Top story: Zelenskiy presses for more Nato support
Greetings from me, Warren Murray, on this Monday morning.
Ukraine has defied a Russian military deadline that passed early this morning for Ukrainian forces to surrender the city of Mariupol. Many of the city’s 400,000 residents remain trapped with little if any food, water or power. Joe Biden will visit Poland on Friday, the White House has announced overnight. Shelling of Kyiv has continued, with at least four people killed when homes and the Retroville shopping district were hit, according to the state emergency service.
Biden is due in Brussels on Thursday for Ukraine crisis talks with Nato allies, G7 leaders and EU leaders. The next day he will meet in Warsaw with Andrzej Duda, the president of Poland, Ukraine’s western neighbour where authorities say more than 2 million war refugees have arrived. Today, the US president will host a call about Ukraine with President Emmanuel Macron of France; the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz; the Italian prime minister, Mario Draghi; and the British prime minister, Boris Johnson.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told CNN on Sunday that a failure to end the war by negotiations could lead to “world war three” and he will be hoping that this week’s Nato summit in Brussels will provide him with more support. The Saudi state oil company Aramco has said it will increase its production of oil to meet rising global demand – raising hopes of an easing of soaring pump prices in western countries. From Taiwan, Helen Taylor writes how an article by a prominent Shanghai scholar academic that urged Beijing to cut ties with Putin’s regime received more than a million views before its website was blocked in China and the author was denounced. Keep our live blog open for further developments.
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‘Risk goes up’ – More than 80% of GPs believe that patients are being put at risk when they come into their surgery for an appointment, a survey shows. Doctors identified lack of time with patients, workforce shortages, relentless workloads and heavy administrative burdens as the main reasons people receiving care could be exposed to risk. “The evidence shows that, after you’ve already made 25 to 35 decisions about patients’ health on a particular day, as a GP the risk of making a bad decision goes up,” said Dr Kieran Sharrock, deputy chair of the British Medical Association’s GP committee. A campaign called Rebuild General Practice is calling for urgent action to improve GP services and is backed by Jeremy Hunt, the former health secretary.
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Tahbaz in Tehran hotel – Morad Tahbaz, who was left behind when Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe and Anoosheh Ashoori were allowed to return home to the UK, has been taken from Evin prison to a hotel in Tehran after representations by the British and American governments, the Foreign Office has said. The department added it was lobbying the Iranian authorities to allow him to return to his Tehran home immediately as the Iranian government had previously pledged. His family said he launched a hunger strike in protest at being taken back to prison, which the Iranian government said was only to have an ankle tag fitted. The family have accused the Foreign Office of abandoning Tahbaz in order to secure the others’ release.
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Scotland’s policing lesson – It is a “moral imperative and operational necessity” for police forces across the UK to demonstrate no tolerance for misogyny, racism and discrimination within their ranks and across wider society, the head of Police Scotland, writing exclusively for the Guardian, has said. Iain Livingstone added that voices of survivors of sexual violence are “vital” in making improvements. Livingstone ordered an independent review in October after an industrial tribunal found evidence of a “sexist culture” in Scotland’s armed police. Another independent public inquiry is under way into the death in 2015 of Sheku Bayoh who was restrained by officers in Kirkcaldy, Fife.
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Khan: adopt Grenfell findings – Ministers have “failed to complete a single recommendation” from the first phase of the Grenfell Tower fire inquiries, Sadiq Khan has said. Recommendations made in October 2019 included regular inspections of lifts in residential high-rises; sharing of floorplans and cladding materials with fire and rescue services; and creation of national guidelines for evacuations. No deadline had been provided by the government for when these measures would come in, according to the London mayor’s office, whereas it said the London fire brigade (LFB) had completed 26 out of 29 recommendations. Khan said the government and the housing and building industries must act now, rather than wait for the inquiry’s phase 2 report – the hearings for which start on Monday. A housing department spokesperson said Khan’s claim was “unfounded … The government is making progress towards implementing the Grenfell Tower inquiry’s phase 1 recommendations.”
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Covid reboost – The NHS in England will start giving a second Covid booster today to five million over-75s, care home residents and immunocompromised people. They will be contacted by the NHS and be able to book an appointment online or by calling 119. The Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation (JCVI) recommended the top-up. Cases of Covid are rising again, with 90,349 recorded on Friday across the UK, according to official figures, more than double the 39,000 seen on 1 March. The true number is higher: the Office for National Statistics estimates that one in 20 people in England had Covid in the week up to 12 March. The number of people in UK hospitals with Covid had risen to 14,671 by last Thursday.
Today in Focus podcast: Jailed for a voting mistake
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Chloë Sevigny on being an indie icon, becoming a mother during lockdown and her joy at joining the second season of Russian Doll.
Sport
For the second successive Test match it was England making all the running on the final day, throwing everything they could muster at West Indies only to end up shaking hands on another draw due to Kraigg Brathwaite’s remarkable powers of concentration. The Rugby Football Union has leapt to the defence of Eddie Jones, insisting the under-fire England head coach has the governing body’s full support and making the remarkable claim it is “encouraged by the solid progress” despite another highly disappointing Six Nations campaign.
Two goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and one each from Ronald Araújo and Ferran Torres completed the scoring but not the story in Barcelona’s 4-0 thrashing of Real Madrid. Jürgen Klopp had conceded his scant knowledge of Nottingham extended to its association with Robin Hood and, until Diogo Jota poked in the winning goal 12 minutes from time to propel Liverpool into a FA Cup semi-final against Manchester City, he was in jeopardy of being on the wrong end of an upset that would have provided an unwanted memory. Bronze medals for Lorraine Ugen and Marc Scott spared Britain’s blushes on the final day of the world indoor championships – but they still endured their worst result in the competition since 2006.
Business
Labour has urged Kwasi Kwarteng to launch legal action against P&O Ferries over its “scandalous” decision to sack 800 workers without warning, which the party said is a criminal offence. It comes after the Trades Union Congress said ministers have serious questions to answer on the growing scandal and must make it a catalyst to improve workers’ rights. The FTSE100 is on track to shed 0.75% this morning while the pound is worth $1.315 and €1.191.
The papers
The Guardian’s front-page lead today is “Thousands from Mariupol ‘being forced into Russia’” – a terrifying development if confirmed. “Russians accused of mass abductions” is how that story is presented in the Telegraph. The Times has “Russia accused of genocide”, an allegation levelled by Ukraine’s deputy PM.
“Crime of the centuries” is what Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called it, the Metro reports. “Sheltering civilians bombed as fierce fighting grips Mariupol” – that’s the Financial Times’ lead story. “Our neighbours want us dead” – the i’s front page shows an elderly woman outside a bombarded house.
Other papers turn to domestic matters. “Rishi’s set to cut tax on fuel” – that’s the Mail on first-name terms with the chancellor while the Express says “Fuel duty cut to ease cost of living crisis”. The Sun says “Don’t be a fuel, Rishi” calling on Sunak to cut duty at the pumps by more than 5p. The Mirror has “P&O in the dock” after the ferry line cut 800 jobs.
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