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Union criticises education recovery funding as attainment gap in primary school pupils grows to 8.7 monthsChildren from low-income families in England are further behind their peers in maths than they were before the pandemic, research suggests.The attainment gap for disadvantaged primary school pupils in maths has grown from an average of 6.9 months to 8.7 months, the study by the thinktank the Education Policy Institute (EPI) and the software firm Renaissance Learning has found. Continue reading...

Charity's work has transformed since the lifesaving service was founded in a London tavern in 1824It was founded in a London tavern on 4 March 1824, a lifesaving service designed to go to the aid of the ships that crashed with alarming regularity on to the coasts of Britain and Ireland.Exactly two centuries on, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) is launching its bicentenary celebrations and has calculated that it has, so far, saved a grand total of 146,277 lives, an average of two a day. Continue reading...

Fallen Women group wants police to make domestic abuse a key line of inquiry in murder investigationsCampaigners are calling for an immediate review into cases where women have fallen from a height to ensure domestic abusers cannot get away with murder.There could be as many as 130 hidden homicides" a year in England and Wales, the Killed Women campaign group estimates, in which women were murdered by a partner or family member but their deaths were officially recorded as accidental or suicide. Continue reading...

Survey for Barnardo's finds 14- to 17-year-olds paint a bleak picture of their futures, with money and climate worries at the foreBritish teenagers believe their generation will have a worse life than their parents, according to new research.Money, jobs and the climate crisis were named among the concerns of 1,001 teenagers aged 14 to 17 who were questioned by YouGov for the children's charity Barnardo's. Continue reading...

Survey of more than 4,000 people with condition reveals almost half visited their GP 10 times or more before being diagnosedWomen are waiting nearly nine years for an endometriosis diagnosis in the UK, according to research that found health professionals often minimise or dismiss symptoms.The study by the charity Endometriosis UK suggests waiting times for a diagnosis have significantly deteriorated in the past three years, increasing to an average of eight years and 10 months, up 10 months since 2020. In Scotland, the average diagnosis time has increased by four months. Continue reading...

Former minister launched legal action after the then DPP accused her of disturbing conduct' during the Bruce Lehrmann trial

Police say the alleged attack occurred on the Dandenong Creek trail on 31 January, with the woman fighting off the teen

Plans call for zero-tolerance approach' to groups such as Palestine Solidarity Campaign and Just Stop OilMinisters are considering proposals to ban MPs and councillors from engaging with groups such as the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC), Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil.The plans, put forward by the government's adviser on political violence, John Woodcock, say mainstream political leaders should tell their representatives to employ a zero-tolerance approach" to groups that use disruptive tactics or fail to stop hate" on marches. Continue reading...

Merrick Garland warns of efforts to disenfranchise Black voters and says court decisions have weakened the 1965 Voting Rights ActThe right to vote in the US is under attack, with sustained efforts to disfranchise Black voters, US attorney general Merrick Garland told a Selma church service commemorating the 59th anniversary of the Bloody Sunday police attack on civil rights activists.Garland said decisions by the supreme court and lower courts since 2006 have weakened the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Continue reading...

People bereaved by Covid want government recognition and protection for South Bank place of remembranceVolunteers at the Covid memorial wall are urging ministers to make the monument permanent as Britain marks its first national day of reflection after the pandemic.The wall runs between Westminster Bridge and Lambeth Bridge on South Bank in London and is looked after by a group of volunteers, who rely on public donations to maintain it. Continue reading...

RSPCA take in young rodent after Canning Town staff discover cage in alleywayA guinea pig has been found abandoned outside an east London tube station, with a note reading: I need a new owner."Staff at Canning Town station discovered the animal, which has been named DiscoPig, alone inside a cage with the piece of paper taped to it. Continue reading...

Women from This Is Rigged campaign group also spray-painted a profanity on the plinth at Kelvingrove MuseumTwo members of a campaign group have been charged after they poured porridge and jam on a bust of Queen Victoria and spray-painted the word cunt" on the plinth at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum in Glasgow.Sorcha Ni Mhairtin, 30, and Hannah Taylor, 23 from This Is Rigged carried out the actions around midday on Sunday before reportedly gluing themselves to the plinth. Continue reading...

National broadcaster says it agreed to make changes after request from country's presidentIsrael has agreed to revise the lyrics of its potential submission to the Eurovision song contest after organisers took issue with verses that appeared to reference Hamas's 7 October attack.The contest, which will take place from 7 to 11 May in the Swedish city of Malmo, can disqualify contestants deemed to have breached its rules on political neutrality. Kan, Israel's national broadcaster, is tasked with choosing the country's entry. Continue reading...

Turnout was low for first ballot since Hamas' 7 October attack, with security a high priority for votersLocal elections in Israel, delayed by the war in Gaza, have returned gains for Ultra-Orthodox and far-right parties after low turnout in most areas.The municipal votes were expected to serve as an indication of public opinion after the 7 October Hamas attack and the ensuing war in the Gaza Strip. Just under 50% of the seven million eligible voters turned up to polling stations, and rightwing and religious parties allied with the Likud, the party of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, were more successful in mobilising their bases. Continue reading...

Force was previously unable to locate sim belonging to Mia Janin, 14, after investigation into her death in 2021Scotland Yard will return the sim card and phone of a bullied schoolgirl who killed herself after managing to locate the items.Mia Janin, a 14-year-old pupil at Jewish free school (JFS) in Kenton, north-west London, died on 12 March 2021. Police admitted losing evidence it had gathered following her death last year - including the teenager's main phone, second phone and sim card - but have since recovered them.In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Israel indicated to have provisionally accepted six-week hostage and truce deal, but Palestinian official says: We're not there yet'A Hamas delegation was in Cairo on Sunday for talks on efforts to broker a ceasefire in the war in Gaza after indications that Israel had provisionally accepted a six-week phased hostage and truce deal before the beginning of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.Qatari and US mediators also arrived in the Egyptian capital on Sunday, according to the state-linked Al Qahera News. Continue reading...

Over 100 officers joined operation, which will continue despite setback, as part of hunt for Ernst-Volker Staub and Burkhard Garweg in GermanyThe renewed German police hunt for two alleged members of the Red Army Faction, previously known as the far-left militant Baader-Meinhof gang, who have been on the run for more than 30 years, will continue after an operation in Berlin failed to find the suspects.Special armed police units launched raids in the Markgrafendamm area at 7.30am on Sunday in a search for Ernst-Volker Staub, 69, and Burkhard Garweg, 55. Continue reading...

Salary of new senior post could dwarf DfT pay scales in effort to speed up troubled Great British Railways projectMinisters are trying to install a highly paid rail industry figure in the Department for Transport to entrench plans to create Great British Railways (GBR) before the general election.The DfT could break Whitehall's pay structure to create the senior post, in an attempt to accelerate changes for a new public body managing the country's rail transport - although the Treasury is reluctant to sanction another DfT salary beyond normal pay grades. Continue reading...

Senior Hamas official says if Israel accepts demand for military withdrawal from Gaza and increase in aid, it would pave way for agreement. This live blog is closed

Boat carrying 10 other children between seven and 13 years old, along with girl's pregnant mother, father and three siblings, sankA seven-year-old girl has died in a canal close to Dunkirk after a makeshift boat carrying 16 people from northern France to the UK capsized, the prefecture in France's Nord department said.The boat, which was carrying 10 other children between seven and 13 years old along with the girl's pregnant mother, her father and three of her siblings, sank with all onboard entering the water. Continue reading...

Margaret Caldwell and her family also want public inquiry into failures by authorities after man finally jailed for 2005 killingThe mother of a murdered woman whose killer was convicted last week after a two-decade long campaign for justice has called for a criminal investigation into mishandling of the case.Iain Packer was jailed for life with a minimum of 36 years at the high court in Glasgow on Wednesday for the murder of Emma Caldwell in 2005, as well as for 11 rapes and 21 further charges including sexual assaults and abduction. Continue reading...

Taken from her home on 7 October with three of her children, Chen Almog-Goldstein recalls being held captive by HamasChen Almog-Goldstein refuses to forget her eldest daughter's last moments. Yam, 20, was gasping for breath, having been shot in the face by Hamas gunmen, who minutes earlier had killed her father.Almog-Goldstein, 49, did not see Yam or her husband, Nadav, again because she and her three surviving children were bundled into a car and abducted. During the seven-minute journey across the border into Gaza on 7 October, their two captors smiled and took photographs of the traumatised mother and children. Continue reading...

Tourism industry disappointed but hopeful Chinese holidaymakers could return by year's end - but economists predict a longer wait

Mike Burgess says security agencies don't radicalise people' and stands by actions of police in case of 13-year-old with Islamic State fixation'

Australian Council of Social Service says unconscionable' case shows why mutual obligations system must be replaced with a fair system' for jobseekersA jobseeker is calling for an overhaul to the way suspensions are handled after his Centrelink payments were suspended while he was in hospital recovering from brain surgery.The Albanese government is mulling an overhaul of the employment services system following a damning parliamentary review that criticised the mutual obligations system, which can suspend jobseekers' welfare payments if they do not fulfil tasks such as attending meetings and submitting job applications.Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads Continue reading...

Exclusive: January 2023 video shows Andrew Johnson detailing Robust project's initial and ongoing costs, despite telling senators such details were bound by cabinet secrecy

Exclusive: Plans either shelved or stalled despite being part of flagship policy promise at last electionFewer than a fifth of the projects approved by Michael Gove to improve towns across England have been completed, the government has admitted, in the latest sign of the problems facing his levelling up agenda.Responses from Gove's department to freedom of information requests show that fewer than 20% of the projects sanctioned under the 3.6bn towns fund were on track to be finished by the end of February. Fewer than half will have been completed by the next election, even if it is held in November, the figures show. Continue reading...

NHS aims to tempt at least five doctors to move to the Uists and Benbecula amid recruitment crisisWanted: family doctors to enjoy a life of adventure, shimmering beaches" and an idyllic landscape. And if that is not enough, what about earning nearly 150,000 a year to work a 40-hour week?That record salary is being offered by NHS executives in the Outer Hebrides in a fresh effort to solve a recruitment crisis at one of the remotest medical practices in the UK, serving the dispersed communities of the Uists and Benbecula. Continue reading...

Russian drone crashed into nine-storey residential building in Odesa on Saturday

The venue's owners have been told to put it back to its wonky glory after it was gutted by a fire and bulldozedRebuilding a 260-year-old building that was burned to a shell and then bulldozed to a pile of rubble is no mean feat in any scenario. But rebuilding the Crooked House pub, a lopsided structure that had sunk 4ft into the ground, is even trickier.It's a bit of a monkey's puzzle, with no right angles," said Stephen Levrant, who runs a heritage architecture firm. Because everything is out of kilter and you've got gravity acting in a completely different way, it will have to be approached as if it was quite a sophisticated modern structure." Continue reading...

Nominated candidate of eight-party coalition takes office after gathering of national assemblyShehbaz Sharif has been sworn in as prime minister of Pakistan after an election that was riddled with allegations of rigging and irregularities.Sharif, of the Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N) party, was the nominated candidate of a new eight-party coalition that was formed after no single party managed to win an outright majority in the election on 8 February. Continue reading...

Chancellor understood to be considering move towards headline Labour policy in this week's budgetIt would be an abject humiliation" for the Tories if they implemented Labour's policy of abolishing non-dom status, the shadow cabinet minister Bridget Phillipson has said.The abolition of the status, which gives generous tax breaks to some of the UK's richest residents, has long been one of Labour's headline policies, but the chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, is understood to be considering announcing a similar move in this week's budget. Continue reading...

Questions about UK Coastguard's reliance on charity after lifeboat volunteers asked to cover for Border Force to aid stricken vesselA volunteer for the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) allegedly accused Border Force crews of not doing their job", during a spat in which the charity refused a coastguard request to rescue a migrant boat. The incident came days before a mass drowning that was the deadliest Channel disaster for more than 30 years.The coastguard were told that the RNLI crew would only launch if you've got people in the water" after it was asked to plug a gap in Border Force coverage, according to internal documents seen by the Guardian and Liberty Investigates, which reveal tensions between agencies involved in rescuing small boats in the Dover Strait. Continue reading...

Plea to protect arts funding as a growing number of city and county councils face bankruptcySir Simon Rattle, the world-renowned British conductor, has urged the government not to slash crucial tax relief for orchestras, after the collapse of regional funding for the arts.Speaking to the Observer this weekend, Rattle, who made his name with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in the 1980s, is calling on Westminster politicians not to allow classical music and the wider arts to be forgotten as a growing number of city and county councils face bankruptcy and decide to defund" the arts. Continue reading...

Community representatives say a good sendoff' is a religious necessity, but others say it introduces a competitive elementThe latest addition to Ballyhaunis cemetery in Ireland's County Mayo towers over neighbouring headstones in a blaze of white marble and ornamentation. Rose-wreathed pillars frame a tableau of statues showing Jesus, angels, cherubim and biblical scenes, including an engraving of Leonardo da Vinci's The Last Supper.Marble tablets express bereavement in gold letters, a photo of the deceased gazes from a carved stone bench and lanterns with diamond-shaped bulbs and electric sensors flank the central slab. Continue reading...

Campaigners against labour exploitation urge government to conduct more stringent checks before awarding powersHundreds of newly established care providers have been granted licences by the Home Office to sponsor workers from abroad, despite being newly established and having no track record of providing services in Britain, the Observer can reveal.Suspected bogus companies with copy-and-paste websites, fake-looking reviews and PO boxes as addresses are among those granted licences allowing them to sponsor workers to come to the UK. Continue reading...

Drivers in capital cities faced increases of 12.4% in 2023 while the average driver in regional areas was hit with a 13.7% riseAustralian households are under increasing budget pressure when it comes to car travel as transport costs balloon to three times the inflation rate.The typical household's transport costs rose by about 13% in 2023, outpacing the inflation rate of 4.1%. Continue reading...

Fundamental review' prompted by killer Wayne Couzens's record of sexual crimes as a police officerLabour has pledged to overhaul the woefully inadequate" way indecent exposure is treated in the criminal justice system after an inquiry concluded that victims were being failed.The shadow home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the party would oversee a fundamental review" of the handling of the crime, which would aim to tackle its image as a low-level offence, improve police processes and bring more perpetrators to justice. Continue reading...

Teenager Harry Miller took his own life two years after being prescribed montelukast. His family say they were not made aware of the reported psychiatric side-effects of the drugHarry Miller was a popular teenager, appreciated for his sharp humour, ability to get on with anyone and eagerness for the next adventure".In the autumn of 2017, he was struggling with difficult thoughts and feelings of anger. Harry, who was 14 and lived in south-west London, confided his inner turmoil to friends and family. Continue reading...

Campaigners call for more warnings on montelukast, after reports of night terrors, depression and other mental health eventsChildren as young as three have suffered traumatic side effects from a blockbuster asthma drug now under review by the UK drugs regulator.Families say asthma patients, including many children, are not properly warned of the risks from the commonly prescribed drug montelukast. Continue reading...

Financial experts give their advice on the best course of action for the chancellor to take on WednesdaySenior research economist,

A survey in the chancellor's new Godalming and Ash constituency has prioritised health over Treasury cuts in Wednesday's budgetFor the past few weeks, chancellor Jeremy Hunt has had a clear mission.Under pressure from Rishi Sunak, he and his Treasury officials have been poring over their options for pre-election tax cuts that the prime minister is convinced are needed to give the Tories a fighting chance at the forthcoming election. Continue reading...

Albanese also flagged concerns over nature of behaviour' in comments in lead-up to Saturday's Dunkley byelection. This blog is now closed

Prime minister says voters rejected opposition's negativity' as Labor's Jodie Belyea wins Victorian seat

Pro-Palestinian protesters gathered in Sydney to demand a ceasefire while a separate pro-Israel rally against antisemitism took place in AdelaidePro-Palestinian protesters have taken to the streets after more than 100 Gazans were killed while trying to secure food as Australia flags more humanitarian aid.About 120 Palestinians were killed as they tried to access humanitarian resources from an aid convoy, the local Hamas health authority said, attributing the deaths to Israeli gunfire. Continue reading...

Mike Burgess says actions of person who sold out their country, party and former colleagues' were legal because they predated 2018 espionage laws

Shadow immigration minister wants better Australia' but refuses to say what level of migration Coalition would pursue in government

Chancellor Olaf Scholz describes as very serious' the circulation of a recording purportedly showing German officials discussing delivery of long-range missiles to Kyiv

Jo Hamilton presented a music award alongside Monica Dolan, who portrayed her in Mr Bates vs The Post OfficeA former sub-post office operator has used an appearance at the Brit Awards to urge the speeding-up of compensation for those unfairly prosecuted as part of the Post Office IT scandal.Jo Hamilton made her appeal alongside the actor Monica Dolan, who portrayed her in ITV's hit dramatisation of the episode, Mr Bates vs The Post Office. The pair were presenting the first category of the evening at the O2 Arena in London. Continue reading...

Revelation comes after inquest into 19-year-old's death shown texts between journalist from newspaper and Zachary Rolfe