World news | The Guardian

Birmingham heroin addict Laura Heath repurposed son’s asthma inhaler as a crack pipeA woman has been convicted of manslaughter after her seven-year-old son died in Birmingham alone and “gasping for air” in a garden after suffering an asthma attack.Laura Heath “prioritised her addiction to heroin and crack cocaine”, leading to the neglect of Hakeem Hussain, who died in the Nechells area of the city on 26 November 2017. Continue reading...

The former health secretary will look back at how he and his fellow ministers handled the coronavirus outbreakMatt Hancock’s “inside story of the pandemic” will be published later this year, he has announced.During an interview on GB News on Wednesday night, the former health secretary said he would be releasing a book about his experience of the Covid-19 pandemic, with royalties to be donated to NHS charities. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer’s team in ebullient mood as focused tactics contrast with PM’s ebbing authorityThe contrast was marked. Shortly after the Commons agreed a third Partygate inquiry, the few visible Conservative MPs seemed notably downcast while colleagues had already scarpered, wheeling their suitcases out of Westminster and heading to their constituencies amid the chaos of government U-turns.The mood in the Labour team, meanwhile, was ebullient after the party led the humiliation. Keir Starmer joined aides for a drinks gathering on the Commons terrace that evening. Continue reading...

Five things revealed by the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s UK visit and Harry’s NBC interviewOn Tuesday, it was reported that Harry and his wife, Meghan, were invited to appear on the Buckingham Palace balcony during the platinum jubilee. Continue reading...

China vows to eradicate virus, neighbourhood by neighbourhood, amid frustration among residents

PM says Ukrainian ‘fortitude and success’ mean UK can restore facility it closed before Russian invasion

Praised for his ‘extraordinary contribution’, Doran made the company more inclusive, accessible and accountableThe artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC), Gregory Doran, has announced he is stepping down from the role after 35 years with the company.He will remain as artistic director emeritus until the end of 2023 and will direct a production as part of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare’s first folio next year, his 50th production for the RSC. Continue reading...

WA premier Mark McGowan tests positive for Covid; Morrison attacks NSW independent commission against corruption for ‘sickening’ treatment of Gladys Berejiklian; at least 46 Covid deaths recorded. This blog is now closed

Supporters rally as senior Tory decries ‘absence of discipline, focus and leadership in No 10’

Terry Xu was convicted last year after publishing a letter alleging ‘corruption at the highest echelons’The editor of a now-closed Singaporean news outlet has been jailed for three weeks for defamation over a letter published on the site that alleged corruption among government ministers.Terry Xu, the former editor of the Online Citizen, was convicted last year for the publication of a letter that said there was “corruption at the highest echelons”. Continue reading...

Earl follows fellow Tory peer Lady Mone in being investigated under rules against peers profiting from membership of houseThe House of Lords commissioners for standards have launched an investigation into a second Conservative peer for allegedly breaching the rules against peers profiting financially from their membership of the Lords.The investigation into the Earl of Shrewsbury, an elected hereditary Conservative peer who has been a member of the Lords for 41 years, has been announced by the standards commissioners on their website. Continue reading...

Brit-nominated chart-topper suffered ear injuries during robbery and complications with a jaw fracture from another attack aged 18Chart-topping British pop singer Tom Grennan has been hospitalised after a physical assault in New York City.His manager John Dawkins wrote on social media:In the early hours of [Thursday] morning after Tom’s New York show, he was the victim of an unprovoked attack and robbery outside a bar in Manhattan. Tom is currently being assessed by doctors for his injuries which include a ruptured ear, torn eardrum and issue with his previously fractured jaw. Despite this Tom is in good spirits but needs to temporarily recuperate while doctors assess his ability to continue with his touring. Continue reading...

Warrant issued over £15m in suspect payments for ex-Nissan chief who jumped bail in Japan and fled to LebanonFrance has issued an international arrest warrant for Carlos Ghosn, the disgraced former Nissan executive who jumped bail in Japan and fled to Lebanon, prosecutors have said.The warrant was issued over €15m in suspect payments between the Renault-Nissan alliance that Ghosn once headed and an Omani company, Suhail Bahwan Automobiles (SBA), said prosecutors in the Paris suburb of Nanterre. Continue reading...

Report finds strong evidence of politicisation in public service and ministerial staffer ‘overreach’

Sydney independent says he can’t have a ‘cooperative relationship’ with NSW minority government if the premier continues comments

Mayor says corpses thrown into mass grave which appears to be visible on newly released satellite imagesRussia-Ukraine war: latest updatesRussia has been hiding evidence of its “barbaric” war crimes in Mariupol by burying the bodies of civilians killed by shelling in a new mass grave, the city’s mayor said on Thursday, as a US satellite imagery company released photos that appeared to match the site.The mayor, Vadym Boichenko, said Russian trucks had collected corpses from the streets of the port city and had transported them to the nearby village of Manhush. They were then secretly thrown into a mass grave in a field next to the settlement’s old cemetery, he said. Continue reading...

Morrison dodges questions on whether Australia knew of Solomon Islands-China pact amid ministers’ conflicting accounts

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in our new live blogRussian forces are advancing towards Kramatorsk while Putin likely desires to demonstrate “significant successes” ahead of Victory Day celebrations, British intelligence has suggested.Russia likely desires to demonstrate significant successes ahead of their annual 9th May Victory Day celebrations. This could affect how quickly and forcefully they attempt to conduct operations in the run-up to this date,” the UK ministry of defence said in their latest intelligence report.Russian forces are now advancing from staging areas in the Donbas towards Kramatorsk, which continues to suffer from persistent rocket attacks. Continue reading...

Ukraine president warns citizens against handing over personal information, as satellite images of mass graves emerge near Mariupol

Our Place in Space is part of £120m government-backed Unboxed festival spanning UK over coming monthsA glowing silicone sun measuring 2.3 metres in diameter and a pinhead-size Pluto have been brought down to earth in an extraordinary scale model of the solar system aimed at giving the public a true sense of the huge size of space.The six-mile (10km) riverside sculpture trail opens in Derry on Friday as part of Unboxed, the £120m government-backed celebration of creativity that spans the UK over the coming months. Continue reading...

Two large mascots, dancing to sorrowful music, helped welcome the New Zealand prime minister on her first trip overseas since the pandemic beganNew Zealand’s prime minister Jacinda Ardern has been met in Japan on her first trip outside the country in two years by a duo of enormous, mournfully dancing kiwifruit.The two large mascots welcomed the prime minister with a gentle swaying routine, set to a piece of slow, somewhat sorrowful chamber music. They had a sombre audience of suited men. Continue reading...

Changes to take effect next Thursday, bringing state’s rules closer in line with NSW and Victoria

A member of the premier’s family contracted the virus earlier this week

Travel booking company told consumers it would show them the cheapest rates, when rankings actually factored in which advertisers paid highest per-click fee

MPs from around the world tell Jacinda Ardern that case of murder suspect Kyung Yup Kim could set ‘dangerous precedent’New Zealand is under international pressure to stop the extradition of a resident to China, after a landmark supreme court decision allowed the government to send a man accused of murder to Shanghai to face trial.The decision was a reversal of previous court rulings, which blocked extradition on the grounds that Kyung Yup Kim, the accused, would be at high risk of torture or an unfair trial. Continue reading...

Court rules long-criticised military sodomy law shouldn’t apply to consensual sex off base in off-duty hoursSouth Korea’s supreme court has thrown out a military court ruling that convicted two gay soldiers for having sex outside their military facilities, saying it stretched the reading of the country’s widely criticised military sodomy law.The court’s decision on Thursday to send the case back to the high court for armed forces was welcomed by human rights advocates, who had long protested the country’s 1962 military criminal act’s article 92-6, which prohibits same-sex conduct among soldiers in the country’s predominantly male military. Continue reading...

Report by Peter Coaldrake raises serious concerns about relationship between public servants, ministers and lobbyists

PM’s spokesperson denies move is escalatory as UK also trains Ukrainian troops in Poland to use anti-aircraft defences• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updatesBoris Johnson has revealed that dozens of Ukrainian soldiers are training in the UK, learning how to use 120 British armoured vehicles before returning with them to fight in the war against Russia.British forces are also training Ukrainian counterparts in Poland on how to use anti-aircraft missiles, the prime minister said, as he outlined further details of the UK’s military aid for Kyiv’s embattled forces. Continue reading...

Incoming CNN chief executive says service, which launched to fanfare with star names on board, to shut down at end of AprilCNN’s brand-new streaming service, CNN+, is shutting down only a month after launch.In a Thursday memo, the incoming CNN chief executive, Chris Licht, said the service would shut down at the end of April. Continue reading...

Reports used by industry to evaluate customers often missing claims or had incorrect figures and could take as long as a month to obtain

Vaccine mandates will remain in place for now in Victoria as authorities work with individual industries

Education secretary says wife has used ‘light smack’ as he rejects calls for ban in EnglandThe education secretary has rejected calls for a ban on ​parents ​smacking children in England, ​revealing that his wife has occasionally given their daughter a “light smack on the arm”.Nadhim Zahawi said he ​did not ​want to “end up in a world where the state is nannying people about how they bring up their children​”, but senior Conservative MPs called for ​a​ parliamentary debate on the issue after ​the children’s commissioner​ for England​, Dame Rachel de Souza, supported a ban. Continue reading...

Downing Street withdrew move aimed at delaying investigation as two more Tory MPs call for PM to quit from floor of Commons

Guardian research finds cluster munitions, widely banned across the world, used in populated areas

No explanation given for change, with royals due to begin platinum jubilee tour of Caribbean on FridayA planned visit by the Earl and Countess of Wessex to Grenada has been postponed at the 11th hour, just one day before the couple embark on their six-day platinum jubilee tour of the Caribbean and weeks after the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge’s controversial visit to the region.No explanation for the late postponement was given by Buckingham Palace, which followed a consultation with the government of Grenada and on the advice of the governor general. Continue reading...

Online shopping group says it has dismissed ‘multiple’ attempts to buy companyOnline shopping group THG has dismissed “numerous” takeover approaches as “unacceptable”, saying they undervalued the company.Manchester-based THG (formerly known as The Hut Group), which runs beauty and nutrition websites including Lookfantastic, Cult Beauty and Myprotein, confirmed there had been interest from third parties, but said the company was not currently involved in any talks. Continue reading...

PM’s overnight rethink on MPs’ standards adds to long list of very public second thoughts

Putin orders forces not to storm last stronghold in Mariupol as west warns of Russian cyberattacks against Ukraine’s allies

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war in our new live blogUkraine’s deputy prime minister Iryna Vereshchuk has announced on Telegram that a humanitarian corridor has been agreed to evacuate women, children and the elderly from the besieged southern port city of Mariupol. She posted:Given the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Mariupol, it is in this direction that we will focus our efforts today. We managed to agree in advance on a humanitarian corridor for women, children and the elderly.Due to the very difficult security situation, changes may occur during the corridor. So, please follow the relevant official announcements. We will do our best to make everything work properly.Do not believe in any words from Russia. It would be good if they allowed civilians to leave the Azovstal, but they didn’t allow this for 50 days, why should they allow this now? Continue reading...

Victory gives 72-year-old his second term as president of south-east Asia’s youngest countryThe Nobel prize winner José Ramos-Horta has scored a landslide victory in Timor-Leste’s presidential election, according to preliminary results published by the election secretariat.The 72-year-old secured 397,145 votes, or 62.09%, against incumbent Francisco “Lu-Olo” Guterres’ 242,440, or 37.91%, the secretariat’s website showed on Wednesday after all ballots were counted. Continue reading...

Charity launches Mayday Mile fundraiser and reveals it saved 408 people from drowning in 2021Lifeboat crews and lifeguards around the UK and Ireland saved more than a person a day from drowning in 2021, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) has said.The charity saved 408 people last year, an increase of 59 on 2020. Lifeboats were launched 8,868 times, and crews helped a total of 12,903 people – the equivalent of 35 a day. Continue reading...

National Audit Office reveals losses in report on how UK managed cross-border travel during Covid pandemicQuarantine hotels for inbound travellers to the UK during Covid have cost the taxpayer more than £400m, a National Audit Office (NAO) investigation has found, including almost £100m in unpaid room bills and fraud.While the government expected the hotels’ costs would be covered by the occupants, it has emerged that the taxpayer has been left responsible for more than half of the £757m bill. The rooms were for those travelling to the UK from high-risk “red list” countries during the pandemic. Continue reading...

Actor continues testimony on his life and marriage with Amber Heard, including events that marked the end of their relationshipJohnny Depp’s courtroom exploration of his life and marriage with Amber Heard continued in the US on Wednesday, with the court viewing a photograph of the actor’s partially severed finger.Depp testified that Heard had become enraged when he had started drinking in Australia during the filming of one of the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise films and had thrown a bottle of vodka at him, severing the top of his finger. Continue reading...

Kimberly Hone previously posted on social media that ‘one way to avoid domestic violence is to marry well’

RMT to ballot more than 40,000 workers at Network Rail and train firms in dispute over jobs and payMore than 40,000 railway workers are to be balloted in a dispute over jobs and pay that a union says could result in Britain’s biggest rail strike in modern history.The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said staff would be asked to vote on strike action over Network Rail’s plans to cut at least 2,500 maintenance jobs as part of a £2bn reduction in spending on the network. Continue reading...