glasgow on Monday. Continue reading...

Immigration minister fined more than £1,600 for breaking limit on M1 after appearing on Any Questions? last yearThe government minister Robert Jenrick has been banned from driving for six months and fined more than £1,600 after being caught driving almost 30mph over the speed limit last year.The Conservative MP for Newark was recorded driving 68mph in a temporary 40mph zone on the M1 in Northamptonshire on 5 August 2022. Jenrick pleaded guilty to the offence in February and said in a letter to the court that he “sincerely apologised” for the incident. Continue reading...

Shareholders lash out during final AGM as boss apologises for crisis that led to takeover of lender by UBSFurious Credit Suisse investors at its final ever annual meeting blocked executive pay plans and called for board members to be “put behind bars”, as the Swiss lender’s chair said he was “truly sorry” over the bank’s demise.Shareholders used most of the nearly five-hour annual general meeting in Zurich – the last in the 167-year-old bank’s history – to voice fury over poor management, hitting out at excessive pay for “incompetent and greedy” bankers who they said took too many risks and endangered Switzerland’s economic prosperity. Continue reading...

Latest updates: environment secretary says ‘there is no way you can stop pollution overnight’ as ministers attempt to clean up rivers and seasYoung people could be disfranchised in the local elections next month because of inadequate attempts by the government to make them aware of new voter ID rules, according to the Electoral Reform Society.The new policy means people must be registered to vote and take a form of photo ID to the polling station on 4 May. Continue reading...

Officials decided to shut down decrepit building last year amid concerns that the air in the mansion was no longer safe to breatheSo many dead mice were trapped behind the sagging walls and heaped in the basement of the Canadian prime minister’s official residence that officials decided shut down the the decrepit building last year amid concerns that the air in the mansion was no longer safe tobreathe, according to newly released documents.The limestone-clad house at 24 Sussex Drive, perched on a cliff above the Ottawa River, is the country’s most symbolically important and politically fraught plots of real estate. Continue reading...

Three years after Jeremy Corbyn left a sleeping bag behind, the leader of the opposition’s office is full of ‘bright, energetic, hungry people’Keir Starmer’s team had a few moments to reminisce about the past three years at their regular morning meeting on Tuesday, with one senior aide recalling when their winning leadership team first walked into the leader of the opposition’s office.It had only just been vacated by Jeremy Corbyn’s team and in one room, there were assorted revolutionary flags including one from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In the next room there was a large bin full to the brim with shredded documents spilling on to the floor. In Corbyn’s office was a sleeping bag. “You could not have pictured a more symbolic scene,” they said. Continue reading...

Central bank decides against £8.5m fine due to collapsed firm’s ‘limited resources’The Bank of England has issued a public reprimand against the Greensill-linked Wyelands Bank after discovering “wide-ranging significant regulatory failings” at the lender, which is owned by Sanjeev Gupta, boss of the troubled Liberty Steel.Wyelands, which was Greensill Capital’s biggest client before the scandal-hit firm collapsed in early 2021, was found to have breached a series of rules including falling short on governance and risk controls, reporting its capital position incorrectly and failing to retain messages sent on WhatsApp between 2016 and 2020. Continue reading...

Kyle Bevan guilty of murder with Sinead James found to have caused or allowed death of her daughterA woman and her partner have been found guilty over the death of a two-year-old girl who was fatally attacked at her home in Wales.Lola James died in hospital four days after suffering “catastrophic” brain injuries in the early hours of 17 July 2020. Continue reading...

Delegates at union’s annual conference approve further industrial action over pay and school funding

Contradictions over missions in Syria and Iraq deepens concern over Britain’s ‘perfect’ precision warIt sounded like accountability. Pressed about the UK’s implausibly spotless record in its bombing campaign against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq, the British government admitted in May 2018 that its military had killed one civilian in eastern Syria two months earlier.But the strike the then defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, described to parliament was not logged in the records of civilian casualties kept by its allies in the international coalition flying bombers and drones over Syria and Iraq. Continue reading...

Kim Thornden-Edwards says it may be good to tackle issues of masculinity and power from a male perspectiveThe probation service needs more men to help bring a male perspective to cases involving violent offenders, including cases of domestic abuse, the head of the service in England and Wales has said.In her first interview since taking up the role of chief probation officer in February, Kim Thornden-Edwards told BBC News that the service also needed more older people with life experiences, including those who had been on probation themselves. Continue reading...

Aunt of murdered lawyer Zara Aleena says criminals should receive longer sentences if they refuse to face families or victimsDominic Raab has been urged to fast-track plans to force criminals to attend their sentencing after the murderer of nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel refused to leave his cell to be sentenced on Monday.The aunt of Zara Aleena, who was murdered while walking home in June 2022, said allowing convicted criminals to avoid facing the court meant the “convict actually exercises their bit of power”. Continue reading...

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Former NRL player pleaded not guilty to two counts of sexual intercourse without consent over incident in Newcastle in 2018

Global heating has been seen as the cause for these damaging storms, which are expected to increase significantly this centuryA spate of devastating tornadoes that have recently ripped through parts of the eastern and southern US states could portend the sort of damage that will become more commonplace due to changes wrought by global heating, scientists have warned.More than 50 people have died from the tornadoes and thunderstorms in the past two weeks, with the latest powerful storm system wreaking havoc in states including Alabama, Illinois, Mississippi, Tennessee and Arkansas on Friday. One man survived by hiding in his bathtub, while a separate storm caused a tiger to escape a zoo. Continue reading...

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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