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Educators in Russian-controlled territories stand to lose jobs and risk other retaliation if they do not declare willingness to comply

Pincher resigned as deputy chief whip after reports he drunkenly groped two men at a private club

Phuc, pictured in 1972 running from napalm attack during Vietnam war, has final laser treatment in MiamiPhan Thi Kim Phuc, whose photograph became a symbol of the horrors of the Vietnam war, has had her final skin treatment with a burn specialist, 50 years after her village was struck by napalm.Phuc was photographed aged nine as she ran, unclothed and screaming in agony, after napalm was dropped by a South Vietnamese Skyraider attack aircraft. Nick Ut, the photographer who captured the image in June 1972, drove her away to find medical treatment. Continue reading...

Ireland’s deputy PM accuses No 10 of making ‘shocking’ blunders with protocol billLeo Varadkar, Ireland’s deputy prime minister, has accused the British government of risking the break-up of the United Kingdom and making “shocking” blunders over Northern Ireland.Varadkar said Boris Johnson’s administration had been undemocratic and disrespectful and tacitly accused it of being dishonest and dishonourable. Continue reading...

Kremlin sets up new firm to own Sakhalin-2 plant with investors signing up to the holding within a month or forfeit stakeShell could be forced to abandon a £3bn investment in a huge Russian gas plant after Vladimir Putin threatened to seize the rights to the project.The Kremlin has said it plans to transfer the rights to the Sakhalin-2 plant in the far east of Russia to a new Russian company, citing economic security and national interests. Continue reading...

Security correspondent, who uses a wheelchair, says UK airports are consistently bad at getting disabled people off planesThe BBC journalist Frank Gardner has called out “consistently crap” UK airports after he was left stranded on a plane that had landed at Gatwick.The security correspondent, who uses a wheelchair, had flown back to the UK with Iberia Express on Thursday night after covering the Nato summit in Madrid for the BBC. Continue reading...

Rise in online gambling in pandemic offset temporary closure of firm’s 1,470 high street bookmakersThe billionaire Conservative party donors behind the gambling firm Betfred paid themselves and their family a £50m dividend, as an increase in online gambling in the coronavirus pandemic offset the temporary closure of its 1,470 high street bookmakers.Betfred’s customers wagered £6.9bn in the year to the end of September 2021, up from £6.4bn, providing winnings of £526m for the Manchester-based company, a marginal increase on the previous year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Party leader to rule out talks with nationalists in attempt to spike Tory ‘coalition of chaos’ attacks

Former Tory prime minister tells government ‘the matter must not be allowed to slide’Theresa May has urged Boris Johnson to ban transgender conversion practices as a part of proposed legislation.Writing in the i paper on the 50th anniversary of the UK’s first Pride, the former Conservative prime minister said: “Few people, reading of accounts from trans people, would disagree that they still face indignities and prejudice, when they deserve understanding and respect. Continue reading...

Some clinics have resumed services while courts weigh the legality of state abortion bans – and they’re trying to provide as much care as they can

Strike action expected on Wednesday and Friday next week after agreement to modify fleet left unsigned

Regulator says it may change ad rules in light of growing competition from online streaming platformsOfcom has said it may extend the time and frequency allowed for advertising breaks on UK television as part of a review of broadcasting rules.The regulator said it would consider changing advertising regulations amid market developments including the increasing influence of online streaming services. Continue reading...

Rising prices have created greater demand for sanctuary and made it more difficult for people to leaveRefuges providing sanctuary to victims of domestic violence are facing severe strains as a result of the cost of living crisis, a charity has warned.Rising prices are creating a greater demand for refuge spaces, as increased financial pressure acts as a trigger for abusive partners, while making it more costly for those already in refuge to leave, according to Hestia, a charity providing support to those fleeing domestic abuse in London and south-east England. Continue reading...

Art UK creates digital database telling the stories behind more than 13,500 public artworksBetween two fields on the outskirts of a 1960s new town in Northumberland is a startling, track-stopping sculpture passed by on a regular basis by hardly anyone: it’s a giant 15ft spoon.Outside Dorset county hospital is a vizsla dog, always well behaved because it was made by Elisabeth Frink in bronze. On the Isle of Man the three disco dudes swaggering down the promenade are the Bee Gees. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pether, who has been imprisoned for 14 months in Baghdad, has become ‘gravely ill’ according to his family

Proud Boys’ involvement in US Capitol attack cited in ruling outlawing organisationNew Zealand’s government has declared that the American far-right groups the Proud Boys and the Base are terrorist organisations.

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war hereThe UK’s foreign secretary, Liz Truss, has said that one of the reasons that Russia was able to invade Ukraine was because of underspending on defence in Europe.Appearing on Sky News, she said:I’ve been very clear that the entire free world, the western alliance, does need to focus more on deterrence. We need to focus more on defence. And what we know is prevention is better than cure.The lesson that Putin learned from underspending on defence was that he could invade a sovereign nation, and we simply can’t let our guard down again, we can’t allow that to happen again.I would say that we need a full range of capabilities to deal with the threats that we face now. Whether those are cyber threats, whether those are land-based threats, naval threats, and we have the balance right. But of course we need to continue to evolve, because we’re seeing, you know, we never expected in our lifetimes to see this kind of war on in Europe.We’ve seen the systematic rape of women. We’ve seen the attacking of civilians, including at the shopping centre this week. And what we need to make sure is not only are the Ukrainians successful in pushing Russia out of Ukraine, but also that people are held to account for these appalling crimes that have been committed.I’ve not met Vladimir Putin. I do not know the motivations for carrying out this appalling war. All I know is that we have to make it our absolute priority to stop this war, to push Vladimir Putin and the Russian troops out of Ukraine, otherwise we will live in a much less safe Europe. Continue reading...

Chris Pincher’s resignation is latest in a series of allegations of sexual misconduct by Conservative MPsThe Conservative deputy chief whip has resigned after admitting he had “embarrassed myself and other people” following reports that he drunkenly groped two men at a private club.Chris Pincher wrote to Boris Johnson saying he was standing down after drinking too much. However, he did not address the allegations that he was reported to the whips by Conservative MPs who had witnessed his behaviour towards two men at the Carlton Club in Piccadilly. Continue reading...

Limiting the Environmental Protection Agency at a time when fossil fuel emissions need to be curbed is ‘devastating’Amid heat records being shattered across the world and historic wildfires raging across the west, climate activists and policymakers working to aggressively curb greenhouse gas emissions are now facing a new kind of challenge – restrictions issued by the US supreme court.Earlier today, the court released a ruling in West Virginia v EPA limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s power to regulate emissions from fossil fuel-fired power plants, in a major environmental case with far-reaching impacts. This has been classified a “devastating” outcome by environmental lawyers, climate scientists and activists alike. One with far-reaching implications for the future of the country, and world. Continue reading...

Craig Mulligan jailed for at least 15 years for murder of five-year-old in south WalesThe teenager who murdered five-year-old Logan Mwangi moved into the family home five days before the killing, in a decision likened by prosecutors to throwing a lit match into a powder keg, it emerged on Thursday.Craig Mulligan, 14, was ordered on Thursday to be detained for a minimum of 15 years while his stepfather, John Cole, and stepmother, Angharad Williamson, were jailed for a minimum of 29 and 28 years, all for Logan’s murder. Continue reading...

Coffin containing tooth is buried in ceremony on 62nd anniversary of DRC’s independenceThe family of the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s murdered independence hero, Patrice Lumumba, buried his only known remains – a tooth – in the capital, Kinshasa, on Thursday, 61 years after his death at the hands of Belgian-backed secessionist rebels.Hundreds gathered in a vast square for the occasion, waving flags and looking upon a large photo of Lumumba, with his trademark horn-rimmed glasses and side-swept hair, framed by white flowers. Continue reading...

Human rights groups say there have been no autopsies or identification of the 23 people killed trying to cross into SpainSeconds after Mohamed stepped on to Spanish soil, he turned around to see how his friends had fared along the metres-high chain link fence that slices off the Spanish enclave of Melilla from Morocco.“It was horrible,” said the 20-year-old from Sudan. “It was a bloodbath; many of them appeared dead and many were injured.” Continue reading...

Analysis: Volodymyr Zelenskiy needs ammunition, not words – but the meetings in Bavaria and Madrid were still highly significantOver five days, the leaders of the G7 and Nato shifted from the pastoral backdrop of the Bavarian Alps to the more prosaic plains of Madrid, but at no point was there a shortage of photo opportunities, trumpeting of democracy, multibillion-dollar announcements or pledges of unstinting resolve to help Ukraine.But as the leaders head home to their more mundane domestic challenges, it is legitimate to ask how far these promises change the balance of power on the battlefield, or put doubt in the mind of Vladimir Putin. For although these summits were an exercise in reassurance to domestic electorates, and to a lesser extent to Ukraine, the target audience was really one man: the Russian president. Continue reading...

Party’s national president John Humphreys alleges threats from creditors resulted in ‘crisis’

Exclusive: Pleadings target ‘acting-in-concert’ laws banning third parties from pooling resources

Kylea Tink says she was ‘shocked’ by misconduct at Parliament House and a code of conduct should apply to all who work there

Potentially serious faults in Guardian-class patrol boats may force some countries to pause use of vesselsPacific island countries may halt the use of Australian-provided patrol boats after potentially serious defects were discovered, in a blow to a $2.1bn maritime security program.The Australian government is now considering how to work with Pacific nations to close any gap in their maritime surveillance activities while the issues – including carbon monoxide entering part of the boat – are resolved. Continue reading...

US president says he does not know how war will end, but ‘it will not end with a Russian defeat of Ukraine’Joe Biden has declared that the US and Nato allies will stick with Ukraine “as long as it takes” at the end of a two-day summit that saw the military alliance promise hundreds of thousands more troops to defend eastern Europe.The US president also announced another $800m of military aid to Kyiv – but questions remained over how much detail there was behind the plan to create a 300,000-strong force to deter any Russian attack. Continue reading...

Latest updates: prime minister tells Nato conference UK will spend 2.5% of GDP on defence by 2030

Bereavement charity that supported Rupert Brooke’s family will benefit from 200-mile trekA seven-year-old boy will become one of the youngest people to cycle between London and Paris as he raises money for a charity that supported him after his father’s death.Rupert Brooke, from Leicestershire, has already raised more than £11,500 for the Children’s Bereavement Centre, almost a week before he starts the challenge. Continue reading...

Information Commissioner’s Office says users of public services often bear brunt of financial punishmentsThe UK’s data watchdog is to scale back fines for public bodies after admitting that users of services often bear the brunt of the financial punishment.The Information Commissioner’s Office will continue to issue fines for the most serious cases of data breaches in the public sector, but otherwise it will lean on other powers within its remit such as warnings, reprimands and enforcement notices. Continue reading...

Adam Lockwood evades detection to scale crane atop skyscraper and cling from metal bar with just one handA British free climber has dangled 390 metres (1,280ft) above Dubai without safety equipment after posing as a worker to gain access to the city’s tallest crane.Adam Lockwood, 21, gained entry to a skyscraper, evading construction workers to reach the top, where he scaled the crane to cling from a metal bar with just one hand. Continue reading...

Winning back vital Black Sea island could weaken any future Russia coastal land attack

Ruling by 5-4 allows administration to terminate policy that forced asylum seekers to return to Mexico while claims are consideredThe supreme court has issued a ruling that will allow the Biden administration to end a Trump-era immigration program forcing asylum seekers attempting to enter the US at the southern border to return to Mexico while their claims are considered.The ruling in favor of Biden was a change in tone after the supreme court’s conservatives in recent days overturned the constitutional right to abortion and curbed the Environmental Protection Agency’s ability to regulate greenhouse gases, among other decisions that enraged Democrats. Continue reading...

Nineteen tenants living in south London estate that is being demolished say homes offered to them are unaffordable and too far awayThe Peabody Trust, one of the UK’s oldest and best known housing associations, has been accused of failing to rehouse 19 tenants it plans to evict to make way for a new development.Their plight highlights an acute shortage of affordable homes for low-wage key workers amid concern that too much new building is being targeted at more lucrative markets. Continue reading...

Letter from PM saying Jagtar Singh Johal is being arbitrarily held comes four and a half years after Johal’s arrestBoris Johnson has for the first time said that the Indian government is arbitrarily detaining Jagtar Singh Johal, the British Sikh activist held in an Indian jail for four and a half years.In a letter to Keir Starmer seen by the Guardian, the prime minister says Singh has been arbitrarily detained without formal charges being laid against him. He was arrested in 2017 over his alleged role in killings by the Khalistan Liberation Force (KLF), a banned terrorist organisation. Continue reading...

Nato says Moscow ‘most direct threat’ to security; Putin warns over installing military infrastructure in Finland and Sweden

Select committee says ministers want to rush through deal allowing food imports that fall below UK environmental standardsThe government is rushing through a trade deal with Australia that would allow food produced with pesticides banned in the UK to be imported into the country, campaigners and MPs have warned.The international trade select committee in parliament has called for a vote on the deal, which would result in food produced below British domestic environmental standards being sold in the UK. Continue reading...

Move scraps or amends clauses that would have given DfE greater control over academy trusts in England

Angharad Williamson and John Cole found guilty of murder of Logan Mwangi after months of violent abuseA mother and stepfather have been jailed for life after being found guilty of the murder of five-year-old Logan Mwangi, who died after months of violent abuse and imprisonment in the “dungeon” of his small, dark bedroom.Logan’s mother, Angharad Williamson, was told she will serve at least 28 years before being considered for parole, while her partner, John Cole, will spend a minimum of 29 years in prison. A 14-year-old youth who was also convicted of Logan’s murder was told he will be detained for at least 15 years. Continue reading...

China’s president makes first trip outside mainland since pandemic began as territory prepares to mark milestoneChina’s president, Xi Jinping, has made his first trip outside the mainland since the Covid pandemic began, landing in Hong Kong and telling crowds the region had “risen from the ashes” after years of upheaval.The leader, his wife, Peng Liyuan, and delegates, arrived by high-speed train at West Kowloon station before his scheduled attendance at the inauguration of the city’s new chief executive, and the 25th anniversary of the British return of Hong Kong to Chinese rule. Continue reading...

Hungarian leader was criticised by Xavier Bettel in 2021 for introducing homophobic lawThe dozens of invitees were carefully seated along the lengthy table, flanked by columns fashioned out of Bagnères marble and surrounded by paintings from Spain’s Francisco de Goya.As photos of the Nato dinner at Spain’s royal palace filtered out, many were swift to spot what one Spanish news site described as the image of the summit: the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, seated next to Gauthier Destenay, the first same-sex spouse of a leader of an EU member state. Continue reading...

Joint inquiry hears evidence of officers in England and Wales using their status to deter victims from making reportsPolice forces in England and Wales are responding to reports of their own officers committing domestic abuse in a way that is “significantly harming the public interest”, with just 9% of such allegations leading to criminal charges, a joint watchdog investigation has found.The College of Policing, Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services and the Independent Office for Police Conduct heard evidence of police perpetrators of domestic abuse using their knowledge, status and powers to intimidate victims and deter them from making reports. Continue reading...

‘Courageous’ former operators to share interim package amid continued fallout from faulty Horizon systemFormer post office operators who helped to uncover the Horizon IT scandal are to receive £19.5m compensation from the government.The interim compensation package will be made available by ministers to the eligible members of a group representing postal workers who were the first to take legal action against the Post Office, taking the total compensation made to those wrongly accused of stealing money to about £30m. Continue reading...

High court allows judicial review of rules that remove rights of those who do not apply for residency in time

Uniper in talks for emergency support as share price tumbles after Russia slashes gas suppliesThe owner of the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power station is in talks with the German government to secure emergency state support after Russia slashed its gas supplies.Uniper has issued a profit warning and is discussing “stabilisation measures” with German officials after Russia’s Gazprom delivered just 40% of the gas it had ordered. Continue reading...

Son says family has legacy of achievement as he completes clan’s return to power 36 years after father’s oustingFerdinand Marcos Jr has promised a government that will deliver for all Filipinos during his inauguration speech, even as he paid tribute to the legacy of his dictator father, whose rule was marked by widespread corruption and rights abuses.Marcos Jr, who began his term as president of the Philippines on Thursday, said he would emulate his father. “I once knew a man who saw what little had been achieved since independence in a land of people with the greatest potential for achievement. And yet they were poor. But he got it done. Sometimes with the needed support, sometimes without. So will it be with his son. You will get no excuses from me,” he said. Continue reading...

Dish is a staple found across Spain but many restaurants have chosen to rename it as a result of war in Ukraine