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The parties’ election machines have been humming into gear for weeks. Here’s the who who’s of each operation

Labor told it needs to ‘find a way to reconnect with Queenslanders’, where the Liberal party holds 23 of the state’s 30 seats

Nick Herbert calls for royal commission to detoxify trans debate but criticises ‘shouty protests’The prime minister’s LGBT adviser has said he is “dismayed” by the decision not to include transgender people in a ban on conversion practices, while describing the cancellation of the government’s equality conference as an “act of self-harm by the LGBT lobby”.Nick Herbert also called for a royal commission to detoxify and take the politics out of the trans debate. Continue reading...

Analysis: the Ukraine invasion came at an opportune moment for the PM, though the damage of partygate lingers on

Moscow promotes Alexander Dvornikov, who led Russian troops in Syria, as it regroups for Donbas battle

Exclusive: Michael Attenborough says late chair was promised by new Ofcom chief Michael Grade he would oppose privatisationRichard Attenborough, the late Oscar-winning director and chair of Channel 4, would be “turning in his grave” to see the broadcaster privatised, his son has claimed.Michael Attenborough said that Michael Grade – Channel 4’s chief executive from 1988 to 1997, who will monitor the privatisation process as chair of the broadcast regulator, Ofcom – was breaking a promise to his father by supporting the sell-off. Continue reading...

Britain is determined to do all it can to bring to justice those responsible for ‘truly awful crimes’, says Kit Malthouse

Former MP says he will sue Twitter in next seven days for defamation unless it rescinds the label

Exclusive: Royal College of Emergency Medicine president says NHS is breaking its agreement to treat sickest in a timely way• ‘For staff, this is heartbreaking’: senior doctor’s view on crisis

Organisations in West Midlands accuse organisers of failing to engage with region’s diverse communitiesOrganisations in the West Midlands have accused the Commonwealth Games of failing to engage with multicultural communities across the region.A number of groups claimed organisers of the sporting event, taking place in Birmingham in July, have ignored their requests to get involved, and said creative groups led by people of colour have been sidelined for the cultural festival running alongside the Games. Continue reading...

First round of voting begins, with eventual winner expected to be decided in runoff two weeks laterPolling stations have opened across mainland France for the first round of a fiercely contested presidential election.Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are the frontrunners among the 12 candidates to win through to the second round in two weeks but opinion polls have suggested the race will be close. Continue reading...

Wolfgang Beltracchi and his wife Helene sold fake paintings for millions before some inauthentic white paint led to their captureTheir forgeries of 20th-century masters such as Max Ernst and Fernand Léger duped the art world into parting with millions of pounds – until a modern pigment gave them away.Now, after serving lengthy prison sentences, Wolfgang Beltracchi and his wife Helene have told the story behind the hundreds of paintings that tricked even the artists’ families. Continue reading...

A Tate retrospective portrays the English artist as a master of disguise, and in thrall to his early stage careerA major Tate Britain exhibition opening this month will be the first to display a rare early self-portrait of Walter Sickert, the influential English painter, that shows how his early career on the stage drove his ever-changing art.The string of self-portraits includes a small pen and ink sketch from 1882, found in Islington’s Local History Centre, in which the artist leans forward in a pose taken from his idol, the actor-manager Henry Irving. Sickert, born in 1860, had joined Irving’s stage company in his youth as a performer, before leaving to study art at the Slade School in 1881. Continue reading...

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Guardian Australia is tracking Coalition and Labor funding commitments and highlighting pork-barrelling during the election campaign

Now that Russia has its sights on the east, with a major offensive imminent, the next month will be potentially decisive for Ukraine

Germany is bracing for supplies to be cut by Moscow in retaliation for sanctions or as part of an energy embargoIn Germany, they call it “Day X”. Businesses up and down the land are making contingency plans for what is seen as a growing likelihood that Russian gas will stop flowing into Europe’s biggest economy.“It would be a disaster – one which would have seemed almost unthinkable just two months ago, but which right now feels like a very realistic prospect,” the owner of a hi-tech mechanical engineering company in western Germany said. The firm produces everything from battery cases for electric cars to train clutch systems. Continue reading...

What remains of Kyiv’s tango community is looking forward to Saturday night event

Volodymyr Zelenskiy calls for ‘firm global response’ to Kramatorsk station attack; 10 humanitarian corridors agreed for Saturday

80% of those polled felt the campaign was ‘poor quality’, with many complaining of a lack of ideas or visionA majority of French people feel the 2022 presidential election campaign has been poor quality and never really got off the ground, which could lead to protest votes and a historically low turn-out in Sunday’s first round, pollsters and analysts have said.An Ifop poll this month found 80% of French people felt the campaign was “poor quality”. Voters have complained of a lack of new political ideas or vision, and few solutions to their problems, after two years of the Covid pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and a cost-of-living crisis. Continue reading...

Qantas apologises to family who missed international trip because of domestic flight delays

This blog is closed. Russia-Ukraine war: latest updatesThe President of the European Commission and EU representative Josep Borrell appear to be on their way to Kyiv this morning.Ursula von der Leyen shared a photo of herself stepping off a Ukrainian train alongside the caption “looking forward to Kyiv”.We have significant losses of troops. And it’s a huge tragedy for us. Continue reading...

Saodat Narzieva held 27 secret Swiss bank accounts linked to the Russian oligarchThe sister of the oligarch and former Arsenal football club shareholder Alisher Usmanov has been sanctioned by the EU after an investigation by the Guardian named her in connection with 27 Swiss bank accounts containing billions of pounds.Usmanov’s sister, Saodat Narzieva, was among a number of relatives of Russian officials and oligarchs added to the EU’s sanctions list on Friday in response to the war in Ukraine. Usmanov has been under EU sanctions since February. Continue reading...

European Commission chief visits Bucha before meeting Volodymyr Zelenskiy in KyivEuropean Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said the civilian deaths in the Ukrainian town of Bucha showed the “cruel face” of Russia’s army and pledged to try to speed Ukraine’s bid to become a member of the European Union.During a visit to Bucha on Friday, where forensic investigators started to exhume bodies from a mass grave, Von der Leyen looked visibly moved by what she saw in the town northwest of Kyiv where Ukrainian officials say hundreds of civilians were killed by Russian forces. Continue reading...

Academy bars actor from all its events, condemning ‘unacceptable and harmful behavior on stage’The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences board of governors has banned Will Smith from all its events, including the Oscars, for 10 years after the best actor winner slapped the presenter Chris Rock on stage at the Academy Awards ceremony.Smith has publicly apologized and resigned from the academy. The Academy’s decision on Friday comes after its president, David Rubin, expedited a board meeting scheduled for 18 April in light of Smith’s voluntary resignation. In his letter to board members, Rubin said that Ampas rules stipulated a 15-day notice to consider suspending a membership, but after Smith’s resignation that no longer applied. Continue reading...

Exclusive: whistleblower says code of Schools Ministry Group, Australia’s second biggest provider, could discriminate against workers

On the ground in the devastated Bucha and Trostianets; when rape is used as a weapon; and will Putin face a war crimes tribunal?

Labor demands government reveal how it shortlisted Brisbane, Newcastle and Port Kembla as potential sites for baseVoters will be kept in the dark on how Scott Morrison’s government selected three potential bases for Australia’s planned nuclear-powered submarines, after the advice was blocked from release.With the prime minister preparing to formally call the election within days, Labor demanded the government reveal how it shortlisted the locations to prove the announcement was “not just a marketing ploy”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Four health services already failing to meet nurse-to-patient ratios ahead of expected Covid surge

Monarch to be represented by Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Duchess of CornwallThe Queen has pulled out of the Royal Maundy church service and will be represented by Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, at the annual event for the first time.The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will fulfil the ancient tradition of handing out Maundy money to community figures on Thursday at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle. Continue reading...

Akshata Murty says she realises many felt her arrangements were not ‘compatible with my husband’s job as chancellor’• Sunak defends wife’s tax status as Labour and No 10 deny leakRishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, bowed to pressure to pay UK taxes on Friday night, after Boris Johnson said he had been unaware she was a “non-dom” and fresh questions emerged over the couple’s tax affairs.With Sunak’s position under increasing threat, Murty said she realised many people felt her tax arrangements were not “compatible with my husband’s job as chancellor”, adding that she appreciated the “British sense of fairness”. She will pay tax on all worldwide income in future and for the last tax year, but not on backdated income, which could have saved her an estimated £20m of UK tax on foreign earnings from her billionaire father’s Indian IT company. Continue reading...

Chancellor declines to endorse claim by Boris Johnson during London visit that goal will be achieved by mid-2024

Jobs set to go at Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire and at West Bromwich, but new posts to be created at RotherhamLiberty Steel has announced plans to cut 200 jobs in the UK at plants in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands, as industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s metals group looks to shift production to Rotherham.The company said on Friday that it would cut 160 jobs at a plant in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, and 45 in West Bromwich in the West Midlands as it focused production on the plant in Rotherham, also in South Yorkshire. Continue reading...

Analysis: Windrush scandal wrongly categorised people as illegal immigrants, while most Ukrainian refugees have documentationWhy has Britain, unlike every other country in Europe, insisted on requiring all Ukrainian refugees to obtain visas before travelling here?In justifying the decision, Priti Patel has again pointed to the Windrush scandal as a key factor in the government’s refusal to waive visas for people fleeing Ukraine. But it is a reasoning that has left immigration experts baffled. Continue reading...

Union’s offices raided as part of investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money launderingA police inquiry involving a Unite union official is examining contracts related to the construction of a £98m hotel and conference centre in Birmingham, the Guardian has learned.South Wales police and HM Revenue and Customs raided the union’s offices in central London on Thursday as part of an investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money laundering. Continue reading...

Company’s lender, understood to be Petra Group, said to be considering possibility of opening storesThe shirtmaker TM Lewin could return to the high street after being rescued from administration by its main lender, understood to be Petra Group.It is not clear if the group’s 50 staff will be kept on under the rescue deal for TM Lewin, which called in administrators last month for the second time in less than two years. Continue reading...

Survivors in Yahidne recount writing names of the dead on wall during Russian occupation north of Ukrainian capital

Security forces say 28-year-old Palestinian suspect was killed after being tracked down in JaffaA third Israeli has died after an attack by a Palestinian man who opened fire into a crowded bar in central Tel Aviv, after Israeli security forces said they hunted down and killed the attacker early on Friday.The shooting on Thursday evening in a downtown area packed with people in bars and restaurants caused scenes of mass panic in the heart of the bustling city. Two people were instantly killed and more than 10 people were wounded. Continue reading...

Martin Newman was sipping wine and had taken drugs when he veered into car, killing three- and four-year-old and injuring motherThe family of two young siblings killed in a motorway crash caused by a drink-driver who had been sipping red wine at the wheel and had cocaine in his system have said they are devastated and angry after he was jailed for just nine years.Judge Williams acknowledged many people would feel the term he passed on Martin Newman was inadequate, but said sentencing laws set by parliament meant he could not jail him for longer. Continue reading...

Centrist incumbent and far-right rival go into last day of campaigning after a week of sparring in mediaThe French president, Emmanuel Macron, and his far-right challenger Marine Le Pen attacked each other in media interviews and walkabouts as final polls showed the gap between them narrowing on the last day of campaigning before Sunday’s first-round vote.Macron said Le Pen was “lying” to voters about her “racist” manifesto programme, which includes banning the Muslim headscarf, and accused her of “complacency” in her ties with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. Continue reading...

Ng, 49, found guilty of helping to embezzle money earmarked for development in one of biggest frauds in financial historyFormer Goldman Sachs executive Roger Ng has been found guilty of helping to steal billions of dollars from Malaysia’s 1MDB sovereign wealth fund after a lengthy trial brought by US prosecutors, who described the fraud as one the largest financial scandals in history and who hoped to show that individuals are always at the center of corporate wrongdoing.A New York jury found Ng, 49, once Goldman’s top investment banker in Malaysia, guilty of helping his former boss Tim Leissner embezzle money intended for development to benefit Malaysia’s poor from a fund connected to Malaysia’s then prime minister, Najib Razak, and then to launder the proceeds while bribing officials in Malaysia and Abu Dhabi. Continue reading...

Latest in series of attacks by Palestinians heightens sense of reduced personal security in IsraelAs Israelis reel from a Palestinian shooting at a Tel Aviv pub that killed three people, the government has threatened to strike back amid concerns of a broader escalation.Security forces shot dead the lone attacker in the early hours of Friday after a manhunt by army troops, police and intelligence personnel. Residents of the city – Israel’s commercial and entertainment capital – stayed off the streets in the aftermath of the attack, which has heightened a sense of reduced personal security across the country after three other attacks in the last two weeks. Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed, you can find our latest political coverage here and the latest updates from the Russia-Ukraine war hereRishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty were legally declared to be “permanent US residents” – including for tax purposes – for more than a year into his chancellorship, it has been reported.Sky News reports claims that the couple held US “green cards” permitting them residence in the US until more than a year into his chancellorship – before then giving it up during his period at the Treasury.The US government website says the card is only for people who “make the US your permanent home” – which would be odd for someone holding multiple jobs in government, including local government minister, chief secretary to the Treasury and chancellor.A source close to Mr Sunak said “neither of them have green cards”, but refused to answer questions over whether they had them during any of his period as chancellor.Nuclear is critical to our energy future and GMB has long told ministers there can be no net zero without new nuclear.But it’s 24 hours since the prime minister was here at Hinkley Point C and the questions over this so-called energy plan won’t go away. Continue reading...

Charity brought case against government arguing planning permission process was flawedThe high court has overturned a government decision to build a national memorial to the Holocaust next to parliament, after an appeal by campaigners who argued the project was the “right idea, wrong place”.Planning permission for the memorial and education centre was granted last year after a six-week public inquiry. The government had called in the decision from Westminster city council amid controversy over the scheme. Continue reading...

Once the frontrunner for next Tory leader, Sunak has been written off by some as politically naiveThere has been an uneasy consensus among Conservative MPs that the Russian invasion of Ukraine has meant Boris Johnson is saved from a leadership challenge.But there is also a whispered agreement that there is another factor keeping Johnson in No 10 – the fast disintegration of Rishi Sunak’s reputation as a viable alternative. Tory MPs who spoke to the Guardian said they believed his chances of becoming prime minister were now minimal. Continue reading...

Exclusive: The 50-metre Aquamarine is under repair in dry dock in Vlissingen

Former tennis star acquitted of further 20 counts relating to 2017 bankruptcy

Outgoing commissioner, who resigned in February after losing confidence of London mayor, to leave role on SundayThe outgoing Metropolitan police commissioner, Dame Cressida Dick, has warned against the “politicisation of policing” as her tenure at the top of Britain’s biggest police force comes to an end.Dick was forced out as head of the Britain’s biggest police force after London’s Labour mayor, Sadiq Khan, accused her of failing to deal with a culture of misogyny and racism within the Met. Continue reading...

Mimi Reinhardt was in charge of compiling names of Jews to work in German industrialist’s factoryThe woman who drew up lists of people for the German industrialist Oskar Schindler that helped save hundreds of Jews during the Holocaust has died aged 107.Mimi Reinhardt, who was employed as Schindler’s secretary, was in charge of drawing up the lists of Jewish workers from the ghetto of the Polish city of Kraków who were recruited to work at his factory, saving them from deportation to Nazi death camps. Continue reading...