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What is the police and crime bill and why are people protesting against it? – podcast

Thousands of people have been protesting against the government’s police, crime, sentencing and courts bill, which would allow police to take a more proactive approach in managing protests, but many worry is an attempt to restrict the right to protest

Rachel Humphreys talks to Mark Townsend, the Observer’s home affairs editor, about the police, crime, sentencing and courts bill. It would allow the police to take a more proactive approach in managing highly disruptive protests, but critics believe it is an attempt to curb the public’s right to protest. Townsend tells Humphreys that the Extinction Rebellion protests in 2019 and the Black Lives Matter protests last year both played a part in why the government is keen to pass this legislation.

Guardian reporter Damien Gayle looks at why the BLM protests had such little support from the home secretary, Priti Patel, while the environment reporter Matthew Taylor discusses how the Extinction Rebellion movement and its use of civil disobedience frustrated the police and the government.

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Pfizer finds Covid vaccine safe and effective for children 12 to 15

Drug firm in partnership with BioNTech to seek US approval after trials found vaccine ‘well-tolerated’ in school-age children

Pfizer plans to seek emergency approval for its Covid vaccine in younger people after a US trial found the jab prevented the disease and was “well-tolerated” in 12- to 15-year-olds.

Related: Germany restricts use of AstraZeneca jab to over-60s

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'A missed opportunity': campaigners react to Everard vigil policing report

Analysis: Campaigners say women’s trust in police undermined by watchdog’s conclusions

A watchdog report that deemed the policing of a vigil for Sarah Everard “appropriate” has undermined women’s trust in the police, according to campaigners, attendees and the vigil’s original organisers.

Organisers from Reclaim These Streets, which cancelled a planned short, socially distanced vigil after police said they could be fined tens of thousands of pounds, said the report had failed to investigate how the cancellation of the event had led to more anger and the greater likelihood of public disorder.

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Merkel, Macron and Putin in talks about using Sputnik V jab in Europe

Kremlin says leaders discussed possibility of shipments and joint production amid shortage of doses inside Europe

Vladimir Putin, Angela Merkel and Emmanuel Macron discussed Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine and its use in Europe on a conference call on Tuesday, the Kremlin said.

Moscow’s statement said that among other subjects the Russian, German and French leaders discussed prospects for the registration of the vaccine in the EU and the possibility of shipments and joint production in EU nations. It did not say who raised the topic.

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Tourists in Greece and Spain but most of Covid-hit Europe plans Easter at home

Several thousand Germans head to Crete and Balearic islands as pandemic third wave spreads across EU

The first foreign tourists may have landed in locked-down Spain and Greece, but as a third wave of the pandemic accelerates across the EU, few Europeans will be enjoying an Easter break abroad – or even away from home.

German holidaymakers began arriving on Crete on Monday, with six half-empty flights landing at Heraklion airport after the tourist minister, Haris Theoharis, said some visitors could be permitted before the country’s planned reopening on 14 May.

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Joe Biden's border challenge: reversing Trumpism – podcast

The 46th US president took office promising a more welcoming immigration policy. But Republicans are calling a new wave of migrants at the southern border a ‘crisis’ and demanding he addresses it

When Joe Biden assumed the presidency earlier this year, he inherited an immigration policy from Donald Trump that was punitive and often criticised as excessively cruel. The 45th US president had unsuccessfully attempted to build a wall across the entire southern border and vilified migrants as “invaders”.

The Guardian’s Nina Lakhani tells Anushka Asthana that what she witnessed on the border in Texas was a steady influx of desperate people fleeing poverty, drought and violence. Many were families escaping together to what they hoped would be a new start.

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