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Former deputy premier faced leadership spill after being accused of misleading colleagues

Philadelphia, Baileys and Invivo X Unity prosecco among sponsors hoping for douze points in LiverpoolThe wind machines have been tested, dance routines perfected and wardrobe malfunctions eliminated. At this stage, there is not much you can do about the singing or the song choice.So as one pageant in Britain ends, another begins, with the Eurovision song contest semi-finals kicking off in Liverpool on Tuesday. Whether you consider it a cringeworthy affair or the World Cup of music, it is one of the most-watched shows on the planet, with 180 million people expected to tune in. Continue reading...

Should rapprochement solidify it could augur well for Yemen, Lebanon and Syria – and spell disaster for IsraelTehran’s embassy in Riyadh has reopened for the first time since 2016, the Iranian foreign ministry quietly confirmed in April, in the latest of a series of gestures showing that the two Middle East powers are determined to dial down a rivalry that has disfigured the region for 40 years.All kinds of signs, trivial and large, suggest the rapprochement is genuine: civilian flights between the two countries are to resume; an Iranian won an $800,000 Saudi Qur’an-reading competition; Iranian steel is making its way to Saudi markets; officials from the two countries were seen embracing after the Saudi navy rescued 60 Iranians trapped in Sudan; and Ibrahim Raisi is expected to announce a visit to Riyadh soon, the first by an Iranian president since 2007. Continue reading...

Government argues the financial burden would have been significant if the projection went ahead

Advocates say people on student visas, who are initially ineligible for reproductive healthcare, risk dropping out if they fall pregnant

Monarch reportedly said ‘there’s always something’ during the build-up to the ceremonyKing Charles grumbled “we can never be on time” and “there’s always something” at the start of his coronation, a lip reader has claimed.The monarch and Camilla arrived at Westminster Abbey early and were forced to wait outside, sat in their diamond jubilee state coach. Continue reading...

Masked gang hijacked driver at gunpoint and made him drive with the device to Omagh police stationA man was hijacked at gunpoint by a masked gang and forced to drive his car with a suspicious object on board to a police station in Northern Ireland.The incident caused a major security alert in Omagh, County Tyrone, which led to a number of people being evacuated from their homes and cordons erected. Continue reading...

While some paid tribute to the British monarch, the presence in London of certain guests proved less than welcomeIn South Africa, as across the African Commonwealth countries, Saturday’s coronation of King Charles III prompted mixed reactions. There was much interest in Pretty Yende, the South African soprano who sang at the beginning of the ceremony, and some high-profile public figures sent their best wishes to the monarch.Thuli Madonsela, a popular lawyer and activist widely respected after her leadership of the country’s public corruption watchdog, offered “congratulations to HM King Charles and Queen Camilla on their coronation” in a tweet. “It was wonderful to see our peerless opera star ⁦@PrettyYende shine during the coronation,” Madonsela said. Continue reading...

Graham Smith said Met officers should hang their heads in shame after 52 detained in central LondonPolice who arrested anti-monarchy protesters before King Charles III’s coronation have “destroyed whatever trust might have existed between peaceful protesters and the Metropolitan police,” the chief executive of the campaign group Republic has said.After six members of the group were arrested at about 7.30am on Saturday – before their protest had begun – and had their placards seized, Graham Smith said officers “should hang their heads in shame” and that police had shown “no judgment, no common sense and no basic decency”. Continue reading...

Duke of Sussex leaves London with celebrations in full swing to fly back to CaliforniaPrince Harry landed in Los Angeles in the small hours of this morning after leaving his father’s coronation celebrations while they were in full swing, arriving back in time for the last few hours of his son Archie’s birthday.The Duke of Sussex touched down at Los Angeles international airport at about 7.30pm local time (3.30am UK), according to PA Media, which reported that British Airways flight attendants had confirmed Harry was on the flight but said they were not permitted to discuss the details of his trip. Continue reading...

Gordon Ramsay, Jamie Oliver, Nigella and Marco Pierre White among those giving emotional tributes to late chef ahead of 15th seriesCelebrity chefs including Jamie Oliver, Gordon Ramsay, Nigella Lawson and former boss Marco Pierre White have remembered Jock Zonfrillo in a televised tribute dedicated to the late MasterChef Australia judge a week after his sudden death.Network 10 aired the first episode of the new season of MasterChef Australia on Sunday night, having delayed the premiere until Zonfrillo’s family gave their blessing for it to air. Filming of the series was completed last month. Continue reading...

Petr Pavel sounds cautious note, saying Kyiv no longer has element of surprise that led to military successes last year

The lucky Briton has staked a claim for the first UK EuroMillions jackpot win of 2023, according to CamelotA claim has been staked for the £46.2m jackpot prize won by a UK ticket-holder in Friday’s EuroMillions draw.The UK ticket-holder was one of three winners to take a share of the £138m jackpot. The other winning tickets were bought in France and Switzerland. Continue reading...

Couriers will be moved to cheaper insecure deals after government fails on promise to bring in new employment billRapid grocery delivery firms are preparing to move hundreds of couriers paid by the hour on to insecure gig-economy contracts as the threat of tougher regulations has receded, industry sources have warned.Ministers have failed to bring in a modern employment bill with protections for gig-economy workers, despite promising to introduce new legislation at least 20 times since reforms were first mentioned in the Queen’s speech in 2019. Continue reading...

Widespread areas of frost and temperatures of near or below zero expected for ranges and further west with BoM forecasting ‘cooler days’

‘We’re very patriotic’: Charles’s loyalist subjects party like it’s 1953, although some admit they’re there ‘for the booze’Sheila Bridges had been up since 6am. She’d spent the morning preparing food – coronation chicken curry, coronation quiche, pizza – for the 40 or so neighbours who’d soon be filing into the huge union jack-draped gazebo outside her house.It felt like a last-minute rush, but the residents of Adelaide Gardens had been planning their party for weeks, from sourcing a lifesize cardboard cutout of Charles to organising a pin-the-diamond-on-the-crown competition and ordering a purple cake big enough to feed the whole street. Continue reading...

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In Hertfordshire’s towns, as across much of formerly ‘true blue’ England, the appetite for change proved decisively strongIt was little more than a year ago that Oliver Dowden stood up at Conservative spring conference to praise the “calm suburbia of Hertfordshire”, home to his own Hertsmere constituency, and vowed to defend the “privet hedges of a free people”.But after Thursday’s local elections, the deputy prime minister’s proverbial privet hedges now have gaping holes in them. For the first time this millennium, his party lost control of the true blue Hertfordshire council. Continue reading...

Supporters of drag queen lodge complaint over police behaviour during latest ‘culture war’ confrontationPolice have been accused of “siding” with a rightwing group during violent protests over a drag act’s performance at a south London pub.A formal complaint has been lodged over the behaviour of Metropolitan police officers during a demonstration organised by Turning Point UK (TPUK) against a storytelling session by drag queen That Girl at the Honor Oak pub in Lewisham. Continue reading...

Annual Big Lunch project becomes part of official events to mark crowning of King Charles III

Souvenir editions abound and positive appraisals dominate amid descriptions from ‘his crowning moment’ to ‘king of the world’

Amount received will depend on location, treasurer says, but no comment on calls to increase jobseeker base rate

CEO says demand for assistance in cases including domestic violence far outweighs funding and more support is needed to avert closure

The invitation had suggested a break with tradition, but the royal family opted to play it safeWhen the official Coronation invitation was unveiled last month featuring a bee, bluebells and a Green Man, an ancient mythological figure symbolising rebirth, it hinted that the new monarch’s investiture was perhaps, going to break away from tradition.Further hints came via the meat-free Coronation quiche recipe, news that the anointing oil was set to be vegan and Charles’s decision to ditch the customary silk stockings and breeches. The Princess of Wales was even rumoured to be swapping a tiara for a flower crown. Continue reading...

Crowds who gathered to watch event did their best to shrug off the miserable weather

Wagner chief says his forces will pull out of Bakhmut while Ukraine says they are reinforcing positions; Zaporizhzhia villages near frontline evacuated

Robert’s retirement means a second byelection test for Peter Dutton’s opposition, this time in the Queensland seat of Fadden

The WikiLeaks founder writes that he has been captive in the prison for more than four years ‘on behalf of an embarrassed foreign sovereign’

Advocates say cancellations may embolden anti-LGBTQ+ groups to target other events and state needs stronger anti-vilification laws

Harbourside sites such as seawalls and wharves at Cockatoo Island and Macquarie Lightstation in Vaucluse to be shored up with investment

Crowning of new king and queen will include UK’s biggest military spectacle in 70 yearsForeign royalty, heads of state and other dignitaries from around the globe have descended on London for the crowning of King Charles III and Queen Camilla, which will include a military spectacle unmatched in Britain in 70 years.Seven thousand troops will be on parade with 19 military bands in a coronation procession stretching one mile from front to rear, the most at any state occasion since the 1953 coronation of Queen Elizabeth II. Continue reading...

Conservatives continue to suffer heavy defeats as Labour, Lib Dems and Greens make gains

London fire brigade suggest smoke probably caused by train’s brakes and police say nobody hurt in incidentPassengers climbed out of the smashed windows of a tube train at Clapham Common station in London on Friday evening amid a fire alert.A video posted on social media shows a man with a hammer cracking one of the Northern Line tube windows to allow travellers trapped inside to get out, while other videos show smashed windows. Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak can’t revive his party, says leader of Lib Dems, after series of council gains from Conservatives

Keir Starmer tells aides party will win next election, even as pollsters suggest it could fall short of majority

BBC submits material to Buckingham Palace for approval before use, raising questions about editorial independenceThe BBC has allowed Buckingham Palace to veto what footage it can use in its coronation coverage, raising questions about the national broadcaster’s impartiality in relation to the monarchy.In recent days the BBC has submitted material to the palace for approval in royal-themed programming, only for Buckingham Palace to declare certain pieces could not be used, according to individuals with knowledge of the situation. Continue reading...

Revelation raises questions about whether US and Europe should have been more prepared for 2014 invasionVladimir Putin told Bill Clinton three years before his 2014 attack on Ukraine that he was not bound by the Budapest Memorandum guaranteeing the country’s territorial integrity, according to the former US president.The revelation raises questions about whether the US and its European allies should have been more prepared for the 2014 attack, when Russia annexed Crimea and attacked the Donbas. Continue reading...

Yevgeny Prigozhin, who has a history of dramatic statements, says troops will leave fiercely contested city on 10 May. This live blog is closed

Teenager who attacked woman and three girls on walk home from school to be sent to therapeutic unit for at least 18 monthsA 13-year-old boy who carried out sexual attacks on a woman and three teenage girls as he walked home in his school uniform has avoided a custodial sentence but will be sent to a specialist therapeutic unit for at least 18 months.A judge told Shrewsbury crown court on Friday he had “absolutely no idea” why the boy attacked a 16-year-old, two 17-year-olds and a woman in her 30s in four separate incidents in Telford, Shropshire. Continue reading...

Shock for party chair who had previously expected everything to be all right on the night and learned not to try too hardFirst manage your expectations.When the Tory party chair, Greg Hands, announced last week that he expected the Conservatives to lose 1,000 seats in the local elections, he was being characteristically disingenuous. What he really meant was that the Tories would lose between 500 and 600 seats and he would be able to take to the airwaves and crow about his party having done far better than anyone imagined. The plucky Conservatives yet again seizing triumph from a potential disaster. And it would all be down to him and his idiotic tweets of a 13-year-old Liam Byrne gag. At least we won’t be seeing them again. Continue reading...

Glen Matlock says he could make up lyrics as he goes along when he plays version of 1977 hit on coronation dayGod Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols is the only track in chart history to be have been listed with a blank title to avoid offence. Now, the band’s former bassist is drawing another blank as he tries to rework the lyrics before King Charles’s coronation.Glen Matlock, who will perform God Save the King at the 100 Club in London on Saturday, indicated he was struggling with one or two of the rhymes. Continue reading...

In extraordinary video tirade, Yevgeny Prigozhin attacks defence minister and chief of armed forces

Rachel Simpson from Newport accessed computer systems to obtain information about police drugs operationsA Crown Prosecution Service officer who leaked sensitive files about complex police investigations that were passed to members of organised crime gangs has been jailed for six years.Rachel Simpson, 39, from Newport in south Wales, repeatedly accessed CPS and crown court computer systems searching for information about investigations into major police drugs operations and money laundering. Continue reading...

Rescue deal for publisher would wipe out existing shareholders, including James Murdoch

Thousands evacuated to army camps as authorities struggle to bring inter-ethnic tensions under controlIndian troops have been deployed to the north-eastern state of Manipur with orders to “shoot on sight” and enforce a curfew as deadly clashes between tribal and non-tribal groups continue for the third day.The violence and arson has forced about 9,000 people to flee their homes in the remote state, which borders Myanmar. The state government has not given the number of deaths but the chief minister, N Biren Singh, said that “precious lives have been lost” and at least 20 people were reportedly injured, including two local politicians. Continue reading...

Nurse allegedly killed five-day-old boy before poisoning his twin brother with insulinLucy Letby sobbed in court as she recalled the “traumatic” death of a baby boy she allegedly murdered before poisoning his twin brother with insulin.The nurse wiped away tears with a tissue as she told the jury she had “never seen a baby bleed in that way before” when the five-day-old boy died in front of his parents. Continue reading...

Royals surprise those camped outside the palace following lunch with Commonwealth leaders

Among sweeping security measures, police expected to use radar to detect rogue objects in the airThe authorities have banned drone flights in central London as part of the sweeping range of security measures being taken to protect the king’s coronation from possible disruption at lunchtime on Saturday.The action comes a couple of days after two drones, most likely operated by pro-Ukrainian groups, managed to fly over presidential offices at the Kremlin in Moscow, the historic centre of Russian government. Continue reading...

Police investigate whether Vincenzo Costanzo was gunned down by rival clan or shot by accidentThe 26-year-old son of a mafia boss was shot dead and more than a hundred people were injured on Thursday during delirious celebrations by football fans in Naples, after the city’s team won its first Serie A title in 33 years.Vincenzo Costanzo, who was known to police and had a “significant” criminal record, was gunned down during the spontaneous street partying that took place across the city after Napoli were crowned champions. Continue reading...

Party takes back control of council in ‘red wall’ territory it aims to regain at next general electionIt was clear that a decisive win in Stoke-on-Trent was very important to Keir Starmer. In the weeks running up to the election, the Labour party poured a huge amount of resources into its campaign in the city, and its leader visited multiple times.High-profile MPs such as the Birmingham MP Jess Phillips and the shadow chancellor, Rachel Reeves, were drafted in for door-knocking in the final hours before polls closed. The candidates had been chosen early to given them maximum time for campaigning. Continue reading...