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Gaming minister tells budget estimates position changed after advice from independent panel - which included several groups that operate or profit from machines

In today's newsletter: With talks stalled, aid blocked and a truce in question, can the path to peace get back on track?Good morning. The first phase of the ceasefire in Gaza expired over the weekend - and now, the only thing stopping the resumption of Israel's assault on the territory is the will of Benjamin Netanyahu. That is the bleak reality for the hostages still alive in Gaza, and the Palestinian civilians there who were subjected to a new aid embargo on Sunday. Last night, the Israeli government was reported to be planning to ratchet the blockade up further - with a programme of measures referred to as the hell plan".When the ceasefire was agreed in January, the theory was that the first phase would provide space for negotiations over a more durable truce. But those talks simply have not happened. Israel is pushing for the release of more hostages in an extension to the first phase - a step that Hamas, fearing the loss of its only source of leverage, refuses to countenance. Both sides are now making preparations for the resumption of violence.Ukraine | Donald Trump has suspended delivery of all US military aid to Ukraine, blocking billions in crucial shipments as the White House piles pressure on Ukraine to sue for peace with Vladimir Putin. The Trump administration was earlier reported to be drawing up a plan to restore ties with Russia and lift sanctions on the Kremlin.Education | Labour is preparing major changes to special educational needs provision in English schools, as individual councils raise the alarm over debts running into hundreds of millions of pounds. With councils currently paying to send many children to private schools because of a lack of adequate local options, the government is believed to be considering measures that would prioritise state provision.Tariffs | China and Canada unveiled retaliatory measures against the US after Donald Trump imposed his sweeping tariffs plan on Tuesday, despite warnings it could spark an escalating trade war. The new US tariffs stand at 25% against goods from Canada and Mexico and 20% against those from China.Obesity | More than half of adults and a third of children and young people worldwide will be overweight or obese by 2050, posing an unparalleled threat" of early death and enormous strain on healthcare systems, a report warns. There are now 2.11 billion adults aged 25 or above who are overweight or obese, against 731 million in 1990.Art | The self-taught Scottish painter Jack Vettriano, who became hugely popular despite being shunned by critics, has been found dead at his apartment in Nice in the south of France, his publicist has said. He was 73. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Andy George says misconduct inquiry over tweet about Chris Kaba case officer stifles free speech'The leader of Britain's black and Asian police officers has been placed under investigation over a tweet.Ch Insp Andy George, the president of the National Black Police Association, said the decision to place him under a misconduct investigation sends a chilling message" and stifles free speech". Continue reading...

The 2034 deadline means an entire generation will go through schooling without the baseline level of funding, except in ACT

Moscow trying to improve its claim to entire Kherson region in time for peace negotiations, says governorRussian forces are repeatedly trying to seize a foothold across Ukraine's Dnipro River, dispatching troops on high-casualty missions to gain territory for future peace negotiations, according to the Ukrainian governor of Kherson region.Oleksandr Prokudin said Russian forces were trying to cross in four locations to justify their claim to the whole oblast, one of four Ukrainian regions that Moscow says it wants to incorporate. Continue reading...

Prime minister departs from government's earlier stance that support for possible coalition of the willing' was not under consideration'

Justice Michael Lee found the journalist, along with her then employer Network Ten, didn't establish qualified privilege defence

BoM data prediction says path of TC Alfred shows it tracking to hit Queensland coast overnight on Thursday

Reserve Bank board members say February cut does not commit them to further reductions in the cash rate target at subsequent meetings'

Highly concerning' infection-control practices, including use of veterinary equipment, discovered by NSW HCCC and public health unit at Ketthip Beauty Clinic

More than 450 artefacts from a waka found in pieces in the Chatham Islands expected to reveal new insights about Polynesian voyagingParts of a carved and decorated traditional ocean-going canoe (waka) found in the Chatham Islands, around 800km east of New Zealand, could be the most significant discovery of its kind in Polynesia, archaeologists say.The Chatham Islands is an archipelago administered as part of New Zealand. Over the past month, archaeologists and local volunteers have unearthed more than 450 artefacts from the waka found smashed to pieces in a creek on the northern coast of the main island, known as Rkohu to the Indigenous Moriori . Continue reading...

New method reported to cut number of false positives by 87% has been registered with regulator for approvalA new swab test could help hundreds of thousands of women a year in the UK who may have womb cancer avoid having an often painful invasive procedure to detect the disease.About 800,000 women annually go to see a GP because they are suffering from abnormal bleeding from their uterus and then undergo uncomfortable and stressful investigations to identify the cause. Continue reading...

Parents banned from school sites after leaders spat at and trolled, poll findsFour in five school leaders in England, Wales and Northern Ireland say they have suffered abuse from pupils' parents in the past year, according to a poll that found they had been spat at, trolled on social media and even physically attacked.The problem has become so serious that more than two out of five (42%) of those who took part in the survey said they had been forced to ban parents from the school site in the last year. Nearly a third (32%) have reported parents to the police and almost three-quarters (72%) have issued a warning letter or email. Continue reading...

Scathing assessment shows operation was losing $1.5m a day, running low of critical materials and owed creditors more than $1.3bn

Tom Corry, a top spokesperson at the health and human services department, abruptly resigned on FridayA top spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services has abruptly resigned from the department, just two weeks after starting the job and as the country grapples with an escalating measles outbreak.Tom Corry, who served as assistant secretary of public affairs at HHS, said on Monday that he resigned on Friday effective immediately. Continue reading...

Yehuda Cohen says Israeli prime minister is refusing permanent ceasefire because he wants to stay in power'The father of an Israeli hostage has said Benjamin Netanyahu is stalling" the deal with Hamas that could lead to the return of his son from Gaza.Speaking at the Israeli embassy in central London, Yehuda Cohen, father of 20-year-old Israeli hostage Nimrod Cohen, said: There is a deal on the table. Continue reading...

Woman, 83, and man, 54, killed and several injured after attack by SUV driver during carnival celebrationsA car has rammed into crowds in the centre of the German city of Mannheim, killing two people and injuring several others, in what police described as a deliberate attack.Police said they had arrested a man, the driver of a black Ford Fiesta, who was reportedly being treated for his injuries in hospital under tight police protection. Thomas Strobl, the interior minister of Baden-Wurttemberg state, said the suspect was a 40-year-old German man from the south-western state of Rhineland-Palatinate who was believed to have acted alone. Continue reading...

Sources say work on so-called options paper' comes as Trump seeks to restore Moscow ties and end Ukraine warThe United States is drawing up a plan to potentially give Russia sanctions relief as Donald Trump seeks to restore ties with Moscow and stop the war in Ukraine, a US official and another person familiar with the matter told Reuters.The White House has asked the state and treasury departments to draft a list of sanctions that could be eased for US officials to discuss with Russian representatives in the coming days as part of the administration's broad talks with Moscow on improving diplomatic and economic relations, the sources said. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer won praise for taking the UK back to the heart of Europe' at the weekend, but will it be a long-term move?Britain is back. That was the concise verdict of Eleonore Caroit, the vice-chair of the French national assembly's foreign affairs committee. And the optics of Sunday's crisis talks on Ukraine bore this out, with Keir Starmer at the very centre of the leaders' joint photo.You are back on the scene, of the leadership in Europe," Caroit told the BBC on Monday morning. James MacClearly, the Liberal Democrat MP who speaks for the party on Europe, was equally adamant, praising the prime minister for taking this chance to bring us back to the heart of Europe where we belong". Continue reading...

Art detective and magazine help crack case of Flemish masterpiece thought to have been stolen by Polish agentsA spectacular" stolen Flemish masterpiece has been rediscovered hanging on the walls of a provincial Dutch museum thanks to the efforts of an art detective and an antiques magazine.The 17cm-wide painting by Pieter Brueghel the Younger of a farmer's wife with hot coals in one hand and a bucket of water in the other is thought to have been stolen from a Polish museum by secret service agents in 1974. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Women and partners who suffer pregnancy loss before 24 weeks to be entitled in England, Wales and ScotlandParents in Britain will be granted a right to bereavement leave after suffering a miscarriage as part of Labour's workers' rights reforms, the Guardian can disclose.In a change to the law made via the employment rights bill, mothers and their partners will be given the right to two weeks of bereavement leave if they have suffered a pregnancy loss before 24 weeks' gestation. Continue reading...

Ellen Gilland was arrested in January of 2023 after killing her 77-year-old husband, Jerry Gilland, in his hospital room in FloridaA woman in Florida has gotten a one-year prison sentence for shooting her terminally ill husband to death at a hospital in early 2023.Ellen Gilland's attorney had argued for probation, essentially characterizing the case as a mercy killing. But the presiding judge sentenced Gilland to prison because of the trauma and distress she inflicted on nursing staff, other patients, and law enforcement who responded to the killing. Continue reading...

Police say no evidence that more suspects were involved in incident which left several people badly injured. This live blog is closed

US president claims admission that Europe needs US help to deter Russia not great in terms of a show of strength'. This live blog is closedAs Jakub Krupa and Martin Belam report on our Europe live blog, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, is floating proposals for a month-long ceasefire in Ukraine covering air, sea and attacks on critical infrastructure.In interviews this morning, Luke Pollard, the defence minister, played down reports that this is a plan that Britain is formally backing. Asked about French government claims to this effect, he replied:No agreement has been made on what a truce looks like, and so I don't recognise the precise part you mentioned there. But we are working together with France and our European allies to look at what is the path to how ... we create a lasting and durable peace in Ukraine.You wouldn't expect me to get into the details of what that plan looks like, because at the moment, the only person that would benefit from those details being put in the public domain before any plan is agreed would be President Putin. Continue reading...

US president responds to Ukrainian president's most recent interview, following blow-up in the Oval Office last week

Volker Turk alarmed at growing power of unelected tech oligarchs' and warns gender equality is being rolled backThe UN human rights chief has warned of a fundamental shift" in the US and sounded the alarm over the growing power of unelected tech oligarchs", in a stinging rebuke of Washington weeks into Donald Trump's presidency.Volker Turk said there had been bipartisan support for human rights in the US for decades but said he was now deeply worried by the fundamental shift in direction that is taking place domestically and internationally". Continue reading...

Reform leader accused of equivocating over Russia's illegal war' after criticising Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Ex-Polish leader, who won Nobel prize for pro-democracy efforts, compares meeting to a communist interrogationThe former Polish president and Nobel peace prize winner Lech Wasa has signed a letter to Donald Trump expressing horror and distaste" at his argument with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in the White House last week.The letter, signed by Wasa and more than 30 former Polish political prisoners held during the communist era, said Trump and his vice-president's demands that Zelenskyy show gratitude were insulting" in the face of the Ukrainian country's fight for freedom. Continue reading...

Senior Hamas official claims Israel is attempting to avoid negotiations over second phase or ceasefireMourners at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis have been attending the funeral of two Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in Rafah earlier today.Just a couple of kilometres to the east, kibbutz Nir Oz has seen Israeli mourning at the funeral procession for Itzhak Elgarat, who was abducted during the 7 October 2023 Hamas attack inside Israel, whose body was recently returned from captivity. Continue reading...

The Brutalist composer Daniel Blumberg mentioned the experimental music space in his acceptance speech

The film's five Academy Awards seen as act of normalisation by commentators in country still persecuting critics of its war on Ukraine Anora dominates the Oscars as Mikey Madison named best actress

Guardian analysis lays bare a neglected system that is ruinously expensive, and often fails children and parents

Amid claims that deportees may face torture, family of one man say he was forcibly repatriated and will never see his children againThe family of one of dozens of Uyghurs feared to have been forcibly deported from Thailand to China have condemned the decision as shameful". The deportations came despite a UN statement saying those being sent to China faced a real risk of torture" on their return.Thailand ignored protests by the UN refugee agency, EU and US in deporting 40 Uyghurs who had been detained in the country for a decade, claiming they had returned voluntarily to their normal lives" with their families. Continue reading...

The artist was found dead at his apartment in Nice in southern France on Saturday, his publicist saysThe self-taught Scottish painter Jack Vettriano, who became hugely popular despite being shunned by critics, has been found dead at his apartment in Nice in the south of France, his publicist has said.Vettriano, who was born Jack Hoggan on 17 November 1951 in Methil, Fife, was found on Saturday, the publicist said.Those are all great artists. Vettriano is not even an artist. He just happens to be popular, with ordinary people" who buy reproductions of his pseudo-1930s scenes of high-heeled women and monkey-suited men, and celebrities who fork out for the originals of these toneless, textureless, brainless slick corpses of paintings. I urge you to visit the National Gallery. Look at great paintings for a few hours. Now take a look at Vettriano. I'm not arguing with you; I'm telling you. I look at art every day and I know what I don't like." Continue reading...

Council of Europe's Michael O'Flaherty urged leaders not to give in to populist rhetoric over migrationEurope's most senior human rights official has said there is evidence of asylum seekers being forcibly expelled at EU borders, as he urged mainstream politicians not to concede to populists on migration.The Commissioner for Human Rights at the Council of Europe, Michael O'Flaherty, told the Guardian he was concerned about the treatment of asylum seekers at the EU's external borders in Poland and Greece, as he warned against a securitisation response" that goes too far. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer's plan to replace upper house was scaled back to scrapping hereditaries - but even that is proving difficult

Charity calls for banking industry to take totally new approach over type of financial abuse that leaves victims saddled with unpayable debtsJoanna Thomas* was working for a UK government department when she received a bonus. Her earnings, as had been the case since she got married in her early 20s, went into her only bank account: a joint one shared with her now ex-husband.The cash landed in the account in the morning. By the afternoon, her then-husband messaged to let her know he had withdrawn it all to buy a boat on eBay. Continue reading...

Big rises for BAE, Rheinmetall, Thales and Leonardo amid European push to support possible Ukraine peace deal

New York-listed Capri could reportedly agree to sell the brand back into Italian ownership this monthPrada is in talks to buy the Versace fashion brand from the US investor Capri Holdings for a price that could reportedly reach nearly 1.5bn (1.2bn).Milan-based Prada and the New York-listed Capri could reach a deal for Versace this month, Bloomberg reported, although the talks could still fall apart. Continue reading...

Mohammad Javad Zarif implies move was endorsed by supreme leader, as his exit sends stock market into a tailspin

The 3.9-magnitude quake shook the North Hollywood area late on Sunday night, but no significant reports of damage have been receivedAn earthquake has hit Los Angeles just after the Oscars ceremony wrapped up.According to a report from the United States Geological Survey, an earthquake measuring 3.9 on the Richter scale struck the North Hollywood district of the city at 22:23 local time on 2 March, with its epicentre 15km below the surface. Continue reading...

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In today's newsletter: After Friday's clash meeting in the Oval Office between Trump and Zelenskyy, Keir Starmer and his European allies will try to broker the peace Ukraine desperately needsGood morning. After the shocking treatment he received at the White House on Friday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy was on friendlier turf yesterday - but whether a bear hug from Keir Starmer and an audience with King Charles will ultimately prove consequential for the war in Ukraine is still anyone's guess.The Ukrainian president was in the UK to attend a European summit, convened by Starmer, to take steps towards new proposals that might be able to find support in Kyiv and Washington alike. And while there were some signs of European unity, the White House and its surrogates were still suggesting that Zelenskyy was guilty of some sort of insult to the United States that might be enough to make a durable peace impossible. Last night, Zelenskyy refused to say whether he believed he had been ambushed - but said that he was ready to talk to Trump again.Gaza | Israel has cut off humanitarian supplies to Gaza in an effort to pressure Hamas into accepting a change in the ceasefire agreement to allow for the release of hostages without an Israeli troop withdrawal.UK news | At least 25 undercover police officers formed sexual relationships with members of the public and deceived them about their true identity, the Guardian can disclose. The total equates to nearly a fifth of all the police spies who were sent to infiltrate political movements.Religion | Pope Francis has thanked well-wishers for their support after missing his Sunday Angelus for the third week in a row as he remains in hospital with pneumonia. The pontiff, 88, was in a stable condition after a breathing crisis on Friday.Sick pay | More than 1 million of the lowest-paid UK workers are to be guaranteed sick pay worth up to 80% of their weekly salary from the first day of sickness. The government says that 1.3 million of the UK's lowest earners will be up to 100 a week better off.Oscars 2025 | Low-budget comedy Anora has triumphed at this year's Oscars winning five awards, including best picture and best actress, while Adrien Brody took home best actor for his role in The Brutalist. Scroll down for more of the Guardian's coverage of the ceremony. Continue reading...

Best supporting actress Oscar winner addressed complaints about the Netflix musical after a journalist said it was really hurtful'

No one uttered the US president's name, and speeches bore few references to Gaza or Ukraine, focusing on the LA fires

Workers earning under 123 a week to get 80% of salary in sick pay, keeping more people off benefitsMore than 1 million of the lowest-paid UK workers are to be guaranteed sick pay worth up to 80% of their weekly salary from the first day of sickness, under changes intended to boost living standards.The UK has one of the stingiest rates of statutory sick pay in the developed world, according to the Resolution Foundation, with those earning less than 123 a week not entitled to anything. For the rest, the rate is set at just 116.75 a week at present, rising to 118.75 - or 3 an hour - for full-time workers from April, but that only kicks in after three days of sickness. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Medics more sleep deprived now than during Covid crisis amid staff shortages and surging demandOne in three doctors in the NHS are so tired that their ability to treat patients is impaired, according to a report that reveals medics are more sleep deprived now than during the Covid-19 pandemic.Longer hours, staff shortages and soaring demand for care on top of the backlog that worsened during the Covid crisis are causing extreme tiredness among doctors, leading to memory blanks, problems concentrating and patient harm. Continue reading...

Sean Baker's film picks up five awards including best picture while Israel-Palestine documentary No Other Land also gets major win

Outrage over targeting of one of New Zealand's alleged green fairies' who provide cheaper medicinal cannabis without prescriptionPolice have shut down the alleged medicinal cannabis operation of one of New Zealand's most renowned green fairies", prompting an outpouring of support from a prominent politician and the hundreds of people who rely on such products to ease their pain.Police raided the rural Northland property of 66-year-old Paul Smith - more widely known as Gandalf" - last week, destroying plants and greenhouses and seizing cannabis products. Smith was charged with cultivating, possessing for supply and selling cannabis - which could carry an eight-year jail sentence - and was summonsed to court. Continue reading...

Albanese government and opposition leader downplay prospect of sending troops to join coalition of the willing' peacekeeping force