UK weather: temperatures in southern England could hit 19C this week

Some areas forecast to have warmer weather than Ibiza and Corfu on Thursday’s spring equinox

Parts of the UK are expected to be warmer than Ibiza and Corfu this week on the first official day of spring.

This Thursday marks the spring equinox and temperatures could reach 19C (66F) in the south of England. The Met Office meteorologist Becky Mitchell said that was 8C hotter than the average for the time of year.

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Arrest warrants issued as death toll rises to 59 from Kočani nightclub fire in North Macedonia – as it happened

More than 150 people injured after blaze broke out in the early hours at Pulse club in town 60 miles from Skopje

At least 59 killed in North Macedonia nightclub fire

North Macedonia’s public prosecutor Ljupco Kocevski has said five prosecutors would investigate the fire.

“At the moment, orders have been issued for collecting of evidence” and some people were being interviewed, Kocevski said.

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Russell T Davies: gay society in ‘greatest danger I’ve ever seen’ after Trump win

Exclusive: Doctor Who writer says he feels ‘a wave of anger heading towards us’ and hostility in UK as well as US

Russell T Davies has said gay society is in the “greatest danger I have ever seen”, since the election of Donald Trump as US president in November.

Speaking to the Guardian at the Gaydio Pride awards in Manchester on Friday, the Doctor Who screenwriter said the rise in hostility was not limited to the US but “is here [in the UK] now”.

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Essex couple’s £1,500 fine for reporting Channel stowaway is cancelled

Adrian and Joanne Fenton hit with penalty after calling police when they found a boy hiding inside bike-rack cover

A couple who were fined £1,500 after reporting a boy who had stowed away on the back of their motorhome for their journey from France to Essex have had the penalty cancelled.

Adrian and Joanne Fenton from Heybridge were fined by the Home Office for “failing to check that no clandestine entrant was concealed” when they returned to their home across the Channel.

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Wendy Williams’s tragic tale shines a light on court-ordered conservatorship

Former talkshow host takes public her battle to remove her guardian, ordered by a court due to dementia and aphasia

The note dropped from the upper floor window of an assisted living facility in New York on the morning of 10 March contained a simple message: “Help! Wendy!!” it read.

For any patient inside, it would have been tragic. But, astonishingly, the writer of this note was Wendy Williams, a trailblazing television talkshow host and once one of the most recognisble daytime TV faces in America.

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Trump says the economy ‘went to hell’ under Biden. The opposite is true

By standard measures such as job and GDP growth and the stock market, the US economy was in excellent shape

Donald Trump keeps saying he inherited a terrible economy from Joe Biden and many Americans believe him, even though that’s not true. During his White House marketing event for Tesla on Tuesday, Trump said the US and its economy “went to hell” under Biden. Last week, in his national address to Congress, Trump said: “We inherited from the last administration an economic catastrophe and an inflation nightmare.”

But the truth is that by standard economic measures, the US economy was in excellent shape when Biden turned over the White House keys to Trump, even though most Americans, upset about inflation, told pollsters the economy was in poor shape.

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The cars eating Australia: should we be trying to reverse our attraction to SUVs and utes?

Australians are hooked on tax perks while road fatalities and emissions are surging and spending on petrol and insurance increasing

It’s impossible not to have noticed it – cars have been getting bigger and bigger, and SUVs and four-door utes have become Australia’s new family car. Gone are the days of the Commodore or Corolla fighting it out as Australia’s most popular vehicle. We’re now well into the era of the Ranger, RAV4, HiLux and Outlander, as well as increasing flirtations with US-style pickup trucks, and it shows no sign of stopping.

It happened gradually, despite the mounting evidence about some of the problems posed by these vehicles.

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‘Great to see our friends arrive’: SpaceX capsule docks with ISS to bring back stranded Nasa astronauts

The arrival of four astronauts will allow Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams to return to Earth after nine months on the International Space Station

There were emotional scenes of smiling astronauts hugging and embracing in zero gravity on the International Space Station on Sunday after a replacement crew docked with the orbital outpost – a step towards the return home of two astronauts who have been stranded for more than nine months.

A SpaceX capsule delivered four astronauts to the ISS in a Nasa crew-swap mission that will allow the pair of stuck astronauts, Barry “Butch” Wilmore and Suni Williams, to return home after nine months on the orbiting lab.

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Farage reportedly met Cummings for ‘friendly chat about the general scene’

Pair recently met to discuss Donald Trump, Elon Musk and other political matters, Sunday Times says

Nigel Farage has reportedly met Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s adviser turned nemesis, after the Vote Leave founder suggested voters should back Reform UK at the local elections.

Cummings, who was once a sworn enemy of Farage during the EU referendum as he battled to keep control of the leave campaign, is reported to have met the Reform leader to discuss Whitehall changes, which allies said was the strongest sign yet that Farage was taking seriously the idea of becoming prime minister.

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Nightclub fire in North Macedonia kills 59 and leaves more than 100 injured

Interior minister says blaze at pop concert in eastern town of Kočani probably caused by pyrotechnics

Fifty-nine people have been killed and more than 100 injured in a fire that broke out in a nightclub in North Macedonia early on Sunday.

The blaze in the small eastern town of Kočani is thought to have erupted when special-effect pyrotechnics caused the roof of the Pulse nightclub to go up in flames.

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