PM refuses to be drawn into wider conflict as Germany and Italy defy Trump's call to help reopen strait of Hormuz

Carie Hallford, 48, whose husband Jon received 40-year term, pleaded guilty to defrauding grieving families

Deaths of student and sixth-former named as Juliette announced as long queues for antibiotics form at Canterbury campusCases of invasive meningitis have been confirmed at the University of Kent and three schools in an outbreak that has killed two young people and left 11 others in hospital.One of the young people to have died was a student at the University of Kent, while the second was a sixth-former at Queen Elizabeth's grammar school (QEGS) in Faversham. Continue reading...

Heat warnings are in effect across region as record-high temperatures are forecast in California, Nevada and Arizona

Head of world's energy watchdog says it will take time for markets to recover from ongoing crisis in strait of HormuzThe world's energy watchdog will consider releasing further emergency crude stocks into the global market to cool rising oil prices after warning that it will take time for markets to recover from the ongoing crisis in the strait of Hormuz.Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, said its members continued to hold large reserves of emergency oil stocks even after agreeing to the biggest release of government crude in the history of the market, meaning more emergency oil reserves could still be released as and if needed". Continue reading...

President says PM should be more supportive over strait of HormuzKeir Starmer is speaking at his press conference.The war is entering its third week, he says.First, we will protect our people in the region.Second, while taking the necessary action to defend ourselves and our allies, we will not be drawn into the wider war.Moments like this also tell you about leadership ... Now, there are others who would have made a different decision two weeks ago.They would have rushed the UK headlong into this war without the full picture of what they were sending our forces into and without a plan to get us out.It is no surprise that our closest and most important ally is so disappointed. The Labour government's response to the crisis in Iran has been shameful.We should have been supporting our allies, not making it harder for them. Even now Starmer is still trying to sit on the fence, which is a complete failure of leadership. Continue reading...

Candidates look for deals with rivals to boost chances as major seats including Paris, Marseille and Lyon look closePolitical parties in France are hastily attempting to negotiate strategic alliances ahead of the final round of local elections this weekend, after a strong showing by the far right and the radical left.This Sunday's final-round vote for mayors and local councillors in major cities including Marseille, Lyon and Paris will be close. Continue reading...

Corporation's lawyers argue expensive but groundless' litigation restricts ability to cover public figuresThe BBC has asked a US court to throw out Donald Trump's $10bn (7.5bn) lawsuit over the way a documentary edited one of his speeches, warning that proceeding with the case would have a chilling effect" on its reporting on the president.In papers filed to the Florida court dealing with the case, the BBC's US lawyers claimed Trump's reputation had not been damaged by the documentary, given it aired in the UK a week before his re-election. Continue reading...

Swift leads with 1.6m vinyl sales of The Life of a Showgirl in 2025 while Sabrina Carpenter and Kendrick Lamar round out the LP chartsFor the first time in over four decades, US vinyl sales have topped $1bn in annual revenue.Vinyl purchases reached $1.04bn in 2025, per a new report by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) published on 16 March. It marks the 19th consecutive year of growth for the format that was once considered a niche interest. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Claire Earley's son Rex spent six weeks in hospital after contracting E coli from contaminated lakeRealtime pollution alerts are needed across Windermere urgently, campaigners have said, as the mother of a seven-year-old boy who kayaked on the lake described how he nearly died after contracting a dangerous strain of E coli from contaminated water.Claire Earley's son Rex spent six weeks in hospital, and underwent two emergency operations, after a family kayaking trip on Windermere last August. Continue reading...

Immersive exhibition will form the centrepiece of the celebration of the artist's 90th birthday next yearTate Modern's Turbine Hall will be transformed into an immersive opera house as it plays host to an exhibition featuring the sets David Hockney designed for productions of works by Mozart, Wagner and Stravinsky dating back to the 1970s.The art form might be considered passe by Timothee Chalamet, but Tate is to use the sets as the centrepiece of its celebration of Hockney's 90th birthday in 2027. Continue reading...

Hummus and pet grooming also join list of goods and services used to help judge the impact of rising prices

Pat McFadden unveils 1bn youth employment scheme and appeals to backbenchers who rebelled last year

PM says he wants quick end to conflict as he announces help for households with surging cost of heating oil

Electric vehicles reduce exposure to global oil price shocks and shift energy consumption to electricity largely produced domestically, expert says

Despite Trump's claims, California city has found success in lowering deadly violence, thanks to pioneering efforts to steer people down a different pathIn the summer of 2025, as Donald Trump rolled out his plan to deploy the national guard to Washington DC and Chicago, he suggested other American cities were overrun with violence and could soon see federal troops: Memphis, Los Angeles, New York.Oakland, the president argued, was beyond saving. And then you have, of course, Baltimore and Oakland. They're so far gone. We don't even talk about that any more," Trump said. Continue reading...

What happened on board, and are vapes considered a fire risk on flights? Here's what you need to know

Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, 41, died on Saturday in Texas less than 24 hours after being detainedAn Afghan immigrant who previously worked with the United States military in Afghanistan and later sought asylum in the US died over the weekend in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) custody less than 24 hours after being detained in Texas, an advocacy group said on Sunday.Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal, who was living in a Dallas suburb with his wife and six children while his asylum case remained pending, was arrested by federal agents outside his apartment on Friday morning while taking his children to school, said a statement from Shawn VanDiver, president of the military veteran-led group AfghanEvac. Continue reading...

Cousin of Tech Sgt Tyler Simmons, whose military refueling plane crashed in Iraq, says: We didn't need to be in this war'A relative of an Ohio airman who was killed recently in a military airplane crash in Iraq amid the US and Israel's war in nearby Iran has said the conflict is uncalled for".This could have been prevented," Stephan Douglas said of the death of his cousin Tech Sgt Tyler Simmons, 28, in an interview with the Ohio news outlet WCMH. We didn't need to be in this war. This is uncalled for - and this is what we get." Continue reading...

Prisons minister says more women should be diverted away from jail - and new board aims to bring about that changePat had been in trouble with the police before, when she was 16 and had been spat out of the care system with no qualifications, no housing and no support. Nearly 50 years later, she heard a knock on the door again.There had been a fire in the estate where she lived, and another resident said she had seen Pat start it. I was in the police station for nearly two days before I got to the magistrates court," she said, worrying one finger over the top of her hand. The magistrate said he was sending it to the crown court, and sending me to prison, basically." Continue reading...

National Audit Office highlights benefits of state rescue for jobs and orders but warns of continuing high costThe cost of keeping the UK's last remaining blast furnaces going at British Steel's Scunthorpe plant could exceed 1.5bn by 2028 if it continues at its current rate, according to the government's spending watchdog.Ministers took the plant into public control in April last year, after its Chinese owner - industrial firm Jingye - threatened to shut down the loss-making site. Continue reading...

Bibby Boys photo exhibition documents experiences of the men who lived on the former asylum seeker vessel in Dorset and the local community that rallied around themThe Bibby Stockholm barge, which was moored off Portland, Dorset, to accommodate asylum seekers, attracted many negative headlines - from evacuation after the discovery of legionella bacteria, to the suicide of Albanian asylum seeker Leonard Farruku and angry far-right protests.But an exhibition launching this week reveals a less reported side of life on the barge, where enduring connections between asylum seekers and members of the local community were forged and continue long after the last group of asylum seekers left the vessel in November 2024. Continue reading...

US president says it is only appropriate' for Europe to help, and warns failure to do so would be very bad' for Nato. Plus, meet the Americans withholding their federal income taxGood morning.Donald Trump has ratcheted up the pressure on European allies to help protect the strait of Hormuz, warning that Nato faces a very bad" future if its members fail to come to Washington's aid.What did Trump say? The US president told the Financial Times in an interview: It's only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there. If there's no response or if it's a negative response, I think it will be very bad for the future of Nato."Who else won? Here's all the winners at the 98th Academy Awards.Who was remembered this year? This year's Academy Awards featured an extended in memoriam section to honour the considerable number of Hollywood legends who have died over the past year. Diane Keaton, Robert Redford and Rob Reiner were remembered in standalone speeches, while Claudia Cardinale and Catherine O'Hara also had extended moments. James Van Der Beek and Brigitte Bardot were among stars who were snubbed from the tribute. Continue reading...

Advocates say 24/7 coverage of US attacks will not last for ever - and spotlight will return to Epstein and his crimesAs the US woke to news that Donald Trump had bombed Iran, domestic discord was fast simmering.There was unrelenting outrage over ICE raids. There was frustration with the rising cost of living. There was fear over rocketing healthcare prices, mounting household debt, not to mention many Americans' nagging sense of desperation in a country, some warned, where democracy itself was under threat. Continue reading...

Ex-French president, who was jailed last year for criminal conspiracy, to be tried at Paris appeal court on four countsNicolas Sarkozy is due to appear at the Paris court of appeal to face a fresh trial over allegations he conspired to receive illegal election campaign funding from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.The former rightwing French president, who was in office between 2007 and 2012, denies any wrongdoing. Continue reading...

Milan-based bank plans to up its near-30% stake in German lender to trigger formal talks despite strong opposition from BerlinTwo European banking powerhouses have become embroiled in a 35bn (30bn) takeover battle after Italy's UniCredit stepped up its long-running pursuit of German lender Commerzbank, despite strong opposition from the German government.UniCredit first took a stake of 9% in Commerzbank in September 2024 and has since built up its holding to just under 30%. It said on Monday it was pushing to increase that holding further and push the rival lender into formal merger talks. Continue reading...

Activists fear the families of players have been placed under pressure by the Tehran regime to make them change their minds

Poll of students of all faiths and none found almost a quarter had seen Jews targeted for their religion or ethnicityOne in five students would be reluctant to, or would never, houseshare with a Jewish student, according to a survey by the Union of Jewish Students (UJS) that says antisemitism has become normalised" on UK campuses.A UJS poll of 1,000 students of all faiths and none" found almost a quarter (23%) have seen behaviour that targets Jewish students for their religion or ethnicity and nearly half (47%) have witnessed justification of the 7 October attacks by Hamas. Continue reading...

Latest effort involves paying off fines worth hundreds of millions of pounds as part of bid to stave off financial collapse

Pat McFadden says UK relations with US remain strong despite Donald Trump's threats to Nato allies

US president says it is only appropriate' for Europe to help, and warns failure to do so would be very bad' for Nato

US-based Zubeyda Muzeyyen, AKA DJ Haram, claimed a Zio-Australian-Epstein empire' was responsible for silencing dissenters

NRMA says record-high fuel may be here to stay in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane after prices soared early in the Middle East conflict

This blog is now closed

Health service in England has saved more than 14bn hiring from overseas, report says, as doubt is cast on aim to reduce international recruitment to 10%Ministers' plans to cut the international workforce within NHS England appear overambitious, MPs have said, as a report reveals the health service saved more than 14bn by recruiting doctors, nurses and midwives from overseas.Many of the countries recruited from were struggling with staff shortages, and the UK had a moral duty to offer support, rather than simply extracting what it needed, the all-party parliamentary group (APPG) on global health and security found. Continue reading...

Flawed Home Office travel records identified thousands of parents suspected of claiming while living abroadThe UK's public spending watchdog has launched an investigation into a controversial government anti-fraud scheme that resulted in thousands of families being wrongly stripped of their child benefit payments.The National Audit Office (NAO) will examine how HM Revenue and Customs designed and implemented a scheme that used flawed Home Office travel records to identify parents suspected of living abroad while still claiming child benefit. Continue reading...

Letter sent to Starmer claims small number of peers have been using procedural tactics' to stymie its progressMore than 100 Labour MPs have called on Keir Starmer to stop the House of Lords from blocking the assisted dying bill and give it more time to return to the Commons, with the legislation now certain to fall owing to lack of time.The private member's bill, sponsored by Labour's Kim Leadbeater, will fall when the parliamentary session comes to an end in May because peers have used multiple amendments and lengthy debates to prevent it from being put to a vote. Continue reading...

Average arrears for housing, utilities and council tax for low-income households all rose last yearHigh levels of debt on essential bills have become the new normal" for many low-income households, the charity StepChange said on Monday, with average arrears for housing, utilities and council tax all going up last year.People's budgets have been stretched in recent years as they have faced higher prices for many goods and services, and the crisis in the Middle East has led to concerns over a new wave of increases. Continue reading...

Charities Aid Foundation says giving no longer a deeply embedded cultural norm' amid rising cost of livingBritain is rapidly losing the charity habit, with public donations to good causes plummeting by more than 1.4bn last year and millions of people saying they can no longer afford - or do not want - to give, according to an analysis.The Charities Aid Foundation (Caf) said in its annual report that, while the British remained generous at heart, society was witnessing a big transformation in attitudes towards charitable giving. Just half of people gave to charity in 2025, down from 61% a decade earlier. Continue reading...

US supreme court has ransacked' the country, president argues, in wake of its ruling against his trade agendaDonald Trump has claimed he has the absolute right" to impose new tariffs after the US supreme court ruled many of the import duties he imposed last year were illegal.The president attacked the court in a late night broadside on Sunday, accusing it of having unnecessarily RANSACKED" the US - and failing to show him sufficient loyalty. Continue reading...

NSW police allege child was sitting on lap of 45-year-old man who was experiencing significant fatigue' but was operating pedals while boy steered

As One Battle After Another swept the Academy Awards, Paul Thomas Anderson, Javier Bardem and Conan O'Brien gave a welcome reality check to the glitzy ceremony

Australian Community Media says employee wellbeing' top priority amid shock and deep concern' over 59-year-old's chargesAustralian Community Media will hold a staff meeting on Monday afternoon to share the regional media group's response to the arrest of its part-owner Antony Catalano who is facing charges of assault of a woman.On Sunday the board and executive leadership team of ACM distanced itself from the 59-year-old newspaper mogul, saying they were shocked and deeply concerned" about the charges. Continue reading...

Kiis FM could face cancellation of radio station licence if ban breached, regulator saysAny Kiis FM radio program hosted by Kyle Sandilands and or Jackie O" Henderson must not air strong sexual content for the next five years or ARN Media could face penalties as serious as the cancellation of the radio station's licence.However, the penalty from broadcasting authorities has come two weeks after the Kyle & Jackie O Show was taken off the air and Henderson's contract with ARN was terminated. Continue reading...

Class action settles after retailers argued state government should pay them for economic loss resulting from pandemic lockdownBusinesses affected by one of the world's longest Covid-19 lockdowns will receive $125m from taxpayers after a state government agreed to settle the matter.A class action was brought in the supreme court on behalf of businesses affected financially by Victoria's 2020 lockdowns. Continue reading...

This blog is closedIraq's football team will travel to Mexico for a 2026 World Cup playoff match despite calls for it to be postponed due to the Middle East war, the country's football association has announced.The national team will depart at the end of the week to Mexico via a private plane," said Iraq football association president Adnan Dirjal in a statement, adding they had contacted Fifa to help facilitate the trip during the conflict in the region that has hampered flights. Continue reading...

Primary school teacher Pavel Talankin's record of the indoctrination of his pupils to support Russia's invasion of Ukraine beats contenders

The actor and singer remembered her co-star in 1973's The Way We Were, who died in September

Much-loved actor, who died in October aged 79, remembered in emotional segment at the 98th Academy Awards

Borrowers coming off fixed deals hit hard as Savills says big spike in interest payments made up half the overall riseUK households spent a record 226bn to keep a roof over their heads last year, figures showed on Monday, with mortgage borrowers finishing fixed-rate deals particularly hard hit by rising payments.Overall housing costs have gone up by 66bn over the past five years, a rise of 41%, the property group Savills said. Continue reading...