Trussell report finds that higher levels of poverty mean Britain is losing out on £38bn a year of potential output Keir Starmer has been warned that Labour’s tough stance on benefits is costing Britain’s economy billions of pounds each year while adding to the pressure on public services by pushing more people into poverty. With the government under fire over its planned benefit cuts, the anti-poverty charity Trussell said that failing to tackle hunger and hardship would have severe human costs and cause damage to the wider economy and public finances. Continue reading...

Five districts across Kyiv suffered damage in attack that is among the deadliest on the capital in the three-year war At least nine people have been killed and more than 60 wounded in a “massive” missile attack on Kyiv, according to Ukraine’s state emergency service. It is among the deadliest attacks on the capital of the three-year war. Ukrainian authorities issued an alert for a missile attack, and AFP journalists heard explosions across the capital early on Thursday. Continue reading...

Kremlin’s most prized spies were sent in to Czechoslovakia to whip up the 1960s reform protests in a move then replicated across the eastern bloc

3D map of a cubic millimetre of mouse brain reveals half a billion synapses and 5.4km of neuronal wiring The most comprehensive circuit diagram of neurons in a mammalian brain has been created by scientists, providing groundbreaking insights into the mystery of how the brain works. The map is of a speck of a mouse’s visual cortex, smaller than a grain of sand, and traces the structure of 84,000 neurons linked by half a billion synapses and approximately 5.4km of neuronal wiring. The 3D reconstruction of the cubic millimetre of brain is helping uncover how the brain is organised and how different cell types work together, and could have implications for the understanding of intelligence, consciousness and neuronal conditions such as Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, autism and schizophrenia. Continue reading...

Big tech bet on Trump – now tariffs are tanking stocks, IPOs are stalling, and Musk’s role in Washington may be ending

Kerri Pegg, 42, of HMP Kirkham guilty of misconduct after inmate Anthony Saunderson gave her a Mercedes car A prison governor has been found guilty of misconduct in a public office, after she started a relationship with a Liverpool drug gang boss nicknamed “Jesse Pinkman” after a character in the TV show Breaking Bad. Kerri Pegg, 42, has been told she faces jail after she accepted a gift of a £12,000 Mercedes C-Class car, which Anthony Saunderson paid for with 34kg of amphetamines. Continue reading...

Traders leaving the New York Stock Exchange were trying to make sense of another day of volatility

French president speaks after missile attack on Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town that killed 20, including nine children. What we know on day 1,139 * See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverage French president Emmanuel Macron on Sunday called for “strong action” if Russia continued “to refuse peace”, days after a Russian ballistic missile killed 20 people, including nine children, in Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town. Despite US and European efforts to secure peace in Ukraine, Russia continued “to murder children and civilians”, Macron said. “My thoughts are with the children and all civilian victims of the bloody attacks carried out by Russia, including on 4 April in Kryvyi Rih,” Macron said on X. “A ceasefire is needed as soon as possible. And strong action if Russia continues to try to buy time and refuse peace.” Macron said that even though Ukraine accepted US president Donald Trump’s proposal for a complete ceasefire and European countries were also working to secure peace, “Russia is continuing the war with renewed intensity, with no regard for civilians.” Ukraine’s president said Russian attacks were launched on Sunday from the Black Sea, showing why Moscow is refusing to agree to an unconditional ceasefire: “they want to preserve their ability to strike our cities and ports from the sea.” Zelenskyy said a ceasefire at sea was key for overall security and bringing peace closer and suggested Vladimir Putin does not want to end the war, adding: “He is looking for ways to preserve the option of reigniting it at any moment, with even greater force.” Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia was increasing its aerial bombardment after its forces mounted a “massive” missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight, killing two people. “The pressure on Russia is still insufficient,” the Ukrainian president added. It would be unsafe for Russia to restart the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and would take Ukraine up to two years in peacetime if it regained control, the chief executive of the company that runs the site has said. Petro Kotin, chief executive of Energoatom, said “major problems” to overcome included insufficient cooling water, personnel and incoming electricity supply. The future of the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, is a significant aspect of any negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Continue reading...

PM uses launch of Labour local election campaign to attack Nigel Farage over past comments about Russian leader Keir Starmer has accused Reform UK of “fawning over Putin” as the prime minister used the launch of Labour’s local election campaign to attack Nigel Farage repeatedly over his past comments about the Russian leader. With Labour viewing Reform as potentially its greatest rival in next month’s elections, Starmer devoted more time to attacking the rightwing populist party than criticising the Conservatives. Continue reading...

Action urgently needed to save the conditions under which markets – and civilisation itself – can operate, says senior Allianz figure The climate crisis is on track to destroy capitalism, a top insurer has warned, with the vast cost of extreme weather impacts leaving the financial sector unable to operate. The world is fast approaching temperature levels where insurers will no longer be able to offer cover for many climate risks, said Günther Thallinger, on the board of Allianz SE, one of the world’s biggest insurance companies. He said that without insurance, which is already being pulled in some places, many other financial services become unviable, from mortgages to investments. Continue reading...

Israeli PM meets Viktor Orbán despite international arrest warrant over allegations of war crimes in Gaza Hungary has said it will begin the process of withdrawing from the international criminal court, hours after the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu – the subject of an ICC arrest warrant – arrived in the country for an official visit. “Hungary will withdraw from the ICC,” Gergely Gulyás, prime minister Viktor Orbán’s chief of staff, said. “The government will initiate the withdrawal procedure on Thursday in accordance with the constitutional and international legal framework.” Continue reading...

Writers will gather at the Facebook owner’s King’s Cross office in opposition to its use of the LibGen database to train its AI models Authors and other publishing industry professionals will stage a demonstration outside Meta’s London office today in protest of the organisation’s use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence. Novelists Kate Mosse and Tracy Chevalier as well as poet and former Royal Society of Literature chair Daljit Nagra will be among those in attendance outside the company’s King’s Cross office. Continue reading...

Maria Branyas Morera, US-born supercentenarian who died in Spain last August, found to have microbiota of an infant The US-born woman who was the world’s oldest living person before she died in Spain last August at age 117 once attributed her longevity…

Opposition centre-right party gains most votes ahead of Naleraq party, with coalition talks expected to begin Greenland has voted for a complete overhaul of its government in a shock result in which the centre-right Democrat party more than tripled its…

Stephen Kinnock responds to US president’s comments that he would not support Nato countries that do not spend enough on defence

Europe can’t wait to react to Trump’s mood swings but must show we have the will and the wallet to take back control • Ukraine war live It’s exhausting and humiliating to have no control – watching every meeting in the Oval Office for a glimmer of…

Organisations that take extreme risks to document atrocities, corruption and war crimes fear for their future after USAid cuts Each month Su Myat secretly crosses the border from Thailand into Myanmar to report on her conflict-ridden homeland, covering…

UK prime minister and French president will separately meet Donald Trump this week Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron have agreed to show “united leadership in support of Ukraine” when they separately meet Donald Trump this week. The UK prime minister and…

Parliamentary petition launched due to billionaire’s link to Trump, who has repeatedly threatened to conquer Canada More than 150,000 people from Canada have signed a parliamentary petition calling for their country to strip Elon Musk’s Canadian…

Europe estimated to have bought €22bn of fossil fuels from Russia in 2024 but gave €19bn to support Kyiv The EU is spending more money on Russian fossil fuels than on financial aid to Ukraine, a report marking the third anniversary of the invasion has…

Two-thirds of businesses surveyed by trade bodies say jobs will go as they urge government to delay changes More than two-thirds of hospitality businesses will reduce staffing as a result of tax changes taking effect in April, according to research by…

Agency reportedly seeking guidance from DoJ as Musk’s demand sparks confusion across key government agencies The new FBI director, Kash Patel, has told his agency employees to hold off on responding to an email from the Donald Trump administration asking…

The star has urged for a shift away from plans where artists must opt out of a system allowing AI free use of any online work Sir Elton John has called on the government to rethink proposals involving the relaxation of copyright rules in the hope of…