‘The caravan plot was an elaborate scheme contrived by organised criminals domestically and from offshore,’ AFP deputy commissioner Krissy Barrett says
Federal police say a caravan with explosives found in Sydney earlier this year was “never going to cause a mass casualty event” and was a “fake terrorism plot”.
The Australian federal police deputy commissioner, Krissy Barrett, said on Monday investigators now believed the caravan incident was concocted by criminals who wanted to cause fear for personal benefit.
A winding down of operations in Gaza has allowed Israel to turn its attention to the West Bank, with devastating effects
It has been just over six weeks since a ceasefire came into effect in Gaza, and it’s clear that it would more accurately be called a “reduce” fire, rather than a cessation. Scores of people are still being killed; enough, in any other scenario, to be deemed both alarming and newsworthy. More than 100 people have died since 19 January, Gaza’s civil defence service spokesperson says. Those killings constitute, alongside other breaches, a grim record of hundreds of reported ceasefire violations by the Israeli government.
The latest among them is Israeli authorities’ decision to halt humanitarian aid into Gaza, in order to put pressure on Hamas to accept new ceasefire terms: mere hours after the first phase of the ceasefire expired, Israel cut off all supplies. In doing so, Israel is using food and civilian relief as a political tool to achieve its objectives, a move that the Qatari foreign ministry, the midwife of hostage releases and ceasefire agreements over the past few months, called “a clear violation” of the terms of the truce and of international humanitarian law.
Monarch recalls ‘infectious energy’ of late reggae singer in Apple Music broadcast to celebrate Commonwealth Day
King Charles has paid tribute to the “marvellous, infectious energy” of the late reggae star Bob Marley, in a series of comments about his favourite music and musicians from around the Commonwealth.
In a broadcast released in a collaboration with Apple Music on Monday as part of Commonwealth Day celebrations, the king described meeting Marley and other music legends during his royal duties, as he shared his “personal playlist of hits that bring him joy”.
Watchdog warns that move, which also includes domestic abusers, must be closely watched to keep public safe
Domestic abusers and sex offenders in England and Wales will be rehabilitated by less-experienced staff with fewer qualifications from June, prompting warnings from a watchdog that the plans must be closely monitored to ensure public safety.
Proposals approved by ministers will roll out behaviour programmes for offenders to be delivered by “band 3” staff who are not fully qualified probation officers.
Commission for Healthier Working Lives warns against cutting benefits and calls for proactive route for 8m affected
Providing more support for people in ill health to stay in work could save the UK government more than £1bn, according to a report warning ministers against cutting benefits.
As the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, looks for savings before the 26 March spring statement, the cross-sector Commission for Healthier Working Lives has called for a new approach to supporting the 8 million people in Britain with a work-limiting health condition.
Most say they have seen no impact on applications for year 7 places, despite warnings from those against policy
Predictions that adding VAT to private school fees would set off a wave of parents moving children to the state sector have been proved wrong at their first key test, according to figures from councils in England.
While critics including the former chancellor Jeremy Hunt had predicted that up to 90,000 children could flood the state sector if VAT of 20% was charged, most councils say they have seen no impact from the policy in applications to start at state secondary schools later this year.
Chief executive of Reach says he is committed to print, and higher online income will keep business afloat
The boss of the publisher of the Mirror, Express and Star newspapers has said that its print titles will become loss-making in six to eight years, but that its burgeoning digital strategy will save them from closure.
The chief executive of Reach, which owns more than 100 news brands including the Manchester Evening News, the Birmingham Mail and the Liverpool Echo, said he intended to remain committed to print even when the operations became a drag on the business.
Echo vom Eierstock is opening up the overwhelmingly male Alpine folk music scene with new versions of lyrics about nagging wives and naive girls
Elena Kaiser just wanted to yodel, and living in central Switzerland, that didn’t seem too much to ask for. “But as a woman you couldn’t yodel in a choir unless you were already a professional; there were simply no options,” she says. There were also the words to the songs, portraying an idyllic Alpine life surrounded by pristine nature and overseen by a benevolent God, the men in charge and the women presented either as naive girls, self-sacrificing mothers or nagging wives. Kaiser couldn’t get past them: “The beautiful melodies with these completely outdated lyrics.”
So, in 2022, she founded Switzerland’s first feminist yodelling choir, and Echo vom Eierstock (“echo from the ovary”) has been rewriting traditional yodelling songs and dragging the Alpine folk music scene into the 21st century ever since.
More people were killed in the 1945 attack than the atomic bombing of Nagasaki a few months later, but there is no national memorial, accurate death toll or compensation for survivors
Not even the passage of eight decades has dimmed Shizuko Nishio’s memory of the night American bomber planes killed tens of thousands of people in the space of a few hours and turned her city to ash.
In the early hours of 10 March 1945, around 300 B-29 Superfortress bombers dropped 330,000 incendiary devices on Tokyo and killed an estimated 100,000 civilians, in an attack that cost more lives than the atomic bombing, months later, of Nagasaki.
Yunus is facing a huge security challenge as some police refuse to return to their posts, gang crime is rife and tensions simmer with the country’s army chief
When Muhammad Yunus flew back to Bangladesh in August, he was greeted by bleak scenes. The streets were still slick with blood, and the bodies of more than 1,000 protesters and children were piled up in morgues, riddled with bullets fired by police.
Sheikh Hasina had just been toppled by a student-led revolution after 15 years of authoritarian rule. She fled the country in a helicopter as civilians, seeking revenge for her atrocities, ransacked her residence.
Former Lenin Museum in Tampere, which opened in 1946 as a symbol of Finnish-Russian friendship, has rebranded amid Ukraine war
A Finnish museum dedicated to the Russian Soviet leaderVladimir Lenin has reopened under a new name and with new exhibits in response to rapidly changing relations between two neighbouring countries after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The former Lenin Museum in Tampere, which closed in November, reopened this month under a new name, Nootti, which refers to the Finnish word for a diplomatic note.
People warn of growing lawlessness amid concerns that thousands of escaped convicts may try to exact revenge
Mass prison escapes during the chaos of fighting in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where Rwanda-backed M23 rebels have captured two of its largest cities over the past two months, have caused panic among the public.
Jailbreaks involving thousands of people at four prisons in the region have accompanied the rapid advance that the militia started in January in its fighting against the Congolese army that also caused widespread chaos and confusion.
Yolanda Díaz Pérez’s leftwing government has championed employment reform similar to Labour’s proposals – and she tells British business there is nothing to fear
Spain’s leftwing deputy prime minister, Yolanda Díaz Pérez, has a message for Labour politicians as the UK government’s employment rights bill takes its next step to becoming law this week: take heart from our success.
With business groups in the UK issuing dire warnings about the impact of the workers’ rights package, Díaz, the minister of labour and social economy, remembers her own government’s battle when it thrashed out radical labour laws that came into force in 2022. “We went through nine months of hell, literally. We had the press against it, academia, research centres – everybody was saying this was going to contribute to unemployment and not eradicate it,” she recalls.
We are far more likely to use our hands to type or swipe than pick up a pen. But in the process we are in danger of losing cognitive skills, sensory experience – and a connection to history
The actor grew up poor, got rich, then lost everything backing the 2019 Homeless World Cup. Now he’s giving away more of his money to help 900 total strangers. Doesn’t he think he’s done enough?
Michael Sheen walks into a post office in Port Talbot and asks to withdraw £100,000. “That would be nice,” says the young woman behind the till. Then it dawns on her that he’s not joking. “Can I do £100,000?” she asks her colleague. She cannot.
“I loved that so much. She was really funny,” says Sheen. Filmed for a new Channel 4 documentary, Michael Sheen’s Secret Million Pound Giveaway, this was part of the actor’s two-year project to use £100,000 of his own money to buy £1m worth of debt, owed by about 900 people in south Wales – and immediately cancel it.
Donald Trump has lashed former Australian prime minister Malcolm Turnbull as a “weak and ineffective leader” who was rejected by the Australian people in a late-night social media post.
Taking to Truth Social platform just before midnight Sunday night in Washington DC, Trump said Turnbull led Australia from “behind” and did not understand China.
Crime scenes set up in Green Park area with 40-year-old man taken into custody, say police
A man has been arrested after a 40-year-old woman who was shot dead in Talbot Green, about 15 miles west of Cardiff.
The woman was found with serious injuries in the Green Park area of the Welsh town just after 6pm on Sunday and could not be saved by emergency services, south Wales police said.
How a rogue letting agency destroyed homes and caused hundreds of pounds in damage. Sirin Kale reports
Hajaj Hajaj was 79 when he rented out his house in south London, so his daughter, Kinda Jackson, urged him to use a reputable lettings agent for peace of mind. He hired a company called Imperial after being impressed by the professionalism of the agent, Shan Miah.
But, Kinda tells Helen Pidd, her father became seriously ill with Covid and almost died, and when he came out of hospital it was to find his wife had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, meaning he suddenly needed to pay for her care. He then discovered that during this time the rent for his property had suddenly stopped.
NFL MVP Josh Allen was rewarded Sunday with a contract extension worth $330m, with $250m of it guaranteed, which makes him among the league’s highest-paid players.
The Buffalo Bills announced the agreement, while two people with knowledge of the deal revealed the contract’s value to the Associated Press. The new deal adds two years to Allen’s contract and locks the 28-year-old in through the 2030 season.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy says ‘realistic proposals on the table’ in talks; Donald Trump hints US may be close to lifting intelligence pause. What we know on day 1,111
Top Ukrainian officials are due in Saudi Arabia to meet the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, and other Trump aides who were departing for Jeddah on Sunday. Andriy Yermak, the head of Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Ukrainian presidential office, is expected to lead Kyiv’s delegation. Zelenskyy is also expected to arrive in Saudi Arabia, on Monday, to meet with its crown prince. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was “fully committed” to a constructive dialogue in Saudi Arabia. “Realistic proposals are on the table. The key is to move quickly and effectively.” In February, US officials met about the war with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia without Ukrainian representatives present.
Donald Trump said on Sunday that he expected good results from the talks. He told reporters that his administration had “just about” lifted an intelligence pause on Ukraine, and was looking at a lot of things with respect to tariffs on Russia. Trump said he thought Ukraine would sign a minerals agreement with the US. “I want them to want peace,” Trump said.
A large warehouse wason fire in Russia’s Samara region after a Ukrainian drone attack, Russian authorities said on Monday morning. Reports also emerged of an attack targeting the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery, citing reports of drone flights and an explosion from the refinery’s direction.
Zelenskyy said Russia had carried out “hundreds of attacks” against Ukrainians last week. About 1,200 guided aerial bombs, nearly 870 attack drones and more than 80 missiles of different types had been used.
There were mixed reports about the outcome after Russian special forces sneaked through a disused gas pipeline to attack Ukrainian units holding territory in Russia’s Kursk region. Ukraine’s military general staff confirmed on Saturday evening that Russian “sabotage and assault groups” used the pipeline in a bid to gain a foothold outside Sudzha. They were attacked with rockets and artillery after being “detected in a timely manner … The enemy’s losses in Sudzha are very high”. Russian Telegram channels showed photos of what they said were special forces wearing gas masks and moving along what looked like the inside of a large pipe. Other videos showed what were said to be the Russians being observed from the air and attacked. The footage could not be verified.
Russia on Sunday announced it had captured territory in Ukraine’s Sumy region, across the border from Kursk, for the first time since 2022 in a cross-border offensive. Russia’s defence ministry also said on Sunday that its troops had taken four villages north and north-west of Sudzha, the closest 12km (7.5 miles) from its centre. The claim came a day after the reported the Russiancapture of three other villages near Sudzha.
Ukrainian drones targeted oil infrastructure in southern and central Russia overnight into early Sunday, Russian officials and Telegram channels said. A drone struck an oil depot in Cheboksary, a Russian city on the Volga River about 1,000km (620 miles) from the border, the local governor said. Footage online showed what appeared to be a fire at or near one ofRussia’s largest oil refineries, in the southern city of Ryazan. Shot, a news channel on Telegram, said residents heard explosions near the refinery. The local governor, Pavel Malkov, confirmed a Ukrainian drone attack in the area.
France said on Sunday that it would use profits from frozen Russian assets to finance an additional €195m ($212m) in arms for Ukraine, the latest in a series of military aid deliveries funded through the assets. In an interview with the La Tribune Dimanche newspaper, the French foreign minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said Paris would send more 155mm artillery shells and glide bombs for the Mirage 2000 fighter jets it gave to Ukraine.
Zelenskyy made a quip on Sunday as he gave a speech at an awards ceremony: “Sorry I’m not in a suit.” It brought smiles and applause. The president was dressed in a black outfit with Ukraine’s trident symbol similar to what he wore during his acrimonious exchange with the US president at the White House in February.
US tariff policy has dominated headlines in recent weeks. In many respects, this shouldn’t come as a surprise – President Trump has been clear in his belief in tariffs as an effective policy tool. Indeed, the new US administration views tariffs as not only a means of raising tax revenue but also as a negotiating tool and a lever to ameliorate so-called trade imbalances. So far, we have seen both the threat of tariffs and the use of tariffs to achieve all these objectives.
Despite all the headlines, Australia hasn’t really been subject to large changes in tariffs on its exports to the US. The US has, however, announced a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminium imports. If Australia is not successful in obtaining an exemption, Australian steel and aluminium exports to the US will be subject to new tariffs from 12 March. At an aggregate level, this won’t make much difference to Australia’s trade balance because the value of our exports of steel and aluminium to the US is only a very small proportion of our total exports. This is not to ignore the fact that, at a firm or industry level, a 25% tariff is significant.
KPMG/REC report shows decline in people being placed in roles continues, while unemployment is rising, says BDO
Companies are putting the brakes on hiring new staff amid a “subdued” economic outlook and rising wage bills, according to the latest business surveys.
In signs of a weakening UK labour market, the consultancy KPMG and the trade body the Recruitment and Employment Confederation (REC) said a marked decline in the number of people being placed in permanent and temporary roles continued in February, although hiring declined at a slower pace than in January.
Exclusive: Compulsory purchase orders will no longer need Whitehall permission under shake-up of planning rules
Councils and mayors will be granted greater powers to seize land to build affordable housing under the Labour government’s shake-up of planning rules this week.
Local authorities in England and Wales will no longer need permission from central government to make compulsory purchase orders (CPOs), in a change that ministers hope will unlock vacant and derelict land.
Civicus, an international non-profit, puts country alongside Democratic Republic of Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia
The United States has been added to the Civicus Monitor Watchlist, which identifies countries that the global civil rights watchdog believes are currently experiencing a rapid decline in civic freedoms.
Civicus, an international non-profit organization dedicated to “strengthening citizen action and civil society around the world”, announced the inclusion of the US on the non-profit’s first watchlist of 2025 on Monday, alongside the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Italy, Pakistan and Serbia.
Michelle Keegan is the only nurse in this 50s-set drama about Brits emigrating to Australia, but its slight take on social issues that are relevant today recalls the BBC birthing drama
Sunday nights on BBC One should offer an escape from the disappointments of the working week. But what’s this? We’re thousands of miles away and in the distant past, but we’re uncomfortable and frustrated, mopping our troubled brows and wondering if we’ve all made a horrible mistake? That’s right: Ten Pound Poms is back for a second season.
Based on a real scheme that saw hundreds of thousands of Britons flee postwar austerity and move to Australia, paying a tenner for their passage on the understanding that a utopian existence awaited them in Oz, Ten Pound Poms concerns a gang of unfortunate Englanders who sail from Southampton to Sydney in 1956. Their plucky optimism is instantly squished when they find that, as was often the case with the real ten-pounders, the suburban idyll they’ve been promised is more like two-star glamping. Dumped in bug-infested huts built in a ring around a scrubby field, the would-be new Australians are derided and exploited at every turn, which makes their preexisting problems – teen pregnancy, addiction, loveless marriages – even more taxing.
There is a rescue under way in Newmarket Road, Windsor, where cars have tried to drive through flood waters.
The Queensland government has stressed to use common sense, adjust speeds and not drive through flood waters. There has been some heavy rainfall overnight and the roads are dangerous.
We’ve been working on a budget now, in the normal course, and budget submissions have been presented to the expenditure review committee. I sit on that.
And so we’ve been very busy in over the last few months, really, and particularly over the last few weeks, in the lead-up to the budget.
Former central banker will be only second prime minister in Canadian history without a seat in parliament
Mark Carney, the former central banker who oversaw the response to financial crises in North America and the UK, will become the next prime minister of Canada after winning the race to lead the country’s federal Liberal party.
Carney, 59, takes on the role as Canada is locked in a potentially catastrophic trade war with the US, long its closest ally and largest trading partner. Last week Donald Trump announced a 25% tax on all Canadian goods, with a carveout for the automotive and energy sectors. The tariffs have the power to push Canada’s fragile economy in a recession.
Henley’s chip-in at 16th took him past fellow American
Rory McIlroy to go to Augusta for Masters recce
The slowest of burners preceded such a dramatic conclusion. The biggest victory of Russell Henley’s career arrived as Collin Morikawa was left to ponder how on earth he failed to close out the Arnold Palmer Invitational. For much of Sunday, Morikawa had looked untouchable.
Henley took to the 71st tee of the event holding the lead for the first time. He had claimed that with an astonishing chip in for an eagle on the 16th. This completed a four-shot swing in only three holes. Henley birdied the 14th as Morikawa bogeyed. After Henley’s exploits two holes later, Morikawa had no scope for recovery. Henley’s 11 under par took the Bay Hill tournament by a single stroke. He had trailed Morikawa by three after 10 fourth-round holes.
Five people onboard survived small plane crash near Lancaster but officials say no details of their condition
A small airplane with five people onboard crashed in a parking lot near Lancaster airport in Manheim Township, Pennsylvania, on Sunday afternoon, authorities said.
The Federal Aviation Administration confirmed the single-engine plane was a Beechcraft Bonanza, and the incident happened around 3pm in Lancaster county.
Exclusive: Justice minister James Timpson says more cell capacity means emergency early release schemes won’t be needed
Prisons are being prepared to cope with a sudden influx of offenders in case there is a repeat of last summer’s riots, the justice minister, James Timpson, has told the Guardian.
Hundreds of extra makeshift cells and newly refurbished cells will be in use by the end of this year, officials have disclosed, as the prisons minister said there will be “no more emergency measures” such as early release schemes.
Arsenal 15 points behind Liverpool with game in hand
‘Today the frustration is that we haven’t won’
Mikel Arteta has refused to concede the title race is over, despite Arsenal languishing 15 points behind Liverpool after a 1-1 draw at Manchester United on Sunday.
Arteta’s side have played 28 games, one fewer than Liverpool, but Arne Slot’s team need a maximum of only 16 points from their final nine matches to become champions. Arteta was asked if deep down he believes the Premier League title will again elude Arsenal.
Norrie loses 6-3, 7-5 to American 10th seed in third round
Former British No 1 hits double fault on match point
It has been three and a half years since Cameron Norrie departed the Indian Wells Tennis Garden having shocked his sport by winning one of its most important trophies. A rise into the top 10 of the ATP rankings and a Wimbledon semi-final followed soon after.
Despite two extremely positive earlier performances during the past week in the desert, Norrie remains a considerable distance from reproducing his success of old. The 29-year-old was outclassed in the third round of Indian Wells by the No 10 seed Tommy Paul, whose greater weapons and confidence in the decisive moments earned him a 6-3, 7-5 win.
Maureen Koster ‘conscious and responsive’ after incident
British silvers also for George Mills and 4x400m women
Melissa Courtney-Bryant held her nerve – and her footing – amid one of the more disturbing scenes on an athletics track in recent memory to win a gutsy 3,000m European Indoor Championships silver medal.
Early in the race, the Briton heard a scream and knew that the Dutch athlete Maureen Koster, her close friend, had crashed to the ground. What she didn’t know was that Koster had also smashed her head and was unconscious.
President downplays recent stock market volatility that followed his ducking and weaving over tariff policy
Donald Trump on Sunday refused to rule out the possibility that the US economy will head into recession this year and that inflation will rise, as his chaotic trade tariffs policy cause uncertainty and market turbulence.
The US president predicted that his economic goals would take time and a period of transition to bear fruit. But when asked in an interview with the Fox News show Sunday Morning Futures “are you expecting a recession this year?” he demurred.
Far-right supporters of the candidate claim decision is undemocratic and Elon Musk describes his ban as ‘crazy’
Romania’s central election authority has barred far-right pro-Russia candidate Călin Georgescu from running in May’s presidential election re-run.
The rejection of his candidacy, which was announced on Sunday evening and was condemned by far-right party leaders as undemocratic, can be challenged at the constitutional court.
Ruben Amorim had set the bar low, as he so often has sought to do during his tumultuous four months in charge at Manchester United. “We just need to survive,” the manager said as he assessed what used to be the must-see fixture of the English calendar, wary of a selection crisis that would deprive him of 11 players.
United did more than that and they were so close to cutting through the gloom at Old Trafford, all of the multi-layered problems, with an overdue victory. “Well, at least we’ve got Bruno,” read the cover of the United We Stand fanzine which was on sale outside the stadium. Never a truer sentence.
Vinícius Júnior also scores in 2-1 win over Rayo Vallecano
Getafe’s late double stuns Atlético; Napoli beat Fiorentina
Kylian Mbappé and Vinícius Júnior scored in the first half to give Real Madrid an easy 2-1 win over neighbours Rayo Vallecano on Sunday that helped them draw level at the top of the table in the battle to retain their La Liga crown.
Only one point separates Spain’s three biggest clubs in one of the closest title races in recent years with Barcelona leading the pack on 57 points, ahead of second-placed Real on goal difference with Atlético Madrid in third on 56 points after a 2-1 loss at Getafe earlier on Sunday. Barça, who will face Atlético next Sunday, have a game in hand after their match against Osasuna on Saturday was postponed due to the sudden death of their team doctor.
The Internet Watch Foundation (IWF) said the “worrying” trend showed that criminals behind extortion attempts were casting their nets wider in an attempt to trap victims.
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