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Unite union rejects pay offer from Birmingham city council as all-out strike causes bin bags to pile up in the streets and an influx of ratsAlison McGovern, minister at the Department for Work and Pensions, has commented on those latest job statistics, which showed that the number of payrolled workers in UK fell by 78,000.The Labour MP for Birkenhead said:We’re determined to get Britain...

In some of his most vocal criticism of the current administration, former president says move is ‘an attempt to stifle academic freedom’One of China’s lead officials overseeing Hong Kong has condemned punitive US tariffs on China as “shameless” and attacked American “hillbillies” amid a continuing trade war between Beijing and Washington that has caused turmoil in global markets.Xia Baolong, director of the Hong Kong...

US president questions Ukraine counterpart’s competency as his envoy outlines ‘detail attached’ to any peace deal“Attempts have been made to intimidate staff in several prisons, ranging from burning vehicles to firing automatic weapons,” the French justice minister, Gerald Darmanin, said in a post on X.“I am going to Toulon to support the officers concerned. The French Republic is facing up to the problem of...

Medical information will be available from UK Biobank, despite western intelligence agencies’ security fearsResearchers from China are to be allowed access to half a million UK GP records despite western intelligence agencies’ fears about the authoritarian regime amassing health data, the Guardian can reveal.Preparations are under way to transfer the records to UK Biobank, a research hub that holds detailed medical information donated by...

The good news is lower interest rates may help more people buy homes – but they also may be faced with paying off a bigger mortgagePolls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverageAnywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guideListen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastThe prospect of dramatically lower borrowing...

Wendy Jones, 68, died after part of a ceiling collapsed on guests at Brean Sands holiday park in 2019The owner of Pontins holiday parks has been charged with corporate manslaughter after part of a ceiling collapsed six years ago on to guests at a bar, one of whom died months later in hospital.Eighteen people were injured at the Brean Sands site in Somerset in...

Plan comes after Donald Trump reiterated import threats and chipmaker’s CEO dined at US president’s resortThe chip designer Nvidia has said it will build up to $500bn (£378bn) worth of artificial intelligence infrastructure in the US over the next four years, in a sign of manufacturers investing in operations on American soil amid Donald Trump’s tariffs.The announcement comes after Trump reiterated threats on Sunday...

Chris Columbus calls cameo ‘an albatross’ but worries he’d ‘have to go back to Italy or something’Film-maker Chris Columbus says he has come to regard Donald Trump’s cameo in his movie Home Alone 2: Lost in New York as “an albatross” that he wishes to remove.But, Columbus added, he fears the president’s administration would deport him if he followed through with nixing the scene...

Exclusive: Labor urges state Liberal leader Brad Battin to ‘get a spine’ and rule out a repeal of Victoria’s nuclear banElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastThe Victorian Nationals have left the door open to working with a Dutton government to build a nuclear reactor in the Latrobe Valley, as the Liberal leader,...

Wages rise 5.9% in three months to February, while unemployment unchanged at 4.4%Business live – latest updatesThe number of workers on UK company payrolls has fallen at the fastest pace since the height of the Covid pandemic amid mounting global uncertainty and warnings that Rachel Reeves’s budget measures could lead to job losses.Figures from the Office for National Statistics show the number of people...

Australian defence minister Richard Marles says he has spoken to Indonesian counterpart about report Moscow filed official request over military aircraftIndonesia’s defence minister has said reports Russia is seeking to base military aircraft in the country “are simply not true”, according to the Australian government, after Canberra made urgent calls to Jakarta.The report from defence and security news website Janes said Moscow had filed...

This blog is now closedIndonesia dismisses report Russia seeking to base aircraft in country as ‘simply not true’, Marles saysGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastBattle of housing supply: who’s building more?Both parties have said they’re the ones doing more on housing supply, while experts and economists have said neither is doing enough to address the supply versus demand issue.What...

Notices show Trump administration setting stage for levies on both sectors on national security groundsThe Trump administration is kicking off investigations into imports of pharmaceuticals and semiconductors into the US as part of an attempt to impose tariffs on both sectors on national security grounds, notices posted to the Federal Register on Monday showed.The filings scheduled to be published on Wednesday set a 21-day...

Met Office says gloomier and unsettled conditions are on the way after recent warm and dry spellWestern England and the whole of Wales are set for heavy rain and possible flooding as the school holidays get into full swing and the Easter weekend approaches.The Met Office issued a yellow warning for rain beginning at noon on Tuesday and lasting for 24 hours, advising that...

Vice-president says Donald Trump ‘loves’ the UK and there is good chance of reaching mutually beneficial agreementThe US is optimistic it can negotiate a “great” trade deal with the UK, JD Vance has said.Donald Trump imposed sweeping tariffs on imports to the US several weeks ago, sending the global economy into turmoil as stock prices tumbled and fears of a global recession mounted. Continue...

Both major parties spruik housing policies, with Anthony Albanese saying critics may not have read all the detail of Labor’s planElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignPolls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverageAnywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guideListen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastPeter Dutton says he...

Education minister Ben Carroll says VCAA overhaul will aim to give families, students and schools full confidence in examsElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastThe entire board of Victoria’s curriculum authority has been sacked after a review into the state’s VCE cheat sheet bungle last year.The blunder, during last year’s year 12 exams...

Foreign minister Penny Wong has demanded full review into wounding of Ranem Abu-Izneid in November but legal team claim there have been ‘no updates’Get our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastLawyers for an Australian dentistry student who lost her eye after being struck by shrapnel in the occupied West Bank say they doubt Israel is investigating the matter despite the foreign...

In today’s newsletter: In describing the bombing of the city of Sumy as a “mistake” and sidelining dissenting voices, the White House’s passivity towards Russia questions its commitment to peaceGood morning. Russia claimed that its ballistic missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy was aimed at Ukrainian army commanders. But the truth is that the attack’s brutal toll was exacted against ordinary people.The...

US president issues scathing view of Chinese counterpart’s motivations amid escalating trade war with Beijing Xi Jinping’s tour of South-east Asia this week is likely intended to “screw” the United States, President Donald Trump has suggested, as the Chinese leader embarks on five-day tour of some nations hardest hit by Trump’s tariffs.China’s president arrived in Hanoi on Monday, where he met Vietnam’s top leader,...

The country’s three special units at high-security prisons are in spotlight after Hashem Abedi’s assault against staffWith its high, ugly, grey concrete perimeter walls HMP Frankland looks as grim from the outside as you would expect for a place nicknamed “Monster Mansion”.Since it was opened in 1983 on the leafy outskirts of Durham – near a 13th-century priory used for centuries as a holiday...

Dutchman struck on way to third consecutive victoryAlpecin-Deceuninck and UCI join with condemnationThe spectator who threw a bottle at Mathieu van der Poel during Sunday’s Paris-Roubaix has surrendered to Flemish police. French justice officials launched an investigation after the Dutchman had a plastic bottle hurled at his face during his triumphant ride to a third consecutive Paris-Roubaix victory.Belgian newspaper Het Nieuwsblad reported on Monday...

Issue is seen as a key stumbling block in talks with US as Washington seeks to scale back Iran’s nuclear programmeIran is expected to resist a US proposal to transfer its stockpile of highly enriched uranium to a third country – such as Russia – as part of Washington’s effort to scale back Tehran’s civil nuclear programme and prevent it from being used to...

NGOs warn of ‘some difficult years’ ahead as increasing humanitarian needs meet shrinking financesThe dismantling of the US Agency for International Development (USAID) has captured headlines, but “very regrettable” reductions in European aid budgets are also contributing to a void in support for some of the poorest people in the world’s most fragile states, according to MEPs and NGOs.Isabella Lövin, a deputy chair of...

Education department says $2.3bn in funds to be frozen after university rejects slew of demands as political ployThe US education department is freezing about $2.3bn in federal funds to Harvard University, the agency said on Monday.The announcement comes as the Ivy League school has decided to fight the White House’s demands that it crack down on antisemitism and alleged civil rights violations, including shutting...

NGOs and UN say country is ‘worse off than ever before’ with wide-scale displacement, hunger and attacks on refugee campsTimeline: Sudan’s two years of war and its devastating tollLong read: How Sudan was plunged into warSudan is suffering from the largest humanitarian crisis globally and its civilians are continuing to pay the price for inaction by the international community, NGOs and the UN have...

European State of the Climate report ‘lays bare’ impact of fossil fuels on continent during its hottest 12 months on recordThe home-wrecking storms and floods that swept Europe last year affected 413,000 people, a report has found, as fossil fuel pollution forced the continent to suffer through its hottest year on record.Dramatic scenes of cars piled up on inundated streets and bridges being ripped...

Vice-president unable to hang on to trophyBuckeyes were celebrating last season’s title winJD Vance, the man entrusted as America’s back-up in times of emergency, may not be the safest pair of hands if Monday’s events are anything to go by. The vice-president ended the Ohio State football team’s visit to the White House by fumbling the team’s national championship trophy.After laudatory speeches by Donald...

Analysis finds Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft averaged 18.8%, compared with 29.7% US averageThe big American tech firms known as the “Silicon Six” have been accused of paying almost $278bn (£211bn) less corporate income tax in the past decade compared with the statutory rate for US companies making the same profits.Amazon, Meta, Alphabet, Netflix, Apple and Microsoft generated $11tn of revenue and...

Administration advances new misrepresentations of US supreme court order in case of Kilmar Abrego GarcíaThe Trump administration on Monday misrepresented a US supreme court decision that compelled it to return a man wrongly deported to El Salvador, using tortured readings of the order to justify taking no actions to secure his release.The supreme court last week unanimously ordered the administration to “facilitate” the release...

Two students traveling on spring break were arrested and charged with assault in Copenhagen, police sayTwo American college students traveling for spring break were arrested in Copenhagen, charged with assault, and held in a Danish prison for two weeks following an alleged dispute with an Uber driver, Danish police said.The family of Owen Ray, a 19-year-old studying at Miami University in Ohio, said he...

The US says it can’t aid in his return as he’s in El Salvador; El Salvador says to help would be like ‘smuggling’ him backIt is difficult to find a term more fitting for the fate of the Maryland father Kilmar Abrego García than Kafkaesque.Abrego García is one of hundreds of foreign-born men deported under the Trump administration to the Cecot mega-prison in El...

As crucial London peace talks set to begin, report seen by the Guardian raises questions over ‘multiple’ flights into bases in ChadPressure is mounting on the United Arab Emirates over its presence at a crucial conference in London aimed at stopping the war in Sudan after a leaked confidential UN report raised fresh questions over the UAE’s role in the devastating conflict.The UAE has...

Trump officials claim they’re not legally bound to bring Kilmar Abrego García back despite supreme court rulingThe president of El Salvador said in a meeting with Donald Trump in the White House on Monday that he would not order the return of a Maryland man who was deported in error to a Salvadorian mega-prison.“The question is preposterous,” Nayib Bukele said in the Oval Office...

Families of those displaced wait for news from Darfur amid reports of hundreds killed by paramilitary RSFSudan’s information blackout has left relatives of those in Sudan’s Zamzam refugee camp struggling for news of their safety after it was overrun by militiamen at the weekend.As leaders across the globe prepared to meet for peace talks in London to pressure the backers of the paramilitary Rapid...

Operatives placed buttons at CSFN trying to link Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre with Donald TrumpCampaigners with Canada’s Liberal party had some very American-esque politicking over the weekend, when Liberal operatives were found to have planted “stop the steal” buttons at a conservative conference to link the Conservative party to Donald Trump.Two Liberal party staffers infiltrated last week’s Canada Strong and Free Network Conference (CSFN)...

Former City minister denies allegations she received land illegally from her aunt, the ousted PM Sheikh HasinaThe former City minister Tulip Siddiq has said an arrest warrant issued against her in Bangladesh over allegations she illegally received a plot of land from her aunt, the country’s ousted former prime minister, is a “politically motivated smear campaign”.Speaking to reporters on Monday, the Hampstead and Highgate...

Move by Algiers follows arrest of Algerian consular official in Paris over alleged involvement in kidnap of influencerFrance is considering its response after Algeria ordered the expulsion of 12 embassy staff over the arrest of an Algerian consulate official in Paris over alleged involvement in the kidnap of a TikTok influencer.Algiers has given the French representatives 48 hours to leave the country in a...

More than 250 former intelligence agency figures back letter urging government to prioritise return of hostagesHundreds of former operatives from Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency have criticised the return to war in Gaza amid growing frustration over the failure to bring home the remaining hostages held by Hamas.A group of more than 250 former Mossad figures – including three ex-chiefs – gave their backing to...

Unctad says many countries targeted with high tariff rates are unlikely to be a threat to USBusiness live – latest updatesThe UN’s trade and development arm, Unctad, is calling on Donald Trump to exempt the world’s poorest and smallest countries from “reciprocal” tariffs, or risk “serious economic harm”.In a report published on Monday, Unctad identifies 28 nations the US president singled out for a...

Spain’s economy minister, Carlos Cuerpo, is expected to meet the US treasury secretary, on Tuesday as he aims to bolster bilateral ties between the two countries.The Trump administration has slapped a 10% tariff on imports of most European goods, including olive oil, although it announced a 90-day pause last week on...

James Murray insists supplies are in the country to keep furnaces going Also on the morning media round today was shadow business minister Harriett Baldwin, who endured a torrid time on Sky News while being repeatedly pressed to acknowledge any culpability for the British Steel crisis by the previous Conservative administration that sold the company to current Chinese owners Jingye in 2019.The MP for...

Prime minister accuses opposition of ‘borrowing ideas’ and says ‘there’s lots of really good Australian music around’Polls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverageAnywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guideListen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastAnthony Albanese says Liberal campaign tactics such as releasing a hip-hop diss track against Labor...

Central Mississippi Turtle Rescue facilitated viral reunion after pet Myrtle was brought to organization with injuriesA pet tortoise who was displaced from its human family’s home during a deadly outbreak of tornadoes in Mississippi in March was recently reunited with its people.The reunion – which went viral on corners of the internet dedicated to uplifting news stories – occurred after the Central Mississippi Turtle...

EU foreign ministers meet in Luxembourg after Russian attack kills at least 34 in SumySending more military aid for Ukraine is one of the agenda items for today’s talks among EU foreign ministers.Incoming German chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested last night that his government could finally deliver on Kyiv’s longstanding request to supply Ukraine with Taurus missiles, capable of strikes inside Russia. Continue reading...

Actor uses Instagram story to address skit in which SNL cast member Sarah Sherman mocked her appearanceAimee Lou Wood has described a sketch on the US comedy show Saturday Night Live (SNL) which mocked her appearance as “mean and unfunny”.The British actor used an Instagram post to criticise a skit of the television series The White Lotus, in which the SNL cast member Sarah...

Chinese customs official says trade has diversified away from US in recent years and plays up its ‘vast domestic market’Business live – latest updatesChina has played down the risk of damage to its exports from Donald Trump’s tariffs, with an official saying the “the sky won’t fall”, as stock markets rose on Monday amid signs of a retreat on electronics restrictions.The world’s second-largest economy...

The Liberal leader’s son opened up to the cameras about his housing aspirations – and highlighted the voters in the Coalition’s sightsElection 2025 live updates: Australia federal election campaignPolls tracker; election guide; full federal election coverageAnywhere but Canberra; interactive electorates guideListen to the first episode of our new narrative podcast series: GinaGet our afternoon election email, free app or daily news podcastHarry Dutton –...

Wera Hobhouse says her apparent presence on secret list of critics of country’s human rights record made her a targetUK politics live – latest updatesA Liberal Democrat MP refused entry to Hong Kong to see her young grandson has said her experience should be “a wake-up call for any parliamentarian”, given that it seems to show China holds a secret list of banned politicians.Wera...

Firm in race against time to get key materials as business secretary says no guarantee it will get what it needsBusiness live – latest updatesBritish Steel is to deploy emergency measures in a race against time to save the blast furnaces at Scunthorpe, as the business secretary refused to guarantee the plant could get what it needed in time.The company is understood to be...