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DAB RADIO l ONLINE l SMART SPEAKER l APPTo day’s highlights
7.20am
8am8.35am11am6.25pmGreg Hands, business minister
General Sir Richard Shirreff, Nato’s
former deputy supreme allied
commander in Europe
Emily Thornberry, right, the shadow
attorney-general
Neil Kinnock and Chris Patten
reflect on 30 years since the 1992
general election
The paracanoeist Emma Wiggs© TIMES NEWSPAPERS LIMITED, 2022.
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e-mail [email protected]Sunny spells and scattered showers,
some heavy and wintry with hail
and thunder. Full forecast, page 59
THE WEATHER
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thetimes timesandsundaytimes thetimesBritons missing
on scuba trip
A British executive at
Shell and his 14-year-
old son are feared dead
after the captain of a
boat abandoned them
during a scuba-diving
trip near a remote
island nine miles off
Malaysia’s coast. The
captain was arrested
and tested positive
for drugs. Page 5
Tory plan won’t
cut bills quickly
Families will not see
lower energy bills for
three years from a
government plan to
end reliance on foreign
oil and gas, ministers
acknowledge. The
prime minister said
the energy strategy
would end “blackmail”
by autocrats like
President Putin. Page 6Ambulances hit
by Covid delays
One in four patients
arriving at A&E last
week spent at least half
an hour in the back of
an ambulance before
admission. Ambulance
handover delays are at
their worst after
Covid-19 patient
admissions climbed to
the highest level since
early 2021. Page 22Man City face
new allegations
The Premier League is
under further pressure
to complete its three-
year investigation into
alleged rule breaches
by Manchester City
after new claims from
Der Spiegel that the
club violated financial
regulations and the
rules governing youth
players. Page 72Obama warning
for democracy
Disinformation on
social media is ruining
American democracy,
Barack Obama has
said. The Democratic
former president
accused tech firms of
“monetising
resentment, conflict
and division”, and
damaging consensus
on basic facts. Page 32
Strike threat
over pay offers
Britain’s biggest firms
face industrial action
over below-inflation
pay rises for staff. The
Communication
Workers Union has
called BT’s average
5 per cent pay
increase for 58,
employees a “bruising
real-terms pay cut”
and an insult. Page 35COMMENT
Nicola Sturgeon’s supposedly assured handling of
the pandemic made no difference whatsoever
ALEX MASSIE, PAGE 27COMMENT 27
LETTERS 30
LEADING ARTICLES 31WORLD 32
BUSINESS 35
REGISTER 51SPORT 60
CROSSWORD 72
TV & RADIO TIMEShome,” Tetiana, 22, said tearfully as
she walked down Khreschatyk Street,
Kyiv’s most fabled boulevard, which
was mined by the retreating Russian
army as a welcome gift to the arriving
Nazis during the Second World War.
On a hoarding on the street, close
to Independence Square, graffiti
artists have crafted a message reading
“Ukraine 5, Putin 0”. Yet to the south
and east, the war is still raging as the
Russian president seeks to seize
Donbas and thousands are forced to
flee.
Most of Kyiv’s underpasses and
metro stations, which served as bomb
shelters for 15,000 civilians, remain
closed for normal business. Klitschko
vowed yesterday that public transport
would soon restart as a mark of the
revival from the wartime threat. Thewail of the sirens has become a rarity
once again after weeks in which their
eerie sound rang out many times a
day.
During the invasion, two trams
formed one of the first impromptu
barricades set up across Kyiv’s streets
as television showed video of a 40-
mile convoy of Russian military
vehicles bearing down on the capital.
They never arrived, dispersing after
nimble targeted attacks by Ukrainian
forces armed with western anti-tank
missiles, dealing a critical blow to
Russia’s ambitions of reaching the city
and decapitating the government.
President Zelensky’s decision to stay
out the war in Kyiv, with daily
impassioned addresses to his people
and the outside world, have played a
critical role in maintaining the
country’s morale.
Kyiv’s baroque beauty is still
blighted by the ugly concrete and tyrebarricades, its bronze statues still
sandbagged to save them from
damage. Gradually, checkpoints are
coming down in the centre to ease
traffic and help restore economic life.
On its blackened edges, they remain.
Few in Kyiv are confident that the
danger is past. “It is likely the enemy
has not given up the goal of a second
attack on Kyiv,” Oleksandr Gruzevich,
the deputy chief of staff of Ukraine’s
ground forces, warned yesterday.
“There is such a threat.”
In a freshly dug verge on the edge
of St Sophia’s Square, city gardeners
were planting out purple pansies to
bring spring colour to the city. “War is
war, but flowers still need to be
planted,” one of the gardeners said.
She wanted Kyiv to look beautiful
again.
Ukraine reports, pages 10-
Don’t assume populists will be burnt by
Putin, Gerard Baker, page 29continued from page 1
Kyiv begins to bloom againSajid Javid has urged the NHS to
protect single-sex hospital wards after
new guidance said transgender women
could legally be excluded from women-
only spaces.
The health secretary has told the
NHS to take “full account” of a ruling
from the equalities watchdog, which
said single-sex spaces did not always
have to include transgender people.
The NHS was already reviewing
whether trans women should be treat-
ed on female-only wards.
The Equality and Human Rights
Commission (EHRC) said on Monday
that trans people could be excluded
from single-sex services if the reasons
were “justifiable and proportionate”.
The new guidance said that the justifi-
cations could be for reasons of privacy
or decency, or to prevent trauma.
Some NHS officials have criticised
the ruling, with one hospital equality
boss describing it as “transphobic”.
Last night Javid urged the NHS to
take account of the EHRC’s statement.
A government source told the Dailysidestepped questions about Murty,
saying only that it was “very important
in politics, if you possibly can, to try and
keep people’s families out of it”.
There is no suggestion that Murty’s
non-dom status is illegal, and it will
automatically cease in six years after
she has lived in Britain for 15 years. She
pays £30,000 a year to the government
to keep the status. After the news
emerged that she was a non-dom, her
spokeswoman said: “Akshata Murty is a
citizen of India, the country of her birth
and parents’ home. India does not allow
its citizens to hold the citizenship of
another country simultaneously. So, ac-
cording to British law, Ms Murty is treat-
ed as non-domiciled for UK tax purpos-
es. She has always and will continue to
pay UK taxes on all her UK income.”
Experts questioned this, saying there
were ways to keep Indian citizenship
without holding the status and that
Murty had chosen to be a non-dom.
Dan Neidle, a tax lawyer, said that
the Murty statement was “just not how
it works”. He said: “You have to tick a
box on your tax return, claiming what’s
called the remittance basis. An actual
box. So that’s a choice that she made.”
Tax experts doubt defence, page 9
Revelation is a danger for the chancellor
and his party, leading article, page 31continued from page 1
Sunak fears ‘political hit job’The government may suspend engage-
ment with the National Union of Stu-
dents over antisemitism allegations,
the universities minister has said.
Michelle Donelan said that she was
“considering” reporting the body to the
Charity Commission or dealing with
“alternative student voices” instead.
Lord Mann, the government’s an-
tisemitism adviser, had called for action
after “escalating revelations about the
continuing poor treatment of Jewish
students and the lack of leadership on
anti-Jewish racism from the union”.
Jewish students are concerned about
apparently antisemitic messages posted
on social media a decade ago by Shaima
Dallali, who was elected as NUS presi-
dent last week, as well as the union’s
decision to invite the rapper Lowkey to
its annual conference. He claimed in a
Zoom chat that the media had “weap-
onised the Jewish heritage” of President
Zelensky to “stave off” inquiries about
far-right groups in the country.
Donelan said that she was “deeply
concerned by antisemitism within theNUS may be cast out over
antisemitism allegations
Henry Zeffman Associate Political Editor
Andrew NorfolkNUS, including the remarks of the new
president”, adding: “Students deserve
better.” She continued: “I am actively
considering a range of possible
measures, including reporting the NUS
to the Charity Commission and full
suspension from all engagement with
the government — to be replaced by
alternative student voices — unless
they take immediate steps to regain the
confidence of Jewish students.”
Dallali, who will take up office this
summer, wrote in 2012 on social media:
“Khaybar Khaybar O Jews... Muham-
mad’s army will return #Gaza”, in a
reference to a massacre of Jews in 628.
She has apologised for the post, which
she said was an “unacceptable” refer-
ence made as a teenager.
After her election Dallali said that
she wanted to meet the Union of Jewish
Students and that she would “listen to
the concerns of all students”. She said:
“My hands are outstretched to all stu-
dents and staff that work in our move-
ment, including Jewish students, and
would love to arrange a meeting once
I’m in office. I stand ready to listen to
the concerns of all students.”
An NUS spokesman said: “NUS istaking the antisemitism allegations
seriously and the board are reviewing
the matter. There is no place for
antisemitism in the student movement.
We welcome the opportunity to work
with Lord Mann.”
They added that it was “somewhat
concerning” that Mann had “made
such public generalised allegations
without providing evidence, without
approaching us first, and without due
process having taken place”.
6 Britain’s most powerful trade union
has been raided by police investigating
alleged bribery, fraud and money laun-
dering. South Wales police entered
Unite’s head office in Holborn, central
London, on Wednesday and spent
several hours searching the office of an
official. They took files and other ma-
terial. The raid was part of an operation
that saw warrants executed at address-
es across England and Wales. A Unite
spokesman confirmed that an employ-
ee was “subject to a criminal investi-
gation by the police”. The police said the
raids were part of an investigation with
HM Revenue & Customs into claims of
bribery, fraud and money laundering.
No one has been arrested.Javid urges health chiefs to
protect women-only wards
Mail: “The health secretary welcomes
the EHRC guidance and he is going to
ask the NHS to take it fully into account
as part of the review into same-sex
wards.”
At present NHS England has a policy
that allows patients to be placed on
single-sex wards depending on the
gender with which they identify. It says
that trans people should be treated
“according to their presentation: the
way they dress, and the name and
pronouns they currently use”.
On Wednesday Boris Johnson ques-
tioned whether trans women should be
treated on female-only wards.
He said: “I don’t think that biological
males should be competing in female
sporting events. Maybe that’s a contro-
versial thing to say but it just seems to
me to be sensible. And I also happen to
think that women should have spaces,
whether it’s in hospitals or prisons or
changing rooms or wherever, which are
dedicated to women.
“That’s as far as my thinking has
developed on this issue. If that puts me
in conflict with some others, then we
have got to work it all out.”Henry ZeffmanBanca do Antfer
Telegram: https://t.me/bancadoantfer
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Issuhub: https://issuhub.com/user/book/