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UK nationals outnumber Germans for first time, as post-pandemic rebound helps Greek economy to grow by 5.6% in 2022UK travellers are leading an extraordinary rebound in tourism to Greece with arrivals up by 181% last year, according to the country’s central bank.Almost 4.5 million Britons were registered at Greek entry points, a record number and nearly 3 million more than in 2021. Continue reading...

Home Builders Federation warns planning policy changes will result in government meeting less than half its annual targetHousebuilding in England is due to fall to its lowest level since the second world war, according to an analysis by the Home Builders Federation (HBF), owing to a range of government policies that threaten to dramatically slow development.The study says the supply of new housing is likely to fall below 120,000 homes annually over the coming years, less than half of the government’s target, as a result of changes to planning policy and what developers say is over-strict enforcement of environmental regulations. Continue reading...

PM’s toughest political test comes amid plummeting interest in Brexit and elaborate parliamentary intrigueFor a Brexit-minded MP, the parallels may seem striking: an electorally embattled prime minister trying to push through a controversial Northern Ireland deal in the face of Tory and Democratic Unionist party (DUP) scepticism. But one thing has changed: this is 2023, not 2019.Theresa May’s struggles with Brexit, and her tumbling popularity with voters, led to her being forced out as prime minister by Conservative backbenchers. While no one would dispute that Rishi Sunak faces perhaps his toughest-ever political test, the stakes for him are, if not necessarily lower, then perhaps different. Continue reading...

New rules also cover transgender women ‘with their male genitalia intact’, says Dominic RaabRules barring some transgender women from female prisons in England and Wales are to come into force on Monday, the justice secretary has announced.Dominic Raab had already announced in October that trans women with male genitalia or who had committed sexual offences would not be allowed in women’s prisons. Continue reading...

Russian leader’s comments on state TV channel follow first anniversary of invasion of Ukraine

Vladimir Putin accuses west of wanting to liquidate Russia; US president Biden says China negotiating peace deal ‘not rational’

Dance company project enables parents to find a community of likeminded people in the areaIt’s Friday afternoon and there’s a casting for a new show at Leeds Playhouse. Dancers are asked to do the usual light choreography and improvisation tasks, but unlike most auditions there are regular breaks for nappy changes and breastfeeding.Contemporary dance company balletLORENT has encouraged parents and their children – aged between three weeks and four years old – to try out for its new multi-generational production of Rapunzel, to take place across two dates in April. The programme is looking to recruit three paid professional dancers to perform alongside their tots. Continue reading...

‘The world is ready,’ says campaign after 56 out of 61 firms in trial extend policyThe organisers of the world’s largest trial of the four-day working week have launched a drive to persuade more companies to try the idea, after receiving global coverage.The 4 Day Week Campaign said it aimed to persuade hundreds more companies to adopt the four-day week – crucially with no loss of pay for workers – after the six-month trial concluded this month. Autonomy, a thinktank supporting the campaign, said it would help companies in the transition during a national rollout programme. Continue reading...

Exclusive: research shows universal credit allowance far below cost of food, energy and essentials

Charities say figure of £120 a week – at least £35 more than universal credit allowance – is at stringent end of spectrumHow much is just enough to get by? According to new research, it is £120 a week. After housing costs, that is the bare minimum required for an unemployed single adult in the UK to eat regularly, heat their home, have the odd shower, take the odd bus trip, use a mobile phone, and, well, not do too much else.If you are one of Monty Python’s four Yorkshiremen or a certain kind of backbench Conservative MP, £120 a week will seem an absurd luxury. If you are a poverty researcher, on the other hand, it’s a relatively modest sum that offers a big upgrade on current benefit levels while only scratching the surface of the UK’s “deep poverty” problem. Continue reading...

Ben says he is ‘fairly privileged’, as for many it is no longer a question of heating or eating because they cannot afford either

Fast-tracking development in the Macarthur region will give Sydney a massive new infrastructure challenge

Practice of taking over people’s homes should be included in an overhaul of the Modern Slavery Act, say MPs“Cuckooing” in the homes of vulnerable people by drug gangs should become a criminal offence, according to a call from the Centre for Social Justice (CSJ) thinktank which has gathered cross-party backing.Labour MP Jess Phillips and the former Conservative leader Iain Duncan Smith are leading calls for the practice – which was spotlighted in the BBC series Happy Valley – to be criminalised as part of an overhaul of the 2015 Modern Slavery Act. Continue reading...

Italian restaurants are forced to replace classic dishes with ‘white’ versions as cost of their staple ingredient soarsGet ready for tomato-less pasta sauce and white pizza. Italian restaurants across Britain are having to ration tomatoes, increase prices and in some cases remove the pomodoro from their menus entirely as costs soar.The price of tomatoes has increased as much as fourfold in the past year, from £5 a case to £20 a case, according to the Federazione Italian Cuochi UK (FIC UK), a chefs’ association. Continue reading...

John McDonnell among former shadow cabinet members contradicting pacifist message

March follows Kais Saied’s allegation that undocumented sub-Saharan migrants were part of plot to change country’s cultureHundreds of people in Tunisia’s capital took to the streets on Saturday to protest over the president’s anti-migrant clampdown.On Tuesday, amid wider moves against his critics, President Kais Saied accused undocumented sub-Saharan migrants of being part of a plot to change the country’s character, bringing longstanding racial tensions to the surface. Continue reading...

Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation says services barred on Google amid rise in wagering adverts and Sportsbet’s partnership with TikTok

Key strategists say military needs to focus on maritime and long-range strike capabilities to defend Australia’s interests across a wider region

Meta says it removed ads for failing to state they were sponsored by an initiative of British American Tobacco Australia

Former US marine’s segregated, maximum security imprisonment is unjustified and causing severe psychological distress, wife says

The former chair of the supermarket chain was a big donor to Blair and Brown but cut off his support under CorbynKeir Starmer’s election war chest has been given an extraordinary boost after one of the biggest New Labour-era donors returned to the party fold with a £2m donation, the Observer can reveal.David Sainsbury, who was consistently one of the largest donors under the last Labour government before withdrawing his support, has now renewed his backing with his first multimillion-pound donation since 2016. Continue reading...

Figure has surged over the past 10 years with pressure growing for officers to be sacked on the spotShocking figures obtained by the Observer show roughly one in 100 police officers in England and Wales faced criminal charges, including for sexual offences, last year alone.An Observerinvestigation has found that the Police Federation, the staff association for police officers, received 1,387 claims for legal support from members facing criminal charges in 2022. Continue reading...

Son of missing Laurel Aldridge has announced on Facebook that his mother’s body has been foundPolice searching for Laurel Aldridge, sister-in-law of actor Mackenzie Crook, have found a body.Aldridge, 62, was reported missing from her home in the village of Walberton, near Arundel in West Sussex, on 14 February and was last seen at Slindon Cricket Club about two and a half miles away. Continue reading...

Comments from French president come after Joe Biden said it was ‘not rational’ for Beijing to be negotiating a peace deal

Vote largely peaceful in Africa’s largest economy but half of polling stations opened late due to technical issuesPolls have shut in Nigeria, after tens of millions cast their votes to decide a tight and unpredictable contest for the presidency and parliament of Africa’s most populous nation and its biggest economy.The opening of more than half of all polling stations was delayed by at least an hour with many others suffering problems with new voting technology, civil society groups said. There was some sporadic violence across the country, including a suspected attack by Islamic extremists and some disruption by hired thugs. Continue reading...

Email blunder sparks inquiry into New Issues Group’s ‘collaboration with Islamophobes’A secretive organisation accused of collaborating with far-right activists has been operating out of the House of Lords for more than a decade, a cache of leaked documents suggests.The organisation, called the New Issues Group (NIG), includes the former Ukip leader Malcolm Pearson and the Tory former deputy speaker of the House of Lords Baroness Cox. Continue reading...

The Story of Flanders, spanning 38,000 years of the region’s history, is funded by the nationalist government and is accused of stretching the truthIt is blockbuster TV, with Romans and Vikings, knights and Neanderthals, trains and the trenches of the first world war – and a hefty dose of political controversy.The Story of Flanders, a 10-part history series airing in Belgium’s northern region until March, has been a cultural landmark. But the apparently lavish funding from the region’s government, run by the separatist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) party, which seeks to make Flanders independent from Belgium, has led to accusations of propaganda. Continue reading...

Around 2,000 inmates transferred on Friday as part of president’s crime crackdownEl Salvador’s government has moved thousands of suspected gang members to a newly opened “megaprison”, the latest step in a controversial crackdown on crime that has caused the Central American nation’s prison population to soar.“This will be their new home, where they won’t be able to do any more harm to the population,” the president, Nayib Bukele, wrote on Twitter. Continue reading...

Mother of Joanna Brown, who was bludgeoned to death by husband Robert, says she ‘fears for women’The family of a woman murdered by her husband, who is due to walk free later this year, has called on Dominic Raab to review his release.Robert Brown, a British Airways captain, bludgeoned his wife, Joanna, 46, to death with a claw hammer at their family home in Ascot, Berkshire, in October 2010. Continue reading...

Discovery comes after tugboat, believed to have crew of two, capsized while towing cruise shipDivers involved in an underwater search after a tugboat capsized have recovered two bodies.Police Scotland has confirmed the bodies of two men were recovered off Custom House Quay at about 1.40pm on Saturday. Continue reading...

Researchers have found a racial bias by match officials in the country’s top league, but say it could be linked to crowd pressureReferees in Italy’s top football league give more yellow and red cards to Black and darker-skinned players than to their light-skinned teammates, research shows.Officials in Serie A awarded an average of 20% more fouls per season against darker-skinned players from 2009 to 2019, with 11% more yellow cards and 16% more red cards. Continue reading...

Meeting between Charles and Ursula von de Leyen cancelled, reports say, as Varadkar says deal ‘inching towards conclusion’Rishi Sunak is facing criticism after reports that a meeting between King Charles and the president of the European Commission was cancelled days before the announcement of an expected deal on the Northern Ireland protocol.According to reports, there had been plans for an in-person meeting between the king and Ursula von der Leyen, as part of a trip to the UK to seal the deal on the Brexit trading arrangements. Continue reading...

Energy prices, Brexit and climate crisis mean growers lack confidence to plant crops, says NFU deputyShortages of some fresh fruit and vegetables such as tomatoes and cucumbers could be the “tip of the iceberg”, the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) has said.Certain products are hard to come by in UK supermarkets due to poor weather reducing the harvest in Europe and north Africa, Brexit rules and lower supplies from UK and Dutch producers hit by the jump in energy bills to heat glasshouses. Continue reading...

Police say man in his 20s died after car carrying three people went through railings into river in Bedminster areaA man in his 20s has died after a car entered a river in Bristol.Avon and Somerset police were called to York Road in the Bedminster area of the city at about 1.30am on Saturday. The force said a vehicle, with three people inside, had gone through railings and into the River Avon. Continue reading...

Conversation with Francis Bacon emerges amid the row over updating controversial language in the children’s author’s booksOne of Roald Dahl’s best-known characters was the Enormous Crocodile, “a horrid greedy grumptious brute” who “wants to eat something juicy and delicious”.Now a conversation the author had 40 years ago has come to light, revealing that he was so appalled by the idea that publishers might one day censor his work that he threatened to send the crocodile “to gobble them up”. Continue reading...

Dressed in open-necked shirt and jeans, premier joins 12,500 paraders on original route of Oxford StreetAmid the rainbow tulle, sequins and sparkles of Sydney’s 45th Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras parade emerged the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, in a simple open-necked shirt and jeans.Albanese is the first sitting prime minister to join the parade, which celebrates and continues to push for equality for the LGBTQIA+ community. Continue reading...

Arctic mammal that drew crowds in Hampshire, North Yorkshire and Northumberland is spotted 850 miles further northA walrus that drew crowds when spotted on the south and east coasts of England appears to have arrived in Iceland.The arctic mammal appeared in Hampshire in December before spending new year in Scarborough and then heading 70 miles further north to the Royal Northumberland Yacht Club in Blyth. Continue reading...

The tech giant is carrying adverts styled to look like real internet search results for women seeking pregnancy adviceWomen seeking online advice about abortions are being directed to pregnancy counselling services run by anti-abortion campaigners, an Observer investigation has found.Google adverts that are styled to look like real search results and appear above genuine listings are routinely being shown to people searching key terms relating to pregnancy and abortion. Continue reading...

Not too late for Jeremy Hunt to ‘end the political obsession of regulation, high taxes and interference with business’ in spring budgetFormer home secretary Priti Patel has called on the chancellor to reverse plans for a rise in corporation tax for big businesses.Jeremy Hunt is due to give his spring budget on 15 March, a day being targeted by transport and civil service unions for strikes, with corporation tax set to rise from 19% to 25% in April. Continue reading...

PM has been deeply involved in Northern Ireland protocol talks and must now face a possible Tory backlashRishi Sunak has found out the hard way what it is like to become embroiled in the cycle of the Brexit forever wars. Despite desperate attempts to keep his party in line, a row that plagued his predecessors is at risk of erupting again over a reworking of the Northern Ireland protocol which he hopes to announce next week.The wariness of some in government was betrayed by the foreign secretary, James Cleverly, who told a group of journalists at the start of the week – when momentum towards getting a deal on the protocol appeared to be stalling – that it would be announced at some point between “now and the end of time”. Continue reading...

About 3,000 tickets to be made available to people displaced by war so they can attend live shows in LiverpoolThousands of tickets for the Eurovision song contest are to be allocated to Ukrainians who have fled to the UK.The international music show will take place at the M&S Bank Arena Liverpool in May after the city was chosen to host the competition on behalf of the 2022 winner, Ukraine, which is unable to host the event after the Russian invasion. Continue reading...

Defence secretary Ben Wallace says much delayed project to build 589 of the vehicles has turned a cornerThe “troubled” £5.5bn programme to build the British army’s new Ajax fighting vehicle has turned a corner, the defence secretary has said.Better seat cushions and ear defenders are among improvements being hailed by Ben Wallace. Continue reading...

Developer amends Ralli Quays plans after criticism that right of way was being ‘sacrificed for private gain’A developer has scrapped plans to divert a 300-year-old riverside footpath through a hotel lobby after public outcry that a right of way was being “stolen” and “sacrificed for private gain”.Salford council came under huge public pressure last year after councillors granted planning permission to Legal & General (L&G) to close a towpath by the River Irwell to make way for an office complex and a 16-storey, 260-bed hotel. Continue reading...

The ethical label has become mainstream, and is thriving despite the rising cost of livingFairtrade tea, coffee and chocolate was once the mainstay of church hall fetes and upmarket delis but is now popping up in supermarket value ranges as the demand for affordable and sustainable groceries goes mainstream.Marks & Spencer, the Co-op and Waitrose are among the high street names whose budget ranges include the ethical label, making it possible for shoppers to make a “small switch” when shopping during Fairtrade Fortnight, which starts on Monday. Continue reading...

Only two of thousands of PFAS are regulated, while the EU is already contemplating stricter standards

Sydney Opera House among buildings lit up with Ukraine’s national colours amid vigils to mark year since Russia’s invasion. This blog is now closed

Hundreds of thousands of people expected to line the parade’s famous route, which last ran along the street in 2020 due to Covid

Ukrainian president shows steel and emotion in marathon press conference, as Joe Biden says having China as peacemaker is ‘just not rational’

Health minister Yvette D’Ath says state will introduce pill testing at mobile and fixed sites following success of trials in Canberra