World news | The Guardian

Police say they are not looking for any suspects after fire on Western Port Highway in Cranbourne West

Second coronavirus vaccine booster shot to be available for elderly and vulnerable groups from 4 April along with winter flu immunisations

Criticism from Institute of Public Affairs comes after senator complains site calculating MPs’ voting patterns is ‘misleading’

Uncertainty over whether NT or federal government will continue to fund service protecting Indigenous people taken into custody

Police say plane was trying to land when incident happened at about 2pm on Thursday at Beccles airfieldA man has died after a light aircraft crashed at an airfield in north Suffolk.Police said the plane was attempting to land when the incident occurred at about 2pm on Thursday in the landing field at Beccles airfield. Continue reading...

Draft agreement circulating on social media suggests China could establish military base less than 2,000km from AustraliaAustralian officials are alarmed at Solomon Islands’ planned security deal with China with the defence minister, Peter Dutton, stating “we would be concerned clearly about any military base being established” less than 2,000km off the coast.Solomon Islands has signed a policing deal with China and will send a proposal for a broader security agreement covering the military to its cabinet for consideration. Continue reading...

Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi accused of being responsible for the torture of opposition figure in UAEFrench anti-terror prosecutors have opened a preliminary inquiry into torture and acts of barbarism allegedly committed by Emirati general Ahmed Nasser al-Raisi, according to judicial sources.. Raisi in November became president of Interpol.The inquiry follows a legal complaint by an NGO that accused Raisi of being responsible in his role as high-ranking official at the United Arab Emirates interior ministry for the torture of an opposition figure. Continue reading...

Masks will remain mandatory in health and care settings as cases rise across countryPeople in Wales will no longer be legally required to wear masks in shops and on public transport from Monday and the legal obligation to stay at home after a positive Covid test is to be scrapped.Mask wearing will still be mandatory in health and care settings, however, and businesses will have to continue to carry out coronavirus risk assessments and put “reasonable” mitigation measures in place. Continue reading...

Poland and Baltic states seek embargo, while other countries including Germany and Belgium want gradual measures

Barclay has not yet paid any of the £100m due to Lady Hiroko Barclay and halved her monthly allowanceSir Frederick Barclay, who along with his twin brother was once one of the UK’s richest men, is relying on his nephews to fund his divorce battle after being evicted from his luxury flat, a court has heard.A high court hearing on Thursday heard that Barclay, 87, has not paid any of the £100m divorce order made almost a year ago and has halved the monthly allowance to his wife of 34 years, Lady Hiroko Barclay. Continue reading...

Dr Peter Schlesinger did not examine Porsche McGregor-Sims despite gynaecological issues, inquest toldAn NHS trust has apologised over the death of a 27-year-old events manager after a locum gynaecologist mistook aggressive cervical cancer for a hormonal or bowel problem.The family of Porsche McGregor-Sims, who died a day after being admitted to Queen Alexandra hospital in Portsmouth, told her inquest that she had felt she was not listened to and that the misdiagnosis had robbed them of a chance to say goodbye. Continue reading...

Northern Irish executive has not commissioned any services since terminations became legal in 2019The UK government is taking legal steps to override the Northern Ireland executive and directly instruct the nation’s health trusts to provide abortion services, saying it will “take the necessary powers” to directly commission services if urgent progress is not made.The secretary for Northern Ireland, Brandon Lewis, set out the UK government’s legislative options in strong language on Thursday, after it became “increasingly clear” that the Northern Ireland Department of Health (NI DoH) will miss the end of March deadline to fully commission abortion services in the country. Continue reading...

Joyce wrote letter of support for ASX-listed Costa Group for fibre-to-the-premises conversion under Coalition grants program

Staff across Australia take first steps towards industrial action as promised payments are caught up in bureaucratic delays

Analysis: Clunky media appearances highlight an awkwardness with ordinary voters that was invisible during the pandemicOne of Gordon Brown’s few and oft-repeated jokes was that there are two kinds of chancellor: those who fail, and those who get out in time.Despite having served little more than two years in the job, Rishi Sunak may have missed the moment to quit – or move next door – while he was ahead, according to Thursday’s front pages at least. Continue reading...

Move comes after Google banned adverts condoning the war from websites, apps and YouTube channels

Action comes as Lloyd’s of London returns to profit but warns Ukraine war will present ‘major claim’

Ho Hoang Hung set off with no navigation system after spending two years apart because of Covid restrictionsA Vietnamese man who tried to row 2,000 kilometres (1,240 miles) from Thailand to India to see his wife has been taken into custody after being rescued off the Thai coast.Ho Hoang Hung set off from the holiday island of Phuket in an inflatable rubber dinghy, equipped with water and instant noodles but no navigation system, planning to cross the Bay of Bengal not long before the start of cyclone season. Continue reading...

Competition and Markets Authority says deal could lead to higher costs for motorists in 121 areas of BritainFuel prices, already at record levels, could be pushed higher in 121 locations across the UK as a result of the £7bn takeover of Morrisons by a US private equity firm, the consumer watchdog has said.The Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation in January into the supermarket chain’s takeover by Clayton, Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), examining matters including a potential lessening in competition between petrol forecourts. Continue reading...

Sheikh Mohammed’s ex-wife Princess Haya granted responsibility for decisions on their children’s medical care and schoolingThe ruler of Dubai will have no face-to-face contact with his two children from his marriage to Princess Haya nor any substantive say in their upbringing, after a long-running court battle between the former couple and a series of damning judgments about his “abusive behaviour”.Concluding more than two and a half years of legal proceedings, which began when Haya fled to the UK with the children in April 2019, the president of the family division of the high court in England and Wales said Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum had “consistently displayed coercive and controlling behaviour with respect to those members of his family who he regards as behaving contrary to his will”.Sheikh Mohammed orchestrated the abductions and confinement of two of his other children, Princess Latifa and Princess Shamsa – in the latter case from the streets of Cambridge – and subjected Haya to a campaign of “harassment and intimidation”.He hacked the phones of Haya and five of her associates, including two of her lawyers, using NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware while the couple were locked in court proceedings.His agents attempted to buy a £30m estate next door to Haya’s Berkshire home in a “very significant threat to her security”, while publicly denying they were doing so. Continue reading...

Billionaire oil tycoon, six banks and a defence company also included in list

McKinsey partner who provided advice on jobkeeper replaces John Alexander in Sydney north shore seat

Chancellor says measures ‘will make a difference’ after critics say mini-budget not enough amid cost of living crisis

Exclusive: Tory peer Michelle Mone used private email addresses to contact Gove and another cabinet minister about PPE offerMichael Gove was secretly involved in the process through which a PPE company linked to the Tory peer Michelle Mone secured huge government contracts, according to newly released documents that show private emails being used for government business.The correspondence threatens to embroil Gove in the deepening controversy surrounding PPE Medpro, the company awarded government contracts worth £203m after it was referred to the “high-priority lane” for well connected companies. Continue reading...

Tasmanian senator says prime minister committed in 2019 to accept New Zealand’s offer to resettle refugees, but she could not talk about agreement

Searchers have found one of the two dogs Shayla Phillips was last seen playing with in Stormlea, south-east of Hobart, but there is no sign of the girl

Rex Patrick to reveal political intentions tomorrow after Nick Xenophon announces run for Senate; Japanese encephalitis declared disease of national significance; Liberals select candidate for Bennelong; fifth arrest this week over climate crisis protest; Morrison says having Putin at G20 ‘a step too far’; at least 35 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Oksana Baulina was killed with another civilian while reporting for the independent Russian news website the Insider

Boris Johnson tries to persuade Indian PM to take a more robust approach to Russia over invasionA high-powered cross-party UK delegation to India led by the Commons Speaker, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and his deputy has been called off at the last minute in a sign of a growing rift over India’s refusal to distance itself from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.The 10-strong delegation has been in discussion with India since January and was planning to visit Delhi and Rajasthan, but the Indian high commission is understood to have raised objections at the last minute. Continue reading...

Comments come amid questions over the role of Annastacia Palaszczuk’s former deputy chief of staff at a Labor-aligned lobbying firm

Patrols of vigilantes are attempting to prevent children going missing and women being lured by suspected pimps at the Polish border

Themes of corruption and attitudes to poverty still resonate today, says Peter Flannery ahead of new Radio 4 adaptationIt’s regarded as one of the greatest British television dramas of all time, launching the early careers of its stars Daniel Craig, Christopher Eccleston, Gina McKee and Mark Strong.But while it was set in the mid-60s to 90s, the storylines of politics, corruption and class prevalent in Our Friends in the North are just as relevant today, its writer has said ahead of a new radio adaptation. Continue reading...

Latest updates: Ukraine president says Thursday summits will reveal ‘who is a friend, who is a partner, and who betrayed us for money’; US says Ukraine has pushed Russian forces outside of Kyiv back

Joseph Leon McQueen used photo of ‘sign here’ stickers on immigration minister’s brief to argue decision was rushed

Russia’s failure to score a quick victory has led to a grimmer phase of the war, and much still hangs in the balanceOn 24 February, shortly before dawn broke in Moscow, Vladimir Putin made the latest in a series of televised addresses. His previous appearances had contained increasingly ominous tirades about Ukraine. Now here was the culmination: the declaration of what the Russian president euphemistically called a “special military operation”.The goal, said Putin, was the “demilitarisation and denazification” of Ukraine. Continue reading...

‘Whoever is going to be the ruling party after the election, we are looking forward to a more positive relationship’, says Xiao Qian

Company to undergo two years remediation after royal commission finds it facilitated money laundering

More than 30 mayors and councillors say they should not shoulder consequences of delayed action

Under the deal 150 refugees a year held on Nauru, or who have come to Australia temporarily, will be eligible for resettlement

Musician says he has checked into a rehabilitation centre and has been struggling with ‘anxiety and depression’Former Silverchair singer Daniel Johns has been charged with high-range drink driving after being involved in a car accident on Wednesday night.On Thursday, New South Wales police said that a 42-year-old man had been arrested after a crash in the state’s Hunter region at 10.30pm the previous evening.In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is 1-800-273-8255. In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. Other international helplines can be found at www.befrienders.org. Continue reading...

Local heroes including screenwriter Jimmy McGovern and comedian Johnny Vegas will take stage at Shakespeare North Playhouse this summerA new Shakespearean theatre is to open in Merseyside this summer with a ceremony that celebrates “local heroes” including the builders who constructed it.The £30m Shakespeare North Playhouse in Prescot, Knowsley, has a 470-seat theatre, the Cockpit, modelled on Inigo Jones’s cockpit-in-court design in 17th-century London. The site also has an outdoor performance garden, funded by Liverpudlian comedian Ken Dodd’s charitable foundation, and a small studio theatre, as well as exhibition and educational facilities. Continue reading...

Health department did not keep full records of meetings with healthcare firm Paterson lobbied for, NAO findsMatt Hancock, the former health secretary, failed to notify his officials about private messages he exchanged with disgraced Conservative MP Owen Paterson, a healthcare firm’s paid lobbyist, an official watchdog has disclosed.In a critical report, the National Audit Office (NAO) concluded that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) did not record properly why it awarded contracts worth nearly £500m to the healthcare firm, Randox. Continue reading...

Police commander also admits Met has problem with officers treating inner London children as ‘adults’Two of the five officers who were involved in the traumatic strip search of a 15-year-old black girl in her school in Hackney, London, have been removed from frontline duties, the Metropolitan police has confirmed.The admission came at a community meeting on Wednesday evening as anger over the treatment of the girl, known as Child Q, continues. The meeting was originally supposed to take place in person but had to be moved online after the police force could not find a venue. More than 250 people attended, with more wanting to but unable to join because of the meeting’s limit. Continue reading...

Analysis: Russia is facing logistical constraints while Ukraine is reliant on supply from the westIt has been a month since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine, and such has been the intensity of the first phase of the fighting that both sides in the conflict have increasingly depleted their stocks of ammunition and other military supplies.But while Ukraine is willing to claim that the Russian invaders have only three days of supplies left, while warning that its own troops are running out of anti-tank and anti-aircraft systems, the reality is hard to measure. Continue reading...

Chancellor faces warnings that he has not done enough to address biggest fall in living standards on record

Comments at PMQs in contrast to Labour leader’s stand that ‘trans women are women’Campaigners have called for discussion of transgender rights to focus on respect, generosity and the elimination of prejudice after the prime minister stated that “basic facts of biology remain overwhelmingly important”.At Wednesday’s PMQs, Boris Johnson told MPs that “we must recognise when people want to make a transition in their lives that they should be treated with the maximum possible generosity and respect” but added “when it comes to distinguishing between man and woman, the basic facts of biology remain overwhelmingly important”. Continue reading...

Arturo McFields Yescas spoke out against the government he is representing in a verbal attack that was lauded by the USNicaragua’s ambassador to the Organization of American States has launched an extraordinary verbal attack on the authoritarian government he is employed to represent, castigating Daniel Ortega’s “indefensible” dictatorship for its assault on human rights and democracy.Arturo McFields Yescas spoke out during an online OAS session on Wednesday, in a startling declaration that spread quickly on social media and was commended by countries such as the US. Continue reading...

Chay Bowskill sentenced to 12 years in prison, increased from an original seven and a half yearsThe former boyfriend of a woman who was left with catastrophic brain injuries when she fell out of a van he had bundled her into has had his prison sentence increased.Chay Bowskill, of Syston, Leicestershire, bundled Angel Lynn into a van being driven by his friend Rocco Sansome as she tried to walk away from him after an argument in September 2020. She was found lying seriously injured in the carriageway of the A6 near Loughborough, and remains in hospital requiring round-the-clock care. Continue reading...

Most report minor breathing difficulties, says ambulance service after incident at aquatics centreTwenty-nine people were taken to hospital after a high quantity of chlorine gas was released in an accident on Wednesday at the aquatics centre at London’s Olympic park.Some of the injured included swimmers in a parent and toddler group who were in the children’s pool at the time of the incident, which was first reported by the centre just after 11am. Continue reading...