Judge rules against jury verdict in case over song Dark Horse, which had previously been found in favour of rapper Marcus GrayKaty Perry has won an appeal in a copyright case involving damages of $2.8m (£2.3m).In July 2014, Perry was accused of plagiarising the song Joyful Noise by a Christian rapper named Marcus Gray (AKA Flame), for her US No 1 hit Dark Horse, which was the second biggest-selling song worldwide that year. The songwriters sued, with Perry and her team defending themselves by saying they had never heard Joyful Noise. Continue reading...

Campaigners hail move that will reclassify abortion as a health issue rather than a crimeNew Zealand has passed a landmark bill to decriminalise abortion after decades of campaigning.Andrew Little, the justice minister, said it was long overdue that the procedure would become classified as a health matter and not a criminal one. Continue reading...

Beijing defends ban of 13 journalists, which has been criticised as irresponsible during coronavirus crisis

Kay Rufai’s portraits of smiling black boys from south London came out of an initiative that investigated the lack of mental health provisions for black teenagers. The photographs will be on display at Brixton Village

Until the mid-1800s, doctors didn’t bother washing their hands – they would go from dissecting a cadaver to delivering a child. Then a Hungarian medic made an essential, much-resisted breakthrough

Northern Territory peak body says it wrote to minister six days ago but has not had replyThe peak Aboriginal medical service of the Northern Territory says it wrote to the federal minister Ken Wyatt six days ago asking for work-for-the-dole activities to be suspended “on public health grounds” to reduce the risk of Covid-19 transmission in vulnerable remote communities, but did not receive a response.“We are disappointed that the minister has not responded to our letter,” said the Aboriginal Medical Services Alliance Northern Territory chief executive, John Paterson. Continue reading...

Ireland's prime minister, Leo Varadkar, delivers stark warnings and calls for unity in the wake of the coronavirus crisis. Speaking on St Patrick's Day, Varadkar called for citizens to isolate, for pubs and restaurants to close and social gatherings to be cancelled. Varadkar also said the most vulnerable would be looked after, insisting banks, government and utilities were there to help

Man, whose identity is suppressed in New Zealand, will appeal against both his conviction and his life sentenceThe man found guilty of the murder of British backpacker Grace Millane will appeal his conviction and life sentence, lawyers said on Wednesday.In November a jury of seven women and five men took just five hours to unanimously agree that the accused, whose name is suppressed, murdered Millane in his hotel room after the pair met on a date in Auckland’s CBD. Continue reading...

Legislation to stop ‘vexatious’ claims excludes alleged crimes by military personnel in Northern IrelandA five-year time limit on bringing prosecutions against soldiers and veterans who have served abroad – except in “exceptional circumstances” – is to be imposed under legislation introduced by the government.Clauses in the overseas operations (service personnel and veterans) bill would protect serving and former military personnel from what the defence secretary, Ben Wallace, claimed was a “vexatious” cycle of claims and re-investigations. Continue reading...

A country with fractured and shifting political alliances, Vanuatu heads to the polls at a crucial moment in its historyIn the coffee shops and kava bars of Vanuatu’s capital of Port Vila, there are two subjects that dominate conversation: Covid-19 and this week’s general elections, which will be held on Thursday. Continue reading...

Annual television awards halted until later in the year due to continuing pandemic

Former first minister of Scotland faces charges of attempted rape, sexual and indecent assaultAlex Salmond told a court that numerous charges of sexual and indecent assault, and a charge of attempted rape against him were deliberate fabrications or exaggerated.The former first minister of Scotland, who denies the charges against him, told the high court in Edinburgh the 13 charges he faces of attempted rape, sexual assaults and indecent assaults on nine women were false or based on misinterpretation. Originally indicted on 14 charges, he was formally acquitted of one sexual assault after the charge was dropped by the prosecution on Monday. Continue reading...

Hashem Abedi was accused of helping to plan terror attack in which 22 died at Ariana Grande concert

As Covid-19 spreads worldwide, the people of Hubei explain how they dealt with the lockdown

As the south Pacific nation votes this week, there is a move to make sure women are among those electedMotoralivoa Hilda Lini stands at the front door of Vanuatu’s parliament, wearing an elegant pink dress and customary pig tusks on her wrists, signifying her chiefly status. When the Guardian apologises for being late, because we had been waiting on the street unaware it was possible to simply walk into parliament house, she replies: “Hemia ples blong yumi evriwan” – this place is for everyone.Except it isn’t. At least not at the moment. Continue reading...

Cancellations of public events are ‘radical departure’ for the monarch, and even Trooping the Colour in doubtThe Queen has cancelled her public engagements due to a national crisis for the first time in her 68-year-reign.Royal watchers said it was unprecedented for the Queen to call off her two public engagements later this month and to review future diary commitments. The move came as the government formally moved from the “contain” to the “delay” stage of the coronavirus “battle plan”. Continue reading...

Robyn Williams sacked following conviction last year after her sister sent her a videoA decorated police chief convicted of possessing a child sexual abuse video was found guilty of gross misconduct and sacked despite an extraordinary outpouring of support warning that her dismissal would damage the service’s reputation.

Elections delayed after officials said coronavirus crisis would affect campaigning and voting

System to use cashless payment apps like ParentPay, used by 3 million peopleGood news for (some) parents: measures to make it easier for people with school-age children to access the government’s tax-free childcare scheme were announced in the budget.This scheme is for working families, including the self-employed, in the UK with children under 12 (under 17 if disabled). Parents open an online account to pay for registered childcare – a childminder, nursery, nanny, after-school club, playscheme and so on. However, your childcare provider must be signed up to the scheme. Continue reading...

After 50 years of largely hostile reporting, journalists may find themselves pushed to the sidelines

Bringing skateboards to children in Madhya Pradesh gives them enthusiasm to go to school and gives girls a confidence in themselvesThe children skid into the dusty courtyard at breakfast time, grabbing skateboards from a stack near a tethered brown cow.Boards jammed under arms, they sprint barefoot past a large well pump, the main water supply for many families here. They slap their wheels on to the still-clean concrete of Janwaar Castle – India’s newest skateboard park. Continue reading...

Stock markets plunge again; number of cases nears 130,000 around world; Canadian PM Justin Trudeau self-isolating. Follow the latest news

In closing speeches, prosecutor tells trial that Hashem Abedi’s absence is ‘thundering silence’The brother of the Manchester suicide bomber decided not to give evidence at his own trial because his cover story – placing all the blame on his dead sibling – had been revealed as an attempt to “pull the wool over the eyes” of investigators, a court heardHashem Abedi was accused of standing shoulder to shoulder with his brother, Salman, sharing a common goal to kill and maim as many people as possible in what proved to be one of the deadliest terror attacks the UK has seen, the Old Bailey heard. Continue reading...

Civil servant says former first minister ordered her on to bed and lay on top of herA woman who alleges that she was sexually assaulted by Alex Salmond has told a court that he apologised to her at a private meeting arranged by officials a week after the incident took place.The woman claimed that she felt fear and panic that the then first minister “wasn’t going to stop” after saying that he lay on top of her while drunk and forced his hands up under her dress, while repeatedly telling her: “You’re irresistible.” Continue reading...

Henning Conle’s company gave £50,000 to Carlton Club, which donates large sums to ToriesA company controlled by a property magnate who allegedly funded Germany’s main far-right party recently gave £50,000 to an elite organisation that donates large sums of money to the Conservative party.The firm, which is co–run by Henning Conle, gave the donation in January to the Carlton Club, an institution described as the spiritual home of the Tories. Continue reading...

One-month EU scheme offers more than five times usual sum in bid to ease pressure in campsMigrants on the Greek islands are to be offered €2,000 (£1,764) per person to go home under a voluntary scheme launched by the European Union in an attempt to ease desperate conditions in camps.The amount is more than five times the usual sum offered to migrants to help them rebuild their lives in their country of origin, under voluntary returns programmes run by the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM). Continue reading...

Organisation accused of kowtowing to big business by appointing former Rwandan agriculture minister with links to agro-industry

Fund intended to work as both relief and recovery, like program rolled out in wake of bushfires, Scott Morrison says

As millions of tonnes of rubbish are shipped offshore, artists across south-east Asia are sending some of it backPrawiro is one of the last rice farmers in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. And he’s worried about his future. A flotsam of plastic has engulfed the nearby river, making access to clean water near impossible. No water means no rice.Further north, plastic debris in the Citarum River has wiped out more than 60% of the fish population. Many out-of-work fishers have been forced to take up jobs as “trash pickers”, sorting through millions of tonnes of plastic exported annually to Indonesia from countries including Australia, the US and the UK. Continue reading...

Child suffered non-life-threatening injuries in incident at community centreA 12-year-old boy is in a serious condition after being shot in Huddersfield.West Yorkshire police officers were called to a report of a disturbance at Northfield Hall community centre at 7.15pm on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Criminal cases review commission approves fresh appeal over 1988 atrocityA miscarriage of justice may have occurred in the conviction of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the Lockerbie bombing, the Scottish criminal cases review commission has found, in what has been described as the worst in British legal history.The SCCRC approved an application to refer Megrahi’s conviction back to the appeal court on Wednesday following an application by the lawyer Aamer Anwar on behalf of Megrahi’s family. The application was supported by some families of those who died in the 1988 disaster. Continue reading...

US agreement with Taliban was intended to help Afghans reach deal on political futureAfghanistan’s political chaos has deepened with disputes over presidential election results and a planned prisoner exchange delaying peace talks with the Taliban even as the US starts its troop withdrawal.A US agreement with the Taliban signed last month on the departure of American forces was meant to set the stage for Afghans to reach a deal on their country’s political future after decades of civil war but those talks, expected to begin this week in Oslo, have been postponed indefinitely. Continue reading...

Australians need to work together, under the clear direction of our government. But are we, and it, up to the challenge?Images of pitched battles for toilet paper may seem to contrast with the volunteerism that characterised our collective response to the summer bushfires but there is a common thread that threatens to define Scott Morrison’s Australia.Having witnessed a decade when government has failed to live up to our expectations, from rolling elected leaders willy-nilly to shirking the action required to address climate change to spraying public moneys for political ends, our faith in public institutions is at an historic ebb. Continue reading...

A day after thousands protested against the murder of women and girls, López Obrador said he would ‘reinforce the same strategy’A day after Mexico’s women collectively shut down the country in an eruption of fury over gender violence, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has insisted that he will not try a new strategy to stop femicides.Thousands of women went on strike on Monday, in a historic protest against the murder of women and girls – and the failure of successive governments’ efforts to stop a crisis in which around 10 women are murdered every day. Continue reading...

Hashem Abedi chooses not to testify over allegedly helping brother plan attack

Stringent testing continues in prefecture to counter reputational damage from triple disasterKnives are wielded in silence as chunks of meat are sliced up and placed in containers, the reputation of an entire region resting on every step of the process being completed without a hitch.Staff at the Fukushima Agricultural Technology Centre are dissecting samples of beef neck; on other days it could be batches of cucumbers and peaches, or fish from the nearby Pacific Ocean. Continue reading...

The truth about how easy it is to catch coronavirus, who is most vulnerable and what you can do to avoid infection

Landmark legal action against world’s biggest tech companies lead to death threats, says activist Auguste MutomboA Congolese human rights activist has said he was forced to flee the country with his family after being linked to a lawsuit accusing the world’s largest tech companies of being complicit in the deaths of children in cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).In December, the Guardian revealed that a group of families from DRC were launching landmark legal action against Apple, Google, Tesla, Microsoft and Dell. They claim they aided and abetted the deaths and injuries of their children, who were working in mines that they say were linked to the tech companies. Continue reading...

Leader’s arrival at the centre of the epidemic signals that Beijing believes the tide has turned in its fight against Covid-19

King’s brother and former crown prince accused of trying to sideline Mohammed bin SalmanThe dramatic arrests of two leading Saudi royals followed discussions between the two men about using a procedural body, led by one of them, to block the accession to the throne of the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, if the current monarch dies or becomes incapacitated.Three sources have confirmed to the Guardian that the arrests of Prince Ahmed bin Abdul Aziz, the sole remaining full brother of King Salman, and the former crown prince, Mohammed bin Nayef, on Friday were ordered after details of alleged conversations were passed to the royal court. Continue reading...

The guidelines of government’s Stronger Communities scheme say MPs and applicants must avoid conflicts of interestTens of thousands of dollars in grant money was handed to a gun club and a church with links to federal government MPs.The Stronger Communities grant scheme awarded more than $40,000 total to the Port Bouvard Pistol and Small Bore Rifle Club and the Clovercrest Baptist Church, which have links to Liberals. Continue reading...

Despite public offer to help with investigation Andrew has ‘completely shut the door’, and New York attorney general is now considering other optionsPrince Andrew has “completely shut the door” on cooperating with US investigators in the Jeffrey Epstein case and they are now “considering” further options, a New York prosecutor said on Monday.Andrew was a friend of Epstein, the wealthy financier and convicted sex offender whose death in custody while awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges in New York last year was ruled a suicide. Continue reading...

Teenagers are due to go on trial at Old Bailey on Tuesday for murder of officer in BerkshireTwo teenagers due to go on trial for the murder of PC Andrew Harper have admitted conspiracy to steal a quad bike.The pair, who are both 17 and cannot be named for legal reasons, pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey on Monday to plotting to steal the bike. Continue reading...

Raids were in connection with campaign calling for border closures over coronavirusHong Kong authorities say they have seized “significant quantities of homemade explosives” and arrested more than a dozen people in raids across the city.Separately, police were accused of overzealous responses at two protests on Sunday, arresting multiple people and pepper-spraying journalists. Continue reading...

Metropolitan police say no terror link to deadly incident where suspect was shot with Taser and firearmA man has been shot dead by police in Westminster after an incident that was not being treated as terror-related.Officers from the Metropolitan police remained overnight at the scene of the incident which occurred at around 11.30pm on Sunday. Road closures were put in place. Continue reading...

Education and business leaders point to lost income for country and opportunities for studentsQuitting the EU’s Erasmus student exchange programme would “blow a hole” in the UK’s economy, taking away income of £243m a year and depriving 17,000 British young people of valuable work experience, according to a group of education and business leaders.The group – including further education colleges and universities – is calling for the British government to make clear that continued Erasmus membership is a high priority in its talks with the EU. Continue reading...

Amani Ballour, whose work in a Damascus hospital is the focus of Oscar-nominated The Cave, tells why she is pleading for more aidThere are many harrowing stories Amani Ballour can recount from her six years running a secret underground hospital during a bombardment and siege in Syria. But it’s the children the doctor remembers most.“There was a boy, about nine years old, brought in by his parents with terrible injuries. Part of his head was missing and he was bleeding from his ears,” she said. Continue reading...

The men, aged 72 and 73, were detained on Friday night on suspicion of murderTwo men in their 70s have been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman was found dead at her home in Bolton.The men, aged 72 and 73, were detained after the woman’s death on Friday night, Greater Manchester police said. Continue reading...

The TV comic turned maverick Ukrainian leader on Putin, power and Trump’s impeachmentWhat’s the difference between playing a president on screen and being one in real life? Not much, according to Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy, the man who’s done both.“It’s very similar,” he says, his compact frame engulfed by a green leather armchair in his opulent presidential office. Then he changes his mind: in fact, the real job lasts a whole five years, and comes with far greater challenges than can fit into one season of a television show. “It’s true there are more problems. They are catastrophic. They appear, I’m sorry to say, like pimples on an 18-year-old kid. You don’t know where they will pop up, or when.” The 42-year-old speaks in his native Russian, his expressive face switching from boyish amusement to tortured concern in a flash. Continue reading...

Sheikh Mohammed | Customs checks | Passports | Misheard hymnsIt is hard to understand how the Foreign Office could justify a failure to hand over files about possible abductions by the sheikh when the fate of Princess Latifa is unknown and she may yet be alive and at risk (Report, 6 March). Might the monarch assist by inviting the sheikh and Princess Latifa to Royal Ascot? His presence in the country, and his explanation for her absence, might serve the rule of law better than the FCO has done.