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The former Liberal staffer alleges in court documents that the ABC broadcast of the National Press Club address defamed him by suggesting he raped Brittany Higgins, which he denies

Zelenskiy welcomed in Poland; United States, Britain, Albania and Malta walk out on Russian envoy for children’s rights Continue reading...

The London police commissioner faces a battle to clean up a force where the same cultures tackled by his predecessor ‘are alive and well’The Britain of today shares some similarities with the country of the 1970s: then the country was debating its relationship with Europe, flares were in and frequent strikes disrupted everyday life. And then, as now, standards in policing in the capital were so dire that a new broom had to be brought in to clean up the Metropolitan police.Sir Robert Mark, the legendary reforming commissioner of the Met from 1972, said this about the force he battled to reform: “I had served in provincial forces for 30 years, and though I had known wrongdoing, I had never experienced institutionalised wrongdoing, blindness, arrogance and prejudice on anything like the scale accepted as routine in the Met.” Continue reading...

Leaders of Drax, Siemens and others call for green growth to be a priority and ‘regional disparities’ to be closedBusiness leaders in the north of England have written to the prime minister, chancellor and energy secretary asking for help to reach net zero.Big names including Drax, Siemens, Peel, Manchester airport, the CBI and all 11 local enterprise partnerships (LEPs) in the north signed a letter urging the government to prioritise green growth in the north. Continue reading...

Police Scotland say Murrell ‘released pending further investigation’ after officers search his and Sturgeon’s homePeter Murrell, Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, was arrested by police investigating the Scottish National party’s finances in what the new leader, Humza Yousaf, described as “a difficult day” for the SNP.Police Scotland said Murrell, the party’s former chief executive, had been “arrested as a suspect” and taken in for questioning “in connection with the ongoing investigation into the funding and finances of the Scottish National party”. Continue reading...

Foreign Office figures show aid to Africa fell to £1.1bn in 2022, compared with £3.7bn of budget spent on refugees in UKThe UK spent more than three times its overseas aid budget on housing refugees in Britain than on helping to alleviate poverty in Africa in 2022, figures from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office show.The official provisional figures for 2022 show that spending on refugees increased from £597m in 2020 to £1bn in 2021 and reached £3.7bn in 2022. No other major country in the world is cutting its mainstream aid budget to cover the cost of housing refugees in this way, said the aid campaign group Bond. Continue reading...

Guardian analysis shows median gender pay gap is stubbornly wide at 9.4%, the same level as five years agoFour out of five companies and organisations in Great Britain still pay their male employees more than female ones, according to Guardian analysis of the government’s gender pay gap reporting.The median pay gap remains stubbornly wide at 9.4% – the same level as in 2017-18, when employers were first required to publish the information. About 10,000 companies and public bodies filed their gender pay gaps to the government’s reporting mechanism before this week’s deadline. Continue reading...

Raise brings Galen Weston of Loblaw Companies’ pay to $11.79m last year amid outcry for raising prices during record inflationThe billionaire head of Canada’s largest grocery chain has been given a C$1.2m raise, in a move likely to prompt controversy as grocery executives have faced sharp criticism for raising their prices amid record inflation.The raise for Galen Weston, chairman and president of grocer Loblaw Companies, brought his total pay last year to C$11.79m. Details of the deal were first reported by the Globe and Mail. Continue reading...

President Lula deplores ‘act of hate and cowardice’ as police arrest 25-year-old man after killings in southern state of Santa CatarinaFour children have been killed and at least five others injured after a 25-year-old man armed with a small axe attacked a pre-school in the southern Brazilian state of Santa Catarina.A man with a hatchet jumped over a wall and invaded a daycare center on Wednesday in Brazil, killing four children and wounding at least five others, authorities said. Continue reading...

Dr Kerry Schott warns she is not confident her assessment captures the full extent of cost blowouts and delays

‘We’re not in petrol purgatory anymore’ but prices not yet low enough to deliver ‘meaningful relief to families’, NRMA says

Voice advocates say Peter Dutton is ignoring voters and ‘tying himself in knots’ over stance on constitutional recognition

Forthcoming fifth volume of the hit series was planned to be the last but writer says a sixth book will give characters ‘their final moment to shine’Alice Oseman has announced there will be a sixth book in their hit Heartstopper graphic novel series, as well as revealing what will happen in the next instalment of the story.The series, which was adapted into a critically acclaimed and Emmy award-winning Netflix television show, follows Nick and Charlie, two teenagers who meet at a British grammar school and fall in love. Their story navigates the ups and downs of first love, friendships, coming out and mental health. Continue reading...

Ana Obregón, 68, says her son, Aless Lequio García, expressed desire to have a child before death in 2020A heated debate in Spain triggered by a 68-year-old celebrity who was reported to have used a surrogate mother in Miami to have a baby took a twist on Wednesday when the woman announced in the socialite magazine ¡Hola! that the baby was actually the daughter of her son who died of cancer in 2020.The actor and presenter Ana Obregón told ¡Hola! that doctors had encouraged her son, Aless Lequio García, to preserve samples of sperm before he began treatment and that he expressed a desire just before dying to have a child. The samples, she said, were stored in New York. Continue reading...

Former Italian prime minister taken to hospital amid ‘shortness of breath’ and reported to be stableThe former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi is in intensive care at San Raffaele hospital in Milan.According to reports in the Italian press, the 86-year-old is in intensive care in the hospital’s cardiology unit. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Charities have called Kathleen Poole’s removal order a ‘cruel’ misapplication of Brexit withdrawal agreementAn elderly British woman with Alzheimer’s threatened with deportation from Sweden has been given a stay following international condemnation over a move that was branded a cruel, inhumane and deeply shocking misapplication of the Brexit withdrawal agreement.After interventions from the European Commission, the Labour MP Hilary Benn and the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office, Kathleen Poole’s family have been told the police must continue their preparation for the deportation but the actual removal of the 74-year-old has been “placed on hold”. Wayne, her daughter-in-law Angelica and their four children but her family’s application to remain in the country post-Brexit was rejected on the grounds it was lacking financial documents and an up-to-date passport. Continue reading...

Monarch rejects £250m pay rise resulting from David Cameron’s ‘generous’ shake-up of royal fundingKing Charles III’s public rejection of a pay rise potentially worth as much as £250m a year in extra taxpayer money has laid bare the extraordinarily generous funding arrangement introduced by the former prime minister David Cameron.The sovereign grant deal, ushered in by Cameron and his chancellor, George Osborne, in 2011, has already resulted in a sharp rise in public money going to the monarchy over the last decade.£86.3m sovereign grant to the monarchy in 2022 Continue reading...

Ahead of the coronation of King Charles III, the Guardian’s Cost of the crown series exposes the entrenched secrecy around the royal family’s money and wealthHow much money will the coronation of King Charles III cost the British public? What tax rate will our new king pay on his private income? How many engagements did “working royals” such as the Dukes of Gloucester and Kent attend over the last five years? How much were they paid? How much rent do Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, who are not working royals, pay for residences in royal palaces?In recent weeks, the Guardian has posed all of these questions to Buckingham Palace. The responses boil down to “ask someone else”, “work it out for yourself”, or simply “you have no right to know”. We beg to differ. Continue reading...

Investigation reveals King Charles and the late queen’s income from duchies grew sixteenfold during Elizabeth’s reignKing Charles and the late Queen Elizabeth II have received payments equivalent to more than £1bn from two land and property estates that are at the centre of a centuries-old debate over whether their profits should be given to the public instead.An investigation by the Guardian has established the full scale of income extracted by the royals from the duchies of Lancaster and Cornwall, which run giant portfolios of land and property across England. Continue reading...

Police raid triggers West Bank clashes, cross-border strikes in Gaza Strip and fears of escalationAt least 14 Palestinians have been injured and hundreds arrested in an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque, triggering clashes in the West Bank, cross-border strikes in the Gaza Strip and fears of wider escalation over the holiday period.The violence in the early hours of Wednesday – during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and on the eve of the Jewish Passover holiday – comes after a year of spiralling violence in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. It also carries echoes of 2021, when clashes at Jerusalem’s holiest site helped start an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas, the Islamist movement in control of Gaza. Continue reading...

What to do and when to seek medical help if you are bitten by a tick

Tsai Ing-wen to meet the US House speaker, Kevin McCarthy, which China has called a ‘provocation’Pro and anti-Taiwan protesters gathered at Los Angeles airport for the arrival of Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, before a meeting scheduled for Wednesday with the US House speaker, Kevin McCarthy.Protesters also crowded outside Tsai’s LA hotel on Tuesday evening, banging drums, chanting and holding Taiwanese flags and photos of the president, who shook hands with supporters as she entered. A smaller, pro-Beijing group gathered nearby on the pavement, separated by a police line, at times chanting “One China”. Continue reading...

Toxicology report for pilot who was flying chopper that crashed and killed cast member tendered as evidence in Matt Wright’s court case

Lehrmann previously threatened to sue over broadcast of Brittany Higgins’ and Grace Tame’s address to National Press Club

Former New Zealand PM calls for politics to be opened up for all in emotional address to parliament

Ofcom proposes to refer sector to CMA amid ‘significant concerns’ about behaviour of some providersAmazon and Microsoft are facing a referral to the UK’s competition regulator over allegedly harming competition in the online cloud services market, amid “significant concerns” that big tech companies are abusing their positions.The British communications regulator, Ofcom, said it was proposing to refer the whole sector to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), adding that it was “particularly concerned about the practices of Amazon and Microsoft because of their market position”. Continue reading...

Head of UK Statistics Authority says outstanding cases had risen, not halved as PM had claimedRishi Sunak and his immigration minister have been scolded by the UK statistics watchdog for using inaccurate figures to back up spurious claims about asylum seekers.In a statement to the House of Commons in December, the prime minister claimed that the asylum backlog – 132,000 cases at the time – was half the size of the backlog left by the departing Labour government in 2010. This implied the backlog in 2010 would have been about 260,000. Continue reading...

Opposition leader says he will actively campaign against the voice, claiming it ‘won’t deliver outcomes to people on the ground’

Arrests over prank at beef bowl restaurant in Osaka come in wake of ‘sushi terrorism’ revelations that have gripped Japan’s food industryJapan’s crackdown on errant diners in the wake of “sushi terrorism” has intensified after two men were arrested for using their chopsticks to remove a condiment from a communal container at a restaurant in Osaka.The arrests of Toshihide Oka and Ryu Shimazu came as the country’s budget food service sector attempts to contain a wave of bad behaviour among clientele that began early this year at popular chain restaurants. Continue reading...

NEU survey also finds one in five teachers aged 29 or under have taken on a second job as pay fails to keep up with cost of livingOne in three young teachers in England are skipping meals and spending less on food because their pay has failed to keep up with the rising cost of living, while others are taking second jobs, a survey has found.More than 8,000 state school teachers in England contacted by the National Education Union revealed that 34% of teachers aged 29 or younger said they have been forced to skip meals to make ends meet, with one in five saying they have taken on a second job in addition to teaching full-time. Continue reading...

People on small island of Portland say scheme would be bad for them and bad for those on the vesselPoliticians, businesspeople and residents have said housing asylum seekers on a barge off a Dorset island will be inhumane, put pressure on creaking local services, create a security risk and could lead to demonstrations by rightwing campaigners.A string of people on Portland, which is linked to the mainland by the sweep of Chesil beach, argued that anchoring the barge in an area that has some of the poorest neighbourhoods in the south of England would be terrible for those assigned to the vessel and bad for residents. Continue reading...

Those hoping for a stress-free getaway might want to give Thursday afternoon a miss and leave early Friday instead

Emma Walters, who has denied all allegations, appeared in a court bail hearing over charges of incitement to commit conspiracy to murder the union boss

The death of headteacher Ruth Perry after a devastating report from schools watchdog Ofsted has prompted a growing backlash. Michelle Sheehy, headteacher of Millfield primary school in the West Midlands, explains whyWhen Ofsted inspectors visited Ruth Perry’s primary school in Reading last year, they told her it would be downgraded to the lowest ranking because of gaps they found in the school’s safeguarding administration. Perry’s death last month has led to an outpouring of anger.Her sister Julia Waters said her family were in no doubt she had taken her life in January as a “direct result” of the pressure put on her by the Ofsted inspection. Continue reading...

Painter Agnieszka Pilat and her trained robots join a lineup that includes Yoko Ono, Tracey Emin and fashion house Schiaparelli

Poor investigative practices and unacceptable delays leave children vulnerable, official report findsPolice can take up to 18 months to make an arrest after becoming aware that a child is at risk of online sexual abuse, an official report has concluded.His Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services (HMICFRS) found that forces’ investigative practices are “often poor [and] unacceptable delays are commonplace”, leaving children vulnerable and allowing offenders to escape justice. Continue reading...

Billionaire media mogul, 92, abruptly ends engagement to radio host Ann Lesley Smith, 66, after announcing plan for fifth marriageRupert Murdoch has abruptly ended his engagement with the wedding only months away, according to sources close to the 92-year-old media mogul.Vanity Fair reported the news about the four-times-married Fox Corporation chairman’s engagement to Ann Lesley Smith, 66, a former San Francisco police chaplain turned conservative radio host, which was reported only last month. Continue reading...

Redefinition of sex as ‘biological sex’ in Equality Act would enable single-sex restrictions against trans peopleKemi Badenoch is considering changing the Equality Act to allow organisations to bar trans women from single-sex spaces and events, including hospital wards and sports.The change by the equalities secretary would redefine sex in the 2010 act to specifically refer to legal protections for “biological sex” – the sex assigned at birth. Continue reading...

Provider said most problems were resolved but customers reported continuing glitches with internet, phone and TVThousands of Virgin Media customers across the UK experienced widespread internet, telephone and TV outages throughout Tuesday.Downdetector, which tracks outages, said around 50,000 people had reported problems with their services at one point, with the glitch first noticed by some customers shortly after 1am BST. Continue reading...

Recognising work in fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama, the $175,000 awards aim to free writers to work without financial pressuresBooker prize-shortlisted author Percival Everett and Iñupiaq-Inuit poet dg nanouk okpik are among the recipients of this year’s Windham-Campbell prizes.The prizes are awarded to eight writers each year for literary achievement across four categories – fiction, nonfiction, poetry and drama. Each recipient receives $175,000 (£140,000); this is up $10,000 from last year. Continue reading...

Baroque music and performing arts group performed Pergolesi’s lyrical sequence Stabat Mater combined with pole and dance actsA French priest has received death threats after a sold-out pole dance performance that the local paper called “sexy” was held in his church.Daniel Boessenbacher, the priest at the Protestant Saint-Guillaume church in Strasbourg, eastern France, told AFP he had alerted police to the threats after receiving two anonymous letters. Continue reading...

Judge says Sean Hogg, 17 when he committed the crime and now 21, would have been jailed if he had been over 25Campaigners and politicians have expressed outrage after a man who raped a 13-year-old girl in a Scottish park when he was 17 was not given a jail sentence.Sean Hogg, now 21, was given a 270-hour community payback order when he was sentenced at the high court in Glasgow on Monday. Continue reading...

Immigration minister fined more than £1,600 for breaking limit on M1 after appearing on Any Questions? last yearThe government minister Robert Jenrick has been banned from driving for six months and fined more than £1,600 after being caught driving almost 30mph over the speed limit last year.The Conservative MP for Newark was recorded driving 68mph in a temporary 40mph zone on the M1 in Northamptonshire on 5 August 2022. Jenrick pleaded guilty to the offence in February and said in a letter to the court that he “sincerely apologised” for the incident. Continue reading...

Shareholders lash out during final AGM as boss apologises for crisis that led to takeover of lender by UBSFurious Credit Suisse investors at its final ever annual meeting blocked executive pay plans and called for board members to be “put behind bars”, as the Swiss lender’s chair said he was “truly sorry” over the bank’s demise.Shareholders used most of the nearly five-hour annual general meeting in Zurich – the last in the 167-year-old bank’s history – to voice fury over poor management, hitting out at excessive pay for “incompetent and greedy” bankers who they said took too many risks and endangered Switzerland’s economic prosperity. Continue reading...

Latest updates: environment secretary says ‘there is no way you can stop pollution overnight’ as ministers attempt to clean up rivers and seasYoung people could be disfranchised in the local elections next month because of inadequate attempts by the government to make them aware of new voter ID rules, according to the Electoral Reform Society.The new policy means people must be registered to vote and take a form of photo ID to the polling station on 4 May. Continue reading...

Officials decided to shut down decrepit building last year amid concerns that the air in the mansion was no longer safe to breatheSo many dead mice were trapped behind the sagging walls and heaped in the basement of the Canadian prime minister’s official residence that officials decided shut down the the decrepit building last year amid concerns that the air in the mansion was no longer safe tobreathe, according to newly released documents.The limestone-clad house at 24 Sussex Drive, perched on a cliff above the Ottawa River, is the country’s most symbolically important and politically fraught plots of real estate. Continue reading...

Three years after Jeremy Corbyn left a sleeping bag behind, the leader of the opposition’s office is full of ‘bright, energetic, hungry people’Keir Starmer’s team had a few moments to reminisce about the past three years at their regular morning meeting on Tuesday, with one senior aide recalling when their winning leadership team first walked into the leader of the opposition’s office.It had only just been vacated by Jeremy Corbyn’s team and in one room, there were assorted revolutionary flags including one from the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. In the next room there was a large bin full to the brim with shredded documents spilling on to the floor. In Corbyn’s office was a sleeping bag. “You could not have pictured a more symbolic scene,” they said. Continue reading...

Central bank decides against £8.5m fine due to collapsed firm’s ‘limited resources’The Bank of England has issued a public reprimand against the Greensill-linked Wyelands Bank after discovering “wide-ranging significant regulatory failings” at the lender, which is owned by Sanjeev Gupta, boss of the troubled Liberty Steel.Wyelands, which was Greensill Capital’s biggest client before the scandal-hit firm collapsed in early 2021, was found to have breached a series of rules including falling short on governance and risk controls, reporting its capital position incorrectly and failing to retain messages sent on WhatsApp between 2016 and 2020. Continue reading...

Kyle Bevan guilty of murder with Sinead James found to have caused or allowed death of her daughterA woman and her partner have been found guilty over the death of a two-year-old girl who was fatally attacked at her home in Wales.Lola James died in hospital four days after suffering “catastrophic” brain injuries in the early hours of 17 July 2020. Continue reading...

Delegates at union’s annual conference approve further industrial action over pay and school funding