Role

Vice-president faces challenges as he assumes potential role of point man in endeavor to end a war he opposedAs a man who wears his Christian beliefs on his sleeve, JD Vance is no doubt acutely conscious of Jesus Christ’s dictum from his sermon on the mount declaring that “blessed are the peacemakers”.Yet the US vice-president, a Catholic convert who recently found himself at odds with Pope Leo, is discovering the difficulties of living up to that standard while serving a mercurial political master who is waging a war Vance once cautioned against. Continue reading...

Lauren Ashley Mastrosa given 18-month community corrections order after book was read by handful of advance readersThe author behind an offensive novel depicting toddler role-play has been convicted but spared jail for penning child abuse material.Lauren Ashley Mastrosa, a 34-year-old former marketing executive for a Christian charity, wrote Daddy’s Little Toy under the pen name Tori Woods and published it through an online pre-release in March 2025. Continue reading...

Jay Bryant’s admission came more than two decades after the rapper’s killing, but he didn’t name others involvedSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxNearly a quarter century after rap star Jam Master Jay of Run-DMC was shot to death, a man admitted in court Monday to a role in a killing that stymied investigators for decades.Jay Bryant pleaded guilty to a federal murder charge, telling a judge that he helped other people get into a recording studio to ambush the DJ, born Jason Mizell. Continue reading...

Not using capital punishment ‘really a requirement’ for Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly, says presidentIsrael’s observer status at the Council of Europe’s parliamentary assembly could be suspended over the country’s new law mandating the death penalty for Palestinians convicted of some offences, the president of the body has said.Petra Bayr, an Austrian Social Democrat and president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace), said not using the death penalty was “really a requirement” of having observer status at the pan-European human rights body, which has no connection to the EU. Continue reading...

Ex-civil servant testifying about Peter Mandelson says there was a ‘creep’ of senior diplomatic roles going to political figuresUK politics live – latest updatesDowning Street asked the Foreign Office to find a senior diplomatic role for Keir Starmer’s then communications chief, Matthew Doyle, the department’s former lead civil servant revealed on Tuesday.Testifying to MPs at parliament’s foreign affairs select committee, Olly Robbins said he had had several conversations with No 10 about finding a role for Doyle, who was later suspended as a Labour peer after it emerged he had campaigned for a friend charged with possessing indecent images of children. Continue reading...

Exclusive: deputy prime minister says it is ‘inexplicable’ top civil servant kept Downing Street in darkKeir Starmer would have blocked Peter Mandelson from serving as the UK’s ambassador to Washington had he known he failed security vetting, David Lammy has said, as he attempted to shore up the prime minister amid damaging fallout from the row.In his first public comments on the vetting affair, Lammy said it was “inexplicable” that Oliver Robbins, the former top civil servant who was forced out of the Foreign Office this week, had opted to leave Downing Street in the dark over the outcome. Continue reading...

Exit of former Newsnight editor after eight years comes after appointment of new chief executive Priya DograChannel 4’s content chief, Ian Katz, who holds responsibility for the broadcaster’s £650m annual programming budget and output, is to leave after almost nine years in the post.Katz, a former senior executive at the Guardian, became the channel’s director of programmes in January 2018, having moved from being the editor of BBC’s Newsnight. Continue reading...

Report finds there were dozens of warning signs about Axel Rudakubana as far back as 2019 and identifies five main failures of those involvedSouthport attack blamed on ‘catastrophic’ failures by agencies and killer’s ‘irresponsible’ parentsIt took seconds for Axel Rudakubana to carry out one of the most barbaric attacks on children in modern British history.Yet by the time he entered that joy-filled holiday club, where young girls sat making Taylor Swift bracelets, his deadly intentions had been known for years. Continue reading...

Jennifer Abbott, a film-maker, was found dead in her Camden flat with Nancy Pexton, 69, accused of her murder A woman killed her older sister before stealing her gold diamond-encrusted Rolex watch, a court has heard.Nancy Pexton, 69, appeared before the Old Bailey on Thursday accused of murdering Jennifer Abbott in her north London flat on 10 June last year. Continue reading...

Survivors of UK’s mother and baby home scandal welcome news after years of campaigning for recognitionUK politics live – latest updatesThe Church of England is expected to make a formal apology for its role in forced adoptions and the UK’s mother and baby home scandal.Survivors of the scandal – in which hundreds of thousands of children were forcibly separated from their mothers – have welcomed the news after years of campaigning for recognition. Continue reading...

• The U.S. Energy Department announced plans Wednesday to loan an additional 10 million barrels of crude from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of a 172 million-barrel drawdown. • West Texas Intermediate crude prices exceeded $112 per barrel due to ongoing Iran conflict disruptions, prompting the reserve release to curb domestic fuel costs. • Critics warn the extensive SPR drawdown heightens U.S. energy vulnerabilities during prolonged geopolitical tensions and supply chain risks through key chokepoints.

Inquiry will directly look at whether factors influenced offending and institutional response in England and WalesThe grooming gangs inquiry will directly examine whether ethnicity, culture or religion influenced offending and whether they shaped the institutional response.The statutory independent inquiry has published its terms of reference, which will be laid before parliament when it returns from recess on 13 April. The inquiry will then begin its full investigation into the group-based sexual exploitation of children in England and Wales. Continue reading...

Islamabad is attempting high-wire diplomacy between US and Iran, but Israel could spoil any chance of success Intensifying Israeli bombing of civilian targets in Iran and an expanding US military force in the Gulf are casting a dark shadow over Pakistan’s hopes of hosting peace talks between Iran and the US.Pakistan is attempting high-wire diplomacy, using its relative neutrality as a country with good relations with Iran and the US, to provide a venue for negotiations. It is not a player in the Middle East and does not host any American military bases, so it does not bring the baggage of other potential regional mediators. Continue reading...

Tolkan, known for portraying authoritarian figures, died ‘peacefully’ in Lake Placid, New York, his agent saidJames Tolkan, known for his roles as an authoritarian figure in the Back to the Future and Top Gun films, has died. He was 94.Tolkan died Thursday in Lake Placid, New York, where he lived, his booking agent, John Alcantar, said Saturday. A brief obituary published on the Back to the Future website said Tolkan died “peacefully”, but no cause of death was given. Continue reading...

At least 77 people killed in anti-corruption youth uprising in September, which began over a brief social media banNepal’s former prime minister, KP Sharma Oli, was taken into custody on Saturday as police investigate whether he was negligent in failing to prevent dozens of deaths during Gen Z protests last September.This week, a Nepali panel which investigated violence during the anti-corruption protests recommended that Oli, 74, be prosecuted for failing to prevent the crackdown on the protests. Continue reading...

Report shows black music accounts for 80 per cent of money generated by UK industry in past 30 yearsLeading figures in the UK music industry are calling for more work to be done to support black talent in executive roles as a report finds that 80% of UK music revenue has been generated by black music in the past 30 years.A recent report by UK Music states that black music has made £24.5bn out of the £30bn generated by the UK music industry in the past 30 years. However, industry figures have highlighted that black people are still kept out of top executive roles. Continue reading...

Trump has yet to nominate a permanent CDC director and the Senate confirmation of his pick for top doctor is in limboSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe Trump administration’s “Make America healthy again” (Maha) agenda appears to be stalled as two of the government’s most influential public health positions sit empty.The president has yet to nominate a permanent director for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), leaving a leaderless agency that has been plagued by turmoil for the past year. At the same time, Trump’s controversial pick for surgeon general, Casey Means, remains in limbo as her nomination stalls in the Senate. Continue reading...

• American actress Victoria Pedretti celebrates her 31st birthday on March 23, 2026, continuing her career in psychological thrillers and acclaimed television work. • Pedretti gained widespread attention for her roles in popular Netflix series, where she anchors narratives with raw emotional intensity and has earned critical praise and a dedicated fanbase. • The actress was diagnosed with ADHD at age seven and expressed early interest in musical theatre before pursuing her successful acting career.

National intelligence director said voting machine seizure was requested by US attorney in Puerto Rico – who’s been trying to revive 2020 election conspiracy theoryWhen the US director of national intelligence (DNI), Tulsi Gabbard, testified on Thursday that her office seized voting machines from Puerto Rico, she said it was at the request of the office of the US attorney in Puerto Rico. Left unsaid was that the prosecutor, as the Guardian previously reported, has been the center of a push by Donald Trump supporters to revive a long discredited conspiracy theory purporting to link Venezuela to Trump’s 2020 electoral defeat.Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro, the conspiracy theory maintains, controlled electronic voting machines worldwide and remotely manipulated results in 2020 to deprive Trump of a presidential victory. Continue reading...

Daria Boyarskaya coordinating OSCE mission to monitor next month’s parliamentary vote in countryHungarian rights groups have raised concerns over the appointment of Vladimir Putin’s former interpreter to a key role in an international election monitoring mission, amid fears of Russian interference ahead of Hungary’s crucial vote next month.Daria Boyarskaya, who worked for many years for Russia’s foreign ministry and interpreted in numerous high-level meetings including one between Putin and Donald Trump, is now a senior adviser at the parliamentary assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE-PA), based in Vienna. She is coordinating the body’s mission to monitor next month’s parliamentary election in Hungary. Continue reading...

• Houston Methodist scientists identified TDP43 protein as a critical regulator of DNA mismatch repair, connecting it to ALS, frontotemporal dementia, and cancer risks. • Lead investigator Muralidhar L. Hegde, Ph.D., stated 'DNA repair is one of the most fundamental processes in biology' and TDP43's role has major implications for these diseases. • The peer-reviewed study, published in Nucleic Acids Research on March 15, 2026, was funded by NIH's NINDS and National Institute on Aging.