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Speeding fines and immigration statements lead to fall in trust for UK home secretary, even among Conservative votersSuella Braverman has suffered a collapse in personal support among the public in the wake of rows over a speeding fine and her handling of immigration, a new poll for the Observer has revealed.With some Tories accusing the home secretary of positioning herself as a future leader, the latest Opinium poll found that her personal approval rating had slumped to -36 among voters. While 14% said they approved of the job she is doing, 50% said they disapproved. Continue reading...

Dramatic reversal in public opinion seen even in those constituencies that recorded the highest votes to leaveA clear majority of British voters now favours building closer relations with the European Union, according to new polling that highlights a dramatic reversal in the tide of public opinion since Brexit.Even in those constituencies that recorded the highest votes to leave the EU in 2016, more than twice as many voters now believe the best route forward is to move in the opposite direction – and forge closer ties with Brussels. Continue reading...

As outgoings exceed income, people can’t afford to pay for the support they need along with normal expensesDisabled people are paying “a tax on disability” by being forced to fund soaring care charges out of their benefits as the cost of living pushes care users into financial crisis.Charities and disabled people’s organisations (DPOs), including Mencap, Scope, the MS Society, Inclusion London, Dimensions, and WinVisible, told the Observer that disabled care users are being pushed into severe financial hardship with some forced to go without essential home care because they can’t afford the fees. Others face up to £20,000 of arrears to their local authority, with some seeing bailiffs called in over care fee debts. One DPO said some disabled women are being coerced into sex by acquaintances after turning to them for care because they couldn’t pay care charges. Continue reading...

Questions raised on loopholes in ban on foreign donations to political parties and their effects on the electoral systemThe head of the government’s ethics advisory body has called for an overhaul of the rules on political donations, warning stronger safeguards are required against the influence of foreign money.Lord Jonathan Evans, chair of the independent committee on standards in public life, told the Observer that the government needed to implement new measures which would establish the true source of donations and improve diligence checks. Continue reading...

Chair of the Covid inquiry has threatened legal action if the former PM’s unredacted WhatsApp messages and diaries are not releasedWhen Boris Johnson finally agreed to hold a judge-led public inquiry into the government’s handling of the Covid pandemic, he showered praise on the eminent former judge he chose to lead it.“She brings a wealth of experience to the role, and I know shares my determination that the inquiry examines in a forensic and thoroughgoing way the government’s response to the pandemic,” the former prime minister said of Heather Hallett and her future endeavours, back in December 2021. Continue reading...

Mayor confirms four of the victims were students at Baimbridge College in Hamilton, 300km west of Melbourne

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Police were called to a container logistics company in Port Botany after reports of a break and enter on Thursday night

After a year of walkouts and failed talks, the unions, ministers and operators are as far apart as everAlmost a year since the first national rail strike was called, another series of stoppages loom. Passengers who have been spared the usual round of disruptive bank holiday engineering works this weekend won’t be so lucky in the second half of the half-term break. Strikes by drivers and crew will more or less wipe out services on Wednesday and Saturday, shred schedules on Friday, and add a bit of scattergun disruption in between.This time in 2022, the mere prospect of the biggest rail strike in decades was causing consternation. Now, though, the latest guaranteed upheaval has not even produced a round of talks between unions and industry – let alone ministers – to try to head off the disruption. Continue reading...

Northern Ireland policeman was shot multiple times after a youth football team coaching session in FebruarySeven men have been charged with the attempted murder of a senior police detective in Northern Ireland, police said.DCI John Caldwell was shot multiple times at a sports complex in Omagh, County Tyrone, after a youth football team coaching session on 22 February in an attack linked to dissident republicans. His son was with him as he loaded footballs into the boot of his car when the gunmen approached. Continue reading...

The sailor, whose identity has not been disclosed, was from Greater Manchester, Sussex police sayA British man has died after falling from a yacht during a historic race in the Channel, police have said.The sailor, whose identity has not been disclosed, was from the Greater Manchester area, according to Sussex police. Continue reading...

Exclusive: spokesperson says six units more will open by the end of 2024 but declines questions about cause of delay

Hours-long delays were reported as IT problems also caused disruption on Dover-Calais ferriesPassengers arriving at major airports in the UK at the start of the bank holiday weekend faced long delays after problems with electronic passport gates.Travellers expressed their anger on social media over queues of several hours at a number of airports including Heathrow and Gatwick as arrivals had their passports checked by hand instead of the automated machines. Continue reading...

This Morning co-presenter wrote that subsequent admission of relationship he denied was ‘very hurtful’Holly Willoughby has claimed that former co-host Phillip Schofield had previously denied to her that he had a relationship with a younger ITV colleague and described his subsequent admission of the affair as “very hurtful”.In a statement on Instagram, the This Morning presenter, 42, said: “It’s taken time to process yesterday’s news. When reports of this relationship first surfaced, I asked Phil directly if this was true and was told it was not. It’s been very hurtful to now find out that this was a lie.” Continue reading...

Air Chief Marshall Sir Mike Wigston says Russian threat to UK could get worse if Putin was ousted. This blog is now closed

Raman Pratasevich was dragged off a plane and imprisoned two years ago. Now he praises the regime he used to denounceTwo years ago, Raman Pratasevich, a young Belarusian dissident blogger, was white-knuckled, begging a Ryanair flight crew not to make an emergency landing at Minsk airport.He said: “Don’t do this, they will kill me, I am a refugee,” according to a fellow passenger. The plane, escorted by a Belarusian Mig-29 fighter jet sent to force it down, landed anyway. Pratasevich was promptly arrested. Continue reading...

Comedian tells Hay literary festival Trump found her ‘obnoxious’ when she interviewed him in 1996Ruby Wax has said she thinks the reason Donald Trump did not make a pass at her when she interviewed him almost three decades ago was because she is too clever. “I’m not his type. I have a brain,” she told the Hay festival in Wales.Speaking at the literary festival to promote her latest book, I’m Not as Well as I Thought I Was, the broadcaster and comedian spoke about the 1996 interview on Trump’s private jet, in which she laughed when he told her he wanted to run for president. Continue reading...

Former prime minister says Cabinet Office gave entries to the Met police without checking their contentsBoris Johnson has insisted the idea that evidence in diaries given to police might suggest further lockdown rule-breaking during the Covid pandemic is “absolute nonsense”.The former prime minister said a Cabinet Office decision to give entries from his official diary to the police without checking their contents with him was “ridiculous”. Continue reading...

Formal identification yet to be confirmed as another boy, 14, remains in critical condition following River Eden incidentThe body of a teenage boy has been found in the River Eden in Carlisle after a 15-year-old went missing on Friday, Cumbria constabulary said.The discovery followed an extensive search operation. Police were contacted at 6.41pm on Friday after a report that four teenage boys had got into difficulty in a section of the river near the city’s Rosehill area. Continue reading...

The hit drama cemented a film and TV boom in the West Yorkshire town and its surroundings – and now the cameras can’t stay awayPiece Hall, in the West Yorkshire town of Halifax, is among the great relics of the glory days of England’s industrial north, one of the few surviving cloth halls, where international business was carried out in the heart of textile-trade country from the late 18th century.Recently it’s had a transformation into a tourist attraction stuffed with independent shops that also hosts major outdoor concerts – this summer will see it play host to gigs by Madness, Rag’n’Bone Man, Hozier and Orbital. Continue reading...

Seth Kneller, 43, remanded in custody after appearing at Westminster magistrates courtA man who was arrested after a car crashed into the gates of Downing Street has been released under police investigation but charged separately with making indecent images of children, police have said.Seth Kneller, of Crewe, was initially detained by armed officers after a crash involving a silver Kia near the prime minister’s official residence in Whitehall at 4.20pm on Thursday. Continue reading...

Group was among the last opposition parties, as political dissent has been banned since 2020’s security lawThe Civic party, one of Hong Kong’s most prominent pro-democracy groups, has voted to disband because of a leadership vacuum, after its members were squeezed out of local councils and charged under Beijing’s national security law.Nicknamed “the barristers’ party”, it was founded in 2006 by professional elites – mostly from the legal sector – who wanted to promote democratisation and civil society in Hong Kong. Continue reading...

Presidential adviser says supply lines and depots already being destroyed as preliminary operations get under way• Russia-Ukraine war – latest updatesPreliminary operations have already begun to pave the way for a counteroffensive against Russian occupying forces, a Ukrainian presidential adviser has said.“It’s a complicated process, which is not a matter of one day or a certain date or a certain hour,” Mykhailo Podolyak said in an interview with the Guardian. “It’s an ongoing process of de-occupation, and certain processes are already happening, like destroying supply lines or blowing up depots behind the lines. Continue reading...

More than 2m litres of water pumped from dam on orders of food inspector who said device held sensitive government dataA government official in central India has been suspended after he ordered a reservoir to be drained to retrieve his dropped phone.Millions of litres of water were pumped over three days from the Kherkatta dam in the state of Chhattisgarh after Rajesh Vishwas, a food inspector, said his Samsung mobile held sensitive government data. Continue reading...

Government accused of backing ‘inhumane’ policies as 16 people are badly hurt by barrier blocking entry via Poland from BelarusRefugees and asylum seekers have been seriously injured by a “dangerous” razor-wire fence that the UK helped to build to keep asylum seekers out of Europe.At least 16 people have been gravely hurt, some hospitalised, when recently attempting to reach Europe by crossing a 5.5m-high barrier the British military helped to construct on Poland’s border with Belarus. Continue reading...

Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, 18, to appear again at Thames magistrates court after posting ‘prank’ videoA teenager is to appear in court after he was charged with breaching a criminal behaviour order imposed for posting a “prank” video on TikTok.Bacari-Bronze O’Garro, 18, known as Mizzy, of Hackney, north London, was made subject to the order at Thames magistrates court on Wednesday, banning him from posting videos on social media without the consent of those featuring in them. Continue reading...

Votes will allow the parties to hone their strategies before December’s general electionSpain heads to the polls on Sunday to elect 12 regional governments and 8,000 municipal councils in votes that will allow the governing Socialists and the opposition conservatives to gauge their strengths and hone their strategies before December’s general election.Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the rightwing, populist president of the Madrid region, will be aiming to secure an absolute majority for the People’s party (PP), while Barcelona’s leftwing mayor, Ada Colau, will be hoping to see off challenges from the regional branch of the Socialist party and a centre-right Catalan pro-independence party. Continue reading...

Asiana Airlines flight was about 200 metres above the ground when the passenger pulled emergency exitA man who opened an emergency exit on a flight in mid-air felt “suffocated” and wanted to get off quickly, South Korean police have said.The Asiana Airlines plane was carrying nearly 200 passengers as it approached the runway on Friday at Daegu international airport, about 150 miles south-east of Seoul, on a domestic flight. Continue reading...

Investigators in Horizon IT scandal were asked to group suspects by racial features, including ‘negroid types’Lawyers investigating post office operators in the Horizon computer scandal used a racist term to categorise Black workers, according to documents released to campaigners.Investigators were asked to group suspects based on racial features, the results of a freedom of information request found. Continue reading...

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Kovacic ran for the lower house seat of Parramatta in the last federal election but was defeated by Labor’s Andrew Charlton

Motorists urged to carry out safety check as rubber on cars left idle for long periods can deteriorateThere has been a sharp rise in the number of cars with cracked tyres – which can result in an MOT failure – because of vehicles lying idle during the coronavirus pandemic.Figures from Kwik Fit, the car maintenance chain, show that its mechanics saw almost twice as many cars with premature cracking last year compared with before the lockdowns. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Researchers analysed works run by nine water and sewerage companies in England and WalesEleven billion litres of raw sewage were discharged from a sample of 30 water company treatment works in one year, new research suggests.The study aimed to reveal the volume of discharged effluent released from storm overflows by water firms. Companies are not forced to reveal the volume of raw sewage released during discharges. They are only required by regulators to provide data on the number of discharges and the length of time they lasted. Continue reading...

Phillip Mehrtens, who has been held hostage since February, makes the claim in a new video released by the separatist groupRebels in Indonesia’s Papua region have threatened to shoot a New Zealand pilot being held hostage if countries do not comply with their demand to start independence talks within two months, a new video released by the group shows.Guerrilla fighters in Papua’s central highlands, who want to free Papua from Indonesia, kidnapped Phillip Mehrtens after he landed a commercial plane in the mountainous area of Nduga in February. Continue reading...

Minister for Indigenous affairs says referendum ‘will be determined by the Australian people, not politicians’

In a special edition of Full Story, Guardian Australia’s daily podcast, Bridie Jabour speaks to the key players of its launch in May 2013The story of how Guardian Australia launched in 2013 is one of strength, determination, a chance encounter, a spying scandal and a lot of coffee. At a time when Julia Gillard was prime minister, newspapers were laying off thousands of staff and Gina Rinehart was vying to take control of Fairfax, the Guardian arrived in a dire period for public interest journalism. But since May 2013 the once-tiny news site has achieved what some thought impossible. In this special edition of Full Story, Bridie Jabour speaks to the key players of Guardian Australia’s launch.This podcast also features Katharine Viner, Lenore Taylor, Katharine Murphy, Alan Rusbridger, Lee Glendinning, David Marr, Christian Bennett, Graeme Wood, Malcolm Turnbull, Luke Pearson, Lorena Allam, Melissa Davey, Ben Doherty, Mark Scott, Cassandra Goldie, Michael Safi and Luke Henriques-Gomes. Continue reading...

Justice experts say there needs to be a more rigorous process for when Tasers and guns can be deployed to change the way officers manage incidents

Army leader Abdel-Fatteh al-Burhan has asked the UN to replace its envoy to the countrySudan’s army has asked the United Nations to change its envoy to the country, as it calls on reservists and retired soldiers to re-enlist amid the ongoing conflict with a rival paramilitary force.Friday’s call to former soldiers to present themselves at their nearest military base comes days into a shaky truce between the army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). Continue reading...

Toll from Russian missile attack on Dnipro rises to two; Medvedev says conflict could last decades; Blinken to visit Finland, Sweden and Norway

Environmental groups say the event in Perth to court the biggest polluting oil company of all time is ‘akin to a joint trade show with a tobacco major’

Exclusive: Welsh first minister points to ‘13 years of erosion’ under Conservatives after unrest that followed deaths of two boysThe Welsh first minister has accused the UK government of creating the poor social conditions that formed the backdrop to the Cardiff riots by systematically eroding community life, public services and citizens’ incomes.Mark Drakeford, who represents the Ely area where the riots broke out on Monday night after the deaths of two teenage boys, said public services and people’s standards of living had declined there during 13 years of Conservative rule. Continue reading...

Policy was uncovered by defenders of two women repeatedly detained when trying to re-enter the UKA secret Home Office policy to detain people with the right to live in the UK at air and seaports has been found to be unlawful in the high court.The policy applied to those with unpaid NHS debts and was only uncovered through evidence gathered from charities and lawyers fighting the cases of two mothers who were repeatedly detained. Continue reading...

Presenter parts from agents and says he lied about affair with younger employee while he was marriedPhillip Schofield has sensationally quit ITV and admitted to an affair with a younger male colleague at This Morning while he was still married.The 61-year-old – who stepped down from presenting the daytime TV programme last Saturday – said the “consensual on-off relationship” was “unwise, but not illegal”. Continue reading...

Zelenskiy says rocket attack on Friday morning hit medical facility after night of heavy bombardment across country

Evidence that both women experienced stress and anxiety, with Elizabeth traumatised by mother’s death and issue of marriageElizabeth I was heavily influenced by her mother Anne Boleyn, despite the fact that the latter died when the Tudor queen was less than three years old, according to the historian and author Tracy Borman.As well as being influenced by feminist ideas that were ahead of their time, Borman said there was evidence they both experienced stress and anxiety. Continue reading...

Prospect and FDA suspend strike action after offer of ‘meaningful’ talks, with PCS also attendingCivil service unions have entered talks with the government on pay, believing ministers may finally be willing to offer more money to match rises given to health and teaching staff.Two unions, Prospect and the FDA, said they would be suspending strike action and ballots because the government said it was willing to engage in “meaningful” talks. Continue reading...

Justice Joshua Wilson planned to tell an international conference that court positions are filled on the basis of politics rather than ability

Health and safety failures by MoJ contractor found to have led to death of Lorraine Barwell in London in 2015Serco has been fined more than £2m for health and safety failures that led to a mentally ill prisoner kicking a custody officer to death.Humphrey Burke, 29, attacked Lorraine Barwell, 54, as she tried to escort him from his cell in Blackfriars crown court in London in June 2015. Burke was due to be sentenced for arson and attempted robbery. Continue reading...

Reports of clogged motorways add to news of travel chaos on bank holiday forecast to be busiest since pandemicBritish Airways has cancelled more than 175 flights as the fallout from an IT failure entered its second day, fuelling predictions of widespread travel disruption at the start of a bank holiday weekend forecast to be the busiest since before the pandemic.As motorists hit the roads, encouraged by forecasts of sunny and warm weather at the start of the school half-term holidays, reports of clogged motorways were already emerging on Friday afternoon. Continue reading...

Alan Paton was involved in incident in Fife in 2015 in which 31-year-old died while being detained by policeA police officer involved in the arrest of Sheku Bayoh has denied wanting to join a far-right organisation as a teenager.The pre-recorded testimony of Alan Paton, who has since retired from Police Scotland, was played to the inquiry into the death of Bayoh, which occurred in Kirkcaldy, Fife, in 2015 while he was being detained by police. Continue reading...