Shutdown imposed as part of search for Amritpal Singh Sandhu, accused of disrupting communal harmonyEconomic life in the north Indian state of Punjab has been paralysed by an internet shutdown, affecting 30 million people, imposed as part of a huge manhunt for a Sikh preacher fighting for a separate Sikh state.Police have been searching for Amritpal Singh Sandhu, who is wanted for allegedly disrupting communal harmony, since Saturday. Continue reading...
Civil society groups, community leaders and academics say ‘ideologically led’ review of programme should be rejectedMore than 200 civil society organisations, community leaders and academics have called on the UK government to withdraw a controversial review of the Prevent programme, part of its counter-terrorism strategy.The Home Office accepted all 34 recommendations in the review from William Shawcross, a former chair of the Charity Commission who concluded that the Prevent programme should focus more on Islamist rather than far-right terrorism.Implementing Shawcross’s findings means endorsing ideologically led policy with no legal accountability or parliamentary oversight.Implementing Shawcross’s findings means supporting claims about increased threats of Islamic extremism without including data to back up these claims in the review.Continuing to implement the Prevent programme will lead to perpetuating further harms against children and vulnerable adults.The argument that Prevent should focus less on rightwing extremism and more on “‘Islamist” extremism is explicitly discriminatory. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#6A0Z1)
Midlands city chosen to host head office for Great British Railways, beating five other locationsDerby is to become the new headquarters of Britain’s reformed railway, the government has confirmed.As exclusively revealed by the Guardian on Monday, the Midlands city has been chosen to host the head office for Great British Railways. Continue reading...
Saad ibrahim Almadi was arrested in 2021 for social media posts on Yemen and the killing of Jamal KhashoggiA US citizen sentenced to 19 years in a Saudi prison for social media posts criticising the kingdom’s rulers has been released, his son has said.Saad Ibrahim Almadi, a 72-year-old of Saudi origin, was arrested in 2021 for what his son, Ibrahim, described as “mild” Twitter posts on topics including the war in Yemen and the 2018 killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi. Continue reading...
Prime minister says trust in police has been ‘hugely damaged by things we’ve discovered over past year’The prime minister has failed to say if he believed his daughters could trust the Metropolitan police after a shocking report lambasted the force for its institutional racism, misogyny and homophobia.The publication of the report by Louise Casey, commissioned by the Met after one of its officers abducted, raped and murdered Sarah Everard in March 2021, has been called one of the “darkest days” in the force’s history. Continue reading...
Report shows 40% of 25- to 34-year-olds intend to rely on family support to buy a house while government measures not seen as crucial to achieving home ownership
Mother of teenager murdered in racist attack in 1993 says Casey report findings come as ‘no surprise’The mother of the murdered black teenager Stephen Lawrence has said the Metropolitan police are “rotten to the core” after the publication of a damning report into the force’s culture.Dame Louise Casey’s report, commissioned in the wake of the murder of Sarah Everard, condemns Scotland Yard for its institutional racism, sexism and homophobia. Continue reading...
by Australian Associated Press with Guardian staff on (#6A0TX)
The actor and Play School star hopes to redefine our image of the former prime minister, in a work that imagines the lead-up to her famous misogyny speech, 10 years after it happened
Poet laureate celebrates a plum tree in poem commissioned by the National Trust for its blossom campaignThe poet laureate, Simon Armitage, has written a new poem which pays homage to spring, in celebration of World Poetry Day.Plum Tree Among the Skyscrapers is the first in a collection of poems inspired by blossom and commissioned by the National Trust. Its publication marks the beginning of the Trust’s annual blossom campaign, in which the charity will vow to bring blossom back to landscapes across the UK by planting 20m trees by 2030 to help tackle both the climate and nature crises. Continue reading...
Solicitor, 71, had been charged under national security law and was released to be treated for lung cancerHong Kong police have arrested a veteran pro-democracy politician who was out on bail for medical treatment after spending more than a year in detention on a subversion charge.Albert Ho, 71, once led the city’s largest opposition group, the Democratic party, and runs his own law firm. Police handcuffed Ho and took him away from his home in a vehicle on Tuesday, a Reuters witness said. Continue reading...
Senior lawyer who carried out inquiry into Labour party’s culture says transparent systems needed to tackle issuesKeir Starmer has faced criticism for vowing to adopt a “zero-tolerance approach to antisemitism and racism” without having the transparent systems in place to tackle such issues.Martin Forde KC, the senior lawyer who carried out an inquiry into the party’s culture, said he has become “irritated” by the phrase, which the Labour leader used last month after the ECHR lifted the party out of two years of special measures over its past failings on antisemitism. Continue reading...
The singer’s ex is claiming a voice recording she provided him before he became famous has been used without her permissionBad Bunny’s ex–girlfriend is suing the superstar for at least $40m over a well-known voice recording she provided the singer before he became famous.Carliz De La Cruz Hernández, whose breathy “Bad Bunny, baby” recording was included in two of the artist’s songs, claimed in a lawsuit filed this month in a Puerto Rico court that her voice and the phrase she came up with are being used without her permission. Continue reading...
The Motherhood Group event hears that black women suffer effects of unconscious bias within systemUnconscious bias in the UK healthcare system is contributing to the stark racial disparity in maternal healthcare outcomes, a conference has heard.The Black Maternal Health Conference UK also heard that black women not being listened to by healthcare professionals was also a contributing factor. Continue reading...
Suella Braverman’s claims of ‘constructive’ talks regarding Strasbourg’s injunctions disputed by legal scholarsLegal experts have cast doubt on the UK’s claims of “possible reforms” to European court of human rights procedures that stopped an asylum seeker from being deported to Rwanda last year.During a two-day visit to the country’s capital, Kigali, Suella Braverman told a selected group of government-friendly papers that she was “encouraged” by the government’s “constructive” talks with Strasbourg to reform court injunctions. An ECHR injunction last June prevented an Iraqi national from being deported from the UK to the east African country. Continue reading...
The chain’s mutual model was once hailed as a template, but now it needs cash amid hefty lossesCould breaking the staff-ownership model be the answer for the owner of John Lewis and Waitrose, which is considering bringing in outside investment of up to £2bn as a way to secure its future after reporting hefty losses?The John Lewis Partnership has been owned by its employees since the 1920s, meaning they receive an annual bonus based on profits in a set-up that motivated staff and helped it expand into a stalwart of the British high street. Continue reading...
In final speech as leader, Scottish first minister says contest ‘is an unusual process for the SNP but it’s essential and it’s healthy’Nicola Sturgeon has claimed the crisis surrounding the Scottish National party’s “fractious” leadership battle is a necessary part of its renewal, in her final speech as party leader.Speaking at the Royal Society of Arts (RSA) in London, Sturgeon said the leadership contest sparked by her decision to resign was “proving to be a challenging and difficult process”, but denied it would cause longer-term damage to the SNP’s fortunes. Continue reading...
by Josh Halliday North of England correspondent on (#6A08W)
Police have arrested four men on suspicion of murder after Trust Junior Jordan Gangata was found injured on Sunday morningTributes have been paid to a “hardworking, funny and loyal” 17-year-old boy who was stabbed to death at a house party in Leeds.Police launched a murder investigation after Trust Junior Jordan Gangata, known as TJ, was found injured at a property in the Armley area of the city in the early hours of Sunday. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#69ZXW)
Members voted overwhelmingly in favour of the offer, worth 9% over two years, in deal that should bring worst of disruption to endMembers of the RMT union have voted to accept a pay offer from Network Rail.Thousands of rail workers including signalling staff voted by three to one in favour to accept the offer, a 9% pay increase over two years, in a referendum that closed on Monday. Continue reading...
Key resignations, ideological conflicts and drop in membership numbers have left the SNP close to collapseThey are phrases the Scottish National party once happily used as attack lines against the Conservatives and Labour: “tremendous mess”, “unedifying” and “spectacularly wrong”.Yet they came from the SNP’s new acting chief executive and its honorary president, Mike Russell, and he was talking about his own party. “I think it is fair to say there is a tremendous mess and we have to clear it up,” he told the BBC on Sunday. Continue reading...
by Rebecca Ratcliffe South-east Asia correspondent on (#69ZPC)
As parliament dissolves, party of Paetongtarn, whose father was deposed in 2006, has best chance of forming majorityThailand’s parliament has been dissolved, paving the way for an election in early May that will pit military-backed parties against the daughter of the former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.King Maha Vajiralongkorn has endorsed a decree to dissolve parliament, according to an announcement in the Royal Gazette on Monday. An election must be held between 45 and 60 days after the house’s dissolution. Continue reading...
International court’s prosecutor to make case at conference in London after Putin warrant issuedKarim Khan, the prosecutor of the international criminal court, will plead on Monday for extra cash to pursue Russian war crimes in Ukraine, including the potential prosecution of Vladimir Putin for overseeing the abduction of children from Ukraine to Russia.Khan made his dramatic move against the Russian president last week ahead of a conference in London co-hosted by the UK and the Dutch government aimed at raising cash to fund the ICC’s war crimes investigatory work inside Ukraine. The ICC’s budget has not been increased even though it has 40 investigators working inside Ukraine. Continue reading...
by Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent on (#69ZED)
World Happiness Report finds higher levels of benevolence in all global regions than before the pandemicIt claimed 6.7 million lives, locked down entire countries and triggered a global economic slump, but Covid-19 has not affected humankind’s happiness, an international study has found.Interviews with more than 100,000 people across 137 countries found significantly higher levels of benevolence in all global regions than before the pandemic. And when asked to evaluate their lives on a scale of one to 10, people on average gave scores just as high in the 2020-22 Covid years as in 2017-19. Continue reading...
Crowds outside building believed to be supporters of a Sikh separatist movement appeared to be encouraging man’s actionsA man has been arrested on suspicion of violent disorder after crowds gathered and a window was smashed at the Indian high commission in London.Metropolitan police officers were called to the building in Aldwych, Westminster at about 1.50pm on Sunday, and two security guards sustained minor injuries. Continue reading...
Cross-union group sends out leaflets and hold online calls to persuade staff to vote against package agreed by leadersMembers of Britain’s biggest health unions are organising a campaign to reject the pay agreement being recommended by union leaders, in a move that threatens to destroy the tentative truce between the government and NHS staff.A cross-union group called NHS Workers Say No has sent out thousands of leaflets, held online calls and started WhatsApp networks in an effort to persuade members to vote against the 5% increase hammered out during months of talks. Continue reading...
by Robyn Vinter North of England correspondent on (#69Z7F)
Owner of Night & Day is taking Manchester city council to court in hope it will drop notice served 18 months agoMuch-loved Manchester music venue Night & Day will be back in court this week appealing against a noise abatement notice brought by an adjacent flat.The owner of the bar, a fixture of the city’s Northern Quarter for 30 years, is taking Manchester city council (MCC) to court in the hope it will drop the notice served 18 months ago. Continue reading...
Michael Aron praised facility part-owned by British American Tobacco at ribbon-cutting event in 2019A UK ambassador took part in the opening ceremony of a Jordanian cigarette factory part-owned by British American Tobacco (BAT) and praised the new facility in a televised interview, in the latest example of British diplomats breaching strict guidelines against mixing with the tobacco industry overseas.The envoy stood at the ribbon as it was cut and later appeared in promotional material on the tobacco company’s website, but no record of his presence at the event was kept by the British embassy in Amman because the event was not considered a “formal meeting”. Continue reading...
Villagers celebrate anniversary of buyback of 400-year-old Packhorse near Bath, and hope to inspire othersOn the day of the Packhorse’s grand reopening exactly five years ago it snowed heavily. “Boy did it snow,” said Phil Legard, one of the hundreds of shareholders who together had raised more than a million pounds to save the beloved pub near Bath.“By 9am the village was cut off and the first thing we had to do was organise a team of people to grab their shovels and dig so our first customers could actually get here,” said Legard. “But that is what the Packhorse is about. Community spirit, finding a way.” Continue reading...
by Vanessa Thorpe Arts and Media Correspondent on (#69YXG)
The writers of the Northern Ireland criminal drama want to shed light on continued threat posed by gangs involved in drugs tradeA portrayal of the brutality entrenched in some Belfast communities in a major new BBC drama has shocked younger actors not old enough to have lived through the Troubles. The violent legacy of sectarian division in the criminal underworld had to be explained by older cast and writers.Police show Blue Lights is due to come to television screens just before the Good Friday agreement marks its 25th anniversary early next month, and it focuses on the continued threat posed by gangs involved in the drugs trade. Set in the ranks of the Police Service of Northern Ireland today, it follows three recruits learning how to navigate a treacherous urban landscape. Continue reading...
Poll shows just 17% of people back the Conservatives on public services against 43% for the oppositionMore than twice as many voters now trust Labour to improve public services as the Conservatives, after the government finally backed down and agreed an improved pay deal for NHS workers aimed at ending months of damaging health sector strikes.The latest Opinium poll for the Observer shows just 17% of people back the Tories on public services against 43% who would prefer Labour to manage them, after the government came forward with an enhanced offer last week. Continue reading...
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