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Anugrah Abraham’s family allege he faced bullying and discrimination before he killed himselfThe police watchdog has launched an investigation into allegations that a student police officer in West Yorkshire was bullied before his death.Anugrah Abraham, known as Anu, was on a placement with West Yorkshire police as part of his three-year apprenticeship degree at Leeds Trinity University. His family alleged he faced bullying, discrimination and a lack of support during his first on-the-ground placement at Halifax police station.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 counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Historic move was driven by concern over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

ScottishPower, British Gas and E.ON alleged government’s decision-making process was ‘flawed’The biggest UK state bailout since 2008 will move ahead after justices threw out a high court challenge to the government’s sale of the collapsed energy firm Bulb.Three big energy suppliers – ScottishPower, British Gas and E.ON – had hoped to upend the £3bn deal to sell Bulb to rival Octopus Energy by calling for a judicial review. Continue reading...

Max Woosey, 13, is looking forward to being known as ‘more than the boy in the tent’ after raising huge sum for local hospiceWhen he began his camping adventure, Max Woosey imagined he would spend a few weeks sleeping in his new tent and raise a few hundred pounds for a good cause.Three years on, after surviving fierce winds, sub-zero temperatures and an awful lot of rain, 13-year-old Max’s efforts have earned more than three-quarters of a million pounds for a hospice and given him unexpected fame – but he has finally decided it is time to put a solid roof back over his head and clamber into a proper bed. Continue reading...

Precipitation has made western US very cold and wet, with one ski lodge declaring snowiest season on recordOver recent months there has been a recurring theme in weather news about how wet and unsettled western parts of the US have been, particularly in the normally sunny state of California.This has been caused by frequent atmospheric rivers funnelling into western North America, and a recent analysis by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography found that over the course of this water year (1 October 2022 to 30 September 2023) 31 atmospheric river events have affected the west coast so far. Continue reading...

Average property drops 3.1% to £257,122 over year to March, says Nationwide

Sixteen-year-olds taken into custody in connection with assault on 73-year-old man in Kings HeathTwo teenage boys have been arrested on suspicion of attacking a 73-year-old man as he walked home from a mosque in Birmingham.The 16-year-olds were taken into custody for questioning in connection with the “appalling” assault in the Kings Heath area of the city on Wednesday night, West Midlands police said. Continue reading...

ACC Liverpool admits long queues at M&S Bank Arena led to problems for people coming to Jamie Webster gigCrowd congestion at the Liverpool venue due to host the Eurovision song contest later this year was not acceptable, its operator has reportedly admitted.ACC Liverpool, which runs the M&S Bank Arena in the city, acknowledged that people had been left in extremely long queues for the bars and toilets, which in turn caused problems for people trying to get into the venue for the sold-out Jamie Webster concert. The congestion got so bad that some fans complained one area felt unsafe, the BBC reported. Continue reading...

Attorney general declines to comment on calls for commissioner Lorraine Finlay to consider her future in the role

Shareholders at Sydney AGM say remuneration excessive for a financial institution that has dramatically shrunk in recent years

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...