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Defence minister tells meeting of military leaders that government has agreed to sign off delivery

Queensland senator Matt Canavan adds to uncertainty about Coalition climate commitments; foreign minister accuses Labor of ‘playing politics’ on national security after Penny Wong criticises Scott Morrison for ‘refusing to take responsibility in Pacific’; at least 50 Covid deaths as WA to ease mask mandate in some settings. Follow the latest updates live

Yoorrook commission will establish official record of Indigenous experiences since colonisation

Request for reimbursement from Kerry Stokes’s private company not made until after court told of network’s legal financing

Labour deputy says article was ‘steeped in classism’ that puts women off achieving in their careers

Sales of sunflower oil up 27% as Britons become aware of shortage arising from Ukraine warUK shoppers have begun to stockpile some essentials such as cooking oil as grocery price inflation hits it highest level in more than a decade in April.Supermarket shoppers were preparing for limited availability of some goods along with higher prices, as the war in Ukraine increased public awareness of supply pressures and prices rose, according to the latest survey by the market analyst Kantar. Continue reading...

Leader vows to boost nuclear arsenal primarily as deterrent but also against forces that try to ‘violate’ interests of nationNorth Korean leader Kim Jong-un has vowed to move faster in bolstering his nuclear forces and threatened to use them if provoked in a speech during a military parade that featured powerful weapons systems that could be used to target the country’s rivals.His remarks suggest he will continue provocative weapons tests in a pressure campaign to wrest concessions from the US and its allies. The parade on Monday night was to mark the 90th anniversary of North Korea’s army – the backbone of the Kim family’s authoritarian rule – and was held as the country’s economy is battered by pandemic-related difficulties, punishing US-led sanctions and its own mismanagement. Continue reading...

António Guterres to meet Putin and Lavrov but Kyiv says he should have come to Ukraine first

Ex-soldier known as Person 5 denies allegation put by lawyers acting for newspapers

Treasury document says inconsistencies within the system have led to motorist confusionThe impact of Sydney’s road tolls on spiralling cost of living pressures will be examined as part of a New South Wales government review into the city’s patchwork network, dubbed “tollmania” by the opposition.A NSW Treasury document said that inconsistencies within the vast system had led to motorist confusion and the road network not functioning optimally.Sign up to receive an email with the top stories from Guardian Australia every morning Continue reading...

James Heappey says it is ‘completely legitimate’ for Kyiv to identify targets in Russia to disrupt attacks

As part of industrial action, teachers also allowed to walk off school grounds when any state government MP visits

Charity vows to ‘ensure it never happens again’ after Karen Hayes featured in ads praising treasurer as an ‘amazing supporter’

Exclusive: See where the parties are pitching their digital campaigns – from the Liberals’ Why I love Australia to Labor’s WA focus and Clive Palmer’s blitz

Senior civil servant expected to be critical of Boris Johnson when findings about Westminster lockdown parties are publishedSue Gray expects to complete her report into Covid law-breaking parties across Westminster at the end of May at the earliest, the Guardian has been told.Sources said that the senior civil servant, who for months has been forced to sit on her findings about illegal gatherings while Scotland Yard carries out its own inquiry, believes the police investigation could drag on for several more weeks. Continue reading...

Exclusive: world’s biggest streaming service has announced crackdown after first fall in customers in a decadeMore than a quarter of British Netflix subscribers allow their friends and family to use their accounts, with at least 17m homes estimated to be password sharing across the embattled streaming platform’s biggest markets in Europe.Netflix announced plans to crack down on the practice as one of a number of strategic moves designed to stem investor panic after it had more than $60bn (£47bn) wiped off its market value last week when it reported its first loss of subscribers in a decade. Continue reading...

Ukraine dismisses as scare tactic Sergei Lavrov’s war comments as diplomats from dozens of countries gather in Germany for US-hosted talks to navigate ‘critical’ phase

Man in silver BMW allegedly fires single shot at two women in Adelaide Street, Carina

Official denies Marvel film is banned but says kingdom ‘still trying’ to get Disney to cut 12 seconds referring to lesbian character with two mothersSaudi Arabia has asked Disney to cut “LGBTQ references” from Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness before it can be screened in the kingdom, an official said on Monday – but denied earlier reports that the film has been banned.Disney has so far declined the requested edits to the Doctor Strange sequel, slated for release around the world next week. The cuts amount to “barely 12 seconds” in which a lesbian character, America Chavez, played by the actor Xochitl Gomez, refers to her “two moms”, according to Nawaf Alsabhan, Saudi Arabia’s general supervisor of cinema classification. Continue reading...

Felipe renounced inheritance from his father, Juan Carlos, who abdicated after financial scandalsSpain’s royal palace has unveiled King Felipe VI’s personal wealth for the first time, saying it amounted to €2.6m (£2.2m).The announcement late on Monday came as Spain’s leftist government said it would pass a decree to “strengthen the transparency, accountability, efficiency” of the scandal-hit royal household “in line with the principles that have presided” during Felipe’s reign. Continue reading...

Lords signalled they are prepared to send bills back to Commons even at 11th hour before local electionsMPs and peers are set for some late nights over the next few days as government and opposition race to complete six bills in time for parliament to be prorogued by the end of this week.Though the House of Commons leader, Mark Spencer, said business would conclude by Thursday – which would give MPs next week to get some shoe leather on the pavements ahead of the local elections – the Lords may have other ideas. Continue reading...

Exclusive: pharmacists say they should be allowed more easily to dispense substitute medicinesSajid Javid is being urged to change the law to let pharmacists alter prescriptions during medicine shortages, as it emerged that some women are travelling hundreds of miles to seek hormone replacement therapy products.There have been acute shortages of some HRT products, which are used by about 1 million women in the UK to treat symptoms of the menopause. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Simon Case and at least four permanent secretaries raise alarm over Johnson government’s tacticsThe UK’s top civil servant has privately warned Boris Johnson against forcing government workers back to the office amid growing anger in Whitehall over “scare tactics”, the Guardian has learned.Alongside Simon Case, at least four permanent secretaries – the most senior civil servants in their department – are also understood to have raised alarm over government rhetoric designed to reverse the shift to working-from-home arrangements during the Covid pandemic. Continue reading...

Energy company effectively nationalised as part of bailout that could cost taxpayers £2.2bnThe UK government has defended a decision to pay millions of pounds in bonuses to staff at the collapsed energy supplier Bulb, despite the fact that it has been effectively nationalised as part of a bailout that could cost taxpayers £2.2bn.Quarterly “retention bonuses” were deemed necessary to prevent an exodus of staff that could have scuppered efforts to keep the business afloat while a buyer is found, multiple sources familiar with the situation said. Continue reading...

Grandmother believed to be one of victims as three women and a man pronounced dead after police called to home in SouthwarkA grandmother was among four people stabbed to death in a house in south London, a family member has said, after a man was arrested on suspicion of their murder.The Metropolitan police are investigating the deaths after police were called to a residential address on Delaford Road in Bermondsey at about 1.40am on Monday after reports of a disturbance. Continue reading...

Prime minister threatens to unleash ‘the terrors of the earth’ on the source behind the comments if they are identified. This live blog is now closed – for updates on the war in Ukraine, please follow this live blog

MPs presented with dossier of 986 cases where visas have been applied for but not yet grantedAlmost 1,000 Ukrainian families who applied for visas under the UK government’s Homes for Ukraine scheme are still waiting for the applications to be processed more than a month after submitting them.One would-be host, Lauren Corbishley, who has founded a protest group about the delays, said the failure to issue visas to some of those who applied at the beginning of the scheme was “torture” for the families. She called on the government to launch a public inquiry into what has gone wrong. Continue reading...

Analysis: Vote map shows large swathes of country backing Le Pen, potentially boding ill for victorious incumbentWhichever way you cut it – and as obvious as the observation may sound – the runoff vote that returned Emmanuel Macron to the Élysée Palace for a second term, with a score of 58.5% to Marine Le Pen’s 41.5%, showed France to be a divided country.But it’s complicated. Continue reading...

Robert Golob’s victory against Janez Janša is ‘a chance to make Europe stronger’Left and liberal pro-EU politicians have welcomed the defeat of Slovenia’s rightwing populist prime minister, Janez Janša, to a political insurgent who has pledged to restore “normality” to the central European nation.With nearly all ballots counted, political newcomer Robert Golob gained nearly 35% of the vote for his Freedom Movement launched in January. He is expected to form a government with the support of smaller leftwing groups, ending the hard-right government led by Janša, who styled himself on Hungary’s autocratic leader, Viktor Orbán, and took nearly 24% of the vote. Continue reading...

First case in a year sparks fears of new outbreak despite success of national programme to wipe out the diseasePakistan has confirmed its first case of polio after more than a year, damaging the country’s hopes of eradicating the virus. Health officials have announced that a baby boy in North Waziristan, bordering Afghanistan, is paralysed after contracting polio.DrShahzad Baig, a coordinator with the Pakistan Polio Eradication Programme, confirmed the “deeply saddening” case. Continue reading...

Tass reports arrest of members of neo-Nazi group allegedly plotting to kill TV host on Ukraine’s orders

After Angela Rayner was subject of sexist article, we look at other instances of misogyny in politics

Jean Castex’s decision to resign allows president to choose new team amid a changed political landscapeEmmanuel Macron is expected to announce a new prime minister in the coming days as he turns his focus to legislative elections in June after his defeat of Marine Le Pen in the presidential runoff on Sunday.The current prime minister, Jean Castex, has said he will resign along with the government, allowing the Macron to choose a fresh face and team for his second five-year terms in office. Continue reading...

Typical figure in first three months of 2022 was 6.1% higher than a year earlier, standing at £849 a monthMore than one in seven private tenants are “overpaying” to secure a rental property, often because they are desperate or there is nothing else available, research suggests.Average UK rents have increased for the sixth quarter in a row as shortages of available properties continue to drive up costs, according to the Deposit Protection Service (DPS), a government-authorised scheme that keeps tenants’ deposits safe. Continue reading...

Islamist group says it captured mercenary from Kremlin-linked private security firmA jihadist group in Mali claims to have captured a fighter from the Kremlin-linked Wagner mercenary group reportedly fighting Islamist militants in the west African country.“In the first week of April, [we] captured a soldier of the Russian Wagner forces in the Segou region in central Mali,” the GSIM (the Group to Support Islam and Muslims) said in a statement sent to AFP overnight. Continue reading...

Cabinet split emerges after minister Nadine Dorries criticises notes being left on empty civil servant desks

Foreign Correspondent’s Club’s decision sparks outrage from journalists and resignations from press freedom committeeHong Kong’s Foreign Correspondent’s Club has scrapped its annual Human Rights Press Awards just days before it was due to announce winners, out of fear it would violate the city’s wide-ranging national security law.The decision sparked a number of resignations from the club’s press freedom committee, and public criticism from journalists and former award winners, who described the move as sad, and evidence that it could no longer serve in its mission to defend the press. Continue reading...

Far-right candidate finished far ahead of Emmanuel Macron in Guadeloupe, Martinique and RéunionMarine Le Pen may have lost to Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential election, but the far-right candidate finished far ahead of the incumbent in some of France’s overseas territories, doubling or in some cases even trebling her vote share.In the Caribbean islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique and in French Guiana, the National Rally leader scored 69.6%, 60.8% and 60.7% respectively. She also won in the Indian Ocean constituencies of Mayotte (59.1%) and Réunion (59.5%). Continue reading...

Russian state media reports fires at civilian and military depots in Bryansk, which are potentially an act of sabotage by Kyiv

Former chancellor says he has no intention of resigning his seats on boards of Russian energy firms

Moscow complains about US military aid as Washington promises more support, including advanced weapons

Conservative lobby group uses images of elite swimmers in ads targeting ‘woke politicians’ but Emily Seebohm says Advance acted ‘without my consent’

Government lawyers confirm Home Office plan to force small boats back to France has been abandonedPriti Patel’s refugee pushback policy has been officially withdrawn by the government days before a judicial review of the tactic was due to be heard in the high court.The government’s legal department acknowledged in a letter on Sunday that the plan to try to force people in dinghies back to France has been abandoned after Boris Johnson’s announcement that the Royal Navy would take over operations in the Channel. Continue reading...

Man charged with flouting no-fly zone after hitting Piazza Venezia – last week a drone crashed into the Leaning Tower of PisaA tourist has been charged with flouting strict no-fly zone rules after crashing a drone into the roof of a prominent monument in central Rome in the latest drone-related tourist mishap in Italy.The Argentinian man, 39, had been flying his drone in Piazza Venezia when he lost control of the device and sent it crashing into the roof of Palazzo Venezia, a 15th-century building from where the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini delivered some of his most famous speeches. Continue reading...

Cat Rock Capital says Just Eat ‘torpedoed’ share price by providing misleading outlook before Grubhub takeover

Presidents and prime ministers from Europe, the Americas and across the world have expressed relief at Emmanuel Macron’s victory over Marine Le Pen

Deputy Labor leader says Chinese Solomon Islands base would make Australia ‘less safe’; Anzac Day services and marches return for the first time since pandemic began; Peter Dutton compares events in Ukraine to ‘the 1930s’; ABC presenter Fauziah Ibrahim under social media review; at least 17 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

President acknowledges divisions after historic 13 million votes for Le Pen’s anti-immigration partyThe pro-European centrist Emmanuel Macron has vowed to unite a divided France after winning a second term as French president in a decisive victory against the far-right’s Marine Le Pen, who nonetheless won more than 13 million votes in a historic high for her anti-immigration party.Macron became the first French leader to win re-election for 20 years, scoring 58.54% to Le Pen’s 41.46%. Continue reading...

Residents hope to avoid Shanghai-style shortages as Chinese authorities rush to stamp out outbreak in the capital