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Claimants will have to prove malice, as government seeks to curb ‘Slapps’ that use wealth to deter scrutinyMinisters have set out plans to cap the costs of libel lawsuits and force claimants to prove “actual malice” in an attempt to deter legal action often used by Russian oligarchs to intimidate journalists and block publication of their links to Vladimir Putin.The UK government said it would seek legal reforms to discourage so-called strategic lawsuits against public participation (Slapps). Such lawsuits can be pursued by corporations or individuals with deep pockets, with the aim of deterring investigation and scrutiny by threatening years of costly and time-consuming legal action. Continue reading...

Acting education minister says teacher training needs overhaul as ‘bottom 10%’ are ‘dragging the chain’

Ukraine authorities say hundreds of people were hiding in theatre and that convoy of cars leaving besieged city was also shelled

The jobless rate for women fell to the lowest rate since May 1974 at 3.8%, as the economy added a net 77,400 jobs in FebruaryAustralia’s jobless rate sank to a new 13-year low last month with a big rise in full-time positions, as the economy shrugged off more of the Omicron Covid disruptions.The country’s unemployment rate fell to a seasonally adjusted 4.0% in February, compared with 4.2% in January. That’s the lowest rate since August 2008, the ABS said. Continue reading...

Ex-TV host, fired after assisting brother Andrew amid sexual harassment allegations, files request for arbitrationThe former CNN primetime host Chris Cuomo filed a request for arbitration on Wednesday, seeking $125m in damages for alleged wrongful termination.The network fired Cuomo in December, following an inquiry into his efforts to help his brother, the former New York governor Andrew Cuomo, who was accused of sexual harassment. Continue reading...

Ukraine is holding out in the heavily bombarded port city and even as thousands of people try to leave, others are arriving

Release of Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Ashoori mixed serpentine statecraft, brutal realpolitik and occasional stubborn idealism

Transparency advocates ‘can’t make sense’ of decision to exclude resource industry figures from sanctions

Liz Truss says British-Iranian dual nationals are flying back to Britain after being released from custody in Iran

Rayleigh scattering phenomenon in the south comes as hottest day of year so far forecast for SaturdaySaharan dust moving across Europe has hit the UK, turning the skies orange over southern parts of the country, meteorologists have said.It comes ahead of what is expected to be the hottest day of the year so far on Saturday, with temperatures set to reach up to 18C in some areas.

Analysis: Putin’s rhetoric remains uncompromising and analysts are sceptical negotiations will yield a lasting solution

Government says 5,500 visas granted and 20,000 applications submitted

Ofsted criticises £37,905-a-year Ampleforth college for inadequate safeguarding of vulnerable studentsVulnerable students at a British boarding school had sex in front of another pupil and others were able to sneak out and drink themselves unconscious because they were so poorly supervised, inspectors have found.“Serious failures” were identified at Ampleforth college, a Catholic boarding school in North Yorkshire that charges £37,905 a year. Continue reading...

Government says it will modify legislation giving nationality to descendants of expelled Jews to prevent it being ‘manipulated’The Portuguese government is to tighten the law granting nationality to the descendants of Jews who were expelled from the Iberian peninsula 500 years ago, as concerns grow over the controversial decision to award Roman Abramovich citizenship because of his apparent Sephardic Jewish heritage.The Russian oligarch and Chelsea FC owner, who is now subject to UK and EU sanctions because of his ties to Vladimir Putin, was granted Portuguese citizenship last year under a 2015 law designed to make amends for the mass banishments at the end of the 15th century. Continue reading...

Foreign minister’s claim undermined by aggressive comments from Vladimir Putin

Leah Washington and Joe Pugh had been dating for a month when the accident happened in June 2015A couple who were seriously injured in a rollercoaster crash at Alton Towers have got engaged.Leah Washington and Joe Pugh had been dating for about a month when in 2015 they decided to go to Alton Towers and their rollercoaster carriage crashed into a stationary carriage on the same track at 90mph. Continue reading...

Judge says court in The Hague has seen no evidence to support Kremlin’s justification for the war

Former aide says PM was told intelligence services had serious reservations about peerage planDominic Cummings has accused Boris Johnson of lying over claims that intelligence officers’ security concerns about giving a peerage to a Russian media magnate and son of a former KGB were overridden.The prime minister dismissed as “simply incorrect” reports last week that he tried to intervene to hand Evgeny Lebedev a seat in the House of Lords and law-making powers for life against the advice of UK spy agencies. Continue reading...

Interior minister says government, faced with major crisis before April presidential election, open to talksParis could offer “autonomy” to Corsica, the French government has said, suggesting the state might be willing to loosen its historic, centralised grip on the Mediterranean island as it struggles to calm violent protests.“We are ready to go as far as autonomy – there you go, the word has been said,” the interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, told the regional newspaper Corse Matin before a two-day visit, that comes after two weeks of rioting in which 100 people were injured and public buildings and police were attacked with homemade explosive devices. Continue reading...

Farmers in Ukraine describe depleting potato stocks, slaughtering their own pigs, and Russian troops appearing at the gateThe Russian invasion of Ukraine has upended the farming industry, raising fears of disruption to domestic and international food supplies. The Guardian has spoken to three farmers about what life is like on the ground, with the Russian army hiding tanks in barns and stocks of potatoes expected to deplete within weeks.Andrii Pastushenko, 39, is a dairy farmer who lives 12 miles from Kherson in the south of Ukraine, a city that has been under control of the Russian military. Continue reading...

Museum says decision to retain funding for Holocaust Galleries complies with UK sanctions against Russian oligarch

Fifteen-year-old says incident has left her wanting to ‘scream, shout, cry or give up’ every day

Ninety-seven FTSE 100 companies have committed to scheme to improve diversity – but only six CEOs are from BAME backgroundMost of Britain’s top companies now have at least one ethnic minority board member, the government-backed Parker review, set up to improve the diversity of UK boards, said on Wednesday.Improving boardroom diversity has become a hot topic for policymakers and investors in recent years, as many believe it helps address social inequalities and leads to better decision-making and performance over time. Continue reading...

Lloyd’s issued its largest ever fine for mishandling of harassment case and ‘tolerating’ inappropriate staff eventThe insurance market Lloyd’s of London has issued the largest fine in its 336-year history after a member firm mishandled a bullying and harassment case and hosted an inappropriate “Boys’ Night Out” event for staff.Lloyd’s announced on Wednesday that it had fined Atrium Underwriters more than £1m due to “serious failures” by the firm, which was shown to have tolerated discrimination, harassment and bullying over a number of years. Continue reading...

Marina Ovsyannikova says she stands by her actions in first interview since live TV intervention

Logan Gray, nine, Kye Hollingworth, 13, and Harley Anderton, 14, were subject of huge police searchThree boys who prompted a huge police search after going missing from a remote Lake District village have been found.Officers said Logan Gray, nine, Kye Hollingworth, 13, and Harley Anderton, 14, disappeared from Witherslack on Tuesday. The three were believed to be together and police carried out searches overnight in the local area. Continue reading...

Over past seven days 262,593 cases have been recorded, but with testing facilities at capacity, number could be higherGermany has recorded its highest rate of Covid-19 infections since the start of the pandemic, as mask-wearing mandates in shops, restaurants and schools will come to an end in many parts of the country this weekend.The country’s disease control agency on Wednesday reported a record incidence rate of 1,607 new infections per 100,000 people over the past seven days, one of the highest in Europe. Germany’s Robert Koch Institute has recorded a total of 262,593 confirmed new cases over the same time period and 269 new deaths within 24 hours. Continue reading...

Women fear use of sexual violence as a ‘tactic’ against those protesting the coup, after attack on 18-year-old in KhartoumDemonstrations took place across Sudan on Tuesday in protest at the alleged gang-rape of a teenager by security forces.The 18-year-old said she was attacked in Khartoum on Monday by up to nine men dressed in the uniforms of the security forces involved in dispersing regular protests held across Sudan since October’s military coup. Continue reading...

The Restaurant Group mindful of impact of Russia-Ukraine war, while drinks maker lowers profit guidance

UN rights office warns military has shown ‘flagrant disregard for human life’ and has deliberately targeted civilians since it seized power on 1 February 2021Myanmar’s military junta has committed widespread and systematic abuses against civilians that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the first comprehensive report to be produced by the UN’s human rights office since last year’s coup.The UN rights office warns the military has shown “flagrant disregard for human life” and has deliberately targeted civilians since it seized power on 1 February 2021. Continue reading...

UK foreign secretary also says Kremlin could extend ambitions to other east European countries in effort ‘recreate the Soviet Union’

Proposals included a ban on transgender school students from confidentially coming out and restrictions on sports and toilets

PM says Australia ‘will move in lockstep’ with allies on sanctioning the country’s largest trading partner

Rebuke followed story in The Australian about alleged disagreements between Kimberley Kitching and a group of female Labor senators

Couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to mashWhen is a potato not a potato? When it’s a tuber of a gourd, according to Guinness World Records.A New Zealand couple who believed they had dug up the world’s largest potato in the garden of their small farm near Hamilton have had their dreams turned to mash after Guinness wrote to say that scientific testing had found it wasn’t, in fact, a potato after all. Continue reading...

Supreme court trial hears death of man’s ex-wife was allegedly made to look like suicide

As the UK government prepares legislation, culture secretary criticises tech leaders who “decide who is silenced or cancelled”Silicon Valley executives will no longer be the “supreme arbiters” of online speech, according to the culture secretary, as the government prepares to publish reformed legislation to tackle online abuse.Nadine Dorries said “unelected” tech leaders had become some of the most powerful people in the world due to a lack of robust regulation, adding that the situation will change under the online safety bill. This imposes a duty of care on tech companies to protect users from harmful content. A revised version will be published on Thursday. Continue reading...

Ukrainian PM says more time is needed for negotiations to bear fruit as he prepares to address US Congress

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Court also hears evidence from serving SAS veteran that Victoria Cross recipient wanted to ‘choke a man to death with my bare hands’ in Afghanistan

When Roman Abramovich bought Chelsea in 2003, he transformed the club’s fortunes and ushered in a new era of billionaire owners in the Premier League. But as David Conn explains, the issues that led to sanctions being imposed on him last week by the government have been in plain view for yearsFor nearly two decades, Roman Abramovich has sat at the top table of English football. His purchase of Chelsea in 2003 transformed the club from perennial underachievers to a major force in European football that has since won every major tournament the continent offers. But right from day one, as the Guardian’s investigative reporter David Conn tells Nosheen Iqbal, there have been questions about the origins of his wealth – as well as his closeness to the Kremlin.Following the invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich was last week placed on a list of individuals to have sanctions imposed upon them by the UK government, meaning that all his assets in Britain were frozen – including Chelsea FC. With the club now in crisis and up for sale, Conn looks back on what the Abramovich era has meant for English football, and why the authorities are only taking action now. Continue reading...

Police are still seeking to establish a motive for the alleged lighting of the fatal fire

Leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovenia express ‘unequivocal support’ for Ukraine after making perilous journey by train to meet Zelenskiy

From Harry Styles in a dress to gender-neutral dressing and ‘dad bods’, Fashioning Masculinities embraces past and present trendsFrom the death of the suit during the pandemic to Harry Styles appearing on the cover of US Vogue in a dress, the conversations around masculinity and fashion appear to be contemporary, however a new exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum aims to link modern men’s fashion to its storied past.Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear, which opens on 19 March, will feature a host of contemporary fashion designers (Versace, Calvin Klein, Martine Rose) alongside historical examples of the way men dressed (from Bowie to Beau Brummell). There are more than 100 pieces which the curators hope will illustrate how glacial the trends around men’s fashion actually are. Continue reading...

Victoria also recorded its highest daily coronavirus case total in five weeks as the more-infectious Omicron subvariant spreads

Promise of ‘light touch’ checks prompts fears traffickers could see arrival of mostly women and children as opportunity

Rebel enclave hopes global outcry against Russia, the Syrian regime’s main backer, will renew interest in their causeThousands of protesters in the rebel enclave of Idlib have marked 11 years since the start of Syria’s anti-government uprising, buoyed up by the global outcry over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.More than 5,000 people gathered on the main square in the north-western city on Tuesday in one of the largest rallies the region had seen in months. Many demonstrators hoped the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, the Syrian government’s main backer, would rekindle interest in their cause. Continue reading...

British-Iranian woman has endured almost unbearable psychological stress since her arrest at Tehran airport in April 2016In White Torture, a book about the horror of solitary confinement in Iranian jails, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe recalled her first night in jail following her arrest at Tehran airport on 3 April 2016.“The first night of detention I did not know where I was,” she explained. “I don’t remember what happened or what I did. I was shocked. I didn’t know why it had happened. No one gave me any explanations. Nobody told me why they were treating me like that, why they took my child away from me or where I was. The interrogation began.” Continue reading...