New head faces decisions crucial to movement's future, such as how far to cooperate with Trump's Gaza peace planHamas has reportedly begun holding leadership elections among its members at a time when the militant Palestinian movement faces imminent decisions which will be critical to its own continued existence and the potential for peace in Gaza.According to the BBC and press reports in the Gulf, Hamas members in Gaza have already voted. Those in the West Bank, in Israeli prisons and the diaspora are also expected to cast ballots for delegates to the movement's 50-member general Shura council, which ultimately chooses its politburo and a new interim leader. The process could last weeks. Continue reading...
by Peter Walker Senior political correspondent on (#73Q8W)
Move would follow any police investigation after former prince questioned on suspicion of misconduct in public officeThe government will consider passing legislation to strip Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor of his right to inherit the throne once any police investigation has concluded, it is understood.Several politicians have called for the former prince to be removed from the line of succession after he was arrested and questioned by detectives on Thursday on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Continue reading...
by Tom Ambrose (now); Taz Ali, Jonathan Yerushalmy an on (#73PW2)
Metropolitan Police also working with US counterparts to establish whether London airports had been used to facilitate human trafficking and sexual exploitation'
Breaking from the president, Congress voted to fund institutions including the Institute of American Indian ArtsIn a break with Donald Trump, the Republican-controlled Congress approved a funding bill for multiple key government agencies and institutions in January. Some of those groups included the cultural institutions whose federal funds the president had sought to severely decrease or totally eliminate.Last year, Trump issued Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History", an executive order that specifically cited the Smithsonian Institution as having come under the influence of a divisive, race-centered ideology". The executive order called for an overhaul of the museums and called out the American Women's History Museum, which now exists only as an online exhibition, the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM) and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC). Continue reading...
Former prince's arrest was most damaging event for the family firm in centuries - and the questions keep comingLondon fashion week was probably the last public place King Charles III wanted to be on Thursday, admiring the suits and costumes that no one he knows would dream of buying, and making light conversation with designers he would have difficulty in recognising at a royal garden party.Charles must have been contemplating the crumbling of all his plans and hopes for his reign. He always knew it would be short, even before his cancer diagnosis, but he probably never thought it would be upended by the alleged behaviour of his own brother. Continue reading...
Completion of glass cross brings Antoni Gaudi's church to maximum final height of 172.5m, 144 years after work beganThe final piece of the central tower of Barcelona's Sagrada Familia has been laid in place, bringing the church to its maximum final height 144 years after work began.After several days when it has been too windy to work, the upper section of the 17 metre-high four-sided steel and glass cross was winched into position at 11am on Friday, completing the tower dedicated to Jesus Christ. At 172.5 metres, the Sagrada Familia, to which the Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi devoted the later part of his life, is Barcelona's tallest building and the world's tallest church. Continue reading...
Under Shabana Mahmood's proposals, wait for settled status would double to 20 years if public funds used while in workFamilies claiming in-work benefits face giving them up and enduring hardship to avoid being punished" under a planned government migration crackdown, experts have said.More than 200,000 people living legally in the UK are on the 10-year route to settled status, which requires legal migrants to renew 30-month visas four times - at a cost of 3,908.50 including healthcare costs per renewal - before they can apply for indefinite leave to remain (ILR). Continue reading...
Software companies are facing major disruption from AI and investors are pulling back, wiping off billions in value - but does it spell the end for software-as-a-service?
Purdue says no ban on Chinese students exists, but reportedly rescinded dozens of offers after warnings from legislatorsSeveral universities have scrapped partnerships with Chinese institutions in recent months as a direct result of pressure from US legislators. But no university appears to have gone as far as Purdue University in Indiana.Students and faculty at the public university say that an unofficial policy is in effect to automatically reject students from China and a number of other countries altogether. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Nigel Farage understood to have known of grievance against byelection candidate, whose lawyer described it as resolved minor workplace matter' of miscommunicationMatt Goodwin, Reform UK's candidate in the Gorton and Denton byelection, was accused by a young woman working at GB News of making inappropriate comments which she viewed as sexually harassing, the Guardian can reveal.The junior staffer complained to HR last year alleging Goodwin had made inappropriate comments, one regarding her appearance, sources say. Goodwin, 44, volunteered an apology after the complaint had been raised. Continue reading...
Mayor says Japanese city will respect donor's specification that 2.7m gift must be used to repair dilapidated systemOsaka has received a hefty gift of gold bars worth 560m yen (2.7m) from an anonymous donor and a request for its specific use: to fix the Japanese city's dilapidated water pipes.The gold bars, weighing a total of 21kg (46lb), were given to the Osaka City Waterworks Bureau in November by the donor who wants to help improve ageing water pipes, the mayor, Hideyuki Yokoyama, told reporters on Thursday. Continue reading...
After tech billionaire Peter Thiel and others donated to Jace Yarbrough's campaign, Donald Trump endorsed himA rookie congressional candidate in a nine-way Texas primary has received the imprimatur of wealthy hard-right donors including tech billionaire Peter Thiel, Claremont Institute board chair Thomas Klingenstein and Charles Haywood, who once expressed a desire to be a warlord", according to new Federal Election Commission filings showing early donations to his campaign.In a recent candidate forum, Jace Yarbrough unapologetically staked out a series of extremist positions, saying that critics may call his approach to politics bigoted and backward and oppressive and Nazi-ish", but that he is past trying to placate that in any way, shape or form". Continue reading...
Struggling British carmaker says earnings for 2025 will be worse than City forecasts as US tariffs hit salesAston Martin has again warned its profits will be lower than expected and sold its permanent naming rights to its Formula One team, as the struggling British carmaker battles to stabilise its finances.The luxury carmaker, majority-owned by the Canadian billionaire Lawrence Stroll, said its earnings for 2025 would be worse than City forecasts, its fifth profit warning since September 2024. Continue reading...
French utility company EDF says operations in Somerset will start a year later as delay costs firm 2.5bnBritain's first new nuclear plant in a generation at the Hinkley Point C site will face further delay, at a cost of 2.5bn to the French utility company EDF.EDF said the first reactor at the site in Somerset will begin operations in 2030, a year later than planned - almost 13 years after construction work began - after a series of delays to the project. Continue reading...
Guardian review of US justice department files reveals Epstein interacted with six CBP officers. Plus, how anxiety over AI could fuel a new workers' movement
Drawing on more than 100 interviews with senior intelligence officials and other insiders in multiple countries, this exclusive account details how the US and Britain uncovered Vladimir Putin's plans to invade, and why most of Europe - including the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy - dismissed them. As the fourth anniversary of the invasion approaches and the world enters a new period of geopolitical uncertainty, Europe's politicians and spy services continue to draw lessons from the failures of 2022 Continue reading...
by Julian Borger and Emma Graham-Harrison in Jerusale on (#73PV0)
Israeli police raid compound, arrest staff and curb Muslims' access as Ramadan beginsA six-decade agreement governing Muslim and Jewish prayer at Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site has collapsed" under pressure from Jewish extremists backed by the Israeli government, experts have warned.A series of arrests of Muslim caretaker staff, bans on access for hundreds of Muslims, and escalating incursions by radical Jewish groups culminated this week in the arrest of an imam of al-Aqsa mosque and an Israeli police raid during evening prayers on the first night of Ramadan. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Josh Simons pressed intelligence officials to investigate reporters, in emails described as McCarthyite smear'A Labour minister who claimed to be surprised" and furious" at a PR agency's work to investigate journalists on his behalf had been personally involved in naming them to British intelligence officials and falsely linking them to pro-Russian propaganda, the Guardian can reveal.Josh Simons, who was running the thinktank Labour Together at the time, was also involved in telling security officials that another journalist was living with" the daughter of a former adviser to Jeremy Corbyn. Officials were told by Simons' team that the former adviser was suspected of links to Russian intelligence". Continue reading...
Exclusive: Sir Ian McKellen portrays artist in BBC documentary that draws on trove of previously unheard recordingsLS Lowry was convinced his paintings would be worthless after his death, he confided in a previously unheard interview.Although the artist had enjoyed some success in his final years, Lowry could never have imagined he would become one of Britain's best-loved artists or that his paintings would sell for millions of pounds. Continue reading...
In today's newsletter: As investigators dig deeper into newly released documents, the arrest of a onceuntouchable public figure puts us in uncharted territoryGood morning. Some days there isn't an immediately obvious theme for what tomorrow's newsletter should be about. Yesterday was not one of those days. As Thames Valley police confirmed early on Thursday that a man in his 60s from Norfolk" had been arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office, it quickly became clear who the 1,000th First Edition would feature.The man taken into custody was Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor - formerly Prince Andrew, Duke of York - arrested at Wood Farm on the Sandringham estate, on his 66th birthday. He is the first senior royal in modern history to be arrested. By the evening, Andrew was seen leaving Aylsham police station, slouched in the back of a vehicle, having been released under investigation.Civil service | Keir Starmer has appointed Antonia Romeo as cabinet secretary, the UK's most senior civil servant, the first woman to hold the post in its 110-year history.Iran | Donald Trump changed his mind on supporting the Chagos Islands deal because the UK will not permit its airbases to be used for a pre-emptive US strike on Iran, the Guardian has been told.Palestine | Almost 60 Palestinian journalists detained in Israeli prisons since the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack have been beaten, starved and subjected to sexual violence, including rape, a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) alleges.Iran | A British couple have been sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Iranian court on charges of espionage - an outcome foreign secretary Yvette Cooper called completely appalling and totally unjustifiable".Education | Children in England with special needs will receive individual support and therapy directly from their schools as part of the government's overhaul of England's special education provision. Continue reading...
Long-serving socialist former leader Evo Morales has reappeared in his political stronghold after almost seven weeks of unexplained absenceBolivia's long-serving socialist former leader, Evo Morales, reappeared on Thursday in his political stronghold of the tropics after almost seven weeks of unexplained absence, endorsing candidates for upcoming regional elections and quieting rumours he had fled the country in the wake of the US seizure of his ally, Venezuela's ex-president Nicolas Maduro.The weeks of hand-wringing over Morales' fate showed how little the Andean country knows about what's happening in the remote Chapare region, where the former president has spent the past year evading an arrest warrant on human trafficking charges, and how vulnerable it is to fears about US president Donald Trump's potential future foreign escapades. Continue reading...
Exclusive: Anthony Albanese says arrest of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor after life of absolute privilege' will be watched closely in AustraliaAnthony Albanese has described Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's arrest as an extraordinary fall from grace" but says the latest crisis facing the British royal family won't prompt another referendum on Australia becoming a republic.The former prince, the brother of King Charles III, was arrested overnight on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Continue reading...
NSW police search makeshift stronghold' in Wildthorn Ave, Dural after Baghsarian abducted from North Ryde home last Friday in case of mistaken identity
by Jamie Grierson, Rajeev Syal and Vikram Dodd on (#73P33)
Former prince released under investigation as searches continue at the Royal Lodge in WindsorKing Charles has insisted the law must take its course" after detectives took the unprecedented step of arresting his brother Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor on suspicion of misconduct in public office.Police took him to Aylsham police station in Norfolk on Thursday morning for questioning about allegations he shared confidential material with the convicted child sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Continue reading...
by Ramon Antonio Vargas in New Orleans on (#73PNP)
Jeffrey Damnit says actor punched him and second man on Tuesday, calling both faggot' repeatedlyOne of the men whom Shia LaBeouf allegedly battered and insulted with a homophobic slur on Mardi Gras morning in New Orleans on Tuesday, leading to his arrest, would like to see the actor face hate crime charges.Jeffrey Damnit, who dresses in drag and was in makeup at the time of the encounter with LaBeouf, said on Thursday that the behavior attributed to the Transformers film franchise star was a complete slap in the face to any alternative-culture person". Continue reading...
Children to get individual support directly from school instead of via council in attempt to curb spiralling costsChildren in England with special needs will receive individual support and therapy directly from their schools as part of the government's overhaul of England's special education provision.Under the plans, mainstream schools will be given commissioning budgets to spend on therapists or additional support, instead of the money being controlled by highly indebted local authorities. Continue reading...
Postponement of ACIP meeting this month comes as US pediatricians challenge committee's legitimacy in courtA meeting of the US vaccine advisory panel that had been planned for later this month by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reportedly been postponed amid legal challenges the panel is facing over its validity.The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which provides guidance on who should receive specific vaccines, had originally been set to convene from 25 to 27 February, according to the CDC's website. Continue reading...
Former duchess has stood by the former prince through waves of allegations and has yet to comment on his arrestWhile the spotlight has been on Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, his arrest has prompted questions about what is next for his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson.Ferguson, known by the tabloids as Fergie, married the then prince Andrew in 1986 and was divorced from him 10 years later after an alleged affair with an American financial adviser. It was one of multiple scandals in the 1990s and 2000s involving the former duchess, who was widely considered an embarrassment to the royal family. Continue reading...
US president links deal with military strikes against Iran in connection with Tehran's nuclear ambitionsDonald Trump changed his mind on supporting the Chagos Islands deal because the UK will not permit its airbases to be used for a pre-emptive US strike on Iran, the Guardian has been told.In his latest change of heart on the deal, the US president said on social media that Keir Starmer was making a big mistake" by handing sovereignty of the islands to Mauritius in exchange for continued use by the UK and US of their airbase on one of the islands, Diego Garcia. Continue reading...
First female cabinet secretary faced allegations of bullying behaviour in 2017, while working in New York consulateKeir Starmer's decision to appoint Antonia Romeo as the country's most senior civil servant has prompted dismay among former colleagues who complained about what they considered bullying behaviour when she was a diplomat in New York.Several people who worked with Romeo at the New York consulate nearly 10 years ago have told the Guardian they are upset by the prime minister's decision to make her cabinet secretary despite knowing about their complaints. Continue reading...
Figure is largest January total since records began and marks sharp reversal from December's deficit of 11.6bnThe UK government enjoyed a record-breaking surplus in January, official figures show, due to a big boost in self-assessment and capital gains tax receipts.In a boost for chancellor Rachel Reeves ahead of her spring statement next month, public sector finances recorded a surplus of XX billion at the start of the year, according to the Office for National Statistics. Continue reading...
Under existing agreements, the British government must issue clearance to the US before it can carry out military operations from UK basesAlex Davies-Jones, a justice minister, has said the government wants to pass the legislation implementing the Chagos Islands deal as soon as it can - despite Presidient Trump's lastest diatribe about it. (See 9.34am.)Davies-Jones was giving interviews this morning and she told Times Radio:This deal is essential and crucial for the national security of the United Kingdom and that is the first priority of any government.We will be bringing the bill back as soon as parliamentary time allows, because this is about national security. Continue reading...
Speaking before she was sentenced with husband Craig, Lindsay Foreman tells of being on emotional rollercoasterA woman sentenced to 10 years in jail by an Iranian court said she had undergone an endurance test for the mind" as she pleaded her innocence on charges of espionage.Lindsay Foreman said she only wanted justice and fairness under the Iranian constitution, in an interview given to the BBC from inside Evin prison in Tehran just before she was sentenced with her husband, Craig. Continue reading...
Consulting firm keen to increase uptake of technology and is reportedly monitoring adoption by workforceAccenture has reportedly started tracking staff use of its AI tools and will take this into consideration when deciding on top promotions, as the consulting company tries to increase uptake of the technology by its workforce.The company told senior managers and associate directors that being promoted to leadership roles would require regular adoption" of artificial intelligence, according to an internal email seen by the Financial Times. Continue reading...
Comments come after Zelenskyy accused Russia of using delay tactics' to stall peace talks with UkraineMeanwhile, Sweden has pledged about 1.2bn in new military support package for Ukraine, responding to president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's call for urgent help with air defence and ammunition over the weekend.The EU sees no tangible signs that Russia is engaging seriously" with the aim of securing peace in Ukraine, its spokesperson said, responding to the latest round of talks in Geneva.We see that Russia continues its relentless attacks on Ukraine. This does reflect that Russia is not ready for peace. We still do not see tangible signs that Russia is engaging seriously on peace. ...Even this week, ahead of the peace talks, Ukraine experienced another massive missile and drone strike, according to Ukrainian authorities. ... Continue reading...
Thomas P gives evidence on first day of trial in case that could shape standards for mountain sportsAn Austrian mountaineer has said he is endlessly sorry" his girlfriend froze to death on a joint climb to the country's highest peak, but denied criminal wrongdoing as his trial began in Innsbruck.The 37-year-old defendant, identified only as Thomas P, gave evidence on the first day of the high-profile proceedings over the tragedy on Groglockner, in a case that could shape international standards for liability in mountain sports. Continue reading...
Acclaimed actor will take on guest lead role as a specialist firearms officer in hit BBC crime dramaRobert Carlyle will join the cast of Line of Duty to play a guest lead role in the new series, it has been announced.The actor joins his Trainspotting co-star Kelly Macdonald, as well as the Stephen Graham - the creator and star of Adolescence - and the Westworld actor Thandiwe Newton, in taking on such a role. Continue reading...
World news | The Guardian