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RCN says hundreds of thousands of nurses are striking, with ambulance workers also taking actionA union leader has accused the government of choosing to “punish” nurses after a health minister insisted there would be no re-examination of NHS pay for this year, as the health service in England faces what is expected to be the biggest strike in its history.The industrial action on Monday is the first time NHS nurses and ambulance staff in England have stopped work simultaneously, amid an ongoing dispute over pay and staffing. Continue reading...

Assault on Aqabat Jabr refugee camp comes as escalating violence sparks fears of a third intifadaIsraeli forces say they have killed several armed fighters during an army raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jericho, the latest violence in a period of escalating tensions that has sparked fears of a third intifada, or Palestinian uprising.A statement from the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) on Monday morning said “a number of armed assailants were killed after firing toward IDF soldiers who were operating in the area” overnight. Israeli media, citing Palestinian sources, put the number of dead at seven. The Palestinian health ministry did not give any details of deaths, saying that three people had been hospitalised after being shot by Israeli forces. Continue reading...

Ally of Robert Buckland says Raab used ‘heavy-handed tactics’ in discussions over British bill of rightsRobert Buckland has confirmed that he and Dominic Raab had “a disagreement” when they were both in cabinet, after it was reported Raab tried to get Buckland sacked as Welsh secretary last year amid a fallout over policy.An unnamed ally of Buckland told the Times that while the former minister did not view Raab’s actions as bullying, Raab’s approach after Buckland publicly criticised plans for a British bill of rights was “very odd, very punchy”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: many struggling with ‘toxic’ workload, safety fears and vicarious trauma from helping desperate constituentsStaff working for MPs face similar levels of psychological distress as frontline NHS workers, a survey has found, amid a “toxic” workload and fears for their safety.A study of 315 parliamentary workers, the largest of its kind, found many were struggling with the vicarious trauma of helping desperate people in a worsening cost of living crisis.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Data collected by the state coroners court shows 756 suicides occurred in Victoria in 2022, up 9% from 2021

Don Farrell will fly to Beijing in the ‘near future’ amid a thawing of diplomatic relations with Australia’s largest trading partner

President’s centrist group is without a majority as parliament begins debating proposal to raise retirement age to 64As hundreds of thousands of people prepare to protest again this week against Emmanuel Macron’s unpopular plan to raise the pension age to 64, the French president’s domestic standing is at stake.Macron, who came to power in 2017 promising a pro-business transformation of France to cut taxes and overhaul the social model and welfare system, has for months been under pressure to give some impetus to his second term in office. Continue reading...

The singer took home four awards in a night that also saw major wins for Kendrick Lamar, Adele and Harry StylesBeyoncé has become the most awarded artist in Grammys history during a historic evening in Los Angeles.The singer, who was a late arrival at the ceremony after being stuck in traffic, won for best R&B song, best dance/electronic recording, best dance/electronic album and best traditional R&B performance. She has now won 32 Grammy awards. Continue reading...

Gamblers will be able to set their own loss limits, which will only be able to be changed once a week

A tropical low forming near Vanuatu is expected to move west towards Mackay, but is not currently forecast to make landfall

Recovery of the wreckage could give the United States insight into China’s spying capabilities, officials sayThe US military said it is searching for remnants of the suspected Chinese surveillance balloon it shot down, in a dramatic spy saga that has further strained American-Chinese relations.The US navy is working to recover the balloon and its payload and the coast guard is providing security for the operation, general Glen VanHerck, commander of the North American aerospace defence command and US northern command said on Sunday. Continue reading...

Committee says former minister Stuart Ayres showed ‘poor judgment’ during ‘flawed’ process

Anthony Albanese ‘very hopeful’ laws can be quickly introduced after successful referendum and says body’s advice would be ‘available for all’

The 65th annual Grammy awards has already seen wins for Harry Styles, Kendrick Lamar, Steve Lacy and Beyoncé

Emma Pattison and family found at prestigious Surrey independent school early on Sunday morningThe headteacher of a prestigious private school in Surrey has been found dead alongside her husband and daughter.Emma Pattison, the head of Epsom College, was found at the school along with her husband, George, 39, and seven-year-old Lettie on Sunday morning. Continue reading...

‘There’s a real compounding perfect storm of factors right now that could increase the risks,’ lead researcher says

Head of president’s parliamentary bloc seems to confirm reshuffle of Oleksii Reznikov as Russians close in on BakhmutUkraine’s defence minister, under pressure from a corruption scandal, is to be reshuffled into another government job as Russian forces close in on Bakhmut amid heavy fighting, a close ally of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has announced.The position of Oleksii Reznikov, one of Ukraine’s better-known figures internationally, has been under threat after it emerged the defence ministry paid twice or three times the supermarket price of food to supply troops on the frontline. Continue reading...

Police warn about social media speculation over missing woman as new images released from the morning she disappearedPolice searching for Nicola Bulley have condemned elements of social media speculation as family friends hit out at “vile” theories being posted online, and new images of the 45-year-old on the morning she disappeared were released.The search for the mother-of-two entered its second week with police continuing to pursue the theory that Bulley fell into the river while walking her dog in the Lancashire village of St Michael’s on Wyre. Continue reading...

Nikos Christodoulides emerges as frontrunner and will face Andreas Mavroyiannis in vote next SundayThe race to become the eighth president of Cyprus will extend into a second week after the Mediterranean island’s former foreign minister Nikos Christodoulides emerged as the frontrunner but failed to gain enough support to win outright.The 49-year-old independent will face Andreas Mavroyiannis, a veteran career diplomat backed by the leftist Akel party, in a runoff on 12 February. Continue reading...

University asks home secretary to intervene in move that would deprive him of scholarship and teaching rolesA Chevening academic will be forced to give up a doctorate, a scholarship and teaching roles under Home Office plans to uproot Afghan refugees from London and move them to hotel rooms in Yorkshire, a university has said.Suella Braverman, the home secretary, has been asked by the university’s provost to intervene after Ahmad, a PhD student in engineering, and his young family were told to relocate 200 miles away to Wetherby near Leeds. Continue reading...

Cate Blanchett wins actress of the year while Banshees picks up three acting awards, including actor of the year for Colin FarrellClassical music drama Tár and Martin McDonagh’s The Banshees of Inisherin has won the main prizes at the the London Critics’ Circle film awards. The former, starring Cate Blanchett as conductor Lydia Tár, took three awards, including film of the year, while Banshees, written and directed by McDonagh, led the awards count with five, including British/Irish film of the year.Tár, which has sparked much comment over its controversial central character, picked up actress of the year for Blanchett, who is the red-hot favourite to win best actress at the Academy awards in March, as well as director of the year for Todd Field. Continue reading...

Stephen Flynn’s comments contrast with view of Westminster colleague Alyn Smith who said rebels should quit the partyScottish National party politicians’ opposition to gender recognition reform should be “respected like any other conscience issue”, according to its new Westminster leader, Stephen Flynn.Discussing the issue that has convulsed the SNP since he was elected Westminster group leader in December, the Aberdeen South MP said: “Ultimately, they are a member of the Scottish National Party just as much as I am”. Continue reading...

Government declines to act on call for legal duty of care for all students after death of Natasha Abrahart in 2018The parents of Natasha Abrahart, who took her own life while studying at the University of Bristol, have reacted with “absolute horror” to the government’s response to their petition calling for a statutory legal duty of care for all students in higher education.The Abraharts are one of 25 bereaved families who helped launch a parliamentary petition last October, calling on ministers to pass legislation to better protect students and arguing that their mental health, safety and wellbeing should be a government priority. Continue reading...

DfT also says bids for new £200m funding pot for England could include plans for better school routes and inclusive street designsCouncil bids for a £200m funding pot to boost walking and cycling must “take women’s safety into account”, according to the Department for Transport (DfT).A 2021 Office for National Statistics study showed half of women felt unsafe walking after dark in a quiet street near their home. Continue reading...

Was Beijing trying to sabotage talks with the US, monitor the speed of its military response, or just test Joe Biden’s mettle?Now the Chinese balloon has been brought down in a puff of smoke and debris by a US air-launched missile, after perplexing Washington with its three-day odyssey over the continental United States, the question is: what was it all for?Once the balloon was spotted, Beijing claimed it was a weather observation airship that had been blown off course, drawing a snort of derision from the Pentagon, which said the balloon was able to manoeuvre and had made some deliberate turns, bringing it at one point over Montana, home of some of the US arsenal of silo-based nuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs). Continue reading...

Publisher says staff is ‘dispirited’ and that readers and fans feel let down as ticket prices went as high as $4,000-$5,000 for showsA leading Bruce Springsteen fanzine has announced that it will close after 43 years, citing among other reasons unchecked ticket price hikes the editors say many fans can no longer afford.In a letter to readers, Christopher Phillips, publisher and editor-in-chief of Backstreets magazine, said staff had been “dispirited, downhearted, and, yes, disillusioned” since tickets for 2023 shows by Springsteen, a singer known for his loyalty to his blue collar roots in New Jersey, went on sale last summer. Continue reading...

Former PM not trying to keep a low profile, but former allies have their own ambitions and few would risk a returnLiz Truss has been a looming presence in Westminster ever since her time in No 10 was cut short with the UK on the precipice of economic meltdown.Unlike her chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng, who has barely been sighted, Truss has not hidden away from Westminster and is seen frequently strolling through the atrium of Portcullis House and lunching in popular SW1 restaurants, including at the newly opened Old Queen Street Cafe, which is owned by the website Unherd. Continue reading...

Arming Ukraine is swiftest path to peace, says UK foreign secretary; Ukraine warns of renewed Russian offensive this month

More than 1,100 workers who were left destitute to be compensated by owner of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin KleinMore than 1,100 garment workers in Haiti are sharing $1m (£830,000) in compensation from the owner of Tommy Hilfiger and Calvin Klein after being left destitute by the closure of a factory.PVH, which was one of several brand owners sourcing from the Vald’or factory in the Caribbean country, agreed to pay the sum to cover missed severance pay, pension contributions directly to workers and the government pension fund after involvement by the Worker Rights Consortium lobby group. Continue reading...

Officials locked in talks with tech firm’s Japanese owner, SoftBank, according to Sunday Times reportThe City watchdog is considering easing rules in an attempt to win the $40bn (£34bn) listing of Cambridge-based technology firm Arm Holdings, it has been reported.Officials are said to be locked in talks in a last-ditch attempt to persuade the semiconductor chip-maker’s Japanese owner SoftBank to consider a dual listing on the London Stock Exchange alongside New York’s Nasdaq technology market, according to the Sunday Times. Continue reading...

Sixty-six people hurt and 1,500 seeking refuge in shelters after 800 homes were destroyedRecord summer temperatures of more than 40C (104F) are hampering efforts to tackle dozens of wildfires across central Chile that have killed at least 23 people, destroyed 800 homes and prompted the declaration of a state of emergency in three regions.Sixty-six people have been hurt in the fires, while almost 1,500 others are seeking refuge in shelters, according to an update on Sunday from the national forestry agency, Conaf. The state body said 87 fires were being still fought and 148 had been brought under control. Continue reading...

Former governor general and archbishop of Brisbane expected to have fate in Anglican church decided in hearing due to begin on Monday

Push by parliamentary MPs to take up IHRA interpretation has been criticised as an ‘outright attack on academic freedom’

HM inspector of constabulary Matt Parr says entrants include those with links to criminality, and misogynistsOfficers with prior convictions and close links with criminals are among hundreds who have joined the police in the last three years who should not have been allowed in, according to the head of the police watchdog.HM inspector of constabulary Matt Parr also said that there was a real problem with misogyny within the police that had to be tackled, adding that most, if not all, serving female police officers had had to endure sexual assault and inappropriate behaviour from fellow officers. “The culture of misogyny within policing is something that is there, it’s real and it has absolutely got to be dealt with,” he said. Continue reading...

Police still looking for Jericho Labonte of British Columbia after he was released from hospital after ‘odd 48 hours’A man saved by a US coast guard rescue swimmer at the mouth of the Columbia river as a massive wave rolled the yacht he was piloting on Friday was wanted for a bizarre incident in which police said he left a dead fish at the Astoria, Oregon, home featured in the classic 1985 film, The Goonies.Officers had been looking for the man since Wednesday, when an acquaintance alerted them to a video he posted on social media of himself leaving the fish at the house and then dancing around the property, said the Astoria police chief, Stacy Kelly. Continue reading...

Naftali Bennett says Putin also dropped vow to seek disarmament of Ukraine and Zelenskiy agreed to give up on joining Nato

More than 100 people fall ill after eating tortilla de patatas dish at well-known Madrid restaurantSpaniards with a taste for oozing, fleetingly cooked tortilla de patatas have been urged to take care after more than 100 people fell ill with suspected salmonella poisoning from eating the famous egg and potato omelettes at a well-known restaurant in Madrid.So far, 101 people have become ill – 13 of whom have required hospital treatment – after eating at Casa Dani, a longstanding gastronomic institution in the Spanish capital. Continue reading...

Sharon Graham accuses Grant Shapps over ambulance cover remarks and says PM and Steven Barclay not engaging in pay talksThe Unite union’s general secretary, Sharon Graham, has accused the government of lying about the state of NHS strike negotiations and said no talks on pay were happening “at any level”.Other unions, including Unison and the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), have said the government has not made any further moves towards ending industrial action since talks in early January. Continue reading...

Woman tells how people-smugglers launched three children, aged 14, nine and five, on dinghy and left her behindThe mother of three Eritrean children seeking asylum, who were forced to cross the Channel from northern France in a dinghy without her after smugglers separated the family, has arrived in the UK and is desperate to reunite with her children.The woman, 31, was staying in northern France with her children in December last year, hoping to reach the UK. She paid smugglers for places on a dinghy for herself and the children, a boy aged 14 and two girls aged nine and five, to cross the Channel on 16 December. Continue reading...

Business secretary responds to former prime minister’s article about her decisions in No 10Liz Truss’s tax-cutting agenda “clearly wasn’t the right approach” before the government had tackled inflation, the business secretary, Grant Shapps, has said in a retort to an essay by the former prime minister.Truss, in her first major intervention since leaving office, wrote that she had “not [been] given a realistic chance to enact my policies by a very powerful economic establishment, coupled with a lack of political support”. Continue reading...

Military ruler, one of country’s most divisive leaders after seizing power in coup, has died in exile in DubaiPervez Musharraf, the former army general and president of Pakistan who ruled for almost a decade after seizing power in a coup in 1999, has died in Dubai after a long illness.The Pakistani military confirmed his death in a statement, expressing “heartfelt condolences on the sad demise of Gen Pervez Musharraf, former president, CJCSC and chief of army staff”. Continue reading...

Sandy Powell, who will be made a Bafta fellow this month, fears that a cash-starved fringe scene is stifling artistic risksThe multi-Oscar-winning English costume designer Sandy Powell, who will make film history this month when she accepts a prestigious Bafta fellowship, is “terrified” by the lack of experimental live performance being staged in Britain, she says.Powell is one of film’s most garlanded talents, working regularly with Martin Scorsese, but she now fears that the connection between a thriving alternative theatre scene and the commercial world of mass entertainment has been cut. Continue reading...

Being on a government board should be about what you know, not who you know, minister Katy Gallagher says

Three years on, the reality of the split with the EU has changed minds. But dashed hopes could come to haunt Labour, tooBrexit is three years old and less popular than ever. More people are unhappy with Brexit outcomes to date, and pessimistic about the gains to come today than at any point in the Brexit process so far. “Rejoin” has opened up a double-digit lead over staying out in polls asking voters how they would choose in a second referendum on EU membership.While voters have swung against Brexit before, the current shift is different. Earlier remain gains were driven by abstainers and those too young to vote in 2016 breaking against Brexit and by demographic changes which have slowly pulled the electorate in a pro-EU direction. The vast majority of leave and remain voters have hitherto stood by the choices they made in June 2016. That is now changing, and it is Brexiters who are reconsidering. One in five leave voters now say they would vote to rejoin the EU, while remain switching has stayed much lower. The scales of opinion are being tipped against Brexit by growing doubts among its original supporters. Continue reading...

The scale of the mental health crisis is revealed as nurses and ambulance workers prepare to strike this week“Burnout” and stress among doctors, nurses, paramedics and other health staff has cost the NHS in England more than 15m lost working days since March 2020, about 50% more than the days lost to Covid infections and self-isolation, analysis of official figures by the Observer reveals.NHS sickness figures show that between March 2020, the month of the first Covid lockdown, and last September, 15.4m working days have been lost in the NHS because of stress-related absences, compared with 9.8m days lost from staff who were required to self-isolate or were ill with Covid. Continue reading...

Doctors, paramedics and nurses explain the stress and anxiety of working in a system that has reached breaking point“Frustration with the system was why I went off in the end,” said Conor Calby, 26, a paramedic and Unison rep in southwest England, who was recently off work for a month with burnout. “I felt like I couldn’t do my job and was letting patients down. After a difficult few years it was challenging.”While he usually manages to keep a distinct divide between work and home life, burnout eroded that line. He also lost his sleep pattern and appetite. Continue reading...

Companies facing backlash amid warning of mid-contract price rises of up to 17% during cost of living crisisBritain’s telecoms regulator is being urged to intervene over concerns that mobile and broadband operators are “lining their pockets” with £2.2bn of above-inflation price rises during the cost of living crisis.While ministers have urged employees to show pay restraint, the mobile phone and broadband firms are facing a consumer backlash as they announce record price increases. Continue reading...

Zimbabwean worker whose visa relies on job says government disclosed confidential details of interview to employerA victim of suspected labour abuse who confidentially disclosed details of exploitation to government investigators says she has been subjected to threats and intimidation after she was outed to her employer.The Zimbabwean national, 25, was interviewed by Home Office compliance officers for an investigation into illegal recruitment practices and told them she had paid a fee of about £1,500 to an agent who arranged for a care home in Surrey to sponsor her visa. Continue reading...

Some officials were signed off for ‘extended periods’ while others stayed at work to protect colleagues, says complaint made by 27 staff at Ministry of JusticeA single official complaint regarding the behaviour of the deputy prime minister Dominic Raab represented the concerns of 27 of his officials, the Observer has been told.The group of Ministry of Justice officials are understood to be represented by a memo warning that some colleagues had been forced to take time off for “extended periods” as a result of having to deal with Raab. It states that others affected felt they needed to stay at work to stop extra pressure being placed on their colleagues. Continue reading...