World news | The Guardian

Parts of country face fifth heatwave of the summer with highs of 38C forecast this weekThe Guardian's environment editor Damian Carrington has put together this explainer on why Europe is warming about twice as fast as the global average, with shifting weather patterns, Arctic warming, declining snow cover and reduced air pollution all contributing alongside greenhouse gas emissions:We have some comments from the Liberal Democrats and Green party on the Cobra emergency meeting scheduled for later today. Continue reading...

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Crowly pulls off last-minute victory in tight race after polls had shown his progressive opponent as a clear frontrunnerDavid Crowley, the Milwaukee county executive, pulled off a last-minute victory after re-entering the Wisconsin governor's race and snagging an endorsement from Tony Evers, the outgoing governor.The race came down to the wire, with Francesca Hong and Crowley running close to each other as each batch of results came in. Polls had shown Hong as a clear frontrunner in the race but with large chunks of voters still undecided and an ever-changing field of candidates, polling was difficult. Polls in Michigan similarly showed progressive Abdul El-Sayed with a more sizeable lead than he ended up with in his victory in the Democratic primary for US senate. Continue reading...

Martin Jones expresses concern scheme will increase pressure on probation service as Burnham addresses controversy over PC Harper's killersTaz Ali is covering all today's extreme heat news on a seperate live blog. It's here.The Home Office has announced that 13 hotels in England are no longer being used to house asylum seekers. They include the Grand Metropole Hotel, Blackpool.For too long, communities have watched hotels at the centre of their towns and cities become symbols of a broken asylum system.We are turning that around by ending the use of asylum hotels for good and moving people into larger, basic accommodation like former military sites. Continue reading...

Coalition demands police investigate apparent leaking of diplomatic cable to newspaper but Labor calls it a silly political stunt'

Lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood gives evidence about allegations linked to Reformers at Independent Commission Against Corruption hearing

Angus Taylor and other Coalition members not supporting shadow housing minister's target migration numbers, which would be the lowest figures since the mid-2000s

Al-Ahmed, who maintains his innocence, was accused of putting his father in a headlock in March

High temperatures continue across UK with 38C forecast on Thursday and wildfires stretching emergency servicesAndy Burnham will chair an emergency Cobra meeting in response to extreme heat, which has caused wildfires and plunged many parts of Britain into drought.The prime minister will meet ministers, officials and agencies on Wednesday as high temperatures continue across the UK, with temperatures of 33C forecast and up to 38C on Thursday. Continue reading...

Voters will be required to number at least five parties above the line in order of preference after bill passed upper house 33 votes to four

Exclusive: Pay increases to two weeks in England and Wales after Guardian revealed officers mocked' for taking time offPaid paternity leave for police in England and Wales is to double, after the Guardian revealed last year that officers were mocked and ostracised" for taking time off to spend with their babies.The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, has increased the amount of paid parental and adoption leave for officers from one week to two across all forces, with fathers' leave upped to be in line with mothers'. Continue reading...

Exhibition in Port Talbot is part of project exploring how communities experience endings and transitionsMargaret Heggett, 95, does not remember a time when Port Talbot was ever quiet. Born and raised in the shadow of the steelworks, with a father, brother and husband who worked there, she never imagined what the town could look or sound like without its blast furnaces.I'm not saying it was beautiful, but there were jobs. We did know the closure was coming and we have to move with the times but it's affected the town a lot and it's very sad," she said. Continue reading...

In today's newsletter: As ministers scramble to resolve overcrowding in prisons, experts say the crisis demands a rethink of who we lock up - and what happens when they're set freeGood morning. On his family holiday last week, the prime minister, Andy Burnham, was reported to be taking daily calls from Ministry of Justice officials about his government's early release scheme. A furious public outcry has gathered pace since it emerged that the plan - brought in by his predecessor, Keir Starmer, to alleviate overcrowding in prisons across England and Wales - might include two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper and other serious sexual offenders, including grooming gang perpetrators.After several weeks of system says no" briefings, which Harper's mother Debbie Adlam has described as a rollercoaster ... really draining", yesterday Burnham endeavoured to put a pin in it until September.UK news | Repeated debilitating heatwaves this summer are likely to have cost the UK economy more than 4bn in lost economic output by the end of July, new analysis shows.Meta | Courts in England and Wales have joined a number of restaurants, theatres and pubs in banning the controversial Meta glasses, which can record video footage while being worn.Middle East | Firefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing.UK politics | Reform's deputy leader Richard Tice has been accused of using nasty tactics" in an attempt to intimidate journalists and deflect attention from his own financial affairs after issuing a legal threat to the Guardian.US news | Democrats called on Tuesday for a congressional briefing over a stunning charade in which Donald Trump was secretly spirited to a different plane than the one the public and press believed he was travelling on. Continue reading...

Prime minister Anutin Charnvirakul calls for tighter gun controls and decisive penalties' after nine dead in school shootingThailand has suspended firearms licences after the deadly Nonthaburi school shooting, as the bodies of the teenage attacker and the grandparents he killed were cremated.The prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, said he had ordered the interior ministry and police to stop issuing licences to possess, purchase and carry firearms, and called for tighter controls and decisive penalties". The measures are temporary until a new gun control law is in place, according to government operated news-channel NBT World. Continue reading...

Master's student made first bar with 100% UK ingredients since 1932 to highlight affect of climate crisis on cocoa plantsThe late queen was the only person in history to have ever eaten a chocolate bar made with 100% British ingredients, after she was given one as a six-year-old in 1932 by the confectioner Rowntree's.The bar was created from a glasshouse-grown cocoa plant, at Rowntree's headquarters in York. Continue reading...

Forecasters warned the Chinese capital could receive more than one-third of its average annual rainfall over 24 hoursThousands of people have been evacuated from areas at risk of flooding and landslides in Beijing, as the remnants of Typhoon Dolphin continue to bring torrential rain to northern and central China.Forecasters warned on Tuesday that the Chinese capital could receive more than 150mm of rain over the following 24 hours, with some districts forecast to exceed 200mm - more than one-third of Beijing's average annual rainfall of 528mm. Continue reading...

Rio Tinto said in December it may cease operations at the Tomago aluminium smelter at the end of its current electricity supply contract

The Comac C919 will fly from Beijing to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia, although experts say it could take generations for it to challenge the west's dominance of the industryChina hopes to break into the world of commercial aviation with the first international flight of a Chinese-made passenger jet scheduled for Wednesday.The Comac C919 will take off from Beijing capital international airport at 3pm, landing in Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia, just over two hours later. Continue reading...

Officers - correctly - may not have fully unzipped the bag containing the lifelike doll to avoid destroying evidence, one expert says

New research sheds light on the genetic basis of the venomous arachnid's weird mating behaviour'

Letter signed by every chief constable in England and Wales warns freeing pair could weaken trust in justice systemAndy Burnham is facing an unprecedented mass call from police chiefs to block the early release of PC Andrew Harper's killers, as unions warned his emergency plan to create more space in jails risked causing confusion or leading to prisoners being freed by mistake.A letter signed by 50 police leaders across the UK, including every chief constable in England and Wales, called on the prime minister to do everything in his power to stop the killers benefiting from a programme designed to free up prison space, saying there was a profound strength of feeling across policing" that this should not happen. Continue reading...

Justice department is asked to weigh new charges against David Hearn after US attorney dropped vandalism chargesThe White House has asked the Department of Justice to weigh new charges against a former Olympian accused of vandalizing the Lincoln Memorial reflecting pool, according to a person familiar with the matter, pushing to revive a case Donald Trump has fumed about ever since an ally dropped the case citing insufficient evidence.Jeanine Pirro, the US attorney for the District of Columbia, dropped the charges against the man, David Hearn, on 31 July, blaming a contractor for a flawed installation. In a 20-page filing dismissing the charges, Pirro's office said it had received evidence that damage to the pool occurred before Hearn visited it, and that it is difficult to attribute the widespread damage to the Reflecting Pool to vandalism, let alone to establish that fact beyond a reasonable doubt." Hearn has maintained that he reached in the water to touch a piece of already detached lining while he was on a bike ride in June. Continue reading...

Reform deputy leader condemned for seeking disclosure of documents that could reveal reporter's sourcesReform's deputy leader Richard Tice has been accused of using nasty tactics" in an attempt to intimidate journalists and deflect attention from his own financial affairs after issuing a legal threat to the Guardian.In a letter sent from his lawyers, a Guardian correspondent was singled out for her reporting on a series of Tice's financial transactions that were referred to the National Crime Agency. Continue reading...

Star, 53, says disease has metastasised to her bones and it is too late for chemotherapyLucy Davis, the actor best known for playing Dawn Tinsley in The Office, has said she has incurable stage four breast cancer.The 53-year-old said she was diagnosed a year and a half ago and the disease had metastasised to her bones including her spine, right hip and ribs. She said it was too late for chemotherapy. Continue reading...

British driver Andy Green reached 406.320 mph in car powered by two hydrogen internal combustion enginesThe only person to break the sound barrier in a car earned another world record on Tuesday in a show of force for hydrogen power.British driver Andy Green reached 406.320mph (653.908km/h) in a car powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, setting the record for that vehicle category, according to the Federation Internationale de l'Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports. Continue reading...

Clifford Wilby, 63, blocked the Walthamstow MP from leaving, filmed her and talked about her failings as a member of parliament'A 63-year-old man has been found guilty of harassing the Labour MP Stella Creasy after he was abusive and aggressive" to her on a tube train.Clifford Wilby, of east London, saw the MP for Walthamstow in July 2025 on a Victoria Line train, Westminster magistrates court heard. Continue reading...

Mike Heard used his paddle to strike gator that had latched on to swimmer in Silver River after hearing yells of Gator!'A Florida paddleboarder rescued a woman from an alligator attack in Marion county over the weekend.On Saturday, an alligator bit the woman on the arm while she was swimming in the Silver River, according to local reports citing Marion county authorities. Continue reading...

School said it is pivoting away from letter-grading system to curb the mental health crisis' among college studentsThe University of Michigan will pivot to a pass-or-fail-style grading system, instead of letter grades, for first-semester students in an effort to curb the mental health crisis unfolding among college-aged individuals".The school said in a notice on Tuesday that its goal was to help first-year students acclimate to the demands of college and allow intrinsic motivations to guide personally meaningful academic journeys" and foster a culture of connection and collaboration - rather than competition". Continue reading...

Prediction comes amid warning of extreme heat' this week with temperatures of 38C possibleThe Guardian's environment editor, Fiona Harvey, has written a useful explainer about the UK public services that are struggling in the extreme weather. You can read it in full here:There's only one solution in the end to the drought now declared across most of England and that's rain, says Hannah Cloke, professor of hydrology at the University of Reading.An important consequence of drought is that very dry soils can become less able to absorb rainfall when it does arrive. This can increase surface runoff and can even contribute to localised flash flooding, particularly if rain falls intensely over a short period.The current situation highlights the need to improve long-term resilience to both drought and flood risk as climate variability increases, and shows one more damaging impact of the burning of fossil fuels. Continue reading...

Union chief says vote is about staff warning they cannot protect the public properly'In his pooled TV interview, Andy Burnham repeated the point he made in his Facebook post earlier (see 9.58am), saying he was confident that more could be done to free up space in the prison system (which would allow the early release system to be changed so that PC Andrew Harper's killers are excluded). Burnham said that since becoming PM he had been pushing the system every single day" to go further.Explaining how extra space could be found (see 9.19am), he particularly singled out the more than 2,000 prisoners on indeterminate IPP (imprisonment for public protection) sentences. He said:[The] plan will include issues like returning more foreign national offenders to their country of origin, and looking at the injustice of IPP sentences, which have led to young people, or young when they were imprisoned, being imprisoned indeterminately, and that clearly is unfair.My office was in touch with the family last night [see 10.04am], and I know the justice secretary is in regular touch as well.So, we will keep close to the family through this whole process because we understand how difficult this process has been for them. Continue reading...

Critics argue US high court justice should recuse himself from upcoming fossil fuel firms' climate accountability caseThe supreme court justice Samuel Alito gained up to $2.9m from his fossil fuel interests between 2005 and 2024, a new review of financial disclosures shows.The analysis from the non-profit advocacy group and judicial watchdog Court Accountability, shared exclusively with the Guardian, found that even at the lowest range of estimates, Alito gained almost $400,000 from his oil and gas interests since being tapped for the high court by George W Bush in 2005. Continue reading...

Key tourist route closed and residents rallying round as battle against wildfire expected to go on for several daysThe battle to contain a large wildfire spreading across the New Forest will go on for several days, experts have said, as wind changes and a desiccated landscape fuel the flames.Smoke billowed above the deserted A31 road, the main tourist route into the New Forest national park where tens of thousands of families are on holiday, late on Tuesday while a helicopter flew above the blaze. Firefighters at the scene said they were trying to contain several hotspots across the more than 100 hectares (247 acres) of dried heathland as winds swirled over the area. Continue reading...

The new president is a former judge on the European Court of Human RightsSpanish foreign minister Jose Manuel Albares visited Ceuta earlier today, as he insisted that Madrid had it all under control despite the most unique and complex" border arrangements there.He said Spain was in direct dialogue with the Moroccan authorities on how to prevent another border crisis. Continue reading...

Prof Wyn Evans, who raised concerns over treatment of female staff at Institute of Astronomy, was subject to baseless' investigation, judge rulesA University of Cambridge whistleblower who alleged bullying of female staff inside the university's Institute of Astronomy has won a tribunal against his employer.Prof Wyn Evans told a tribunal hearing in June that the Institute suffered from a bad history of misogyny". He claimed that one woman in the department had been hounded out of a job", another was left a frightened woman", and a third had faced aggressive professors" at the institute. Continue reading...

Lawsuit challenges executive order targeting international criminal court for investigating Israeli crimes in PalestineFour prominent US human rights organizations have accused the Trump administration of using its crippling" sanctions regime against the international criminal court (ICC) to undermine global efforts to prosecute war crimes and crimes against humanity.In a lawsuit filed in federal court on Tuesday, the groups - the American Friends Service Committee, the Center for Constitutional Rights, Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Institute - argued that the administration's targeting of the ICC, as well as of groups and individuals affiliated with it or assisting its work, amounts to a blatantly illegal attack on international justice", the groups said. Continue reading...

When it comes to the Reserve Bank, there's a whiff of a parent making a threat they have no intention of carrying out

Poll finds consensus on what makes people proud to be British but deep divisions on issues such as immigrationYou may think it's a commitment to buying a round, the ability to chat at length about the weather, or making a proper cup of tea. But when it comes down to what makes people proud to be British, there is a consensus across all ages, demographics and political groups - and tea, pints and the weather don't get a look-in.Hard work, fair play and community are the values that voters - no matter which political party, age group, social class or region they come from - instinctively believe capture what it means to be British, according to a large-scale study of British values by Public First. Continue reading...

Prime minister says he has asked justice secretary to push through measures to increase the number of prison placesAndy Burnham has said he is increasingly confident he can adapt the early release scheme for prisoners to exclude the killers of PC Andrew Harper and other serious offenders, saying he understood and shared the public's concern about their potential release.Writing on Facebook, the prime minister said on Tuesday he had asked the justice secretary, Alex Norris, to rapidly push through a series of measures to increase the number of prison places, requiring fewer people to be released early to free up room. Continue reading...

Rooms in Icelandic capital Reykjavik cost double usual rate and Spain also enjoying strong bookings

Quake of 7.4 magnitude collapses and severely damages buildings in several major cities, including Cali and PereiraMore than 100 people died after a powerful earthquake struck western Colombia, collapsing and severely damaging scores of buildings in major cities including Cali and Pereira.The US and Colombian geological surveys reported that a 7.4-magnitude earthquake struck at 7.34am local time on Monday, with its epicentre in the western department of Choco. It was felt in neighbouring Venezuela, still reeling from a deadly double earthquake on 24 June. Continue reading...

The wild capture and release of a female big cat into a nature reserve is the first step towards reintroducing a population that hasn't been seen for 70 yearsOn 31 July, Umit" - which means hope in Kazakh - was released into a nature reserve on the edge of Lake Balkhash after more than a decade of careful planning to return the caspian tiger to the region. With this release, Kazakhstan became the first country to restore its tiger range after they had been thought extinct, with the last reliable sighting in the country recorded more than 70 years ago.Umit - a wild-caught female tiger transported from the Russian far east - will be joined by more big cats in the coming years, with plans to establish a self-sustaining population of about 50. A wild-caught male flown from Russia is still being monitored by authorities and will be released when he is judged fit to survive alone. Two wild tiger cubs are also being reared on the reserve in special enclosures, with as little human contact as possible, and are likely to be released into the marshlands next year, to feast on boar, deer and kulans, a type of wild donkey. Continue reading...

Apollo, BlackRock, Goldman Sachs and KKR among those working with chipmaker to fund infrastructure

Fair Work Commission issues a new minimum standards order for gig workers to come into effect 17 August

Consultant Jeremy Greenwood gives evidence to Independent Commission Against Corruption as it investigates allegations linked to Christian Liberal group

West London airport reports 7.86 million passengers in July, compared with 8.15 million for Istanbul

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Anthony Albanese facing criticism after appearing to joke on a podcast about a gift of melons from Sanae TakaichiAustralian prime minister Anthony Albanese has rejected calls to apologise to Japan's prime minister over a joke he made about melons on a satirical podcast, amid a media frenzy and accusations of sexual innuendo.Government MPs have defended the prime minister as criticism mounted over last month's remarks, branded by the Coalition opposition as grubby". Assistant minister Pat Gorman told media: I don't know why we're still talking about this". Continue reading...

Barclays says survey shows people feel more secure in jobs and have more leeway to spend on non-essentials

Some Liberal and National MPs warned against over-regulation in party room discussion, while others argued for more stringent rules

In today's newsletter: As we enter our fifth summer heatwave, Andy Burnham's government is looking at what the UK should do with its remaining North Sea oil and gasGood morning. What a difference a new job can make. To have a shot at staying within 1.5C global warming, we can't have any new oil or gasfields ... It's irresponsible and shortsighted to be funding new #fossilfuels when we need to be getting to #NetZero."