Labour MP Stephen Kinnock calls for Sergei Brilev of state-controlled Rossiya 1 to be banned from UK and have assets frozen• Russia-Ukraine war: latest newsOne of Russia’s most popular television news presenters, who has been accused of being a propagandist for the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has British citizenship and a family flat in west London.Sergei Brilev has been reporting on the war in Ukraine on the state-controlled Rossiya 1, which tightly follows the Kremlin’s messaging. The channel describes the war as a “special military operation” launched to protect Ukrainian citizens from “abuse and genocide”. Continue reading...

Satellite images show Russian forces edging closer to Kyiv, only 7,000 evacuated from besieged cities, and Ukraine fears Belarus will enter war as well

Officials say those executed were convicted of charges including terrorism and holding ‘deviant beliefs’Saudi Arabia has executed 81 men over the past 24 hours, including seven Yemenis and one Syrian national, on charges including terrorism and holding “deviant beliefs“, state news agency SPA said on Saturday.The number dwarfed the 67 executions reported in the kingdom in all of 2021 and the 27 in 2020. Continue reading...

The trend towards cashless is creeping into food outletsPopular restaurant chains which stopped taking cash during the pandemic have turned their backs on it long-term in the latest sign of Britain’s shift towards going cash-free.Prezzo, Itsu and Côte Brasserie are on a growing list of restaurants that have gone card-only for good, citing reduced costs, quicker customer service and claims of improved hygiene. Continue reading...

Chief inspector tells leaders the pandemic has ‘fractured the social contract between parents and schools’

Slow uptake by police sees just 456 issued in first year, says Home Office reportNew powers to shield stalking victims from dangerous perpetrators were “mis-sold” by the government and are failing to provide rapid protection, according to a damning report sent to the Home Office.Stalking Protection Orders were introduced in 2020 and allow police to intervene in ​stalking cases before a conviction, to prevent obsessive behaviours from escalating. Continue reading...

Ukraine city near Polish border has not yet been touched by Russian bombs but people are readying for the worst

Incident took place in the western region of Benishangul-Gumuz, a site of frequent ethnic violenceEthiopia’s government said on Saturday it would act against the perpetrators after a video appeared on social media showing armed men, some in military uniforms, burning civilians to death in the west of the country.The Ethiopia government communication service said in a statement on its Facebook page that the incident occurred in the Ayisid Kebele of Metekel zone in the Benishangul-Gumuz region, a site of frequent ethnic violence for more than a year in which hundreds of civilians have died. Continue reading...

As refugees crossing borders are met with a huge relief effort, aid workers are struggling to get supplies to the millions in need in the country

MoneySavingExpert founder calls on Sunak to act, saying extreme poverty produces civil unrestSome of the poorest people in the UK will “simply starve or freeze”, as a result of rocketing energy prices, consumer expert Martin Lewis has warned, as he urged Rishi Sunak to take action in his spring statement.Lewis said energy bills for an average household, already set to rise to £1,971 in April, could hit £3,000 in October, when the regulator Ofgem next sets the price cap. “That’s my conservative guess: not the worst case,” he said. Continue reading...

Cases of human trafficking and exploitation also reported as more than 2.5 million refugees try to escape fighting

Russia launched its war with unrealistic expectations but there is little sign of voices that could halt the conflict’s relentless grindEarlier this week, Russia’s defence ministry acknowledged that young conscripts had been sent into battle and some taken prisoner.The admission, notable in itself given Russia’s careful attempts to control the narrative about the war, came just a day after President Vladimir Putin assured his nation in a video address that conscripts “are not participating and will not participate” in the conflict. The backtracking prompted some to question whether the Russian leader lied in his statement or was simply provided inaccurate information. Continue reading...

Stung by its honeymoon with westernisation, Putin’s way of restoring Russian relevance has been to tear up global norms

New generation of volunteers are answering Ukraine’s call to join war effort, in echo of Spanish civil warWhen the anti-Putin activist Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, a member of the Pussy Riot punk group, was tried for blasphemy in Moscow in 2012, she wore a T-shirt emblazoned with a defiant raised fist and the Spanish slogan “no pasarán”: they shall not pass.The phrase is associated with the Spanish civil war, which Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has made terrifyingly relevant – especially as volunteer fighters from across the world gather to defend the country from his attack. Continue reading...

Russian forces edging closer to capital, satellite images show; US tells the UN that Russia has a history of using chemical and biological weapons, after Russia warned about the potential for the ‘uncontrolled spread of bio agents’

Alfredo Cristiani, who left the country in 2021, is accused of knowing of military plans to massacre six Jesuit priestsA court in El Salvador has ordered the arrest of former president Alfredo Cristiani in relation to the 1989 massacre of six Jesuit priests and two others by soldiers.Prosecutors allege that Cristiani knew of the military’s plan to eliminate the priests and did nothing to stop them. Continue reading...

Prime minister says more than 100 mobile homes are on their way to northern NSW as he tours flood-hit Hawkesbury region

Men unexpectedly informed of their release on Friday night but do not know if they will be allowed to live permanently in Australia

Janjaweed militias accused of attacking villages as violence continues to rise in a region once ravaged by civil warAt least 19 people have been killed in Sudan’s restive Darfur region in the latest violence between rival groups that has left dozens dead this week.Fresh clashes broke out on Thursday between armed groups in the rugged Jebel Moon mountains of West Darfur state, close to the border with Chad. Continue reading...

It’s unclear if Saudi authorities placed restriction on his release but human rights campaigners promise to fight themSaudi blogger Raif Badawi has been released from prison in Saudi Arabia after serving a 10-year sentence for advocating an end to religious influence on public life, his wife said on Friday.“Raif called me. He is free,” his wife, Ensaf Haidar, who lives in Canada with their three children and had been advocating for his release, told AFP. Continue reading...

Monarch, who recently recovered from Covid, ‘will continue with other planned engagements’The Queen will not attend the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey on Monday, Buckingham Palace has confirmed.The 95-year-old monarch, who is the head of the Commonwealth, had hoped to join the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall and the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at the event, after recently recovering from Covid-19. Continue reading...

Charges relate to series of protests that blocked M25 and roads near Dover in September and OctoberSeventy four people have been charged over Insulate Britain road blockade protests in Kent, the county’s police force has said, in what is believed to be the first criminal proceedings against the activist group.The force said a total of 104 charges had been laid against Insulate Britain members in relation to protests that took place on the M25 and on roads near the port of Dover in September and October last year. Continue reading...

Fears claims of plot to use birds to spread disease could be pretext for biological attack by Russia itself

Logan Mwangi’s mother, Angharad Williamson, her partner John Cole, and boy, 14, are on trial for murderA mother accused of murdering her five-year-old child was heard screaming: “What have you done with my son?” on the morning his body was discovered by police in a river, a jury has been told.Logan Mwangi, also known as Logan Williamson, was found in the River Ogmore close to his home in the village of Sarn, south Wales, having suffered 56 injuries to his face, head and body, Cardiff crown court has heard. Continue reading...

Religious orders called on to pay compensation for physical, sexual and psychological abuse carried out for more than 70 yearsVictims of sexual, psychological and physical abuse of children in care in Northern Ireland have rejected a formal apology by religious orders and called on them to pay compensation.Ministers and representatives of six institutions at the centre of the scandal on Friday issued a long-awaited statement saying sorry for what was described as “vile” and “unimaginable” abuse carried out for more than 70 years. Continue reading...

Versailles declaration says Russia’s war in Ukraine has heralded ‘tectonic shift in European history’

Andrés Manuel López Obrador was urged to tone down his rhetoric by MEPs after a spate of journalist murders – he did the oppositeMexico’s government has lashed out at the “corruption, lies and hypocrisy” of the European parliament after its members urged its populist president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, to rein in his media-bashing rhetoric after the murders of at least six Mexican journalists.Mexico’s press corps has been plunged into mourning this year by a succession of killings targeting media workers in what was already one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. Continue reading...

French president accuses Britain of failing to live up to its claim to be leading the world in helping war victims

NFU calls for immigration review to bring in 10,000 more seasonal workers as war in Ukraine threatens food shortages

Full details are still being drawn up but individuals, families, charities or businesses can act as sponsors

Latest updates: the UK will target those complicit in Putin’s illegal invasion of Ukraine, the foreign secretary says, as sanctions are announced for some Russian MPs

Up to 16,000 volunteers to be paid $3,000 a month – a figure up to 50 times a Syrian soldier’s monthly salary

Taunton welcomes handwritten version of work poet said came to him after drug-induced reverie in nearby farmhouseMore than two centuries after Samuel Taylor Coleridge awoke from a drug-addled reverie – if the story is to be totally believed – to pen his great poem Kubla Khan, the only version of the work in the writer’s own hand has returned to the corner of south-west England that inspired him.The unique manuscript is the centrepiece of a new exhibition on Coleridge at the Museum of Somerset in Taunton, close to the hills and valleys he and William Wordsworth roamed at the end of the 18th century. Continue reading...

Analysis: Scandal-hit London force risks further ire by challenging ruling, says Reclaim These StreetsA ruling that the Metropolitan police’s handling of a proposed vigil for Sarah Everard was not in accordance with the law comes after a torrid period for the force.Dame Cressida Dick was last month forced out of her role as the Met commissioner after the London mayor accused her of failing to deal with a culture of misogyny and racism within Britain’s biggest force. Continue reading...

Moscow is insisting that Washington pledge not to sanction trade between it and Tehran over UkraineTalks on the revival of the Iran nuclear deal have become a casualty of the war in Ukraine after an indefinite pause was announced over last-minute Russian demands.An agreement on the nuclear deal to bring the US and Iran back into compliance would have led to a swathe of US sanctions on Iran being lifted, including Iranian crude oil exports and petrochemicals, in return for limits on its nuclear activity. Continue reading...

Sunday’s primetime film awards ceremony marks a break from recent tradition and promises a change of tack for institutionSunday night’s Baftas ceremony is set to stage a confident return to pre-pandemic levels of glitz and glamour amid fears of flagging audience engagement. The longest red carpet in Europe will wrap itself around a full-capacity Albert Hall ahead of the events, which boasts a new host in Australian comedy actor Rebel Wilson and, for only the second time in two decades, a pre-watershed broadcast on BBC One.Last year’s ceremony also took place at the Albert Hall but with minimal hooplah, virtual acceptance speeches and no live audience. Although the awards verdicts were lauded, Bafta’s renewed credibility was dinted three weeks later by revelations in the Guardian of multiple allegations of verbal abuse, bullying and sexual misconduct against the film-maker Noel Clarke, who had received the outstanding contribution to British cinema prize. Bafta had known about the allegations beforehand yet continued with the presentation. Continue reading...

A Georgia rattler roundup no longer kills the animals but Texas town of Sweetwater is proud of its traditionAn annual rattlesnake roundup in south Georgia recently changed the format of this month’s event to celebrate living snakes without skinning and butchering them, earning plaudits from animal rights activists.But no such changes are occurring at a huge rattlesnake roundup beginning this weekend in Texas, a festival that the activists say is barbaric. The two events are a marked contrast in how rattlesnakes are handled. Continue reading...

Accusation from Pixar employees comes after company refused to take public stand against controversial ‘Don’t Say Gay’ billDisney has been accused of cutting LGBTQ+ content from the films of Pixar, the animation giant and Disney subsidiary, during the editing process.A letter from a group of employees of Pixar – the studio behind Toy Story, The Incredibles and Inside Out – claimed Disney executives have “barred” moments of gay affection from films before they are released. Continue reading...

Russell killed mother and son Julie and David Williams in Coventry before raping and murdering Nicole McGregorA triple murderer who raped and strangled one of his victims has been sentenced to a whole-life order, meaning he will remain in prison for the rest of his life.Anthony Russell, 39, pleaded guilty to the murders of Julie Williams, 58, her son David Williams, 31, and Nicole McGregor, 31, over the course of a seven-day “campaign of crime” in October 2020. Continue reading...

As the humanitarian crisis in Ukraine intensifies, the number of civilian deaths continues to rise. Here are some of those reported killed

Airfields far from the main areas of war hit, while convoy near Kyiv seems to have dispersed into firing positions

Tributes paid to ‘legend’ Secret Army star who was a staple of 1970s and 1980s television dramasRon Pember, who starred in Only Fools and Horses, has died aged 87.The actor played Baz in the critically acclaimed sitcom and also featured in the BBC comedy Red Dwarf and co-starred in the 1970s BBC drama Secret Army. Continue reading...

Ukraine’s president says Russia is a ‘terrorist state’ while Karhkiv comes under relentless bombardment

Leo Docherty steps in after Boris Johnson says serving soldiers would face court martial

Nick Candy and Hansjörg Wyss among interested parties before owner Roman Abramovich sanctionedBillionaires interested in buying Chelsea Football Club have been told to approach the UK government with potential takeover proposals, after the sanctioning of its current oligarch owner, Roman Abramovich.Fearing the threat of sanctions, Abramovich, 55, had been rushing to sell the club for more than £3bn, drawing interest from the British property magnate Nick Candy, the Swiss billionaire Hansjörg Wyss, the US private equity billionaire and Crystal Palace shareholder Josh Harris, and the American part-owner of the LA Dodgers Todd Boehly. Continue reading...

Author Larysa Denysenko wrote introduction to Maya and Her Friends while sheltering from missiles in Kyiv“As I write to you, rockets are flying outside my windows, and at a distance of 20km from my house, Russian aggressors are destroying the suburbs of Kyiv,” author Larysa Denysenko says in an email. “Mariupol, home to more than 400,000 people, is left without water, heat and food due to violations of international humanitarian law. One child died of dehydration today.”Denysenko, a Ukrainian writer, lawyer and public activist, is emailing about her children’s book Maya and Her Friends, illustrated by Ukrainian artist Masha Foya, which will be released by Bonnier Books UK in April. All of the company’s profits from the book will be donated to Unicef and their efforts to support the children of Ukraine in the ongoing invasion. Continue reading...

Armitage calls his piece a ‘refracted version of what is coming at us in obscene images through the news’

Children seem to be facing increasing risks as mask mandates are abandoned and vaccination rates stallAs many as a third of all child deaths from Covid in the US have occurred during the Omicron surge of the pandemic.Children seem to be facing increasing risks from Covid-19 even as mask mandates drop across the country, and vaccination rates among children stall out at alarmingly low rates. Continue reading...

The government says the ban, which won’t take effect until shipments already on their way arrive, won’t risk fuel security