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Helen McCabe joins from BP where she worked alongside Rolls-Royce CEO Tufan Erginbilgic

Staff at outsourcing firm resort to radios, pen and paper as they are unable to access computers and emailComputer systems have abruptly stopped working at the outsourcing group Capita, triggering fears that the company that runs crucial operations for the NHS and the military could be under cyber-attack.Staff are understood to have been unable to access IT systems since Friday morning, and an early investigation has yet to establish the cause. Continue reading...

Venue that helped launch careers of many actors forced to close after losing £1.8m Arts Council England grantOne of Britain’s oldest theatres, the Oldham Coliseum, will close “on its own terms” on Friday night, its artistic director has said, with a star-studded final show.The 138-year-old venue has been forced to close after losing its £1.8m government subsidy in a move decried by leading arts figures. Continue reading...

Stoppage by 1,400 members of Unite union mainly affects Terminal 5 and is due to last until Easter Sunday

Worshippers in Indore fell into communal water source as they gathered to mark Ram NavamiAt least 36 people have died after the floor of a Hindu temple collapsed in Indore, central India, plunging them into a well.It has emerged that the floor which covered the stepwell – a stair-lined communal water source – consisted only of tiles laid over a metal grille. Continue reading...

The 7.30 political correspondent will sit on the broadcaster’s board alongside chair Ita Buttrose. This blog is now closed

Even if deceased man Aubrey Donahue had a knife, ‘he hasn’t got a knife like Crocodile Dundee’, says Prof Gracelyn SmallwoodFor Prof Gracelyn Smallwood, a late-night phone call about another Aboriginal man being shot and killed by police was the final straw.Aubrey Donahue, 27, died after being shot four times by police, who say he advanced on officers while armed with a knife in Mareeba, west of Cairns, on Saturday. Continue reading...

UK supermarkets heavily reliant on strawberries from southern Spain, where workers allege they are regularly underpaid, have passports withheld and are forced to live in unsanitary shacksAbusive conditions are endemic in parts of Spain’s fruit sector, a new report alleges, with workers telling the Guardian they have been regularly underpaid and forced to live in dilapidated shacks.During the winter, at least 60% of strawberries eaten in the UK are likely to be from vast farms across the south-west Spanish province of Huelva. In 2020, the UK imported €310m (£272m) worth of the fruit from the Andalucia region, of which 91% is believed to be grown in Huelva. Continue reading...

Monthly rotation of presidency of 15-member council has been unaffected by Ukraine warIn Ukraine, Moscow is pursuing an unprovoked war of aggression. In The Hague, Vladimir Putin is facing an arrest warrant for war crimes. But at the UN, Russia is about to take charge of a powerful international body, the security council.From Saturday, it will be Russia’s turn to take up the monthly presidency of the 15-member council, in line with a rotation that has been unaffected by the Ukraine war. Continue reading...

US security spokesman says new evidence suggests Moscow offering food to ‘rogue’ nation in return for dozens of kinds of weapons and munitions

Tsai Ing-wen’s trip causing controversy in China, with the government labelling it a ‘provocation’Chinese officials have warned of “serious” consequences if Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, meets the US House speaker next week, after Tsai arrived in New York to crowds of supporters and protesters.Tsai is stopping in the US twice during her 10-day visit to Taiwan’s diplomatic allies Guatemala and Belize. Her itinerary has not been disclosed and none of the events were open to the public or media. Continue reading...

Christopher Elgifari, 31, is alleged to have stolen the delivery van, whose 54-year-old driver is in a critical conditionA man has been charged with attempted murder after a delivery driver was hit by his own stolen van and left fighting for his life.Christopher Elgifari, 31, is alleged to have stolen a white van from the 54-year-old victim on Tuesday in Cardiff, south Wales. Continue reading...

Court hears Kashif Anwar, accused of murdering Fawziyah Javed in Edinburgh, had told her it would be ‘OK’ if she died in childbirthA man accused of murdering his wife by pushing her from Arthur’s Seat in Edinburgh was overheard in hospital telling her that if she died in childbirth it “would be OK” because he “would be free”, a court has heard.Kashif Anwar, 29, is accused of killing Fawziyah Javed, 31, in September 2021 by pushing her from the peak in Holyrood Park, causing her multiple blunt force injuries that led to her death and that of her unborn child. Continue reading...

Several arrest warrants requested after video emerges which appears to show guards leaving as fire engulfs a cell with migrants locked insideThe deaths of at least 39 migrants in a fire at a Mexican detention centre are being investigated as suspected homicides, a prosecutor has said, accusing those in charge of doing nothing to evacuate the victims.Authorities faced mounting scrutiny of their handling of the disaster after video surveillance footage appeared to show guards leaving as flames engulfed a cell with migrants locked inside. Continue reading...

Inspectors say ‘deeply troubling’ behaviour found at fire and rescue services across England may be ‘tip of the iceberg’Every fire brigade in England is plagued with bullying, harassment and discrimination complaints, a damning report has found, and officials have called for drastic measures to clean up the service.Inspectors urged bosses to carry out background checks on every firefighter, with those who fail being sacked, after long-awaited findings shone a light on “deeply troubling” behaviour in the emergency service.A senior officer accused of calling a black colleague the N-word dismissing it as simply “having a laugh”.A firefighter reporting a superior for making a racist comment, only to find his account dismissed because the alleged offender “wouldn’t behave in such a way”. The senior officer in question then threatened “to make his life hell”.Two male firefighters mockingly told a female colleague they were “going to rape her”, before simulating it with her.Some staff being reluctant to speak up after being told it would be “career suicide” to do so. Continue reading...

Terry Sanderson experienced ‘sudden and precipitous change’ following 2016 ski collision in Utah resort of Park City, lawyers sayThe eight-member jury in the Utah ski crash trial involving the actor and wellness entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow and the retired optometrist Terry Sanderson has gone into deliberations, following closing arguments from the prosecution and defense.Sanderson, 76, claims the 50-year old Paltrow broke his ribs and inflicted concussion in the ski collision in 2016. Paltrow counters that the crash was not her fault. Continue reading...

Department of Health and Social Care in England has removed 269,500 pallets of PPE from its stockThe government has disposed of more than 3bn items of personal protective equipment (PPE) it bought during the pandemic, figures have revealed.An estimated 3.14bn items have been shed through a mixture of recycling, energy from waste processes – including some incineration – donations and sales. Continue reading...

Publisher pays tribute to ‘genius’ who was an ‘inspirational leader’Peter Usborne, the founder of the children’s books publisher Usborne and the co-founder of Private Eye magazine, has died aged 85, the publisher has announced.He died “unexpectedly but peacefully” surrounded by his family this morning, the Bookseller reported. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereDymtro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, has tweeted to criticise the fact that Russia will take over chairing the UN security council on 1 April. He writes:Russian UN security council presidency on 1 April is a bad joke. Russia has usurped its seat; it is waging a colonial war; its leader is a war criminal wanted by the ICC for kidnapping children. The world can’t be a safe place with Russia at UNSC. Continue reading...

Final evaluation of Unboxed science and arts festival finds it delivered on its economic objectivesAt a cost of £116.8m to the taxpayer, it was hoped that the Unboxed science and arts festival would bring the UK together in a post-Brexit love-fest and enhance our international reputation – to “showcase what makes our country great today”.The final evaluation has found that the festival, commissioned by Theresa May in 2018 and named a “festival of Brexit” by Jacob Rees-Mogg, brought together a fraction of the audiences initially hoped for. It nevertheless met later, radically downgraded predictions and delivered on its economic objectives. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Bosses of childcare firm part owned by PM’s wife were at No 11 reception hours after he was quizzed by MPs about linksBosses of the childcare firm at the centre of a Rishi Sunak conflict of interest row attended a Downing Street reception just hours after he was pressed by MPs over his links with the provider, the Guardian has learned.Koru Kids, which lists the prime minister’s wife, Akshata Murty as a shareholder and is expected to benefit from major changes announced in the budget, was understood to be present at a No 11 reception for the education sector on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...

US secretary of state Antony Blinken issues strongly worded statement after arrest of Evan GershkovichAntony Blinken, the US secretary of state, has condemned Russia’s arrest of the Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, as Moscow was accused of engaging in “hostage taking” by arresting a high-profile journalist who could be used as leverage in a potential prisoner swap.“In the strongest possible terms, we condemn the Kremlin’s continued attempts to intimidate, repress and punish journalists and civil society voices,” Blinken said in a statement. Continue reading...

Executives helped Sergei Roldugin deposit millions of francs in Swiss accounts between 2014 and 2016Four bankers who helped Vladimir Putin’s close friend Sergei Roldugin move millions of francs through bank accounts in Zurich have been convicted of financial crimes in Switzerland.The four were found guilty on Thursday of failing to carry out proper checks on financial transactions involving Roldugin’s accounts with the Swiss branch of the Russian bank Gazprombank. Continue reading...

Loophole meant mercenary group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin could sue journalistUK ministers have tightened up sanctions rules to avoid a repeat of a recent controversy in which lawyers acting for the head of the Wagner group obtained an exemption from curbs to sue a British journalist.The Treasury minister Joanna Penn announced on Thursday that the government would change the way it decides whether to grant licences for sanctioned individuals to use frozen money for legal cases. Continue reading...

Exclusive: End headline-grabbing policymaking on social justice, equality and poverty eradication, say charitiesSenior figures across civic Scotland have called on Humza Yousaf to bridge the delivery gap between progressive rhetoric and the reality of policy implementation that they say characterised the Sturgeon era.Speaking exclusively to the Guardian on and off the record, third sector leaders called for the new first minister to move away from headline-grabbing initiatives towards a systemic approach to policymaking on social justice, equality and poverty eradication. Continue reading...

The Hammersmith arts centre, which faces soaring energy bills and debt from its redevelopment, said it has struggled to rebuild revenue streams after the pandemicLondon’s Riverside Studios has begun to enter administration, citing “eye-watering” energy bills and the debt incurred by its recent redevelopment.The arts centre, situated on the Thames in west London, is marking its 45th anniversary of operating in Hammersmith but the board of the Riverside Trust charity said that it has filed a notice of intention to appoint administrators. Continue reading...

Founded by two translators – one American, one British – the Salt initiative will provide mentorships, funding and a south Asia-focused literary translation schoolA new project to help bring the “extraordinarily rich” literature of south Asia to English-speaking countries will launch this summer, it has been announced.The cross-continental South Asian Literature in Translation (Salt) project has been set up by the University of Chicago, in partnership with the American Literary Translators Association, English PEN, Words Without Borders and the British Council. The multi-year project will try to “strengthen each part of the publishing chain across the English-speaking world”, the University of Chicago has said. Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed, you can read more on this story hereStarmer says Labour would freeze council tax for next year if it were in power, he says. (See 9.13am.)This is similar to an approach pursued by the SNP, which for many years froze council tax in Scotland.1% of asylum claims from those arriving on small boats actually processed.1% of the fraud that was lost during Covid actually recovered. Continue reading...

Monarch says he wants to ‘renew special bond of friendship’ between countries, in speech delivered in English and GermanKing Charles said he wanted to “renew the special bond of friendship” between the UK and Germany, without mentioning the B-word that has caused the friendship to grow cold in recent years, as he addressed the Bundestag in Berlin on Thursday.The monarch’s speech in front of Germany’s federal parliament was the first by a non-elected head of state. It was pitched as a celebration of cultural commonalities and joint ventures past and present – from a shared love of music and comedy to energy and security cooperation – and an attempt to repair ties that have fractured since the Brexit vote seven years ago. Continue reading...

RCMP response condemned after gunman drove a fake police car around for more than 13 hours, evading capture and killing 22 peopleA cascade of failures within Canada’s federal police worsened the country’s deadliest mass shooting, a public inquiry has concluded, in a damning indictment that found the force has shown little interest in reforming in the years since.The Mass Casualty Commission, a joint provincial and federal inquiry, was investigating the 2020 shootings in Portapique Nova Scotia, in which a gunman driving a fake police car spent more than 13 hours evading capture and killing 22 people. Continue reading...

Ana Obregón dominated headlines in Spain and led to calls to regulate surrogacyA 68-year-old Spanish actor’s decision to have a child via a surrogate in the US has set off a political firestorm in Spain, prompting criticism from four government ministers as well as renewed calls to reconsider Spain’s longstanding ban on the practice.TV star Ana Obregón dominated headlines across Spain week after ¡Hola! Magazine published a photo of her holding a newborn baby outside a hospital in Miami. The magazine explained that her baby girl had been born using a surrogate, some three years after the actor lost her son and only child, Aless Lequio, to cancer. Continue reading...

Cashman shot girl dead after bursting into her house in 2022 while chasing another manThomas Cashman has been found guilty of murdering nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel at her home in Liverpool last year.The 34-year-old was convicted by a jury at Manchester crown court of shooting dead Olivia and injuring her mother, Cheryl Korbel, when he burst into her home with two guns on 22 August 2022. Continue reading...

‘It’s quite frightening,’ says a tenant who lost her rent subsidy. As debate stalls over the housing future fund, she’s not the only one who’s frustrated

The decision prompted urgent warning that the case exposed significant gaps in Australia’s public interest disclosure act

Ursula von der Leyen calls for ‘clear-eyed picture’ of risks as she prepares for Beijing tripThe European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, has called on Europe to reassess its diplomatic and economic relations with China before a visit to Beijing next week with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.Europe needed to have “a clear-eyed picture on what the risks are”, she said in a wide-ranging speech in Brussels, noting that EU-China relations had become “more distant and more difficult” in recent years as Chinamoved into “a new era of security and control” and ramped up “policies of disinformation and economic and trade coercion”. Continue reading...

Evan Gershkovich could face up to 20 years in prison after allegedly ‘collecting classified information’Russian authorities have arrested a US journalist working in the country and accused him of espionage, a charge which could carry a prison sentence of up to 20 years.Russia’s FSB security service said Evan Gershkovich, a well-respected reporter from the Wall Street Journal, “was collecting classified information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian military industrial complex”. Continue reading...

CPS will consider potential murder charge over death of 24-year-old in Streatham, south LondonA Metropolitan police firearms officer has been referred to prosecutors to consider a potential murder charge for shooting dead Chris Kaba who was killed in September 2022 in south London.The Independent Office for Police Conduct announced a homicide investigation into the officer known only as NX121 shortly after the incident. Continue reading...

Painting created in 2010 for band who agreed to change their name bought for more than three times its estimateThe Banksy artwork Brace Yourself! has sold for $2,032,000 (£1,644,132), more than three times its original estimate, during an auction featuring a performance from the band that inspired the piece.The anonymous artist created the work in 2010 for the British band then known as Exit Through the Gift Shop, who shared the same name he wanted to use for his 2010 documentary film. Continue reading...

Sky News broadcaster and media outlet mutually agree to discontinue legal proceedings at federal court mediation on Thursday

Evidence yet to be handed over includes thousands of documents, but AFP says laws are preventing production of some material

Songwriter behind psychedelic 1960s masterpiece A Whiter Shade of Pale had been receiving cancer treatment for two yearsKeith Reid, the lyricist for Procol Harum whose poetic vision on Whiter Shade of Pale made it a defining song of the 1960s, has died aged 76.He died in a London hospital, after receiving cancer treatment for two years. The band paid tribute to him on social media, writing: “His lyrics were one of a kind and helped to shape the music created by the band. His imaginative, surreal and multi-layered words were a joy to Procol fans and their complexity by design was a powerful addition the Procol Harum catalogue. Our thoughts go out to his family and friends.” Continue reading...

One member says she feels body shamed after receiving warning letter but official defends ‘family-friendly’ rules to protect children

Faith in bloc higher than that in UK parliament for first time in three decades of World Values SurveyPeople in Britain have more confidence in the EU than the UK parliament, reversing a state of affairs that has lasted for more than 30 years, research reveals.Since the UK voted for Brexit, the proportion of people declaring confidence in parliament has slumped by 10 percentage points to 22% while there has been a seven percentage point rise in confidence in the Brussels-based bloc, to 39%. Confidence in the UK government also fell from 2017 to 2021. Continue reading...

Despite MoD assurances, applicant and former British Council worker still being asked for Taliban-stamped papersAn Afghan who worked with the British Council and is applying to come to the UK has been told to retrieve documents from the Taliban or risk rejection, despite assurances earlier this month that such demands would end.The Ministry of Defence apologised on 18 March after an investigation found that applicants to the Afghan relocations and assistance policy (Arap) scheme were required to provide birth and marriage certificates in English and bearing stamps from Afghan government departments. Continue reading...

Kristian Kovaleff feigned mental illness until realising he could not fool forensic psychologists, judge says

Memorial given more than $600m in last two years of Morrison government, as the nation’s peak collecting museums languished

Guidance says strong population-level immunity due to infection and vaccination means boosters have less impactOnly high-risk groups should receive ongoing Covid-19 booster doses because strong population-level immunity means ongoing boosting of the general population offers little impact, the latest update from the World Health Organization (WHO) says.The vaccination guide, from WHO’s Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunisation, says each country needs to take into account its own epidemiological situation, stressing that its recommendations are for short-to-medium term planning and subject to change. Continue reading...

Report finds up to 33% of looming price rises could be avoided if state and federal governments cracked down on return allowed for suppliers

Sanderson shown photos of himself on vacation after ski collision, and doctor suggested any concussion suffered was ‘very mild’Gwyneth Paltrow’s attorneys called ski crash accuser Terry Sanderson back to the stand late on Wednesday in a final effort to eviscerate claims that he suffered an extensive brain injury that led to loss of joie de vivre and brain function as a result of the actress allegedly skiing into him on a Utah mountain slope.Under an intense grilling, Sanderson was shown photographs, culled from Facebook, showing the retired eye doctor taking frequent holiday trips around the world after the ski collision, including floating down the Amazon, visiting the Netherlands three times, Morocco twice, Thailand and other destinations. Continue reading...