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Over five years to 2024, independent school enrolments surged by 18.5%, while Catholic school enrolments increased by 6.6% and public school enrolments rose by just 1%

Albanese government also asked if it has considered nuclear insurance pool in context of Aukus nuclear-powered submarines

Coalition of Islamic groups says remarks made by nurses that they would kill Israeli patients were emotional and hyperbolic'

Teen witness tells court of separate attack by two defendants in the days before the Indigenous teen was killed

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Cyclone Zelia, which hit Western Australia on Friday, brought the Bureau of Meteorology to the end of an alphabetical list

Some people experiencing psychotic episodes have waited days at an inner-city hospital emergency department, according to a source

Pritam Singh's conviction is a blow to the city state's struggling political opposition, which is seeking to challenge the entrenched ruling party in upcoming electionsSingapore's opposition leader has been convicted of lying to parliament while helping a fellow party member to cover up a false witness account, in a case that could disqualify him from running in upcoming national elections.Pritam Singh, 48, secretary-general of the Workers' Party, was found guilty on Monday on two counts of lying to a parliamentary committee that was investigating a fellow MP. Continue reading...

BBC Two's Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone gathers intimate footage of three children surviving in the besieged stripHave you ever wondered what you'd do if your world is destroyed?" asks 13-year-old Abdullah, speaking at the beginning of an intimate BBC Two documentary, Gaza: How to Survive a Warzone, that airs on Monday night. Most important, could you stay alive? After all this, you could say we're experts."Abdullah, now 14 and heading back to his prewar home in the north of the shattered territory, is the English-speaking narrator - one of three children whose stories of hope and endurance are at the heart of an hour-long film, a distinctive and deliberate choice intended to make the film resonate after 15 months of war. Continue reading...

Vadim Stroykin reported to have killed himself by jumping from a ninth-floor window during visit by security servicesNo one knows exactly what happened in the final moments of Vadim Stroykin's life.The 59-year-old Russian singer-songwriter's vibrant career came to a sudden end on 5 February when a team from Russia's security services arrived at his cramped ninth-floor St Petersburg flat at 9am. They were investigating him for what has become one of the gravest offences in today's Russia - donating to the Ukrainian army. Continue reading...

Two women in hijabs allegedly attacked in Epping last week while racist graffiti reported in western Sydney

Mark Brown says Beijing deal that covers trade, investment, oceans, infrastructure and transport complements ties with New ZealandThe Cook Islands says it has signed a deal to expand relations with China, stressing that the accord does not impinge on ties with former colonial power New Zealand.Prime minister Mark Brown said he signed an action plan for the comprehensive strategic partnership" with Chinese premier Li Qiang in the northern city of Harbin during a five-day state visit to China last week. Continue reading...

Tagline has quickly become the subject of derision, with some critics likening it to a clearance sale sloganA New Zealand tourism campaign targeting Australian visitors has been ridiculed for sounding like a clearance sale slogan and for being tone-deaf amid widespread public service job cuts and record numbers of New Zealanders moving overseas.The government launched its Everyone must go!" campaign on Sunday, in a bid to encourage Australian holiday-makers to visit New Zealand. The NZD$500,000 campaign will run on radios and social media in Australia between February and March. Continue reading...

Resolution Foundation report says failure to reform has slowly recreated the issues that undid the poll tax'Britain's poorest households are paying an increasing share of their income on council tax, according to new analysis that likened it to the poll tax that contributed to the downfall of Margaret Thatcher.The poorest fifth of households paid 4.8% of their income on council tax in England, Wales and Scotland and on domestic rates in Northern Ireland in the 2020-21 financial year, up from 2.9% in 2002-3, according to research by the Resolution Foundation. Continue reading...

TV, radio and online adverts aimed at increasing uptake of routine mammograms for women aged 50 to 71Women in England will be encouraged to attend potentially life-saving screenings for breast cancer in TV, radio and online adverts as part of the first NHS awareness campaign for the disease.Women in the UK are invited for their first routine mammogram between the ages of 50 and 53, with further invitations arriving every three years until they reach 71, after which they can request screening. Continue reading...

About 64% of people had difficulties with health service last year relating to communication about carePatients routinely have to chase up test results, receive appointment letters after their appointments and do not know when their treatment will occur because the NHS is so dysfunctional".That is the conclusion of research by two major patients' organisations and the King's Fund, which lays bare a host of problems with the way the health service interacts with it users.32% had to chase up the results of a test, scan or X-ray.32% had not been told how long they would have to wait for their care or treatment.23% were unaware of who to contact while they waited.20% received an invitation to an appointment after the date had passed. Continue reading...

It is understood to be the first time the PM has been explicit about sending British peacekeepers to UkraineKeir Starmer has said he is prepared to put British troops on the ground in Ukraine if there is a deal to end the war with Russia - acknowledging it could put UK forces in harm's way" if Vladimir Putin launches another attack.It is understood to be the first time the prime minister has explicitly stated he is considering deploying British peacekeepers to Ukraine. The comments came just before emergency talks with European leaders in Paris on Monday. Continue reading...

Lee calls unanimous decision a violation' of principle of valuing an artist's voice

Both Edward Berger and Brady Corbet's dramas take four awards while Demi Moore denied comeback prize as competition heats up for next month's Oscars

Met Office says snowfall may continue briefly in parts of UK before milder conditions well above February averageThe UK will have warmer weather this week and sunshine in a number of areas on Monday, forecasters have said.After snow and torrential rain in parts of the country over the weekend, rising temperatures will bring a welcome respite. Continue reading...

Paris meeting aims to retake initiative on talks about Ukraine's future as US and Russian delegates prepare to meetThe sudden transatlantic chasm over Ukraine will be laid bare on Monday when US officials start preliminary talks in Riyadh with Russian counterparts over a ceasefire just as Emmanuel Macron hosts a Paris summit of European defence powers to demand the US ends the lockout of Europe and Kyiv from the process.The US and Russia talks come ahead of a planned meeting this week between the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, and the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, the first such meeting between the two countries in over two years. There are fears in Europe that Russia via the US talks will relaunch its plan for imposed Ukrainian neutrality and a joint US-Russia carve-up with agreed spheres of influence. Continue reading...

Jacques Audiard thanks lead actor Gascon during Bafta acceptance speech after weeks of controversy over her social media posts

Fewer polling stations and earlier deadline for postal vote applications also recommended to modernise electionsThe UK's elections system needs a fundamental overhaul including weekend voting and a cut in the number of polling stations, the group representing electoral officials has said.Years of changes in everything from postal voting to mandatory ID, with more reforms planned, has involved bolting 21st century voter expectations on to 19th century infrastructure", the Association of Electoral Administrators (AEA) said. Continue reading...

Alternative to Trump plan would involve committee of technocrats but future military status of Hamas unresolvedAn alternative to Donald Trump's plan to turn the Gaza Strip into a US-owned Riviera of the Middle East" is being prepared by Egypt in conjunction with the World Bank, under which Hamas would be formally excluded from governance and control of the territory's reconstruction.The process would be handed over on an interim basis to the control of a social or community support committee. No member of Hamas would sit on the committee. But the future military status of Hamas within Gaza is unresolved, which is likely to be a barrier to Israeli endorsement of the plan. Continue reading...

Under Biden, the move could wait until the UK worked out how to meet its 2.5% GDP commitment. Not nowIt has been one of the few political constants in a turbulent period for British politics: an agreement that defence spending really should increase. But in the second era of Donald Trump, what was a consensual background hum has suddenly become an ear-splitting alarm.European Nato members, the UK among them, have long been used to US presidents urging them to spend 2% of GDP at a bare minimum, something only a minority of them manage. Continue reading...

Pischane in Donetsk back under Kyiv's control as Zelenskyy renews call for fighting to end with just and lasting peace'Ukrainian forces have recaptured a village on the frontline in the country's east, amid signs Russia's advance may be slowing down and as Volodymyr Zelenskyy renewed his call for the fighting to end with a just and lasting peace".On Sunday Ukrainian forces took back the village of Pischane, south-west of the city of Pokrovsk, military officials said. Russian units had made rapid gains in the area in December and January, seizing a string of settlements and threatening to cut off Pokrovsk. Continue reading...

Latest film in the series starring Renee Zellweger has posted record-breaking figures on its home turfBridget Jones: Mad About the Boy has exceeded expectations at the UK box office, becoming the best-performing romcom in the UK on opening weekend ever.The fourth instalment in the adventures of Helen Fielding's bumbling diarist made $14.9m (11.8m) over its four-day opening weekend, beating all three previous instalments, the second of which, Edge of Reason, was the previous record-holder with $8.1m. Continue reading...

Curators and artists say this is a time of overdue recognition but others are cautious about the longevity of the momentAt last year's Venice Biennale, the pavilions were packed with indigenous art from around the world.Artists from the Tupinamba community in Brazil sat alongside work by the late Rosa Elena Curruchich, who made pieces about Indigenous women in Guatemala. The Amazonian artist Aycoobo was celebrated, as were carvings by the Mori artist Fred Graham. The eventual winner of the Golden Lion - the event's highest accolade - was the Indigenous Australian artist Archie Moore. Continue reading...

We'll be updating the winners as they come through in real time - which, it should be noted, is two hours before the ceremony is streamed on TV Baftas 2025: the red carpet, the ceremony, the winners - live!Anora

Husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe expresses concern for Craig and Lindsay Foreman who were held in JanuaryThe husband of Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe has called on ministers to act more promptly" than they did to help free his wife, after Iran detained a British couple on a motorcycle trip.Richard Ratcliffe, whose wife was freed in 2022 after five years in a Tehran prison, expressed fears that the couple would now face the brutal theatre" of court process to get the government's attention". Continue reading...

The former UK prime minister says democracy in Europe and across the globe is under threat'. This live blog is closed

Exclusive: Christ Church college taken aback to receive hundreds of the author's letters, photos and rare itemsThousands of letters, photographs, illustrations and books from one of the world's largest private Lewis Carroll collections have been donated to the UK out of the blue by an American philanthropist.The extraordinary gift has been made to Christ Church, University of Oxford, where Carroll lectured and where he met Alice Liddell, the inspiration for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, which celebrates its 160th anniversary this year. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Vice-chancellors say Office for Students' plans for next five years will financially harm smaller institutionsUniversity leaders have urged England's higher education regulator to rethink its priorities, saying that smaller institutions will be financially harmed by increasing costs of its bureaucracy.The Office for Students (OfS) already charges smaller institutions such as the Royal College of Music up to 20 times more for each student in registration fees than it charges larger universities, with vice-chancellors fearing that the costs of meeting the regulator's demands will continue to balloon. Continue reading...

US Department of Justice also involved in what are thought to be efforts to recover deleted internet search historyThe FBI and the US Department of Justice have joined the investigation into the Southport killer, Axel Rudakubana, and are reported to be helping UK police recover his deleted internet search history.Rudakubana, 18, was jailed for a minimum of 52 years in January for murdering three young girls and attempting to murder eight others in a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in July last year. Continue reading...

The actor recalls a terrifying moment when playing the doomed Egyptian queen during a 1987 production of the Shakespeare classicWriggly creatures have always scared Judi Dench. I'm a person who is frightened of a worm because one jumped inside my sandal when I was a little girl, and we couldn't get it out," she said.So after being cast in the 1987 National Theatre production of Antony and Cleopatra, Dench was terrified when director Peter Hall said there would be live snakes on stage. Continue reading...

Martyn Oliver says change in working habits since pandemic has led to a shift in attitudes among pupils in EnglandSchool attendance rates are being affected by parents working from home after the pandemic, the head of Ofsted has said.The chief inspector of the schools watchdog in England, Martyn Oliver, told the Sunday Times that the widespread change in working habits after the pandemic had led to a shift in attitudes among pupils. Continue reading...

Head of Unison Christina McAnea is one of 148 signatories of letter warning rules will breed division and mistrust'Keir Starmer's most generous union backer has joined faith leaders to warn Yvette Cooper that new rules refusing citizenship to refugees who arrive in small boats will breed division and distrust" and could fuel attacks on migrant hotels.Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, and nine Church of England bishops are among 148 signatories of a letter saying the home secretary's plan to bar naturalisation for anyone who has made a dangerous journey will label tens of thousands of people second-class citizens". Continue reading...

Queues of people risk possible arrest at Moscow cemetery while European leaders condemn KremlinEuropean leaders have condemned the Kremlin's ultimate responsibility" in the death of Alexei Navalny, as supporters of Russia's best-known opposition politician held remembrance events a year after he died in an Arctic penal colony.A steady queue of people braved freezing temperatures and possible arrest in Moscow to visit Navalny's grave in Borisovskoye cemetery, while his widow, Yulia Navalnaya, was due to address a memorial ceremony in Berlin, where she is living in exile. Continue reading...

Kingsley Kanu, brother of Indigenous People of Biafra leader Nnamdi Kanu, calls on PM to defend British citizensThe brother of a British national being held in Nigeria after falling victim to extraordinary rendition has accused the UK government of turning its back, and called on Keir Starmer to wake up" and defend British citizens".Kingsley Kanu, the brother of Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (Ipob), a prominent separatist movement proscribed in Nigeria, said the UK government had failed to intervene in his brother's case. Continue reading...

Former head of nursing at Countess of Chester says Letby cried in her arms' after being removed from the wardLucy Letby's former boss has said if she was acting she deserves an Oscar" as she described tearful meetings with the neonatal nurse after accusations against her first emerged.Karen Rees, the head of nursing at the Countess of Chester hospital before her retirement in March 2018, revealed to the Sunday Times that she had always believed in Letby's innocence. The pair developed a close relationship in the months after Letby was removed from the ward over concerns she was connected to a sharp rise in infant deaths. Continue reading...

Jonathan Reynolds says Britain has not given up on persuading the US to allow Ukraine to join Nato

Government in Nordelta approves plans to control numbers of world's largest rodent - but not all are in agreementA contraception debate is gripping one of Argentina's most notable luxury neighbourhoods - not for its wealthy residents, but for its original occupants, the capybaras.In recent years, the lovable rodents have been accused of overrunning the Nordelta, a meticulously landscaped and manicured suburb north of Buenos Aires. Continue reading...

Delaying rebuilding programme in England to save money in short term requires costly repairs to keep sites safeThe repairs bill at 18 crumbling hospitals is set to soar to 5.7bn because replacing them will take so long, new analysis shows.Reconstruction of 18 of the 40 new hospitals in England first promised by Boris Johnson in 2019 will not start until at least 2030 - the date by which all 40 were originally meant to open - to help spread the cost, amid stretched public finances. Continue reading...

Some 400 million devotees will attend this year's Kumbh Mela festival. Pilgrims and politicians explain why it's bigger than everThey sat quietly together on the banks of the Ganges river, heads bowed in sombre meditation. Some men were naked, their bodies smeared grey with ash. Others had a simple saffron cloth tied around their waist. Nearby, barbers balanced on their haunches, shaving the head of each man clean with a flick of their knives, save for a small strand at the back.This ceremony, in which millions of pilgrims seek to cleanse their sins to break the cycle of reincarnation has been taking place at the Kumbh Mela festival for centuries. It is mandatory for thousands of sadhus - Hindu holy men who live an austere life of strict spiritual discipline. Among the most sacred events in the Hindu calendar, the festival occurs every 12 years across four sacred locations in India where it is believed the Hindu god Vishnu once spilled drops of the nectar of immortality. Continue reading...

People living in tents at Suttons Beach Park, Redcliffe, forced to move to avoid fines for storing goods on public land'

As Donald Trump and his officials rip up three years of US rhetoric on supporting Kyiv, Volodymyr Zelenskyy is walking an unenviable diplomatic tightropeVolodymyr Zelenskyy has had some tough weeks in the past three years, but this past one may be up there with the worst of them.Back on Monday, in an hour-long interview with the Guardian at his Kyiv offices, the Ukrainian president was in a cautiously optimistic frame of mind. He said he had received positive signals from the Americans" over upcoming negotiations. His team was working to fix a date for a meeting with Donald Trump, he said, and he was sure that the US president understood the importance of coordinating his position with Kyiv before talking to Russia. Continue reading...

US secretary of state is making his first trip to region and is expected to advocate Trump's plan to create Riviera of the Middle East'The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will discuss the Gaza ceasefire with Israel's prime minister in Jerusalem, launching a Middle East tour a day after the latest hostage-prisoner exchange.On his first visit to the region as Washington's top diplomat, Rubio is expected to push the US president Donald Trump's widely condemned proposal to take control of the Gaza Strip and relocate its more than 2 million residents - which experts say would amount to ethnic cleansing. Continue reading...

Higher tuition costs have already been wiped out' by government tax hikes, critics claimA fall in international students applying for visas risks prolonging the existential threat facing some of England's universities, sources in higher education say, amid warnings that an increase in tuition fees has already been wiped out" by the government's tax rises.Despite the decision by ministers to increase fees for UK students this year to 9,535 - the first rise in eight years - figures across the universities sector said the financial situation remained dire, with further course closures and redundancies being widely considered. Continue reading...

Russia is relying on strength of numbers, and Putin may not honour a peace dealAfter three years of Russia's attempt to occupy and annex Ukraine, the country continues to put up a fierce resistance.Russia is suffering more than 1,500 casualties a day and only slowly taking ground. But the Ukrainian army is also being put under immense pressure. Continue reading...

Rush broke out as travellers scrambled to board trains in India's capital to go to world's largest religious gatheringAt least 18 people have died in a crush at a railway station in India's capital when surging crowds scrambled to catch trains to the world's largest religious gathering, officials have said.The Kumbh Mela attracts tens of millions of Hindu faithful every 12 years to the northern city of Prayagraj, and has a history of crowd-related disasters - including one last month, when at least 30 people died in another crush at the holy confluence of the Ganges, Yamuna and the mythical Saraswati rivers. Continue reading...