Wait

Campaign is said to be first time Labour-affiliated Unison is lobbying en masse against a key party policyMigrant workers and the UK’s largest union will carry out a mass leafleting campaign in Shabana Mahmood’s Birmingham constituency to protest against a planned change in immigration policy.The Labour-affiliated Unison union says the changes will adversely affect migrant care workers. About one-third of all care workers and one-fifth of all NHS workers are migrants. Continue reading...

Documents also show PM’s choice for US ambassador was offered ‘higher tiers’ briefing before vetting was finalisedUK politics live – latest updatesThe then cabinet secretary, Simon Case, appeared to advise Keir Starmer to complete security vetting for Peter Mandelson before announcing an appointment, documents reveal.The documents released last month by the Cabinet Office as part of the disclosures over the US ambassadorial appointment also show Mandelson was offered a “higher tiers” briefing before his vetting was finalised. Continue reading...

After Guardian reports about danger to V2X employees, sources say state department raised concerns with defense contractorSign up for the Breaking News US email to get newsletter alerts in your inboxThe US government has called on the defense contractor V2X to evacuate its employees from Kuwait and Iraq, warning the company that they could be targeted by Iran-backed militias, four sources said.The intervention follows reporting by the Guardian that V2X employees were stationed at US military bases in Kuwait, and at Martyr Brigadier General Ali Flaih airbase and Erbil in Iraq. Employees claimed having inadequate protections, receiving limited communications from the company about evacuation plans and being pressured to remain in the Middle East. In Iraq, workers say they are targets of Iran-allied attacks, and one employee was killed in a night-time drone attack in March. Continue reading...

Rising sea levels and ecological damage caused by heavy use of flood defence system force city authorities to consider next moveThe Arsenale, the colossal shipyard that was the engine of the Venetian Republic’s domination for seven centuries, remains the nucleus of the city’s control over the water. Its northern section is made up of cavernous brick warehouses called capannoni, which in the 16th century could produce a warship a day through a rigorously ordered assembly line.Now, one of them houses the operations centre of the Mose, the sprawling flood defence system that protects the city. Continue reading...

• President Trump expressed optimism that an Iran peace deal is 'looking very good,' signaling potential near-term resolution to the US-Iran conflict that has destabilized financial markets. • Investors are actively weighing the likelihood and terms of a potential Iran truce as a key variable influencing near-term market direction and energy price trajectories. • Geopolitical risk premiums embedded in oil prices and equity valuations could face significant repricing if a comprehensive ceasefire agreement is formally announced.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin was arrested after reporting on friendly fire incident during US conflict with IranMiddle East crisis live – latest updatesThe detention of a prize-winning international journalist over his reporting of a friendly fire incident in Kuwait is raising questions about the crackdown on freedom of speech across the Middle East as a result of the US-Israel war with Iran, the Committee to Protect Journalists has warned.Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, born in the US and a Kuwaiti national, was arrested on 3 March during a brief visit to Kuwait. He published footage of a US air force F- 15 E Strike Eagle crashing in al Jahra west of Kuwait city. On his Substack he said the pilot and weapons officer had successfully ejected and survived. He added that video circulating online showed local residents assisting one of the crew in a civilian truck. Continue reading...

Nixon’s Vietnam strategy appears at play in Trump’s Iran threats, but he may want to ponder the ex-president’s fateDonald Trump has made no secret of his admiration for Richard Nixon, Watergate and leaving office in disgrace be damned.But the president has taken his tribute act to new levels in threatening to erase Iran as a civilization, only to step back from the brink when the Tehran regime agreed – at a price – to re-open the economically vital strait of Hormuz. Continue reading...

Shop workers’ union Usdaw says 59% of its members in its annual survey said they would welcome more security guards in stores Retail workers have called for more security guards in stores after a Waitrose worker was sacked for taking matters into his own hands and confronting a shoplifter.Waitrose has been criticised over its treatment of Walker Smith after the Guardian reported he was fired two days after he stopped a shoplifter taking items from an Easter egg display, including Lindt chocolate bunnies. Continue reading...

Lord Richard Walker, Iceland’s chair, says Walker Smith is ‘welcome to a job with us’ as public fundraiser hits £7,500Keir Starmer’s cost of living tsar, who is the chair of Iceland, has offered a job to a worker who was sacked from Waitrose after trying to stop a shoplifter.Waitrose faced public outcry over its treatment of Walker Smith, who was fired two days after he stopped the shoplifter taking items from the Easter egg display, including Lindt chocolate bunnies. Continue reading...

The retailer has been criticised over treatment of Walker Smith, 54, who worked in London store for 17 yearsWaitrose is under growing pressure to reinstate an employee of 17 years who was sacked after tackling a shoplifter who was trying to steal Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.The retailer has been criticised for its treatment of Walker Smith, who described his devastation after managers fired him two days after he stopped the shoplifter taking items from the display of Easter eggs. Continue reading...

Members reportedly agree rise of 206,000 barrels a day in May but move symbolic with strait of Hormuz effectively closedMiddle East crisis – live updatesIranian drones struck Kuwait’s oil infrastructure on Sunday, causing “severe material damage” that threatened to further disrupt oil supplies already hit by the US and Israel’s war with Tehran.It came hours before members of the Opec+ group that represents major global oil suppliers gathered to discuss how to bolster output despite Iran’s effective closure of the crucial strait of Hormuz shipping route. Continue reading...

Walker Smith, 54, who worked for retailer for 17 years, says he grabbed bag from thief before they escapedA Waitrose employee of 17 years has described his devastation after being sacked for stopping a shoplifter who had ransacked a display of Lindt Gold Bunny Easter eggs.Walker Smith, a shop assistant at a branch of Waitrose in Clapham Junction, south London, was going about his normal duties when a customer stopped him. “They told me someone had filled up a Waitrose bag with the eggs,” he said. Continue reading...

A rescue mission involving volunteer helicopter crew and public donations ended in joy after Molly was located and brought home A spot of furry black and white appears among the jagged rocks of New Zealand’s alpine backcountry. It is Molly the border collie, sitting near the foot of a waterfall where she had been separated from her owner one week earlier.Molly was rescued on Tuesday after an avalanche of donations from the public funded a volunteer team made up of former helicopter pilots and crew to mount a search in the wilderness. Continue reading...

The attack came hours after Donald Trump threatened to ‘obliterate’ Iran’s energy plants and oil wells unless it opened the strait of Hormuz. Plus, Israel to give death penalty to Palestinians convicted of lethal attacksGood morning.Iran attacked and set alight a fully loaded crude oil tanker anchored at Dubai port, causing damage to the vessel’s hull, in the latest strike on merchant vessels in the Gulf and the strait of Hormuz. The fire was extinguished within hours and no injuries were reported.What has Trump said about the war’s end? He has continued to give mixed messages, threatening to destroy Iran’s energy facilities unless it agrees to peace terms – while simultaneously claiming diplomatic progress in ending the war the US started together with Israel. Iran has accused the US of using diplomacy as a smokescreen to prepare for more attacks.Which countries are most vulnerable to economic shocks? The Philippines, which imports almost all of its crude oil from the Middle East, is particularly exposed to surging prices, which have triggered protests and widespread anger.Why now? The government of Iran, which the US has attacked, is a prolific and sophisticated disinformation actor, while Russian and Chinese influence operations continue to target US allies globally.How would the embassies do it? They have been told to use local influencers, academics and community leaders abroad to make US-funded narratives feel more organic. Continue reading...

Dubai officials said a fire on the Al Salmi tanker had been extinguished and all crew members were safe after drone strikeMiddle East crisis – live updatesHow could US forcibly reopen strait of Hormuz and what are the risks? Iran attacked and set ablaze a fully loaded crude oil tanker at Dubai port’s anchorage, with the strike damaging the vessel’s hull and raising concerns about a possible oil spill.Dubai authorities said the drone attack caused a fire on board that was extinguished early on Tuesday, hours after the attack was first reported. The attack came hours after Donald Trump warned that the US would obliterate Iran’s energy plants and oil wells if it does not open the strait of Hormuz. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Health secretary’s pledges in doubt as analysis shows health service will not deliver key improvementsThe NHS is set to miss key targets to shorten waiting times for help at A&E, cancer care and planned hospital treatment, leaving millions of patients facing persistently long delays.The health service in England will not deliver a series of milestone improvements in its performance that ministers demanded it achieve by the time the fiscal year ends on Tuesday, a Guardian analysis of the NHS’s most recent data has found. Continue reading...

Passengers report varying experiences at different times of day at security screening as ICE agents assist TSA staffUS politics – live updatesHartfield-Jackson Atlanta international airport turned the digital wait time sign off days ago. Predicting passenger behavior can be hard; predicting the behavior of unpaid TSA agents is also hard. Keeping an accurate clock has been impossible.Even though ICE agents have started filling in for TSA screeners at some airports, a morning flight might mean a three-hour slog with lines winding around baggage carousels, from the security checkpoint all the way outside to the curb. Continue reading...

Rule change follows high court challenge brought by two doctors prevented from working in specialist fieldsDoctors who have been prevented from working in the NHS while they wait for asylum decisions are celebrating after the Home Office agreed to lift the ban. The changes come into force on Thursday.The changes to the immigration rules follow a high court challenge by two specialist doctors who had the relevant qualifications to work for the NHS but were prevented from taking up work. Doctors who have a break in their practice can quickly become deskilled. Until now, the ban has remained in place despite shortages of doctors and other healthcare professionals in some parts of the NHS. Continue reading...

More than 30 people face charges after collision between two trains that killed 57 people in February 2023A long-awaited trial has begun into Greece’s worst train tragedy, which killed 57 people in 2023, leaving the entire country in shock.Thirty-six people face charges and more than 350 witnesses are due to be heard at the trial that opened in the central city of Larissa, near where a freight train and a passenger train collided on 28 February 2023. Continue reading...

Scott Peyton left the Lafayette, Louisiana, diocese after priest admitted to abusing his son and was excommunicated months laterA Louisiana man who resigned as a Roman Catholic deacon after a priest molested his son and then was excommunicated from the church entirely by his local bishop is asking global church leaders to inform him of the fate of his appeal against the prelate’s decision, something that was supposed to be resolved more than a year earlier.In a letter to the Vatican entity in charge of clerical discipline, a canon – or church – law attorney representing Scott Peyton asserts that his case is “nuanced and requires careful consideration”. “To the extent that the delay reflects such diligence, he is grateful,” said the letter to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF), prepared by Dawn Eden Goldstein on 3 February and obtained recently by the Guardian. Continue reading...

People struggle to cook and businesses bear brunt as closure of strait of Hormuz slows imports of liquefied petroleum gasFor four days, Maya Rani, 36, has been arriving each morning at a gas distributor’s office in Delhi, her six-month-old daughter in her lap, waiting for hours. And each day she returns home empty-handed, told that a cooking gas cylinder may not be available for at least another week. Around her, the queue keeps growing, people clutching forms and documents, hoping to secure a cylinder.The flame in her kitchen began to fade last week and her husband, as he always does, took their 5kg cylinder to a local refiller. This time, there was nothing. The only option left was to apply for a government-subsidised supply, a process that has meant repeated visits, long waits and no certainty. Continue reading...

SEC now classifies crypto into five categories, with securities laws only applicable to one: digital securitiesThe US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Tuesday issued an interpretation clarifying which types of cryptocurrencies are considered securities and how a “non-security” digital asset could meet certain conditions to become an investment contract.The SEC’s new interpretation – which the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission also joined – classifies crypto tokens into five categories: digital commodities, digital collectibles, digital tools, stablecoins and digital securities, with the agency specifying that federal securities laws only apply to digital securities. Continue reading...

• The U.S. House of Representatives unanimously approved the Holocaust Expropriated Art Recovery (HEAR) Act of 2025 on March 16, with the bill now awaiting President Trump's signature to become law. • The legislation eliminates procedural legal defenses in Nazi-era art recovery claims, including acquisitive prescription, the act of state doctrine, and international comity, allowing foreign states to be subject to U.S. court jurisdiction for Nazi-looted art claims. • Representative Laurel Lee stated the new version ensures claims "are evaluated on their merits—not dismissed because of technical legal barriers," expanding upon the 2016 predecessor legislation.

• Italy's military reported a drone attack on the Ali al-Salem air base in Kuwait on Sunday, marking an expansion of hostile activity beyond primary conflict zones in Iran and Lebanon. • The strike demonstrates the geographic spread of military operations and drone threats across the Gulf region, threatening coalition infrastructure supporting operations in the broader conflict.

Former spy chief says recommendations regarding intelligence agencies shouldn’t wait for royal commission’s final reportGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastImprovements to public safety and intelligence in the wake of the Bondi terrorist attack “cannot wait until December”, former spy chief Dennis Richardson has said just days after he sensationally quit the antisemitism royal commission.“You cannot leave matters that go to public safety till the end of the year, particularly when you have a small section of the community living in such fear,” Richardson told an ABC podcast. Continue reading...