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Family of Hasan Askree, 53, who was jailed for five years in 2020, say case is a grave miscarriage of justice

Government unlikely to support former Liberal frontbencher’s call to wind back the voice’s power to make representations to parliament and executive government

Rules for Britain’s intelligence services seem strict – but experts say they give too much room for manoeuvreAfter the 9/11 attacks on the United States and the UK intelligence agencies’ embroilment in scandals relating to the “war on terror”, the government published a policy on torture and intelligence, then known as the “consolidated guidance”. The aim was to show the standards to which the UK holds itself and its intelligence agencies.The current rules, “the principles”, which replaced the consolidated guidance, were drawn up after the 2018 apology for Britain’s role in the rendition of a Libyan dissident, Abdel Hakim Belhaj, and his wife, as well as two damning reports published by the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) in the same year, which found that MI5 and MI6 were involved in hundreds of torture cases and scores of rendition cases after 9/11. Continue reading...

Investigatory powers commissioner has identified non-compliance by intelligence agencies and MoD

Bosses say they are concerned because of a shortage of consultants available to cover for striking staffHospital bosses are worried about keeping patients safe overnight this week because of a shortage of consultants available to cover for striking junior doctors.When junior doctors in England staged their first strike in mid-March in their pay dispute with the government, their consultant colleagues covered for them for the three days involved. Continue reading...

Analysis suggests top-secret documents were first shared on closed gamer chatrooms hosted by DiscordA damaging batch of documents leaked from the Pentagon appears to have been initially shared on the video game chat platform Discord in an effort to win an argument about the war in Ukraine, according to open-source intelligence analysts.The bizarre provenance of the leak may seem unusual but it is far from the first time that a dispute between gamers has sparked an intelligence breach, with the overlapping communities causing problems for military and gaming platforms alike. Continue reading...

Comments come as Joe Biden prepares to fly in to give speech in Belfast to mark 25th anniversary of pact

Attack targeted opening ceremony for office set up by military’s opponents in Sagaing regionMyanmar’s military has killed dozens of people in airstrikes on an event organised by its domestic opponents, in what is feared to be one of the deadliest attacks since the junta seized power more than two years ago.Local independent media reported that the attack on Tuesday morning targeted a ceremony marking the opening of an office set up by the military’s opponents in the village of Pa Zi Gyi, in Sagaing region. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed.Junior doctors have had “absolutely nothing” from the health secretary regarding pay negotiations, the deputy chair of the BMA Council has said. Dr Emma Runswick told BBC Breakfast:We’re not the side with the power here to start negotiations – we’ve been asking for literally months.At any point, Steve Barclay could have entered negotiations with us.We are … working very hard to ensure those emergency services are kept safe, that is our priority, but I’ve also got no doubt that that cover is very fragile, so we are relying on consultants and other staff to cover the work that junior doctors usually do.Junior doctors are a significant part of our medical workforce – up to 40 to 50% of our medical staff – and so that cover is stretched thin in places, so it could be affected by sickness, by absence for other reasons. Continue reading...

Justice secretary acted unlawfully by preventing staff commenting on prisoners’ fitness for releaseDominic Raab could potentially face proceedings for contempt of court after high court judges ruled that he acted unlawfully by stopping prison and probation staff in England and Wales from recommending whether a prisoner was fit for release or transfer to open conditions.The justice secretary made the change to the Parole Board rules last year, claiming they would ensure there would be one “overarching” Ministry of Justice (MoJ) recommendation and avoid conflicting views. Continue reading...

UK business lobby group says conduct ‘fell short of that expected’ of its leader

MP Bridget Archer said she had ‘much respect’ for the former shadow Indigenous Australians minister’s ‘courage and integrity’

Foreign secretary James Cleverly names new leader of UK intelligence agencyAnne Keast-Butler has been announced as the new director of GCHQ, becoming the first woman to lead the UK’s intelligence, cyber and security agency.Currently serving as the deputy director of MI5, she succeeds Sir Jeremy Fleming in a scheduled change at a time when the intelligence services are heavily focused on the security threat from Russia and China. Continue reading...

Non-dom tax status of Akshata Murty called into question in latest ad criticising Tories’ record

Accused becomes one of youngest children to be prosecuted for murder in Britain in about 30 yearsA 12-year-old boy will stand trial for murder, accused of killing the Sheffield social worker Marcia Grant by running over her with her own car.He becomes one of the youngest children to be prosecuted for murder in Britain in about 30 years and will stand trial in August or October. Continue reading...

Review launched into operations in Afghanistan as men and women told not to go to work at least until MayThe United Nations has launched a review of its operations in Afghanistan and asked all Afghan staff not to come to work at least until May after the Taliban barred its female staff from working.The UN said last week that the Taliban, who swept to power in 2021, had communicated that Afghan women would not be able to work for the global organisation. Taliban officials have not commented on the order. Continue reading...

Gallery’s decision follows investigation which claims white workers interfered in the making of artworks by black artists

This blog is now closed.

UN rights chief voices concern over sentencing of Ding Jiaxi and Xu ZhiyongThe UN human rights chief, Volker Türk, has said he is “very concerned” after China sentenced two prominent human rights lawyers to more than a decade each in jail.Xu Zhiyong and fellow campaigner Ding Jiaxi were convicted of subversion of state power after closed-door trials and sentenced to 14 and 12 years respectively. Continue reading...

Ultra-fast delivery pioneer will cease trading on Friday and lay off more than 400 staff

Figures suggest fewer misconduct allegations are being referred than under previously discredited regimePolice officers in England and Wales accused of violent and sexual misconduct are less likely to face disciplinary action under the revamped complaints system than the previous discredited regime, figures suggest.An investigation by the Guardian and BBC Radio 4’s File on 4 programme found that only 8% of the 22,000 allegations scrutinised by local forces under the new system were referred for possible disciplinary proceedings in 2020-21, whereas 10% of the 21,000 allegations investigated under the old regulations were referred in the same year. Continue reading...

‘Swap to stop’ scheme comes despite increasing alarm about rise in young people vapingMinisters are to urge 1 million smokers to swap cigarettes for vapes, despite increasing alarm about the rise in young people vaping.Under the new “swap to stop” scheme, vape starter kits will be offered to almost one in five of all smokers in England as part of the government’s “smoke free” drive. Continue reading...

More than 17,000 troops are involved in the Balikatan drills, which follow days of military exercises around Taiwan by ChinaThe United States and the Philippines have launched their largest combat exercises in decades in waters across the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, a move that is likely to inflame Beijing.The annual drills by the longtime treaty allies called Balikatan – Tagalog for shoulder-to-shoulder – will run up to 28 April and involve more than 17,600 military personnel. The drills will include live-fire exercises and a boat-sinking rocket assault. Continue reading...

China’s president, Xi Jinping, is often the subject of internet memes that compare him to the children’s characterTaiwanese are rushing to buy patches, popularised by air force pilots, that depict a Formosan black bear punching Winnie-the-Pooh – representing China’s president Xi Jinping – as a defiant symbol of the island’s resistance to Chinese war games.China began three days of military drills around Taiwan on Saturday, a day after the island’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, returned from a brief visit to the United States, where she met US House Speaker Kevin McCarthy despite Beijing’s warnings. Continue reading...

Lender says ‘no guarantee’ paying ransom would result in destruction of data and doing so ‘would only encourage further extortion attempts’

Warning comes on eve of England’s 61,000 junior doctors beginning four-day actionJunior doctors may keep striking for another year in their bitter pay dispute with the government, despite NHS leaders’ growing alarm about how the industrial action is disrupting patient care.Trainee medics in England could even hold a week-long stoppage to escalate their campaign of industrial action to secure a 35% pay rise from the health secretary, Steve Barclay. Continue reading...

Party will continue to single out PM, after campaign ad last week that led to accusations of ‘dog-whistle’ politicsKeir Starmer will shift his aim this week on to Rishi Sunak’s role in presiding over the cost of living crisis after days of anger over Labour’s crime campaign.The party will continue to single out the prime minister in the minds of voters, claiming “his fingerprints are all over their struggling household budgets”, as part of an attempt to hold Sunak – still seen by some as a change of the Tory old guard – personally accountable for 13 years of Conservative failures. Continue reading...

Callers wait so long that nearly one in five hang up, finds Liberal Democrat commissioned analysisPatients contacting NHS 111 in England are having to wait so long for medical help that they are abandoning millions of calls, with 3.6m ditched in the past 12 months, official figures reveal.The national helpline service is supposed to make it quicker and easier for patients to get the right advice or treatment they need, either for their physical or mental health. It is billed as being open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Continue reading...

Russian opposition figure facing up to 25 years in jail tells Moscow court he stands by all of his political statementsRussian opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza, who faces up to a quarter of a century in jail on treason charges, has told a Moscow court that he stood by all of his political statements and said his prosecution resembled one of Joseph Stalin’s show trials.Kara-Murza, 41, who holds Russian and British passports, has denied several charges including treason and spreading false information about the Russian army. Prosecutors have requested a 25-year prison sentence. Continue reading...

Messaging on law and order has racist undertones, say critics, and could scupper the party’s efforts to appear to offer a ‘fresh start’The controversy surrounding Labour’s attack advert suggesting Rishi Sunak does not support jailing child abusers dominated the headlines over the Easter break, drawing furious criticism from both the left of the party and the Conservatives.Labour officials have insisted that the shock tactic was helping their message to cut through, putting the Tories’ poor record on crime under the spotlight. But that was not the experience of candidates doing canvassing ahead of the local elections. Continue reading...

Force rebuffs claim home secretary said they should focus on ‘catching criminals’ after items taken from White Hart Inn in GraysEssex police have denied being rebuked by Suella Braverman for seizing a collection of golliwog dolls that were on display in a pub.Officers from the force took several dolls from the White Hart Inn in Grays, Essex, last week as part of an investigation into an alleged hate crime reported in February. Continue reading...

David Crouch to raise daughter of murdered Caroline Crouch in the Philippines, where her grandmother has relocatedAlmost two years after the 19-year-old British student, Caroline Crouch, was murdered by her husband as she lay asleep in the couple’s Athens maisonette, her father says he will concentrate on raising his granddaughter, “who is now without” either parent.Speaking publicly for what he said would be the last time, David Crouch, 79, told the Guardian he would leave Greece to look after Caroline’s daughter, Lydia, who is almost three, in the Philippines, “far away” from her mother’s self-confessed killer. Continue reading...

‘Two large bags of dry paint’ were seized from the campaigners, who jumped over a barrier around the famous dinosaur castTwo Just Stop Oil protesters have been arrested after jumping over a barrier surrounding the Dippy the Diplodocus exhibit in Coventry.Video footage captured the campaigners, named by the environmental group as Daniel Knorr, 21, and Victoria Lindsell, 67, jumping over the fencing before being grabbed by staff at the Herbert Art Gallery and Museum at around 10am on Monday. Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak had earlier urge return to power-sharing government in Northern Ireland; US president Joe Biden arrives on TuesdayOn the tone of the Labour adverts, the former Labour minister and must-read political diarist Chris Mullin has shared his thoughts and a summary of Labour members and activists who have urged the party to take the “higher ground”.Labour is to launch more adverts attacking Rishi Sunak by blaming him for “crashing the economy”, despite criticism from within the party. Continue reading...

After Labour’s targeting of Rishi Sunak, we look back on past ads, some of which have swung electionsThe tradition of the modern political attack ad is often traced back to Lyndon Johnson’s 1964 US presidential campaign, which sought to portray his Republican opponent, Barry Goldwater, as an ill-disciplined warmonger likely to plunge the world into a nuclear apocalypse.The so-called “Daisy” advert, in which a little girl counted as she plucked petals from a flower before a massive nuclear blast filled the screen, delivered a visceral message two months before Johnson won. Continue reading...

Teenager killed and two others wounded during Israeli arrest operation amid escalating tensionsIsraeli troops have fatally shot a 15-year-old Palestinian boy and wounded two other people during an arrest operation in a West Bank refugee camp, as tensions continued to escalate in the occupied territories.Mohammed Balhan was shot in the head, chest and abdomen in the Aqabat Jabr camp near Jericho, according to local Palestinian official Hani Obeidat, who called it an “unjustifiable crime”. A video showed him lying dead on a stretcher in the hospital, his head bandaged and his mother wailing as she leaned over his body. Continue reading...

Telecoms company apologises after complaints and says problem was the result of an ‘isolated incident’Vodafone has said it has fixed a problem that left thousands of its customers unable to connect to the internet.The mobile operator, which has more than 1 million broadband customers, had been inundated with queries on its Twitter account from users complaining about their broadband connection on Monday morning. Continue reading...

Affluent areas of capital cities ‘lead both the upswing and the downturn’, according to property data expert

Showdown in Melbourne sees a new single word record score of 194 as Naween Fernando sees off former world champion David Eldar

Band hail ‘brilliance’ of session musician who has died aged 70 after being diagnosed with cancerAbba have paid tribute to the “musical brilliance” of their longstanding guitarist, Lasse Wellander, who has died aged 70 after being diagnosed with cancer.The musician, who played on the band’s biggest albums and toured with them between 1975 and 1980, died early on Friday “surrounded by his loved ones”, his family said. Continue reading...

Parents helped save boy by scooping sand away from his mouth and nose at Anderby Creek in LincolnshireRescuers have said a teenage boy was lucky not to have been buried alive when a hole he was digging on a Lincolnshire beach collapsed.The 14-year-old was reportedly digging at the beach at Anderby Creek on Saturday when the sand beneath him collapsed, leaving him trapped up to his neck. Continue reading...

Majed Khalil took network to court after Lou Dobbs accused him of ‘orchestrating non-existent scheme to fix the election’Fox News has said the network reached a settlement with a Venezuelan businessman, Majed Khalil, ending a defamation case in which Khalil said he was falsely accused on air of helping to rig the 2020 US presidential election against Donald Trump.It comes with jury selection set to begin on Thursday ahead of a separate trial in Dominion Voting Systems Corp’s $1.6bn defamation lawsuit against Fox News and its parent company, Fox Corp, over their coverage of debunked election-rigging claims.This piece was amended on 10 April 2023. An earlier version said Fox News announced the settlement, but a network spokesperson said it confirmed the agreement when contacted by Reuters. Continue reading...

Iranian state TV shows metro staff stopping women at ticket barriers, in effect barring many from workHijab enforcement groups are to be set up on the Tehran metro and women not wearing the hijab will be refused entry, in effect banning some women from work, Iranian state TV has reported.The move appears to be part of a pattern of government efforts to force Iranian public bodies to take greater responsibility for enforcing the hijab. Many Iranian women, especially in urban centres, have refused to comply with the hijab rules, in a sign that the “women, life, freedom” protests that began in September continue in a more individualised form. Continue reading...

Met Office issues yellow warnings for wind and Environment Agency issues seven flood alerts in southGales of up to 60mph and heavy downpours are due to hit western parts of the UK from Tuesday, forecasters have said.The Met Office has issued a yellow warning for wind covering the west coast and Northern Ireland for 12 hours from 3pm on Tuesday. An identical warning is in place for south-west England and south Wales throughout Wednesday. Continue reading...

SNP’s Ian Blackford says calls to vote tactically by backing Labour prove unionist alliance ‘still alive and well’

Clubs understood to be close to agreeing plan to ditch betting sponsors from shirts voluntarilyProposals by Premier League football clubs to give up gambling sponsors on team shirts have been criticised by campaigners as “incoherent” because they ignore more visible forms of advertising such as pitchside hoardings.Clubs in the English top flight are understood to be close to agreeing a plan to ditch betting sponsors from shirts voluntarily, with the issue expected to go to a vote before June. Continue reading...

Hippersons boatyard says drunk tourists have damaged vessels, urinated off the side, and abused staffA Norfolk Broads boating company has banned tourists from consuming alcohol on its vessels after incidents of antisocial behaviour, including people urinating off the side of the boats.Mary Sparrow, the director of Hippersons boatyard, said a minority of guests would visit the Broads just to drink on the water all day, leading to staff facing abuse and boats being damaged by intoxicated customers. Continue reading...

Conservative body in Church of England encourages dioceses to protest, and says opposition is growingConservative clergy and parishioners have launched a small but vocal revolt against the Church of England’s plan to offer to bless the civil marriages of same-sex couples, a move that some Christians believe is contrary to biblical teaching.In Buckinghamshire, a large group parish plans to refuse to offer blessings to same-sex couples in its seven churches and is taking steps to withhold its annual contribution of £235,000 to the diocese of Oxford in protest. Continue reading...

The toll included the death of a person in a fiery two-vehicle crash in Queensland on Monday and seven deaths on Good Friday

NHS chief says up to 350,000 appointments and operations likely to be cancelled during four-day strikeThe four-day strike by junior doctors in England will have a “catastrophic impact” on NHS waiting lists, with up to 350,000 appointments and operations likely to be cancelled, the chief executive of the NHS Confederation has said.Matthew Taylor said the industrial action this week posed risks to patient safety and called on the public to avoid “risky behaviour”. Continue reading...