World news | The Guardian

Osborne says the scheme, which closes Friday, ‘helped hundreds of thousands of families’, but critics argue it was ‘only a gimmick’George Osborne’s Help to Buy scheme officially shuts this Friday, a little over a decade after the then chancellor launched it with the aim of revitalising what was a sluggish UK property market.The scheme granted 375,654 interest-free equity loans for the purchase of new-build properties, according to the latest figures which cover until the end of last September, with 84% of applicants first-time buyers. On average they borrowed £63,000, on a typical purchase price of £273,500, with a total value of £23.6bn lent out. Continue reading...

‘What I have learned alarms me,’ says Labor’s Jo Haylen but she insists independent inquiry will not be a ‘witch-hunt’

Another construction firm specialising in government projects has gone into voluntary administration

Sydney radio star who dominated commercial airwaves in the 80s famously had his TV show Naughtiest Home Videos pulled off air after just 34 minutes

Independent state MP says ‘I didn’t think I’d still be subjected to homophobic abuse’ as Labor minister calls for apology

Parliament in Ankara passes bill allowing membership after second-to-last objector, Hungary, voted in favourTurkey’s parliament has approved a bill to allow Finland to join Nato, clearing the way for Helsinki to join the western defence alliance as war rages in Ukraine.The Turkish parliament was the last among the 30 members of the alliance to ratify Finland’s membership, after Hungary’s legislature approved a similar bill this week. Continue reading...

Questionnaire system at heart of effort to reduce backlog is ‘fundamentally flawed’, say immigration lawyersImmigration lawyers have accused the Home Office of building delays into a scheme meant to speed up decisions on 12,000 asylum claims.The plans announced last month to cut the asylum backlog – which now stands at a record 160,000 cases – by sending questionnaires to refugees requires claimants to reply in English within 20 working days or risk refusal. Continue reading...

Son says Jair Bolsonaro will lead opposition after return from self-imposed exile in USThree months after he left Brazil to avoid passing the presidential sash to his leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the former president Jair Bolsonaro has flown back to the South American country hoping to prove his political career is far from over.The far-right radical flew to the US on the eve of Lula’s 1 January inauguration and watched the historic transition of power from a rented villa near Disney World in Florida. It was from Florida, too, that Bolsonaro watched the 8 January assault on Brazil’s democratic institutions perpetrated by hardcore supporters seemingly bent on overthrowing Lula’s new government. Continue reading...

Doctors say 86-year-old has shown marked improvement and has been treated for bronchitisPope Francis has had a marked improvement in his health and could be discharged from hospital “in the next few days”, doctors treating the 86-year-old said on Thursday.The pontiff was taken to Gemelli hospital in Rome on Wednesday afternoon after complaining of breathing difficulties and chest pain in recent days. Continue reading...

Paper campaigned on behalf of Stephen Lawrence while using a private investigator to target his mother, says David Sherborne

Exclusive: Bosses of childcare firm part owned by PM’s wife were at No 11 reception hours after he was quizzed by MPs about linksBosses of the childcare firm at the centre of a Rishi Sunak conflict of interest row attended a Downing Street reception just hours after he was pressed by MPs over his links with the provider, the Guardian has learned.Koru Kids, which lists the prime minister’s wife, Akshata Murty, as a shareholder and is expected to benefit from changes announced in the budget, is understood to have been present at a No 11 reception for the education sector on Wednesday evening. Continue reading...

Alexei Moskalyov had been jailed for two years after investigation triggered by 13-year-old’s drawings

Actor tells Variety that working in comedy has grown increasingly difficult, as comedians now ‘not allowed’ to ‘make fun of life’“A whole generation of kids” now finds Friends offensive, said Jennifer Aniston, the actor who made her name in the smash-hit 90s sitcom.Speaking to Variety, Aniston said working in comedy had grown increasingly difficult, as comedians were now “not allowed” to “make fun of life”. Continue reading...

Detectives wait to learn whether firearm was used to kill father and son in separate shootings on WednesdayDetectives investigating the fatal shooting of a father and son in two Cambridgeshire villages are waiting to see if a gun recovered in the Midlands was the firearm used in both killings.Police believe a dispute between a “close network of people” – mostly likely over a child custody battle – ended in violence with the double shooting. Three people have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to murder. Continue reading...

Shares in turmoil as government’s plan seems to rule out North Yorkshire biomass plant from race for subsidiesThe energy company Drax will immediately enter talks with the government after a landmark energy strategy cast doubt over its £2bn carbon capture project and plunged the company’s share price into turmoil.The government’s wide-ranging plan to secure Britain’s energy supplies inadvertently raised questions over the future of one of the country’s biggest electricity generators after appearing to rule out the project to capture carbon emissions at the Drax biomass plant in North Yorkshire from the race for subsidies. Continue reading...

Valérie Pécresse claims that the Black US activist’s belief that racism is systemic does not apply to FranceA row has erupted in France after a rightwing politician insisted that a high school named after the Black US activist Angela Davis should change its name.Valérie Pécresse, who ran for president last year for Nicolas Sarkozy’s party, Les Républicains, scoring a humiliating 4.78%, is head of the greater Paris Île-de-France region. She told a committee this week that the university professor and former Black Panther’s belief that racism was systemic did not apply to France and was dangerous and divisive for French schoolchildren. Continue reading...

Parole Board decides Bronson, who has spent most of past 48 years behind bars, should not be releasedCharles Bronson, one of the UK’s longest-serving prisoners, will remain behind bars after being denied release by the Parole Board.The decision comes as Bronson, who changed his surname to Salvador in 2014, took part in one of the country’s first public parole hearings earlier this month. As well as being denied parole, Bronson was also unsuccessful in his request to be transferred to an open prison. Continue reading...

Merseyside gangs using submachine guns capable of firing 850 rounds a minute, say officersPolice have issued a stark warning about the increasingly deadly weapons circulating on Britain’s streets in the aftermath of the murder of Olivia Pratt-Korbel.Gangs in Merseyside are using battlefield submachine guns capable of firing 850 rounds a minute to target each other, and it will not be long before such weapons are as common in other areas, officers have warned. Continue reading...

Police investigating arson at Sunshine Coast property which was identified in online posts calling for retribution against three girls

Party leader says Labour would use windfall tax profits to stop rises in England, as local election campaign begins

Possibility of byelection in Rutherglen and Hamilton West after MP took train despite positive test in 2020

As sea crossings increase sharply amid racist violence, for some the dream has become just too dangerous

Decision affecting millions born in early 1970s unlikely to come before general election next autumn

Prosecutors seek compensation for workers on a cattle ranch owned by the German carmaker between 1973 and 1987Brazil is threatening to take the German carmaker Volkswagen to court over allegations that it used slave labour on a vast ranch in the Amazon, after talks on compensating workers ended without agreement.Public prosecutors in Brazil are seeking compensation for men who they say were forced to work in “humiliating and degrading” conditions, with no clean water or sanitation, on the Fazenda Vale do Rio Cristalino cattle ranch, which was owned by the company in the northern Pará state, between 1973 and 1987. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Auditors have warned debt-burdened firm relies heavily on guarantees provided by ownersA Russian-owned British auction house that has been the target of calls for a boycott has lost tens of millions of pounds in recent years and has been left in a parlous financial position, new records show.Phillips is heavily reliant on guarantees provided by the two founders of a Russian luxury retail group and has seen its debts mount up. Continue reading...

Report calls for 32-hour working week pilot across health service without any reductions in payMoving towards a four-day working week across the NHS could help tackle burnout and stem the exodus of exhausted health workers, campaigners argue in a new report.The 4 Day Week Campaign, which recently oversaw a successful pilot involving more than 60 companies, is now urging public sector employers to experiment with a shorter working week. Continue reading...

Union says educators are in ‘minefield’ after thinktank says some schools don’t tell parents when child first questions identityTeaching leaders have called on ministers to provide guidance on how to support students who identify as transgender, saying they are “caught in the crossfire” between strongly held views.A thinktank said safeguarding principles were being “routinely disregarded in many secondary schools” when it came to gender identity, with some parents not told when their child first questioned their identity.In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org, and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Parole board in South Africa to decide if Paralympian who murdered his girlfriend can leave jailOscar Pistorius, the South African Paralympian convicted of murder, could leave prison within weeks if a parole board decides on Friday to release him halfway through a 13-year sentence for killing his girlfriend.The parole hearing will take place in a prison in the administrative capital of Pretoria and the decision is likely to be the final chapter in a harrowing story that attracted worldwide attention. Continue reading...

Preventive detention regime is disproportionate to the threat of terrorism and makes us a ‘harsher society’, report says

Foreign minister warns of ‘limits to what diplomacy can achieve’ in efforts to bring Assange home

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Independent Alex Greenwich does ‘not intend to engage’ with One Nation MP’s comment aimed at him, but others spring to his defence

‘I felt like I was being told, “This is not your special day”,’ says 18-year-old of graduation ceremonyStrict rules on hairstyles at schools in Japan have attracted criticism after a mixed-race teenager was separated from other students at their graduation ceremony because he had plaited his hair into cornrows to pay tribute to his Black heritage.The male student with cornrows, who has not been named, was made to sit alone at the back of the hall during a graduation ceremony at his school in Himeji, western Japan, and told not to stand and respond when his name was called out. Continue reading...

Mark Dreyfus gives clearest details yet of how voice to parliament will work as words to alter constitution presented

Aviation giants look to agricultural waste in bid to cut emissions but experts say it is no panacea

Man mistakenly seen wielding ‘firearm’ in Rouse Hill before police discovered a water pipe allegedly in the shape of an assault rifle

Exclusive: group says military is compromising children’s right to education with its campaign against militantsEgyptian forces have taken over 37 schools and transformed them into military bases while dozens more have been destroyed during a 10-year war with militants in Sinai, a rights group has found in an initial assessment.In a months-long investigation shared with the Guardian before its official release, the UK-based Sinai Foundation for Human Rights (SFHR) accused the Egyptian armed forces of compromising the right to education of children during its campaign against militants in north Sinai. Continue reading...

Shamsuzzaman Shams was taken from his home at 4am and accused of spreading ‘false news’ over article about cost of living crisisBangladesh police on Wednesday charged a reporter from a leading newspaper with producing “false news”, stoking fears about media freedom, after an article about high food prices went viral.Shamsuzzaman Shams was picked up from his home in the industrial town of Savar just outside Dhaka at about 4am by plainclothes police, according to his newspaper, Prothom Alo. Continue reading...

Billionaire claims commonwealth liable for WA law, which prevented him seeking compensation for rejected mining project

Avengers star was left in a critical condition after his snowplough crushed him, but says ‘I’d do it again’ to save his nephewJeremy Renner is set to give his first interview since he was critically injured in a snowplough accident in January, telling journalist Diane Sawyer he was “awake through every moment” when the seven-tonne machine crushed him.Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview – A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph, will air in the US on ABC News on 6 April, ahead of the premiere of Renner’s new Disney+ series Rennervations. Continue reading...

Court rules whistleblowing laws do not protect acts committed while gathering evidence before speaking out as that would sanction ‘vigilante justice’

The Studio Ghibli adaptation, which is up for nine Olivier awards this weekend, will open in NovemberThe Barbican in London is to bring back the furry woodland spirits, mischievous soot sprites and grinning catbus of its smash hit My Neighbour Totoro. The adaptation of the much-loved Studio Ghibli animated film will return later this year after it broke records in 2022.The production, which received five-star reviews and is nominated in nine categories at the Olivier awards this weekend, will open on 21 November and run until 23 March. Continue reading...

Proposal for charge to stay overnight in commercially let accommodation will be put to SeneddThe Welsh government is to press ahead with plans for a visitor levy on tourists who stay in the country overnight.Legislation allowing local authorities to introduce a levy will be put to the Senedd, the Welsh parliament, within this government’s term. Some tourism organisations have criticised the plan, calling it a misguided “bed tax” that risks discouraging people from visiting. Continue reading...

Rebels say crossings should be stopped by end of 2023 while ministers are unhappy about camps in their constituenciesThe government has pledged to move asylum seekers into disused military bases with the minimum living conditions allowed under international law, but has come under pressure from ministers whose constituencies would host the camps.Rebel Conservative backbenchers warned that they expected Rishi Sunak’s pledge to stop small boat crossings to be fulfilled by the end of the year, a timetable rejected by Downing Street and one that could potentially lead to an internal split. Continue reading...

Former lawyer Emma Walters to face court next week after allegedly trying to acquire a firearm, police say

This Morning presenter provides written statement to trial of Timothy Schofield, 54, at Exeter crown courtPhillip Schofield’s brother told the This Morning host that he had watched pornography and taken part in sexual acts with a teenage boy, a court has heard.Timothy Schofield, 54, phoned the presenter “in an agitated and upset state” before admitting what he had done with the boy, Exeter crown court heard on Wednesday. Continue reading...

UN refugee agency representative warns that legislation could have ‘domino effect’ on other countries

Avon and Somerset police refer themselves to IOPC after fatal assault on 86-year-old in SomersetA man is being held in a secure mental health unit after an 86-year-old woman died in an attack at her cottage in a Somerset village.Avon and Somerset police have referred themselves to the police watchdog with regards to the action they took after a missing person report hours before the fatal assault. Continue reading...

MP Julian Knight, who has always denied any wrongdoing, says he is facing a ‘witch-hunt’, and that whips’ office ‘acted disgracefully’MP Julian Knight said he is facing a “witch-hunt” after his call for restoration of the Tory whip was rejected over “further complaints” made against him.The Conservative party said on Wednesday that it would not restore the whip to Knight after police dropped an investigation into an allegation of serious sexual assault against him. Continue reading...

Associated Newspapers lawyers argue key witness’s ‘retraction’ reason to dismiss phone hacking allegationsPrince Harry’s case against the owner of the Daily Mail depends on an alleged confession from an unreliable private investigator who has recanted his evidence, according to the publisher’s lawyers.The royal alleges that Associated Newspapers, the parent company of the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday, made widespread use of illegal information-gathering tactics including phone hacking, landline interception and the blagging of personal information. Continue reading...