Cousin weeps outside court as she speaks of ‘joyful and generous’ young man whose death shattered Yuendumu community

Politicians at state and federal level back calls to expand Northern Australia cyclone scheme to other natural disasters across the country

Rolfe, 30, was also cleared of two alternative charges of manslaughter and engaging in a violent act causing death

Election of Yoon Suk-yeol, who has blamed feminism for low birthrates, seen as a ‘pivotal moment’ for public discussion of women’s issuesThe election of an avowed “anti-feminist” as the next president of South Korea has been greeted with dismay amid accusations Yoon Suk-yeol fuelled the county’s gender divide to garner support from young male voters.Former top prosecutor Yoon defeated the liberal ruling party candidate Lee Jae-myung by a margin of 263,000 votes in one of the most closely contested presidential elections in recent memory. Continue reading...

Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina urge western leaders to ‘engage more actively and strongly’ in the regionRussia is likely to expand its confrontation with the west by pressuring Serbia into undermining the independence of Kosovo and other western Balkan states, regional leaders have warned in interviews with the Guardian.They also called for the EU and Nato to speed up their approach to applications for membership from Balkans countries, and bolster defences against Russian interference. Continue reading...

Climate 200-backed challenger says ‘copying our campaign colours is a great start … now he needs to copy our policies’

There are 15 confirmed cases of the virus, which has been detected in NSW, Qld, South Australia and Victoria and killed two people so far

Consultancy firm Randstad’s contract ‘must end’ unless it delivers learning missed during CovidA national tutoring programme is failing to help the children who need it most, according to MPs, who say ministers should terminate their contract with the consultancy firm running the scheme unlessit “shapes up”.A report by the education select committee gives a scathing account of the government’s £5bn national tutoring programme (NTP), which aims to help children in England catch up on learning missed during the lockdowns of 2020 and 2021. Continue reading...

Constant bombardment, without power or water, and unable to collect the dead – conditions in Ukrainian port now ‘medieval’

Winner Karis Kelly, writer of Consumed, had previously been considering a ‘complete career change’ as a result of the Covid-19 pandemicA playwright who was considering a “complete career change” because of the Covid-19 pandemic’s devastating impact on the arts has been announced as the winner of this year’s Women’s prize for playwriting.Karis Kelly won the prize for Consumed, a drama about four generations of Northern Irish women at a 90th birthday party in a “house full of hungry ghosts”. Kelly, who has been writing plays since 2008, said “like many others in the arts, during the pandemic, I had a complete crisis of faith … So to go from that point to receiving recognition from such an amazing prize and panel of judges is genuinely a dream come true.” Continue reading...

Regional hubs urgently needed as waiting lists at London clinic leave young people ‘at considerable risk’The only NHS gender identity service for children in England and Wales is under unsustainable pressure as the demand for the service outstrips capacity, a review has found.The interim report of the Cass Review, commissioned by NHS England in 2020, recommends that a network of regional hubs be created to provide care and support to young people with gender incongruence or dysphoria, arguing their care is “everyone’s business”. Continue reading...

Most of the 85 Covid-positive patients at the Royal Cornwall hospital were admitted for another reason

As first high-level diplomatic meeting between combatants continues, EU leaders prepare to meet at Versailles

These demands will be included on a ‘families’ manifesto for change’ that the Labour party is working onMinisters must introduce tougher sentences for femicide and investigate whether female suicides are the result of domestic violence in order to tackle brutality against women and girls, the Labour MP Jess Phillips has urged, as she cited in parliament the names of 128 women killed in the past year.Phillips told MPs these demands will be included in a “families’ manifesto for change” that she and the Labour party are working on with the families of the victims she has included on her lists, which she has shared with parliament for seven years running. Continue reading...

Daughter-in-law speaks of her anger that Alevtina Shernina, 91, is ending her life as it beganAlevtina Shernina was a young girl when she survived the brutal siege of Leningrad during the second world war. Eight decades later, so frail she can barely talk, or move unassisted, she is besieged again.The 91-year-old lives in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city and one of the most battered urban areas in Russia’s invasion. The bombardment has come so close that windows in her apartment building were blown out. Continue reading...

Page, 63, sentenced to 12 years after being found guilty of arranging to sexually abuse childrenA former BBC Radio 1 DJ has been jailed for 12 years for arranging to sexually abuse vulnerable children in the Philippines.Mark Page, who worked at the station in the 1980s, was guilty of “grotesque sexual abuse” of children as young as 12 and took advantage of their poverty, the judge said. Continue reading...

Little progress in talks between Russia and Ukraine as humanitarian convoy is forced to turn round

Solaris is tracked off coast of Sicily, joining hurried sailings of Russian yachts to avoid seizure

Zelenskiy shares footage showing destruction of 600-bed complex with children’s and maternity wards in south-eastern city as US House passes huge aid package

Outgoing chief inspector of constabulary says police must confront series of problems to ‘rebuild public trust’Major shortcomings persist in England and Wales’s police forces, the outgoing chief inspector of constabulary has warned, as he said one of the most important missions was to “rebuild public trust”.Sir Tom Winsor, in his ninth and final annual review, said that police must confront a series of problems, including the aftermath of Sarah Everard’s murder by a police officer, if damage to confidence is be restored.Fraud has “exploded” and continues to be wrongly treated as a low priority by many forces.The model of local accountability, involving police and crime commissioners, has fractured some relationships between police and politicians, and left some chief constables lacking in confidence in their operational independence.The speed with which the government has tried to recruit 20,000 officers, in line with the Conservative manifesto, means there is a “heightened danger” that people unsuited to policing may get through.The “fragile architecture” of having 43 police forces, devised in 1962 and implemented in 1974, is “very far from fit for purpose” in the 2020s.Online crime is now by far the most prevalent type of crime. “It used to be that children were seen as unsafe out on the streets. Now they may be more at risk in their own bedrooms,” he said.Public expectations to fight crime cannot be met without sufficient funding and “the public through their politicians must decide how much threat, harm and risk they are prepared to tolerate”. Continue reading...

A jury has retired to consider its verdict in the case of the Northern Territory constable charged with the murder of Warlpiri man Kumanjayi Walker

Mining giant’s decision follows other big names exiting Russia and casts doubt over Queensland Alumina Ltd joint venture

The interference began soon after a meeting between presidents Sauli Niinistö and Joe BidenAircraft flying near the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad and near Finland’s eastern border with Russia have noticed interference with their GPS signals, according to Finnish authorities.The interference began soon after Finland’s President Sauli Niinistö met Joe Biden in Washington on Saturday to discuss deepening defense ties between Finland and Nato due to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. Continue reading...

Man falls 300 metres to his death and army group gets into difficulty after going to his aidA man has died after falling about 300 metres (1,000ft) down Ben Nevis, and 17 others had to be rescued in “ferocious” conditions during an eight-hour operation on Britain’s highest mountain.After a 28-year-old man fell down an icy slope at Red Burn, on the west side of the mountain, members of an army group went to his aid but ended up requiring multiple rescues themselves. Continue reading...

Airport will reopen south terminal and restore landing and takeoff slot rulesGatwick is expecting 3 million passengers a month this summer as the easing of travel restrictions and the return of takeoff and landing slot rules help the airport recover from its pandemic slump.The airport reported narrower losses of just over £1m a day in 2021, down £95m on 2020 to £371m, despite passenger numbers falling further to 6.3 million last year. Continue reading...

Analysis: the public spat over planes is a setback and the upshot of this mini-debacle is that Russia retains air superiority

Mothercare and Universal Music also among latest round of firms to halt operations after invasion of Ukraine

Aircraft impounded in Hampshire as aviation sanctions come into effect

SAS soldier tells defamation trial he heard a burst of gunfire and later walked past dead body lying outside Whiskey 108 compound

Yevhen Lavrenchuk was imprisoned for more than two month after being detained at Moscow’s requestA Ukrainian opera director who was arrested in Italy at Russia’s request said he hopes to be “the last ever victim of Russian exploitation of Interpol”.Yevhen (Eugene) Lavrenchuk, 39, was imprisoned in Naples for more than two months after Russia issued a call for his arrest through Interpol’s “red notice”, an instrument once used to hunt fugitive criminals but which now includes the names of political dissidents. Continue reading...

Messages from online casino occurred during industry’s Safer Gambling WeekSky Vegas has been fined £1.2m for sending free casino “spins” to recovering addicts during the industry’s annual Safer Gambling Week.The fine comes at a sensitive time for the British gambling industry, which has been at pains to show it has improved its attitude to social responsibility. Continue reading...

Latest proposal on process to decide candidates ahead of May federal election scuttled by four votes against

Reserve Bank will act ‘to maintain low and stable inflation in Australia’, Philip Lowe says

President tells Commons Ukraine will fight Russia ‘in the forests, the fields, the shores and in the streets’

More than 2,500 Scots – most of them women – were executed under the Witchcraft Act of 1563Nicola Sturgeon has issued a posthumous apology to the thousands of people persecuted as witches in Scotland, underlining that the deep misogyny that motivated this “colossal” injustice is something women today still have to live with.As she responded to a petition demanding a pardon for the more than 4,000 people in Scotland – the vast majority of them women – who were accused, convicted and many of whom were executed under the Witchcraft Act of 1563, the first minister told the Scottish parliament that she was acknowledging “that egregious historic injustice” and extending a formal posthumous apology to all those who were so vilified. Continue reading...

Attacks on hospitals and ambulances increasing rapidly, says WHO, as medical supplies dwindle

Duchess of Cornwall jokes that ‘alter ego’ could step in at any moment while speaking at International Women’s Day eventThe Duchess of Cornwall came face to face with the actor who played her younger self in The Crown at an event to mark International Women’s Day.The event, a reception at Clarence House, was hosted by Camilla and was attended by a range of women leading in fields such as the arts, politics and business for International Women’s Day. Emerald Fennell, who portrayed her in the Netflix series, was among those in attendance. Continue reading...

London Metal Exchange suspends nickel trading as Russia-Ukraine crisis causes market panicCar manufacturers are facing soaring costs and supply issues after the price of nickel doubled to record levels in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.Prices passed $100,000 (£76,000) a tonne – driven up by buyers racing to cover short positions – before the London Metal Exchange (LME) suspended trading in nickel for the day. Continue reading...

Civilian deaths reported in incidents including on minibus carrying teachers to an orphanage in Mykolaiv

Islabikes to mass-produce model specifically for adults with achondroplasia, after working with campaign groupFor much of the 15-plus years Islabikes has existed, managing director Tim Goodall recalls, adults with dwarfism would regularly get in touch, asking to come in to try out one of the bikes they make for children.The company, he says, was happy to oblige, if aware of the implications: “It was the best option out there, but it was still pretty awful. It did feel like it was a problem that could be solved through better design.” Continue reading...

‘The treatment we received from the French and the British has been so different,’ says father Yakiv Voloshchuk

Analysis: Advance of Putin’s war machine through key southern cities likely to have major impact on war’s outcome

Bakery chain expects overall cost inflation of 6-7% this year amid escalating conflict in Ukraine

Complaints had been made about alarms and ‘stay put’ policy before fire broke out in 17th-floor flatResidents of a high-rise building in east London said they had complained about the fire alarms and “stay put” policy before a major fire broke out there on Monday.The London fire brigade (LFB) was called to the Relay Building in Whitechapel High Street shortly before 4pm after a fire started in a 17th-floor flat. Continue reading...

Simon Hoare responds to claims that open door policy creates security risk

Jia Qingguo claims the proliferation of misinformation online has fuelled tensions between China and foreign countriesAn adviser to the Chinese government has called for new laws to ban “fabricating and disseminating fake information online”, blaming the rampant disinformation on the internet for polarising Chinese public opinion.Jia Qingguo, a member of China’s highest political advisory body, said he also believed the proliferation of misinformation online had fuelled tensions between China and foreign countries. Continue reading...

Presidential hopefuls trade insults and fend off allegations of impropriety in race some liken to Squid Game seriesHitler insults, shamanistic intrigue and some colourful language for good measure. It was always going to be difficult for South Korea to match the vitriol surrounding Park Geun-hye’s dramatic removal from office five years ago over corruption charges for which she would spend more than three years in prison.But the campaign leading up to Wednesday’s election for the country’s next president has given even Park’s chaotic exit a run for its money. Continue reading...

Images captured by satellite showed very early signs of activity at the Punggye-ri siteCommercial satellite imagery shows construction at North Korea’s nuclear testing site for the first time since it was closed in 2018, US-based analysts said on Tuesday, adding to concerns the country could resume testing major weapons.Images captured by satellite on Friday showed very early signs of activity at the Punggye-ri site, including construction of a new building, repair of another building, and what is possibly some lumber and sawdust, specialists at the California-based James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies (CNS) said in a report. Continue reading...

Paintings highlighting stories of women who have helped shape British culture are part of three-year project by NPGThe National Portrait Gallery has acquired five self-portraits by female artists as part of a three-year project to enhance the representation of women in its collection.The gallery, which is currently closed for a major refurbishment, said the works highlighted stories of women who have helped shape British culture. Continue reading...

Growing older can mean getting bolder – so why shouldn’t this be reflected in our clothes? Meet four people who refuse to blend into the backgroundOur style evolves as we move through life; trends come and go. When we get older, the phrase “age-appropriate” is suddenly everywhere. But not everyone is content to blend into the bland smart-casual background. Some choose to tear up their old wardrobes for something entirely different.What is it that prompts people to revolutionise their styles later in life, to swap streetwear for flouncy skirts or trousers for kilts? And how does it feel to disregard the fashion rulebook? Continue reading...