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Exclusive: Katy Gallagher says focus will be on driving cultural change' within public service if Labor wins the election

Move comes after Hashem Abedi injured three officers with hot oil and improvised blades at HMP FranklandThe Prison Service is to suspend the use of kitchens for the most dangerous inmates after after the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber attacked three officers at HMP Frankland.Hashem Abedi, a convicted terrorist who was jailed for life after helping his suicide-bomber brother Salman Abedi carry out the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, set upon staff with hot cooking oil and blades made out of cooking trays. Continue reading...

Move by Algiers comes after arrest of Algerian consular official in Paris over alleged involvement in kidnap of influencerFrance is considering its response after Algeria ordered the expulsion of 12 embassy staff over the arrest of an Algerian consulate official in Paris over alleged involvement in the kidnap of a TikTok influencer.Algiers has given the French representatives 48 hours to leave the country in a move that has stretched already strained relations between the two countries to breaking point. The French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot, has warned that if the expulsions go ahead Paris would be forced to respond immediately. Continue reading...

Prisoner, 44, at Cambridgeshire jail is arrested over death of John Mansfield, 63, who was serving life sentenceA prisoner has been arrested on suspicion of murdering a convicted killer at a high-security prison.John Mansfield, who was jailed for life in 2007 for the murder of his 63-year-old neighbour, was found dead at HMP Whitemoor near March, Cambridgeshire, on Sunday. Continue reading...

Net zero and clean energy can actually help save the steel industry, experts point out

Ukrainian president calls on US counterpart to visit country as Trump appears to downplay strike on Sumy by calling it mistake'

Dwayne Johnson is working with investigative journalist Nick Bilton on the project, with a film in the pipeline starring Emily Blunt and Leonardo DiCaprioThe actor Dwayne Johnson, who began his career as wrestler The Rock, is to co-author a nonfiction book about a Hawaii crime syndicate in the 1960s and 1970s.Writing on Instagram, Johnson said he was super grateful to co-author my next project (a nonfiction book) with award-winning investigative journalist, @NickBilton. Continue reading...

Charges follow investigation into alleged cheating related to bets placed on when general election would be heldThe former Conservative MP Craig Williams is among 15 people, including several other senior Tories, charged by the Gambling Commission for alleged cheating connected to bets based on the date of the 2024 UK general election.Williams was the MP for Montgomeryshire and Rishi Sunak's parliamentary private secretary, but lost the support of the Conservative party after a Guardian story about alleged bets placed on a July election just days before the date was announced. Continue reading...

Turin and Genoa likely to be among worst hit, while central and eastern Europe could get early taste of summerNorth-west Italy is braced for heavy rainfall and thunderstorms across the southern side of the Alps, particularly in Piedmont and Liguria.Turin and Genoa are expected to be among the worst affected, with snowfall also likely on higher ground. The region has been forecast to receive 140-160mm of rainfall between Sunday and Friday this week. Continue reading...

Xi Jinping is expected to emphasise China as a reliable partner in contrast to Washington, which imposed - then suspended - punishing tariffs across the regionThe Chinese president, Xi Jinping, warned there would be no winners" in a trade war and that protectionism leads nowhere", as he began a three-nation trip to south-east Asia starting in Vietnam on Monday.Xi's tour, which kicked off in Hanoi, also includes rare visits to Malaysia and Cambodia and will seek to strengthen ties with China's closest neighbours amid a trade war that has sent shock waves through global markets. Continue reading...

Steve Bray cleared of flouting police ban on playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit music through speakersSteve Bray, 56, known as the Stop Brexit Man", has been cleared at Westminster magistrates court in London of flouting a police ban on playing anti-Conservative and anti-Brexit music through speakers outside parliament in March last year.More details soon ... Continue reading...

The Liberal leader's son opened up to the cameras about his housing aspirations - and highlighted the voters in the Coalition's sights

Wera Hobhouse says her apparent presence on secret list of critics of country's human rights record made her a target

Firm in race against time to get key materials as business secretary says no guarantee it will get what it needs

Winston Jones, who for a decade was unable to return home from Jamaica, almost didn't apply for compensation, fearing it was a trapWinston Jones has worked hard to rebuild his life after Home Office errors meant he was unable to return to his family in the UK for 10 years after taking a short holiday in Jamaica in 2005, enduring a decade of near destitution and homelessness in Kingston.Jones, 64, a former bakery manager at Sainsbury's, has used the money he received from the Windrush compensation scheme to set up a podcast studio and music recording unit in Manchester, working with his son to create opportunities for local young people. Continue reading...

Supplier rallies small businesses as critics say overhaul would harm development of clean energyOctopus Energy has rallied thousands of its small business customers to back an overhaul of Great Britain's electricity market.The largest energy supplier in Britain and more than 3,700 of its customers wrote to the Treasury last week calling for an immediate introduction of postcode electricity pricing. Continue reading...

Government acknowledges that many victims have felt too nervous to engage with officials from Home OfficeA 1.5m fund has been launched to encourage people affected by the Windrush scandal to come forward to seek compensation, as ministers finally acknowledge that many victims have felt too nervous to engage with officials from the Home Office.Since the compensation fund was launched in 2019 it has been the subject of intense criticism over long processing delays, low offers of payment, and the lack of legal aid for claimants. There has also been unease over the original decision to hand the administration of the scheme to officials from the department that was responsible for the scandal. Continue reading...

Listings on resale site suggest that touts are speculatively selling tickets they do not yet haveThe ticket resale platform Viagogo has been accused of failing to prevent misleading and potentially unlawful" practices on its platform, despite facing intense scrutiny as the government consults on new anti-touting laws.Ministers are weighing up plans to cap the price at which tickets can be resold, after Labour pledged in its election manifesto to tackle ticket touts using platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub to charge fans huge mark-ups for in-demand shows. Continue reading...

Research from the NEU suggests only 1.5% of school staff unaffected by stress at workStress is taking an immense toll" on the lives of teachers in England, with only 1.5% of those working in schools unaffected by the high levels of strain that plagues their colleagues.The findings from research by the National Education Union (NEU) reveal that one in three state school teachers in England are stressed at work for at least four fifths of the time, while only a tiny fraction said they are never overstretched. Continue reading...

Neither Anthony Albanese nor Peter Dutton say they want house prices to fall, as experts warn new promises could worsen affordability crisis

Actor, 72, understood to have used behaviour and language considered threatening against housemate Chris HughesThe Hollywood actor Mickey Rourke has been kicked out of the Celebrity Big Brother house over instances of unacceptable behaviour" and inappropriate language".The 72-year-old Bafta winner is understood to have used behaviour and language that was considered to be threatening and aggressive during a task, directed towards his housemate Chris Hughes, a former Love Island contestant. No physical altercation took place, according to the PA news agency. Continue reading...

Government calls in military experts as month-long refuse workers' strike brings warnings of public health emergencyOffice-based military specialists have been called in to deal with the mounting piles of rubbish on the streets of Birmingham after a month-long strike by refuse workers.Tens of thousands of tonnes of rubbish have gone uncollected and Birmingham city council has declared a major incident and issued a public health warning since the all-out-strike by Unite union members began on 11 March. Continue reading...

ITV drama set in aristocratic house in Edwardian London explored class and social change, and won many awardsJean Marsh, the actor and writer best known for co-creating and starring in the 1970s TV show Upstairs, Downstairs, has died aged 90.The film-maker Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who was a close friend of Marsh, said she died of complications with dementia in her London home on Sunday. Continue reading...

Chair of prison workers body says copycat incidents must be prevented after attack by convicted terroristThe union representing prison officers has said inmates should be banned from cooking in jail, with staff fearing copycat incidents after the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber attacked three officers at HMP Frankland.Hashem Abedi, a convicted terrorist who was jailed for life after helping his suicide bomber brother Salman Abedi carry out the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, is alleged to have set upon staff with hot cooking oil and improvised blades. Continue reading...

Police say body is yet to be formally identified but girl's family have been informedA body has been found in the River Thames in the search for 11-year-old Kaliyah Coa, who entered the river in North Woolwich on 31 March, police have said.According to the Metropolitan police, officers were alerted to a body in Maritime Quay in east London at about 9am on Sunday. Continue reading...

Former City minister accused of illegally receiving plot of land from her aunt, ousted PM Sheikh HasinaAn arrest warrant for the former City minister Tulip Siddiq has been issued in Bangladesh with a new allegation accusing her of illegally receiving a plot of land from her aunt, the ousted former prime minister Sheikh Hasina.Bangladeshi media reported the warrant was issued by a judge for 53 people connected to Hasina, including Siddiq. There is no formal extradition treaty between the UK and Bangladesh. Continue reading...

Relief International medics among dead as paramilitaries step up violence against region's displaced peopleParamilitaries in Sudan have murdered more than 200 civilians in a wave of attacks in refugee camps and around the city of El Fasher, the last big city still in the hands of the Sudanese army in the Darfur region.The deaths include at least 56 civilians killed by the Rapid Support Forces over two days of attacks in Um Kadadah, a town they seized on the road to El Fasher. Continue reading...

Palestinian Red Crescent says Assad al-Nsasrah was forcibly abducted' while carrying out humanitarian workA Palestinian paramedic who has been missing since a massacre of medics and rescue workers by Israeli troops in Gaza last month is being detained in Israel, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).The whereabouts of Assad al-Nsasrah, a Palestinian paramedic, had been unknown for weeks since an incident on 23 March when workers from the Palestinian Red Crescent (PRCS) and Palestinian civil defence came under fire as they drove ambulances to rescue injured colleagues in the southern city of Rafah. Continue reading...

Reserves would give six months to find alternative supply if Scunthorpe blast furnaces are switched offNetwork Rail has built up a stockpile of rails to last as long as a year in case of disruption in the supply from British Steel's Scunthorpe works.The company, which manages Britain's railway tracks, has been stockpiling rails over the past 12 months as British Steel started to contemplate the closure of its two blast furnaces. The rails are stored at depots around the country. Continue reading...

Limit of $100 a barrel said to be ineffective with the price of crude having crashed in response to Trump's trade warThe UK and its G7 allies are considering tightening the meaningless" cap on Russian oil export prices after Donald Trump's trade war caused global oil markets to crash.UK Treasury officials are understood to be actively considering plans to lower the $60 (46) a barrel cap on Russian oil exports after the market plunged to $59.77 a barrel for the first time in more than four years this week. Continue reading...

When academics fear travelling or partnering with US institutions, the impacts ripple through the entire global knowledge ecosystem,' Dr Alison Barnes says

Exclusive: Funding would go towards third-party training for doctors and nurses, which advocates say would remove barriers to treatment

Trauma specialists at Ramsay Clinic Thirroul have reportedly resigned against the backdrop of a larger shortage of psychiatrists across the stateIn 2022, Ramsay Healthcare opened Australia's first women's-only hospital dedicated" to trauma-related mental health issues in Wollongong.Ramsay Clinic Thirroul was supposed to be a game-changer" designed specifically to provide women - often survivors of family and sexual violence - the safe environment needed to be able to escape the flight or fight stress response and begin to recover through a program of therapies. Continue reading...

Jonathan Reynolds says allowing British Steel to collapse would have cost 1bn as public ownership looks increasingly likelyJasper Jolly, a financial reporter at the Guardian, has written some analysis on the multiple crises British Steel faces as the supplies needed to keep the blast furnaces operating at the Scunthorpe plant are running low. Here is an extract from his piece:Union leaders representing steelworkers said they were relieved that the government appeared to be moving towards public ownership. Charlotte Brumpton-Childs, a former Scunthorpe steelworker and national officer for the GMB union, said nationalisation was the only way to save the UK steel industry", and that the ability to direct the company's actions was the first step in that process".Yet even nationalisation will not deliver Scunthorpe's workers from the bigger questions over its long-term future. Jingye had rejected a 500m offer of support to switch to electric arc furnaces - to match aid given to Tata Steel at Port Talbot, south Wales - but Scunthorpe will need to make the switch if it is to have a future in a world of net zero carbon emissions.The Green party says it supports nationalisation of the steel industry as it could prove to be a key driver of a green industrial revolution". The party's co-leader, Adrian Ramsay, told Sky News' Trevor Phillips this morning: Steel is essential for the transition to a green economy. The Greens have been arguing for decades that we need to have the ability to produce more of the manufactured goods... within our country. And with what we're seeing now with the international political climate and the bullying behaviour of President Trump, it only underlines our point that we need to be able to produce these things more locally."Plaid Cymru has accused the UK government for acting to save the Scunthorpe plant but not taking the same action when the Tata Steel works in Port Talbot were threatened with closure. Tata ended primary steelmaking at Port Talbot last September with the closure of its last blast furnace, a decision that was projected to lead to 2,500 job losses. As part of a deal the government committed 500m to help the company move to greener forms of steelmaking. Addressing the Commons at the emergency session yesterday, Liz Saville-Roberts, Plaid's Westminster leader, said yesterday: Scunthorpe gets security, Port Talbot gets a pittance."The Lib Dems' deputy leader Daisy Cooper said recalling parliament yesterday was absolutely the right thing to do" but the party has also criticised the UK government for not intervening to protect the Port Talbot steelworks in the same way.The SNP's Stephen Flynn questioned why the legislation only applies to England. He said yesterday: Why is this not being extended to Scotland? Why is Grangemouth (refinery in Scotland) not being included? Why is the smelter up at Lochaber not being included? Why the DL steelworks not being included? The answer why they are not being included is because westminster is only interested in westminster." Continue reading...

President's first stop is Vietnam as China urges US to end trade war and return to right path of mutual respect'The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, will visit Vietnam on Monday as he begins a tour of south-east Asia where he will seek to strengthen ties with neighbouring countries amid an escalating trade war.Xi will visit Vietnam from Monday, before travelling to Malaysia and Cambodia, a high profile tour that Chinese officials have described as being of major importance". Continue reading...

Civil defence agency says al-Ahli hospital hit as IDF operations cut off access to southern city of Rafah

A 12-metre high mosaic will show the reflection of a wading bird native to Utoya island, where Anders Breivik murdered 69 people in 2011Fourteen years ago, the heart of Oslo was reconfigured by hate. On 22 July 2011, Norwegian neo-Nazi Anders Behring Breivik detonated a car bomb outside the office of the then prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, killing eight people and damaging surrounding buildings, before murdering a further 69 people on the nearby island of Utoya.But now the same site is to be reconfigured by hope. Last week, after a multi-round, three-year-long selection process, a jury of curators, politicians, artists and representatives of the victims and survivors of the attacks announced the winning design for a new Norwegian national memorial to be unveiled in time for the 15th anniversary in 2026. Continue reading...

Emily Thornberry calls for UK to join France, as Emmanuel Macron says June UN conference must be decisive momentThe Foreign Office is under pressure from Labour MPs to recognise a Palestinian state if Emmanuel Macron, the French president, presses ahead with plans to recognise Palestine at an international conference set for June.France is co-chairing the conference at the UN in New York alongside Saudi Arabia, and Macron has said the conference must be a decisive moment. Continue reading...

Researcher warns that dark daytime naps can disrupt babies' sleep when they properly go to bed at nightBabies should not be put in a dark, quiet room for a nap but in a light room with background noise like a washing machine, an expert has said.Prof Helen Ball, a scientific adviser for the charity The Lullaby Trust who has carried out sleep research with more than 5,000 parents and babies at Durham University, said long daytime naps are like mini night times" that can disrupt babies' sleep when they properly go to bed. Continue reading...

Books detail president increasingly unfit to take on Trump, and party infighting that doomed Kamala Harris's chancesJoe Biden plans to write a book about his presidency which ended in his historic withdrawal from the 2024 election, pushed out by senior Democrats convinced he was too old and infirm and replaced by his vice-president, Kamala Harris.Sources close to Biden told news outlets the book could be published next year, by which time Biden will be 83 and doubtless - like other US presidents' autobiographies - it will be a self-serving narrative lauding his time in office. Continue reading...

Unnamed tourist fell from viewing platform overlooking the historic structure in Segovia, authorities sayA 63-year-old British man has died after falling from a viewing platform overlooking the historic aqueduct of Segovia in central Spain, according to local authorities.In a brief statement on Saturday, officials described the man as a British passport holder who had arrived in the city on Thursday with two other people. Continue reading...

Re-examination puts one of biggest #MeToo victories back in court as backlash against women's rights unfolds in USHarvey Weinstein goes back on trial in New York this week in a redo of the #MeToo-era case in which the disgraced movie mogul was convicted of sexual criminal assault in the first degree and rape in the third degree, but acquitted on three other counts, including the most serious charge, predatory sexual assault.The legal drama begins with jury selection that is expected to last up to a week. It puts one of the biggest victories of the #MeToo era back in the courtroom just as a backlash against women's rights - from abortion access to the rise of controversial male influencers like Andrew Tate - unfolds across the US. Continue reading...

The National Theatre is worried about a shortage of skills from costume designers, to set creators, to computer techniciansThe decline of drama as a school subject has had a serious knock-on effect on the live entertainment business. While it is harder now for a budding star to imagine a stage career, the more immediate impact is on theatres' skills and craft departments.The problem is a top priority for Indhu Rubasingham, two weeks into her high-profile job as artistic director at National Theatre. Now she and the NT's executive director, Kate Varah, are announcing a move to boost the supply of skilled workers across the country, from costume designers and makers to set creators and computer technicians. Continue reading...

The PM addressed a crowd of 500 people in Perth, spruiking new policies on housing and tax deductions, celebrating WA and invoking Donald Trump. Here's what you may have missed

Albanese unveils an automatic $1,000 deduction on annual tax returns while Dutton pledges $1,200 one-off tax refund for low- and middle income earners

Nearly 6,000 victims of modern slavery chose not to be referred for help last year, new data showsThousands of trafficking victims have rejected the government's support, many due to fear of the authorities or of being deported, lawyers have said.Nearly 6,000 trafficking victims rejected support from the government's National Referral Mechanism (NRM) for victims of modern slavery last year, according to data based on research from the British Institute for International and Comparative Law and the Human Trafficking Foundation at the University of Oxford. Researchers found a range of reasons for this among respondents, including fear of traffickers, receiving support elsewhere, wanting to put things of being trafficked behind them and being reluctant to engage with UK authorities. Continue reading...

As Donald Trump threatens to take over the territory, film claims its cryolite mine was plundered by DenmarkFor two weeks in Denmark the subject of the documentary was bigger than Trump", says producer Michael Bevort. The broadcast of Gronlands hvide guld (Greenland's white gold), a 55-minute film about the Danish exploitation over several decades of a cryolite mine in southern Greenland and the vast sums of money it generated, made waves in February in both Greenland and its former colonial ruler, Denmark. But the reaction between the two could not have been more polarised.In Greenland, which remains part of the Danish kingdom, with Denmark still controlling its foreign and defence policies, there were feelings of anger and deep sadness. The country was in the middle of an election being watched by the world thanks to Donald Trump's threats to take control of the Arctic island. According to a poll for Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq, more than a third of voters said the documentary would influence their vote. Continue reading...

Counter-terror police lead investigation after Hashem Abedi's vicious' assault at HMP FranklandCounter-terrorism police are leading the investigation into an attack on three prison officers by the brother of the Manchester Arena bomber.Hashem Abedi, who ploted the 2017 bombing, attacked three prison officers with hot cooking oil at a high-security prison, the Prison Officers' Association (POA) said. Continue reading...

Turkey's president lashes out shortly after talks with Netanyahu's government aimed at defusing tensionsThe Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdoan has lambasted Israel for undermining stability in neighbouring Syria during a diplomatic forum, days after the two countries held talks aimed at defusing an escalating conflict between them on Syrian soil.Turkey will not allow Syria to be dragged into a new vortex of instability," Erdoan told attendees at the Antalya diplomacy forum on the southern Turkish coast, accusing Israel of trying to undermine the 8 December revolution", in reference to the insurgency that toppled the former Syrian president Bashar al-Assad after decades in power. Continue reading...

Opponents of policy say locals should be very angry' they will not be able to veto generators in their towns despite Coalition promise to consult them