World news | The Guardian

Former UN officials say body could be doomed if secretary general does not play a bigger role in mediating for peace in Ukraine

Labour leader accuses prime minister of dishonesty, as senior Tory joins those urging him to quit

Prime minister addresses MPs ‘with all humility’ repeating apology for breach of lockdown rules

Party believes being visible and knocking on doors is helping it win votes from ‘complacent’ rivalsStanding on the doorstep of his terrace house in Brunshaw, a few minutes’ walk from Burnley football club’s stadium, Turf Moor, Vic is perhaps not many people’s idea of a typical Green voter. For one thing, he was formerly a Conservative. There’s also the fact he’s 85.“They’re working hard all the time. It’s not just at elections you hear from them,” Vic says, having just promised his support to Alex Hall, who hopes to become the Greens’ second councillor in the ward on 5 May. “The other parties take you for granted.” Continue reading...

Auctioneer says destruction of red Gibson guitar at 2009 Paris festival was ‘cult moment’ in music historyA guitar belonging to Noel Gallagher, which was damaged backstage at an Oasis concert on the night they broke up, is due to be sold at auction next month.Although the guitar was later repaired, the destruction of the red Gibson ES-355 backstage at the Rock en Seine festival in Paris in 2009 was a “cult moment” in music history, according to Jonathan Berg, a co-founder of the Artpèges gallery, which is holding the auction. Continue reading...

Centrist’s backers say voters still need convincing his policies are best for them ahead of presidential runoffSenior political allies of Emmanuel Macron have lined up to warn against complacency in France’s presidential race, saying the incumbent is not certain to win despite polls indicating his lead over his far-right challenger, Marine Le Pen, is widening.“The game isn’t done and dusted and we certainly cannot draw the conclusion … that this election is already decided,” the French prime minister, Jean Castex, told French radio, five days before Sunday’s second round runoff. Continue reading...

Platinum jubilee invitation said to have been issued to Harry and Meghan after low-key visitAfter last week’s face-to-face meeting with the Queen, and hot foot from their weekend success at the Invictus Games, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have now reportedly been invited to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the platinum jubilee.Whether Harry and Meghan will choose to take up the invitation and fly to the UK for the June celebrations is not yet known. The duke is still involved in legal action with the Home Office over security for him and his family while in the UK. Continue reading...

Governor of Kreminna says Ukrainian troops have withdrawn after being attacked ‘from all sides’

Brandon Lewis defends colleagues as Boris Johnson prepares to face MPs

Volodymyr Zelenskiy says ‘battle for Donbas’ has begun as Russia mounts anticipated offensive in the eastern part of Ukraine

Testimony of ex-SAS commander, called by Roberts-Smith, contradicts previous witnesses called by newspapers about Whiskey 108 operation

Volodymyr Zelenskiy strikes defiant note as rocket and artillery fire targets 300-mile frontline in region

Officers in Donetsk say spies pass on coordinates or photographs of targets via Telegram in exchange for cash

The Tories made huge gains in last year’s local elections but could be punished for scandals and the cost of living crisisOver the past two months, the Labour candidate, Adrian Hughes, has knocked on more than 1,000 doors in Upper Gornal and Woodsetton in north Dudley before May’s local elections.The most marginal ward in a historically marginal council, it was won by the Conservatives last year by 82 votes when there were five candidates on the ballot paper. This year there are only two options: red or blue. Continue reading...

Writer of The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe forced to defend characters’ accents after social media criticismIt has had rave reviews for the quality of its writing and acting but for many local people there has been a problem with ITV’s “canoe man” fake death drama: the accents.“Why is it that ITV thinks people from Teesside speak with a geordie accent?” asked one disgruntled viewer. “Insulting!!!!” Continue reading...

Government seeks to capitalise on trend after rapper Milli eats dish on stage at US music festivalBangkok’s famous Mae Varee mango sticky rice shop has barely kept up with demand over recent days. At one point, so many delivery drivers had lined up outside to collect orders that the police arrived, concerned that their bikes were blocking the traffic.“Yesterday we needed to close the delivery orders from time to time because we couldn’t prepare [the rice] in time,” said Naparom Suntiparadorn, whose family own the shop. On Sunday, delivery orders were six or seven times higher than usual. Continue reading...

Two explosions rock boys' school in Kabul as students were coming out of their morning classesAt least six people have been killed and 11 wounded by two bomb blasts at a boys’ school in the Afghan capital, with social media showing grisly images from the Hazara Shia neighbourhood.The number of bomb blasts in the country has declined significantly since the Taliban ousted the US-backed Afghan government in August last year, but the jihadist Islamic State group has claimed several attacks since then. Continue reading...

Record number of Australians enrol to vote; nation records 18 Covid deaths. This blog is now closed

A former curator praises donation for The Fox: NGV Contemporary to make up for public funding shortfalls

Online greetings card and gifts company says no customer payment data is at riskThe online greetings card and gifts business Funky Pigeon has stopped taking orders after being hit by a cyber-attack last week.The company said it was writing to all customers from the past 12 months to inform them of the hack, saying no payment data was at risk and it did not believe account passwords had been affected. Continue reading...

Opposition says it will establish new appeals process and reduce spending on consultants and private law firms

Government says refugees will be stopped at border, even if they have become New Zealand citizens

Election statement also calls for a special intake of Ukrainians and a wider reassessment of refugee policies

Opposition last year committed to scrapping the cashless debit card and says continued use of basics card will be voluntary

Possible thunderstorms forecast for parts of Australia’s east over the coming days, as conditions gradually clear in Victoria

Guardian understands advertising regulator is likely uphold complaint against firm’s claims about ‘hot or cold’ gamesOnline casinos face a crackdown on exploiting gamblers’ superstitions, after the advertising regulator launched an investigation into one firm’s claims about certain games being “hot or cold”.The Guardian understands the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) is likely to uphold a complaint lodged seven months ago against PlayOJO, which advertised a feature last year that offered gamblers a “unique chance to see the games on winning streaks”. Continue reading...

The UK prime minister leaves a trail of scandals, U-turns and law-breaking as he reaches his milestoneTuesday marks 1,000 days since Boris Johnson first began working in Downing Street on 24 July 2019. When he came to power, many warned that UK was in for a bumpy ride. He promised to defy the “the doubters, the doomsters and the gloomsters”, but since then his premiership has exceeded even the gloomiest, most doom-laden fears of his doubters and detractors.Here is a list of some of the most notable scandals, U-turns and examples of law breaking. Continue reading...

Embattled Liberal candidate for Warringah says she worked with Tasmanian senator Claire Chandler on ‘Save Women’s Sport’ legislation

Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta the frontrunner in a ballot widely seen as key to the nation’s political stabilityAsia’s youngest nation of Timor-Leste will hold the second and final round of its presidential election on Tuesday, with Nobel laureate Jose Ramos-Horta the clear frontrunner in the poll.Ramos-Horta, who received 46.5% of votes in the first round last month, is up against incumbent president “Lu Olo” Guterres, who got 22.1%, in a ballot widely seen as key to the nation’s political stability. Continue reading...

The 63-year-old singer says he’s ‘absolutely crushed’ but only experiencing mild symptoms so farCrowded House frontman Neil Finn has tested positive for Covid-19, postponing the rest of the band’s Australia tour just hours before their next show.The 63-year-old New Zealand singer said he was “absolutely crushed”, having tested positive on Monday morning. Continue reading...

Mobile trucks target areas with highest death rates in effort to reach those living with undiagnosed diseaseNHS leaders are urging people to attend vital lung cancer check-ups as figures reveal almost two-thirds of those invited are not coming forward.The NHS targeted lung health check service offered in some parts of England aims to help diagnose cancer at an earlier stage when treatment may be more successful. Current and former smokers aged between 55 and 74 are invited to speak to a healthcare professional and, if they have a higher chance of developing lung cancer, are offered a scan of their lungs. Continue reading...

Labour leader criticises failing system as quarter of cases in England and Wales dropped for lack of evidenceVictims of crime are giving up on ever getting justice, Keir Starmer has warned, as Labour underlined official figures that show a quarter of reported crimes in England and Wales are being dropped for lack of evidence, with victims deciding not to support further action.The party leader promised to restore faith in law and order, saying that more than a decade of Conservative governance had left the justice system on its knees. And he accused the prime minister, Boris Johnson, of further undermining public confidence by personally breaking the law and then refusing to resign. Continue reading...

The disturbances came on the third anniversary of the murder of the journalist Lyra McKeeA crowd at a dissident republican parade in Northern Ireland has attacked police with petrol bombs after a paramilitary-style march in Derry, prompting widespread condemnation.The disturbances on Monday came on the third anniversary of the murder of the journalist Lyra McKee, who was shot by the New IRA in 2019. Continue reading...

PM may get away with his rule-breaking but Labour and Lib Dems are still keen to force a confidence voteWhen Boris Johnson takes to the dispatch box on Tuesday, for the first time in weeks, his allies will roar their support – an attempt to immediately dispel any questions about confidence in his leadership.While the prime minister might appear at times contrite for breaking Covid laws during England’s first Covid lockdown, he is expected to maintain that at the time he did not believe he was doing anything wrong. Continue reading...

Unhappy MPs feel poor results would help their cause, but No 10 believes he has ‘crossed Rubicon’ and will cling onTory MPs are considering the aftermath of dire local election results as their next chance to oust Boris Johnson, with the prime minister preparing to apologise for his Partygate penalty.However, Downing Street is feeling bullish that Johnson has “crossed the Rubicon” after receiving his first fixed-penalty notice earlier this month, and will cling on in the face of further charges. Continue reading...

Federal government urged to provide compensation, as minister says families can apply for state-assisted or ‘pauper’ funerals

UK home secretary attacks critics of plan to give unauthorised asylum seekers one-way tickets to African countryPriti Patel has defended plans to send unauthorised asylum seekers on a one-way trip to Rwanda, saying critics of the scheme have failed to offer any alternative solution to the migration crisis.The proposal, announced last week, has been widely condemned as inhumane, illegal, unworkable and prohibitively expensive. Critics have included Conservative MPs and peers, the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR) and a former and the current archbishop of Canterbury, who said, in his Easter Sunday sermon, that the scheme “does not stand the judgment of God”. Continue reading...

Private providers accused of making ‘obscene’ profits out of some of society’s most vulnerable children

A worker in the sector claims local authorities cost taxpayers money by going for the cheap option first

Keith Grayson’s death was confirmed in a statement released through Hot 97, the radio station where he hosted The Drama HourThe pioneering hip-hop artist Keith Grayson, who performed as DJ Kay Slay and worked with top stars, has died of complications from Covid-19.Grayson’s death at 55 on Sunday was confirmed by his family in a statement released through New York radio station Hot 97, where he hosted The Drama Hour for more than two decades. Continue reading...

Country appears more divided than ever along Hindu-Muslim lines – and for many, Modi’s BJP is to blameThe procession had begun peacefully. Marching through the streets of Delhi’s Jahangirpuri district on Saturday, the crowds had gathered to celebrate the Hindu festival of Hanuman Jayanti. But the peace did not last long. As the evening drew in, a section of the parade clad in saffron, the signature colour of Hindu nationalism, began to brandish swords and pistols, and loudly shout provocative communal slogans.Ignoring previous agreements between Hindu and Muslim residents for the procession to avoid passing by a local mosque, they charged toward it. Continue reading...

As Russia suppresses information about its sinking, some share details of what they have found out

NASUWT conference told of ‘online infiltration’ of views such as Holocaust denial among genuine accountsChildren are accidentally coming across far-right material online while innocently carrying out research for school projects, a teachers’ conference has heard.Delegates debating the influence of the far right in schools heard that children’s access to social media and smartphones means they are more at risk of being exposed to extremist material than ever before. Continue reading...

The prolific British composer drew on poetry and folklore for his uncompromising but lyrical music. A Proms’ premiere, Panic, brought him national notorietyHarrison Birtwistle, one of the UK’s foremost composers, has died aged 87. Birtwistle’s compositions of uncompromising modernism – ranging from large-scale grand opera to intimate solo piano pieces – have dominated British music for more than five decades. He was born in Accrington in 1934, and as a young clarinettist played in theatre bands and began composing. He studied in Manchester at the Royal Northern College of Music, where, along with his fellow students Alexander Goehr and Peter Maxwell Davies, he was part of an explosion of musical creativity, and belonged to a group once labelled “the Manchester School”.His first chamber opera, Punch and Judy, premiered at the Aldeburgh festival in 1968, and legend has it that the violence of its story and music outraged much of its audience, including festival founder Benjamin Britten who apparently left at the interval. (Birtwistle himself directed a revival of the opera at the festival in June 1991.) The Triumph of Time, in 1972, inspired by a woodcut of the same name by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, secured his international reputation and remains one of his best-known works. Continue reading...

Suspect arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after incident on Horse Guards ParadeA man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after Ministry of Defence police officers were confronted close to Buckingham Palace and government buildings in central London.The Metropolitan police said officers used a Taser electrical weapon during the incident on Horse Guards Parade at about 8.50am on Monday. The Met said there were no reports of any injuries and the incident was not being treated as terror-related. Continue reading...

Staff and health unions say closure of nursery will make it more difficult to recruit and retain frontline staffThe NHS’s biggest mental health trust has been accused of undermining its own workforce’s wellbeing by shutting its staff nursery, despite it being a “lifeline” for them.Dozens of doctors, nurses and other staff at the South London and Maudsley (SLaM) trust in the capital face having to find alternative childcare because of its decision. Continue reading...

Defence minister says negotiations with France over abandoned naval agreement will ‘take some time’

Former PM is accused of creating wave of public anger that could prove difficult to controlOn Tuesday, two days after Imran Khan had been ousted as Pakistan’s prime minister in a dramatic no-confidence vote, Noor Alam Khan – a politician and former member of Khan’s party – was eating dinner at a restaurant when he was confronted by another diner.The man began shouting “traitor”, “American agent” and “turncoat” and then lunged over to punch Khan, who had been attempting to ignore him. In the middle of the restaurant, the politician and the angry voter began to brawl, with food and tables going flying. Continue reading...

MPs say security situation remains precarious, with safety kit requested a year ago yet to be installedMPs still have significant concerns about their safety six months on from the murder of David Amess, with many warning there is a “backlog” of issues waiting to be resolved that have left their homes and offices unsecure.Despite the parliamentary authorities’ vow in October to keep MPs “as safe as possible”, many of those who spoke to the Guardian said the situation had only got worse. Continue reading...

Anthony Albanese grilled on urgent care clinics after receiving mixed reception at Bluesfest in Byron Bay; Scott Morrison trumpets border security credentials in Perth; NSW and Queensland each record four Covid deaths, with one each in Victoria and the Northern Territory. This blog is now closed