The Guardian

Exclusive: Thousands of pounds unlocked to fund more diversity initiatives in diocese of capital What is Project Spire and why is it dividing the church? Church of England clergy will be encouraged to promote antiracism in sermons as senior figures unlock thousands of pounds in funding to promote diversity initiatives in London. Church Commissioners, the body that manages C of E assets, is fundin…

App endured a major outage and user backlash over perceived censorship. Now it’s facing an inquiry by the California governor and an ascendant competitor A little more than one week ago, TikTok stepped on to US shores as a naturalized citizen. Ever since, the video app has been fighting for its life. TikTok’s calamitous emigration began on 22 January when its Chinese parent company, ByteDance, fi…

Approximately 20,000 Palestinians expected to leave territory for urgent medical care abroad Preparations to reopen Gaza’s main border crossing into Rafah began on Sunday though it was uncertain if any Palestinians would pass through it before the day’s end, officials have said. Before the war, the Rafah border crossing with Egypt was the only direct exit point for most Palestinians in Gaza to re…

Woman claims she spent night at Royal Lodge and had tour of Buckingham Palace, says lawyer A second woman has alleged that Jeffrey Epstein sent her to the UK to have a sexual encounter with Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, according to her lawyer. The woman has claimed she spent the night at the former prince’s residence Royal Lodge in 2010, her US lawyer, Brad Edwards, told the BBC . The woman, who i…

Voters to choose president and 57 members of congress, with current president’s hardline pick Laura Fernández expected to win first round Costa Rica heads to the polls on Sunday in an election dominated by increasing insecurity and warnings of an authoritarian turn in a country long seen as a model of liberal democracy in the region. Crime is a big concern for many voters as criminal groups battl…

The party is trying to shift conversation after the NEC blocked Andy Burnham from fighting the seat Good morning and welcome to our live coverage of UK politics. The Labour party has accused the Green party leader Zack Polanski of being cowardly for not standing in the Gorton and Denton byelection on 26 February. In an interview with The Observer , the Labour party’s chair, Anna Turley , said the…

About 20 countries including G7 states in talks on rare earths including calls for US to guarantee minimum price Ministers from the US, EU, UK, Japan, Australia and New Zealand will meet in Washington this week to discuss a strategic alliance over critical minerals. The summit is being seen as a step to repair transatlantic ties fractured by a year of conflict with Donald Trump and pave the way f…

Pressure mounts after government said it would publish names of those killed during recent unrest Calls are growing inside Iran for an independent inquiry into the number of people killed during recent protests after the government said it would oversee the publication of the names of the deceased. The highly unusual government move, announced on Thursday, is designed to head off claims that crim…

Nick Carter says easing controls on MDMA will allow drug to be used as alternative treatment for those with PTSD A former head of the British military is calling for the government to ease restrictions on the party drug MDMA so that it can be tested more cheaply as a treatment for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Sir Nick Carter, who was chief of the defence staff until 2021, …

Five years after the junta’s coup, the civil war devastating Myanmar has reached a turning point. The military is carrying out large-scale counter-offensives across the country to reclaim territory seized by pro-democracy rebels of various ethnic and religious backgrounds In Tanintharyi, the southernmost region of Myanmar, the local resistance has managed to contain the military. After five years…

Some families have lost up to £10,000 after being duped into sending money to fraudsters’ bank accounts Foreign students attending independent schools in the UK are being targeted by fraudsters seeking to intercept their fee payments, according to new research. Some families have lost up to £10,000 after being duped into sending money to the bank account of a criminal, after receiving a fake emai…

Late singer saids kids loved his personality and wanted to touch and hug him, and ‘sometimes it got me into trouble’ As Michael Jackson saw it, children would become enamored with his personality as well as want to touch and hug him – and “sometimes it [got] me into trouble,” the late US pop superstar says in previously unheard audio recordings contained in a new documentary. The UK’s Wonderhood …

Whether in streets draped in anti-drone nets or deep in urban basements, Kherson residents go about their everyday activities with the constant threat of Russian bombing Galyna Lutsenko, a crisis psychologist, is moving busily among a small group of children seated around a table in a basement in Kherson, unique in being Ukraine’s only leading city almost directly on the frontline with Russian fo…

Plaintiffs in case say they were lured from Japan, exploited for labour and cut off from families for generations It has been more than six decades since Eiko Kawasaki left Japan to begin a new life in North Korea . Then 17, she was among tens of thousands of people with Korean heritage who had been lured to the communist state by the promise of a “paradise on Earth”. Instead, they encountered so…

‘I quite frankly believe entirely that Sussan Ley has the support of the party room,’ shadow health minister Anne Ruston says Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Senior Liberal figures have downplayed the prospect of Sussan Ley losing a potential looming leadership spill, saying she enjoys support from most of the opp…