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Targeting of Catalan independence leaders and Spanish ministers must be independently investigated, says cybersecurity expertThe use of Pegasus spyware to target both Catalan independence leaders and Spanish politicians – including the prime minister – has plunged Spain into a “crisis of democracy” and national security that can only be tackled with an independent investigation, a leading cybersecurity expert has warned.Last month, researchers at the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab revealed that at least 65 individuals connected with the Catalan independence movement had been targeted with spyware between 2017 and 2020. Continue reading...

Judge has found 34-year-old, who needs support with basic tasks, would ‘struggle to survive’ if deportedUrgent legal action has been launched to halt the deportation to Jamaica of a man with such severe learning disabiilties that a judge found he would “struggle to survive” if sent back to the country of his birth.The 34-year-old needs support with basic tasks from his mother and his sister, and is a suspected victim of exploitation. The case has parallels with that of Osime Brown, the young autistic man who faced deportation to Jamaica but won the right to remain in the UK after legal intervention. Continue reading...

Ministry of Defence says Putin’s campaign in the east has lost momentum and has failed to make big gains in past month

Leader Ed Davey says his party is ‘an anti-Tory campaigning machine’ key to removing Boris Johnson from powerThe Liberal Democrats have already begun campaigning for the Tiverton and Honiton byelection before its date has even been set, Ed Davey has said, calling his party “an anti-Tory campaigning machine” which is key to removing Boris Johnson from power.Winning the Devon seat vacated by long-serving Tory Neil Parish, who resigned for watching pornography in the Commons, would be another huge coup for the Lib Dems. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Communities for Ukraine aims to provide a more streamlined route for refugees seeking safety in the UKThey looked pale and exhausted as they waited for their cases – containing the few possessions they were able to pack into their car when they fled their home in Ukraine – at Luton irport’s baggage reclaim.But the smiles of relief beamed out when the family, mum, dad and their three children, stepped into arrivals hall to be greeted by a welcome banner, goody bags and the warm hugs of their host, retired teacher Cora Hall, who has opened up her Staffordshire home as part of a new refugee sponsorship programme. Continue reading...

World’s most valuable company benefits from increase in demand and higher crude pricesSaudi Aramco, the world’s biggest oil company, has announced an 82% rise in quarterly profits to a new record of $39.5bn (£32.2bn), boosted by an increase in demand and higher crude prices.The company, which last week overtook technology group Apple to become the world’s most valuable company, said it would pay an $18.8bn (£15.3bn) dividend and hand out $4bn (£3.2bn) in bonus shares to its investors after the better than expected performance. Continue reading...

Foreign minister criticises ‘sabre-rattling’ from UK amid signs British rhetoric is softening over Northern Ireland protocolPlans to shred parts of the Northern Ireland protocol “would send headlines around the world” that the UK is prepared to break treaties, Ireland’s foreign minister has said, as a British cabinet minister insisted the UK did not intend to break the law.The business secretary, Kwasi Kwarteng, said the UK had “the right to act in a sovereign way” and to “reopen or re-examine the protocol” but denied the actions would constitute a breach of international law. Continue reading...

Spate of self-disconnections reflects rising costs, punitive debt collection and disproportionately high charges, says charityA food bank charity has called for the energy watchdog to intervene after a spate of reports of penniless families self-disconnecting from their gas and electricity, leaving them unable to wash clothes, use cookers or even switch on lights.Feeding Britain said people on low incomes who used prepayment energy meters were increasingly being pushed into destitution by rising costs, punitive debt collection rules and disproportionately high standing charges. Continue reading...

Celebrations to be spread out across country during extended bank holiday weekend but royal family urge more to get involvedThe UK is preparing to celebrate the platinum jubilee weekend in style, with 1,458 public events and 1,775 street parties or private events officially registered to take place from 2 to 5 June.The celebrations are spread out across the country, with 240 in and around London, 208 around Manchester, 133 near Birmingham, 98 in Scotland – including four in the Orkneys and one on the Isle of Lewis – 21 in Northern Ireland and two in Guernsey. Continue reading...

Many are struggling to pay fee – which is five times higher than administrative cost – and face destitution and deportationBereaved spouses with the right to remain in the UK are facing destitution and deportation because the Home Office is charging them thousands of pounds to stay, the Guardian has learned.People whose British spouses or partners have died are calling on the Home Office to waive the £2,404 fee for the “bereaved partner concession”, which grants a husband or wife indefinite leave to remain. Continue reading...

The memorial of the former prime minister in her home town of Grantham was unveiled without ceremonyWarnings that a new statue of Margaret Thatcher would attract egg throwing protests came true within two hours of it being installed in her home town of Grantham on Sunday.The bronze statue was, without ceremony, placed on a 3m (10ft) high plinth to make it more difficult for protesters to inflict any damage. Continue reading...

Union says oil refinery’s ‘strategic importance’ means talks about possible threats are urgentTrade union bosses are seeking an urgent meeting with Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon amid uncertainty surrounding the future of the Grangemouth oil refinery.Grangemouth is one of just six oil refineries in Great Britain and supplies two-thirds of the petrol and diesel for forecourts in Scotland as well as large volumes for the north of England and Northern Ireland. Continue reading...

Move will save total of £17m, says health secretary, as Labour and head of TUC say windfall tax needed to tackle issuePrescription charges will be frozen for the first time in 12 years as a gesture to help with cost-of-living pressures, the government has said.The move is one of a number of small measures that government departments have been ordered to find to reduce families’ costs, but comes amid criticism that steps taken so far have done little to ease the burden of rising bills and inflation. Continue reading...

Warning as figures show record £101m worth of card and payment crime was blocked last yearThe cost of living could be the next frontline for scammers, the head of the UK’s specialist police unit for fraud has warned, with criminals using the crisis as a way to lure potential victims.DCI Gary Robinson, head of the Dedicated Card and Payment Crime Unit (DCPCU), said he thought fraudsters could seize on the financial squeeze to persuade people to hand over their personal details. Continue reading...

Nordic country that shares 800-mile border with Russia looks to end decades of non-alignment

Collision took place on northbound section of A6 near Barton Rd junction; ambulance was on blue lightsA man in his 50s has died after a crash involving a Bugatti sports car and an ambulance in Bedfordshire.Police were called just before 6.30pm on Saturday to a report of a collision involving a blue Bugatti and an ambulance on blue lights on the northbound carriageway of the A6, near the Barton Road junction. Continue reading...

World criticism mounts over the shooting of Al Jazeera journalist as dispute over chain of events growsNahed Araf Imran and her husband Jamal were exhausted but excited on Wednesday morning: Nahed was in labour with their third child at a local hospital in Nablus, in the north of the occupied West Bank.But when Jamal’s mother arrived at the hospital crying just before the couple’s daughter was born, he knew something was wrong. Continue reading...

Conservative MPs raise fears that Boris Johnson’s decision to ease cost of living crisis will help fuel obesityBoris Johnson is already facing a growing backlash within his party over his decision to shelve a plan to ban “buy-one-get-one-free” supermarket deals and pre-watershed TV advertising for junk food.The prime minister ordered the delay as part of a decree for Whitehall to find ways of easing the cost of living crisis. However, senior Tories have warned the delay risks heaping more pressure on the NHS and contributing to serious disease. Continue reading...

Ministers’ much-touted HSF programme criticised as local authorities run out of funding months too earlyA key part of the government’s response to the cost of living crisis has not been available to applicants for months in some parts of the country after councils ran out of money, the Observer can reveal.The government launched the £500m Household Support Fund (HSF) last autumn to help poorer households with essentials. Ministers have highlighted the HSF in response to accusations it isn’t doing enough to help people cope with soaring inflation. Just last week, work and pensions minister Chloe Smith repeatedly cited the HSF in an interview with Channel 4 News. Continue reading...

UK is ‘haven for dictators’ says critic after Queen invites ruler who outlawed political opposition in Middle Eastern state to the Royal Windsor horse showThe king of Bahrain is expected to attend the Royal Windsor horse show on Sunday after a personal invitation from the Queen, prompting anger from campaigners who claim the UK is “sportswashing” what they say is an increasingly repressive regime.King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa has been invited as a guest of the Queen, demonstrating a warmth of official ties despite the Middle Eastern state’s outlawing of political opposition, and human rights violations including torture. Continue reading...

Food writer and activist, who won a libel suit against the Daily Mail’s Katie Hopkins, takes action against Tory Lee AndersonJack Monroe has instructed libel lawyers after the Tory MP Lee Anderson alleged the writer and food blogger was profiteering from the poor.Monroe, who won a rancorous, high-profile libel action against the former Daily Mail columnist Katie Hopkins in 2017, tweeted that the MP’s comments were a “very clear cut case of outright libel”. Continue reading...

The crop-top look made famous by All Saints is cool once more – only now you don’t need a toned tummyThe T-shirt – that staple of summer style – has had an upgrade for 2022. The so-called “baby tee” – cropped, tight, often with a cutesy slogan, and last popular around the turn of the millennium – is back.Worn by celebrities including model Hailey Baldwin, singers Olivia Rodrigo and Charli XCX, as well as the cast of US teen TV drama Euphoria, the baby tee’s popularity is part of a wider return of noughties style for young fashion brands. Urban Outfitters, Fiorucci, Weekday, Praying, Vanna Youngstein and Heaven by Marc Jacobs all produce T-shirts in this cut. Continue reading...

Paul Keating condemns Liberal housing scheme; Anthony Albanese speaks at Brisbane rally, after promoting Labor’s manufacturing plan; 20 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Analysis: Ukraine is enjoying a lot of propaganda success with its Turkish-designed TB2s, as Russia plays catchup

Asda chairman Stuart Rose says universal credit uplift and honesty over Brexit are crucial to combat ‘national economic emergency’One of Britain’s most prominent retailers has called for a major welfare boost for the poorest as pressure grows on chancellor Rishi Sunak to act on the cost of living crisis.Stuart Rose, the chairman of Asda and Conservative peer, effectively backed reinstating a £20-a-week uplift in universal credit introduced at the start of the Covid pandemic to help those on low incomes. He said some were seeing “shocking” increases in their bills and warned that the pressures were likely to persist into 2024. Continue reading...

The Doctor Who star and classical actor reveals how he copes with ‘the horror of the terror’ of theatrical anxietyHe is one of the biggest stars of stage and screen, from the Royal Shakespeare Company to Doctor Who, but even David Tennant suffers from nerves – and chocolate is one of his secrets to calming them, he has revealed.The actor allowed himself exactly three squares of chocolate in every interval of one of his shows, finding “comfort in the routine”. “Being on stage is a bit like jumping out of a plane. I try and nail down the things I can control,” he said. Continue reading...

PM announces spending boosts and ‘game changer’ for first-home buyers ahead of final election campaign week, as he urges voters to stick with government at polls

In new book Hunt says he was ‘shocked to his core’ by failures in care and the system’s fear of transparencyJeremy Hunt has described sitting at the top of a “rogue system” when he was health secretary and said he was “shocked to his core” by failures in care.The current chair of the Commons health and social care committee said a fear of transparency and honesty in the NHS when it comes to avoidable deaths and mistakes is a “major structural problem” that must be addressed, in an excerpt from his new book published in the Sunday Times. Continue reading...

Ed Davey says party will focus on just one target in key ‘super Thursday’ pollsThe Liberal Democrats will put all their campaign efforts into only one of two crucial byelections this summer – leaving Labour to fight the Tories in the other – as pressure intensifies on leftwing parties to work more closely together to oust the Conservatives from power.The Lib Dem leader, Ed Davey, told the Observer on Saturday that his party would concentrate on the Devon seat of Tiverton and Honiton because it believes it can pull off a sensational win against the incumbent Conservatives in the south-west, where it has traditionally been strong. Continue reading...

Virus has laid bare America’s fragmented healthcare system and corrosive racial and socioeconomic inequalityMore than one million people have died in the Covid-19 pandemic in the US, according to Johns Hopkins, far and away the most deaths of any country.While the sheer number of deaths from the coronavirus sets the US apart, the country’s large population of 332.5 million people does not explain the staggering mortality rate, which is among the highest in the world. Continue reading...

Urged to evacuate, vulnerable residents are being carried to safety in makeshift volunteer convoys

Widening rift on retaining the royals is revealed ahead of Queen’s platinum jubileeFewer than half of people in Scotland say they support retaining the monarchy, according to a major new poll that reveals the cultural divides emerging within the union.Almost six in 10 people across Britain want to retain the monarchy for the foreseeable future, with only a quarter saying that the end of the Queen’s reign would be an appropriate time for Britain to become a republic. The overwhelming majority, some 85%, expect that Britain will still have a monarchy in a decade’s time. Continue reading...

Ukraine president said ‘victorious chord’ in war with Russia was not far off as nation celebrates Kalush Orchestra’s winVolodymyr Zelenskiy has hailed Ukraine’s win in the Eurovision song contest, saying that his war-ravaged country would do its best to host next year’s final in the beleaguered port city of Mariupol.After Kalush Orchestra won Saturday night’s contest in a show of popular support for the nation that went beyond music, the Ukrainian president reacted with a Telgram post saying: “Our courage impresses the world, our music conquers Europe! Next year Ukraine will host Eurovision! Continue reading...

Treasurer says public hearings would see politicians ‘guilty until proved innocent’, but integrity experts say objections ‘ring hollow’

The proposal would have seen lithium and rare metal resources taken into state hands as part of the country’s wide-ranging political shakeupA constitutional assembly in Chile has rejected plans to nationalise parts of the crucial mining industry in a blow to progressive hopes of overhauling the neoliberal Pinochet-era political settlement.The proposal, known as article 27, would have given the state exclusive mining rights over lithium, rare metals and hydrocarbons and a majority stake in copper mines. Continue reading...

Despite nationwide lockdown, there are now more than 800,000 suspected cases in the unvaccinated countryNorth Korea said on Sunday a total of 42 people had died as the country began its fourth day under a nationwide lockdown aimed at stopping the impoverished country’s first confirmed Covid-19 outbreak.At least 296,180 more people came down with fever symptoms, and 15 more had died as of Sunday, the outlet said. Continue reading...

Pop superstar and her fiance, Sam Asghari, say in joint post ‘We will continue trying to expand our beautiful family’Britney Spears says she has lost a baby early in her pregnancy.Spears announced the loss on Instagram Saturday in a joint post with her fiance, Sam Asghari. The pop superstar, who gained her freedom from a court conservatorship that controlled her life for more than a decade, said in April that she was expecting a child with Asghari. Continue reading...

Symonds, 46, in single vehicle collision late on Saturday, report says, citing statement from family confirming deathWorld cricket is mourning the shock loss of another Australian great after Test star and two-time World Cup winner Andrew Symonds was killed in a car crash in Queensland. The 46-year-old “cult figure” was involved in a single-vehicle accident late on Saturday.Queensland Police are investigating the crash, which occurred at Hervey Range, about 50km from Townsville. Continue reading...

President tells US officials that Donbas situation remains ‘very difficult’; A large convoy of hundreds of cars carrying refugees reaches Zaporizhzhia

PM will go to Belfast seeking ‘broadest possible support’ from party leadersBoris Johnson will vow not to scrap the Brexit deal governing Northern Ireland and instead back reform that has “the broadest possible cross-community support”, in an attempt to cool tensions over the issue.In a shift in tone before emergency talks in Belfast on Monday, the prime minister will make it clear that he has no intention of scrapping the so-called Northern Ireland protocol, which he claims is causing significant disruption to trade between Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Continue reading...

Former rugby union star David Pocock and academic Kim Rubenstein hope marginal status will bring Canberra and surrounds more funding

Four of five councillors vote to fly pride flag on International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Intersexism and Transphobia

Dorset police say it received a report on Saturday that a body had been found in the waterPolice said a body has been recovered in the search for David Haw, who had been missing since 2 May after reportedly falling off a Rib (rigid inflatable boat) in Poole harbour.Dorset police said it received a report at 1.37pm on Saturday that a body had been found in the water. Continue reading...

A fundraising event held for the shadow minister sparks rumours that he is readying himself to replace Keir Starmer if he resigns over BeergateLabour rising star Wes Streeting has denied preparing a leadership bid to replace Keir Starmer after it emerged that the wealthy party donor Waheed Alli hosted a recent fundraising event for him and another MP at his central London home.The Observer has been told that the actors Ian McKellen and Michael Cashman, as well the businesswoman and LGBTQ+ activist Linda Riley, were among 20 to 30 people present at the event in March, where Lord Alli picked up the £4,600 bill for a buffet and drinks. Continue reading...

Leak reveals that the education department is battling with the Treasury for £13bn needed for rebuilding projects

Hundreds of schools are queueing for cash to replace leaky roofs and failing heating. Yet each year only 50 will get money to rebuild

Kremlin poised to hold referendum in ruined city in bid to secure grip on the region

Ex-firearms officer Rhona Malone, awarded nearly £1m for sexist victimisation, says pain and sacrifices outweigh any compensationA former armed response officer awarded nearly £1m by Police Scotland over victimisation said the past few years had been “torturous” and no amount of compensation could make up for the pain experienced.Rhona Malone began her action against the force after a senior police officer said he did not want to see two female armed officers deployed together when there were sufficient male staff on duty. Continue reading...

Babis Anagnostopoulos spent 10 chilling hours in an Athens courts calmly describing the murder of his wifeLast week, Greek helicopter pilot Babis Anagnostopoulos stood in the dock of an Athens court and related the circumstances that led him to suffocate his British wife. Over the course of 10 hours he barely paused. Coolly and calmly, from 10am to 8pm, he addressed the tribunal.He recalled the dream life he had shared with the woman whom he would go on to asphyxiate; his decision to choke her beloved puppy, Roxy, hanging the pet dog from the banister of the couple’s maisonette; his love for his baby daughter, whom he would place next to her dead mother’s body; and his determination in a moment “of chaos” to cover up the killing as a robbery gone terribly wrong. Continue reading...

Brexit, Covid and Black Lives Matter have highlighted divisions in society. But we have more in common than we sometimes realiseIn fragmented times, there is a public appetite for things that can bring us together. The jubilee is seen as the most important event of the year, ahead of the football World Cup, though that vote of confidence in the monarchy comes with future challenges. Support is rock-solid among older people in England’s home counties but only a minority of those in Scotland, of ethnic minority Britain and of the youngest adults are in favour.The monarchy should resist all attempts to turn it into a symbol of tradition to see off “woke” younger generations – and instead respond to the public appetite for a Crown that bridges divides. In this year of welcoming, the royal estates should be part of Homes for Ukraine, celebrating both hosts and guests, and how those welcomed to Britain from Hong Kong and Afghanistan today, join new Britons from Uganda, Zimbabwe and Vietnam over the decades. Continue reading...