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Rise in emergency financing since 2016 correlates with drop in Chinese lending for infrastructure projectsChina spent $240bn (£195bn) bailing out countries struggling under their belt and road initiative debts between 2008 and 2021, new data shows.Research found that Chinese state-backed lenders released bailout funds to 22 countries, including Argentina, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Ukraine. Almost 80% of the emergency rescue lending was issued after 2016, reaching more than $40bn in 2021. Continue reading...

Family of Aubrey Donahue had requested body-worn camera vision of incident in Mareeba but police say none exists

Senate to investigate after resignation of commissioner Leo Hardiman, who cited his lack of powers to make changes to fix delays

Victoria’s opposition accuses premier of snubbing education leaders while union says absence of journalists on China trip is ‘disturbing’

Controversial neurosurgeon’s claim a patient’s husband was ‘hoodwinked’ into making a complaint against him showed ‘lack of empathy’, inquiry also told

Ma Ying-jeou’s ‘we are all Chinese’ message starkly at odds with vision of Tsai Ing-wen, who seeks support from WashingtonTaiwan’s former president Ma Ying-jeou stood in front of the Sun Yat-sen mausoleum in Nanjing on Tuesday and called for people on both sides of the Taiwan strait to work together for peace, because, he said: “We are all Chinese.”The 73-year-old is in China on a historic visit, the first by a current or former Taiwanese president since 1949. In the decades since, tensions have increased as Beijing vows to annex Taiwan under what it calls “reunification”. Taiwan’s government and people have become increasingly opposed to the prospect of Chinese rule, and few identify themselves as Chinese. Continue reading...

Matiullah Wesa, head of Pen Path, was beaten and arrested outside a mosque after prayersThe founder of a project that campaigned for girls’ education in Afghanistan has been detained by Taliban authorities in Kabul, his brother and the United Nations have said.The Taliban government last year barred girls from attending secondary school, making Afghanistan the only country in the world where there is a ban on education. Continue reading...

The Paddington Bear Experience, a family-friendly show based on Michael Bond’s character, will be at the ex-GLC building on the South BankThe world of Michael Bond’s irrepressible, marmalade-loving bear Paddington is to be re-created for an immersive theatre experience at London’s County Hall.Audiences will be invited to explore the environs of 32 Windsor Gardens, where Paddington settles with the Brown family after arriving from Peru, including an array of familiar settings from Bond’s books. Opening later this year, The Paddington Bear Experience will unfold across a space of 26,000 sq ft at the building, a former local government headquarters, on the Thames. The production is designed by Immersive Octopus, the creative collective behind Peaky Blinders: The Rise, which runs in London until May and brings to life the violent world of the gangster TV series. Continue reading...

More than 60 signatories write to PM before Tuesday’s debate, warning bill will ‘cost lives’More than 60 NGOs, MPs and academics have written to Rishi Sunak urging him to withdraw the UK’s illegal migration bill, warning that it will drive modern slavery underground and “cost lives”.Ahead of the controversial bill’s committee stage debate on Tuesday, signatories, including Anti-Slavery International, After Exploitation and Liberty say it would “rob” people fleeing danger of the right to claim asylum, simply for entering the UK irregularly. Continue reading...

Cyber-attack in which information of 14 million customers has been exposed dubbed Australia’s largest to date

Traditional owners granted right to access land stretching from Ararat to Warrnambool, encompassing much of the Great Ocean Road and Great Otway national park

League ‘supports and adopts’ recent statements from US which accept association between head impacts and neurodegenerative disease

Experts alarmed by volume and complexity of restrictions as discussion paper sets stage for Labor’s push for reforms

With potential workplace changes coming to the gig economy, workers argue they are already treated as employees with none of the benefits

Station employs second censor after Acma finds radio host’s mocking remarks breached decency provisions

Creed III actor due to face court in May after unnamed female accuser alleges he struck her ‘about the face with an opened hand’ and bruised her neckJonathan Majors has been charged with several assault and harassment misdemeanours, after being accused of assaulting a woman during an alleged “domestic dispute”, the Manhattan district attorney’s office has confirmed.New York City police said Majors, the star of Creed III as well as Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, was arrested on Saturday when police responded to a 911 call inside an apartment in the Chelsea neighbourhood in Manhattan. Continue reading...

Delays mean private tenants in the 2.4m homes with an EPC rating below C will face years of high billsPrivate renters face paying an additional £1bn in gas and electricity bills because of delays in the introduction of new standards forcing landlords to make their properties more energy efficient.The government has been criticised for dragging its feet on enacting new proposals that would require landlords to improve properties to at least a C rating under the energy performance certificate (EPC) scheme. Continue reading...

Scottish Power, British Gas and Ovo responsible for 70% of forced installations, government saysUK energy companies forcibly installed 94,000 prepayment meters using warrants in 2022, with Scottish Power and British Gas ordering the most, according to government data.The government has been keen to distance itself from the practice of forcible installations of prepayment meters, which are generally used by energy companies for customers who have missed payments in the past. Continue reading...

Abi Harris was reportedly born in 1970 after her mother, actor Jennifer Hill, had a brief relationship with JasonDavid Jason has said he was “delighted” to discover he has a 52-year-old daughter who he did not know anything about, according to reports.Abi Harris was reportedly born in 1970 after her mother, the actor Jennifer Hill, had a brief relationship with the Only Fools and Horses star. Continue reading...

Suspended Liberal MP appears to contradict claims she made ‘important concessions’ to avoid party room expulsion

Ministers consider removing more safeguards while European watchdog urges UK parliament to reject billMinisters appear poised to give way to Conservative MPs by removing more safeguards from the illegal migration bill, as the European rights watchdog warned that the proposals even as they stand risk being incompatible with international law.After days of discussions between ministers and Tory backbenchers, up to 60 of whom are said to want to toughen up a bill that already pledges to deport asylum seekers who arrive in the UK unofficially, one of the leading rebels said the government had promised action. Continue reading...

Israeli prime minister confirms he will delay controversial measure for several weeks after tens of thousands protested

Legal claims alleging illegal behaviour have been brought by Doreen Lawrence, Elton John, David Furnish, Prince Harry, Liz Hurley, Sadie Frost and Simon HughesSeven prominent individuals have brought legal claims alleging widespread illegal behaviour by individuals working for the Daily Mail and the Mail on Sunday between 1993 and 2018.The Mail’s parent company strongly denies all the allegations and is seeking to stop the cases going to trial, arguing the individuals have waited too long to start legal proceedings and are relying on material provided by the Mail on a confidential basis to the Leveson inquiry into the British media industry. Continue reading...

The musician, who spent the last almost 40 years of her life living in a monastery in Jerusalem, has diedEmahoy Tsegué-Maryam Guèbrou, an Ethiopian nun, composer and pianist, has died at the age of 99.According to the country’s state-run news outlet Fana Broadcasting Corporate, she died in Jerusalem. Guèbrou had been living at the Ethiopian Monastery there for almost 40 years. Continue reading...

High court also hears claims against Associated Newspapers brought by Prince Harry, Elton John and Liz Hurley among othersDoreen Lawrence has claimed the Daily Mail hired private investigators to hack her phone and obtain information on her murdered son, potentially disrupting the police investigation into the racially motivated killing.Lady Lawrence now believes she “failed her murdered son” by trusting the Daily Mail during the 1990s, claiming the news outlet only campaigned for justice on behalf of Stephen Lawrence in a cynical bid to sell more newspapers. Continue reading...

Bank further distanced itself from its former chief executive who resigned in November 2021Barclays has said allegations that its former chief executive Jes Staley was aware of sex trafficking operations run by the late billionaire Jeffrey Epstein were “serious and new”, as it further distanced itself from its ex-boss.It is the most substantial comment made by Barclays since Staley resigned in November 2021 after a UK regulatory investigation into his relationship with the convicted sex offender, who was one of Staley’s clients when he worked at JP Morgan years earlier. Continue reading...

Tory critics of PM’s plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda say failure could do lasting damage to partyRishi Sunak’s proposed bill – which hopes to fulfil his promise to “stop the boats” – is part of a significant gamble which aims to pull off an unexpected Conservative win at the next general election. The prime minister is claiming he can break the business model of human traffickers by sending asylum seekers to central Africa in their thousands.If all the pieces fall into place – and his supporters admit there are many pieces – the bill will pass through parliament, legal challenges against the plan to send asylum seekers to Rwanda will be dismissed by UK and Strasbourg courts, the Rwandan government will build homes for thousands of asylum seekers and an airline will be found to fly them. Continue reading...

Berlin says Moscow’s announcement is ‘another attempt at nuclear intimidation’

The biggest protest movement in Israeli history has achieved its goal but the country may soon face new elections

Prime minister defers controversial proposals to next parliamentary session after mass protestsLive updates: pressure piles on Netanyahu over judicial changesIsrael’s embattled prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has announced a delay to his far-right government’s proposals to overhaul the judiciary after 12 weeks of escalating political crisis.Netanyahu said on Monday he would delay his flagship judicial reform to the next parliamentary session, saying he wanted to give time to seek a compromise over the contentious package with his political opponents. Continue reading...

Terry Sanderson, 76, suing actor for more than $300,000 over 2016 collision, claiming she skied recklessly into him from behindThe man suing Gwyneth Paltrow over a 2016 collision at one of the most upscale ski resorts in North America took the witness stand on Monday as the closely watched trial goes into its second week in Utah.Terry Sanderson, 76, recounted a ski collision that he claims was caused by Paltrow, 50, causing four ribs to fracture and head trauma that he claims manifested as post-concussion syndrome. Continue reading...

Greens confirm they will back Yousaf as first minister but former health secretary faces battle to unite SNP

Court appearance in privacy claim should not come as a surprise given prince’s loathing for Associated NewspapersThe sight of Prince Harry marching up the steps of the high court on Monday came as a shock. On the agenda was a pre-trial legal hearing in his claim against the Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers. This was not promising material for a courtroom drama. But Harry’s presence suddenly changed that, as news alerts were pinged out to mark his “surprise” court visit.In hindsight it should not have come as such a surprise. The prince has repeatedly expressed his loathing for the British press and the Mail in particular. Continue reading...

Airport security staff due to hold 10 days of strikes over pay, forcing airline to axe 5% of its scheduleBritish Airways is to cancel more than 300 flights to and from Heathrow over the Easter holiday period due to strikes by airport security staff.The airline is axing about 5% of its schedule, with 16 return short-haul flights cancelled daily. It said the majority of affected customers would be booked on to alternative flights within 24 hours, or could be fully refunded. Continue reading...

Assault unit members claim in video that superiors ‘want to execute us’ after ‘huge’ losses in eastern Ukraine

Zelenskiy meets UN nuclear chief Grossi in Zaporizhzhia region; criticism mounts of Russian plan to put nuclear weapons in Belarus Continue reading...

Party leader to propose motion that will not endorse his predecessor as he vows to show Labour has changed

Exclusive: ‘Baffling’ levelling-up plan to move company to another city may lead to staff exodus, says EquityMost chorus members at the English National Opera (ENO) would be forced to leave their jobs if the company relocates outside London, because of ties that include children at school, caring responsibilities, and partners with jobs in the capital.More than two-thirds would leave the profession altogether, according to a survey carried out by Equity, the union that represents chorus members. Continue reading...

Lawyers working for Associated Newspapers successfully argue there is no justification for naming 73 journalists and executivesThe Daily Mail’s parent company has successfully invoked the Human Rights Act to stop other media outlets naming its journalists in a phone hacking court case.Prince Harry and a group of other prominent individuals are bringing cases alleging widespread illegal behaviour by reporters at Associated Newspapers. In their claims they name 73 journalists and editorial executives who have worked at the Daily Mail and its sister titles over several decades. Continue reading...

Ammar al-Khudairy’s remarks about Swiss lender spurred investor panic that led to emergency takeoverThe chair of the Saudi National Bank has resigned for “personal reasons” less than two weeks after his comments spurred investor panic over Credit Suisse that ended in an emergency takeover by its larger Swiss rival, UBS.The Saudi National Bank (SNB), which was Credit Suisse’s largest shareholder, announced on Monday that it had “accepted” Ammar al-Khudairy’s resignation, and that he would be immediately replaced by its chief executive. Continue reading...

The Creed III actor’s ads were a key element in the army’s drive to revive struggling recruitment numbersAds for the US army featuring Jonathan Majors have been pulled after the actor’s arrest.Majors, who authorities said was arrested on Saturday in New York on charges of assault and harassment, was the narrator of two ads at the heart of a broader media campaign that kicked off at the start of the NCAA’s March Madness college basketball tournament. Army leaders were hopeful that the popularity of the star of the recently released Creed III and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania would help them reach the youth audience. Continue reading...

Council of Europe commissioner raises concerns that legislation may not meet human rights standards

Amendments could remove safeguards as Home Office minister says government is ‘in listening mode’Ministers appear set to at least partly give way to Conservative rebels over removing safeguards from the illegal migration bill after a Home Office minister said the government was “in listening mode”.Up to 60 Tory backbenchers are believed to be sympathetic to a series of amendments to the bill, which returns to the Commons on Monday, which would prevent judicial oversight that could stop refugees and asylum seekers from being deported. Continue reading...

Prime minister says people shouldn’t look for ‘distractions’ on voice to parliament’s ability to advise executive government

DeSantis has signaled he will sign the proposed bill, which would slam the door shut for many patients traveling to the state for careA six-week abortion ban proposed by Florida Republicans earlier this month threatens to reverberate across the American south.Following the supreme court’s decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization to overturn the federal right to abortion, Florida became a strategic refuge for women seeking to access reproductive healthcare from states that banned abortion – places as varied as Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Alabama and Texas. Continue reading...

Monday’s transport stoppages include workers at airports, railways, buses and metro linesGerman commuters face serious disruption on Monday as transport staff across the country staged a strike to push for wage rises in the face of brisk inflation.Workers at airports, ports, railways, buses and metro lines throughout much of Europe’s biggest economy heeded a call from the Verdi and EVG unions to take part in the 24-hour stoppage. Continue reading...

Former mayor of Wollondilly is the only teal candidate on track to win a seat while Pittwater vote remains neck and neck

Coalition MPs say exclusion of Australian journalists from Victorian premier’s trip will force public to rely on coverage by China’s state-run media

The party has definitively won 45 seats and with leads in Ryde and Kiama, it is likely to secure the numbers to govern outright

Teo tells hearing that slap was an attempt to wake patient and was not a ‘Will Smith-type slap’