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Black remained a senior member of party’s national executive after being charged with rape and assaultSean Black, who was convicted of rape and assault this week, remained a senior member of One Nation’s national executive and was put in charge of increasing party membership in the lead-up to his trial.Guardian Australia has seen signed minutes of a One Nation federal executive meeting and emails between members of the executive that all list Black as the party’s national secretary and manager of membership services a few months before his Brisbane district court trial was due to begin. Continue reading...

Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman’s plan was foiled by undercover counter-terrorism officersA 20-year-old Londoner has been found guilty of plotting to kill Theresa May in a suicide attack on Downing Street, where he intended to behead the prime minister.Details of the violent plans of Naa’imur Zakariyah Rahman were heard at the Old Bailey where he has been on trial with another man, 22-year-old Mohammad Aqib Imran, accused of planning to travel abroad either to Libya or Syria to engage in terrorism. Continue reading...

‘Boaty McBoatface’ launch | Minor key | Morris barbecue | Letter-writer meet-ups | The summer of ’47 | Perfectionism article ratedIn his 1980s Guardian series Fourth Division England, Matthew Engel alluded to a “conspiracy to pretend that Birkenhead does not exist”. More than 30 years on, and eight weeks after the town’s football club’s return to the fourth division, the Guardian is complicit in claiming the Birkenhead-launched RRS Sir David Attenborough would “make its debut in Liverpool” (‘Boaty McBoatface’ makes Mersey debut, 14 July).

No need to wait for review of timetable chaos, shadow transport secretary saysThe government must “stop pussyfooting around” and strip Govia Thameslink Railway (GTR) of its franchise, the shadow transport secretary has demanded as MPs described the ongoing disruption to rail services in their constituencies.

Several killed and hundreds hurt as unrest enters second week, upping pressure on PMWidespread unrest sweeping across the oil-rich Shia heartland of southern Iraq has continued for a second week, as protesters defied riot police to vent their anger over electricity cuts, poor services and unemployment amid post-election uncertainty.

Met considers whether offences including corporate manslaughter were committedDetectives investigating the Grenfell Tower fire have conducted three interviews under caution over potential offences relating to the disaster – including manslaughter.“The police investigation into the Grenfell Tower fire has moved to a new phase with a planned programme of interviews under caution,” Scotland Yard said in a statement on Wednesday, adding that more interviews would take place in the coming weeks. Continue reading...

Flying licences revoked after vaping co-pilot forced 737 flight into emergency descentTwo Chinese pilots have been fired after one of them vaped during a passenger flight, causing an emergency descent due to a sudden loss of cabin pressure.

Belated disciplinary proceedings – after federal inaction – against police involved in 2014 Staten Island death fuel frustrationFour years after Eric Garner was killed by an NYPD chokehold, New York City has announced it will be move forward with hearings to determine whether officers violated any departmental policies – drawing a lukewarm reception from activists and Garner’s family.Related: NYPD to start disciplinary proceedings against officer in Eric Garner case Continue reading...

My grandfather Brian Worth, who has died aged 84, was deputy assistant commissioner of the Metropolitan Police and head of CID operations at Scotland Yard – at the time the youngest man to have reached that rank. In his CID role he led the investigation into the Brink’s-Mat robbery in 1983 and in earlier years was part of the team investigating the Rolls Razor fraud case in 1968.In charge of all the detectives in London, he was also responsible for creating the Met’s kidnapping protocol and was a liaison officer for Interpol and the FBI, flying to the US a number of times throughout his career. Continue reading...

Sam Husseini says he was held in ‘dungeon’ after trying to engage US leader on policiesMoments before Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin began their startling press conference on Saturday, Finnish police dragged a man in a suit and glasses who was holding a sign that read “Nuclear Test Ban Treaty” from the hall.But Sam Husseini, a contributor to the Nation magazine who was detained for almost six hours before being released without charge, wants to set the record straight: he wasn’t in Helsinki to mount a protest. Continue reading...

Young members of the football team who were rescued from a cave in northern Thailand arrive carrying footballs as they attend their first press conference. They appeared in football shirts alongside members of the Navy Seals who saved them.

Kristina Konrad’s four-hour epic is an unsettling but vital exploration of the effectiveness of referendums – and what peace means in a democracyThis gruelling but vital film should be required viewing, perhaps in school-detention conditions, for Putin, Trump, Farage, opportunist Brexiters, amoral consultants, veteran lobbyists and anyone else from the current mob of democracy-bashers. Four hours discussing a 1989 Uruguayan referendum is probably not somewhere you ever thought you needed to be. But this surprisingly gripping patchwork of regular Joes expressing their intentions and apprehensions to director Kristina Konrad, then working for Swiss television, couldn’t have greater relevance.The immediate issue – whether a law granting immunity to members of the outgoing military regime who abducted, tortured and murdered their socialist insurgent opponents should be repealed – is interesting enough. As the interviews pile up in all their eloquence and clumsiness, what comes into focus is a sharp probing of the effectiveness and potentially destructive nature of referendums, and beyond that a stand for the sanctity of democratic debate. Continue reading...

MI6 and MI5 had no one from minority ethnic background in a top post, MPs findThe UK’s intelligence agencies suffer from a lack of black and Asian staff in top posts, according to a report from the parliamentary intelligence and security committee published on Wednesday.Neither MI6, which deals with overseas intelligence-gathering, nor MI5 had any people from a black, Asian or minority ethnic background in the top posts in 2016-17. The surveillance agency GCHQ was the only agency listed as having any staff at a senior level from a BAME background. Continue reading...

LNP Senate veteran says he will campaign for below-the-line votes after being given fourth spotThe Queensland LNP senator Ian Macdonald has apologised to his would-be successors, who he says have been “locked out” of the Senate “for a generation”, after he was given a virtually unwinnable spot on the Senate ticket.Macdonald used his latest Northern Online Opinion dispatch to apologise for leaving the people of northern Queensland “without genuine representation in the Senate”, hinting at a succession plan he was unable to implement, after losing his battle to remain at the top of the LNP Senate ticket. Continue reading...

Politicians north and south of border turn on Sinn Féin for abstaining in Commons voteThe Irish prime minister has said his government is stepping up preparations for a no-deal Brexit as politicians in the Republic and Northern Ireland turned on Sinn Féin for not taking up its seats in Westminster to help defeat the government on knife-edge trade and customs votes.Leo Varadkar said the instability in Westminster meant there was no guarantee that a withdrawal agreement, even if agreed in Brussels, would get passed in London. Continue reading...

Dawn Sturgess and partner visited Queen Elizabeth Gardens day before they fell illPolice investigating the Wiltshire nerve agent poisonings that left one woman dead and four seriously ill are searching a city centre park.A fingertip search in Queen Elizabeth Gardens in Salisbury, which Dawn Sturgess visited before she fell fatally ill, started on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Rescue group says it found a woman and child dead and a woman alive in MediterraneanAn aid group has accused Libya’s coastguard of abandoning three people in the Mediterranean, including a woman and a toddler who died, after the coastguard intercepted a boat carrying 160 people heading for Europe.

Computer is believed to have been used by toddler’s father on the night she diedPolice have recovered a laptop believed to have been used by Poppi Worthington’s father on the night the toddler died.

Ban on reporters covering union dinner described as a ‘two-fingered salute to the working media’The journalists’ union has lodged a formal complaint with the Australian Council of Trade Unions after reporters covering the union congress in Brisbane were banned from a dinner that included an address by the opposition leader, Bill Shorten.The peak union body has refused to explain why it barred industrial relations reporters from the event for the first time. “The congress dinner was a private ticketed event for delegates and was not open to the media,” an ACTU spokesman said. Continue reading...

Michel Sidibé tells the Guardian the HIV epidemic could rebound without adequate fundingThe head of UNAids, who has been under pressure to resign over his handling of sexual harassment allegations within the agency, has told the Guardian he will not quit, saying that the HIV epidemic is at a crisis point and there is more work to do.“We have more than 15 million people waiting for treatment. We have many new infections occurring. My job is not yet done,” said Michel Sidibé , the executive director of UNAids, who has spoken about the controversy for the first time. Continue reading...

Australia’s sixth largest city plans to create an aquatic memorial reef to address a shortage of burial plotsSleeping with the fishes may not be as sinister as it sounds if a Gold Coast plan for an underwater graveyard gets the green light.The city council is considering a proposal to create an underwater memorial reef as a way to address a shortage of burial plots in Australia’s sixth-largest city. Continue reading...

35-year-old detained after explosive devices thrown at home of ex-Sinn Féin leaderA 35-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of criminal damage after explosive devices were thrown at the home of former Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams.The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the man was detained on Tuesday night and was in custody. Continue reading...

In the fake offices and homes of the Well Living Lab, scientists monitor volunteers to identify ways to make them healthier and more productiveTo outsiders, the workers in this under-construction office on the northern outskirts of Beijing will look like a normal group of employees – but the workplace will be like no other in China.

Reported suicide is alleged to be part of alarming trend that sees 20 women die every day as a result of harassment over a dowry – either murdered, or compelled to take their own livesBefore leaving Delhi for a work trip earlier this year, a man paid a visit to his local police station. He was so afraid his daughter’s life was in danger that he wrote a letter, which he left with the police. In it, he accused his son-in-law and his relatives of abusing and tormenting her over their demands for dowry.

Steve Georganas also to move seats under deal that will give right faction another winnable Senate spotThe outgoing Labor president, Mark Butler, and MP Steve Georganas will move seats in a factional deal set to keep them in the lower house and grant the Labor right another winnable spot on the Senate ticket.Butler, who is Labor’s climate change spokesman and whose seat of Port Adelaide was abolished by the Australian Electoral Commission, will move to Georganas’s seat of Hindmarsh, and Georganas will replace the retiring MP Kate Ellis in the seat of Adelaide. Continue reading...

To fight this disease you need creativity, says Marlize Coleman, whose innovation teaches health workers the best way to zap mosquitoesIt was a stint in a rural area of her native South Africa that ignited Marlize Coleman’s passion for defeating malaria. Since then her career in public health has taken her all over the world, collaborating with experts in other countries to find and fund insecticides that work on resistant mosquitoes. Now based at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, she has developed a game that asks students and health workers to choose between insecticides to find the one that kills the villain. Continue reading...

Tribunal accepts agent’s explanation that he shook woman’s hand to say goodbye after 2017 auctionA woman who said she was injured when a real estate agent squeezed her hand after a Sydney property auction has lost her bid to be declared a victim of violent crime.The woman, who cannot be named, unsuccessfully challenged a decision by the commissioner of victims rights who found she was not the victim of any act of violence that could have entitled her to counselling or financial grants. Continue reading...

Successes in the US, Israel and Qatar prove that religious and cultural hurdles highlighted in a new report can be overcome“You need to start looking for a kidney donor right away. Start with social media and go all out.”The tone and urgency of her doctor’s advice had left Ashley De La Mode somewhat perplexed. With just 5% kidney function remaining, the 38-year old makeup artist and single parent from London knew she needed an organ transplant sooner rather than later. Continue reading...

Report proposes legalising billion-dollar cannabis industry to rescue ailing economyThe town of Brital, in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, is a jarring contrast of poverty and ostentatious wealth. Busted-up old vans drive on potholed roads next to gleaming Bentleys and Range Rovers with no number plates and blacked-out windows. Unemployment is rife, and yet the landscape is dotted by large gated mansions.The town is home to some of Lebanon’s most powerful cannabis-growing families, who cultivate their crop openly in the fields nearby and possess a vast arsenal of weapons that has put them out of the reach of the law. Over the years, it has gained a reputation for being a no-go zone. But if economists and consultants are to have their way, Brital and the entire area will be transformed by the creation of a billion-dollar legal cannabis industry. Continue reading...

Amid increasing doubts over the prospects of the regime giving up its nuclear weapons, US president says there is ‘no rush for speed’Donald Trump has eased pressure on North Korea to give up its nuclear weapons quickly, conceding there is no deadline for a breakthrough.Amid increasing doubts over the prospects for denuclearisation, North Korea moved a step closer to fulfilling one of the more specific commitments from the Singapore summit: the repatriation of the remains of US military personnel killed in the Korean War. Continue reading...

Wife of terrorism defendant had applied for permission to wear face veil during trialA Victorian judge has banned a woman whose husband is facing terrorism charges from wearing a niqab in court, saying it posed a potential security risk.The woman applied through her husband’s lawyers to wear the face veil, which she said was a “a fundamental way in which she observes her faith”, while sitting in the public gallery to support him through the six-week trial. Continue reading...

A day after Donald Trump met with Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, he has sought to reverse comments he made during the leaders' joint press conference. Citing the transcript of his remarks, Trump said his assertion that he did not see 'any reason why it would be Russia' behind election inference should have been: 'I don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t be Russia.' Continue reading...

Police allege girl was sedated and raped in apartment block multiple times since JanuarySeventeen men have appeared in court in the Indian city of Chennai charged with repeatedly raping a 12-year girl over the course of seven months.The men included security guards, lift operators and plumbers working at the apartment block where the girl lived, police said.

Prison guard tells inquest into Indigenous death in custody that he was worried about the ‘security of the centre’A prison guard sought extra sedation for the cell transfer of David Dungay because he was worried about the “security of the centre”, despite the procedure being expected to take only a few minutes.The guard, referred to as Officer G for legal reasons, told an inquest into Dungay’s death that he had based his fear on one interaction with Dungay several years ago. Continue reading...

Disproportionate numbers in court over new antisocial behaviour powers, study findsYoung black men in London are disproportionately more likely to be prosecuted for breaking public dispersal orders available to police as part of a range of measures to crack down on antisocial behaviour.Research produced by the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies looked at a range of powers given to councils and police in 2014 and found that they had resulted in almost 1,000 young adults being prosecuted in two years. Continue reading...

Australian scientists say test delivers a more accurate diagnosis than the human eyeAustralian scientists have developed the world’s first blood test to detect melanoma in its early stages.Early trials of the test involving 209 people showed it was capable of picking up early stage melanoma in 81.5% of cases. Continue reading...

US president condemned for ignoring ‘irrefutable facts’ and refusing to hold Putin to accountThe Perth parents of three children who died when Malaysian Airlines flight MH17 was shot down over Ukraine have condemned the US president Donald Trump for his refusal to hold the Russian president Vladimir Putin to account over the tragedy.In a scathing post on his Facebook page on Tuesday, Anthony Maslin challenged Trump on the “irrefutable facts” surrounding the shooting down of the Malaysia Airlines plane by a Russian missile in 2014. His partner Rin Norris described both leaders as “bullies”. Continue reading...

Wednesday: Obama censures his presidential successor. Plus, the Coalition’s immigration crackdown questionedGood morning, this is Eleanor Ainge Roy bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Wednesday 18 July. Continue reading...

Suffolk police have released a recording of the 999 call Stephen Searle made on the night he murdered his wife, Anne Searle. Mr Searle, 64, of Stowmarket, is a former Ukip councillor. He was found guilty of murder by jurors at Ipswich crown court on Tuesday Continue reading...

The comedian Tanyalee Davis has criticised Great Western Railway after she was left feeling 'harassed and humiliated' after being denied a disabled space for her mobility scooter Continue reading...

Treatment of migrant workers condemned after victim of ‘mob assault is criminalised’Campaigners in Lebanon have condemned the country’s “oppressive” treatment of migrant workers after a Kenyan woman who was the victim of a “mob attack” was deported.Footage of the assault, which took place in a suburb of Beirut on 17 June, went viral on social media, prompting outrage and demands for an apology from the Kenyan government. It showed two women, named Shamila and Rosa, being dragged by their hair and hit repeatedly by a crowd of people while others watched. Continue reading...

A culture of mutual respect and accountability benefits everyone and all the political parties need to wake up to that, across the board, writes Caroline Lucas MPWestminster is the first parliament anywhere in the world to so comprehensively try to tackle bullying, harassment and sexual harassment with its new code of conduct, but Kate Maltby and Ava Etemadzadeh (MPs must end the culture of harassment, 17 July) are correct: there’s still a risk that self-interest and party political influence could scupper further progress.As a member of the working group developing parliament’s new policies and procedures, I have seen first-hand how risk averse the bigger parties in particular are when it comes to reparations and sanctions for individuals bringing historic cases. And while some voluntary training is now available, mandatory training for MPs in consent and how to be a good employer is being delayed until after the next election. This is apparently on the grounds that nobody knew they’d have to participate in such training when they stood for election. Well frankly, nobody knew they’d be expected to put up with groping or furniture being thrown at them when they applied to work in Westminster. Continue reading...

The evidence from the Electoral Commission is clear – to follow through with Brexit now would be undemocraticThose who persuaded the British people to vote for Brexit have now given up on a glorious future for global Britain. These arguments lie in tatters, buried beneath the government’s own studies into the impacts of Brexit showing it will be disastrous for the economy under any scenario. Instead, they are resorting to the “will of the people” mantra. Take Priti Patel’s recent tweet in which she says: “This is no longer an argument about whether Brexit was a good idea but is about democracy & standing by the democratic decision made by the people.” In other words, no matter how bad the consequences for all of us, we have to go ahead with Brexit because democracy demands it.But upholding democracy is a selective affair for Brexiteers. The leave campaign has wasted no time in engaging in some mudslinging at the Electoral Commission, the body responsible for regulating our democracy. The commission’s investigation into Vote Leave found the campaign group broke the law by coordinating with sister campaign, BeLeave. Vote Leave has been fined £61,000 and both campaigns have been referred to the police. Yet the response from Vote Leave officials is to accuse the Electoral Commission of “false accusations” and being motivated by a political agenda, “unfounded claims and conspiracy theories”. It is worth reminding ourselves at this point that a host of senior government ministers sat on the Vote Leave campaign committee. These included Liam Fox, Iain Duncan Smith, Dominic Raab, Michael Gove, Boris Johnson, Steve Baker and Chris Grayling, as well as the defender of democracy herself, Priti Patel. Continue reading...

The mother of Taison Freda, a member of Brazil’s World Cup squad, was briefly kidnapped in Pelotas in the south of Brazil after a man delivered flowers to her apartment building. She was released by police from a car boot 40 minutes later.CCTV footage from her home showed the flower delivery and armed men bundling her into a car.

Inquest highlights missed chances to identify decline in Femi Nandap’s mental healthJeroen Ensink’s widow, Nadja Ensink-Teich, had one key question for his inquest: how could his killer be armed with a knife and at liberty on the day he stabbed the public health academic.

Claim made in appeal against acquittal of Martyn Day over handling of claims UK soldiers killed captured IraqisMartyn Day, a prominent human rights solicitor, should not have used “unbalanced and sensationalist” language at a press conference when announcing allegations that British troops murdered and tortured Iraqis, the court of appeal has been told.

Aggravating circumstances not applicable in sentencing if alcohol consumed voluntarily, say judgesItaly’s highest court has been widely condemned after it ruled that aggravated circumstances cannot be applied to a rape sentence if the victim voluntarily drank alcohol before the attack.The court of cassation on Tuesday ordered a retrial to review the three-year sentence for two men convicted of raping a woman in 2009. Continue reading...

Greater Manchester police say Billy Isaac’s grave desecrated by raiders seeking jewelleryThe body of a gangster who worked for Britain’s most infamous crime family has been exhumed by police after his grave was desecrated twice in a week.Billy Isaac’s resting place is thought to have been dug up by grave robbers who were hoping to find expensive jewellery hidden among his remains.

Off-the-cuff diplomacy made it difficult to work out what was agreed but some details have emerged in wake of meetingsNo communique was issued following the Trump-Putin summit in Helsinki, underlining the off-the-cuff informal diplomacy in which Donald Trump specialises. The absence of an agreed statement leaves secret the status and extent of any practical agreements reached either between the US president and his Russian counterpart or in the later wider meeting between officials. Continue reading...

Education minister to decide which people and organisations are barredIsrael’s parliament has passed a law that could ban groups critical of the armed forces or the state from entering schools and speaking to students.Early on Tuesday, legislators passed the law by 43 votes to 24 in a move that its detractors say will stamp out free speech in the educational system. Continue reading...