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Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus jab rolled out after backing from European Medicines Agency

Inquest into deaths of victims of 2019 incident told intelligence concluded Usman Khan ‘might commit an attack’There was intelligence that Usman Khan “might commit an attack” when released from prison a year before his deadly terror assault at London’s Fishmongers’ Hall, an inquest has heard.Khan, a convicted terrorist who had been released on licence when he stabbed Jack Merritt and Saskia Jones at a prisoner rehabilitation event in November 2019, was known in prison as “High Risk Khan”, the inquest into their deaths was told on Thursday. Continue reading...

Without extension of legally binding 2013 accord, life-saving changes still required in factories will not go aheadThe future of a landmark deal to improve safety at clothing factories in Bangladesh is in doubt, unions have said, ahead of the eighth anniversary of the collapse of the Rana Plaza building in which more than 1,100 garment workers died.More than 200 brands, including Primark, Marks & Spencer and H&M, signed up to the Bangladesh Accord on fire and building safety after the 2013 disaster at the factory building in the outskirts of Dhaka. That deal, agreed with international clothing workers’ unions UNI Global and IndustriALL, is due to expire next month. Continue reading...

Defence secretary Ben Wallace also says he will explore ‘decolonising’ schools’ teaching of first world warThe defence secretary has apologised for Britain’s failure to properly commemorate tens of thousands of black and Asian soldiers who died serving the country , and pledged to explore “decolonising” schools’ teaching of the first world warBen Wallace said “historic failings” had been identified in committee’s inquiry set up by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC). Continue reading...

Mobiles are now a luxury in world’s fifth most costly place for data as cooking oil tax adds to rising pricesHundreds of people have taken to Malawi’s streets to protest against rising mobile call and data charges.There were demonstrations in Lilongwe, the capital, in the city of Blantyre, and in the southern district of Mulanje on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The lead character in United States of Al is a bumbling, one-dimensional cliche whose sole purpose is helping his white peers. How sad that shows like this still get madeIt feels sad, amid a wave of such positive, nuanced, complex depictions of immigrants on TV, that United States of Al had to launch this month in the US.“How do you say: ‘We’re so happy to see you’ in – what language do they speak in Afghanistan? Afghanistanish?” is the first line of the new show, about an American war veteran whose Afghan friend, Al, comes to live with him in the US. Chuck Lorre, the writer known for other big hits such as The Big Bang Theory, Roseanne and The Kominsky Method, knows that one of the country’s two native languages is Pashto, not “Afghanistanish” – he wrote it into the script in the next line – but what better way to signify how irrelevant you think another country is than writing in a joke for which the punchline is a question that could be answered by Google in a second? Continue reading...

Inquiry comes as senior MPs meet to discuss concerns over PM’s undisclosed text messagesThe Cabinet Office is to launch an internal investigation into the leak of Boris Johnson’s text messages with the billionaire businessman James Dyson after concerns were raised about the prime minister’s texted promises to change tax rules.The announcement came as parliament’s most powerful committee of MPs will discuss whether to question Johnson on the use of his personal phone. Sources said the prime minister has liberally distributed his number over the years. Continue reading...

Appalled by the botched European Super League plans, many want a reset in England. But there are cultural and legal barriersNow that the so-called European Super League has collapsed in on itself amid a flurry of fan revolt, recriminations and stilted apologies from billionaires, we can gaze back to those heady moments long ago when the plan was announced on Sunday night. It was clear from the start that there were flaws with the proposed breakaway competition hatched by a dozen of football’s megaclubs.Notably, three major teams were conspicuous by their absence: Paris St Germain, Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Leaving aside the more opaque motives of the Qatar-owned French side, the two German clubs not being involved was pointed. Bayern are one of the real heavyweights on the international stage, in terms of sporting prowess and financial power. But the resolute rejection of the idea by Dortmund was even more surprising. Continue reading...

Held mostly in a train station, this year’s Academy Awards will be the most unusual ever. Get ready, with our guide to the oddest incidents in its 92-year history Continue reading...

EHRC report submitted in November says authors set up a ‘false dichotomy’ around racial disparitiesThe equality watchdog accused the authors of a controversial report into racial disparities in the UK of creating a “false dichotomy” about the underlying reasons for racial disparity before it was published, it has been revealed.The report by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities (Cred), published at the end of March, has been widely criticised, including by UN human rights experts who said it tried to “normalise white supremacy”, with at least 20 stakeholders credited in the report distancing themselves from its findings. Continue reading...

The Big Bang Theory and Star Trek actors lend their voices to Capote and Williams in a film about their friendship. They discuss self-loathing, being gay in Hollywood and coping in lockdown“It really was an intellectual friendship,” Truman Capote said of his 40-year relationship with the playwright Tennessee Williams. “Though people thought otherwise.”The two aspiring writers met in 1940, when Capote was 16 and Williams was 29, still a few years off his first success with The Glass Menagerie. Both were southerners (Capote from Louisiana, Williams from Mississippi); had impossible relationships with their families; went from being what Williams called the “teased queer in the schoolyard” to out gay celebrities; created iconic female characters (Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Blanche DuBois in A Streetcar Named Desire); and later became recognised as giants of 20th-century American literature. Continue reading...

We’d like to hear from those taking part in demonstrations in Russia in support of the opposition leaderTens of thousands of Russians in cities across the country have taken part in demonstrations to try and secure the freedom of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.Police in Russia arrested key supporters of the Kremlin critic and shut down central squares in the country ahead of planned demonstrations on Wednesday evening. More than 1,700 supporters were arrested at last night’s protests. Continue reading...

Even from the backbench the Nationals MP could prove a handful for the government due to his outspoken views on topics including abortionThe Nationals MP George Christensen has announced he will not contest the next election, in a shock decision he attributed to the “broken” state of Australian politics and a desire to spend time with family.Christensen revealed his intention to quit in a statement to the Courier Mail, since confirmed by Guardian Australia, arguing the time was right for him to give up representing the Mackay-based seat of Dawson. Continue reading...

Doctor leading team in NSW’s far west ‘deeply shocked’ to learn 18-year-old died after being evacuated to Sydney

Officials believe vessel may have sunk to depth of 600-700 metres, more than twice depth it was designed forHope is fading for the 53 crew members on a missing Indonesian submarine, as the search for the vessel continues off the coast of Bali.The Indonesian navy has revealed that an oil spill at sea was spotted near the early diving position of the KRI Nanggala-402 before it went missing. Continue reading...

Commonwealth War Graves Commission apologises after report shows thousands of black and Asian troops not commemoratedThe failure to properly commemorate hundreds of thousands of black and Asian troops who died fighting for the British empire has been known about for years, the head of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has acknowledged.Claire Horton, the director general of the CWGC, acknowledged that research revealing black and Asian soldiers had not been equally commemorated had been in the public domain for years. The commission had only taken steps to address the imbalance following a 2019 documentary featuring Labour MP David Lammy. Continue reading...

Only a fifth of doses expected by May delivered as export bans, hoarding and supply shortages bite

Creditors vote in favour of winding up the Australian company that sat atop the globe-spanning finance empire

First published 50 years ago, the feminist classic was hugely influential, telling truths about women’s bodies long obscured by a chauvinist medical establishmentIn 1969, Wendy Sanford was still in the early days of her marriage, living in Cambridge, Massachusetts, with her husband and their newborn son. A couple of years earlier, she had graduated with high honours from the prestigious Radcliffe College, and yet the path before her was clear: domesticity, home decor, dinner parties. She struggled with this new life. “My husband was so disappointed that I wasn’t happy,” Sanford remembers. “I cried a lot. I was in the middle of postpartum depression, and had no words for it at all.”Sanford spoke to her doctor, who suggested she find solace in raising the next generation and supporting her husband. He also prescribed a diaphragm. She asked when she ought to put it in, and the doctor gave her the same mantra he gave all of his female patients: dinner, dishes, diaphragm. “So that was the era,” Sanford says. “And he was a very kind man, but he embodied sexist medical care. He had no idea that he was just pushing me into the arms of feminism.” Continue reading...

Loss branded ‘unacceptable’ as Swiss bank says hedge fund failure wiped out best quarterly performance in a decadeCredit Suisse swung to a 757m Swiss franc loss (£592m) in the first quarter, as the bank reeled from the collapse of US hedge fund Archegos that wiped out what would have otherwise been its best quarterly performances in at least a decade.The bank has taken the biggest hit from the Archegos collapse among its peers, logging a SFr4.4bn charge in the first quarter. It comes after one of its prime brokerage clients Archegos was forced to liquidate almost $20bn (£14bn) in assets last month, in a fire sale that reverberated across global markets. Continue reading...

Health officials investigating how Covid spread inside quarantine hotels in Perth and Sydney. Scott Morrison to meet state and territory leaders to try and reset the vaccine rollout. Follow latest updates8.44am BSTThis is satellite imagery of one of the fires currently burning behind #Sydney. Smoke is around a number of areas around #NSW & #ACT as hazard reduction burns continue. Visit @NSWRFS https://t.co/JBfpYweTmH or @NSWHealth https://t.co/vV2MAaEfg9 or @ACT_ESA https://t.co/Zva2Vl0Hcf pic.twitter.com/WxgJzCFkua8.29am BSTAnne Ruston did not answer two questions on which experts signed off on The Good Society content. It remains a mystery.She said the Our Watch website content was not considered appropriate. Host Patricia Karvelas says it was just some content to do with sexting, so why couldn’t that just have been removed?“Our Watch has taken it upon themselves to do a complete review of the site, also to update and make sure that they are absolutely happy, it’s fit for purpose and been modernised and my understanding in discussions with Our Watch is that the site will be up again soon and it will be completely revamped, remodernised and hopefully will provide another tool in the suite so they we can make sure that young people understand issues around respect, around consent and making sure that they are the adults that we want them to be.” Continue reading...

Report on racial inclusivity ordered by Board of Deputies of British Jews makes over 100 recommendationsSecurity guards at synagogues and other Jewish venues should search the bags of all visitors in order to avoid racial profiling, says a report on racial inclusivity in the Jewish community.Jews of colour described being held back for bag searches while paler skinned friends or relatives were waved through the doors. Continue reading...

Analysis: India’s surveillance of the virus missed its real prevalence earlier this year

Hearing finds Ben Hannam’s actions ‘harmed public confidence in, and the reputation of’ forceA man who became the first British police officer convicted of belonging to a neo-Nazi terrorist organisation has been dismissed from the Metropolitan police without notice.Ben Hannam was found guilty on 1 April of membership of the banned rightwing extremist group National Action (NA) following a trial at the Old Bailey. Continue reading...

Former veterans’ minister says it was ‘most distrustful, awful environment I’ve ever worked in, in government’The former veterans’ minister Johnny Mercer has launched an extraordinary attack on Boris Johnson’s government, describing it as a “cesspit” and “the most distrustful, awful environment I’ve ever worked in”.A day after his resignation, the MP also accused ministers of being “cowards” for not implementing a controversial pledge to end “vexatious historical investigations” of veterans who served in Northern Ireland. Continue reading...

Under cover of darkness in recent weeks, unknown person has felled nearly 50 trees in ElmbridgeIn the Surrey town of Weybridge in the borough of Elmbridge, there is anger, suspicion and no little nervousness. A mystery tree-feller, who has in recent weeks taken a chainsaw to trees in the area under cover of darkness, has returned to launch another destructive spree.“This person is playing a game with us,” said Cameron Flynn, 21, who set up the Facebook group Elmbridge Tree Patrol, which has logged almost 50 incidents of trees being felled, their branches left strewn across roads, paths and in the river. Continue reading...

Allies of jailed opposition leader held as police close parts of Moscow and other citiesTens of thousands of Russians have rallied in cities across the country in a last-ditch effort to secure the freedom of the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny.The unsanctioned demonstrations have shown the determination of Navalny’s core supporters, who called for “freedom for political prisoners” in tense standoffs with riot police in helmets and body armour, who had vowed to disperse any gatherings. Continue reading...

Rapid glut of cases stretches supplies of beds in intensive care units, ventilators and oxygen

How a 2019 documentary helped spark an inquiry into missing war graves of soldiers from the British empire

Exclusive: Commonwealth War Graves Commission expected to apologise for commemorating British empire’s black and Asian first world war dead ‘unequally’

Sgt Geraint Jones shared ‘grossly offensive’ meme to Devon police colleagues as joke, rules judgeA Devon police sergeant who sent colleagues a “disgusting and grossly offensive” doctored image of George Floyd’s arrest has been cleared by a judge of breaking the law after she accepted it was sent as a joke.Geraint Jones, 47, a custody sergeant in Torquay, shared the meme with colleagues at Devon and Cornwall police less than a week after Floyd’s death in May last year. Continue reading...

On her 95th birthday, monarch makes first public statement since her husband’s deathThe royal family was heartened by the tributes to Prince Philip, the Queen has said, as she used the occasion of her 95th birthday to issue her first public statement since the death of her husband.The monarch and other members of the family gathered for the Duke of Edinburgh’s funeral at St George’s Chapel in Windsor on Saturday. He died on 9 April. Continue reading...

Prosecutors seek between six months and three years’ prison time for 97 suspectsTurkish prosecutors are seeking prison sentences for 97 people for taking part in one of the country’s biggest anti-government protest movements in years, sparked by the state appointment of a new rector at Istanbul’s most prestigious university in January.The issue became an unexpected catalyst for Turkey’s youth to vent their frustrations at both the crackdown by the president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, on civil liberties and the government’s failure to get an economic crisis under control. Sporadic clashes with police lasted for weeks in early 2021. Continue reading...

Gareeca Conita Gordon is believed to have lived in next room to Netts in Birmingham women’s hostelA woman has admitted murdering Phoenix Netts, 28, whose remains were found in two suitcases in the Forest of Dean in Gloucestershire, England.Gareeca Conita Gordon, also 28, pleaded guilty to murdering Netts between 14 April and 12 May 2020. The women are believed to have lived in neighbouring rooms at a hostel for women in Birmingham. Continue reading...

It is intimidatingly knobbly, but do persevere. Surprisingly versatile, the vegetable can be used for everything from a cheddar soup to a great twist on coleslawCeleriac has many culinary virtues, but it is not handsome. In its untrimmed state, it looks like a celery plant someone brought before the Gardeners’ Question Time panel to ask what went wrong. It actually is a sort of celery, as the name suggests, cultivated for its bulbous root rather than its apologetic stalks.It looks pretty unprepossessing even when trimmed and wrapped for the supermarket, with gnarled roots, tendrils and a tough grey skin. A celeriac bulb can also seem like a lot of work – going at it with a peeler is thankless; better to slice away the outside with a sharp knife – but it doesn’t have to be. In fact, you can bake it as is, whole, along with some herbs and oil, wrapped in a foil package. After two hours, just slice off the top, mash the insides with a little butter and eat. If that seems too unadventurous, here are 16 others ideas to try. Continue reading...

Junta has also threatened to revoke doctors’ passports and bar them from medical practiceAt least 139 medics in Myanmar are facing charges and possible jail time, according to local media, as the junta escalates a crackdown on doctors who have been involved in anti-coup protests or treating victims of military violence.Medics in Myanmar have faced routine attacks by the military since it launched a coup on 1 February, with troops raiding clinics, firing at ambulances and beating and detaining doctors. Some medics no longer wear their uniforms because they fear that doing so puts them at greater risk of violence. Continue reading...

Latest updates: PM says he was trying to ‘shift heaven and earth’ to secure ventilators as Starmer says Dyson was lobbying

Rémy Daillet-Wiedemann is claimed to have planned abduction with child’s motherFrench police have issued an international arrest warrant for a far-right conspiracy theorist living in Malaysia, who they allege helped organise the abduction of an eight-year-old girl in eastern France at the request of her mother.In a case that has prompted concern about the spread of QAnon and survivalist ideas in France, police said they sought the arrest of a former local politician who has called in online videos for a “popular coup d’état”. Continue reading...

Three returned travellers staying in adjoining rooms at the Mercure hotel tested positive to the South African variant, after initially testing negativeNew South Wales health authorities are investigating another potential transmission of Covid-19 between people staying in hotel quarantine in Sydney, as Western Australian officials confirmed two new cases had been acquired in hotel quarantine in Perth.Three returned travellers arrived on 3 April on the same flight, and stayed in adjacent rooms at the Mercure hotel on George Street in Sydney’s CBD. Continue reading...

Cleverly tells MPs that cuts come at ‘terrible’ time, with 16m close to famine as Covid infections doubleThe UK government has admitted that no assessment has been carried out of how “dire” the impact of the 60% cut in foreign aid to Yemen will be.Related: UK 'balancing books on backs of Yemen's starving people', says UN diplomat Continue reading...

Hollywood Foreign Press Association expels Philip Berk after he shared article calling Black Lives Matter a ‘racist hate group’The crisis-plagued Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA), the body that organises the Golden Globes, has expelled Philip Berk, its former president who sparked widespread outrage by sharing an anti-Black Lives Matter article that described the movement as a “racist hate group”.In a brief statement, the HFPA said: “Effective immediately, Phil Berk is no longer a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association.” The HFPA’s move follows outspoken criticism from NBC, the TV network that broadcasts and pays for the Golden Globes, which called for Berk’s expulsion. “NBC strongly condemns Phil Berk’s actions … [and] swift action on this front is an essential element for NBC to move forward with the HFPA and the Golden Globes.” Continue reading...

Families with older children are turned around under Title 42, invoked last year by Trump due to supposed health risk from CovidDazed and dejected, Mimi was sitting on park bench in the Mexican city of Reynosa, Mexico, not far from the border with Texas. Clinging to her side was her six-year-old daughter.The young Honduran mother seemed shocked by how close they had come to their American dream – and the realization that her own words had pushed it out of reach. Continue reading...

Experts’ assessment comes on eve of US-hosted climate summit pressing countries for bigger commitments and deeper cuts to emissionsThe Morrison government has been warned it needs to massively increase investment in clean technology if it is serious about its “technology, not taxes” climate policy after promising $540m for “clean” hydrogen and carbon capture programs.Scott Morrison visited the New South Wales central coast on Wednesday to promise $275m for hydrogen hubs over five years and $263.7m for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects and hubs over the next decade. Continue reading...

Martha Beck survived abuse, went to Harvard, left her husband – then began working with the world’s biggest TV star. She discusses self-help, nonconformity and the power of truth“This has almost been like a global meditation. What isn’t working in your life rises to the surface. Going back to the way it was? It’s not going to happen.” Martha Beck – the bestselling author and Harvard-trained sociologist known as “Oprah Winfrey’s life coach” – is talking about responses to the pandemic.“Every act of creation begins with the destruction of the status quo,” she continues. “It looks like chaos. But, really, it’s a freedom from the tyranny of ‘how things have always been done’. Pascal said that most of our misery comes from the fact that we are unable to sit quietly in a room. And, by the billions over the past year, we have been forced to sit quietly in a room. Now people’s questions are coming from a much deeper place. Before, it was: ‘How do I change my life?’ Now, it’s: ‘What do I want from my life?’” Continue reading...

Brittany Higgins to ask Scott Morrison to fix ‘systemic coercive control’ in Parliament House. This blog is now closed

Canberra diplomat tells press club China should not be milked with a ‘plot to slaughter it in the end’A senior Chinese diplomat has accused the Australian government of triggering a downward spiral in the relationship by “conniving with the United States in a very unethical, illegal, immoral suppression” of Chinese telco Huawei.Wang Xining, the deputy head of the Chinese embassy in Canberra, told the National Press Club that China had “done nothing intentionally to hurt this relationship”, despite the Australian government’s complaints about Beijing trade actions against a range of export sectors over the past year. Continue reading...

‘We will not have our national game taken away from us for profit,’ says Oliver Dowden

The Fair Work Commission upholds the sacking of a childcare worker who refused to get a flu jabEmployers’ power to direct employees to be vaccinated has received a boost in the Fair Work Commission, which has upheld the sacking of a childcare worker who refused a flu jab.Although the commission said the decision “relates specifically to the influenza vaccination in a childcare environment”, the case confirms labour law experts’ belief that an employer’s direction to get a vaccination can be “lawful and reasonable”. Continue reading...

Breakthrough could create thousands of jobs for villagers and help exports to other marketsA company in Lesotho has become the first in Africa to receive a licence to sell medical cannabis to the EU.The country’s top medical cannabis producer, MG Health, announced it had met the EU’s good manufacturing practice (GMP) standards, allowing it to export cannabis flower, oil and extracts as an active pharmaceutical ingredient. Continue reading...