CEO’s pay packet surges to £791,000 as union says public ‘sick of obscene pay’ and bosses ‘feathering own nests’ Wessex Water awarded its chief executive an above-inflation pay increase even as the company was banned from paying bonuses because of sewage spills, it has emerged. Ruth Jefferson received a 14% base salary increase in October, from £590,000 to £670,000, before other benefits, according to accounts published this month. It was far above the 3.5% given to workers, and put her pay at 18 times that of the company’s median employee. Continue reading...

Voters in Barnsley, Sunderland and Wakefield express frustration with party amid strong Reform UK challenge When millions of voters across Great Britain go to the polls on 7 May, the result will have a profound impact on the future of Keir Starmer’s government. In Wales and Scotland, nationalist parties are expected to be in charge for the first time simultaneously, joining Sinn Féin in Northern Ireland. In London and the cities, the Greens are on the charge. Continue reading...

The party seems to have woken up to its need for an old-style intellectual heavyweight to counter the vacuousness of recent years, says Guardian columnist Gaby Hinsliff

Musician urges public to send clear message at what is expected to be UK’s biggest ever multicultural rally Billy Bragg has encouraged people to send a clear message to those seeking to divide the country by turning out to support what is expected to be the biggest multicultural march in UK history on Saturday. Speaking to the Guardian before the Together Alliance’s march against the far right in central London, the musician and political activist said participants hoped to “send out a message to our fellow citizens that we are willing to take a stand against [the politics of hate] being imported into the UK”. Continue reading...

The Spanish PM’s defiant foreign policy line may seem outspoken. The truth is that he is a sound strategist at home and abroad, says journalist Eoghan Gilmartin

How do you retain a space of democracy in a world that is reverting to violent conquest? By building a protective moat of federalism around it, says Paris-based Guardian writer Alexander Hurst

A decade after receiving asylum, finding work and learning a new language, four asylum seekers feel torn

The BBC’s recent refusal to air documentaries on Gaza is part of a systemic fear among UK journalists of reporting the plain facts

Exclusive: Actor says Starmer’s party has caused ‘derogation of all principles they were supposed to represent’ Steve Coogan has accused Keir Starmer’s Labour government of a “derogation of all the principles they were supposed to represent” and said they were paving the way for the “racist clowns” of Reform UK. The actor, comedian and producer said the party he had long supported was now for people “inside the M25” and described the prime minister’s first year in power as underwhelming. Continue reading...

Heads of 32 charities warn proposals could push species towards extinction and lead to irreversible habitat loss The heads of 32 UK nature organisations have written to the government warning that the planning bill “throws environmental protection to the wind”. The planning and infrastructure bill, which is at committee stage in parliament, aims to streamline regulations for developers so they can speed up their projects. Continue reading...

Trump’s actions are irreconcilable with Christian compassion. But an unholy alliance seeks to cast empathy as a parasitic plague

Organisers say 150,000 joined protest in Madrid urging the government to ‘end the housing racket’ and to demand access to affordable housing Tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Spain in the latest protest against housing speculation and to demand access to affordable homes. Organisers claim that up to 150,000 joined the protest in Madrid while smaller demonstrations were held in about 40 cities across the country. Protesters from Málaga on the Costa del Sol to Vigo in the Atlantic northwest chanted “end the housing racket” and “landlords are guilty, the government is responsible”. Continue reading...

A video has emerged showing the final moments of more than a dozen Palestinian emergency workers shot dead by Israeli troops in Gaza last month, casting doubt on Israeli claims that soldiers opened fi...

WES Streeting accepted over £50,000 from a firm involved in private healthcare recruitment just weeks before axing thousands of NHS jobs ...

Keep Our NHS Public argues for a return to an NHS based on its founding principles of universal comprehensive care from cradle to grave

YouTube video by Marco Rubio

Senior scientists at the National Institutes of Health fear that research on conditions like obesity, heart disease and cancer will be undermined by President Trump’s policies.