Conservative leader calls pronouns, diversity policies and climate activism' a poison' in speech at rightwing eventKemi Badenoch has said our country and all of western civilisation will be lost" if efforts to renew the Conservative party and drive forward rightwing ideas globally fail.Likening her own leadership to Donald Trump's second term, she used a gathering of fellow conservatives to attack Keir Starmer for taking the knee in a nod to Black Lives Matter and described pronouns, diversity policies and climate activism" as a poison". Continue reading...
Comments suggest Israeli PM will reject Hamas pledge to hand over control of territory to the PABenjamin Netanyahu has reiterated that he is committed" to Donald Trump's plan to take over and develop the Gaza Strip, amid uncertainty over whether Israel will send a delegation to Qatar to discuss the second stage of the fragile ceasefire in the war with Hamas.In a statement on Monday, the Israeli prime minister said: Just as I have committed to, on the day after the war in Gaza, there will be neither Hamas nor the Palestinian Authority. I am committed to US president Trump's plan for the creation of a different Gaza." Continue reading...
Conservative leader of the opposition speaks at right-wing conference in London. This live blog is closedKeir Starmer's announcement via the Telegraph that he was prepared to put British peacekeeping troops on the ground in Ukraine was also described by Conservative MP and shadow cabinet spokesperson Alicia Kearns as not the right priority. She told viewers of Sky News his priority should be today talking about defence spending."It was put to her that by Sky's Wilfred Frost that you're trying to criticise the state of defence spending six months into their government, when this is a long-term issue, after 14 years [of Conservatives being] in power."I've always been very clear. I was critical of my own government. But what I'm saying is, since July, a decision was made to side with the Treasury, to not give the increase in defence spending. We needed to continue to replenish stocks. Replenishing stocks should be the priority so that we are ready if we do need to provide peacekeeping services, if we do need to provide more support to Ukraine.My reaction is the prime minister is doing the right thing. But, of course, doing the right thing comes at a price. If the prime minister is serious about wanting to deploy British troops, put boots on the ground in Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force, he's got to realise that's going to come at a considerable cost.Frankly, we haven't got the numbers and we haven't got the equipment to put a large force onto the ground for an extended period of time at the present moment. We've got to have the right number of people with the right equipment and the right training, and start to fund that now.I'm quite cautious, because we're not a place in which we understand the terms or the conditions or the numbers or the way in which we've been deploying our people, and we should always make sure that we are making decisions based on as much information as possible.The reality is that Ukraine is still fighting for its freedom. Russia has taken around 600 square miles of territory over the last few months. We're not in a place as yet where I think we can be making those commitments ... things are going to change over the next few hours, let alone the next few days, weeks and months.We will always give Ukraine the support they need. We will stand shoulder to shoulder with them. We will fight for them to determine the terms of this peace.And also, it's important to note, this can't just be that we've managed to stop the shooting and murder, and therefore we've got peace. We need a peace deal that will end the threat to our European neighbours and to us, one that will make us safer from a state that is currently behaving like a terrorist. Continue reading...
by Guardian staff and agencies in Beijing on (#6VB9K)
US state department last week removed line from fact sheet saying We do not support Taiwan independence'China has called on the United States to correct its mistakes" after a statement that Washington does not support an independent Taiwan was removed from the state department website.Beijing views Taiwan as part of its territory and has refused to rule out using force to unify with the self-ruled island one day. Continue reading...
Vatican statement says pontiff, 88, is being treated for a polymicrobial infection of the respiratory tractPope Francis will remain in hospital for as long as required after tests undertaken in recent days showed a complex clinical picture", the Vatican has said.The pontiff, 88, was admitted to Gemelli hospital in Rome on Friday with worsening bronchitis and was diagnosed and treated for a respiratory tract infection. Continue reading...
As Minns government seeks to extend controversial laws that make it harder for young people to get bail, experts warn locking up more kids will not curb crime
Police continue to search River Thames for suspect over Friday's fatal shooting of Lisa Smith, 43, from SloughA woman shot dead at a Kent pub on Valentine's Day has been named as Lisa Smith.The 43-year-old from Slough was killed in Knockholt near The Three Horseshoes pub shortly after 7pm on Friday, Kent police said. She died at the scene after being shot. Continue reading...
Congolese authorities accused of abandoning Bukavu after government confirms fall to militia groupM23 rebels have captured and occupied Bukavu, the second-largest city in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Congolese government has confirmed, days after the Rwanda-backed militia launched an attack.In a statement posted on X, the DRC communications ministry said it was monitoring the situation marked by the entry of the Rwandan army and its auxiliaries" and it was doing everything possible to restore order, security and territorial integrity". Continue reading...
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%
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...
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...
by Denis Campbell Health policy editor on (#6VAX1)
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...
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...
by Patrick Wintour in Munich, Jon Henley in Paris, Ju on (#6VAPT)
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...
by Peter Walker Senior political correspondent on (#6VAS9)
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...
by Peter Walker Senior political correspondent on (#6VASB)
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...
by Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent on (#6VAR1)
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...
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...
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