Exclusive: See where the parties are pitching their digital campaigns – from the Liberals’ Why I love Australia to Labor’s WA focus and Clive Palmer’s blitz
Senior civil servant expected to be critical of Boris Johnson when findings about Westminster lockdown parties are publishedSue Gray expects to complete her report into Covid law-breaking parties across Westminster at the end of May at the earliest, the Guardian has been told.Sources said that the senior civil servant, who for months has been forced to sit on her findings about illegal gatherings while Scotland Yard carries out its own inquiry, believes the police investigation could drag on for several more weeks. Continue reading...
Exclusive: world’s biggest streaming service has announced crackdown after first fall in customers in a decadeMore than a quarter of British Netflix subscribers allow their friends and family to use their accounts, with at least 17m homes estimated to be password sharing across the embattled streaming platform’s biggest markets in Europe.Netflix announced plans to crack down on the practice as one of a number of strategic moves designed to stem investor panic after it had more than $60bn (£47bn) wiped off its market value last week when it reported its first loss of subscribers in a decade. Continue reading...
Ukraine dismisses as scare tactic Sergei Lavrov’s war comments as diplomats from dozens of countries gather in Germany for US-hosted talks to navigate ‘critical’ phase
Official denies Marvel film is banned but says kingdom ‘still trying’ to get Disney to cut 12 seconds referring to lesbian character with two mothersSaudi Arabia has asked Disney to cut “LGBTQ references” from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness before it can be screened in the kingdom, an official said on Monday – but denied earlier reports that the film has been banned.Disney has so far declined the requested edits to the Doctor Strange sequel, slated for release around the world next week. The cuts amount to “barely 12 seconds” in which a lesbian character, America Chavez, played by the actor Xochitl Gomez, refers to her “two moms”, according to Nawaf Alsabhan, Saudi Arabia’s general supervisor of cinema classification. Continue reading...
Felipe renounced inheritance from his father, Juan Carlos, who abdicated after financial scandalsSpain’s royal palace has unveiled King Felipe VI’s personal wealth for the first time, saying it amounted to €2.6m (£2.2m).The announcement late on Monday came as Spain’s leftist government said it would pass a decree to “strengthen the transparency, accountability, efficiency” of the scandal-hit royal household “in line with the principles that have presided” during Felipe’s reign. Continue reading...
by Jessica Elgot Chief political correspondent on (#5YHNX)
Lords signalled they are prepared to send bills back to Commons even at 11th hour before local electionsMPs and peers are set for some late nights over the next few days as government and opposition race to complete six bills in time for parliament to be prorogued by the end of this week.Though the House of Commons leader, Mark Spencer, said business would conclude by Thursday – which would give MPs next week to get some shoe leather on the pavements ahead of the local elections – the Lords may have other ideas. Continue reading...
Exclusive: pharmacists say they should be allowed more easily to dispense substitute medicinesSajid Javid is being urged to change the law to let pharmacists alter prescriptions during medicine shortages, as it emerged that some women are travelling hundreds of miles to seek hormone replacement therapy products.There have been acute shortages of some HRT products, which are used by about 1 million women in the UK to treat symptoms of the menopause. Continue reading...
by Rowena Mason, Jessica Elgot and Aubrey Allegretti on (#5YHKE)
Exclusive: Simon Case and at least four permanent secretaries raise alarm over Johnson government’s tacticsThe UK’s top civil servant has privately warned Boris Johnson against forcing government workers back to the office amid growing anger in Whitehall over “scare tactics”, the Guardian has learned.Alongside Simon Case, at least four permanent secretaries – the most senior civil servants in their department – are also understood to have raised alarm over government rhetoric designed to reverse the shift to working-from-home arrangements during the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...
Energy company effectively nationalised as part of bailout that could cost taxpayers £2.2bnThe UK government has defended a decision to pay millions of pounds in bonuses to staff at the collapsed energy supplier Bulb, despite the fact that it has been effectively nationalised as part of a bailout that could cost taxpayers £2.2bn.Quarterly “retention bonuses” were deemed necessary to prevent an exodus of staff that could have scuppered efforts to keep the business afloat while a buyer is found, multiple sources familiar with the situation said. Continue reading...
Grandmother believed to be one of victims as three women and a man pronounced dead after police called to home in SouthwarkA grandmother was among four people stabbed to death in a house in south London, a family member has said, after a man was arrested on suspicion of their murder.The Metropolitan police are investigating the deaths after police were called to a residential address on Delaford Road in Bermondsey at about 1.40am on Monday after reports of a disturbance. Continue reading...
Prime minister threatens to unleash ‘the terrors of the earth’ on the source behind the comments if they are identified. This live blog is now closed – for updates on the war in Ukraine, please follow this live blog
MPs presented with dossier of 986 cases where visas have been applied for but not yet grantedAlmost 1,000 Ukrainian families who applied for visas under the UK government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme are still waiting for the applications to be processed more than a month after submitting them.One would-be host, Lauren Corbishley, who has founded a protest group about the delays, said the failure to issue visas to some of those who applied at the beginning of the scheme was “torture” for the families. She called on the government to launch a public inquiry into what has gone wrong. Continue reading...
Analysis: Vote map shows large swathes of country backing Le Pen, potentially boding ill for victorious incumbentWhichever way you cut it – and as obvious as the observation may sound – the runoff vote that returned Emmanuel Macron to the Élysée Palace for a second term, with a score of 58.5% to Marine Le Pen’s 41.5%, showed France to be a divided country.But it’s complicated. Continue reading...
Robert Golob’s victory against Janez Janša is ‘a chance to make Europe stronger’Left and liberal pro-EU politicians have welcomed the defeat of Slovenia’s rightwing populist prime minister, Janez Janša, to a political insurgent who has pledged to restore “normality” to the central European nation.With nearly all ballots counted, political newcomer Robert Golob gained nearly 35% of the vote for his Freedom Movement launched in January. He is expected to form a government with the support of smaller leftwing groups, ending the hard-right government led by Janša, who styled himself on Hungary’s autocratic leader, Viktor Orbán, and took nearly 24% of the vote. Continue reading...
First case in a year sparks fears of new outbreak despite success of national programme to wipe out the diseasePakistan has confirmed its first case of polio after more than a year, damaging the country’s hopes of eradicating the virus. Health officials have announced that a baby boy in North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan, is paralysed after contracting polio.DrShahzad Baig, a coordinator with the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, confirmed the “deeply saddening” case. Continue reading...
Jean Castex’s decision to resign allows president to choose new team amid a changed political landscapeEmmanuel Macron is expected to announce a new prime minister in the coming days as he turns his focus to legislative elections in June after his defeat of Marine Le Pen in the presidential runoff on Sunday.The current prime minister, Jean Castex, has said he will resign along with the government, allowing the Macron to choose a fresh face and team for his second five-year terms in office. Continue reading...
Typical figure in first three months of 2022 was 6.1% higher than a year earlier, standing at £849 a monthMore than one in seven private tenants are “overpaying” to secure a rental property, often because they are desperate or there is nothing else available, research suggests.Average UK rents have increased for the sixth quarter in a row as shortages of available properties continue to drive up costs, according to the Deposit Protection Service (DPS), a government-authorised scheme that keeps tenants’ deposits safe. Continue reading...
Islamist group says it captured mercenary from Kremlin-linked private security firmA jihadist group in Mali claims to have captured a fighter from the Kremlin-linked Wagner mercenary group reportedly fighting Islamist militants in the west African country.“In the first week of April, [we] captured a soldier of the Russian Wagner forces in the Segou region in central Mali,” the GSIM (the Group to Support Islam and Muslims) said in a statement sent to AFP overnight. Continue reading...
Foreign Correspondent’s Club’s decision sparks outrage from journalists and resignations from press freedom committeeHong Kong’s Foreign Correspondent’s Club has scrapped its annual Human Rights Press Awards just days before it was due to announce winners, out of fear it would violate the city’s wide-ranging national security law.The decision sparked a number of resignations from the club’s press freedom committee, and public criticism from journalists and former award winners, who described the move as sad, and evidence that it could no longer serve in its mission to defend the press. Continue reading...
Far-right candidate finished far ahead of Emmanuel Macron in Guadeloupe, Martinique and RéunionMarine Le Pen may have lost to Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential election, but the far-right candidate finished far ahead of the incumbent in some of France’s overseas territories, doubling or in some cases even trebling her vote share.In the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and in French Guiana, the National Rally leader scored 69.6%, 60.8% and 60.7% respectively. She also won in the Indian Ocean constituencies of Mayotte (59.1%) and Réunion (59.5%). Continue reading...
Government lawyers confirm Home Office plan to force small boats back to France has been abandonedPriti Patel’s refugee pushback policy has been officially withdrawn by the government days before a judicial review of the tactic was due to be heard in the high court.The government’s legal department acknowledged in a letter on Sunday that the plan to try to force people in dinghies back to France has been abandoned after Boris Johnson’s announcement that the Royal Navy would take over operations in the Channel. Continue reading...
by Angela Giuffrida Rome correspondent on (#5YGZY)
Man charged with flouting no-fly zone after hitting Piazza Venezia – last week a drone crashed into the Leaning Tower of PisaA tourist has been charged with flouting strict no-fly zone rules after crashing a drone into the roof of a prominent monument in central Rome in the latest drone-related tourist mishap in Italy.The Argentinian man, 39, had been flying his drone in Piazza Venezia when he lost control of the device and sent it crashing into the roof of Palazzo Venezia, a 15th-century building from where the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini delivered some of his most famous speeches. Continue reading...
by Elias Visontay (now) and Mostafa Rachwani (earlier on (#5YGMP)
Deputy Labor leader says Chinese Solomon Islands base would make Australia ‘less safe’; Anzac Day services and marches return for the first time since pandemic began; Peter Dutton compares events in Ukraine to ‘the 1930s’; ABC presenter Fauziah Ibrahim under social media review; at least 17 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed
President acknowledges divisions after historic 13 million votes for Le Pen’s anti-immigration partyThe pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron has vowed to unite a divided France after winning a second term as French president in a decisive victory against the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, who nonetheless won more than 13 million votes in a historic high for her anti-immigration party.Macron became the first French leader to win re-election for 20 years, scoring 58.54% to Le Pen’s 41.46%. Continue reading...
Mail on Sunday accusation of ‘Basic Instinct ploy’ criticised by cabinet ministers and MPs across CommonsAngela Rayner has hit out at “sexism and misogyny” in politics, as a storm of criticism erupted after a newspaper reported that she crosses and uncrosses her legs during prime minister’s questions to distract Boris Johnson.Cabinet ministers including Johnson himself, and MPs from across the House of Commons condemned the Mail on Sunday report, which the chair of the House of Commons women and equalities committee, Caroline Nokes, a Conservative, called a “dirty little story”. Continue reading...
British-Nigerian was last seen alive being chased by police officers two weeks before body found in riverA blue plaque is to be unveiled in Leeds commemorating David Oluwale, a British-Nigerian man who died in 1969 after being harassed by police.The plaque will be on Leeds Bridge, close to where Oluwale was last seen alive, being chased by Sgt Kenneth Kitching and Insp Geoffrey Ellerker. His body was found two weeks later about a mile away in the River Aire, which flows under the bridge. Continue reading...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#5YGSV)
Brexit, Covid and supply chain problems have disrupted availability of medicinesPharmacy staff in England are facing growing abuse and aggression from patients frustrated that drug shortages mean they cannot get their usual medications, a survey reveals.The hostility, including swearing and spitting, comes as availability of medicines is becoming more uncertain as a result of Brexit, the Covid pandemic and ingredient supply problems. Hormone replacement therapy drugs are in short supply in many places, affecting women undergoing menopause, for example.75% of pharmacies have seen patients turn aggressive when told they cannot have the medication they have been prescribed.49% of staff say patient abuse is undermining their mental wellbeing.51% believe supply chain issues affect patients every day. Continue reading...
WA Health has confirmed it is managing an undisclosed number of positive cases aboard the Coral Discoverer, docked at BroomeWestern Australian authorities are working to contain a Covid-19 outbreak onboard one of the first cruise ships allowed back in the state.WA Health has confirmed it is managing an undisclosed number of positive cases on the Coral Discoverer, docked at Broome in the state’s north-west.Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...
by Helen Livingstone (now); Lauren Aratani , Sam Jone on (#5YG30)
This live blog is now closed, you can follow our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in our new live blogHello and welcome to the Guardian’s live coverage of the latest developments in Ukraine with me, Sarah Haque.It is 11am, and this morning the sun came out as Ukrainians marked Orthodox Easter in the capital, Kyiv, with prayers for those fighting on the front lines and others trapped in places like Mariupol. Continue reading...
Emmanuel Macron has beaten Marine Le Pen in the presidential runoff and will serve another term as president of France. Macron won 58.6% of the vote, while Le Pen, who improved her 2017 performance, fell short at 41.5%. Find out how the race unfolded department by department.Live coverage and reactionThe election on Sunday 24 April is a runoff to decide between the first two candidates from the first round of voting on 10 April. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen topped that earlier poll. Continue reading...