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Ryde becomes most marginal electorate in NSW after Liberal candidate Jordan Lane wins by just 50 votes

More than 50 early years staff without work after Merseyside service closed days after one-day strikeA group of early years workers who lost their jobs without warning days after a one-day strike have called on others in the sector to “stand up and be counted”.More than 50 staff, thought to be the first group of early years workers to have their union recognised in England, were put out of work, leaving 200 families scrambling to find childcare, when the Orchard nursery in Huyton, Merseyside, closed suddenly. Continue reading...

The witness statements were collected during more than 300 hours of interviews with refugees as part of a now discontinued pro bono class action

‘Combat readiness’ exercises come after Taiwan president Tsai Ing-wen met US house speaker Kevin McCarthy this week, angering Beijing

US Justice Department launches probe into possible leak of classified military papers; WSJ reporter Evan Gershkovich charged with espionage in Russia but denies accusationThe US Justice Department has launched an investigation into the possible release of Pentagon documents that were posted on several social media sites including Twitter and appear to detail US and Nato aid to Ukraine, but may have been altered or used as part of a misinformation campaign. Associated Press reported that the documents were labelled secret and resembled routine updates the US military would produce daily. Reuters reported three unnamed US officials said Russia or pro-Russian elements were likely behind the leak and that the documents provided a month-old snapshot of the war and appeared to have been doctored to play down Russian losses.Three civilians were killed and 17 wounded over the past 24 hours in Russian artillery, missile and aerial attacks on 114 settlements in nine regions, the Ukrainian defence ministry said on Friday. Authorities in Russian-controlled areas of eastern Ukraine said seven civilians were killed on Thursday in two Ukrainian artillery strikes. Both sides deny targeting civilians.Russian Federal Security Service investigators formally charged Evan Gershkovich with espionage but the Wall Street Journal reporter denied the charges and said he was working as a journalist, Russian news agencies reported on Friday. Gershkovich is the first American journalist detained in Russia on espionage charges since the end of the cold war.The Ukrainian military said it had downed a Russian Su-25 ground attack jet near Marinka. A video showed a big explosion as the plane slammed into the ground, with its pilot descending on a parachute. The Russian military did not confirm the plane’s downing, AP reported.Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has threatened to abandon a landmark grain deal with Ukraine if obstacles to Moscow’s exports remained. The agreement last July allows Ukraine to export grain through a safe corridor in the Black Sea. “If there is no further progress in removing barriers to the export of Russian fertilisers and grain, we will think about whether this deal is necessary,” Lavrov told a news conference in Ankara alongside his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, on Friday.Ukraine can resume exporting electricity after a six-month gap, given the success of repairs carried out after repeated Russian attacks, the energy minister, Herman Halushchenko, said on Friday. Last October, Ukraine halted exports of electricity to the European Union – its main export market for energy since the war began – following Russia strikes on energy infrastructure. “The most difficult winter has passed,” Halushchenko said.Ukraine has said Russia is concentrating all its efforts on capturing the eastern city of Bakhmut, where it described the situation as “difficult” but said it was holding out. The UK Ministry of Defence said earlier that Russian forces had “highly likely” advanced into Bakhmut’s town centre and seized the west bank of the Bakhmutka River, severely threatening Ukraine’s key supply route to the west.Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday criticised Russia’s treatment of the Muslim-minority Tatar community in Kremlin-controlled Crimea and vowed to recapture the peninsula from Russia during a first official state iftar. Speaking outside the centre of the capital, Zelenskiy announced Ukraine was beginning a new tradition of hosting an official iftar, the meal breaking the daily fast during the month of Ramadan.

Ex-president has told aides to hire failed congressional candidate and anti-Muslim campaigner, New York Times reportsDonald Trump has told aides to hire the far-right anti-Muslim activist and failed congressional candidate Laura Loomer for a role in his campaign to return to the White House in 2024, the New York Times has reported.Citing four anonymous sources, the Times noted that Loomer, 29, attended Trump’s speech at Mar-a-Lago in Florida on Tuesday night, an angry rant delivered hours after the former president pleaded not guilty to 34 felony charges in New York over hush money payments, including to the porn star Stormy Daniels. Continue reading...

Foreign minister says Russia rejects a ‘unipolar world order led by one hegemon’. This blog is now closed

Death toll may rise as many people are still missing after attack in northern-central Benue stateForty-six bodies have been found after gunmen attacked a rural village in central northern Nigeria, local government officials said, the latest in a series of deadly assaults in the region.The attack happened on Wednesday in Umogidi in Benue state, where tit-for-tat clashes are common between nomadic herders and settled farmers competing for land and resources. Continue reading...

UAE accused of non-cooperation by South Africa after court rules against extraditing tycoons Atul and Rajesh GuptaSouth Africa said on Friday it had learned with “shock and dismay” that the United Arab Emirates had turned down its request to extradite two brothers accused of orchestrating industrial-scale corruption.The justice minister, Ronald Lamola, bluntly accused the UAE of “non-cooperation” after being informed late on Thursday of a court ruling against extraditing the tycoons Atul and Rajesh Gupta. Continue reading...

Labour is pouring resources into Rutherglen and Hamilton for expected contest that could be ‘tipping point in Scottish politics’It was a small but deliberate act by Humza Yousaf, Scotland’s new first minister, a politician increasingly keen to distance himself from Nicola Sturgeon and one with a keen eye for symbolism.On Thursday, for his first briefing with Holyrood’s political correspondents at Bute House, the first minister’s elegant Georgian townhouse in Edinburgh, settees had been placed in a circle in the drawing room. Gone were the regimented ranks of chairs used by Sturgeon; gone was her lectern facing the room. Yousaf provided Tunnock’s chocolate wafers, tea and coffee. This, reporters were told before they sank into the sofas, was a fireside chat. Continue reading...

Retailers continue to encourage sugar consumption while paying lip service to healthy eating, report saysUK supermarkets have been accused of encouraging people to consume more sugar, despite the huge concern about its significant role in causing obesity, rotten teeth and type 2 diabetes.Food campaigners claim supermarkets are doing little to reduce the amount of sugar they sell across their product ranges and are misleading people about how much they are doing to tackle obesity. Continue reading...

Classified papers said to contain details of military aid and battalion strengths before potential Ukrainian counteroffensive

Board of treasurers’ submission to employment white paper taskforce suggests making training flexible and promoting regional jobs

Far-right mayor claimed Lima institution peddled false narrative of 1980-2000 conflict in which guerrillas and army killed 70,000It was supposed to be a museum of memories: a place of dialogue and reconciliation where Peruvians could commemorate the victims of a brutal internecine conflict which killed tens of thousands of people in the 1980s and 1990s.Since its controversial inception in 2015, the Place of Memory, Tolerance and Social Inclusion has received about 60,000 visitors a year. Continue reading...

Wave of thunderstorms and tornadoes over the past few weeks resulted in deaths of 63 peopleSevere tornadoes hit the US this week, with at least seven reported on Tuesday in Illinois, while on Wednesday morning a powerful tornado tore through south-eastern Missouri causing widespread damage and at least five deaths in Bollinger County.According to the National Weather Service, the Missouri tornado lasted about 15 minutes with winds reaching peaks of 130mph. A wave of thunderstorms and tornadoes in the US over the past few weeks have resulted in the deaths of at least 63 people. Continue reading...

New rules require birds to be tested and certified for five diseases before they can travel between UK and EUCute fluffy yellow plumes may be synonymous with Easter, but bird hobbyists have warned that a rare canary species bred for centuries in Britain may become a thing of the past because of Brexit.Access to the birds, particularly in the Netherlands and Belgium where canary and budgie breeding is also popular, has been lethally impeded by new rules. Each bird now has to be tested and certified for five diseases before it can travel between the UK and the EU. Continue reading...

Researcher say making scan at 36-37 weeks routine may also cut risk of severe complications for babiesGiving women a third scan at the end of their pregnancy could dramatically reduce the number of unexpected breech births and the risk of babies being born with severe health problems, research suggests.Pregnant women in the UK have routine scans at 12 and 20 weeks only, with no further scan offered in the third trimester unless they are considered at risk of a complicated pregnancy. The researchers hope their findings could lead to a change in guidance for clinicians that will improve maternity care. Continue reading...

Minister confirms education department documents breached after third-party file transfer service was hacked

Social worker who was run over by her own car outside Sheffield home described as ‘beautiful soul’The family of a “warm, loving and dedicated” social worker have spoken of their grief after a 12-year-old boy was arrested on suspicion of her murder.Marcia Grant, 60, died after she was run over by her own car outside her home in the Woodhills area of Sheffield at about 7.10pm on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Embarrassing incidents expose how existing policy allows secrecy, obfuscation and sell-offsThe policy on the receipt of gifts by the royal family was drawn up in 1995 and most recently updated in 2003. It is less a set of rules and more a policy or set of guidelines about how the family should behave. Continue reading...

Palace insists horses given to late queen, including 34 from emir of Dubai, were ‘personal gifts’King Charles III and his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, appear to have made almost £2m from the sale of horses that were gifts from prominent figures.The Guardian has identified more than 40 horses that were apparently given to the queen by a Dubai sheikh, a Muslim religious leader and a Saudi royal. Continue reading...

Call for review to have statutory powers to make witnesses give evidence after only 11 of 14,000 come forward

Project aims to help save molluscs after fall in numbers caused by habitat loss, pollution, the climate crisis and human exploitationHundreds of young freshwater pearl mussels – one of the UK’s rarest aquatic creatures – are to be released into a river at a secret spot in north Wales this summer as part of a project to save the molluscs from extinction.The juvenile mussels have been bred at a hatchery in the Brecon Beacons, in the south of the country, and will be carefully moved to the river in Gwynedd after it was restored to create the sort of conditions they are able to thrive in. Continue reading...

US thinktank and Reagan Foundation targeted, as well as Taiwan’s de facto ambassador to the US, in row over President Tsai Ing-wen’s trip

Brisbane detectives believe Lesley Trotter has died, and ‘have not ruled out’ potential neighbourhood dispute

Anti-corruption watchdog investigating claims federal police pressured Higgins not to proceed with alleged rape case

One person in hospital after two cars collided on Barton Highway, with severe weather warnings across eastern Australia

Two constables in serious but stable condition in hospital after allegedly being threatened with knife at a Newcastle home

At least five other people taken to hospital with injuries as result of blaze in block of flats in NewhamA man has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a woman died in a fire at a block of flats in east London, police have said.At least five other people were taken to hospital with injuries after the incident on Thursday in Beckton in Newham. Continue reading...

Connor Chapman denies murdering beautician who was shot dead outside Wirral pub on Christmas EveA 23-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to murdering a beautician who was shot dead outside a pub on Merseyside on Christmas Eve.Elle Edwards, 26, is believed to have been an innocent bystander when a gunman opened fire outside the Lighthouse pub in Wallasey Village in Wirral. Continue reading...

Some critics have even asked if Police Scotland was asked to delay the operation. But there’s no sign she anticipated itWhen Nicola Sturgeon thought she had finished her resignation press conference at Bute House in February, and was gathering up her speaking notes, she was asked a direct question that seemed to make her grimace.Glenn Campbell, BBC Scotland’s political editor, asked her: “Have you been, or do you expect to be, interviewed by the police who are looking into your party’s finances.” Continue reading...

Awning of La Rotonde briefly in flames as hundreds of thousands of mostly peaceful demonstrators again take to streets across FranceHundreds of thousands of people have continued to demonstrate across France against Emmanuel Macron’s plans to raise the pension age to 64, with clashes breaking out between demonstrators and police on the edges of protests in cities including Lyon, Nantes and Paris.In the capital, protesters briefly set fire to the awning of the Left Bank brasserie La Rotonde, well known for hosting Macron’s controversial evening of celebrations when he led the first-round vote in the 2017 presidential election. Police said several hundred of what they described as “radical elements” set bins alight and threw projectiles at officers near the restaurant. Continue reading...

Kashif Anwar, 29, pushed Fawziyah Javed, 31, off Edinburgh hill, leading to death of wife and unborn childAn abusive man who pushed his pregnant wife from the Edinburgh landmark, Arthur’s Seat, days before she was set to leave him has been jailed for at least 20 years for her murder.Kashif Anwar, 29, from Leeds, was found guilty of the September 2021 murder of Fawziyah Javed, 31, and that of her unborn child, after a six-day trial at the high court in Edinburgh. Continue reading...

Daniel Greenberg has received complaints about Johnson allies disparaging privileges committeeParliament’s standards commissioner has left the door open to launching an investigation into attempts by Boris Johnson’s allies to disparage the credibility of the Partygate inquiry.A high number of complaints are thought to have been made to Daniel Greenberg about comments by the former prime minister’s supporters that the inquiry into whether he misled parliament was a “kangaroo court” and “witch-hunt”. Continue reading...

Working group member shares Liberal Bridget Archer’s concern Coalition’s no campaign in danger of running ‘adjacent to racist views’

Exclusive: Simon Birmingham, Marise Payne and Paul Fletcher spoke out against plan as Julian Leeser proposed allowing MPs a free say

New pouches for beef are said to be ‘too compressed’ and ‘like I’ve bought someone’s kidney’Sainsbury’s has said it is determined to make more “bold moves” to cut plastic and defended itself against criticism of new packaging for mince which shoppers have criticised as “very medical”, “too compressed” and “vile”.The supermarket said last month it was the first UK retailer to vacuum pack all its beef mince, part of the retailer’s efforts to halve its use of plastic packaging on its own-label products by 2025. Continue reading...

Competition watchdog calls for evidence deal could give online retailer dominance in smart home marketAmazon’s $1.7bn takeover of the owner of the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner is being examined by the UK’s competition watchdog.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has called for evidence on whether the deal could lead to “a substantial lessening of competition within any market or markets in the United Kingdom for goods or services” and so would require a full investigation. Continue reading...

French president makes plea as two leaders hold first of series of high-level meetings in Beijing

Outrage as Indigenous communities claim company is operating on illegally deforested land and lacks environmental permitsThe US ambassador to Peru has sparked outrage among Indigenous groups and environmental NGOs by visiting a controversial palm oil company and praising it for abstaining from deforestation and as a leader of sustainable agricultural practices.In a tweet last week, Lisa Kenna commended the company, Ocho Sur, as an example of US-Peruvian ties and as the leading employer in the Peruvian Amazon region of Ucayali. Her expression of support came after she made the solo visit last week while on a trip with her British, German and Norwegian counterparts to the Peruvian Amazon city of Pucallpa. Continue reading...

But Richard Holden also says efforts will be made to avoid people needing to leave port to access local services

Faisal bin Farhan and Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Beijing for talks after Chinese brokered agreementThe Saudi and Iranian foreign ministers have met for the first time in seven years, weeks after the two countries came to an agreement, brokered by Chinese officials, to restore diplomatic relations.Saudi Arabia’s Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and Iran’s Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met in Beijing to discuss the reopening of embassies, the appointment of ambassadors and a planned visit to Saudi Arabia by Ebrahim Raisi, Iran’s president. They also discussed resuming flights between the two countries and issuing travel visas for each others’ citizens. Continue reading...

Resignation the latest protest at federal party room’s decision to campaign against referendum

Halifax says market has been helped by easing of borrowing costs

Mobile phones with 4G or 5G signal will make siren sound and vibrate at 3pm on Sunday of testThe first nationwide test of a public warning system that sends alerts to UK mobile phones will take place at 3pm on Sunday 23 April.The emergency alerts system is designed to broadcast urgent messages in the event of a disaster such as severe flooding, fires or extreme weather. Continue reading...

Black Equity Organisation seeks judicial review over Suella Braverman’s decision to drop three reform commitmentsA leading civil rights group has launched legal action against the home secretary over her decision to abandon several crucial reform commitments made as a result of the Windrush scandal.The action by the Black Equity Organisation (BEO) comes as a petition with 50,000 signatories urging Suella Braverman to reconsider is to be delivered to Downing Street later on Thursday. Continue reading...

Liam Garner’s Pan-American adventure lasted a year – now he’s eyeing another odyssey, and planning to write a book about itA US teenager who reported being robbed and even hospitalized while spending more than a year bicycling from northern Alaska to southern Argentina is now mulling plans for a similar trip from Europe to Asia.Liam Garner and his trip across the Americas, which he completed in January, has drawn headlines from international news outlets including CNN, Insider and the BBC. But he is insisting he’s not done with his efforts, which he says demonstrate that one doesn’t have to be rich to travel internationally. Continue reading...

Health watchdog reverses decision not to recommend olaparib for patients with genetic faultThe NHS in England is to offer thousands of cancer patients the world’s first cancer drug to target an inherited genetic fault, after a U-turn by the health watchdog.The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) opted last year not to recommend olaparib for breast cancer patients with the so-called “Angelina Jolie gene” because of its high cost. The pioneering drug’s list price is £2,317.50 for one pack of 150mg tablets, excluding VAT. Continue reading...

ChatGPT falsely identified Brian Hood as guilty party in foreign bribery scandal. In reality he blew the whistle on the illegal schemeA regional Australian mayor said he may sue OpenAI if it does not correct ChatGPT’s false claims that he had served time in prison for bribery, in what would be the first defamation lawsuit against the automated text service.Brian Hood, who was elected mayor of Hepburn Shire, 120km northwest of Melbourne, last November, became concerned about his reputation when members of the public told him ChatGPT had falsely named him as a guilty party in a foreign bribery scandal involving a subsidiary of the Reserve Bank of Australia in the early 2000s. Continue reading...

Finance minister Katy Gallagher says government working through reports that recommend eligibility changes to payment