Chancellor says Murty has ‘followed letter of the law’ with non-dom status and ‘loves her country like I love mine’The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has defended his wife after revelations that she claims non-domiciled status, meaning she does not legally have to pay tax in the UK on her income earned abroad.The businesswoman Akshata Murty, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of pounds, is an Indian citizen and is reported to hold a 0.91% stake in Infosys, an IT business founded by her father. Continue reading...
Human rights group accuses Assad regime of profiting from detainees forced to sign away their rights, some while blindfoldedMore than $1.5bn (£1.2bn) worth of personal property including cars, olive groves, shops, houses, electronics and jewellery has been seized by the Syrian government from citizens accused of joining anti-government protests, according to a rights group.The Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison (ADMSP) estimates that almost 40% of those detained after the Syrian uprising of 2011 were subject to property seizures.
by Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent on (#5XYYX)
Air travellers told to allow extra time for queues, while Eurotunnel expects rising traffic and P&O ferries remain suspendedAirlines and cross-Channel services are braced for their busiest weekend since the start of the pandemic, with outbound and returning holidaymakers set to swell numbers at ports that are already struggling to cope with surging demand.With all areas of the UK now on Easter holidays, passengers have been told to allow extra time to negotiate airport queues, as high rates of Covid infections worsen staff shortages at check-in and security. Continue reading...
Volunteers run makeshift classrooms for ‘hundreds’ of children at hotels facing long waits to get into schoolsThe children of refugees and asylum seekers are receiving lessons in hotel car parks in Manchester because no places have been found at local schools, charity workers say.Children thought to number in the hundreds, who have fled with their families from countries including Afghanistan, Sudan, Iraq and Syria, are being put up in hotels across the city by the Home Office while they await news about their asylum applications. Continue reading...
Mechanical failure prompted pilot to request emergency landing shortly after plane took off from Juan Santamaria airportA Boeing 757-200 cargo aircraft operated by DHL has made a dramatic emergency landing at Costa Rica’s Juan Santamaria international airport, skidded off the runway and broke in two, losing its tail.DHL, part of Deutsche Post AG, said the crew was unharmed and that one member was undergoing a medical review as a precaution. Continue reading...
Aníbal Torres said his words were misunderstood but offered to apologize in person to Israeli ambassador Asaf IchilevichThe Israeli embassy in Lima has led a wave of protest after Peru’s prime minister Aníbal Torres praised Adolf Hitler, on the grounds that the fascist dictator turned Germany into the “first economic power in the world”.In a week in which the government of Pedro Castillo has been engulfed in a political crisis caused by rising fuel and fertiliser prices triggered by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine – and the president’s own blundering efforts to calm the unrest – Torres’ inopportune remark on Thursday drew opprobrium from all quarters. Continue reading...
Koci Selamaj did not attend sentencing for murder of 28-year-old primary school teacher in LondonSabina Nessa’s family called her killer a “coward” when he refused to come to court to be sentenced for her murder on Thursday.Koci Selamaj, 36, drove to London from his home in Eastbourne on the south coast to carry out a premeditated attack on a woman after being spurned by his estranged wife. Continue reading...
CWU bosses say increase is relative cut in salary but BT says it is its biggest award in two decadesBT has given 58,000 workers a £1,500 pay rise that it says is its biggest award in two decades, despite its largest union rejecting the deal and saying it intends to ballot members over strike action.Last week BT had a £1,200 pay rise offer rejected by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents about 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 employees, with union bosses describing it as “insulting” and a “relative pay cut” as soaring inflation fuels a cost of living crisis. Continue reading...
72 people were killed in the fire but Pickles said 96, the number first thought to have died in the Hillsborough disasterA former cabinet minister has challenged the Grenfell inquiry not to waste his time while giving evidence, before getting the death toll from the disaster wrong.Lord Pickles, who served as secretary of state at the then Department for Communities and Local Government between 2010 and 2015, sparked anger after he advised the inquiry’s senior counsel to “use your time wisely” as he had an extremely busy day. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker, Kalyeena Makortoff, Graeme Wearden, on (#5XY7A)
Pressure grows on chancellor over tax affairs of wife, who pays £30,000 a year to be classed as non-domiciledRishi Sunak’s wife has potentially avoided up to £20m in UK tax by being non-domiciled and pays £30,000 a year to keep the status – revelations that come amid growing political pressure on the chancellor.Akshata Murty gets about £11.5m a year in dividends from a stake in an Indian IT firm and declares non-dom status, which allows people to avoid tax on foreign earnings, it emerged on Wednesday. Continue reading...
by Shah Meer Baloch in Islamabad and Hannah Ellis-Pet on (#5XYG3)
Supreme court rules PM acted unconstitutionally in dissolving parliament before confidence votePakistan’s supreme court has dealt a devastating blow to the prime minister, Imran Khan, by ruling that he acted unconstitutionally in dissolving parliament prior to a confidence vote he was expected to lose, and ordering the vote to go ahead this weekend.In the conclusion to a hearing that has gripped Pakistan for the past four days, the chief justice of Pakistan, Umar Ata Bandial, said Khan had violated the law in his attempt to stop the vote, which was widely expected to oust him. Continue reading...
Decision to allow in unvaccinated travellers is reversed within hours from announcementThe Spanish tourist board in London has performed a U-turn on its announcement that the country will open its doors to unvaccinated British holidaymakers.The tourist office first told travellers that Spain would open up to all Britons, regardless of vaccine status, as long as they could provide a negative pre-departure test. Continue reading...
Adrian Chesters and son Nathen, 14, and Alexia Alexandra Molina from France did not return from training diveRescuers are searching for a British father and son off the coast of Malaysia after the pair disappeared on Wednesday during a group training dive.Adrian Chesters, 46, and his 14-year-old son, Nathen, were diving off the coast of Mersing, in the southern state of Johor. Alexia Alexandra Molina, 18, from France, also remains unaccounted for. Continue reading...
Babis Anagnostopoulos alleged to have confessed to the Athens murder and to hanging her puppyThe trial of a Greek helicopter pilot accused of strangling his British wife as she slept next to their baby daughter is due to begin on Friday in Athens.Nearly a year after Caroline Crouch was found dead in the couple’s maisonette, her husband, who had originally attempted to pin the murder on ruthless “foreign thieves”, will appear before a mixed jury court in the Greek capital. It will be the first time that Babis Anagnostopoulos, 33, has been seen in public since his alleged confession to a crime that has gripped the nation. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Disgusted by the Russian invasion, David Gilmour speaks about band’s first brand new song in 28 years, which samples a Ukrainian musician now on the front line – and expresses ‘disappointment’ in Roger WatersA couple of weeks ago, Pink Floyd’s guitarist and singer David Gilmour was asked if he’d seen the Instagram feed of Andriy Khlyvnyuk, frontman of Ukrainian rock band BoomBox. Gilmour had performed live with BoomBox in 2015, at a London benefit gig for the Belarus Free Theatre – they played a brief, endearingly raw set of Pink Floyd songs and Gilmour solo tracks – but events had moved on dramatically since then: at the end of Feburary, Khlyvnyuk had abandoned BoomBox’s US tour in order to fight against the Russian invasion.On his Instagram, Gilmour found a video of the singer in military fatigues, a rifle slung over his shoulder, standing outside Kyiv’s St Sofia Cathedral, belting out an unaccompanied version of Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow, a 1914 protest song written in honour of the Sich Riflemen who fought both in the first world war and the Ukrainian war of independence. “I thought: that is pretty magical and maybe I can do something with this,” says Gilmour. “I’ve got a big platform that [Pink Floyd] have worked on for all these years. It’s a really difficult and frustrating thing to see this extraordinarily crazy, unjust attack by a major power on an independent, peaceful, democratic nation. The frustration of seeing that and thinking ‘what the fuck can I do?’ is sort of unbearable.” Continue reading...
President criticises ‘very clear xenophobia and ultraconservative aims’ as Marine Le Pen gains groundEmmanuel Macron has ramped up his warnings of the danger posed by Marine Le Pen before the first-round vote in France’s presidential election this weekend, as he acknowledged he had not managed to contain all voters’ fears and hold back the far right during his time in office.As Macron campaigns to become the first French president in 20 years to serve a second term, he has often been reminded of his 2017 victory speech in front of the Louvre where, after defeating Le Pen with 66% of the vote, he promised to ensure people had “no more reason to vote for extremes”. Continue reading...
Like other UK non-doms Rishi Sunak’s wife had to apply for the tax status with HMRC, despite her statements• Labour says Rishi Sunak must ‘come clean’ about wife’s non-dom tax statusThis is the government form that the chancellor’s wife Akshata Murty will have filled in to apply for non-domiciled status in order to avoid paying UK tax on tens of millions in dividends collected from her family’s Indian IT business empire.When it was revealed on Wednesday that Murty is a non-dom, and thereby is not required to pay UK tax on about £11.5m in annual dividends from her stake in Infosys, her spokeswoman said Murty “is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes” suggesting that she had no control over her UK tax status.Akshata Murty is a citizen of India, the country of her birth and parents’ home. India does not allow its citizens to hold the citizenship of another country simultaneously. So, according to British law, Ms Murty is treated as non-domiciled for UK tax purposes. She has always and will continue to pay UK taxes on all her UK income”. Continue reading...
David Smith, 57, who worked at the British embassy in Berlin, denies nine offences under Official Secrets ActA security guard at the British embassy in Berlin accused of spying for Russia allegedly passed “secret” information about the government to a Russian military attache, a court heard.David Smith, 57, denied nine offences under the Official Secrets Act when he appeared at Westminster magistrates court on Thursday. Continue reading...
Old Bailey hears defendant say he killed Tory MP because he had voted for military campaign in SyriaThe man accused of murdering Conservative MP Sir David Amess has told a court he did not have “any shame” as he admitted to killing the Conservative MP because he had voted seven years ago in support of a military campaign in Syria.Ali Harbi Ali, 26, stabbed Amess more than 20 times with a foot-long carving knife at Belfairs Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, shortly after midday on 15 October 2021, the Old Bailey heard. Continue reading...
Coroner says May Day event should be better managed after Laura Smallwood, 34, died in accident involving ‘obby oss’The death of a woman who suffered a neck injury when she was struck with a hefty hobby horse costume during a centuries-old Cornish festival has prompted a coroner to call for tighter rules on the organisation of such events.Andrew Cox, the senior Cornwall and Isles of Scilly coroner, is to write to the government over the death of mother of two Laura Smallwood, who was hit by the “obby oss”, a 50lb costume worn by a masked male dancer that parades around the harbourside town of Padstow on May Day. Continue reading...
Author and illustrator of the children’s books including Elmer, Mr Benn and Not Now, Bernard has died following a short illness• Elmer author David McKee: ‘I’ve never been a prize winner’David McKee, the author and illustrator of the iconic children’s books Elmer, Not Now, Bernard and Mr Benn, has died aged 87, his publisher has said.The author and illustrator died surrounded by family in the south of France following a short illness. After a lifetime of travelling the world, he and his partner Bakhta, a French-Algerian art dealer, had been dividing their time between London and Provence in recent years. Continue reading...
Attorney general wins injunction to stop identification of man after arguing it would damage national securityThe BBC has been banned from identifying a “dangerous extremist and misogynist” who is allegedly an MI5 informant, after a high court judge granted an injunction.The attorney general, Suella Braverman, successfully blocked the identification of the alleged informant, or covert human intelligence source (Chis), referred to as X throughout the proceedings. Continue reading...
The final contenders for the £50,000 prize for translated fiction – five out of six by women – could see Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk win a second timeFrom Olga Tokarczuk’s epic about a man who claimed to be the messiah to Geetanjali Shree’s tale of a widow finding a new lease of life, female writers take the majority of places on this year’s International Booker prize shortlist.Of the six books now in contention for the prestigious translated fiction award, five were written by women, with three translated by women too. The International Booker goes to “the finest fiction from around the world” that has been translated into English, awarding a cash prize of £50,000, which is split equally between author and translator. Continue reading...
by Aubrey Allegretti Political correspondent on (#5XXV7)
Business secretary says Boris Johnson’s long-delayed plan is ‘more of a medium-term answer’Boris Johnson’s new energy strategy could take up to five years to start shaving money off people’s bills, the business secretary has admitted, as the prime minister announced a drastic expansion of nuclear reactors.Kwasi Kwarteng said the plan for cutting reliance on imported energy in the wake of spiralling prices caused in part by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was more of a medium-term way to ramp up homegrown energy production. Continue reading...
The Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five member faces a potential 25-year sentence for fatally stabbing a homeless man in 2017Hip-hop pioneer Kidd Creole has been found guilty of first-degree manslaughter for stabbing a homeless man in 2017.The musician, real name Nathaniel Glover, 62, was an original member of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five alongside his brother Melle Mel, AKA Melvin Glover. (He is not associated with Kid Creole and the Coconuts, the band led by August Darnell.) Continue reading...
Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi says a newly established council will lead negotiations with Iranian-backed HouthisYemen’s exiled president has stepped aside and transferred his powers to a presidential council as international and regional efforts to end the country’s long-running civil war gained momentum with a two-month truce.Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, major players in the conflict, appear to have played a role in Abd Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s decision, quickly welcoming it with a pledge of $3bn (£2.3bn) in aid. The head of the new council has close ties to Riyadh. Continue reading...
Report by Labor-chaired committee found Australia fared better than other countries, but there were ‘significant failures’ on quarantine and vaccine supply
Suspension of trial comes despite warning from human rights groups that turning case over would lead to cover-upA Turkish court has ruled to suspend the trial in absentia of 26 Saudis accused in the killing of the Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and for the case to be transferred to Saudi Arabia.The decision comes despite warnings from human rights groups that turning the case over to the kingdom would lead to a cover-up of the killing, which has cast suspicion on the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. Continue reading...
Shortage of homes for sale and ‘race for space’ drove average cost to 282,753 in March, says HalifaxUK house prices hit a record of £282,753 in March but are likely to ease over the next year as homebuyers face higher interest rates and the cost of living squeeze, Halifax has said.The average cost of a home rose by 1.4% on February, according to Halifax’s monthly property index, and is 11% higher than a year ago, the largest annual increase since the 2007 financial crisis. Continue reading...
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