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Steve Hartshorn says making his personal views public is an act of ‘leadership’, after damning Casey reportThe head of the Police Federation of England and Wales has said the Metropolitan police is institutionally racist, misogynistic and homophobic, becoming the first leader of a major British policing institution to accept the findings of a devastating report last month.In an interview with the Guardian marking the 30th anniversary of Stephen Lawrence’s murder, Steve Hartshorn said he expected a “backlash” for his comments, which he stressed were his personal view. Continue reading...

Beattie said he would step back with immediate effect and was cooperating fully with police investigationPMQs is starting in five minutes.The Cabinet Office has just published the revised list of ministers’ interests. This is the document that is supposed get updated every six months, but which has not been updated for around a year – partly because it’s the job of the No 10 independent adviser on ministes’ interests (aka, the ethics adviser), and for months the post was empty because two of Boris Johnson’s resigned, and then he gave up trying to find a replacement.The prime minister’s wife is a venture capital investor. She owns a venture capital investment company, Catamaran Ventures UK Limited, and a number of direct shareholdings.As the prime minister set out in his letter to the chair of the liaison committee on 4 April 2023, this includes the minority shareholding that his wife has in relation to the company, Koru Kids. The guide to the categories of interest (section 7, pages 4-6) sets out the independent adviser’s approach to the inclusion of interests declared in relation to spouses, partners and close family members within the list. The prime minister’s letter of 4 April is available at https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/38992/documents/191876/default/ Continue reading...

London court hears men separately removed nipple and penis of man accused of being ringleader of body modification conspiracyTwo men have admitted removing body parts of a man who is accused of carrying out castrations and broadcasting the footage on his “eunuch maker” website.Nathan Arnold, 48, a nurse from South Kensington, west London, admitted the partial removal of Marius Gustavson’s nipple in the summer of 2019. Continue reading...

President tours rural France in attempt to calm tensions over his unpopular pensions changesEmmanuel Macron has said that banging saucepans at him will not move France forward, as about 100 protesters bashing pots were pushed back by police when the French president visited a factory in Alsace in an attempt to contain anger over raising the pension age from 62 to 64.Members of the CGT and CFDT trade unions had gathered in front of the mayor’s office in the village of Muttersholtz on Wednesday, where Macron began a series of visits to rural France to try to calm tensions over his unpopular pensions changes. Continue reading...

Michael O’Leary says Brexit is ‘unbelievably messy’ and a ‘net negative’ on the British economyThe boss of Ryanair, Michael O’Leary, has launched a fresh attack on Brexit, describing it as “unbelievably messy” and predicting the UK would end up signing a Norway-style deal with the EU in the next 10 to 15 years under which it would pay into the bloc’s budget.The outspoken chief executive of the Irish budget airline said over the next three to five years, the UK’s departure from the EU would be “net negative on the UK economy, no question about it”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Brook House staff physically prevented asylum seekers awaiting deportation from taking own livesAsylum seekers awaiting deportation at a detention centre were physically prevented from taking their own lives or self-harming on 18 occasions last year, detailed official accounts show.Staff at Brook House immigration removal centre near Gatwick airport used physical force to prevent suicide and self-harm attempts, according to documents released under freedom of information laws. Continue reading...

National security experts express concern over resumed construction of a Chinese station which could be used for intelligence operations

Intelligence agency wants government security clearance system ‘hardened’ to protect sensitive information

Justices expected to issue an order on Wednesday in case from anti-abortioners seeking to roll back approval of mifepristoneThe US supreme court is deciding whether women will face restrictions in getting a drug used in the most common method of abortion, while a lawsuit continues.The justices are expected to issue an order on Wednesday in a fast-moving case from Texas in which abortion opponents are seeking to roll back Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of the drug, mifepristone. Continue reading...

United States is distant third, with estimated population of 340 million people by end of June, finds UN reportIndia is expected to overtake China as the world’s most populous country with almost 3 million more people by the middle of this year, according to UN figures.The State of World Population 2023 report by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates India’s population will be 1.4286 billion by the end of June, compared with China’s 1.4257 billion. Continue reading...

First full review for decades recommends raft of changes, including splitting the board into two to enable more focus on how interest rates are decided

Labour leader accuses Rishi Sunak of having ‘lost control of court service’, while Sunak says Starmer was ‘soft on crime’ as DPP

Den was built for levelling up secretary after he was heckled in street and targeted by terroristMichael Gove has been taking his smoking breaks in a special hut built for him on the roof of his departmental office, after he was stalked by a terrorist and heckled in the street.The taxpayer-funded smoking den was built specifically for Gove shortly after he was appointed levelling up secretary in October 2021 and he was heckled by anti-lockdown protesters. Continue reading...

Sabeur Trabelsi, 44, accused of punching Jason Page in 2020 after chasing him down over stolen meatA Marks & Spencer security guard killed a homeless man with a “knockout blow” to his head after chasing him down over a suspicion he had stolen some meat, a jury has heard.Sabeur Trabelsi is accused of lying to police about the incident, claiming Jason Page fell over because he was drunk. Prosecutors told jurors at Reading crown court that Page, who died the next day from a bleed on the brain, fell after Trabelsi punched him. Continue reading...

Judge says Tesco’s Clubcard Prices design infringes trademark of rival supermarketTesco may have to stop using a blue and yellow logo to promote its Clubcard loyalty scheme after the high court found it had copied a design by Lidl.The judge found Tesco had infringed Lidl’s trademark and was guilty of “passing off” in misleading shoppers into thinking that products under the Clubcard Prices scheme are offered at the same or lower prices as those in Lidl. Continue reading...

Takeaway delivery group reports 14% drop in orders and 8% fall in sales in first quarter of 2023The takeaway delivery group Just Eat has announced plans to buy back up to €150m (£132m) of shares from investors weeks after cutting 1,700 couriers in the UK as part of a plan to scrap guaranteed minimum wage and paid holiday.The company announced the share buyback plan alongside data showing a 14% drop in orders and an 8% slide in sales in the first three months of the year. Takeaway sales have fallen back after demand soared during the pandemic. Continue reading...

Alain Robert climbs 38-storey building with no harness to ‘tell Macron to come back down to earth’A free climber known as the “French Spiderman” has scaled a 38-storey skyscraper in Paris to demonstrate his support for protesters angry about a pension law that will delay the age at which people can retire in France.Alain Robert, 60, climbs without a harness, using only his bare hands and a pair of climbing shoes. Continue reading...

Director of Changfeng hospital among those detained after deadliest fire in China’s capital since 2002Chinese authorities said on Wednesday they had detained a dozen people over a hospital fire in Beijing that left at least 29 dead and forced desperate survivors to jump out of windows to escape.The fire, which broke out on Tuesday afternoon at the Changfeng hospital in China’s capital, killed mostly patients, and left scores of other people injured. Continue reading...

Tony Danker claims he has been made ‘the fall guy’, while Brian McBride accuses him of being selective over exitThe crisis at the scandal-hit Confederation of British Industry has burst into open conflict, as its recently sacked director general and current president argued over the grounds for his dismissal.In separate interviews broadcast on Wednesday morning, Tony Danker – who was dismissed earlier this month as head of the CBI after allegations about his workplace conduct – said his reputation had “been totally destroyed”, while its president, Brian McBride, accused Danker of being “selective” in his account of his departure. Continue reading...

Board says company is experiencing a ‘significant and rapid deterioration in operating conditions’

Bus and coach passengers could lose right to compensation if UK does not actively ‘save’ lawPassengers taking bus and coach trips to the continent stand to lose their right to compensation for delays in Dover under government plans to delete thousands of EU laws.Legislation specifically designed to offer redress for those on trips of longer than 250km (155 miles) has been omitted from a government list of more than 3,700 laws that risk being scrapped or changed under the controversial retained EU law bill. Continue reading...

Some managed to escape from multi-storey building by fashioning bedsheets into makeshift ropesA fire at a hospital in Beijing has killed at least 29 people and forced dozens to evacuate, a Chinese government official has said.As clouds of black smoke billowed into the sky late on Tuesday, people trapped in the multi-storey building apparently tied bedsheets into makeshift ropes and escaped by climbing out of windows, as seen in videos circulating on social media. Continue reading...

Adam Bandt says ALP not progressive and is ‘making economic decisions Scott Morrison would have been proud of’

Research by Labour shows 4.5 million in England went to A&E last year due to lack of GP appointmentsKeir Starmer has said the NHS is “broken” and he believes the future of the health service is in jeopardy under the Conservatives.The Labour leader accused the Tories of presiding over a “cycle of decline” as new research by his party shows that nearly a fifth of patients in England, which equates to 4.5 million people, went to A&E last year because they were unable to get a GP appointment. Continue reading...

Labor downplays delivering on women’s taskforce wishlist all at once but promises to ‘build upon’ investments in future budgets

Portrayed as a Cameronite liberal, Sunak is in fact deeply conservative on everything from trans rights to refugeesIt was one of the many strange quirks of the summer Tory leadership contest: that Liz Truss captured the mantle of the true blue Conservative while Rishi Sunak found himself painted as a wet, Cameronite liberal.But in the past five months of his premiership, that portrayal of Sunak has started to become laughable. He is perhaps the most socially conservative prime minister of his generation, more so than Truss, Boris Johnson or even Theresa May. Continue reading...

British songwriting awards also acknowledge Florence + the Machine, Wet Leg, Central Cee and moreHarry Styles, Little Simz, and Arctic Monkeys’ Alex Turner are among the 72 nominees for this year’s Ivor Novello awards, which honour the best in British and Irish songwriting.At three apiece, the most nominations are given to Harry Styles and his co-writer Kid Harpoon after the huge success of Styles’ third studio album Harry’s House; and to Cleo Sol and Dean “Inflo” Josiah Cover, for their work with rapper Little Simz and soul collective Sault.

Five of eight toilets broke down on Austrian Airlines flight carrying 300 people from Vienna to New YorkAn Austrian Airlines plane had to return two hours into a flight from Vienna to New York after five of its eight toilets broke down.About 300 people were onboard Monday’s eight-hour, Boeing 777 flight. The crew decided to turn around after finding a technical problem was preventing the toilets from flushing properly, a spokesperson for the airline told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday. Continue reading...

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...