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This blog has now closed, you can read more of out Ukraine war coverage hereYou may have seen that we are testing a new feature across some of the Guardian’s live blogs, including the Ukraine live blog, which allows you to contact some of our live bloggers directly. This is for people who want to message us, they are not public comments.If you have something you’ve seen you think I’ve missed, or you have questions or comments about the war or our coverage, or have spotted one of my regular typos or transliteration errors, please do drop me a line. Continue reading...

Kyiv accuses Brazilian president’s initiative for giving equal weight to ‘the victim and the aggressor’Ukraine’s government has criticised Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva for his efforts to broker a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow, and invited the Brazilian leader to visit the war-torn country and see for himself the consequences of the Russian invasion.The comments came a day after Russia’s minister of foreign affairs, Sergei Lavrov, visited Brasília, and praised Lula’s calls for a negotiated settlement. Continue reading...

Exclusive: British foreign secretary says failing to engage ‘closely and regularly’ with Beijing would be ‘really counterproductive’Britain should not “pull the shutters down” on China, as it would be counterproductive to the national interest, the foreign secretary has told the Guardian.In a warning to Conservative hawks, James Cleverly insisted there was not a binary choice to be made between treating China as either a threat or an opportunity, and said the UK’s approach needed to be more nuanced. Continue reading...

University and College Union to go ahead with industrial action after members reject offer on pay and working conditionsStudents face potential delays in their degree results and graduations this summer after the University and College Union said it would go ahead with industrial action over pay that could result in exams and essays being left unmarked.While UCU members called a halt to the union’s long-running dispute over pensions, after 85% voted to accept a deal to improve retirement benefits, they also voted to reject an offer on pay and working conditions, triggering the marking boycott starting on Thursday. Continue reading...

Neighbour says man had shouted about jumping from balcony hours before officers arrivedA man who fell to his death from a balcony when police fired a Taser last week had been in distress for hours before officers were called, a neighbour has said.Police have not named the man, who was described as quiet, solitary and kind by neighbours in Peckham, south-east London, on Tuesday. Mourners who laid flowers at the scene said they wished they could have done more to help him. Continue reading...

Opposition leaders say relaunch attempt has been ‘utterly torpedoed’ by SNP treasurer arrestScotland’s new first minister, Humza Yousaf, has set out a “fresh vision” for his next three years in government that delays, redraws or reverses a number of his predecessor Nicola Sturgeon’s key policies.But opposition leaders said any attempt at a relaunch had been “utterly torpedoed” by the arrest earlier today of the SNP treasurer, Colin Beattie, amid the ongoing police investigation into the party’s funding and finances. Continue reading...

Homelessness Australia report shows that after paying rent young people have little money to cover food, transport and utilities

‘It’s arse about face … giving nothing to the people who are screaming for assistance,’ Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie says

Growing demand and ageing population expected to drive up costs by 23% in fifth-largest area of government expenditure

Lowy Institute poll indicates one in five Chinese-Australians were called offensive names in 2022, down 10 points from 31% in 2020

Nazem Ahmad, who has owned works by Picasso and Warhol, suspected of laundering money for militant groupA high-profile art collector has been put on a Treasury sanctions list over claims he uses his collection, which has included masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Antony Gormley and Andy Warhol, to launder money for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah through the UK.Nazem Ahmad, a diamond and art dealer who once posed in his Beirut penthouse for a glossy magazine and featured in a piece about the “world’s most beautiful homes and the fascinating people who live in them”, has been targeted under new counter-terrorism powers. Continue reading...

Profit from building treated for decades as state-owned adds to questions over palace’s gifts policyAn elegant Edinburgh property that was given to Queen Elizabeth II in her role as sovereign, and for more than 40 years was managed by the UK government, is being privately rented out by the king for a profit.The revelation sheds light on the opaque nature of royal wealth, where public and private ownership is often hard to disentangle. It adds to mounting questions around Buckingham Palace’s policy on gifts, which is supposed to prevent official gifts from being treated as private property. Continue reading...

Shares in online retail tech company slide after rise on Monday as private equity group circledThe online retail tech company THG said its annual losses widened last year to £550m amid higher costs and as home shopping waned with the end of pandemic lockdowns.Shares in the troubled group dived 17% on Tuesday as it revealed that pretax losses had almost tripled in the year to 31 March while sales had risen just 2.7% to £2.2bn. Continue reading...

Police close headquarters of main opposition coalition as fears mount party will be bannedTunisian authorities have banned meetings at all offices of the opposition Ennahda Islamist party and police have closed the headquarters of the Salvation Front main opposition coalition.Ennahda fears the move will pave the way for banning the party. It came a day after police detained the leader of Ennahda, Rached Ghannouchi, the most prominent critic of President Kais Saied and three senior officials, the party said. Continue reading...

Andrew Sentance says lobby group needs ‘major shake-up’ as insurance brokers’ body quits membershipThe Confederation of British Industry needs an experienced outsider to lead it through its crisis, according to a former director, after the Guardian’s reports of complaints against senior figures over alleged sexual misconduct.Andrew Sentance, a former member of the Bank of England’s monetary policy committee who started his career as director of economic affairs at the business lobby group, said he was “very disappointed” by the scandal, which has left the CBI battling for its future. Continue reading...

Guidance for England also likely to tell teachers to inform parents when children question their gender identityThe government is considering issuing guidance to single-sex schools in England saying that they cannot be legally obliged to take transgender pupils, as part of advice to be released this term.The advice, first reported by the Telegraph, is also likely to include direction for schools to inform parents about children questioning gender identity. Continue reading...

Former US president says he expects barriers to restoring government in Stormont will soon be removed

Two of the six books are translated from languages that have never featured before in the prizeThe shortlist for this year’s International Booker prize has been described by the chair of judges as “a list of remarkable variety” and “very cool and very sexy”.This year’s six chosen books include two translated from languages that have never featured before in the prize: Eva Baltasar’s Boulder is translated by Julia Sanches from the original Catalan while Time Shelter by Georgi Gospodinov is translated from Bulgarian by Angela Rodel. Continue reading...

Putin visits commanders in occupied Kherson and Luhansk regions of Ukraine; WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich appears in Moscow courtVladimir Putin has visited military headquarters in Russian-occupied areas Ukraine, the Kremlin has said. Putin was shown on Russian state television disembarking a military helicopter in Russian-held Ukraine and greeting senior military commanders. It was not stated when the visit took place.The Kremlin said Putin attended a military command meeting in the Kherson region. He heard reports from commanders of the airborne forces and the “Dnieper” army group and other senior officers on the situation in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, both of which Moscow has proclaimed part of Russia. The Russian president also visited national guard headquarters in Ukraine’s Luhansk region in the eastern Donbas, which Moscow also claims to have annexed along with adjacent Donetsk region.Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has appeared in court to appeal on Tuesday against his detention in Moscow on charges of espionage. The court will hear a complaint filed by Gershkovich against the decision to keep him in custody in Lefortovo prison while the case is being investigated. The hearing is essentially procedural covering how Gershkovich should be detained as he awaits trial, not about the substance of the charges.On Monday US ambassador to Russia Lynne Tracy said she had made her first visit to Gershkovich, who was arrested in Russia two weeks ago. “He feels well and is holding up. We reiterate our call for Evan’s immediate release,” Tracy said. Tracy was present at the court on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Wall Street Journal reporter has filed complaint against detention conditions following arrest on espionage chargesThe Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich has appeared in a courtroom in Moscow at an appeal hearing against his arrest and detention in a former KGB prison on charges of espionage.He stood in a glass and metal enclosure inside the courtroom on Tuesday, wearing a checked shirt with his arms folded in front of him. He did not say anything. Continue reading...

Budget airline lifts profits forecast as summer bookings rise and Easter travel returns to pre-Covid levelsThe boss of easyJet said the travel industry was much better prepared for this summer than last year when staff shortages led to chaos at airports, although he warned that ongoing strikes could cause some disruption.The budget airline lifted its profit outlook for this year after summer bookings rose and passenger numbers over Easter returned to pre-pandemic levels. Continue reading...

TV presenters want same legal standing as civil and religious ceremonies in England and WalesStephen Fry and Sandi Toksvig are leading calls for the formal recognition of humanist marriages in England and Wales, amid warnings their unofficial status discriminates against LGBTQ+ people.The TV presenters – both humanists – want the justice secretary, Dominic Raab, to follow Scotland, Northern Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey in granting humanist marriages the same legal standing as civil and religious ceremonies. The government has been considering making changes for a decade, but has yet to act. Continue reading...

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Parliamentary inquiry told unregulated agents given cash ‘under the table’ to attract students with promise of full-time work

Jared Skeete, 19, sentenced to three years in prison over incident outside Suites hotel in KnowsleyA teenager who threw lit fireworks at police officers during a “shameful” protest outside a hotel used to house asylum seekers has been sentenced to three years in prison.Jared Skeete, 19, snorted ketamine in front of the line of riot police as he shouted abuse at them during the disorder outside the Suites hotel in Knowsley on 10 February, Liverpool crown court heard on Monday. Continue reading...

Opposition leader tells Sky News he mentioned general concerns about abuse in Alice Springs which Anthony Albanese confirmed

Exclusive: Urgent legal advice being sought by courts to clarify how decision could affect pending and finalised cases

Suppliers in Great Britain have agreed code banning them from installations in homes of over-85sThe energy secretary, Grant Shapps, has urged Ofgem to turn words “into action” to ensure new industry rules designed to protect vulnerable people from being forced on to prepayment meters are properly enforced.The Guardian revealed on Monday that all energy suppliers in Great Britain had signed up to a code of conduct banning them from putting the meters in the homes of people aged 85 and over as well as those with severe health conditions. Continue reading...

Exclusive: National Education Union includes call in submission to forum that will determine Labour’s general election manifestoKeir Starmer is facing mounting calls to extend free school meals to every child in England if Labour makes it into power, to help families struggling with the cost of living and close the educational attainment gap.The National Education Union has also called for long-term funding for the holiday activities and food programme fronted by the England footballer Marcus Rashford, offering free places to children on universal credit (UC), in its policy submission to the party. Continue reading...

Committee says too many black women receive treatment that falls short of acceptable standardsMinisters have failed to tackle “appalling” and “glaring” racial disparities in maternal health despite repeated promises, MPs have said, as they called for new targets to eliminate inequalities.In a scathing report, the women and equalities committee said maternal death rates in deprived areas were on the rise, with women in the poorest areas about two and half times more likely to die in childbirth than those in the richest areas. Continue reading...

Automotive sector’s lobby group warns deadline to end sale of fossil fuel trucks by 2040 may be missedThe UK does not have a single public electric charger or hydrogen refilling station dedicated to lorries, with fewer than 12 years until the first ban on diesel engines comes into force, according to the automotive industry’s lobby group.The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT) said the government must urgently set out a strategy to help the sector to decarbonise or risk missing the target to stop the sale of fossil fuel trucks by 2040. Continue reading...

Andrews government bought a Flinders Street site for $40.3m in 2021 but it has sat empty since

Cheddar and budget sausages sold by Asda were highest risers, with supermarkets’ prices for oats and skimmed milk also soaringThe price of staple foods such as cheddar cheese, white bread and pork sausages has soared by up to 80% in some shops over the past year, in further evidence of how inflation is hitting those on the tightest budgets the hardest.Porridge oats topped the price increase ranking among a basket of British basics measured by the consumer group Which?, with prices up by an average of 35.5% followed by skimmed milk, which was up by 33.6%, and cheddar cheese, which rose by 28.3%. Continue reading...

Ennahdha party’s Rached Ghannouchi, 81, is at least the 20th person to be held in recent months in crackdown by Kais SaiedRached Ghannouchi, the leader of the Ennahda political party and one of the main opponents of the Tunisian president, Kais Saied, has been arrested, the latest in a string of opposition figures held.Ghannouchi, 81, whose party was the largest in parliament before Saied dissolved the chamber in July 2021, was arrested by police at his Tunis home and taken “to an unknown location”, the Islamist-inspired Ennahdha said in a statement. Continue reading...

Steve Barclay and Rishi Sunak are gambling that nurses’ appetite for a fight is waning – and ballot results back them upEveryone loves nurses, don’t they? They are near the top of the list of the nation’s most admired and trusted workers. They inspired a TV drama called Angels. And when they were striking in December, January and February, they were the NHS staff group that the health secretary, Steve Barclay, most wanted to make peace with.But since the Royal College of Nursing decided to launch a new series of strikes in England after its members rejected a pay deal their leadership had recommended, the government is playing hardball with the union. Rishi Sunak and Barclay plan to make no new improved offer to either NHS nurses or junior doctors, whose four-day strike ended last Saturday and led to 195,000 cancellations. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Suppliers in Great Britain will also make workers wear body cams as part of new code of conductEnergy suppliers have agreed to a ban on forcibly installing prepayment meters in the homes of customers over 85 and will make representatives wear body cameras as part of a new code of conduct, the Guardian can reveal.Suppliers have agreed to fresh guidelines for putting in the devices when households have run up energy debt after an outcry over agents using court-approved entry warrants to break in to install them. Continue reading...

Former British and Irish PMs add to pressure on DUP during panel event with Bill and Hillary ClintonTony Blair and Bertie Ahern have made an impassioned plea to the Democratic Unionist party to revive power sharing in Northern Ireland and help end the period of political instability, saying the “people on this island need them”.The former British and Irish prime ministers told a conference in Belfast on Monday that the region’s leaders had a responsibility to break a political deadlock and safeguard peace. Continue reading...

Invites include Boris Johnson and Liz Truss, accused of wrecking Northern Ireland’s place in the UKAll living former prime ministers, including two leaders accused of wrecking Northern Ireland’s place in the UK, have been invited to a gala dinner in Belfast to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday agreement.It is understood Boris Johnson and Liz Truss have both accepted the invitation to the event on Wednesday night. Continue reading...

Number of countries condemn 25-year prison sentence for Vladimir Kara-Murza for criticising the war in Ukraine as his wife criticises UK response

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Note saying ‘I don’t know if I killed them. Maybe I did’ also seen in Manchester trial of nurse accused of murdering seven babiesA nurse accused of murdering seven babies wrote their initials in her diary on the dates she is alleged to have attacked them, a court has been told.Jurors in the trial of Lucy Letby were shown images of her diary in which she had recorded the days on which some of her alleged victims died. Continue reading...

Former Scottish National party MP could face recall repetition if 30-day suspension goes aheadMargaret Ferrier is to appeal against a suspension from the Commons for breaking Covid rules that could lead to a possible byelection and a tight race between Labour and the SNP.The former Scottish National party MP, who now sits as an independent, has appealed to parliament’s independent expert panel to review her 30-day suspension from the House of Commons, a sanction that would trigger a recall petition in her Rutherglen and Hamilton West seat. Continue reading...

Fixture of up to six weeks for trial of Piran Ditta Khan could not be accommodated at Old Bailey this year, court toldA man accused of murdering PC Sharon Beshenivsky 18 years ago may not go on trial until next year.Piran Ditta Khan, 74, who was extradited from Pakistan, appeared at the Old Bailey by video link from Belmarsh high-security prison on Monday for the preliminary hearing before Judge Mark Lucraft KC. Continue reading...

Defamation trial threatens billionaire’s reputation – as well as ambition to reunite TV and newspaper empiresRupert Murdoch’s push to try to bury a landmark defamation case against Fox News aims to avoid further damage to his media empire’s reputation – and protect the 92-year-old from a gruelling court appearance as he formulates succession plans.Judge Eric M Davis moved on Sunday to delay the start of the $1.6bn (£1.3bn) defamation trial between Fox Corporation and Dominion, which has alleged Fox News repeatedly broadcast false claims that its voting machines were rigged, amid reports of a settlement. Continue reading...

Reported nomination of Matthew Elliott provokes complaints relating to funding of pro-Brexit campaignA House of Lords vetting body is facing pressure to reject Liz Truss’s proposed nomination for the former Vote Leave chief Matthew Elliot over critical findings relating to the funding of one of his pro-Brexit campaigns.The reported nomination by the former prime minister has provoked multiple complaints to the Lords appointments commission. Continue reading...

Thirst for ‘revenge’ travel after the Covid pandemic is driving return prices to almost $3,000 to some European cities, booking site says

No voters to constitutionally entrenched body remain at 40%, while Coalition leader Peter Dutton sees approval drop to 44%

Recipe follows coronation chicken and platinum pudding as suggested centrepiece for parties and eventsFrom coronation chicken to platinum pudding, royal occasions demand a signature dish and King Charles III’s coronation is no exception.The “coronation quiche” has been personally chosen by the king and Camilla, the Queen Consort, in the hope it will be a centrepiece to many a coronation “Big Lunch” at street parties and community events on 6 May. Continue reading...

Labour and Lib Dems voice concerns over MP’s role at Turning Point UK, a group linked to misogynist and anti-Islam viewsOpposition parties have called on the Conservatives to cut ties with a rightwing student group that has described drag artists as “groomers”, called UK schools “Maoist indoctrination camps” and held protests alongside an anti-Islam pastor.While Turning Point UK (TPUK) says it has no formal links to the party, a Conservative MP, Marco Longhi, is the group’s honorary president, and it has previously been praised by former ministers Priti Patel and Jacob Rees-Mogg, as well as the deputy party chair, Lee Anderson. Continue reading...

Weak sterling makes FTSE 250 firms ‘ripe for takeovers’ with John Wood Group and Network International also approached