World news | The Guardian

After a fatal crowd crush at the London venue in December, the BBC has spoken to a guard who says hundreds were let in for cashA security guard at London’s O2 Academy Brixton, which has been closed since a fatal crowd crush occurred at the venue in mid-December, has alleged in a BBC report that other guards regularly took bribes to let people in without tickets.Rebecca Ikumelo, 33, and security guard Gaby Hutchinson, 23, both died after a show by Afrobeats star Asake on 15 December, with several more injured.This article was updated on 17 January 2023 to reflect that there were 157 security guards present on the night of the Asake show, not 158, as a spokesperson for the Brixton Academy previously said. Continue reading...

Italian investigators discover designer clothes and expensive shoes inside ‘normal’ two-storey buildingThe mafia boss Matteo Messina Denaro, one of the world’s most-wanted criminals who had spent 30 years on the run, lived in a modest apartment in western Sicily in his final months as a free man, Italian investigators said.Denaro, 60, who was apprehended as he came out of a well-known private clinic in Palermo, lived in a small apartment inside a two-storey yellow building in the centre of the town of Campobello di Mazara, in the province of Trapani, in the heart of his territory. Continue reading...

Britain’s car industry relies on petrol or diesel vehicles – and every failure to be part of the electric revolution makes it more exposed

Met Office warns of up to 15cm of snow in some areas as public urged not to travel due to treacherous conditionsHeavy snow could cause power cuts and road closures in parts of the UK as the country is hit by freezing weather that has caused widescale disruption.The Met Office issued a number of yellow and amber weather warnings for snow and ice on Tuesday, with Scotland expected to be the worst hit. Continue reading...

Nicola Sturgeon says her government will ‘vigorously defend’ legislation by seeking judicial review of decision

Broadcaster presented morning show on Radio 2 and joins Bauer station’s Greatest Hits RadioThe broadcaster Ken Bruce is to leave the BBC after more than four decades – 31 of those years spent presenting his morning show on Radio 2.Bruce will join the Bauer station Greatest Hits Radio in April, where he will present a new mid-morning show in the 10am to 1pm slot. The broadcaster revealed the news himself on his BBC show on Tuesday morning. Continue reading...

Aslef says latest offer is ‘clearly unacceptable’ but signals willingness to resume talksTrain drivers represented by both the Aslef and RMT unions are to stage fresh strikes on 1 and 3 February in the long-running dispute over jobs, pay and conditions.The strikes are expected to halt most train services across 14 train operating companies, including intercity and commuter routes. Continue reading...

Democracy and capitalism hang in balance as UK faces huge challenges, leader of Commons tells thinktank

Exclusive: Hornsby mayor was a cabinet minister in Howard government when it introduced the tax in 2000

Key independent MP calls for a $100 daily limit as Coalition comes under pressure to release details of its cashless gaming card

Company blames falling sales, contract delays and delivery disruption in latest of a number of missed financial targetsThe struggling online shopping group THG has said its profits will disappoint for the third time in a year, blaming delivery disruption, contract delays and falling sales at one of its key divisions.The company, formerly known as The Hut Group, said the profit downgrade was because of lengthier “onboarding” of new contracts at Ingenuity, its unit that helps retailers sell their products online, plus demand for THG’s own online beauty ranges being hit by courier disruption over Christmas. Continue reading...

Andrey Medvedev told the Guardian he had seen summary executions of mercenary group’s Russian fighters

Recruitment will get harder and it will be a very tough spring if UK ministers persist in facing down the unionsNo doubt nurses and teachers will be even more determined to strike later this week when they see how the pay gap between the public and private sectors persists in the latest official figures.The Office for National Statistics said private sector pay increased by 7.2%, before adjusting for inflation, while the equivalent figure for the public sector was a meagre rise of 3.3% in the three months to the end of November. Continue reading...

Police officer admitted 49 charges, including 24 counts of rape against 12 women over 18-year periodPC David Carrick has been sacked from the Metropolitan police for gross misconduct.Carrick, 48, who was suspended from the force and held in custody after he was arrested for rape in October 2021, did not attend the hearing in Earl’s Court, west London, which lasted an hour and 45 minutes. Continue reading...

Nguyen Xuan Phuc has ‘submitted resignation from assigned positions, quit job and retired’, say reportsVietnam’s president has resigned after days of rumours he was about to be sacked as part of an anti-corruption drive that has led to several ministers being fired, according to state media reports.Nguyen Xuan Phuc has “submitted his resignation from his assigned positions, quit his job and retired”, the VNA said. Continue reading...

Federal government says aim is to help Ukrainian fighters ‘gain the military skills needed to defend their homeland’

Gillian Keegan says she is not contradicting Rishi Sunak over decision to block Scottish gender recognition bill

Amiens mayor wants singer to lend Jérôme-Martin Langlois painting after it went missing in first world warWhat do the singer Madonna and Amiens in northern France have in common? Not a lot, says the city’s mayor, Brigitte Fouré, who admits the global star has probably never heard of the city until now.However, Fouré insists there is a “special link” between the two in the shape of an early 19th-century painting that once hung in the Amiens museum until it was lost without trace during the first world war. Continue reading...

Video purportedly shows 26-year-old editor, who accuses police of forcing her and friends to sign blank arrest warrantsA Chinese woman has accused police of forcing her and friends to sign blank arrest warrants and detaining them in secret locations over their attendance at a protest vigil in Beijing last year.A video, purported to be of Cao Zhixin, a 26-year-old editor at Peking University Press, began spreading online on Monday. In it, Cao said she and five friends attended a riverside vigil in Beijing on 27 November, to mourn the victims of a building fire in Urumqi. The fire had been linked to the enforcement of China’s strict zero-Covid policy and became a catalyst for vigils and protests. Continue reading...

Vera Baird questions force’s commitment to culture change after elite officer revealed as serial rapist

St Mary’s Cathedral dean says thousands of mourners from Australia and overseas are expected to attend requiem mass on 2 February

Gillian Keegan ‘extremely disappointed’ in decision to strike and stops short of promising pay reviewThe education secretary said she was willing to talk to teachers about money but stopped short of promising to review pay, as teachers in England and Wales announced seven days of strike action over February and March.Gillian Keegan, who will meet teaching unions on Tuesday, said she was “extremely disappointed” in the decision to strike but said the government was prepared to talk to teachers about the challenges faced by the profession. Continue reading...

The former airline pilot allegedly murdered Melbourne couple Russell Hill and Carol Clay before setting fire to their campsite, according to court documents

Alleged plotters planned to attack president during visit to north-east France in 2018, say prosecutorsMembers of a far-right group are to go on trial in Paris on Tuesday accused of plotting to assassinate Emmanuel Macron as part of an attempted coup.Prosecutors say members of a group called Les Barjols planned to attack the president with a knife during an official visit to north-east France in November 2018. Continue reading...

Tania Mihailuk, who quit ALP in 2022, now says she’s worried state would go ‘woke and broke’ under a Labor government

Assessment of risk ‘unacceptable’ and ‘critical opportunities’ to correct errors were missed, says reportA “psychopathic” and racist criminal murdered three children and his pregnant partner after a series of failings within the Probation Service, a damning report by a watchdog has found.The chief inspector of probation, Justin Russell, said the organisation’s assessment and supervision of Damien Bendall was of an “unacceptable standard” at every stage and “critical opportunities” to correct errors were missed. Continue reading...

Labor cannot specify exactly how the body would work in future as it would be subject to the government of the day, expert group members say

Exclusive: Some legal figures have raised concerns about message his appointment sends in light of Beijing’s crackdown on freedom in Hong Kong

Study finds significant differences between prices of cheapest food and those of items acceptable in real everyday livesThe first study to use real shopping lists to track the impact of the cost of living crisis on family budgets in Scotland has uncovered a “dignity gap” between the cheapest products and what families actually want to eat.Nourish Scotland’s report, which launches on Tuesday, tracks the affordability and accessibility of a weekly shop for different-sized families who are at highest risk of food insecurity, including a single-parent family and a larger family unit with three children. Continue reading...

Commander claims ‘trying and failing to democratise’ country can jeopardise national security, just over a month after hotly contested electionsFiji’s military chief has warned MPs against making “sweeping changes”, less than a month after contested elections that removed the government of Frank Bainimarama, who ruled the Pacific island for 16 years after taking power in a coup.Under Fiji’s constitution – adopted in 2013 – the military has wide powers to intervene in politics. The new government – under the control of prime minister Sitiveni Rabuka – has said that reviewing the constitution is one of its immediate priorities. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Charities and activists call on PM to follow through on pledge to allow families to resettle in UKMore than 100 charities and activists are calling on the prime minister to facilitate the resettlement of family members of thousands of Afghans who came to the UK under a government scheme.The government pledged to resettle family members in the UK but at the moment there is no mechanism for them to do this. Campaigners have accused the government of abandoning Afghans in danger who were promised the right to reunite with family members in the UK. Continue reading...

Justice system in England and Wales failing rising number of inmates locked up without conviction, says committeeThe criminal justice system is failing the ever rising number of remand prisoners in England and Wales, which is at its highest level for 50 years, MPs have warned.The House of Commons justice committee says the increase, and rise in length of time spent on remand, has been fuelled by the backlog in the courts and insufficient community provision for people with vulnerabilities. Continue reading...

Opposition says policy is in response to large increase in speeding fines caused by removal of warning signs

The economy grew 3% in 2022, exceeding some forecasts, but still well below China’s official target for the yearChina’s GDP expanded at its slowest pace since the mid-1970s bar the Covid-hit 2020 year, as the world’s second-largest economy struggled under tight pandemic restrictions that were abruptly ditched late in 2022.The economy grew 3% last year, well shy of the 5.5% pace the government had targeted at the start of the year and the 8.1% recorded for 2021. The actual rate though, was better than the 2.7% predicted by the World Bank earlier this month. Continue reading...

Participant in BusyBeans program told the disability royal commission the training left her with a ‘broken life’

Shift marks the start of a long period of population decline as China wrestles with demographic time bombChina has entered an “era of negative population growth”, after figures revealed a historic drop in the number of people for the first time since 1961.The country had 1.41175 billion people at the end of 2022, compared with 1.41260 billion a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday, a drop of 850,000. It marked the beginning of what is expected to be a long period of population decline, despite major government efforts to reverse the trend. Continue reading...

Changes limiting access to key documents were made without consultation and only publicly revealed last week

Prices have gone up $100 per tonne in some markets as Victoria and South Australia reduce the area cut for hay by up to 50%

Move comes after fan displays Russian flag during Kamilla Rakhimova’s first-round match against Ukraine’s Kateryna Baindl on Monday

Anju Khatiwada joined Yeti Airlines in 2010, four years after her husband died while piloting a plane for the same airlineThe co-pilot of the Yeti Airlines flight that crashed on Sunday in Nepal was the widow of a pilot who flew for the same airline, and also died in a plane crash 16 years ago.In 2010, Anju Khatiwada joined Yeti Airlines, following in the footsteps of her husband. Dipak Pokhrel also flew for the Nepali airline, but died when a small passenger plane he was flying went down minutes before landing. Continue reading...

Indigenous representatives celebrate decision not to replace law with police move-on powers

Charities and non-profit bodies urge Jeremy Hunt to introduce discount tariff from April 2024Jeremy Hunt is facing calls for a “social energy tariff” providing cheaper gas and electricity for low income households to be introduced when government support ends next year.In an open letter to the chancellor, 95 charities and non-profit organisations have urged the government to move quickly to legislate for a change in energy bills for “those in greatest need to ensure they are able to live in their homes comfortably”. Continue reading...

UK medicines watchdog advises GPs to ‘taper’ doses for patients who want to stop taking the drugsGPs whose patients want to stop taking antidepressants should reduce the dose of their medication in stages to lower the risk and severity of withdrawal symptoms, the medicines watchdog has said.About one in six (16%) adult Britons experience moderate to severe depression, according to the Office for National Statistics. In England alone, 21.4m antidepressant drugs were prescribed between July and September 2022, according to the NHS Business Services Authority. Continue reading...

Census data analysis shows growth of ‘rainbow’ towns and cities, as more people live with neighbours of different backgroundsEthnic segregation in England and Wales is on the wane as more people live alongside neighbours of different backgrounds, creating “rainbow” towns and cities, research reveals.Neighbourhood diversity more than doubled nationally between 2001 and 2021, with huge transformations in some places. There was close to a tenfold increase in diversity in Boston, Lincolnshire, albeit from a low base; Barking and Dagenham recorded a ninefold increase, while diversity in Watford and Reading increased fourfold. Continue reading...

Almost half of the children surveyed by Oxford University Press chose ‘Queen’ as their top word, with ‘happy’ and ‘chaos’ in second and third place“Queen” has been chosen by young people as the Oxford children’s word of the year for 2022.Almost half of children surveyed by Oxford University Press (OUP) chose “Queen” as their word of the year. In second place was “happy”, chosen by 36% of children, with “chaos” coming in third with 14% of the vote. Continue reading...

Rebel Tories drop amendment after ministers agree to make managers criminally liable for persistent breaches of duty of careTech executives whose platforms persistently fail to protect children from online harm will face criminal charges after ministers reached a deal with Conservative backbenchers.Rishi Sunak was facing the prospect of defeat in a Commons vote on Tuesday after a rebel amendment to the online safety bill won opposition support. However, supporters have now withdrawn the amendment after the government agreed to change the legislation. Continue reading...

The NSW senator had a long military career, including serving as major general in the Australian army, before turning to politics

Angela Rayner claims people in certain job categories could lose the right to withdraw their labour under Tory plansRishi Sunak’s new anti-strike laws would prevent certain job holders from ever being able to take industrial action, Labour’s deputy leader said during fiery exchanges in the House of Commons.Angela Rayner promised on Monday that Labour would repeal the government’s anti-strikes bill, saying it was one of the most “indefensible and foolish pieces of legislation to come before this House in modern times”. Continue reading...

More than 20 injured in incident involving a truck, after 40 died in two-bus collision in Kaffrine regionA collision between a truck and a bus in northern Senegal has killed 22 people, firefighters have said, a week after a crash between two buses left 40 people dead.More than 20 people were injured in the latest accident, which occurred on Monday near Sakal in the Louga region, Papa Ange Michel Diatta, a colonel with the national firefighting service, told AFP. Amadou Ba, the country’s prime minister, visited the site, pledging to enforce new rules of the road. Continue reading...