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PC Fabian Aguilar-Delgado allegedly ‘groped’ defendant after call to deal with domestic incident in CroydonAn on-duty Metropolitan police officer sexually assaulted a woman at home after a call to deal with a domestic incident, a court has heard.Southwark crown court, south London, heard the alleged assault occurred after PC Fabian Aguilar-Delgado, 40, offered to search her house in Croydon for her abusive ex-partner while his colleague was in the car outside. Continue reading...

Negotiations are in crucial final phase with Rishi Sunak preparing to hold calls with EU leadersNegotiations over the Northern Ireland protocol are in the crucial final phase with a deal possible as early as next week, according to multiple sources.Rishi Sunak is expected to spend the latter half of the parliamentary recess this week looking at the shape of the deal, with calls pencilled in with EU leaders. However, UK sources stressed that talks were at a delicate phase and there was no guarantee of a final agreement. Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed, you can read more of our UK political coverage hereThe Guardian’s deputy political editor Jessica Elgot believes it is unlikely that Rishi Sunak will label China a “strategic threat”, after increased pressure to do so by his backbench MPs.Here is her take on the prime minister’s options and what he is likely to say and do next on the issue.As I cannot guarantee that, as was provisionally hoped to be the case, that the core participants will receive almost all the disclosure to which they are entitled by mid-March, I must invite you to consider putting back the provisional start date of May to early June.In the general scheme of your inquiry, this is a fairly modest adjournment application. Continue reading...

The survivors, including two teenagers, were saved as rescue teams look to next phase of aidSeven more people have been rescued eight days after a massive earthquake hit Turkey and Syria, but hopes of finding further survivors of what the World Health Organization called the worst natural disaster in 100 years in its 53-country Europe region are dwindling.As a UN aid convoy entered stricken north-west Syria through a new crossing, the combined death toll rose to nearly 38,000, including 31,974 in Turkey and at least 5,714 in rebel-held and government-controlled Syria – a figure that is expected to continue rising. Continue reading...

Joby Pool used a stolen tractor to tow away the chocolate and is expected to be imprisoned for about two yearsA chocolate thief is facing jail after admitting he stole almost 200,000 Cadbury Creme Eggs in a heist worth more than £31,000.Joby Pool, 32, dubbed “the Easter bunny” by police, used a stolen lorry cab to make off with chocolate after breaking into a Telford industrial unit with a metal grinder on Saturday. Continue reading...

Only 15 schemes reassessed by expert roads review panel under ‘world-leading’ policy will go aheadDozens of road building projects across Wales have been halted or amended as part of a “groundbreaking” policy that reassessed more than 50 schemes against a series of tough tests on their impact on the climate emergency.Only 15 of the projects reviewed by an expert roads review panel will go ahead in their original form, with others scaled back, postponed or in some cases shelved. Continue reading...

A former and a current officer accused of failing to properly investigate claims against Couzens, who went on to murder Sarah EverardA former Metropolitan police officer is to face a gross misconduct hearing for allegedly failing to properly investigate indecent exposure allegations against Wayne Couzens, made days before he murdered Sarah Everard, the police watchdog has said.The former Met officer is also facing claims over misleading testimony given to investigators and is one of two people to face action over alleged missed chances to identify Couzens as a suspected sex offender before he went looking for a woman to attack in March 2021. The Met said the constable resigned in 2022 while under investigation. Continue reading...

Officers looking at transphobia alongside other lines of inquiry as vigils planned across UKPolice investigating the killing of Brianna Ghey, a 16-year-old girl who was found with fatal stab wounds in a Warrington park on Saturday, have said they have not ruled out the possibility it was a transphobic hate crime.Brianna, who was trans, was found lying with the wounds in Culcheth Linear Park on Saturday afternoon. Police have arrested two 15-year-olds, a boy and a girl from the area, on suspicion of murder. Continue reading...

Iraq war demonstration ignited a campaigning passion for some, but others were left disillusionedTwenty years ago, Louise Barter took a coach up to London to attend her first demonstration. As she took her place in the ocean of protesters stretching from Embankment to Hyde Park on that cold Saturday, she was participating in the biggest political protest in UK history. It changed her life.Now a trade union organiser, Barter, 48, credits her politicisation to the historic 2003 Stop the War demo, when an estimated 1.5 million people took to London’s streets. She remembers joining the rally with a woman she met on the coach from Hampshire who had not protested since the Vietnam war. “She said, I can’t believe we’re doing this again! I was really quite green to all of this,” Barter says. “There was a sea of people, and lots of different groups with slightly different reasons for being there. Though there were far-left groups, it felt like there were lots of normal people – not just really political people.” Continue reading...

The toxin clostridium botulinum was in his body when he died in 1973, days after Chile’s military coupOne of the most enduring mysteries in modern Chilean history may finally have been solved after forensic experts determined that the Nobel prize-winning Chilean poet Pablo Neruda died after being poisoned with a powerful toxin, apparently confirming decades of suspicions that he was murdered.According to the official version, Neruda – who made his name as a young poet with the collection Twenty Poems of Love and a Song of Despair – died from prostate cancer and malnutrition on 23 September 1973, just 12 days after the military coup that overthrew the democratically elected socialist government of his friend, President Salvador Allende. Continue reading...

Five-year-old Jinan now in hospital with serious leg injury; her brother had only scratches while the rest of their family diedOmar Rahal heard a voice coming from the rubble, so faint that he struggled to understand if it might only be in his head. The previous night, two earthquakes of magnitude 7.8 and 7.6 had levelled his village, Harem, in the rebel-held province of Idlib in Syria, flattening dozens of buildings including the block of flats where his cousin Mahmoud lived with his wife and their seven children.A few hours later, Rahal, the local police chief, rushed into the rubble of the house in the hope of finding Mahmoud and his family alive. All morning he heard no signs of life, but at 12.30pm his ears picked up five words spoken by what sounded like a little girl: “Get me out of here.” Continue reading...

First relief housing units arrive in Hatay province, Amazon sends food and blankets and Allianz donates €6mThe Ikea Foundation has sent 5,000 flatpack shelters to southern Turkey and northern Syria to house people left homeless by the earthquake last week, as companies around the world pledge help.The Swedish homeware multinational’s philanthropy arm said on Tuesday it had donated €10m (£8.8m) to the NGO Better Shelter, with which it developed the robust, award-winning 17.5 sq metre shelters that fit in two boxes and can be assembled without tools. Continue reading...

Cairo Winitana was holidaying with his Sydney family at the Club Wyndham Denarau Island resort

Exhibitions for Paris-born sculptor, the pioneering Russian painter and ‘one of the greatest living artists’ are all headed for Australia this summer

Landmark case arguing the excise is unconstitutional could have an impact on how states raise revenue

Demonstrators gathered in Westminster after reports Erkin Tuniyaz was to meet UK officialsIain Duncan Smith has accused the Chinese governor of Xinjiang of murder as he joined Uyghur activists protesting against his reported visit to Britain.Demonstrators gathered outside the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) on Monday after it emerged that Erkin Tuniyaz, the chairman of the Xinjiang Uyghur autonomous region, could meet UK officials, a scenario Duncan Smith branded “unacceptable”. Tuniyaz was expected to come to the UK this week, according to the reports, with some speculating he has already arrived. Continue reading...

Police took no action after Couzens exposed himself three times before he went on to murder Sarah EverardPolice missed clear chances to identify Wayne Couzens as a potential sex offender and a danger to women before he kidnapped and murdered Sarah Everard, it can finally be revealed.He exposed himself three times, with witnesses recording either full registration details of vehicles he used, or partial details. But police took no action, leaving Couzens to continue as a serving Metropolitan police officer entrusted with a gun. Continue reading...

ONS analysis shows sector accounts for more than one in 10 of job ads posted online in DecemberJob vacancies in the UK have reached a near-record level, due largely to the shortage of nurses, carers and other healthcare staff.According to analysis by the Office for National Statistics, more than one in 10 job vacancies posted online in December were in healthcare – more than in any other sector. The statistics agency said healthcare was the job category with the highest share of adverts in almost 90% of local authorities in the UK. Continue reading...

PM’s spokesperson also says prime minister was not involved in hotel choices following reports on ministerial spendingThe government will do “whatever it takes” to keep the UK safe from the threat of spy balloons, the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has said.Asked whether such spying devices had been seen in UK airspace, Sunak told broadcasters:I want people to know that we will do whatever it takes to keep the country safe.We have something called the quick reaction alert force which involves Typhoon planes, which are kept on 24/7 readiness to police our airspace, which is incredibly important.As I said, I wouldn’t comment in detail on security matters but people should be reassured that we have all the capabilities in place to keep the country safe.He’s running! Humbled and grateful to be overwhelmingly selected today by local party members as Scottish Labour’s candidate for East Lothian.Change is coming to our country and I’m determined to play my part by winning East Lothian back for Scottish Labour. Continue reading...

Judge rules caseworker interpreted eligibility criteria too narrowly for eight claimants who are in hidingEight former BBC journalists who had their applications to relocate from Afghanistan to the UK rejected are expecting their cases to be reconsidered after they successfully challenged the rationale behind the refusals at the high court.In a judgment handed down on Monday, Mr Justice Lane said the decisions had been made on an incorrect basis and, but for the error, there was a “more than fanciful prospect of a different outcome”. Continue reading...

Marco Goecke allegedly confronted Wiebke Hüster at Hanover State Opera, furious at her verdict on a previous showThe director of a leading German ballet company has been suspended from his post and is being investigated by police after allegedly smearing a critic’s face with his dog’s excrement at the premiere of his new show after she described one of his productions as “boring” and “disjointed”.Marco Goecke, the head of Hanover State Opera’s ballet company, has also been barred from the opera house, a spokesperson confirmed on Monday afternoon, after he confronted Wiebke Hüster, the ballet critic of Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), in the interval of his latest show on Sunday night. Continue reading...

Buxton Museum returned entire collection of Native American and First Nation artefacts to their original communitiesWhen Taa.uu ‘Yuuwans Nika Collison first opened the email from Buxton Museum, she was, she says, “sort of in shock”.Collison is a member of the Haida nation, the Indigenous inhabitants of a remote archipelago called Haida Gwaii off the very far north-west coast of Canada. For 25 years she and others had been lobbying museums and collectors around the world to return items made by her people back to their homeland, often with very little success. Here was a curator from a small town in Derbyshire she had never heard of, saying it had some Haida items in its collection, and it wanted to send them back. Continue reading...

Salvation Army and other groups say without more resources potential victims could slip through the netFears are mounting that modern slavery survivors could be left at risk of retrafficking within the UK due to a lack of resources to support them, charities are warning.The Salvation Army says it has taken an “unprecedented emergency measure” to suspend accepting referrals of potential victims, while other charities doing similar work say the system appears to be at breaking point. Continue reading...

Independent commission reaches conclusion after hearing evidence from over 500 survivors last yearCatholic clergy in Portugal have abused nearly 5,000 children since 1950, an independent commission said on Monday after hearing hundreds of survivors’ accounts.Thousands of reports of paedophilia within the church have surfaced around the world, and Pope Francis is under pressure to tackle the scandal. Continue reading...

Jindalee radar system detects airborne objects from ‘very long range’, while missile from F-35 jet more effective than laser for striking one

Further rate rises, Reserve Bank strategy, transparency and whether to extend Lowe’s term are likely to come under scrutiny

Incident is third time the centre has had criminal damage in recent yearsBirmingham LGBT centre has been attacked with homophobic abuse, the third time it has suffered criminal damage in recent years.Last week staff arrived at the centre to find the words “dirty bastards” were scratched on to the front door, and cannot be removed unless the door is replaced. Staff have covered it with a rainbow flag until it can be replaced. Continue reading...

Spokesperson says US overreacting and claims it has made at least 10 airspace incursions since start of 2022China’s foreign ministry has accused the US of flying high-altitude balloons over its airspace more than 10 times since the beginning of last year, as the dispute over surveillance between the two countries continues.A spokesperson told foreign reporters at a regular press briefing in Beijing that it was “not uncommon” for the US to go into other countries’ airspace, claiming they were aware of at least 10 incursions over China, but gave few other details. Continue reading...

‘When we take command of our first boat, we will have sovereign capability’, says Vice Admiral Jonathan Mead

Relief for bushfire-affected towns expected from Tuesday, when storms in the afternoon could ease the fire burden

More than 5.4m passengers travelled through airport in January, double the 2.6m from 2022Heathrow airport had its busiest start to the year since before the coronavirus pandemic lockdowns in 2020 as travel restrictions continued to ease, according to data published on Monday.More than 5.4 million passengers travelled through the UK’s and Europe’s busiest airport in January, double the 2.6 million from 2022, Heathrow said in a statement to the London Stock Exchange. Continue reading...

Security cabinet announces recognition of areas built without Israeli authorisation after series of attacks in East JerusalemIsrael’s security cabinet has announced that it will authorise nine settlements in the occupied West Bank after a series of attacks in East Jerusalem, including one that killed three Israelis.“In response to the murderous terrorist attacks in Jerusalem, the security cabinet decided unanimously to authorise nine communities in Judea and Samaria,” the office of the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said in a statement on Sunday that included the name Israel uses for the West Bank. Continue reading...

Police say no evidence so far that death of 16-year-old trans girl in Warrington park was hate relatedA boy and girl, both aged 15, have been arrested on suspicion of murder after the fatal stabbing of 16-year-old Brianna Ghey in a park in Warrington, Cheshire police have said.Ghey was a transgender girl, but a Cheshire police spokesperson said “there is nothing to suggest that this has any relevance at all to the murder”. Continue reading...

The home affairs department’s lapse meant Nauru was not approved for immigration processing for four months

This blog is now closed. Follow our next Australia news live blog here when it launches

Pakistan prime minister says he’s ‘deeply moved’ after Pakistani businessman living in US makes donation at Turkish embassyA US resident from Pakistan has anonymously donated $30m to victims of the earthquake that recently killed thousands of people in Turkey and Syria and devastated the countries’ infrastructure, according to officials.Word of the Pakistani businessman’s kindness has provided a rare instance of uplifting news amid the mounting death and damage toll associated with the calamity.Reuters contributed to this report. Continue reading...

Ministers and police commissioner will attend community forum in Toowoomba as high profile youth crimes put Palaszczuk government under pressure

Basic documents in case brought by defence whistleblower Damien De Pyle against commonwealth temporarily suppressed

Indigenous man claims he was repeatedly abused as a teenager by three staff members in case lawyer says reflects how centre ‘was operating at that time’

Bed-bound Kathleen Poole, 74, who lives in a dementia care home, has been unable to complete required paperworkA 74-year-old British woman with severe Alzheimer’s has been threatened with deportation from Sweden over Brexit paperwork she was unable to complete because of her incapacitation.Kathleen Poole lies bedridden in a dementia care home with no prospect of moving. Her family have told the Guardian that she is facing forced removal to the UK because she has not got an up-to-date passport and financial statements required under the new post-Brexit rules applying to British people in the EU. Continue reading...

Trust surprised by 39% slump in silk and wool-loving insect after bumper year in 2021 and think hot weather may have contributedAn alarming increase in the population of clothes moths in National Trust (NT) properties appears to be in retreat, with a dramatic plunge in numbers of the pests in 2022.The trust, which monitors the presence of insect pests each year, said it was surprised by the findings of its 2022 survey. Overall insect counts fell by 3% compared with 2021, but the presence of Tineola bisselliella slumped by 39%. Continue reading...

Employees and Lloyds Bank among creditors, after liquidation of firm that benefited from pandemic aid devised by husbandRishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, invested in a furniture firm that received nearly £300,000 in taxpayer-funded loans handed out under policies he put in place while chancellor.The New Craftsmen, whose upmarket range included a £7,340 mirror and a £2,220 table lamp, collapsed into liquidation in November 2022, according to Companies House filings. Continue reading...

Experts are expected to give conflicting evidence on newly identified genetic variants and her diaries used at trial

Worst of the storm could coincide with Monday’s midnight high tide, with people in some coastal communities and low-lying areas urged to leaveNew Zealand prime minister Chris Hipkins has warned the worst is yet to come as Cyclone Gabrielle sparks evacuations, rising flood waters and power outages across the North Island.“Things are likely to get worse before they get better,” Hipkins said. “Extreme weather event has come on the back of extreme weather event.” Continue reading...

Severe weather warnings in place as damaging storm causes wind gusts up to 160km/h

Fiji resort spokesperson said the girl has died in a ‘tragic accident’ but could not yet comment on the cause of death

One week on from deadly earthquakes vital aid is being held up by disputes between government and rebel groups, as well as wider diplomatic quarrelsThe US has called on all parties on the ground in Syria to immediately grant humanitarian assistance to those in need, after last week’s earthquake and major aftershocks that have killed at least 33,000 people.“All humanitarian assistance must be permitted to move through all border crossings,” a spokesperson for the White House national security council said on Sunday. Continue reading...

Opposition leader says he ‘failed to grasp’ significance of 2008 apology but insists those questioning Indigenous voice are not ‘hardhearted’

The former Liberal minister turned independent says his case will ‘serve as a reminder of why a person is innocent until proven otherwise’