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The Guardian : UK
28  mars     09h45
Fresh crisis for Thames Water as investors pull plug on 500m of funding
Jack Simpson, Sandra Laville and Helena Horton    Decision raises concerns about financial future of UK’s biggest water firm and increases prospect of nationalisationBusiness live latest updatesInvestors at Thames Water have pulled the plug on m of emergency funding, raising concerns about the financial future of the country’s largest water...
    07h02
Blow for Sunak as revised figures confirm UK did go into recession last year
Phillip Inman    Latest estimate from ONS says GDP declined by . in final quarter of Business live latest updatesOfficial figures have confirmed that the UK economy went into recession at the end of last year, after the latest estimate found it contracted in the last two quarters of .In a blow to the...
    06h00
Tory donor Frank Hester raised complaint about NHS contract with health secretary
Matthew Weaver, Rowena Mason and Henry Dyer    Exclusive: Man who has now given party at least m copied Steve Barclay into email about problems with bid, documents showThe Conservative mega donor Frank Hester complained to the NHS and the health secretary last year over problems his IT business had bidding for a contract, documents show.The...
    05h00
Transgender judge seeks leave to intervene in UK court case over legal definition of woman’
Libby Brooks Scotland correspondent    Victoria McCloud wants leave to join litigation in supreme court appeal brought by For Women ScotlandThe UK’s first transgender judge is seeking leave to join the litigation in a crucial supreme court case that could significantly affect legal protections for transgender women, the Guardian has...
    05h00
UK membership of Dignitas soars by 24% as assisted dying in Scotland moves closer
Robert Booth Social affairs correspondent    Bill being laid before Scottish parliament could, if approved, allow people in Britain to take their own lives within the lawUK membership of Dignitas, the Swiss assisted dying association, has jumped to, people a rise during as an assisted dying bill is laid before the Scottish...
    05h00
UK households urged to submit meter readings ahead of energy price cut
Rupert Jones    Martin Lewis among those encouraging consumers to make a note so they do not overpay when cap reducedMillions of households are being urged to submit meter readings to their energy supplier this weekend to ensure they do not overpay when cheaper prices come in on Monday.The consumer champion Martin...
27  mars     23h09
Concern over rise in requests for UK to share intelligence despite torture risks
Haroon Siddique Legal affairs correspondent    UK does not solicit, encourage or condone’ inhumane treatment, but critics say ministerial approval system contradicts thisThe number of requests for UK ministerial approval of intelligence sharing where there was a real risk of torture, unlawful killing or extraordinary rendition has more than...
    22h30
King lauds friendship in time of need’ in first comments since princess’s diagnosis
Sammy Gecsoyler    Pre recorded message for Maundy service in Worcester Cathedral will be played as Camilla stands in for monarchKing Charles will highlight the importance of friendship in a time of need on Thursday in his first public comments since the Princess of Wales announced that she was receiving treatment...
    22h30
Tory performance art’ nearly over, Labour to say at local elections launch
Peter Walker Deputy political editor    Keir Starmer expected to accuse Conservatives of failing on levelling up and preying’ on hopes of votersMay will mark the beginning of the end of a Tory era of politics as performance art, Keir Starmer will say at the launch of Labour’s local election campaign, accusing ministers of having...
    22h25
Ireland backs bid to include blocking of aid in definition of genocide
Rory Carroll Ireland correspondent    Dublin joins South Africa’s case in the international court of justice, arguing that stopping delivery of essentials may constitute genocidal intent’Ireland is to seek to widen the definition of genocide to include blocking humanitarian aid in a landmark international court of justice ICJ case...
    19h44
Police review decision not to investigate Angela Rayner after Tory complaint
Ben Quinn Political correspondent    MP James Daly asked Greater Manchester police to examine claims Labour’s deputy leader did not declare main residence accuratelyThe police are reviewing a decision not to investigate Labour’s deputy leader, Angela Rayner, over claims she may have broken electoral law.The move to reassess a...
    18h55
Ex-Boris Johnson ethics adviser Lord Geidt found to have broken Lords rules
Rowena Mason Whitehall editor    Christopher Geidt asked to write apology letter after joining an MoD meeting on behalf of a US satellite firm that was paying himA crossbench peer and former ethics adviser to Boris Johnson has been found to have broken House of Lords rules by joining a meeting with Ministry of Defence officials on...
    18h41
Dover health authority says inland border facility will be open door for disease’
Jack Simpson    Sevington site was never designed to handle volume of imports envisaged by post Brexit changes due in April, port’s health chief warnsAn inland facility set up to carry out checks on nearly all EU meat and dairy imports coming through Dover will be unable to cope when post Brexit rules come in next...
    17h03
Labour has 99% chance of forming next government, says elections expert - as it happened
Andrew Sparrow    Prof Sir John Curtice, the psephologist and lead election analyst for the BBC, said the chances of a Tory revival were small. This live blog is closedIn the House of Lords peers have just started debating the second reading of the leasehold and freehold reform bill. The bill has already passed...
    17h02
Controversial attack ad on Sadiq Khan made solely by Tory HQ, source says
Peter Walker Deputy political editor    Spurious video on London mayor’s record on crime allegedly had no input from Tory candidate Susan Hall’s teamThe controversial Conservative attack video that portrayed London as a crime racked hellhole was put together by the central party rather than its mayoral candidate, and has dismayed some...
    10h56
Home Office tried to cover up my critical reports, says sacked border chief
Emily Dugan    David Neal says fact checking process was routinely used to censor criticisms in his inspection reportsThe UK’s sacked chief borders inspector has said the Home Office routinely used a fact checking process to try to cover up criticisms in his inspection reports.David Neal was dismissed as the...
    05h00
Minimum wage is UK’s most successful economic policy in a generation’
Phillip Inman    Resolution Foundation study suggests lowest earners are , a year better off due to policyThe minimum wage has driven up the pay of millions of Britain’s lowest earners by , a year, making it the single most successful economic policy in a generation, according to a leading thinktank.Since...
26  mars     18h15
Tory MP Robert Halfon quits as minister and James Heappey confirms resignation, paving way for mini reshuffle - as it happened
Andrew Sparrow    Robert Halfon quits as skills, apprenticeships and higher education minister as James Heappey confirms decision to step downIn interviews this morning Gillian Keegan, the education secretary, admitted that special educational needs provision was in crisis, Ben Quinn reports.Universities in England...
27  mars     19h37
Lockdown gave Finley Boden’s parents cover - but safeguarding failures ran deep
Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent    A report on the case of the murdered Derbyshire baby finds a number of opportunities were missed to protect himFinley Boden should have been one of most protected children’, finds review When Finley Boden was returned to the care of his parents, only to be murdered by them weeks later, England...
    18h30
Tories are taking to heart Trump’s playbook of division and lies
Peter Walker Deputy political editor    Notorious attack ad against Sadiq Khan reflects political era where social media is used to provoke outrageOne of the more depressing political lessons from the Brexit campaign was that it doesn’t necessarily matter if nobody believes the NHS will get an extra m a week, just as long as they are...
25  mars     19h14
China cyber-attacks: this growing threat to UK security will not go away
Dan Milmo Global technology editor    With the Electoral Commission the latest target on a list that includes the economy and supply chains, experts warn of data gathering on an industrial scale’In March last year an integrated review of the UK’s defence and foreign policy said it would protect the country’s democratic freedoms ...
    18h24
Judges didn’t see what the fuss over Garrick Club was about - they do now
Amelia Gentleman    Twelve years after former supreme court president Brenda Hale criticised membership, judges seem to finally grasp what she meantIn October , Brenda Hale, who was then the only female judge in the supreme court, gave a speech to a diversity forum, organised by the law firm Norton Rose, and...
27  mars     14h42
Mind the grub: comic Ed Gamble’s hotdog banned from tube ads
Sammy Gecsoyler    Poster for sausage themed show fell foul of Transport for London rules on promoting unhealthy foodSome comics complain that their craft is under threat from cancel culture . For comedians with a sausage themed standup tour, they might have a point, after Ed Gamble was forced to remove a picture...
    13h11
Banksy mural in north London gets plastic cover after vandalism
Jamie Grierson    Council says protective clear plastic cover was installed by owner of building on which mural was paintedA Banksy mural in north London has been covered with plastic sheeting and surrounded by wooden boards.The artwork appeared on the side of a residential building in Hornsey Road, Finsbury Park,...
    09h21
Cambridge council orders removal of poorest quality’ statue of Prince Philip
Emily Dugan    , abstract sculpture described as worst ever submitted was erected without planning permissionA faceless sculpture of Prince Philip, once described by a council planner as possibly the poorest quality work ever submitted, will be taken down years after it was erected without planning...
    08h48
More than half of UK female musicians have experienced discrimination - report
Mabel Banfield-Nwachi    Insight report based on data from UK Musicians’ Census also found said they had been sexually harassed in the industryMore than half of women have experienced gender discrimination while working as a musician, with a third reporting being sexually harassed, a report has revealed.Female...
26  mars     17h00
Bruce Springsteen becomes first non-Brit inducted into Ivors Academy
Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent    The Boss says he is proud to become a fellow after being recognised for his impact on the UK’s cultural landscape’There is perhaps nobody in the US’s short history who is better known for describing blue collar American life.But Bruce Springsteen is to be recognised by the most British of...
    05h00
Nothing has really changed’: letters from 1719 reveal familiar worries of London life
Harriet Sherwood    From expensive rent to efforts to keep up with fashion, a young man’s missives on display in Cumbria are relatable to todayWhen Ben Browne set off on horseback from his small village in the north of England for the bright lights of London in , his concerns were not so different from those of...
25  mars     20h45
Poem inspired by New York mugging wins top prize in National Poetry Competition
Ella Creamer    Imogen Wade’s The Time I Was Mugged in New York City impresses judges for lyricism in the account of an abduction’ Scroll down to read the winning poemA poem inspired by the author’s experience of being mugged has won the first prize of , in the National Poetry Competition.The Time I Was...
27  mars     19h24
Cultural and social vandalism’: job cut plans at Goldsmiths attacked
Sally Weale Education correspondent    Union claims up to a quarter of all academic roles at financially pressed London institution face the axePlans for mass redundancies at Goldsmiths, University of London, have been called a horrifying act of cultural and social vandalism and the biggest assault on jobs at any UK university in...
    18h04
Beatings, humiliation and loss of self-worth: how Edinburgh Academy victims were scarred
Severin Carrell and Libby Brooks    Former schoolboys at the private school give raw testimonies about abuse meted out by John Brownlee Sadistic’ teacher found to have assaulted pupils for yearsThe enormity of the abuse suffered at the hands of the Edinburgh Academy teacher John Brownlee became clear when the first witness was...
26  mars     10h53
Special educational needs in English schools in crisis’, minister admits
Ben Quinn Political correspondent    Gillian Keegan says parents having to fight to get right support’ as unions say provision falls short of what is neededSpecial educational needs provision in England is in the grip of a crisis, the education secretary has said, as school unions questioned whether a funding boost promised for...
    00h01
School leaders welcome proposal to tackle harassment of teachers
Sally Weale Education correspondent    Creation of a cohesion and conflict unit’ in England is among recommendations in government commissioned reviewSchool leaders have welcomed proposals for the creation of a cohesion and conflict unit to support teachers who face freedom restricting threats and harassment during the course of...
27  mars     19h44
Gordon Brown calls for new poverty fund to halt slide into hungry decade’
Patrick Butler Social policy editor    Former PM says multibillion pound fund would be transitional arrangement’ to give struggling families breathing spaceBritain seems stuck in a doom loop of poverty. I have a plan to raise billions to address thatGordon Brown has called for the creation of a multibillion pound national poverty...
    19h44
Owners of Crooked House pub appeal against order to rebuild
Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent    ATE Farms had been issued with enforcement notice for unlawful demolition after fire gutted building The owners of the Crooked House pub in Himley have appealed against an order to rebuild the th century building, which was demolished days after a fire last year.The blaze on August, which is...
    19h29
Finley Boden should have been one of the most protected children’, finds review
Jessica Murray Midlands correspondent    Baby murdered by his parents after inadequate safeguarding’ by authorities in Derbyshire, says reportA month old baby, who was killed by his parents just days after a court returned him to their care, should have been one of the most protected children in the local authority area, a...
    12h19
Northumberland’s Farne Islands reopen to tourists after bird flu outbreak
Mark Brown North of England correspondent    Boats had been barred from landing since July owing to virus, which has ravaged populations of seabirdsThe puffins started arriving two weeks ago and now there are thousands of them fizzing around in a mad frenzy. They have joined kittiwakes, guillemots, razorbills, fulmars and shags. Soon...
    00h01
Mental illness costs England 300bn a year, study shows
Anna Bawden Health and social affairs correspondent    Yearly cost to people, business and public sector found to be twice as big as NHS England’s annual budgetMental illness costs England bn a year, equivalent to nearly double its NHS budget, according to research.Researchers for the Centre for Mental Health thinktank analysed the economic, health...
28  mars     05h00
Is China a major threat to British democracy? - Politics Weekly UK - podcast
Presented by John Harris with Tania Branigan and Peter Walker; produced by Frankie Tobi; music by Axel Kacoutié; the executive producers are Maz Ebtehaj and Nicole Jackson    Despite pressure from some Conservative MPs, the government stopped short of defining China as an official threat this week. How deep does Chinese interference in the UK go John Harris speaks to the Guardian’s foreign leader writer Tania Branigan and deputy political editor, Peter Walker. As MPs...
    05h00
The virus that infects almost everyone, and its link to cancer and MS - podcast
Presented by Ian Sample, produced by Holly Fisher and Madeleine Finlay, sound design by Tony Onuchukwu, the executive producer is Ellie Bury    On March it’s the th anniversary of the discovery of Epstein Barr virus, the most common viral infection in humans. The virus was first discovered in association with a rare type of cancer located in Africa, but is now understood to be implicated in of cancers, as well as the autoimmune...
27  mars     14h04
Banksy, doodles and a boat race: photos of the day - Wednesday
Selected by Natasha Rees-Bloor    The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world Continue reading...
    11h10
Police footage shows car ploughing through Norfolk field before fatal crash - video
Annina van Neel Peggy King Jorde Mike Brett Joseph Curran, Dominic Aubrey de Vere, Yvonne Isimeme Ibazebo, Jo Jo Ellison, Maya Wolfe-Robinson Jess Gormley Lindsay Poulton    Police helicopter footage captured the moment a stolen Land Rover ploughed through a field of maize to try to evade officers before returning to the road and causing a fatal crash. The driver of the stolen vehicle was over the legal drink driving limit when he smashed into a Nissan Juke on the A ...
    11h03
Buried: how we choose to remember the transatlantic slave trade - documentary
   The remote island of St Helena, a British overseas territory, is best known for Napoleon’s tomb the island’s biggest tourist attraction. However, while overseeing the construction of a long awaited airport on the island, Annina van Neel learns that the remains of thousands of formerly enslaved...