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Author of report into party’s culture voices concern antisemitism is taken more seriously than other forms of racismLabour has been accused of still not fully engaging with claims that anti-black racism and Islamophobia were not taken as seriously as antisemitism by the senior lawyer who carried out a report into the party’s culture.Martin Forde KC, who was commissioned by Keir Starmer to investigate allegations of bullying, racism and sexism, expressed concern about the party enabling a “hierarchy” of racism. Continue reading...

Trinity academic to establish how college benefited from slave trade in move to achieve ‘reconciliation’A University of Cambridge college is to appoint an academic to examine its legacies of slavery.Trinity College, Cambridge, has announced that its new legacies of slavery research and teaching fellow will investigate the college’s links to the transatlantic slave trade. Continue reading...

Airline industry claimed science not ‘robust’ enough to implement new controls to combat climate warming caused by vapour trailsAirlines and airports opposed measures to combat global warming caused by jet vapour trails that evidence suggests account for more than half of the aviation industry’s climate impact, new documents reveal.The industry argued in government submissions that the science was not “robust” enough to justify reduction targets for these non-CO emissions. Scientists say the climate impact of vapour trails, or contrails, has been known for more than two decades, with one accusing the industry of a “typical climate denialist strategy”. Continue reading...

Hosts of BBC fundraiser include AJ Odudu and Paddy McGuinness but Lenny Henry is absent for first timeThe BBC’s annual Comic Relief fundraiser, which this year featured sketches based on the popular show The Traitors and the Eurovision song contest, has raised more than £34m.The show, hosted at Media City in Salford, included AJ Odudu, Joel Dommett and Paddy McGuinness as presenters. Continue reading...

Holiday travel disruption likely as more than 1,400 union members set to walk out for 10 days from 31 MarchSecurity guards at Heathrow airport will go on strike over Easter in a dispute over pay, raising the possibility of holiday travel disruption.The Unite union has confirmed more than 1,400 of its members employed by Heathrow Airports Ltd (HAL) will strike for 10 days from 31 March. Continue reading...

RMT staff at 14 operators are taking action including LNER, Avanti, Southern, GWR and East MidlandsRail travel around Great Britain will be severely disrupted again this weekend after the second 24-hour strike in three days started on Saturday morning.Thousands of members of the RMT union working as train staff at 14 operators are on strike in the long-running dispute over pay and jobs. Continue reading...

Prices for popular destinations could be up almost 60% on 2022, analysis carried out for the Guardian showsPeople planning to hire a car abroad this summer face having to pay almost 60% more than they did before the coronavirus pandemic.New figures for six popular destinations show average car rental prices are continuing to rise, with the average cost coming in at about £565 for a week’s hire. Continue reading...

Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne have sweltered through unseasonal warmth and Canberra is forecast to reach a March record of 36C on Sunday

Former Channel 4 News anchor and his wife, Precious Lunga, 48, had a boy via a surrogate in 2021The former Channel 4 News anchor Jon Snow has said he is “at complete ease” with becoming a father again in his 70s.The broadcaster, 75, and his wife, the academic Precious Lunga, 48, welcomed a baby boy via a surrogate in March 2021 after struggling with “medical setbacks and miscarriages”. Continue reading...

Leading respiratory doctor fears generation could end up with long-term addictions and lung damage

Experts say sweetener unhelpful as numbers in England fall to lowest in a decade amid increasing costs, stress and adminSign-up payments for new childminders will do little to address a crisis in the sector that has seen existing professionals leaving in droves, experts say, as the number of childminders in England reaches its lowest level in a decade.There were 28,500 childminders registered as of December 2022, according to Ofsted data, the lowest number since 2012 and 24% down from the more than 37,600 at the end of 2019. Continue reading...

Labour says chancellor had time to draw up more targeted changes rather than including wealthiest saversJeremy Hunt previously backed Labour’s idea of giving a pensions tax break only to NHS staff, despite ruling out such a move in this week’s budget because it would not come into force quickly enough.The chancellor was chair of the health select committee last year when members wrote a report calling for the NHS pension scheme to be overhauled to encourage senior doctors to stay in their jobs. Continue reading...

Twelve-year sentences for the women condemned as president’s ‘revenge’ while UN report accuses country of possible crimes against humanityBelarus has handed long jail terms to senior staff at the country’s largest independent news site, which was forced to close after historic demonstrations against strongman Alexander Lukashenko over two years ago.The verdicts are the latest in a crackdown on journalists, opposition figures and activists who challenged Lukashenko’s claim that he won a sixth presidential term in 2020. Continue reading...

Joe Biden says international criminal court’s arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin is justified, while Volodymyr Zelenskiy hails the ‘historic’ move

Players criticise the BBC for questioning their integrity and naming individuals without consentFemale football players who fled Afghanistan after Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021 are criticising a recent BBC article which has labelled some of those evacuated as “false footballers”.The investigation by BBC Newsnight said some of the descriptions of UK visa applicants as national players or members of a regional team “appear to be false”. The report said there is resentment among “genuine players” now living under Taliban rule. Continue reading...

Sir Stephen House denies making the comments to a Home Office adviser at a Scotland Yard meeting in January 2022The police watchdog is investigating alleged comments made by one of the UK’s most senior officers about the “bulk” of rape complaints being “regretful sex”.Sir Stephen House denies making the comments to a Home Office adviser at a Scotland Yard meeting in January 2022 – when he was Deputy Commissioner of the Metropolitan police. He later served as acting commissioner after the resignation of Dame Cressida Dick. Continue reading...

Industrial action this week led to at least 175,000 appointments and procedures being postponedJunior doctors in England have agreed to formal talks with the government after a three-day strike this week in which more than 175,000 appointments and procedures had to be postponed, according to data published by NHS England.The postponements had to be made to protect emergency, critical and urgent care for patients as a result of the industrial action on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Continue reading...

Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith of West Mercia police found guilty of gross misconduct and given final written warningThe police officer who repeatedly beat Dalian Atkinson as he lay dying has been found guilty of gross misconduct but has been allowed to keep her job.The family of Atkinson, a former Aston Villa footballer, condemned the news that PC Mary Ellen Bettley-Smith of West Mercia police could return to the streets as an officer instead of being sacked. Continue reading...

Lingerie and sex toy chain’s boss tapped into the female market by embracing Britain’s peculiar erotic humour

Party insiders say a change of tactic means there will be a more muscular approach in making its own case about impartiality

Documentary questions why prime suspect was never arrested over 1978 murder in LondonIt was one of the most audacious murders of the cold war: the émigré Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov was waiting for a bus by London’s Waterloo Bridge when a man bumped into him with the tip of his umbrella, pushing a tiny poisoned pellet into his leg. Four days later he was dead.A Danish TV documentary out this week sheds new light on the prime suspect in the 1978 killing, the Italian-born Bulgarian agent Francesco Gullino, known as Agent Piccadilly. It also raises a whole range of new questions about why Gullino was never arrested for the killing. Continue reading...

Party asked corporation not to say accusation was ‘false’ relating to time when Labour leader was DPP

Businesswoman who turned sex toys and lingerie chain into household name had breast cancerJacqueline Gold, the businesswoman whose Ann Summers retail chain embraced a new wave of sexual liberation to make shopping for vibrators and lingerie an everyday event on British high streets, has died at the age of 62.Her family said her death on Thursday evening after seven years of treatment for breast cancer had left them “utterly heartbroken”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: HCA Healthcare is spending tens of thousands of pounds on ‘golden hello’ bonuses for staff from overstretched public serviceNHS doctors are being offered cash bonuses of up to £5,000 to recruit colleagues for jobs at private hospitals, as commercial healthcare providers compete for staff with an overstretched public health service.US-owned HCA Healthcare, which runs more than 30 facilities in London and Manchester, and claims to be the largest private provider in the world, is spending tens of thousands of pounds recruiting NHS-trained doctors, the Guardian can reveal. Continue reading...

Country becomes second Nato member after Poland to make such a pledge

Campaigners say Will Gardiner’s pay rise comes from subsidies on energy bills paid for by public and accuse firm of greenwashingThe chief executive of the power station giant Drax, Britain’s biggest single source of carbon emissions, has seen his pay rocket almost 70% to more than £5m after a year when high electricity prices profits sent profits soaring.Will Gardiner, who has led the power generator since 2018, received a pay package of £5.4m for 2022, up from £3.2m for the previous year. Gardiner’s package included a 10% increase in his salary to £631,000, a £966,000 bonus and £3.6m under a long-term incentive plan. The total renumeration of the Drax finance chief, Andy Skelton, rose from £2m in 2021 to £3m in 2022. Continue reading...

Jodey Whiting of Stockton-on-Tees died in 2017 about two weeks after her disability benefit was stoppedThe mother of Jodey Whiting, a seriously mentally ill and disabled woman who killed herself after her benefits were wrongly cut off, has won an appeal for a fresh inquest into her daughter’s death.Whiting, from Stockton-on-Tees, took her own life in 2017, days after Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) officials stopped her benefits after she missed a fit-for-work test appointment. Continue reading...

The 2003 invasion’s legacy reverberates in the emboldenment of Iran, Islamic State’s violence and the disintegration of SyriaIn Baghdad’s heart of power, Iraq’s prime minister arrives at work each day in a building once used by Tariq Aziz, Saddam Hussein’s close adviser and foreign minister. The ruins of a Saddam-era defence building still teeter next door, 20 years after an American bomb crashed through its roof at the start of the invasion.Not far away, the green dome of the Republican Palace – built on the orders of King Faisal II, then used by Iraq’s dictator before being occupied by the US army – sits on top of the still-standing totem of Iraq’s history. Continue reading...

Ministers set to halve the £500m promised to invest in staffing of sector with more than 165,000 vacancies, report says

Welsh first minister shown Owain Glyndŵr’s 1406 Pennal letter during visit to France to strengthen tiesThe Welsh first minster has spoken of his emotion at the “contemporary resonances” he perceived in a letter written by a 15th century Prince of Wales envisioning a country free from the rule of the “barbarous” English.During a visit to France, Mark Drakeford said he was moved by the Pennal letter sent by Owain Glyndŵr to the king of France, Charles VI, in 1406 asking for help in his fight against English rule. Continue reading...

Arrests believed to be first time police have detained citizens for possessing literature deemed ‘seditious’ by authoritiesHong Kong’s national security police have arrested two men for possessing children’s books deemed seditious by the authorities – in the latest of a series of moves that underlines the state of civil freedoms in the city.The two men, aged 38 and 50, were arrested and detained after police and customs officers searched their homes and offices and found copies of “seditious publications” that allegedly “incited hatred or contempt” against the Chinese and Hong Kong governments and the judiciary, according to a police press release cited in the local media. Continue reading...

Minimum of £11.40 an hour from July takes total investment in pay to more than £100m over 12 monthsAldi has announced its fourth pay rise in just over a year with shop workers to get a minimum of £11.40 an hour from July.The 3.6% pay rise puts Aldi workers well ahead of the “national living wage”, which will rise to £10.42 next month, and the independently verified real living wage of £10.90. Continue reading...

Strikes escalate and MPs call for protection as interior minister warns protesters against wreaking havocRefinery strikes have escalated in France as the interior minister spoke of protesters wreaking havoc across the country and some MPs called for police protection, amid anger at the government pushing through a rise in the pension age without a parliamentary vote.More than 300 people were arrested across France overnight during spontaneous protests against Emmanuel Macron’s decision to bypass parliament and force through his unpopular pensions changes, including raising the eligible age from 62 to 64. Continue reading...

Justice secretary praises ‘vast majority’ of officers but concedes London force clearly has a problem

Move follows pressure from campaigners such as Julie Devey and Carole Gould whose daughters were murderedDomestic abusers in England and Wales who kill their partners or ex-partners are to face tougher sentences under government plans after a campaign by bereaved families.The justice secretary and lord chancellor, Dominic Raab, will push for a change in the law after pressure from campaigners such as Julie Devey and Carole Gould, who have been calling since 2020 for a change to the minimum sentence for domestic homicide. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Britain Called and We Answered project speaks to members of community for 75th anniversaryA south London photographer has taken the portraits of members of the Windrush generation to highlight their courageous journeys, which transformed modern Britain.The photo series, called Britain Called and We Answered, interviews and photographs “everyday” members of the Windrush generation who all have important stories to tell. Continue reading...

CMA gives UnitedHealth and EMIS five working days to tackle concerns over £1.2bn dealThe competition watchdog has warned that a proposed merger between two healthcare technology specialists would lead to higher costs and “worse outcomes for the NHS and ultimately patients and UK taxpayers”.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) found the £1.2bn deal for the US firm UnitedHealth to buy British rival EMIS could reduce competition to develop and supply digital and data analytics products to the health service. Continue reading...

‘Intensive’ discussions after series of strikes to include working conditions and workload reduction

Activists hopeful as Canada’s largest school district takes first step towards banning caste discriminationWhen Vijay Puli arrived in Toronto with his wife and baby daughter, he thought they had finally left behind the discrimination, violence and social rejection they had faced in India.Puli identifies as a Dalit, a member of a group who in India are considered to be at the very bottom rung, often deemed “untouchable”. Continue reading...

China says president will meet Russian leader next week with aim of deepening partnership

Midnight Oil frontman and ex Labor minister says the deal ‘stinks’ and backing Coalition’s Aukus pact is departure from established ALP policy

With group to meet again, timetable leaves only a few days for advice to be considered before cabinet meeting

Six teenagers and a dozen adults occupied NSW premier’s office, protesting approval of new coal and gas projects. This blog is now closed

A mother whose son was killed in Basra, a senior non-commissioned officer with PTSD and a psychiatric nurse reflect 20 years onThe Iraq war left a profound mark on the UK. It forced the country to face up to its role, having initially helped rid Iraq of a brutal dictator, in the years of deadly chaos that followed. At home, meanwhile, it acted as the catalyst for one of the most popular domestic antiwar movements the country has seen.The conflict also left many people in the UK asking: could they ever really trust their political leaders at a time of national crisis again? And could it ever be right to send young men and women to war without having first exhausted all peaceful means – and without a clear idea of what they were even meant to achieve once they got there? Continue reading...

Adam Brown has pleaded guilty to murdering Chen Cheng at their home in April 2022

Wizz Air accounts for almost half the total amount owed to customers, according to Which?Airlines including Wizz Air and Ryanair owe millions of pounds to passengers from unpaid refunds and expenses, according to an investigation by the consumer group Which?.It called on the government and regulators to take urgent action over the £4.5m it calculates carriers owe in county court judgments (CCJs), describing the current enforcement of air passenger protections as “fundamentally flawed”. Continue reading...

Outcome almost a decade after execution of Sydney drug dealer Jamie Gao puts paid to hope former rogue detective may have held of eventual release

Australia’s defence minister plays down concerns multi-decade plan could be vulnerable to political changes in the US and UK

Ticketing giant will refund $10 to fans who bought cheapest tickets on the band’s US tour, and $5 to everyone else after frontman asks for an explanationTicketmaster will refund some of its fees to fans buying tickets for the Cure’s US tour, after frontman Robert Smith took them to task over their “unduly high” fees that were, in some cases, adding up to more than the price of a ticket.On Thursday, Smith told fans that he was “as sickened as you all are” and he would contact Ticketmaster after many took to social media to complain about the ticket sales behemoth’s additional fees. Continue reading...