Police treating blaze at block of flats in Beckton as arson after teenager died and five other people were injuredA 14-year-old girl was killed in a fire in east London that is now the subject of a murder investigation.A 16-year-old boy has been arrested on suspicion of murder over Thursday’s fire in a block of flats in the borough of Newham. The incident is being treated as arson and the investigation is continuing. Continue reading...

The Guardian has calculated what each working royal has received during their working life carrying out official functionsThey include England’s most senior freemason, who is estimated to have received the equivalent of £18m for his royal duties; a princess who is 56th in line to the throne and lives in 1.6 hectares of grounds in Richmond Park – and a grace-and-favour apartment 12 miles away in St James’s Palace; and a duchess who previously lived in a 21-room apartment in Kensington Palace but has been moved to a cottage.Who are the UK’s working royals, where do they live, and what do they do, exactly? How much have they been paid for their participation in official royal engagements? Continue reading...

On one day alone Dylan Davies received 580 envelopes, in what a financial crime consultant suspects is VAT fraudThe sight of a brown envelope landing on the doormat has often been met with a weary groan, the sign of another bill that needs paying.However, few will have experienced the same horror as Dylan Davies, who received 11,000 tax bills – with none actually for him. Continue reading...

Rocket fire from Gaza and Lebanon and second Israeli raid on al-Aqsa mosque stoke fears of further escalationIsraeli jets hit sites in Lebanon and Gaza early on Friday, in retaliation for rocket attacks it blamed on the Islamist group Hamas, as tensions following police raids on the al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem this week threatened to spiral out of control.Two explosions were heard in Gaza late on Thursday. It was not immediately clear what had been targeted but Israel said its jets hit targets including tunnels and weapons manufacturing sites of Hamas, the Islamist group that controls the blockaded southern coastal strip. Continue reading...

Ferry operators expect bank holiday weekend to be busy with ‘large queues’ at entrance to Dover portHolidaymakers are facing up to 90-minute waits at the Port of Dover as the Easter getaway kicks off with congestion on the motorways and disruption on the rail network likely to deepen the chaos across the country.As the long holiday weekend began on Good Friday morning, large numbers of cars were arriving at the Kent port, but traffic was moving and ferries were sailing well. Continue reading...

Recent meetings in Beijing mark a return to the world stage but with that comes increased scrutiny

Warning comes ahead of US president Joe Biden’s much-anticipated visit to Belfast on Tuesday

Avengers actor apologises to family for snowplough accident that left him close to deathThe Oscar-nominated actor Jeremy Renner has said he was at fault in a New Year’s Day snowplough accident that left him close to death and apologised to his family for putting them through the ordeal.Renner, in an interview on Walt Disney Co’s ABC network on Thursday, said he was driving the snowplough after using it to pull one of the family’s trucks out of the snow. Continue reading...

Pest numbers are booming and the annual cull has been called off, forcing one rural council to look at other ways to control the rabbit boomIn New Zealand, Easter is usually a time for killing rabbits. But, faced with a ban on the annual slaughter this year, one region is hoping to deploy a deadly virus instead.Wild rabbits are considered a serious pest in New Zealand, particularly in rural areas, with major impact on agriculture and native landscapes. In parts of the South Island, the boom is reaching “plague” proportions, a spokesperson for Otago regional council (ORC) said on Wednesday. Continue reading...

AirMedpatient transfer plane forced into emergency landing in Brisbane rail corridor with cause unknown

Israeli army says salvo fired from Lebanese territory, after officers entered religious compound to remove worshippersRocket fire from Gaza and Lebanon and a second Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque in as many nights have stoked fears of further escalation in the region during a sensitive period of overlapping religious holidays.On Thursday afternoon, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said the biggest salvo of rockets since the 2006 war had been fired from Lebanese territory into northern Israel. Most of the 34 projectiles were intercepted, but there were two minor injuries and a fire. Continue reading...

Biden administration releases review saying president’s options were ‘severely constrained’ by decisions of predecessorThe US government has released a review of the chaotic 2021 troop withdrawal from Afghanistan which largely lays the blame on Donald Trump, saying President Joe Biden was “severely constrained” by the decisions of his predecessor.The White House on Thursday publicly released a 12-page summary of the results of the US policies around the ending of the nation’s longest war, taking little responsibility for its own actions. The administration said most of the after-action reviews, which were transmitted privately to Congress, were highly classified and would not be released. Continue reading...

Met Office says weather could turn by bank holiday Monday as rain is forecastEaster Sunday has been tipped to be the warmest day of the year so far in the UK, with highs of up to 18C (64.4F) expected in parts of Britain.The Met Office meteorologist Aidan McGivern said there would be “plenty of fine weather” on Good Friday with a frosty start in places but sunny skies for the vast majority. Continue reading...

Woman in her 60s was struck and killed by vehicle in Greenhill area of cityPolice are questioning a 12-year-old boy on suspicion of murder after a woman in her 60s was struck and killed by a car in a “tragic” incident in Sheffield.Officers were called to the Greenhill area of the city at about 7.10pm on Wednesday after receiving reports that a woman had been hit by a vehicle, South Yorkshire police said. Continue reading...

Hundreds of job ads include perk in attempt to attract younger staff prioritising work-life balanceHundreds of UK companies are resorting to a new tactic to lure and retain workers from Generation Z amid one of the most competitive jobs market in decades – an early finish on Fridays.The weekend extension is part of efforts to compete for younger staff who are prioritising work-life balance after the Covid pandemic upended priorities and encouraged employers to embrace flexible working. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage hereOvernight news broke that the Russian girl sent to an orphanage after drawing an anti-war sketch at school has been taken from the facility by her mother.Reuters is carrying quotes from Russia’s children’s rights commissioner, Maria Lvova-Belova about the situation. It quotes her saying:Masha did not want to go to her mother at first, and her opinion is legally required to be taken into account. Now her position has changed – she told me this herself on the phone.Olga has already taken Masha from the social rehabilitation centre. Let’s hope that everything will work out for mum and daughter. I am glad about the beginning of the reunion of daughter and mother.As claimed on Russian social media, the Russian MoD has highly likely dismissed Colonel-General Rustam Muradov as commander of the Eastern Group of Forces (EGF) in Ukraine.The EGF under Muradov has suffered exceptionally heavy casualties in recent months as its poorly conceived assaults repeatedly failed to capture the Donetsk Oblast town of Vuhledar. Continue reading...

Rishi Sunak to take no further action after inquiry criticises but clears former chief whip of breaching rulesAllies of the Conservative MP Nusrat Ghani have said they fear a “cover-up” of Islamophobia within the party after the former chief whip was cleared of rule-breaking over claims he said Ghani’s “Muslimness” played a role in her sacking.Rishi Sunak said on Thursday he would take no further action against Mark Spencer, the former chief whip who is now an environment minister. Continue reading...

Former prime minister, 86, is being treated for lung infection at Milan’s San Raffaele hospitalThe former Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi has been suffering from leukaemia for some time and is in intensive care, his doctor has confirmed.The 86-year-old was admitted to Milan’s San Raffaele hospital on Wednesday, where he is being treated for a lung infection.This article was amended on 6 April 2023 to correct the type of cancer Berlusconi had in 1997. Continue reading...

On eve of 25th anniversary former taoiseach says there is ‘a logic and a rationale’ for looking at some outdated elementsBertie Ahern, one of the architects of the Good Friday agreement, has said he supports a review of the historic peace accord but said it can only happen if the Democratic Unionist party returns to Stormont.Speaking just days before the anniversary of the 1998 deal that ended 30 years of bombing and bloodshed, the former taoiseach said there was a “logic and a rationale for taking a look at the institutions and some of the mechanisms around it at this 25-year juncture”. Continue reading...

Scottish first minister says party needs greater financial accountability, in briefing after arrest of former leader’s husbandHumza Yousaf, the new Scottish National party leader, has made a barely concealed attack on his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon over the party’s financial management and transparency.In a move designed to distance himself from Sturgeon, his mentor, after her husband, Peter Murrell, was arrested in an SNP funding inquiry, Yousaf said the party needed more openness with its members and greater financial accountability. Continue reading...

Data analysed by Liberty Investigates shows almost half of girls subjected to strip-searches between 2017 and 2022 were BlackBlack girls are almost three times more likely than their white counterparts to be subjected by the Met police to the most invasive form of strip-search, figures suggest.Between 2017 and 2022, 110 female children and teenagers were subjected to strip-searches in which their intimate parts were exposed, according to data obtained via freedom of information requests and analysed by Liberty Investigates. Disproportionately, almost half (47%) of those subjected to these strip-searches were Black. Continue reading...

Exclusive: John McFall says upper house is in danger of falling ‘out of sync’, amid controversy over Johnson and Truss choicesThe House of Lords needs more independent, expert peers, the lord speaker has warned, amid growing controversy over plans by Boris Johnson and Liz Truss to pack the chamber with dozens of political allies and donors.John McFall stressed he was making no direct criticism of recent peerage choices, given his neutral role, but he told the Guardian that the upper house was in danger of becoming “out of sync” with its balance of legislators. Continue reading...

Government has aggressively pursued sanctions despite its own 2020 report showing they are ineffective at getting people into jobsBenefit sanctions slow down claimants’ progress into work and are likely to force them into taking lower-paying jobs that leave them hundreds of pounds a year worse off, according to an internal report that the government tried to suppress.The findings of the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) report echo a series of independent studies showing sanctions – in effect fines amounting to hundreds of pounds imposed on claimants for supposed infringements of benefit rules – are ineffective as a way of getting people into jobs or to work more hours. Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed, you can read more on this story hereA brief foray into the area between politics and football as the Athletic, a subscription-only football website, has obtained government emails that showed the possible failure of a Saudi Arabian takeover of Newcastle United was flagged as an “immediate risk” to UK-Saudi relations [paywall].The website’s reporter Adam Crafton has 59-pages of emails between government officials that shows the Foreign Office trying to boost the image of Saudi Arabia despite concerns about human rights abuses as the Premier League considered whether to approve the deal. Continue reading...

Photography space that inspired Billy Elliot writer Lee Hall launches fundraising campaign with aim of reopening in 2024A small and much-loved photography gallery that has punched well above its size for more than 45 years will close this weekend because of funding cuts and cost-of-living pressures.The Side Gallery, near the Tyne Bridge in Newcastle, was opened in 1977 by a collective championing positive images of working-class life. Continue reading...

National Education Union says government is ‘rattled’ after delegates vote for strike action in England in summer termThe National Education Union’s leadership has threatened to organise a huge protest during the Conservative party conference, accusing Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, of being deluded about teachers’ pay and staff shortages.Kevin Courtney, the NEU’s joint general secretary, told delegates to the union’s annual conference: “If you need to, you will organise the biggest demo Manchester has seen for decades on 2 October, you’ll carry on a campaign right into the general election year. And you will win. Continue reading...

Ferry operator says wait for passport checks ‘approximately 90 minutes’ before start of weekend getawayBank Holiday travel chaos has started early at the port of Dover, where large queues have already begun to form before the long Easter weekend.The wait for passport checks at the Kent port on Thursday morning was “approximately 90 minutes”, according to the ferry operator DFDS. Continue reading...

Andriy Sybiha expresses Kyiv’s interest in negotiations with Moscow should Ukrainian forces reach region

CCC spokesperson Fadzayi Mahere convicted over tweet as Zanu-PF accused of curbing free speechOne of Zimbabwe’s most vocal opposition politicians, Fadzayi Mahere, has narrowly avoided a prison sentence after being convicted of “communicating falsehoods” in 2021.The verdict has stoked fears of a brutal state clampdown on freedom of expression before this summer’s general election. Continue reading...

File from India Office archive details how priceless items were extracted from colony as trophies of conquestFive years ago, Buckingham Palace marked its summer opening with an exhibition celebrating the then Prince Charles’s 70th birthday with a display of his favourite pieces from the royal collection, Britain’s official trove of items connected to the monarchy. “The prince had a very, very strong hand in the selection,” the senior curator said.Among the sculptures, paintings and other exhibits was a long gold girdle inlaid with 19 large emeralds once used by an Indian maharajah to decorate his horses. It was a curious choice to put into the exhibition in light of the violent means by which it had come into the hands of the royal family. Continue reading...

Privately-run £50m scheme backed by former home secretary was mooted after 2021 murder of Sarah EverardPlans for a privately run emergency phone line for women walking alone, promised after the murder of Sarah Everard, have been shelved.The proposal by BT for a service to help protect women travelling alone was welcomed by the then home secretary Priti Patel when it was mooted in October 2021. Patel called it “exactly the kind of innovative scheme” she wanted to get going as soon as was possible, while the Home Office said it welcomed “joint working between the private sector and government”. Continue reading...

Suffolk brewer says pulling out is ‘on the agenda’ but it will await outcome of independent investigationBosses at brewer Adnams have had discussions about potentially leaving the Confederation of British Industry after a Guardian investigation revealed multiple allegations of sexual misconduct by the influential business lobby group’s staff.Andy Wood, Adnams’s chief executive, on Thursday said management at the Suffolk-based brewer had talked about leaving the organisation, depending on the outcome of an independent investigation. Continue reading...

Frontbencher says MPs face extreme trauma but are ‘just expected to deal with it as part of your job’

Muslim rulers, deadly riots connected to PM and Gandhi’s dislike of Hindu nationalism taken off curriculumThe Indian government has been accused of rewriting history to fit its Hindu nationalist agenda after school textbooks were edited to remove references to Mahatma Gandhi’s opposition to Hindu nationalism, as well as mention of a controversial religious riot in which the prime minister, Narendra Modi, was implicated.Textbooks were also revised to remove chapters on the history of the Mughals, the Muslim rulers who controlled much of India between the 16th and 19th centuries. Continue reading...

Regulator says Binance must cease trading by 21 April after it incorrectly classified hundreds of retail customers as wholesale investors

Mark Rowley says he was shocked by officers’ offences and law needs to make it easier to dismiss people from forceThe commissioner of the Metropolitan police says his force has “been too permissive” in allowing officers to serve with serious criminal records and that legislation is needed to make it easier to dismiss them.Commenting in the wake of a review which found 161 officers in his force have criminal convictions, including for sex offences, Sir Mark Rowley, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I think we’ve been too permissive. That’s very, very clear.” Continue reading...

Former Scotland first minister cancels appearance amid police inquiry into husband over SNP financesThe former Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon has pulled out of a climate crisis event as police continue to investigate her husband in an inquiry into the Scottish National party’s finances.Sturgeon had been due to take part in a conversation with the Mexican diplomat Patricia Espinosa, the former chair of the UN framework convention on climate change, at Edinburgh Science festival. Continue reading...

Coalition of organisations says changes would have ‘devastating impact on press freedom’ and are not in public interest

Judgement says notices failed to provide enough detail to recipient about alleged infringement

Reserve Bank’s report says renters and recent borrowers with larger debts have experienced most financial stress

Palace was residence of William III, who was given shares in slave-transport company, and successive monarchs involved in tradeAn imposing bronze statue stands tall on the manicured lawns at Kensington Palace, a formidable tribute to William III, who built the palace as a royal residence in the bustling heart of London. William’s namesake, the current Prince of Wales, grew up there with his mother, Diana, Princess of Wales, and today it is his official London residence with his wife, Catherine.Awareness has grown in recent years of William III’s personal investment in the transatlantic slave trade at the time he built Kensington Palace, and of successive English monarchs’ involvement in the industrial-scale enslavement and exploitation of Black people. Continue reading...

Buckingham Palace makes public statement after Guardian presents evidence of royals’ long history of involvement in transatlantic tradeKing Charles has for the first time signalled his support for research into the British monarchy’s historical links with transatlantic slavery, after the emergence of a document showing his predecessor’s stake in a slave-trading company.Buckingham Palace released the statement after it was contacted by the Guardian about the extensive history of successive British monarchs’ involvement and investment in the enslavement of African people. Continue reading...

From Elizabeth I to William IV, over a period of 270 years monarchs had links to the slave tradeKing Charles III and Prince William have expressed “profound sorrow” at the atrocities of slavery, but neither has publicly accepted the crown’s central role in the trade. Over a period of 270 years, 12 British monarchs sponsored, supported or profited from Britain’s involvement in slavery, according to historians. Continue reading...

Daniel Andrews says ‘we’ve made the right call’, but didn’t rule out supporting affected customers

Leaders condemn the Liberal Party over ‘Judas betrayal’ after it said it would campaign against establishing an Indigenous ‘voice to parliament’

Analysts say country’s strategic importance in Pacific has attracted attention of nations such as ChinaNew Zealand’s intelligence bosses have warned of “increasingly aggressive activity” in the country by people they believe are spies for foreign states.The annual report by the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), published this week, said unnamed states are making “enduring and persistent” efforts to collect intelligence against New Zealand’s government, target those with access to sensitive information, and interfere in all spheres of the country’s public life. Agents from one foreign government have cultivated “a range of relationships of significant concern”, the report said. Continue reading...

Labor will prioritise delivering Melbourne-to-Parkes segment after independent review found more work needed on Brisbane stretch

Local police join multinational takedown of online marketplace used by criminals to buy and sell personal data

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...