UK holidaymakers face cancelled flights and ferry delays in Easter travel chaos

High rates of staff absences due to Covid and fallout from P&O Ferries scandal contribute to disruption over busy spring break

Holidaymakers looking to get away for Easter are facing major disruption to travel, as airlines cancel more than 100 flights a day because of staff shortages and ferry operators struggle to meet demand following the suspension of P&O Ferries services.

The rise in passenger numbers over the spring break has coincided with high rates of staff absences due to the latest wave of Covid infections.

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Strong winds in north Wales were a tornado, experts confirm

Tornado with speeds of up to 114mph swept up sheep and caused extensive damage to farm in Pennal

Strong winds that caused “at least £100,000” of damage to a farm in north Wales have been confirmed as a tornado by experts.

The extreme weather struck Gogarth Hall Farm in Pennal on Wednesday, uprooting trees and lifting a ewe and lambs into the air.

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Labour accuses Sunak family of avoiding tens of millions in taxes

Chancellor obfuscated while imposing steep tax rises on ordinary Britons, says shadow minister

Rishi Sunak and his family potentially avoided paying tens of millions of pounds in taxes through his wife’s “non-dom” status while the chancellor imposed tax rises on the public, Labour has said.

The chancellor’s wife, Akshata Murty, gave in to mounting pressure on Friday, announcing she would pay UK taxes as Sunak’s position began to appear increasingly tenuous.

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British-born man dies after being caught in New South Wales floods

Tony Ikin, a dog breeder, had been travelling to Royal Easter Show when his car was submerged at Cobbity

A UK-born man has died after being caught in flood water on the outskirts of Sydney.

The body of the 68-year-old was found in his van on Friday morning at Cobbity about 43 miles south-west of Sydney’s central business district, New South Wales police said in a statement.

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Five key questions Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty have yet to answer

Analysis: While the chancellor says his wife paid all UK taxes due, pressure is building over what he hasn’t said about their finances

Rishi Sunak is under huge pressure over his financial affairs and those of his wife, Akshata Murty, the daughter of an Indian billionaire who made his money in IT. These are the key unanswered questions:

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As Britain learns to live with Covid, it faces a new pandemic of disruption

Staff shortages, delays and rising prices are playing havoc with the healthcare, education, farming, hospitality and travel sectors

Although the UK no longer faces the threat of lockdowns or intensive care units being imminently overrun, coronavirus is still disrupting much of society and the economy.

As Britain learns to live with Covid, the virus is still playing havoc with our daily lives, and these difficulties have been compounded by post-Brexit chaos in some in sectors.

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‘It’s a media war’: the UK’s top anti-oil campaigner fights on aged 80

In 50 years, Canvey Island’s George Whatley has won five victories against oil and gas firms trying to expand operations

George Whatley is probably Britain’s most successful anti-oil campaigner, but you won’t find him at Extinction Rebellion’s latest wave of protests or the Just Stop Oil campaign which has blocked fossil fuel infrastructure recently.

At 80 years old and after a recent spell in hospital, he will be taking it easy at his bungalow on Canvey Island, Essex. But if anyone can claim a place in the annals of successful environmental protests, it is this former Bank of England security guard.

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Queen pulls out of Maundy church service

Monarch to be represented by Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla Duchess of Cornwall

The Queen has pulled out of the Royal Maundy church service and will be represented by Prince Charles and his wife, Camilla, at the annual event for the first time.

The Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall will fulfil the ancient tradition of handing out Maundy money to community figures on Thursday at St George’s Chapel at Windsor Castle.

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Sunak’s wife to pay UK tax after outcry

Akshata Murty says she realises many felt her arrangements were not ‘compatible with my husband’s job as chancellor’

• Sunak defends wife’s tax status as Labour and No 10 deny leak

Rishi Sunak’s wife, Akshata Murty, bowed to pressure to pay UK taxes on Friday night, after Boris Johnson said he had been unaware she was a “non-dom” and fresh questions emerged over the couple’s tax affairs.

With Sunak’s position under increasing threat, Murty said she realised many people felt her tax arrangements were not “compatible with my husband’s job as chancellor”, adding that she appreciated the “British sense of fairness”. She will pay tax on all worldwide income in future and for the last tax year, but not on backdated income, which could have saved her an estimated £20m of UK tax on foreign earnings from her billionaire father’s Indian IT company.

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Germany will stop importing Russian gas ‘very soon’, says Olaf Scholz

Chancellor declines to endorse claim by Boris Johnson during London visit that goal will be achieved by mid-2024

The German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, has said his country is doing all it can to wean itself off Russian energy, but declined to endorse a claim by Boris Johnson that it would stop importing Russian gas by the middle of 2024.

Scholz said only that the goal would be achieved very soon, and that Germany would stop using Russian coal by the summer and Russian oil by the end of the year.

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Liberty Steel to cut 200 jobs but create up to 160 more in plant move

Jobs set to go at Stocksbridge in South Yorkshire and at West Bromwich, but new posts to be created at Rotherham

Liberty Steel has announced plans to cut 200 jobs in the UK at plants in South Yorkshire and the West Midlands, as industrialist Sanjeev Gupta’s metals group looks to shift production to Rotherham.

The company said on Friday that it would cut 160 jobs at a plant in Stocksbridge, South Yorkshire, and 45 in West Bromwich in the West Midlands as it focused production on the plant in Rotherham, also in South Yorkshire.

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Using Windrush to justify UK visa rule for Ukrainian refugees baffles experts

Analysis: Windrush scandal wrongly categorised people as illegal immigrants, while most Ukrainian refugees have documentation

Why has Britain, unlike every other country in Europe, insisted on requiring all Ukrainian refugees to obtain visas before travelling here?

In justifying the decision, Priti Patel has again pointed to the Windrush scandal as a key factor in the government’s refusal to waive visas for people fleeing Ukraine. But it is a reasoning that has left immigration experts baffled.

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Police examining contracts related to Unite’s £98m Birmingham hotel project

Union’s offices raided as part of investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money laundering

A police inquiry involving a Unite union official is examining contracts related to the construction of a £98m hotel and conference centre in Birmingham, the Guardian has learned.

South Wales police and HM Revenue and Customs raided the union’s offices in central London on Thursday as part of an investigation into allegations of bribery, fraud and money laundering.

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Shirtmaker TM Lewin could return to UK high street in rescue deal

Company’s lender, understood to be Petra Group, said to be considering possibility of opening stores

The shirtmaker TM Lewin could return to the high street after being rescued from administration by its main lender, understood to be Petra Group.

It is not clear if the group’s 50 staff will be kept on under the rescue deal for TM Lewin, which called in administrators last month for the second time in less than two years.

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Ensure waist size is less than half your height, health watchdog says

Guidance for England and Wales comes amid increasing concern over rate of obesity and cost to NHS

A health watchdog is urging millions of people for the first time to ensure their waist size is less than half their height in order to help stave off serious health problems.

The UK has one of the worst obesity rates in Europe, with two in three adults officially overweight or obese in an escalating crisis that now costs the NHS £6bn a year and wider society £27bn.

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Scientists make further inroads into reversing ageing process of cells

UK research could lead to development of techniques that will stave off diseases of old age

People could eventually be able to turn the clock back on the cell-ageing process by 30 years, according to researchers who have developed a technique for reprogramming skin cells to behave as if they are much younger.

Research from the Babraham Institute, which is affiliated to the University of Cambridge, could lead to the development of techniques that will stave off the diseases of old age by restoring the function of older cells and reducing their biological age.

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Omicron variant does cause different symptoms from Delta, study finds

Data from UK’s Zoe Covid study confirms reports Omicron patients recover more quickly and are less likely to lose sense of smell or taste

People who have the Omicron Covid variant tend to have symptoms for a shorter period, a lower risk of being admitted to hospital and a different set of symptoms from those who have Delta, research has suggested.

As the highly transmissible Omicron variant shot to dominance towards the end of last year, it emerged that, while it is better at dodging the body’s immune responses than Delta, it also produces less severe disease.

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Family of Sabina Nessa call killer a ‘coward’ for refusing to attend court

Koci Selamaj did not attend sentencing for murder of 28-year-old primary school teacher in London

Sabina Nessa’s family called her killer a “coward” when he refused to come to court to be sentenced for her murder on Thursday.

Koci Selamaj, 36, drove to London from his home in Eastbourne on the south coast to carry out a premeditated attack on a woman after being spurned by his estranged wife.

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Union rejects pay rise of £1,500 for BT staff and plans strike ballot

CWU bosses say increase is relative cut in salary but BT says it is its biggest award in two decades

BT has given 58,000 workers a £1,500 pay rise that it says is its biggest award in two decades, despite its largest union rejecting the deal and saying it intends to ballot members over strike action.

Last week BT had a £1,200 pay rise offer rejected by the Communication Workers Union (CWU), which represents about 40,000 of the company’s 100,000 employees, with union bosses describing it as “insulting” and a “relative pay cut” as soaring inflation fuels a cost of living crisis.

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Eric Pickles asks Grenfell inquiry not to waste his time but gets death toll wrong

72 people were killed in the fire but Pickles said 96, the number who died in the Hillsborough disaster

A former cabinet minister has challenged the Grenfell inquiry not to waste his time while giving evidence, before getting the death toll from the disaster wrong.

Lord Pickles, who served as secretary of state at the then Department for Communities and Local Government between 2010 and 2015, sparked anger after he advised the inquiry’s senior counsel to “use your time wisely” as he had an extremely busy day.

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