World news | The Guardian

Yorgen Fenech cleared on both charges he faced over 2017 killing of journalist that prompted global outrageOne of Malta's richest men has been found not guilty of involvement in the murder of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia.The verdict, which is expected to be appealed against by the prosecution, will come as a blow not only to the victim's family, but to the politicians and campaigners who regard the case as a landmark action in the fight to protect press freedom in Europe. Continue reading...

Jury deliberations in the Lindsay Clancy murder trial have resumed for a fifth day

House minority leader says decision by two Democrats to advance resolution condemning socialism represents significant breach of trust'

Fair to say the current sell-off is international, but the PM has said little yet to make investors rethink the UK's statusIt's too soon to say the bond markets have turned on Andy Burnham. Tuesday's spike in gilt yields, taking the UK's 30-year borrowing costs to their highest level since 1998, was part of an international sell-off of government debt.The main contributors are well known. The Iran war, by increasing the cost of energy, has overturned the comforting start-of-the-year thesis of falling global inflation and interest rates. A plunging Japanese yen has kicked away another assumed source of financial stability. The US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, hasn't calmed nerves with his solo, and so far futile, attempt to bring down US yields. Meanwhile, the early stage of the AI revolution is an exercise in issuing squillions of debt before long-term returns on capital can possibly be assessed meaningfully. Continue reading...

London mayor's office says he is victim of a scam' after conviction under fast-track system where magistrates can decide outcomes in seconds

The government's tougher stance towards the Kremlin is drawing attacks from both the far right and far leftEven before the German government laid the blame this week on Russia for an attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport, the topic of German ties to Moscow was high on the political agenda.But the timing of the unsurprising yet explosive Leipzig announcement - days before a key regional vote - has exposed the extent to which German politics is polarised on the issue. Continue reading...

Guardian City editor Anna Isaac among those who had credentials to cover event declinedReform UK has banned at least three journalists from its annual conference who have reported critically on the party and Nigel Farage.The Guardian's City editor, Anna Isaac, the investigative reporter Peter Geoghegan and the broadcaster and biographer Michael Crick were told this week that their credentials to cover the event, which begins on Thursday, had been declined. Continue reading...

Various laws and 250 years of tradition prevent the likeness of living people from appearing on currency. Donald Trump and Scott Bessent don't want you to worry about that

EU's policy chief says drone incident at German airport had the hallmarks of state-sponsored terrorism'German police have opened a investigation into yesterday's attempt to disrupt the operation of a power substation near Brandenburg.In a statement, Brandenburg police said they were leading a probe on suspicion of attempting to disrupt public services, causing an explosion and damaging critical infrastructure as well as forming a terrorist organisation Continue reading...

Two men and two women have been charged with murder after body of newborn girl found with 33 stab woundsA newborn baby girl died from multiple stab wounds before she was found on top of a washing machine in an outhouse in Sheffield, a court has heard.Two men and two women appeared in court on Wednesday charged with the murder of the newborn, named only as Baby S. She was found with 33 wounds from 15 separate stabbings when police were called to a property in the Wincobank area of the city on Sunday. Continue reading...

Burnham faced questions from Kemi Badenoch and other MPs amid speculation over budgetIn the news release to mark the first anniversary of his election as the Green party's leader, Zack Polanski highlighted what he described as 10 achievements during his first year in charge. For the record, this is how he sees his record.-Won the Greens' first ever parliamentary byelection in Gorton and Denton-More than tripled the party membership from 68,500 to over 230,000Zack Polanski in Holborn and St Pancras sounds like a done deal from the hints the party is dropping over the past 24 hours. Needs the formality of local party sign-off.Our budget for day-to-day spending next year will be lower in real terms than this year. Our capital budget will fall in real terms every year until the end of the decade. Continue reading...

Landmark lawsuit claims tech company's pay-setting system has breached privacy laws and pushed down earningsUber drivers have launched a landmark legal action against the ride-hailing company claiming they live in constant fear" of a soulless" algorithm it uses to set pay and allocate jobs.Drivers from the UK, the Netherlands and other countries have joined the compensation claim that could run into billions of dollars. It alleges an AI-powered pay-setting system breaches data protection laws and pushes down their earnings. Continue reading...

Reform UK leader dismisses criticism of his failure to register 5m gift as a sign of a complainants' society'Nigel Farage has compared his situation to that of Donald Trump being pursued by investigators for years, saying both of them are outsiders" up against the system", as he admitted having become tetchy and aggrieved this summer.The Reform UK leader has been under huge scrutiny over his finances after failing to declare a 5m gift from the Thailand-based donor Christopher Harborne and further financial support from a friend, the fraudster George Cottrell, before the last election. Continue reading...

Teachers and parents have warned against AI use in schools over concerns of cognitive surrender'New York City will ban students' use of artificial intelligence in public schools through eighth grade, typically age 13 or 14. The prohibition is scheduled to be announced on Wednesday and will go into effect next week.The change is part of a sweeping overhaul of the use of technology in the US's largest school district, which enrolls roughly 900,000 students a year. In another policy shift, classrooms will keep students off laptops or tablets through the third grade, age nine or 10. The city's public school technology policies are closely watched by the rest of the United States. Continue reading...

Blast also injures 68 guests at the wedding in southern Iran, prompting fears of escalation in hostilities

New law requires cosmetology classes to give instruction on all hair types from the kinkiest to the straightestAs of 1 September, a new law in New York state requires hairdressers studying cosmetology to be trained to work with all hair types.This is about equal access to service," assembly member Michaelle Solages, who sponsored the law, said in a statement earlier this year. No New Yorker should ever walk into a salon and be turned away or receive substandard care because of their hair texture. Now, with the adoption of this legislation, they won't have to." Continue reading...

In first PMQs clash with Kemi Badenoch, prime minister rejects comparison to Liz Truss's government

As a major new biography of the former prime minister goes on sale, he talks about meeting the Queen, Trump's aims, and why his big vision will never fade

The company says it prioritizes safety, but suits allege its ChatGPT bot induced shooter to carry out attack in CanadaOpenAI faces 30 new lawsuits filed on behalf of victims of the Tumbler Ridge mass shooting.The suits, filed on Wednesday, allege the company's ChatGPT chatbot induced the shooter to carry out the attack in rural Canada in February, in which eight people were killed and dozens more wounded - most of them children. Continue reading...

Rapper's supporters reflect on astonishing' events leading to Duane Davis being found guilty over 1996 fatal shootingA criminal conviction this week in the murder of Tupac Shakur, the first since the rapper was gunned down in 1996, sent shockwaves through his sea of fans who have waited three decades for answers.Duane Keffe D" Davis, a former California gang leader, was found guilty of murder on Monday for the role he played in orchestrating the fatal shooting of Shakur. Continue reading...

Hundreds of unseen images of the star feature at the Venice film festival, alongside virtual worlds exploring wildfires, wolves and the birth of starsDavid Bowie shares the bill with starmen, firefighters and Walt Disney wolves at the 10th anniversary edition of Venice Immersive, the film festival's pioneering showcase for new forms of storytelling. David Bowie: Unseen Unheard - a 3D documentary featuring hundreds of previously unseen images - is among 69 XR (extended reality) pieces playing at the event's regular base on Lazzaretto Vecchio, a repurposed small island off the Venice Lido.Venice Immersive's 10th birthday marks a milestone for an event which aims to provide a bridge between emergent technology and traditional narrative cinema. But the programme's organisers are at pains to emphasise the ongoing scope of a project that has in recent years prompted similar sections at the Cannes, Geneva and Toronto film festivals. This is not a retrospective," declares the official festival blurb that welcomes guests to the island. It almost sounds like a warning. Continue reading...

A man shot dead in Merrylands West was not known to police, in a case with similarities to Monday's killing in Campbelltown

Ukrainian president says aviation industry needs to take account of growing number of Ukrainian attack drones in Russia

Bangladeshi complainants allege Rampal power station's pollution and climate risks threaten the Sunderbans, a world heritage siteBarclays Bank is facing a formal complaint over its financial links to a coal-fired power station near the Sundarbans, the world's largest mangrove forest and home to millions of people in Bangladesh and India.Three complainants from the region have submitted a case to the UK government's Office for Responsible Business Conduct, alleging that the British bank breached international guidelines by underwriting companies involved in the emission-heavy Maitree super thermal power project, also known as the Rampal power plant. Continue reading...

Relatives of Benjamin Halona remember his career as wildlife firefighter and his zeal for selling tamalesRelatives of a New Mexico man who was fatally mauled by a bear inside his home recently say they are choosing to remember his firefighting career and zeal for peddling tamales rather than his rare, brutal manner of death.As Benjamin Halona's sister, Gloria Halona, and her daughter, Samantha Vandever, put it, that is the least he deserved after the quiet dignity that he showed becoming a widower in February and subsequently grappling with health problems that required him to use a walker and a wheelchair to move around. Continue reading...

Changes include fewer seats in parliament and new rules on presidential candidates ahead of December electionsGuinea-Bissau voters have approved a new constitution significantly expanding presidential powers ahead of elections due in December.According to provisional results, 70% of voters approved sweeping changes in the tiny west African state's first constitutional amendment since revisions that ended the one-party socialist state more than three decades ago. Continue reading...

Follow the day's news live

Hadley is giving evidence in trial of former 2GB rival Jones, 85, who has pleaded not guilty to 22 indecent assault and sexual touching charges

Ian Tyler, who was already in role on interim basis, selected and pledges to lead the board's evolution'BP has appointed a new chair after a months-long search following the controversial ousting of Albert Manifold, seeking to draw a line under the boardroom turmoil at the oil and gas company.Ian Tyler, who has served as the interim chair and sat on the BP board as a non-executive director since April 2025, is assuming the role on a permanent basis immediately. Continue reading...

Consumer watchdog Which? set up and accepted payment for fake listing for 1 bed apartment in heart of London'Successive politicians have clawed their way past colleagues over the years to call the residence home. Yet in an offer that probably seemed too good to be true, the property site Booking.com has been accused of systemic security failures" after it was able to set up and accept payment for a fake listing for 10 Downing Street.A property listed as a 1 bedroom apartment in the heart of London" - with the exact address and a picture of the prime minister's home - was listed on 18 June by researchers from the consumer watchdog Which?. Continue reading...

Arthur Downing, author of Power and the People: A History of British Energy, says all-encompassing rapid transition will need a mutualised systemHave you ever wondered why it is that most houses in the UK are reliant on gas boilers? Not what's stopping more people from replacing them with heat pumps, but instead why and how the gas boiler became so ubiquitous in the first place?Arthur Downing, the author of the new book Power and the People: A History of British Energy, can tell you exactly why. We only have boilers in our houses because of a state-owned enterprise that went into everybody's home and installed natural gas-suitable appliances at no direct cost," he says. The nationalised gas industry of the 1940s to the 1980s, which oversaw this huge project, was for three decades one of the most dynamic, innovative, efficient industries in Britain", Downing says. Yet few of us would use these terms to describe it as such now. Continue reading...

Study reveals that pesticide poisoning kills 11,000 people each year, with India accounting for nearly 60% of fatalitiesAlmost half of the world's farmers are poisoned by pesticides every single year, a study has found.Using publicly available data from 2006-2023, the study, which was commissioned by Pesticide Action Network, found there to be an estimated 402-433m cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning of farmers and farm workers every year. Continue reading...

Sergei Loznitsa likens removal of 2m grant to a punishment in kindergarten' on eve of Venice film festivalOne of Ukraine's most acclaimed film-makers has criticised the European Commission's decision to cut off funds to the Venice Biennale over the opening of Russia's pavilion, likening it to a punishment in kindergarten".The Biennale drew heavy criticism this spring when it allowed Russia to use its pavilion for the first time since 2022, despite the ongoing full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...

Exclusive: sanctions against ministers and settler groups are smoke and mirrors cop-out' says Omar BarghoutiBritain's legal and ethical obligation to stop a genocide in Gaza requires it to take bigger steps than halting trade with illegal Israeli settlements or imposing further sanctions, Omar Barghouti, the co-founder of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement has said.He described sanctions against individual settler groups or extremist ministers as a smoke and mirrors cop-out and distraction" from the UK's legal obligation under international law to end all support for Israel, including arms exports, trade deals and academic relations that may directly or indirectly enable Israel's illegal occupation" of Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Continue reading...

Police say the sheep were stolen from a property 830km west of Brisbane between February and May

Speed limit dropped from 60km/h for around 70% of general roads in the hope of making narrow streets of crowded cities saferDrivers on residential roads in Japan have been forced to take their foot off the accelerator, after the speed limit was slashed from 60km/h (37mph) to 30km/h in an attempt to reduce deaths and injuries among pedestrians on narrow urban streets.The new limit, which went into effect on Tuesday, applies to residential roads with no centre line or maximum speed signs, media reports said. Continue reading...

Lehrmann is accused of raping a woman in 2021 and will stand trial in Toowoomba in November. He intends to contest the charges

John Sellers, 34, who moved with his family to Sweden aged 10, has been ejected despite his recent marriage to a SwedeA 34-year-old British man who has lived in Sweden since he was 10 has been deported in the latest of a series of Brexit-induced catastrophes for UK citizens in the country.John Sellers was told to leave despite living in Sweden for 24 years, having been educated in the country and newly married to his Swedish partner, Caroline. Continue reading...

Wong, 29, is accused of urging foreign powers to impose sanctions, blockades and other hostile measures against ChinaJoshua Wong, one of Hong Kong's most prominent pro-democracy activists, pleaded guilty on Wednesday to conspiring to seek foreign sanctions against Hong Kong and China, a national security charge that carries a maximum life sentence.Prosecutors have accused Wong, 29, of working with the exiled Hong Kong activist Nathan Law to urge foreign powers to impose sanctions, blockades or other hostile measures against China. Continue reading...

Decision marks a significant turning point in a case that sparked a national debate in ItalyA British-Australian couple will be allowed to spend more time with their three children after the youngsters were removed from the family's off-grid woodland home in central Italy last year, their lawyer said on Tuesday.The juvenile court of L'Aquila in Italy has approved a staged process under the supervision of social services that could ultimately allow the children to leave the residential care facility where they have been living since November. Continue reading...

Several missing Australians have been found since Tuesday morning, bringing the total citizens unaccounted for to 38

Government says dangerous behaviour' is part of effort by Moscow to cause damage with hybrid attacksThe German government has blamed Russia for the drone attack on Leipzig airport last month, calling it dangerous behaviour" and part of a systematic and concerted effort by Moscow to cause great damage" through a large number of hybrid attacks.The interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, and the foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, ended weeks of speculation and the government's hesitancy to blame Russia, saying in a brisk 10-minute briefing in Berlin that all indications were the Russian state had provided the knowhow and equipment for the planned attack and low-level agents" were recruited to carry it out. Continue reading...

Other families have been unlawfully compelled to be case managed without consent, watchdog finds

Resolution Foundation argues that UK's internationally low tax wedge' must rise to pay for defence ambitionsThe chancellor, John Healey, must be prepared to raise taxes for middle earners if he wants to fund significantly higher defence spending, the Resolution Foundation thinktank has said.Healey resigned from Keir Starmer's government in June, protesting against what he argued was the then prime minister's failure to adequately fund defence. Continue reading...

More than 1,000 people confirmed dead and more than 4,000, including 36 British nationals, remain missingA British aid worker was mistakenly identified by Nepalese authorities as a rescued survivor after returning to Kathmandu on a humanitarian aid flight.Alastair Chambers, a 45-year-old former Gloucester councillor, said he flew to Nepal last week to distribute sleeping bags, food and essentials to communities cut off by collapsed bridges. Continue reading...

Markwayne Mullin says officers could be deployed if there is a threat to that polling place or we're serving a warrant'US homeland security secretary Markwayne Mullin on Tuesday said that federal immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) officers could be deployed to polling sites across the country.Speaking to reporters in New York, Mullin said: ICE isn't there to patrol the polling places. We're there to enforce specific threats." Continue reading...

Experts say ruling could undermine the actual malice' standard and make publishers more wary of critical reportingA $300,000 jury verdict won recently by a Louisiana supreme court justice who sued the Advocate, the state's largest newspaper, for libel over an editorial has caused concern among some US press freedom defenders.One said the decision demonstrated a misunderstanding of a key legal principle governing such cases. And another worries the verdict could have a chilling effect on the media industry's efforts to report critically on powerful people and institutions. Continue reading...

Cash announced after horror car crash that killed two police officers and house fire in which woman and young girl diedCleveland's police force is to receive a 2m funding boost to tackle serious crime, after the home secretary said successive high-profile crimes in the Middlesbrough area had led to a sense of disquiet" in the community.Shabana Mahmood and the prime minister, Andy Burnham, paid tribute in parliament on Tuesday to police constables Matthew Blades and Tom Clough, who were killed when a Volkswagen Passat travelling on the wrong side of the A66 dual carriageway collided head-on with their marked response vehicle. Continue reading...

Police urged people in Overasselt to stay indoors after one person died and 34 were arrestedAuthorities have arrested 34 people, including French, Belgian and Algerian nationals, after a person died in a pre-dawn shootout in a Dutch village reportedly linked to a notorious drug lord.Police urged people in Overasselt, near the German border, to stay indoors with doors and windows shut in case further suspects were on the loose. Continue reading...

Michigan Senate candidate accuses vice-president of dog whistle' and says Republican policies are true evilAbdul El-Sayed, the Democratic US Senate candidate in Michigan, has hit back at Republican vice-president JD Vance's onslaught against him, saying it is evil" to deprive people of healthcare and affordable groceries.Vance, in a Monday speech that railed against undocumented immigrants, cast El-Sayed as representative of terrible evil" and as someone who fights for one group at the expense of others". Continue reading...