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Exclusive: Guardian Australia investigation into export abattoirs brings necessary and commonsense' commitment back to the spotlight

Duke of York attends royal family's traditional Easter service at Windsor Castle with Sarah, Duchess of YorkThe Duke of York has appeared at the Easter Sunday service at Windsor Castle with King Charles, days after it emerged that an alleged spy helped him write birthday letters to China's president.Prince Andrew arrived at St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle, with the princess royal, as well as his ex-wife Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York, and Anne's husband, Vice-Admiral Sir Tim Laurence. Continue reading...

Chefs, home cooks and supermarkets are discovering exciting new varieties that come in all shapes and sizesWhen life gives you pithy cedro lemons and sweet Tacle mandarins, what exactly do you make with them?British chefs and home cooks are increasingly embracing new and unusual varieties of citrus in recipes, with supermarkets and greengrocers offering a rising number of speciality fruits. Retailers like M&S now offer punnets of kumquats, while Waitrose has reported a 27% rise in sales of yuzu juice. Continue reading...

Suzanne Cherry died after being struck by a van at Aston Wood golf course on 11 AprilA man has described watching in helpless horror" as his wife was struck by a van at a golf club.Suzanne Cherry, 62, of Aldridge, died in hospital on 15 April, four days after she was involved in a collision at Aston Wood golf course in Sutton Coldfield near Birmingham at 10.25am 11 April. Continue reading...

Incidents over Baltic Sea come after UK's deployment of six jets to eastern Poland to defend Nato airspaceRAF fighter jets have intercepted two Russian aircraft flying close to Nato airspace over the Baltic Sea.The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said two RAF Typhoons were scrambled from Malbork airbase in Poland on Tuesday to intercept a Russian Ilyushin Il-20M Coot-A" intelligence aircraft. Continue reading...

Reform UK leader on campaign trail as poll predicts rightwing party could be on course to win in a general electionNigel Farage has defended allowing labelled chlorinated chicken from the US into the UK as part of a trade deal, as a poll suggested his Reform UK party could be on course to take the highest number of seats at a general election.Speaking before the local elections in England on 1 May, Farage said British consumers already ate chicken from places such as Thailand reared in poor conditions, and accepted chlorine-washed lettuce. Continue reading...

Home Office intervened after initial ruling allowing grandmother with terminal cancer to join family in GlasgowA Syrian refugee says the Home Office has broken her heart" by trying to bar her mother, who has weeks to live, from coming to the UK to spend her final days with the grandchildren she has never met.Ola Al Hamwi fled Syria with her husband, Mostafa Amonajid, in 2015. They had lost their baby after a bombing and were unable to take Al Hamwi's mother, Soaad Al Shawa, with them. Continue reading...

Lee defeated a moderate backed by outside groups working to push the Bay Area's progressive politics to the centerBarbara Lee, a trailblazing former member of Congress, has been elected as the next mayor of Oakland, California, after fending off an insurgent challenge from the center at a critical moment for the Bay Area city.Lee defeated the former city council member Loren Taylor after nine rounds of ranked-choice voting gave her more than 52% of the vote to Taylor's 47%, according to the Alameda county registrar of voters. Continue reading...

With Peter Dutton's views on climate change in the spotlight, the focus has turned onto whether there will be any policies to reduce emissions in the next decade

An increasingly confident prime minister has bounced back from his campaign missteps while a nervous-looking opposition leader is running out of time to make a comeback

A 41-year-old man charged with murder after discovery at an address in the Penylan area of CardiffPolice investigating the murder of a woman from Cardiff who was last seen leaving work a week ago have found a body.Paria Veisi's body was discovered by South Wales police at an address in Penylan, Cardiff, on Saturday, the force said. Continue reading...

Thousands gather in Parliament Square in a show of unity after supreme court judgmentAfter last week's supreme court decision, activists had been worried that trans people might become fearful of going out in public in case they were abused.They weren't afraid in London on Saturday. Thousands of trans and non-binary people thronged Parliament Square, alongside families and supporters waving baby blue, white and pink flags to demonstrate their anger at the judges' ruling. Continue reading...

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Palestinians pushed into new misery as supplies of food, fuel and medicine run out in seven-week siegeGaza has been pushed to new depths of despair, civilians, medics and humanitarian workers say, by the unprecedented seven-week-long Israeli military blockade that has cut off all aid to the strip.The siege has left the Palestinian territory facing conditions unmatched in severity since the beginning of the war as residents grapple with sweeping new evacuation orders, the renewed bombing of civilian infrastructure such as hospitals, and the exhaustion of food, fuel for generators and medical supplies. Continue reading...

High-end bar with Middle East-style nut filling is rationed in shops as price of raw kernels surgesProduct promotion on TikTok is now powerful enough to influence the vast agricultural economies of the US and Iran - at least when it comes to the consumption of high-end confectionery.A chocolate bar stuffed with a creamy green pistachio filling has become incredibly popular after a series of video clips shared on the social media site. The first bit of footage praising the taste of the expensive so-called Dubai chocolate" was posted at the end of 2023 and has now been viewed more than 120m times, to say nothing of the many follow-up videos. Continue reading...

NASUWT conference votes to launch strike ballot if spending review does not top up school budgets in fullA second teaching union in England has vowed to strike if the government fails to compensate schools in full for next year's teachers' pay award.The NASUWT union's annual conference voted to reject any pay offer from the government that did not top up school budgets in June's spending review, and to move immediately to ballot members for industrial action". Continue reading...

Alla Shyrshonkova was on a bus when Russian missiles hit the city. Now a toy bear and hippo mark the spot where 35 people, including two children, were killedLast weekend, Alla Shyrshonkova got on the 62 bus on a journey to her cottage near the Ukrainian city of Sumy. It was a warm spring day. I thought I'd sit with friends, have some tea. Birds were singing. The weather was beautiful. It was so nice," she recalled.The bus was packed. There wasn't a single free seat. People were standing. Some were going to church for Palm Sunday. There were families with children." Continue reading...

In-cab digital signalling was tested last week as part of a project to secure the future of main-line locomotivesAbout 500 steam trains run across the UK each year, from Penzance in the south to Inverness in the north, transporting tens of thousands of passengers to a bygone age, bringing joy to the faces of enthusiasts and bemusing commuters.But the future of main line steam operations could be under threat unless the traditional fire-breathing machines can be fitted with pioneering modern technology. Continue reading...

Schools are pushing out established groups as funding for more places comes on streamA government pledge to create more nurseries has backfired, according to early years providers. More than a dozen schools are evicting existing preschool providers that operate in classrooms amid concerns they are doing so to access state funding to set up their own provision.It means that the pledge to create thousands of nursery places may be fulfilled by cannibalising some of the existing preschools, according to the Early Years Alliance (EYA). Continue reading...

Graeme Winn, 65, and Elaine Winn, 58, were among four people who died in incident on ThursdayThe UK Foreign Office has said it is supporting the family of a couple who were killed in a cable car crash in Naples.Graeme Winn, 65, and Elaine Winn, 58, were among four people who died on Thursday at Monte Faito in the town of Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples in southern Italy. Continue reading...

Fans are subscribers to YouTube channel focused on English football whose founder wants to strengthen links with clubFootball tourism is usually seen at Premier League stadiums such as Old Trafford, Anfield and the Emirates, so fans of Harborough Town, who compete in the seventh tier of the football pyramid, were stunned when 100 Spaniards arrived at Bowden Park to watch them take on St Ives Town.The Spanish fans, who turned up last Saturday, were subscribers to a Spanish YouTube channel, La Media Inglesa (LMI), focused on English football, which has now started arranging overseas trips for its followers. Continue reading...

Seven officers taken to hospital after Mazyar Azarbonyad, 20, crashed BMW while being pursued by police on A1A man has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving after seven police officers were injured when he crashed into them while being chased by police.Mazyar Azarbonyad, 20, was taking a woman home from a date in the early hours of 9 April when he crashed his BMW while it was being pursued by police along the northbound carriageway of the A1, near junction 75 and the Denton Burn roundabout, near Newcastle. Continue reading...

Member states are considering removing the country's voting rights after its attempts to stymie support for KyivThe posters are going up all over Hungary. Let's not allow them to decide for us," runs the slogan alongside three classic villains of Hungarian government propaganda.They are: Ukraine's wartime leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy; the European Commission's president, Ursula von der Leyen; and Manfred Weber, the German politician who leads the centre-right European People's party in the European parliament, which counts Hungary's most potent opposition politician among its ranks. Continue reading...

Billionaire tells crowd of 400 that uni-party' of Labor and Coalition are dumb and dumber' as hats with Make Australia Great Again' slogan given out

Twenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in BeijingTwenty-one humanoid robots joined thousands of runners at the Yizhuang half-marathon in Beijing on Saturday, the first time these machines have raced alongside humans over a 21-kilometre (13-mile) course.The robots from Chinese manufacturers such as DroidVP and Noetix Robotics came in all shapes and sizes, some shorter than 120cm (3ft 9in), others as tall as 1.8m (5ft 9in). One company boasted that its robot looked almost human, with feminine features and the ability to wink and smile. Some firms tested their robots for weeks before the race. Beijing officials have described the event as more akin to a race car competition, given the need for engineering and navigation teams. Continue reading...

Chancellor supports economic ties with Beijing as she prepares to fly to US next week for trade deal talksRachel Reeves has dismissed the idea of economically disengaging from China, amid concerns the US may put pressure on the UK to limit its deals with Beijing.The chancellor, who will discuss a trade deal with the US on a trip to Washington next week, said it would be very foolish" for Britain to have less involvement with Xi Jinping's administration. Continue reading...

News outlets pull articles featuring psychologist and sex adviser' Barbara Santini amid doubts over her credentialsOver the past couple of years, the Oxford-educated psychologist Barbara Santini has been widely quoted as an expert. She has contributed thoughts on everything from the psychological impact of the Covid pandemic to the importance of vitamin D and how playing darts can improve your health.However, her pronouncements have begun to disappear from articles after concerns that Santini may not be all that she appears. Major news outlets have removed entire articles featuring Santini, or comments made by her, after a series of questions were raised over her qualifications - and even whether her entire identity could be an elaborate hoax. Continue reading...

Some in his party argue the prime minister's cautious approach is out of step with modern politicsSenior Labour figures are urging Keir Starmer to take a leaf out of Donald Trump's book and make more frequent media appearances in an attempt to dominate the political agenda as the US president does.MPs told the Guardian they want the prime minister to act more like Trump, who has upended political convention by televising large parts of his cabinet, holding long bilateral meetings on camera and calling in to live television shows. Continue reading...

Residents feel city is in decline and polls suggest Reform could take control of council from Labour next monthYou can't fix the system with the same hands that broke it," Richie Vallance shouted through a megaphone from his mobility scooter. Let's make Doncaster Doncaster again," he yelled at passersby in the city centre, who mostly politely ignored him.Vallance is standing as an independent candidate for mayor in the local elections on 1 May, when all 55 seats on the city's council will also be up for grabs. The small South Yorkshire city is a key battleground that will be a test of Labour's resilience in the face of rising public support for Reform UK. Continue reading...

Oscar Jenkins reportedly faces 15-year jail term on charges of fighting as mercenary'

An officer fired at the car but there were no injuries, police say

Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, and US Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff will resume talks in Rome on SaturdayIran's top negotiator believes reaching an agreement on its nuclear programme with the US is possible as long as Washington is realistic, as the two sides prepare to resume talks in Rome on Saturday.Iran's foreign minister, Abbas Araqchi, and the US Middle East envoy, Steve Witkoff, will begin indirect negotiations through mediators from Oman, after their first round in Muscat, which both sides described as constructive. Continue reading...

Prime minister said his government had lobbied Canada to reconsider ruling that cafe could not import Vegemite

Lifesavers advised people to heed warnings and stay away from the coastline

Opposition leader also says his migration plan would prioritise tradies and not yoga teachers

Rumeysa Ozturk was taken by immigration officials over what her lawyers say was apparent retaliation for op-edA federal judge on Friday ordered that a Turkish Tufts University student detained by immigration authorities in Louisiana to be brought to Vermont by 1 May for a hearing over what her lawyers say was apparent retaliation for an op-ed piece she co-wrote in the student newspaper.US district judge William Sessions said he would hear Rumeysa Ozturk's request to be released from detention. Her lawyers had requested that she be released immediately, or at least brought back to Vermont. Continue reading...

Fire broke out during onboard cooking before wooden vessel capsized with 500 passengers aboardThe death toll from a boat fire and capsizing in the Democratic Republic of Congo earlier this week has risen to 148 with more than 100 people still missing, officials said on Friday.About 500 passengers were on board the wooden boat when it capsized on Tuesday after catching fire on the Congo River in the country's north-west. Continue reading...

Jennifer Vasquez Sura relieved husband is alive but Trump officials say in mocking X post he is never coming back'

Venues to remain open until 1am as PM urges UK to come together to mark 80th anniversary on 8 MayPubs will be allowed to stay open until 1am to celebrate the 80th anniversary of VE Day, the UK prime minister has announced.The government will allow pubs in England and Wales to close at 1am on 9 May to allow drinkers to continue celebrating into the early hours. Continue reading...

Death toll reportedly hits 80 with 150 wounded in deadliest attack since Washington launched its campaignUS military strikes on Yemen's Ras Isa fuel port have killed at least 80 people including civilians and rescue workers, according to the Houthi-run health ministry, in the deadliest attack since Washington launched its campaign against the Iran-backed militants.The rebels' Al-Masirah TV, citing local officials, said the toll from the strike had risen to 80 dead and 150 wounded". Continue reading...

Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez was detained for two days despite an attorney submitting certificate proving US birth

Site that once provided health information now includes criticism of Anthony Fauci, who led response to pandemic

Trump said he could stop war in 24 hours, but team appears daunted by negotiation with a lot of detail attached to it'One key to a successful negotiation is always being willing to walk away from the table. But it isn't clear whether the Trump administration has threatened to give up on a Russia-Ukraine peace deal as a negotiating tactic or simply because it lacks the concentration for a complicated negotiation - a shortcoming that has dogged the administration's foreign policy through its first three months in office.Standing on a tarmac in Paris, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, issued a threat that the US could simply move on" from mediating the biggest military conflict in Europe since the second world war. That would be the latest about-face for an administration that has already taken a back seat on negotiating a peace in Gaza and retreated on implementing worldwide tariffs that shook financial markets around the globe earlier this month. Continue reading...

Chancellor will push for deal that protects British car, steel and pharmaceutical industries amid tariff uncertaintyRachel Reeves will fly to Washington next week to meet her American counterpart for the first time, as the British government looks to intensify negotiations over a UK-US trade deal.The chancellor will be in the US from Tuesday to Friday for the spring meetings of the International Monetary Fund. At the heart of her visit, though, will be talks with the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, whom British officials regard as one of their most likely allies in negotiating a deal. Continue reading...

Margaret Elaine Winn, 58, and Graeme Derek Winn, 65, died with Israeli woman and Italian driver of cable carTwo British tourists were among four people who died when a cable car crashed to the ground near Naples in southern Italy.Prosecutors in Torre Annunziata have opened an investigation into possible manslaughter charges after the crash on Thursday at Monte Faito, a peak about 28 miles (45km) south-east of Naples. Continue reading...

Stop Trump coalition to dust off blimp, hoping demonstrations will surpass those during US president's 2019 visitDonald Trump's second visit to the UK later this year will be disrupted by even bigger" protests than those that coincided with his state visit in his first term, campaigners have vowed.On Thursday Trump let slip that he expects to visit the UK in September, after Keir Starmer handed him a personal invitation from King Charles III during his visit to the White House in February. Continue reading...

Labour says move is hypocrisy since Greens support ban on no-fault evictions such as one served on Labour candidate and her familyA Green party council candidate is attempting to evict his Labour opponent from a house he owns using a no-fault notice, despite his party supporting a ban on exactly such kinds of eviction.William Pedley, who is standing for the Greens in the Victoria ward of North Northamptonshire council, has served a section 21 notice on his tenant and political rival Kelly Duddridge, who has lived in the property for 10 years. Continue reading...

Makers of triangular-shaped almond-and-honey-laced chocolate bar, said it had made difficult decision' to withdraw productMars Delight, Cadbury Dream and Rowntree's Texan are just some of the once beloved chocolate bars that have been discontinued over the years, and now after almost six decades the dark chocolate Toblerone is joining them in the confectionery graveyard.The triangular-shaped almond-and-honey-laced chocolate bar is a staple of supermarkets and airport duty-free shopping, but will be discontinued in the UK. Continue reading...

Enthusiasts gathering on Good Friday - renamed Carfreitag - face curbs on unauthorised tuning, illegal races and pollutionPolice in Germany have announced a crackdown on illegal racing and the unauthorised modification of cars as members of the so-called tuning scene meet across the country for the start of their annual season.The Good Friday holiday marking Christ's death on the cross, called Karfreitag in German - from the Old High German word kara, meaning sorrow - is otherwise known by the extreme car enthusiasts as Carfreitag (car Friday) for its unofficial gathering of the tuners" and car posers". Continue reading...