World news | The Guardian

Government clings to power despite big gains from minor parties and independents

The PM has brought us to this crisis with a series of calamitous decisionsHow has it come to this? Theresa May and her husband, Philip, have long been friends of mine and I have in the past admired her sense of duty and commitment to her party and her country. So it grieves me that her stubborn choices have left both in peril.At a time when our politics needs statesmanship, not brinkmanship, when our divided people need time to heal and come back together, and when our country needs honest leadership rooted in reality not ideology, Mrs May has embraced division. Rather than providing the calm, compassionate and unifying leadership we so desperately needed after a divisive EU referendum campaign, she rushed to own Brexit. She has clung to power in the process, but she is letting us all down. Continue reading...

Official figures put the numbers at the people’s vote Brexit march on Saturday at over 1 million. People from across the UK travelled to central London to demand a second vote on whether the UK should leave the EU

Lisa Squire says she has lost one of the most precious things in her lifeThe mother of Libby Squire, the University of Hull student whose death is being treated as a potential murder after her body was recovered from the Humber estuary last Wednesday, said she had lost one of the most precious things in her life.Lisa Squire said in a Facebook post: “I kept you safe as long as I could,” and told her daughter she was sorry that she could not protect her on the night she died. Continue reading...

The Put it to the People anti-Brexit demonstration takes place in central London Continue reading...

While the Liberals may take some joy from the result in NSW, the poor showing for the Nationals is set to inflame Coalition divisions and leadership speculationWhile the Liberals will emerge from the New South Wales state election feeling less despondent about their federal prospects in May than they felt before Saturday night, imagining a containment line in Scott Morrison’s home state – the same can’t be said of the Nationals.The state jigsaw puzzle is a complex one, and still resolving, but it is clear the Liberals have managed to hold their ground in Sydney – doubtless helped by state Labor leader Michael Daley’s indefensible observation that “foreigners”, mainly Asians, were moving in and taking jobs from young Sydneysiders – a faceplant into deep stupid emblematic of what was by all accounts, a shocking final week for the Labor campaign. Continue reading...

Police at Indonesian airport also found two live geckos and five lizards in suitcaseA Russian tourist attempting to smuggle a drugged orangutan out of Indonesia in his suitcase to bring home and keep as a pet has been arrested in Bali, police said on Saturday.Andrei Zhestkov was detained in Denpasar airport late on Friday while passing through a security screening before a planned flight back to Russia. Continue reading...

Suspects aged between 20 and 42 detained after police raids in Frankfurt regionTen people have been arrested in Germany on suspicion of planning a terrorist attack using a car and guns with the aim of killing as many people as possible.Several of the suspects, aged 20 to 42, were German citizens, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office said, without naming the other nationalities. Continue reading...

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg declines to rule out bringing forward tax cuts, and insists he has resisted pre-election spending bidsThe Morrison government will boost funding for the corporate and banking watchdogs by $550m over the forward estimates when it hands down a pre-election budget likely to include tax cuts and infrastructure spending, as well as a surplus in 2019-20.As part of the response to the Hayne royal commission, the government will allocate $400m in additional funding to the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and $150m for the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority over the next four years. Continue reading...

Company blames loss of passenger trust after Ethiopian Airlines and Lion Air disasters involving the aircraftThe Indonesian carrier Garuda has become the first airline to scrap its order for the Boeing 737 Max, saying that it was cancelling a multibillion-dollar deal due to lack of public trust in a jet which has crashed twice in five months.The move came as the manufacturer Boeing attempted to tackle fears about the safety of the 737 Max, which has crashed in both Ethiopia and Indonesia with the loss of 346 lives, by building enhanced warning devices as standard into every plane. Continue reading...

Announcement appeared to catch US allies off-guard as SDF spokesman says its fighters clashed overnight with Islamic State militantsThe Trump White House has declared that the Islamic State no longer holds any territory inside Syria, but the claim was disputed by Kurdish-led forces on the ground who said clashes were continuing.Sarah Sanders, the White House press secretary, told reporters that the acting defence secretary, Patrick Shanahan, had briefed Donald Trump and that the Pentagon had confirmed that the last vestiges of the Isis “caliphate” had been eliminated. Continue reading...

Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, who crashed truck into bus carrying junior hockey team, pleaded guilty to 29 counts of dangerous drivingThe driver who caused the deaths of 16 people on a rural Canadian road in Saskatchewan after crashing his truck into a bus transporting a junior hockey team has been sentenced on Friday to eight years in prison, Canadian media reported.Jaskirat Singh Sidhu, 30, pleaded guilty in January to 29 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death or bodily harm, saying he did not want to make things worse by proceeding with a trial. Continue reading...

Drugs, cash, cars and jewellery seized in operation against activities of East Belfast UVFEleven men have been arrested by police during coordinated raids targeting loyalist paramilitaries in Belfast.The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) also seized drugs, cash, and expensive cars and jewellery in an operation against the criminal activities of the East Belfast Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF). Continue reading...

Russia, Iran and Turkey condemn US president while Syria vows to recapture territory lost in 1967 warSyria has vowed to retake the Golan Heights as Donald Trump’s call for the US to recognise the occupied territory as part of Israel elicited strong responses from Russia, Turkey and Iran.The president ended half a century of US foreign policy and broke from post-second world war international consensus that forbids territorial conquest during war with a tweet on Thursday that said it was time “to fully recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights”. Continue reading...

Vigils and silences held as country remembers the victims of the mosque shootings Continue reading...

The Sacklers own Purdue Pharma, the company behind OxyContin, which is under fire amid the opioid epidemicThe Tate group of British art galleries has announced that it will no longer accept any gifts offered by members of the Sackler family, who own the US maker of OxyContin. The prescription painkiller is under fire amid the opioids public health crisis in America.The decision came two days after it was agreed the National Portrait Gallery would no longer accept a £1m gift from the Sacklers. Several major arts institutions on either side of the Atlantic have long benefited from Sackler donations; the London gallery was the first to decline money from the family. Continue reading...

NT families minister says changes made to manage security risks but Amnesty says they are ‘dangerous’Human rights, legal groups and Aboriginal peak organisations have called for a halt to the Northern Territory’s juvenile justice laws they say will take them back to the “dark days of the old Don Dale”.Following the swift passage of the youth justice amendment bill in NT parliament this week, Amnesty International said the changes were “dangerous”. Continue reading...

The unnamed service members were killed in action on Friday, US and Nato mission saysTwo American service members have been killed during an operation in Afghanistan, officials said.The US and Nato Resolute Support mission said the Americans were killed while conducting an operation on Friday. In accordance with US defense department policy, the names of the service members killed in action were being withheld until after notification of the next of kin. Continue reading...

UK-wide austerity blamed as predictions put figure at 29% – rather than 18% – in 2023The Scottish government is at risk of missing its own child poverty targets by more than 100,000 children, according to projections from the Resolution Foundation.Westminster austerity measures will put child poverty across the country on course to hit a 20-year peak of about 29% of children living in relative poverty by 2023, its report forecasts. The figure is considerably higher than the Scottish government’s target of 18%. Continue reading...

Prime minister instead says Coalition has worked with One Nation leader on ‘a lot of important issues’The prime minister, Scott Morrison, has dodged the question of whether Pauline Hanson is racist, saying the right thing to do after Christchurch is to “reach out to the Muslim community and give them a big hug”.Morrison said he did not believe people should apply a broad brush to the One Nation leader and pick on one issue, as she had something to contribute on other issues, such as family court reform – on which she has been criticised for promoting the views of men’s rights activists. Continue reading...

Teachers told they may have to ‘adopt carer role’ if traffic stops parents picking children upTeachers in schools in Kent have been told they may have to suspend classes and “adopt a carer role” in the event of disruption caused by a no-deal Brexit.The warning comes as the government confirms it has activated a team in a nuclear-proof bunker under the Ministry of Defence to provide army support in a no-deal scenario. Continue reading...

Fears situation is far worse than official death tolls indicate, as witnesses report ‘totally obliterated’ communitiesEntire villages have been destroyed in Mozambique and Zimbabwe and most of their inhabitants swept away, as rescuers race to save tens of thousands of people trapped by flood waters from Cyclone Idai.Testimony collected from areas entirely cut off by flooding shows a situation far worse than indicated by official figures, with estimates from some witnessessuggesting that the death toll will reach the thousands. Continue reading...

Sweeping new ban that came just six days after mass shooting in Christchurch is a stark contrast to the political stalemate in the USNew Zealand’s sweeping new ban on a range of semi-automatic rifles and large ammunition magazines, which came just six days after a mass shooting in Christchurch, has been hailed as the “fastest response ever by a government after a tragedy”.Related: Christchurch attacks: New Zealand brings in sweeping gun-law changes Continue reading...

Venezuelan opposition leader says Roberto Marrero was ‘kidnapped’ before dawnThe Venezuelan opposition leader, Juan Guaidó, has said intelligence agents arrested his chief of staff after a pre-dawn raid, signalling that President Nicolás Maduro may be cracking down on the opposition’s challenge to his rule.Guaidó invoked the constitution in January to assume the interim presidency after declaring Maduro’s 2018 re-election a fraud, and he has been recognised by dozens of western nations as the country’s legitimate leader. Continue reading...

Reptile is believed to be the last in a long line of large turtles in Hoàn KiếmA sacred giant turtle that died in Hanoi’s Hoàn Kiếm lake has been given a new lease on life by city authorities who have embalmed the beloved creature for posterity – and tourist visits.Hanoians were shocked by the death of the critically endangered Swinhoe softshell turtle in 2016, believing its passing was a sign of ominous times ahead. Continue reading...

In the Canadian prime minister’s Montreal base the Lavscam imbroglio has taken a toll on previously staunch supportNicola Papadakis says he is done voting for Justin Trudeau.The decision clearly bothers the retired cleaner, 76. Like many Greeks in the Montreal neighbourhood of Park Extension, Papadakis has a nearly unshakable loyalty to Trudeau’s father, former prime minister Pierre Trudeau. “He gave us hope, he kept us together,” says Papadakis of the elder Trudeau. Continue reading...

Prime minister admits shadow cabinet discussed issue in 2010 but insists that he was seeking to avoid worsening divisionsThe prime minister, Scott Morrison, has admitted a discussion took place in shadow cabinet in 2010 about community fears about Muslims, but said his contribution was intended to “lower the fears about Islam and not elevate them”.In a wide-ranging interview with Waleed Aly on the Channel Ten program The Project, Morrison refused to answer repeated questions about whether he would insist that One Nation be put last on how-to-vote cards, while declaring his track record was to bring communities together. Continue reading...

Marseille is facing its biggest crisis in decades as many of its historic buildings-turned-slums are collapsing, with often tragic resultsIn her flat in a decrepit 18th-century building in the centre of Marseille, Samira ran her hand over a crack in her kitchen wall. “I worry my building is slowly caving in,” she said. “I’m scared we’ll end up buried alive.”The stone staircase up to other damp apartments was sloping and wonky and residents felt that it moved as they used it. A crack in one wall was so deep, daylight seeped through. A burly teenager on an upper floor had been regularly told by his father not to step on parts of the increasingly uneven kitchen floor, which he feared was subsiding. Samira’s bathroom ceiling was sodden with mould and damp. After dark, rats made so much noise in her kitchen that it sounded as if she was being burgled. Continue reading...

What happens when a forklift goes through your Picasso? By Andrew DicksonEarly one morning last summer, I stood inside a museum in Antwerp and watched as a painting was hung on the wall. When I walked in, the gallery was empty. To one side, there was a crate about a metre square. Royal blue, it was unmarked apart from a code number and a yellow stencilled sign reading “Lato da Aprire / Open this Side”. Although its home is nominally Florence, the painting inside was a seasoned traveller: it had arrived the night before from Sicily, by road and under armed guard. The box looked entirely unremarkable. That was the point, I was told.Abruptly, there was a commotion: the curator of the exhibition, a visiting curator, a translator, an expert in Renaissance art, plus a clutch of hangers-on, burst through the doors. Two art handlers wearing gloves and sober expressions strode over to a table; on it, pliers, tape measures, and an electric screwdriver had been placed with a precision that would not have been out of place in an operating theatre. Continue reading...

In a country where treatment can cost two years’ wages, a new project could mean free medical care for 500 million peopleRajiv Gupta has a distinct spring in his step. He has brought his mother to New Delhi from the northern state of Bihar for a hip replacement, for which he won’t have to pay. His mother qualified for free treatment under Ayushman Bharat, the government’s ambitious new health insurance scheme.“I can’t quite believe this is happening. When the doctors in Bihar told me it would cost 200,000 rupees [£2,180], I took mum home. That kind of money is impossible for me. I just run a tiny sari shop. And now she’s getting it done here free,” says Gupta. Then he hurries off as though scared he has got it wrong and someone is going to present him with a bill. Continue reading...

Woman is the first person to be sentenced in Queensland for removing a child from the state for female genital mutilationAn extremely sick Queensland woman who took her two daughters to Somalia for genital mutilation will go to prison as a deterrent to others.The woman, who cannot be named to protect the identities of her children, was found guilty of taking her daughters, then aged 10 and 13, to her birth country in April 2015 for the procedure. Continue reading...

A quick guide to the gun reforms announced by prime minister Jacinda Ardern

Cameras were set up in hair dryer holders and wall sockets in 10 cities, say prosecutorsPolice in South Korea have arrested two men for secretly filming 1,600 hotel guests and streaming the footage live online, in the latest voyeurism scandal to hit the country.The suspects, who have not been named, set up secret cameras in 42 rooms at 30 hotels in 10 South Korean cities between November last year and the start of this month, media reports said. Continue reading...

Scott Morrison dials down furious response to president’s comments in wake of Christchurch attackAustralia’s prime minister has declared his country is “making progress” towards repairing its relationship with Turkey after the president Recep Tayyip Erdoğan created a diplomatic row by invoking Anzac deaths at Gallipoli.During an election rally, Erdoğan showed footage from the devastating Christchurch terrorist attack and said anyone who came to Turkey with anti-Islamic sentiments would be sent back in coffins “like their grandfathers were” during the failed 1915 allied campaign. Continue reading...

Rolling updates on the day’s political events, including PM’s statement at Downing Street and Labour leader leaving meeting

Western Australian government to compulsorily acquire properties in deadly Pilbara site, where there are fears for tourists who still visit the areaLandowners who refuse to move from the most contaminated site in the southern hemisphere will have their properties compulsorily acquired by the Western Australian government.A bill to finalise the closure of the former asbestos mining town Wittenoom in the Pilbara, which was de-gazetted in 2007, was due to be introduced to state parliament on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Move against Hungarian leader’s Fidesz follows aggressive anti-EU campaignViktor Orbán’s Fidesz party has been suspended from the main pan-European centre-right party, as controversy over the far-right Hungarian leader’s place in the European mainstream comes to a head.“Fidesz will be suspended with immediate effect and until further notice,” Joseph Daul, the president of the European People’s party (EPP), announced on Twitter, saying 190 members had voted in favour and three against. Continue reading...

No deal looms as Germany demands ‘concrete purpose’ for extension and France threatens to block it

Twenty-two-year-old was still wearing handcuffs used by officers in JanuaryThe body of a young man who fled police more than two months ago has been pulled from the bottom of a river at a beauty spot still wearing handcuffs.Hampshire constabulary has launched an investigation into the death of the 22-year-old, who is believed to have drowned while on the run from police. Continue reading...

Alex Beresford's cousin Nathaniel Armstrong was killed near his home in Fulham, London, over the weekend. Days earlier, Beresford intervened during a knife crime debate on ITV's Good Morning Britain, arguing that building more prisons was not the right way to tackle the epidemic. Here the GMB presenter speaks passionately about tackling the root of the issue and dispelling the myth that knife crime is a problem confined to the British black community Continue reading...

We can defeat the ruling rightwing populist party – then help Emmanuel Macron to reform the EUFrench president Emmanuel Macron’s recent call to reform the European Union is a sign of hope for the entire continent. Even if we have our differences, we are in agreement when it comes to the fundamental questions. Macron is right about what Europe must do to continue flourishing. We must revitalise the EU by making it more democratic, cohesive, and just. And we must strengthen Europe against enemies that want to weaken it – namely, internal populist forces and the foreign powers that support them.When populists achieve power, as the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party has in Poland, they dream of sowing division among democratic opposition parties. But we have overcome their cynical strategy by creating the European Coalition of Opposition Forces ahead of the European parliament elections in May. This new democratic alliance, which I lead, is already ahead in opinion polls and is on its way to defeating PiS – first in May, and then in Poland’s general election this autumn. Continue reading...

Scientists and campaigners warn that factories in coastal villages are wreaking environmental and economic havocBefore the arrival of fishmeal factories in the Gambia, Musa Duboe would catch red snapper and barracuda to be sold at the local market. But his income had begun to dwindle due to depleted stocks.Then in 2016 the Chinese-owned fishmeal plant Golden Lead began operating out of the coastal town of Gunjur, increasing demand for fish to export for overseas aquaculture. Continue reading...

Dozens of posts containing disinformation spread, with fears people may not trust results of a legitimate electionThe spread of fake news and disinformation has spiked in Indonesia in recent months, weeks before millions are scheduled to vote in the country’s elections.Data released in a new report from Mafindo, an organisation focused on combating fake news and improving digital literacy, shows that political fake news and disinformation shot up by 61% between December 2018 and January this year. Continue reading...

Michael McElhatton one of two men detained on suspicion of manslaughter after three diePolice in Northern Ireland have arrested two men in connection with the crush outside a St Patrick’s Day disco that killed three teenagers.Detectives detained the men, aged 40 and 52, on Tuesday afternoon on suspicion of manslaughter and brought them to a police station in Dungannon, County Tyrone, for questioning. Continue reading...

Chin Tan backs calls for a code of conduct to crack down on hate speech in parliamentThe race discrimination commissioner, Chin Tan, has backed calls from Labor and the Greens for a code of conduct to crack down on hate speech in parliament.Tan said the Australian Human Rights Commission will give “in principle” support for parliamentary standards on speech about race and religion, a break from the Coalition government which has not endorsed either idea. Continue reading...

‘Yellow vest’ protester bailed during chaotic court hearing in LondonThe self-styled “yellow vest” protester James Goddard has denied calling the MP Anna Soubry a Nazi and a traitor, during a chaotic court hearing in which the judge adjourning proceedings partway through.Goddard, 29, pleaded not guilty to harassing the politician in Westminster between 18 December 2018 and 8 January 2019. He also denied one count of racially aggravated behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, relating to a police officer, and another count of behaviour likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, when he appeared at Westminster magistrates court on Tuesday. Continue reading...

Firearm seized and buildings searched after suspect held over shooting that killed three

German chancellor and EU leaders baffled and frustrated as they await UK’s next move

An extension now looks likely – how long will Brexit be delayed for and can it be stopped altogether?

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