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Levelling-up secretary dismisses complaints he is appeasing Tory landlord backbenchers'James Cleverly, the home secretary, is considering further tightening the law around demonstrations, including a requirement for protesters to increase the amount of notice they give police before large demonstrations, Aletha Adu reports.Two thirds of councils in England say they will have to cut services to residents this year, despite the government providing them with an extra 600m in January, the Local Government Association has said.Two-thirds (67 per cent) of respondents anticipated making cost savings in at least one neighbourhood service, despite the additional funding: more than three-quarters (77 per cent) of social care councils reported this, as well as three in five district councils (59 per cent). [Neighbourhood services means things like waste services, road and pavement repairs, sport and leisure services, parks and green spaces, library services, museums, galleries, and theatres", the LGA says.]Of the respondent social care councils, three-quarters (75 per cent) reported that even with this funding, cost savings would be needed in their adult social care budget, and almost seven in 10 (69 per cent) reported that savings would be needed in their children's social care budget.Extra government funding will help councils this year, but acute funding pressures remain and are forcing many councils to make stark choices about what popular services to cut.This will not go unnoticed by our local communities. It means less potholes filled, more streetlights dimmed or turned off, and fewer library or leisure services. Continue reading...

Thousands take part in demonstration as concerns grow that groups denying climate crisis are seeking to exploit campaignThousands of farmers have staged a demonstration on the steps of the Welsh parliament to protest against climate policies they say will wreck their industry.Flanked by Welsh Tory and Plaid Cymru politicians, farmers gave emotional accounts of trying to keep businesses going and accused the Labour-run government of betraying communities who produce the country's food. Continue reading...

Residents were shocked when Tower Hamlets council shuttered a much-loved resource in the gentrifying areaIn the summer of 1896 work was completed on a groundbreaking public laundry in London's east end, part of what is thought to be the first-ever social housing estate.The communal facilities to wash clothes on the estate evolved over the decades but have now been abruptly halted by the local council who have closed down the community launderette. Continue reading...

Activist's widow tells European parliament Putin is the leader of an organised criminal gang - poisoners and assassins ... and keepers of mafia money'According to a breaking news line on Reuters, citing the Russian state-owned news agency RIA Novosti, the Russian defence ministry are claiming its forces have capture Petrovske in eastern Ukraine. Petrovske was formerly renamed by Ukraine as Stepove.More details to follow ... Continue reading...

Operation will try to uncover why abuse at Durham detention centre went on unchecked for over 25 yearsInvestigators looking into one of the UK's biggest abuse scandals have said they hope to find answers into how it was allowed to happen and provide some level of closure" for the victims.Details of an expected 18-month investigation into the history of Medomsley detention centre for young male offenders were announced on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The two sides have been negotiating a deal that would reportedly see a six week pause in fighting and the release of hostagesAl Jazeera reports Gaza's al-Awda hospital has had to suspend all surgical operations after its operating theatres were destroyed. Acting director Mohamed Salha told the news agency:This means that all medical services related to obstetrics and gynaecology have stopped completely. We were the only hospital in northern Gaza for orthopaedic surgeries. There is no other alternative place in northern Gaza or Gaza City because the health ministry's hospitals are out of service completely. Continue reading...

Belgian insurer Ageas confirms it is considering 3.1bn offer for troubled British rivalShares in Direct Line have rocketed by more than 20% after a Belgian rival confirmed it was considering a 3.1bn offer to buy the British motor insurer.The Brussels-headquartered insurer Ageas said in a statement on Wednesday that it was in the preliminary stages" of a possible offer to acquire the Kent-based motor insurer. Continue reading...

Crisis could cost economy 830m for each school year group, according to new researchLack of support for early years language and communication development is leading to a literacy crisis" that could be costing the economy 830m for each school year group, according to new research.The report, led by Pro Bono Economics (PBE) and commissioned by KPMG UK in collaboration with the National Literacy Trust (NLT), also found that there are about 106,000 five-year-old children in England each year who are not currently meeting the expected standard for literacy but could with adequate support. Continue reading...

MSP hits out at authoritarian' party leadership after losing appeal against disciplinary action

Media initially reported that sensitive data on summer Games had gone missing at Gare du NordParis city hall has said that a computer and a USB memory stick stolen from one of its engineers on a train at the Gare du Nord did not, as first feared, contain police security plans for the Paris Olympic Games.A city hall worker contacted police on Monday night to say his bag was stolen on a train after he put it in a luggage compartment above his seat at the station in the French capital. Continue reading...

High court ruling prompts calls to scrap legislation that grants amnesties to soldiers for Troubles-era crimesLegislation that gives conditional amnesties to soldiers and paramilitaries for Troubles-era crimes in Northern Ireland breaches human rights legislation, a high court in Belfast has ruled.There was no evidence the immunity provision in the government's Legacy Act would help reconciliation in Northern Ireland, the court said on Wednesday, delivering a fresh blow to the law that has angered victims' groups and caused friction between London and Dublin. Continue reading...

States next to other states with total ban have seen largest increase in rates, while US telehealth abortion rates also grewAbortions have dramatically declined in the 14 states that have criminalized the health procedure since the supreme court overturned Roe v Wade in 2022, with thousands of women traveling out of state for reproductive care, new figures reveal.Overall, the total number of abortions carried out with medical supervision in the US remained consistent at about 80,000 a month between June 2022 and September 2023 - but where and how patients access this urgent medical care has changed, according to #WeCount, a research initiative measuring the impact of the supreme court's Dobbs v Jackson Women's Health Organization decision, which allowed states to ban abortion at any point in pregnancy. Continue reading...

Figure is double that for overall population and comes amid row over Lee Anderson comments about Sadiq Khan

Ally of Russian opposition leader says his team were put under pressure to hold closed remembrance serviceThe Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny's funeral and memorial service will be held on Friday in Moscow, but his allies accused the Kremlin of blocking their attempts to organise a bigger event.The funeral will be held at the Borisovskoye cemetery in Moscow after a farewell ceremony at the Church of the Icon of the Mother of God in the Maryino district of the Russian capital where Navalny used to live, his spokesperson, Kira Yarmish, announced. Continue reading...

Protection hub will offer legal assistance and technical help as officials report ongoing threats and harassment on their jobsA new program will help local elections officials with legal assistance and technical needs that come along with increased threats to their work and their lives, especially during the heated 2024 election cycle.The Public Rights Project's election protection hub plans to reach more than 200 elections officials, targeting states with close races but open to local elections officials anywhere in the US. Their work will include legal representation for local officials, filing amicus briefs on behalf of elections officials in critical court cases, helping them respond to misinformation, elevating them as trusted resources for voters and standing up for local interests in battles against state legislatures. They also plan to fight against efforts to hand count ballots and litigate any challenges made by others to tabulation, as well as push back against frivolous public records requests that have hit some elections offices. Continue reading...

Police continue searching Bungonia property and say Lamarre drew a bit of a map' showing where to find bodies

Motoring and cycling retailer blames slump on wet weather and customers buying bicycles on creditHalfords shares have plunged by almost a quarter after it issued an unscheduled profit warning, in part because of more consumers buying bicycles on credit.The motoring and cycling retailer said it expected to post profits of between 35m and 40m for the year up to this April, well down on its initial forecast of between 48m and 53m. Continue reading...

James Cleverly considering longer notice periods for large demos in England and Wales, says policing minister

Mike Burgess outlines activities of spy network dubbed the A-team' in annual threat assessment, without naming former politician nor the country involved

Residents across state's west told to take action while bushfire continues to burn near Ballarat

Commissioner is delighted' by outcome but decision angers some activists in wake of Luke Davies and Jesse Baird murder investigation

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In today's newsletter: Why David Neal lost his job, and what he had to say about the faltering immigration system Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning. When then-home secretary Priti Patel appointed David Neal as the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration in 2021, the Commons home affairs committee refused to endorse the decision. They were worried that the recruitment process had been inadequate and said they had seen no evidence that he was confident to challenge performance publicly". Well, they've seen it now.Last week, David Neal was sacked from his job by James Cleverly, now the home secretary, just a month before he was due to stand down. Neal's crime was to disclose unauthorised information to the media - a tactic that he appears to have resorted to after 15 reports he wrote uncovering problems with the immigration system went unpublished, instead gathering dust on a Home Office shelf. Now Neal has told the same parliamentary committee of shocking leadership" at the Home Office and said he was sacked for doing my job" - and his testimony paints a grim picture of the state of the accommodation centres where the government houses asylum seekers.Conservatives | An alleged victim of a serious sexual assault by a Conservative MP has accused the central party of being more concerned with protecting its own reputation than her welfare after it failed to formally investigate her complaint. After her mental health deteriorated, the party's headquarters paid 15,000 for her to receive treatment at a private hospital, the alleged victim told the Guardian.US politics | Joe Biden has won the Democratic primary in Michigan - but a concerted effort by protest voters angry at his stance on the Israel-Gaza war could overshadow his win. With only 31% of votes tallied, 40,000 people had voted uncommitted" - four times his margin of victory over Donald Trump in 2020.Post Office | The former chair of the Post Office has claimed he was the victim of a smear campaign" led by the business secretary, Kemi Badenoch, and turned on his chief executive in a dramatic day of evidence to a parliamentary committee. Henry Staunton stunned MPs when he told them that Post Office chief executive Nick Read was facing an internal investigation.Politics | Rishi Sunak is braced for another byelection after former Tory MP Scott Benton was suspended from the Commons for 35 days over his role in a lobbying sting. If 10% of the Blackpool South MP's constituents now sign a recall petition, a byelection will be triggered in his seat.Social affairs | Jonathan Dimbleby has described the criminalisation of assisted dying in the UK as increasingly unbearable" after his younger brother, Nicholas, died this month with debilitating motor neurone disease (MND). The broadcaster spoke as MPs prepare to publish a report showing that three-quarters of the public support legalisation within strict guidelines. Continue reading...

The $5bn post-pandemic spending program not informed by robust research or analysis' auditor general finds

Judges urged to keep proceedings as open as possible in case relating to Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffreyAllegations that UK police and intelligence spied on investigative journalists to identify their sources will be heard by a secret tribunal on Wednesday, with judges urged to ensure as much as possible takes place in open court.Trevor Birney and Barry McCaffrey asked the investigatory powers tribunal (IPT) to look into whether police in Northern Ireland and Durham, as well as MI5 and GCHQ, used intrusive surveillance powers against them. Continue reading...

Firm told it must take responsibility for toxic legacy of pollution and safe decommissioning of abandoned oil infrastructureThe oil firm Shell cannot be allowed to withdraw from the Niger delta before it takes responsibility for its toxic legacy of pollution and the safe decommissioning of abandoned oil infrastructure, a report says.Shell plc is preparing to divest from the delta but a report warns that it must remain until it has cleaned up its legacy of pollution. Continue reading...

Independent senator told to sit down' by Louise Pratt after repeated interjections that saw the chamber adjourn early

Crime scene declared after bodies of woman in her 20s and man in his 30s were found in home south of Brisbane

New report notes continued decline' and rising call-waiting times as fiscal drag' pulls growing numbers of people into an ailing systemCustomer service levels at HM Revenue and Customs have sunk to an all-time low", parliament's spending watchdog has said.Users regularly encounter long call-waiting times as the tax department apparently struggles to cope with demand, a report by the cross-party public accounts committee (PAC) has found. Continue reading...

Critics of the government's mass housing plan say it won't save public money and at worst put asylum seekers at risk of suicideTwice in January, ambulances rushed to the former RAF airbase at Wethersfield in a remote part of Essex, now the Home Office's biggest mass asylum accommodation site, to attend to suicide attempts. On each occasion, an asylum seeker was admitted to hospital. Both survived.Acts of self-harm have been common since part of the 325-hectare (800-acre) site, which first opened in 1944, started to be used to house refugees in July 2023. Continue reading...

Europe has been negligent,' as an acceptance of cocaine and cannabis leads to corruption, violence, and misery, says AboutalebThe mayor of a city on the frontline of the illegal drug trade has said that a negligent" attitude to recreational drug use, including an acceptance of cocaine as the middle-class narcotic of choice, has led to violence and corruption in Europe's poorest neighbourhoods.As the Netherlands digests three life sentences handed out in the criminal trial of drug baron Ridouan Taghi and his well-oiled murder machine" gang, Ahmed Aboutaleb, mayor of Rotterdam, has demanded authorities take a tougher line on cocaine use. Continue reading...

Regulator demands recall of two models, understood to affect about 10,000 of the popular productsDutch authorities have ordered a leading European manufacturer of cargo bikes to suspend sales and recall thousands of its products amid safety concerns over frame breakages.The Dutch regulator for food and consumer product safety (NVWA) called a temporary halt to trading by Babboe, which makes family cargo bikes seen daily on school runs from Berlin to Bristol, because their safety cannot be sufficiently guaranteed". Continue reading...

Average number of births per woman falls to 0.71 in country that already has the world's lowest rate, and has spent billions since 2006 to reverse the trendSouth Korea's fertility rate, already the world's lowest, dropped to a fresh record low in 2023, defying the billions of dollars spent by the country to try to reverse the trend as the population shrank for a fourth straight year.The average number of expected babies for a South Korean woman during her reproductive life fell to 0.72, from 0.78 in 2022, data from Statistics Korea showed on Wednesday. Continue reading...

The Reserve Bank is betting on CPI returning to within its target range of 2%-3% by next yearInflation remained flat in January at a two-year low, helped by falling prices for meat and seafood, stoking hopes the Reserve Bank may bring forward interest rate cuts.The consumer price index in January was 3.4%, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Wednesday. Economists predicted CPI would increase to 3.6% from December's 3.4%. Continue reading...

Adel Salman told ABC radio he denounced the killing of civilians but said people have contested the full explanation of what actually happened on October 7'

Meeting between Penny Wong's staff and director of UNRWA affairs in Gaza comes amid calls to restore funding

Police say the shooting of the man in his 70s by another man, also in his 70s, was isolated' and wasn't believed to be connected to outlaw motorcycle gangs

Hilda Heine says US funding delays damage relationship with the Pacific nation as lawmakers say hold-up delivers a gift' to ChinaHilda Heine, the president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, has warned relations with the US are gradually being destroyed by party politics" as Congress delays approval of crucial funding for the Pacific nation.US lawmakers have not yet passed funding packages agreed in 2023 with the Marshall Islands, Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), in a move some argue is opening the door to China to build its influence in the Pacific region. Continue reading...

Follow live as the state's Republican and Democratic voters choose their preferred candidate for the US presidential election

Birthrate continues to fall as young people increasingly reluctant to have children due to bleak job prospects, cost of living and work cultureThe number of babies born in Japan last year fell for an eighth straight year to a new low, government data has shown, and a top official says it is critical for the country to reverse the trend in the coming half-dozen years.The 758,631 babies born in Japan in 2023 were a 5.1% decline from the previous year, according to the Health and Welfare Ministry on Tuesday. It was the lowest number of births since Japan started compiling the statistics in 1899. Continue reading...

IPPR report says Illegal Migration Act risks indefinite detention at taxpayer expense of people who cannot have their claims processedRishi Sunak's asylum laws have introduced a perma-backlog" of up to 55,000 people who cannot have their claims processed and risk being left indefinitely in taxpayer-funded temporary accommodation, according to a new report.The Institute for Public Policy Research said that anyone arriving in the UK via irregular means after 20 July 2023 cannot have their claim processed and instead will be removed to their home country or to a third country such as Rwanda following the introduction of the Illegal Migration Act. Continue reading...

Terrence Bradley testifies he had no personal knowledge about relationship between DA Fani Willis and prosecutor Nathan WadeLawyers for Donald Trump's co-defendants charged in Georgia over efforts to overturn the 2020 election were unable on Tuesday to get their star witness to repeat in court what he had previously alleged about the Fulton county district attorney's affair, as they seek to have her thrown off the case.I was speculating and I never witnessed anything. It was speculation," Terrence Bradley said about text messages he sent to one of the defense lawyers in January that alleged the district attorney Fani Willis and her deputy Nathan Wade were romantically involved earlier than they had claimed. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Belgian gaming commission - considered the gold standard in harm reduction policies - providing Michelle Rowland with policy details

Rise of femicide follows country's 2021 withdrawal from Council of Europe convention on preventing violence against womenSeven women were killed by their partners or ex-partners across Turkey on Tuesday, according to the television station Haberturk.In total, seven women were savagely killed in zmir, Bursa, Sakarya, Erzurum, Denizli and Istanbul," Haberturk reported, listing the country's major cities. Continue reading...

Blackpool South's Scott Benton had suggested to undercover reporters he would be willing to break lobbying rules for moneyRishi Sunak is braced for another byelection after former the Tory MP Scott Benton was suspended from the Commons for 35 days over his role in a lobbying sting.MPs approved the suspension of the Blackpool South MP on Tuesday evening without the need for a vote. Continue reading...

Wrongful death lawsuit alleges Kanokporn Tangsuan had been guaranteed' food at Disney Springs restaurant was allergen-freeThe husband of a New York doctor who reportedly died with high levels of food to which she was severely allergic shortly after dining at a Disney Springs restaurant last year accused Walt Disney Parks and Resorts of negligence in a 19-page lawsuit filed in Florida.Jeffrey Piccolo is seeking in excess of $50,000 in the wrongful death of Kanokporn Tangsuan, a doctor at New York University Langone hospital in Manhattan, in the lawsuit filed on 22 February in Orange county, Florida. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Native Hawaiian midwives say new law criminalizes Indigenous birthing customs and will deal blow to maternal healthSix midwives, including three midwifery students, and three patients sued the state of Hawaii on Tuesday after the government last year prohibited birth workers without a specific midwifery license from providing maternal healthcare.The lawsuit, filed on Tuesday by the Center for Reproductive Rights, claims that state lawmakers have criminalized Indigenous birthing customs and hollowed out medical care for pregnant women and families across Hawaii. Continue reading...

Henry Staunton refuses to back down as he gives evidence to the business select committeeSo who do you trust? Kemi Badenoch, the business secretary, whom she and many other MPs believe will be the next leader of the Tory party? A woman whose loyalty extends primarily to herself. Even her family takes contemporaneous notes of any meeting just in case they find that memories differ. The corridors of Westminster are littered with enemies and allies whom she has stabbed in the back.Or Henry Staunton, the former chair of the Post Office who was sacked by Kemi in January? A man who has made a career out of being made chief executive or vice-chair of many companies about which he knows comparatively little. Of whom the worst that can be said is that - like many men of his acquaintance - he has been consistently promoted above his abilities. Being a thoroughly good chap" counts far more than competence in Staunton's world. Continue reading...

EU and Nato leaders quick to distance themselves from French president's comments that ground troops should not be ruled outEmmanuel Macron has faced criticism from France's Nato and EU partners and a warning of conflict from Russia after he suggested it might be necessary to send ground troops to Ukraine.After a high-level meeting in Paris of mainly European partners to discuss what urgent steps could be taken to shore up Ukraine in the wake of Russia's recent frontline advances, the French president told a press conference he did not rule out sending troops. Continue reading...

David Neal criticises shocking leadership' at Home Office, as charities say asylum system is at riskThe UK's sacked borders inspector has told MPs he was removed for doing his job", as refugee charities told the home secretary that the sacking of David Neal had left the asylum system at risk.Neal, who was fired last week as the independent chief inspector of borders and immigration, told a parliamentary committee of shocking leadership" at the top of the Home Office. Continue reading...