World news | The Guardian

News comes after questionnaires were sent to more than 100 people thought to be involved in lockdown gatheringsBoris Johnson is facing a possible police interview over lockdown breaches in Downing Street as the Metropolitan police said they intended to start questioning witnesses after sending out questionnaires to more than 100 people.But the police statement – issued two months since inquiries began – suggests officers have not yet found breaches that meet the evidentiary threshold for fixed-penalty notices to be issued without further interviews. No FPNs have been issued so far, the force said. Continue reading...

RMT says agency rates for seafarers are ‘gut-wrenching betrayal’ of 800 sacked British staffSeafarers from abroad brought in to replace the 800 sacked British P&O Ferries crew are being paid as little as £1.80 an hour, unions have claimed.The news emerged as Labour accused the government of doing “absolutely nothing” when it learned of the planned sackings, as a memorandum with the “game plan” of P&O was circulated on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...

Russia accused of striking residential areas in what would be first attack on Black Sea port

AA accused retailers of dragging feet on passing on reduction to drivers, as petrol and diesel hit record highsFuel retailers have dismissed accusations that they have been slow to reduce prices at the pump to reflect a recent fall in their own wholesale costs, as petrol and diesel hit new records on UK forecourts.The chancellor, Rishi Sunak, is under pressure to cut fuel duty during his spring statement on Wednesday, at which the rising cost of living is likely to take centre stage. Continue reading...

Ali Harbi Ali made ‘specific reconnaissance trips’ to Gove’s address and constituency surgery of Mike Freer, jury toldConservative MP Sir David Amess was stabbed 21 times in a terrorist “assassination” by a “fanatical Islamist” who also scouted the home of Michael Gove and researched a string of MPs including Sir Keir Starmer as he plotted to kill, incited by Islamic State propaganda, a court has heard.Ali Harbi Ali, 26, denies the murder of Amess, 69, on 15 October 2021 as the MP held a constituency surgery in Belfairs Methodist church in Leigh-on-Sea in Essex. Continue reading...

Boris Romanchenko died after rocket hit building where he lived in Ukrainian cityA 96-year-old man who survived a string of Nazi concentration camps including Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen has been killed by an explosion during the Russian assault on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, a spokesperson for the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial foundation has confirmed.“We are shocked to confirm the violent death of Boris Romanchenko, whose niece informed us on Monday morning that he died last Friday after a bomb or rocket hit the multistorey building where he lived in Kharkiv and his apartment was burned out,” a spokesperson told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Fires have caused two deaths, including one in Oklahoma, as largest blaze is 30% contained after burning nearly 85 square milesWildfires continued to scorch parts of Texas on Monday while a storm system moving through could bring much-needed rain but also strong winds, forecasters said.The Eastland Complex, which comprises several fires in one place, had burned nearly 85 square miles in an area about 120 miles west of Dallas and was 30% contained as of Monday morning. Continue reading...

Ministers plan to stick with law change that could see Ukrainians without correct visa jailed for four years

Allegations involve a farm that received subsidies after its ownership was transferred to Babiš-owned AgrofertFormer Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš, will face trial after the prosecution indicted him in a fraud case involving European Union subsidies.The move announced on Monday by Prague’s public prosecution office came weeks after the lower house of the Czech parliament agreed to lift Babiš’ immunity from prosecution for his alleged involvement in the $2m (£1.5m) fraud. Continue reading...

Grand slam winner charged with 24 counts relating to concealing assets such as property, trophies and medalsBoris Becker dishonestly “played” the bankruptcy system, hiding cash, property and trophies from insolvency trustees, a court has heard at the opening of his trial.The multiple grand slam winner is charged with 24 counts relating to concealing assets, nine of which relate to trophies and medals won during his illustrious playing career, including from his first Wimbledon men’s single championship when he burst on to the world scene, aged just 17 years old. Becker denies all the charges. Continue reading...

Campaigners believe report is delayed because it will show ministers’ calls for 20% cut have been ignoredMinisters have delayed by a year publication of a report that will show whether they have achieved their goal of reducing the sugar content of a wide range of foodstuffs by 20%.The official assessment of the government’s high-profile drive to cut the amount of sugar in Britain’s diet was originally due to be published last autumn. However, it was initially put off until early this year and has now been held back again and will not appear until this autumn. Continue reading...

Jim Chalmers says if elected, an Albanese government will deliver a ‘proper’ budget before the end of the year to amend ‘damage of the last 10 years’

Separate Australian National University longitudinal survey suggests Coalition primary vote slumps to 32.2% with Labor in election-winning position

Commercially sold bread set at 11.50 Egyptian pounds a kilo as Russian invasion sends wheat prices soaringEgypt has fixed the price of unsubsidised bread amid a global surge in wheat prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The move comes after war shut off access to cheaper wheat from the Black Sea region, particularly affecting exports to the Middle East and north African region. Egypt is the world’s biggest wheat importer, bringing in about 60% of its grain from overseas. Russia and Ukraine accounted for 80% of the country’s imports last year. Continue reading...

A reporter describes life under siege in the Ukrainian city and why it was so important to break the silenceThe Russians were hunting us down. They had a list of names, including ours, and they were closing in.We had been documenting the siege of Mariupol by Russian troops for more than two weeks and were the only international journalists left in the city. We were reporting inside the hospital when gunmen began stalking the corridors. Surgeons gave us white scrubs to wear as camouflage. Continue reading...

Snow Patrol and Gregory Porter will also perform at the televised fundraiser, with more performers still to be announcedEd Sheeran, Camila Cabello and Snow Patrol will perform at the televised Concert for Ukraine, to be broadcast by ITV and STV.“My heart is breaking for the people of Ukraine,” said Cabello. “As refugees from Ukraine join millions of other displaced people around the globe, we all have a responsibility.”Tickets for the Concert for Ukraine go on sale on Tuesday 22 March. Continue reading...

UK to support refugees fleeing Russian invasion, says Sajid Javid, but charities warn of visa applications obstacle

Minister to talk to airline after accusations made by Ukrainian ambassador to Ireland

Carmaker’s move backed by French government as Nestlé also comes under pressure to withdraw businessThe French carmaker Renault has resumed manufacturing in its plants in Moscow, bucking the trend of many other large global companies that have cut ties with Russia over its war on Ukraine.Renault had suspended production at the plant last month, citing logistical problems after the invasion of Ukraine on Vladimir Putin’s orders. However, Renault’s decision to restart manufacturing has the backing of the French government, which is its main shareholder, according to sources cited by Reuters. Continue reading...

Politicians and business leaders sign open letter as Duke and Duchess of Cambridge visit CaribbeanJamaican campaigners have accused the Queen of perpetuating slavery, in a letter urging the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge to atone for colonialism during their Caribbean tour.As the country celebrates 60 years of independence, a coalition of Jamaican politicians, business leaders, doctors and musicians have called in the open letter for the British monarchy to apologise for colonialism and pay slavery reparations. Continue reading...

First case of wild polio detected in Malawi for 30 years prompts emergency rollout of vaccinations in five African countriesMore than 23 million young children across southern Africa will be offered vaccinations against wild polio after an outbreak of the virus was detected in Malawi for the first time since 1992.Children under five in Lilongwe, Malawi’s capital, began to be immunised on Sunday as part of a mass drive against the disease. Continue reading...

City University student was found dead on Saturday in Clerkenwell halls of residenceThe family of a 19-year-old student who died in her university halls in London have paid tribute to their “beautiful, irreplaceable angel”.Sabita Thanwani, a psychology student at City, University of London, was found with serious neck injuries at her halls of resident in Clerkenwell, central London. Police and medics were called to the scene in the early hours of Saturday morning, but Thanwani died at the scene. Continue reading...

Eton head says rigorous admissions policy will prevent middle-class parents from gaming the systemThe headteacher of Eton college has said its plans to open three “Etons of the north” in deprived areas of England would not “cream off the bright kids” from local schools, amid concern from educators.The world’s most famous private school is planning to open free elite selective sixth-form colleges in Oldham, Dudley and Middlesbrough by 2025 in partnership with Star Academies. Continue reading...

Zero Mercury Working Group tested 271 products from 15 countries and found nearly half to be contaminated at levels above 1ppmMercury contamination is widespread among skin lightening and anti-ageing creams sold on online platforms like eBay, Alibaba and Amazon, a new analysis of hundreds of products has found.The Zero Mercury Working Group (ZMWG) tested 271 products bought in 15 countries over a 13-month period and found nearly half to be contaminated with the dangerous heavy metal at levels above 1 part per million (ppm), the legal limit in the US. The EU, meanwhile, doesn’t allow any mercury in cosmetics. Continue reading...

Delivering eulogy at wife’s funeral, Andrew Landeryou says she ‘deserved so very much better’ from internal party rivalsKimberley Kitching’s husband has, during her funeral service, criticised a “cantankerous cabal” over its treatment of the late Victorian senator.Family, friends, and state and federal politicians from both sides of politics gathered at St Patrick’s Cathedral in Melbourne on Monday to farewell the Labor senator who died suddenly on 10 March of a suspected heart attack. She was 52. Continue reading...

Former NSW deputy premier is suing Google over a series of videos by Jordan Shanks that he says led to his resignation

Police say Williams’ family have been grieving ‘a long time’ and are happy an arrest was made

Hamro’s leader promises new start for Indian hill station after years of strikes and insurgenciesIndia’s romantic hill station Darjeeling has evoked images of beautiful tea-growing gardens but also, for those who follow its politics, of industrial strikes and violent insurgencies.No more, says the leader of a new political party that swept to power in recent municipal polls, vowing to end years of agitation that have blighted the region’s main sources of income: tea and tourism. Continue reading...

Popularity of ‘finfluencers’ providing stock tips and flaunting lavish lifestyles is rising as younger demographic looks to invest

Need for damage to be serious and imminent before Facebook and Google take action means ‘chronic’ problems build, watchdog says – citing mistrust of vaccines

Posters of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Can span movement’s roots in the counterculture scene of 1968A motley train of shaggy-haired musicians is gliding into the future on a hastily sketched highway, brandishing bongos, vegetables and flaming guitars.The poster for a 1971 gig by German-English-Swiss trio Brainticket, on display at Berlin’s small Bröhan Museum until 24 April, visually sums up the essence of a German musical movement so forward-looking at its height, its country of origin is only now starting to recognise its legacy. Continue reading...

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Grattan Institute report finds ‘consistent pattern’ of transport funding going to political battleground states

Resolution Foundation says pegging benefits to inflation will target help to needy better than scrapping NI riseRishi Sunak should consider raising benefits and pensions to keep pace with inflation, research has suggested, as the chancellor faced increasing pressure to tackle the cost-of-living squeeze in this week’s spring budgetary statement.Increasing benefits by an extra five percentage points, by 8.1% rather than the 3.1% currently planned, would give four times as much help for low-to-middle income households for every pound spent as scrapping the planned national insurance rise, the Resolution Foundation said. Continue reading...

Conservationist detained since 2018 left behind when Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori releasedMorad Tahbaz, the British-Iranian-American citizen left behind last week when Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were allowed to return home to the UK, has been taken from Evin prison to a hotel in Tehran after representations by the British and American governments, the Foreign Office has said.The department added that it was lobbying the Iranian authorities at the highest levels to allow him to return to his Tehran home immediately as the Iranian government had previously committed to do. Continue reading...

Letter to business secretary calls firm’s sacking of 800 workers ‘scandalous’ and a criminal offenceLabour has urged the business secretary to launch legal action against P&O Ferries over its “scandalous” decision to sack 800 workers without warning, which the party said is a criminal offence.Shadow transport secretary, Louise Haigh, deputy leader Angela Rayner and shadow business secretary Jonathan Reynolds have written to Kwasi Kwarteng, asking if he will begin proceedings for what they called the “scandalous action” of the ferry company. Continue reading...

Unicef ambassador’s 71.5m followers shown tenacious perinatal work with pregnant women and newborns in besieged city

Leading thinktank finds cuts made during pandemic have harmed the UK as well as recipient countries

Zelenskiy says parties such as Viktor Medvedchuk’s Opposition Platform for Life are ‘aimed at division or collusion’

Chancellor says rising energy prices mean ‘it’s not going to be easy’ after consumer expert Martin Lewis gives stark assessmentRishi Sunak has repeatedly declined to say how many more people could be pushed into fuel poverty by rising energy prices, saying only that people should not be scared.The chancellor is facing increasing pressure over cost of living issues in the run-up to Wednesday’s spring budgetary statement, with particular concerns that a rise in energy bills next month, followed by another in October, will be devastating for household budgets. Continue reading...

Britain credited by the world’s defence ministries in arming Ukrainian troops with the most effective weaponsIt has become a common sight in the first three weeks of the invasion of Ukraine – Russian tanks, transporters and supply trucks burnt out at the side of the road, picked off by lightweight weaponry. While intrepid Ukrainian troops have been deploying the tactics, Britain has played a role in supplying the tech and the knowhow. While Britain’s response to the refugee crisis in Ukraine has been heavily criticised, it is now widely acknowledged in the world’s defence ministries to have played a leading role in arming Ukrainian troops with the most effective weapons, as well as training.“We can criticise British foreign policy at times, but we actually led,” said Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, emeritus professor of war studies, King’s College London. “There has been very close cooperation with the Ukrainians for a while, so there was a good idea of what they’d need, but it also had a good anti-tank weapon to send them. It was the first to send substantial equipment before war began, and it has made a difference.” Continue reading...

Imran Khan seeks to bolster domestic support amid threat from opposition coalition and cooling relations with militaryAddressing the crowds at a public rally in Punjab last week, Pakistan’s prime minister was on the attack. Western leaders, Imran Khan said, treated Pakistan as their “slave” and presumed that “whatever you say, we will do”.Days before, it had been announced that Khan would be facing a vote of no confidence in parliament at the end of March, after more than 100 members of Pakistan’s united opposition successfully tabled a motion to oust him. The vote will take place on Friday 25 March. Continue reading...

Alan Duncan’s employer Vitol has stake in vast Arctic exploration project backed by the Putin regime

Wagner Group connected to white supremacists, Tech against Terrorism investigation finds

The Gales were nervous about inviting the Koletvinovs into their home. But one week on, everyone is sharing language lessons and traditional dishes

‘We are a stronger and a better country than many acknowledge’, says retiring health minister

Primetime host rejects suggestion he is pushing pro-Putin rhetoric – and he’s still hugely popular with viewersLast week, two Fox News journalists died in Ukraine, and the news channel grieved along with the rest of the country amid anger at the Russian onslaught. Republicans, too, rapidly shed past views on Russia and some called for no-fly zones and supplying Ukraine with Polish MiG fighter jets as Vladimir Putin’s brutal invasion ground on.But the far-right Fox News host Tucker Carlson, the alternately flabbergasted and outraged primetime host and Trumpist standard-bearer, carried on presenting his conspiratorial show with such a seeming lack of regard that the Kremlin itself reportedly considers his equivocations over the causes of the conflict vital to its propaganda apparatus. Continue reading...

ALP Senate leader Penny Wong calls for politics to ‘take a backseat’ ahead of Kitching’s funeral on Monday

Mariupol council says civilians being sent to camps where their phones and documents are checked; Ukraine says 190,000 civilians have been evacuated from the frontline since the invasion began