by Harriet Sherwood Arts and culture correspondent on (#60CEN)
Whitelock’s Ale House, along with 1856-built Prince Alfred in Maida Vale, awarded extra protectionAn 18th-century pub described by the poet laureate John Betjeman as the “very heart of Leeds” has been awarded Grade II*-listed status as part of a drive to protect historic drinking houses across the country.Whitelock’s Ale House, Leeds’ oldest pub, dates back more than 300 years. Originally called the Turk’s Head, it served merchants and traders at the nearby Briggate market. Continue reading...
Victoria and Oleksiy Manoylo, who were in Milan when Russia invaded, have poured their trauma into gardenA burnt-out cottage decorated with embroidered cloths and surrounded by swaying barley, designed by a Ukrainian couple unable to return to their war-ravaged village, is set to be one of the unexpected highlights of the RHS’s largest flower show.Victoria and Oleksiy Manoylo, landscape designers who were at a garden festival in Milan, Italy, when Russian troops invaded their village near Bucha and destroyed their home, have poured their trauma and defiance into the garden, which will feature at the RHS Hampton Court Palace garden festival next month. Continue reading...
After a thrilling penalty shootout win over Peru, the Socceroos are booked once more for sports’ biggest partyAustralia have done it again. With a low save to his right to deny Peru’s Alex Valera from the penalty spot, dancing goalkeeper Andrew Redmayne secured cult hero status, launched quite a few memes and booked the Socceroos’ place at the 2022 World Cup.The win against the more fancied Peru clinched a fifth consecutive berth at sport’s biggest party, 16 years after the Socceroos ended decades in the men’s football wilderness with a similarly heart-stopping win on penalties against Uruguay. Continue reading...
by Samantha Lock (now), Richard Luscombe, Rachel Hall on (#60AZV)
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 refused to be drawn on whether she would negotiate directly with the self-proclaimed Donetsk People’s Republic over the situation of Aiden Aslin and Shaun Pinner. The two British men have been sentenced to death in eastern Ukraine by what Truss called a “sham trial”. She told listeners of the BBC’s Radio 4 Today programme:The two people were fighting for the Ukrainian army. They were permanently located in Ukraine and they are prisoners of war. And the case is being taken up by the Ukrainians, by the Ukrainian foreign minister.I am doing everything I can, in the best way I can, in the way that I judge is most effective, to deliver these people’s release.These people are prisoners of war, fighting for the Ukrainian army. And it’s important to maintain that principle. And the Russian proxies are violating the Geneva Convention. And we need to be very, very clear about that.That’s why the best route is through the Ukrainians, and I can’t go into the details of my discussions with the Ukrainians, but I can assure you, and I can assure the families, that we’re working flat out on this.Crews of ground attack aviation launched rocket air strikes on military facilities and equipment of units of the armed forces of Ukraine. Missile launches were carried out in pairs from low altitudes. As a result of the combat use of aviation weapons, camouflaged fortified field positions and armoured vehicles of the Armed Forces of Ukraine were destroyed. Continue reading...
by Nadeem Badshah (now) and Andrew Sparrow (earlier) on (#60B35)
This blog has now closed, you can the full story on the government’s failed first deportation flight hereYou can watch the Sturgeon press conference here.Sturgeon is now taking questions. Continue reading...
Johnny Mercer criticised ministry’s operations as he tried to prevent prosecutions for alleged offences in conflictThe former veterans minister Johnny Mercer has lifted the lid on the toxic atmosphere in Boris Johnson’s government, saying ministers’ behaviour “would have got [you] punched in the mouth” if displayed in the army.Mercer, who resigned from the role last year in a row over the treatment of soldiers who served in Northern Ireland, said the Ministry of Defence was not a “professional working environment” and his fellow ministers had treated him as a “dope on a rope”. Continue reading...
In letter sent to every trust in England, charity says standard masks create serious communication barrier for deaf patientsThe National Deaf Children’s Society has written to every NHS trust in England urging them to start using transparent face masks because standard ones create a “serious communication barrier” for deaf patients.The letters, co-signed by the British Academy of Audiology, said deaf patients could “miss vital information about their health” as opaque masks make lip reading impossible and facial expressions difficult to read. Continue reading...
Employees walk off the job amid anger over statements criticising the former Funai employee who went missing with Dom PhillipsEmployees with Brazil’s national Indigenous foundation (Funai) have launched a one-day strike, amid anger over what they say is the dismantling of a key government agency and official statements criticising Bruno Pereira, the former Funai employee who went missing along with the British journalist Dom Phillips last week.Funai staff and related civil service employees walked off the job at 9am on Tuesday in Brasília, Florianópolis and Dourados, and others are voting on whether to launch a wider strike next week, officials with the unions said. Continue reading...
Noise meters will be deployed to confirm ‘acoustically stressed’ areas where action will be takenBarcelona’s streets and plazas have long been home to a raucous cacophony of restaurant patios, buskers and throngs of residents and tourists. Now the city is on a mission to find out just how noisy these spaces can get, with the installation of sound level monitors in 11 areas.“It’s an absolute priority,” said Eloi Badia, the Barcelona city councillor for climate emergency and ecological transition. “Noise pollution – with all of its sleep disorders, pathologies and stress – is one of the most important public health issues we have in the city, second only to air pollution.” Continue reading...
Campaigners says uplift falls way short of inflation and only applies to youngest childrenThe government is to increase the funding rate for universal infant free school meals (UIFSM) by just 7p per pupil, it was announced on Tuesday, a move immediately branded “inadequate” by the sector.Following an outcry over the government’s new food strategy, which did not include the hoped for expansion of free school meals, the education secretary, Nadhim Zahawi, announced that funding for free school meals for all pupils in reception, year 1, and year 2, would go up from £2.34 to £2.41. Continue reading...
‘Mentally exhausted’ expected deportees launched last-minute legal bids to avoid removal from UKAn Albanian asylum seeker and suspected victim of trafficking has told the Guardian he is in a “very bad mental state” as he expects to board a deportation flight to Rwanda, a country of which he knows “nothing”.The 26-year-old Albanian man is one of seven asylum seekers who have launched last-minute legal challenges to avoid being forcibly flown to the east African country. Continue reading...
Military figures and MPs on list along with staff from most major British newspapers and broadcastersRussia has banned 29 members of the British media, including five Guardian journalists, from entering the country, the foreign ministry said on Tuesday.Moscow said the sweeping action was a response to western sanctions and the “spreading of false information about Russia”, as well as “anti-Russian actions of the British government”. Continue reading...
Alex Wood and Alison Tilsley were with four other people when vessel overturned in lakePolice have named two care home residents who died after a boat capsized in a Devon lake.Alex Wood, 43, and Alison Tilsley, 63, known as Ali, were on the vessel with four other people when it overturned in Roadford Lake near Okehampton last Wednesday. Continue reading...
Labour leader urges colleagues to focus on returning to government, after a string of negative storiesKeir Starmer has urged his shadow cabinet to stop briefing the press that he is boring, warning them: “What’s boring is being in opposition.”Stung by a series of negative stories about his leadership, Starmer angrily urged colleagues at Tuesday’s shadow cabinet meeting to focus on the job in hand, telling them it was “boring” to undermine Labour’s project of getting back into government. Continue reading...
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#60BMW)
TSSA demanding a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies this year and pay increase reflecting inflationA second rail union is balloting Network Rail members for industrial action, in a move that could stop train services entirely in a co-ordinated strike this summer.The Transport Salaried Staffs’ Association (TSSA) union announced that its 6,000 members, in managerial and control roles for railway infrastructure, will vote later this month on whether to strike. Continue reading...
Media freedom groups say New York Times reporter’s verdict reflects press clampdown as election loomsMedia freedom campaigners have criticised the conviction of a journalist in Zimbabwe for allegedly breaking immigration laws, describing the decision as “a monumental travesty of justice” that raises concerns for the press in the lead-up to elections next year.Jeffrey Moyo, a freelance correspondent for the New York Times, was given a suspended prison sentence of five years and fined $615 by a court in Bulawayo after being found guilty on Tuesday of helping to obtain press accreditation needed by two reporters from his news organisation to enter Zimbabwe. Continue reading...
Netherlands court convicts father’s Austrian helper and ‘disciple’A Dutch court on Tuesday sentenced an Austrian man to three years’ imprisonment for his involvement in illegally detaining six children held for years and isolated from the outside world by their father at a remote farmhouse in the Netherlands.The case made headlines around the world when it was discovered in October 2019 that father had been living for years with six of his children in the farmhouse in the village of Ruinerwold in the eastern Netherlands. Their plight only came to light when one of the sons left the building and raised the alarm. Continue reading...
Hans Island ‘whisky war’ – described by some as a ‘pseudo-confrontation’ – ends after formal division agreedIt has been described by some as a “pseudo-confrontation”, by others as a diplomatic afterthought. Now, however, the so-called “whisky war”, which was never really a conflict at all, has finally been resolved with the formal division of a tiny barren Arctic island between Canada and Denmark.Sitting in the Kennedy Channel of Nares Strait between the north-western coast of the semi-autonomous Danish territory of Greenland and Canada’s Ellesmere Island, the uninhabited half-mile-square Hans Island has no mineral resources nor much else of interest unless you are a visiting sea bird. Continue reading...
by Paul MacInnes, Rajeev Syal and Jessica Elgot on (#60B31)
Filippo Grandi says foreign secretary was wrong to claim critics hadn’t offered alternativesLiz Truss has been accused by the UN’s refugee chief of making “untrue” statements after claiming that critics of the UK government’s Rwandan removals policy have failed to come up with alternative policies.Filippo Grandi, the United Nations high commissioner for refugees, said the foreign secretary was wrong because the UN has offered “many, many suggestions” instead of sending people to the east African state which “violates the fundamental principles of refugees”. Continue reading...
James Watts was serving with West Mercia police in 2020 when he shared ‘grossly offensive’ material in group chatA former police constable has been jailed for 20 weeks after sending a string of racist WhatsApp memes, including images that mocked the death of George Floyd.James Watts was serving with West Mercia police in 2020 when he shared the “grossly offensive” material in a group chat, which included former colleagues at a Warwickshire prison. Continue reading...
The celebrity faces backlash after attending the Met Gala last month sporting the gown in which Monroe serenaded President KennedyA Marilyn Monroe collector has claimed that “permanent damage” has been inflicted by Kim Kardashian on the iconic dress Monroe wore to serenade John F Kennedy on his 45th birthday, shortly before the actor’s death.Kardashian wore the gown to the Met Gala last month; photographs taken in the last week by Scott Fortner, a collector who works to authenticate and verify Monroe memorabilia, appeared to show stretched and buckled fabric and missing crystals on the back of the dress. Continue reading...
Lord Geidt implies to Commons committee he did not have power to investigate Boris Johnson’s potential breach of lockdown rulesBoris Johnson’s ethics adviser has said it was “reasonable” to suggest the prime minister may have breached the ministerial code when he was fined during the Partygate scandal.Giving evidence to MPs, Christopher Geidt suggested he did not have the power to investigate Johnson’s potential breach linked to lockdown parties and that he had not requested an investigation, but instead had required a statement from the prime minister – who cleared himself of any breach. Continue reading...
Theary Seng receives six-year sentence in ongoing mass trial of government critics in Phnom PenhA prominent Cambodian-American lawyer has been sentenced to six years in jail for treason in an ongoing mass trial against critics of the ruling party.Theary Seng and dozens of activists, many of whom are members of the dissolved opposition group the Cambodia National Rescue party (CNRP), were found guilty at Phnom Penh municipal court on Tuesday. The trial is one of four covering nearly 130 defendants, seen by many as prime minister Hun Sen’s attempt to stamp out growing dissent to his 37 years of rule. Continue reading...
Patrick Grady should be suspended from Commons for ‘unwanted physical touching with sexual intent’, watchdog saysThe SNP MP Patrick Grady should be suspended from the Commons for two days for breaching parliament’s sexual misconduct policy, a report by the Independent Expert Panel has said.The watchdog concluded: “An unwanted physical touching, with sexual intent, from a senior MP to a junior member of staff, even on a single occasion, is a significant breach of the policy. It must be marked by some period of suspension from the house. Continue reading...
Five-member crew was detained after they found a bag of cocaine on 5 April and spent nine days in jail in a ‘hellish situation’A five-person Canadian airline crew caught up in a drug-trafficking investigation is begging their government to repatriate them after two months trapped in the Dominican Republic.“It’s absolutely horrendous – terrible, terrible stuff we’re going through,” said captain Robert Di Venanzo, who said he and his crew could be held for up to a year while an investigation proceeds. Continue reading...
Margot Robbie played the character in the Suicide Squad movies, but Gaga’s version is expected to ‘exist in a different universe’Lady Gaga is to play Harley Quinn in the sequel to the multi-award-winning Joker, which is due to see Joaquin Phoenix return to his lead role.According to the Hollywood Reporter, Gaga is in line to take the role of Quinn, the former Arkham Asylum psychiatrist who has regularly appeared in Batman-related narratives as the Joker’s sidekick and love interest. Margot Robbie played the character in a high-profile outing in the 2016 film Suicide Squad, as well as its 2021 sequel The Suicide Squad. Robbie’s version of the character was also the central figure in the 2020 superhero film Birds of Prey. Continue reading...
by Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent on (#60B61)
Liza Begum said confusion with Apsana Begum who was acquitted of fraud charges ‘reflects notion all people of colour look the same’The BBC has agreed to pay £30,000 in damages to a British Bangladeshi Labour councillor after it mixed her up with Apsana Begum in a news item about the MP facing housing fraud charges.Pictures of Liza Begum at an event to launch Labour’s 2019 race and faith manifesto were broadcast on BBC London News during an exchange on 29 October 2020, in which the BBC London political correspondent said: “This is Apsana Begum … she faces three charges of dishonesty.” Continue reading...
Fatal shooting of Shireen Abu Aqleh in May raises fresh concerns over military inquiries into deaths of PalestiniansIn August 2020, 23-year-old Dalia Samoudi was killed when a bullet came through the window of her home in Jenin, in the occupied West Bank, during an Israel Defence Forces (IDF) raid on a nearby house.Al Jazeera reported on the incident, in which witnesses said she had been killed by an IDF soldier firing in the direction of Palestinians throwing stones. Two years later, the television network would report on the death of its longtime correspondent, Shireen Abu Aqleh, in nearly the same spot. Continue reading...
by Josh Halliday North of England correspondent on (#60B4G)
Move to restrict sales of new-build properties is not legally binding but organisers hope to influence planning decisionsWhitby has become the latest tourist hotspot to vote for a limit on the sale of second homes as residents sounded a “very loud message that enough is enough”.Families in the Yorkshire fishing port said they had been priced out of the housing market as wealthy incomers paid exorbitant prices for holiday boltholes. Continue reading...
One Nation senator’s chief of staff told court he didn’t ‘want to appear evasive’ and eventually said Senate speech was a warning to Brian Burston after presiding justice accused him of avoiding the question
Pop star says she ‘never want[ed] to promote derogatory language’ and re-releases song, removing offensive term for spastic diplegiaLizzo has removed an offensive term for disabled people from her latest song after days of public criticism, saying she “never want[ed] to promote derogatory language”.GRRRLS, the latest track from the musician’s upcoming album Special, was released on Friday. In the opening verse, the pop star – who has become well-known for her lyrics championing acceptance and self-love – used a derogatory term for cerebral palsy, also known as spastic diplegia. Continue reading...
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