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Ukrainian president visited Bucha after bodies of 410 civilians were recovered

Cody Ackland grabbed 18-year-old off street near her home last November before beating her to death

Authoritarian populist president Nayib Bukele has suspended rights in state of emergency justified as attack on MS13 gangDistraught families across El Salvador are searching for information on the fate of their loved ones after almost 6,000 people were arrested in an unprecedented security crackdown over the past week.Men, women and children have been rounded up across the Central American country since the government declared a state of emergency on 27 March, suspending constitutional rights including the presumption of innocence. Continue reading...

Services across most of greater Sydney, Blue Mountains and some regional areas, including Newcastle, to be affected by 24-hour walkout on Monday

Shadow treasurer says a Labor government would ‘reorient’ budget as RBA warns of mounting fuel and commodity prices

Senate inquiry calls on government to reinstate 1,398 lapsed humanitarian visas originally granted after Taliban takeover

NSW supreme court rules dispute over Liberal preselections ‘non-justiciable’; central bank keeps cash rate at 0.1%; Queensland vaccination rules to ease further from 14 April; new sanctions on Russia as foreign and defence ministers label Putin a ‘war criminal’; Sydney bus drivers to launch industrial action; 38 Covid deaths recorded. Follow all the day’s news

Disruption expected on roads and railways in parts of country, as unsettled conditions persist in UKThe Met Office has issued a yellow weather warning for snow across parts of Scotland, warning of expected disruption to roads and railways.The warning was issued from 6am to 10pm on Tuesday for an area covering much of Highland and Grampian. Continue reading...

Data from trucks to inform locations selected for upgraded regional telecommunications across roads, homesteads and national parks

UK retailer says security breach has not given hackers access to customer payment dataA cyber-attack targeting The Works has caused the closure of some of the retailer’s stores, delayed the resupply of stock and online order deliveries to customers.The cut-price seller of books, crafts and toys, which operates 520 stores across the UK, said the security breach of its computer systems had not given hackers access to any customer payment data. Continue reading...

Up to 150mm of rain forecast to hit parts of the state over the coming days, including heavy falls in Sydney

Agreement to remove tariffs on some exports also includes 1,000 working holiday places and post-study work rights for Indian graduates

MPs’ report condemns the government’s failure to fill gaps in the workforce and deal with the impact of CovidHundreds of thousands of cancer patients in England face being diagnosed late in the coming years, MPs have warned, as they condemned the government’s failure to tackle the NHS staffing shortages that risk survival rates going into reverse.In a 52-page report on cancer services, the Commons health and social care committee said the absence of any serious attempt by ministers to fill gaps in the cancer workforce was jeopardising efforts to improve survival rates. MPs added that without action 340,000 patients between 2019 and 2028 will be denied an early diagnosis, which could mean the difference between life and death. Continue reading...

Exclusive: civil service source cites concern over possible evidence senior officials knowingly broke rulesCivil service chiefs are braced for the behaviour of top Whitehall officials to be severely criticised in the Sue Gray partygate report, after the government’s former ethics chief apologised for attending an illegal gathering.Amid speculation about whether Boris Johnson will be fined over lockdown parties in No 10, there is also consternation in Whitehall about how to deal with the fallout from senior civil servants being implicated as organisers of gatherings when the full report is finally published. Continue reading...

Ukraine president says casualties may be ‘much higher’ in Borodyanka, as Germany promises Putin will ‘feel the consequences’ of killings in Bucha

Premier Dominic Perrottet visits flood-damaged town of Wardell to announce $67m support package

Warning points to a rise in tensions on the peninsula after the North conducted its first intercontinental ballistic missile test in five yearsThe influential sister of North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, has said the country’s nuclear forces would “annihilate” the South Korean military if it launched a pre-emptive strike against the regime.Kim Yo-jong, who holds several senior positions in the government and ruling party, said the North had no intention of starting a second Korean war, but would respond if provoked and leave the South’s military in a state of “total destruction and ruin”. Continue reading...

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Two other family members, holidaying from the UK, remain in a critical condition while a teenage girl is being treated for shock

Newspapers agree to pay former columnist around $60,000, including $20,000 in legal costs, in response to comments made by the mastheads’ executive editor

A $1,500 donation will buy an Inheritance Pass, valid for entry in 2172, part of a fundraising effort to celebrate the park’s 150th yearYellowstone national park is offering an annual pass valid for entry in 2172 in exchange for a $1,500 donation, part of a fundraising efforts in honor of the park’s 150th birthday.The park hopes that the tickets, dubbed “The Inheritance Passes”, will be used by the donor’s descendants. Yellowstone Forever, the park’s fundraising arm, will use the money to support park projects such as trail improvements, education, native fish conservation and scientific studies. Continue reading...

In a letter to Priti Patel, the cross-party group calls for temporary places where those displaced can study and carry out researchA cross-party group of MPs and peers has joined forces with UK universities in calling for the visa scheme for Ukrainian refugees to be extended to temporary placements for students and academics.In a letter to Priti Patel, the home secretary, the parliamentarians and Universities UK, the advocacy organisation for universities, said the scheme should provide visas and temporary places for displaced students and academics to study and carry out research. Continue reading...

Watchdog expresses concern over safety of mothers and babies days after damning Shrewsbury reportHospital inspectors have uncovered repeated maternity failings and expressed serious concern about the safety of mothers and babies in Sheffield just days after a damning report warned there had been hundreds of avoidable baby deaths in Shrewsbury.The Care Quality Commission (CQC) found Sheffield teaching hospitals NHS foundation trust, one of the largest NHS trusts in England, had failed to make the required improvements to services when it visited in October and November, despite receiving previous warnings from the watchdog. Continue reading...

Tournaments on home soil in 2027 and 2029 present a once-in-a-generation chance to revive the men’s game and grow the women’sAustralian rugby has been given a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revitalise the game in this country with the prospect of hosting back-to-back men’s and women’s World Cups only two years apart. In a tremendous fillip for the game, Australia was on Monday named the preferred candidate to host the women’s World Cup in 2029, along with the men’s tournament in 2027.The dual World Cups have put Australia in a superb position to capitalise on the enormous global popularity of rugby, with the potential to deliver a much-needed financial boost. But it is an opportunity Australian rugby cannot afford to fumble as poor performances in the home tournaments would be disastrous for the game. Continue reading...

Peers find fault with many aspects of nationality and borders bill, in particular proposal to divide refugees into classesPriti Patel’s nationality and borders bill has been ripped apart for a second time by the House of Lords as the government suffered more than 10 defeats over controversial proposals to tighten immigration rules.Peers supported proposals to ensure that the bill complied with the 1951 Refugee Convention and challenged the government’s plan to redefine refugees into two classes based on how they arrived in the UK. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Concerns were aired over Pitch@Palace contest win for banker linked to over £1m of payments to Duke of YorkFresh questions have been raised over Prince Andrew’s Dragons’ Den-style scheme after it emerged that concerns were raised over a contest winner who since been linked to more than £1m of payments received by the royal.Selman Turk, a Turkish businessman, received an award in November 2019 from the Duke of York at a Pitch@Palace event during which 40 entrepreneurs gave rapid-fire pitches in a room full of potential investors. Continue reading...

As the government presses ahead with the sale, what is the broadcaster worth and who would buy it?The industry player most likely to buy Channel 4, with the least regulatory hurdles, is Discovery. The big US pay-TV company, which is merging with WarnerMedia, the parent company of CNN, HBO and the Hollywood studio behind the Batman and Harry Potter franchises, expressed interest the last time the broadcaster faced privatisation in 2016. Continue reading...

Ministers hope to raise £1bn from sell-off ending broadcaster’s 40 years in public ownershipThe culture secretary, Nadine Dorries, is pushing ahead with controversial plans to privatise Channel 4, with the government backing proposals to sell off the broadcaster after 40 years in public ownership.The government hopes to raise around £1bn from the sell-off, making it one of the biggest privatisations since Royal Mail went public a decade ago. Ministers have suggested they could spend the proceeds to boost creative training and independent production companies, essentially funding their levelling up agenda. Continue reading...

Move, after accusations against David Warburton, would help ‘bring parliament into the 21st century’Unions representing parliamentary staff have called for MPs accused of sexual misconduct to be excluded from the Westminster estate while investigations take place, after allegations against the Conservative backbencher David Warburton.The joint call by unions representing parliamentary workers – Prospect, the FDA, the Public and Commercial Services Union and the GMB - comes after Warburton was accused of sexual harassment as well as alleged cocaine use and potentially failing to declare a loan. Continue reading...

Analysis: From Ukraine’s point of view, this has to be the time to pile pressure on Germany in particular

Foreign secretary in discussions with Ukrainian foreign minister about intensifying sanctions after atrocities in Bucha

Country remains in political turmoil as it awaits ruling on PM’s move to dissolve parliament and call electionPakistan remains without a government and engulfed in political turmoil after the supreme court delayed its verdict on whether the prime minister, Imran Khan, had violated the constitution by dissolving parliament rather than face a no-confidence vote.Khan’s decision to call for parliament to be dissolved on Sunday, rather than allow a no-confidence vote on his premiership that was expected to oust him, had been justified by him on the basis that it was an alleged “foreign conspiracy” led by the west against his government. Continue reading...

23-year-old from Ilford and friend ate one ‘gummy’ from packet bought via message app on phone, police sayA woman has died in east London after eating a suspected cannabis sweet.The 23-year-old from Ilford bought the “gummies” via a messaging app on her phone and they were delivered to her home in Ilford on 29 March, the Metropolitan police said. The sweets came in packaging branded “Trrlli Peachie O’s”. Continue reading...

Following the Ofsted chief’s comments, we hear from Jemma, a nursery school teacher in DorsetIf children have siblings and they’ve mixed with others, they tend to be on the same level socially as before the pandemic. But the ones who are only children and have just been in the household with mum and dad don’t know how to interact.They have issues with sharing, being very overexcited and turn-taking. They’re quite advanced in numbers and letters for their age because they’ve been at home with adults, or they’ve been playing a lot on tablets, but they are very behind socially, the empathy isn’t there.

Matthew Caseby was hit by a train in 2020, after absconding from the Priory hospital Woodbourne in Birmingham, inquest hearsThe father of a 23-year-old who died after running away from a mental health hospital by jumping over a fence said staff knew patients regularly absconded.Matthew Caseby died after being struck by a train in September 2020, having run away from the Priory hospital Woodbourne in Birmingham where he had been detained as a mental health patient. Continue reading...

More than 80 charities to boycott government event as Boris Johnson criticised for ‘broken promise’More than 80 LGBT and HIV charities, including Stonewall and the Terrence Higgins Trust, are to boycott the UK government’s first global LGBT conference, in response to the decision to exclude trans people from a ban on conversion practices.In a statement on Monday, the charity Stonewall said it was withdrawing its support for the Safe to Be Me conference due to “the prime minister’s broken promise on protecting trans people from the harms of conversion therapy”. Continue reading...

Former finance minister was accused of sexual harassment by multiple women while working at the World BankA former finance minister who surprised many by making it into Costa Rica’s presidential runoff has easily won the election and is to become the Central American country’s new leader next month while still fending off accusations of sexual harassment when he worked at the World Bank.With nearly all polling stations reporting, the conservative economist Rodrigo Chaves had 53% of the vote, compared with 47% for former president José Figueres Ferrer, the supreme electoral tribunal said. Continue reading...

Incumbent avoids runoff, but his SNS party will have to form government in coalition with junior partnersSerbia’s populist pro-Kremlin president, Aleksandar Vučić, won a landslide victory in Sunday’s general election, but will need to form a coalition government as he strives to balance ambitions to join the EU with the country’s traditional ties to Russia.Vučić, a former minister for information in Slobodan Milošević’s Yugoslav government, won 58.5% of the vote, the state election commission said on Monday after counting 96.2% of ballots. Continue reading...

The news follows several weeks of public turmoil for the rapper, who was to headline the festival with Billie Eilish and othersKanye West has dropped out of the Coachella music festival just over one week before it opens, TMZ and Variety reported on Monday.The 44-year-old rapper was set to headline North America’s largest music festival for two weekends in April along with Billie Eilish, Harry Styles and the electronic group Swedish House Mafia. Continue reading...

In his hour of victory, the Hungarian PM seems to remember how the Ukrainian president singled him outIn a defiant victory speech after his electoral landslide, Viktor Orbán reeled off those he perceived as opponents he had “overpowered”. It was a familiar list: “the left at home” – his catch-all phrase for political opponents across the spectrum – then “the international left, the bureaucrats in Brussels”, the “empire” of the Hungarian-born billionaire philanthropist George Soros, the international media – and finally, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.While Zelenskiy is admired across the democratic world for his courageous wartime leadership, in Orbán’s Hungary he is just another opponent.Additional reporting by Flora Garamvolgyi Continue reading...

MEPs say billions in payments could be withheld from far-right leader due to democratic backslidingVladimir Putin has congratulated Hungary’s strongman leader, Viktor Orbán, on his decisive election victory, amid signs that European Union authorities will launch a sanctions process against Budapest that is intended to safeguard EU funds at risk from democratic-backsliding member states.Two members of the European parliament said they expected the European Commission to launch the “rule of law conditionality mechanism” against Hungary, a legal process that could ultimately switch off billions in EU payments to Budapest. Continue reading...

Supermarket warns of ‘material adverse effect’ on earnings and sales as grocery market struggles with disruption and rising pricesMorrisons has warned its profits are likely to take a significant hit this year as the cost of living crisis and disruption due to the war in Ukraine weigh on the grocery market.The UK’s fourth largest supermarket chain said “developments in the geopolitical environment” and “ongoing and increasing inflationary pressure” since the beginning of February were hitting consumer sentiment and spending. Continue reading...

The airline cancelled 222 flights over the weekend and pulled another 62 of those scheduled for Monday

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Institution’s huge popularity follows years of innovation under German-born director Eike SchmidtFlorence’s Uffizi gallery has become Italy’s most visited cultural site for the first time following years of innovation under the German-born director Eike Schmidt during which it has even branched out into contemporary art.Once a slow-changing bastion of tradition, it was announced on Monday that the institution famous for its Renaissance masterpieces had last year leapt past Rome’s Colosseum, the ruins of Pompeii, the Vatican Museums and other well-known sites in terms of visitor numbers, attracting 1.7 million visitors last year, according to Il Giornale dell’Arte. The Colosseum was second with about 90,000 fewer visitors. Continue reading...

John Cole claims Logan’s mother, Angharad Williamson, shook the boy, but both deny murdering himA stepfather accused of murdering a five-year-old had threatened to kill the boy if the child’s mother broke up with him, a jury has been told.John Cole, who is on trial for murdering Logan Mwangi, denied making the threat but admitted to striking the boy the day before he died and dumping his body on a riverbank. Continue reading...

Scene hero who appeared on stage with Sex Pistols and in films by Derek Jarman later became a veterinary nursePamela Rooke, who became an icon of the British punk rock scene under the name Jordan, has died aged 66.Her partner Nick wrote on Brighton and Hove News: “She died peacefully a stone’s throw away from the sea in her home town of Seaford, East Sussex in the company of her loving family at 9pm last night (Sunday 3 April) … after a short period of illness, she succumbed to a relatively rare form of cancer known as cholangiocarcinoma (bile duct cancer). Jordan was a wonderful woman and will be remembered for countless decades to come.” Continue reading...

Academy of Live and Recorded Arts says it is no longer financially viable and is closing with immediate effectA British drama school has closed after an unsuccessful restructure left it with heavy losses and no longer financially viable, resulting in almost 300 students having to change school with no warning.Students at the Academy of Live and Recorded Arts (ALRA) said they were stunned and felt “physically sick” after being told on Monday that the institution, which opened in 1979 and whose alumni include Bridget Christie and Miranda Hart, was closing. All 284 students are being offered places at another drama school, Rose Bruford College, to continue their studies. Continue reading...

Berlin rules out total ban but says it is seeking to cut dependency more quickly after reports of atrocities in Bucha

Bloc urgently working on new round of sanctions against Moscow after claims of mass civilian killings