If Washington wants to be on the right side of history, it must open the way for Sudan to receive economic supportOver the past year, the Sudanese people have staged a near miraculous revolution, overthrowing the 30-year dictatorship of President Omar al-Bashir.Following mediation led by the African Union and Ethiopia, a transitional government consisting of civilians and military generals is headed by Abdalla Hamdok, a veteran economist untainted by the decades of corruption and misrule. It is the best compromise: the army, and especially the paramilitary Rapid Support Force, are simply too powerful to be removed from politics in one fell swoop. Continue reading...

Gangland lawyer turned police informant says she has been forced to live overseas due to fear for her and her children’s safetyGangland lawyer turned police informer Nicola Gobbo says she has been “snookered by Victoria police”, forced to live in an undisclosed overseas location because she fears for her and her children’s lives.Gobbo’s longest registration as police informer “Lawyer X” was from 2005 until 2009, when she turned on some of her most high-profile clients, including drug trafficker Tony Mokbel and underworld murderer Carl Williams. In July, Gobbo’s former client Faruk Orman was released from jail after a 12-year sentence when his criminal conviction was overturned, with Gobbo’s informing found to have led to a substantial miscarriage of justice. Continue reading...

‘The burns were horrific … A lot of the people could not talk,’ says Mark LawWhite Island volcano: police open inquiry as sixth person diesA commercial helicopter pilot who led a team that rescued 12 victims from the White Island volcano eruption has told how he believed he was their last hope of survival.“We found people dead, dying and alive but in various states of unconsciousness,” said Mark Law, a tour company boss who flew to the volcano and spent an hour on the ground even as a pillar of ash towered above them. Continue reading...

Politicians in Germany say claims from Russian leader are designed to muddy waters around murderVladimir Putin has claimed the Chechen separatist shot dead in Berlin in what prosecutors believe was a state-sanctioned assassination had been responsible for carrying out killings on Russian soil, frustrating German politicians who have sought clarification over the Kremlin’s involvement in the murder.At a joint press conference with the leaders of Germany, France and Ukraine at the end of a summit in Paris, Putin described the Georgian citizen Zelimkhan Khangoshvili as “a cruel and bloodthirsty person” whom Russian authorities had sought to have extradited from his exile in Germany. Continue reading...

Repentance, reparation and remedy for the terrible damage done to the people of Bayelsa state in Nigeria is long overdue

As a doctors’ and nurses’ strike paralyses Zimbabwe’s health system, one woman has delivered 100 babies in her flat•Photographs by Cynthia R MatonhodzeSix expectant mothers groan through their labour pains in the lounge of a tiny two-roomed apartment in Mbare, Zimbabwe’s oldest township.Sweating and visibly in pain, a heavily pregnant woman peeps through the window to catch a breath while others lie on the floor. Continue reading...

Investigation reveals 70% of Nasa fire alerts were in the estimated buying zones of beef companies, some of which export to UK

White Island’s eruption is a reminder that we are not nature’s master, but at its whim

Shadow chancellor says Labour will fight austerity as general election campaign enters its final days

No survivors left on island, say police after disaster leaves up to two dozen people missingPolice in New Zealand have said they do not expect to find any more survivors from a volcanic eruption on White Island that killed at least five people and injured up to 20.“No signs of life have been seen at any point,” police said after rescue helicopters and other aircraft had carried out a number of aerial reconnaissance flights over the island following the eruption on Monday afternoon. “Police believe that anyone who could have been taken from the island alive was rescued at the time of the evacuation.” Continue reading...

Oil and gas explorer scraps dividend as more than £1bn is wiped off stock market valueShares in Tullow Oil more than halved after the company slashed its production forecast, scrapped its dividend and announced the departure of its chief executive and exploration director after problems at its fields in Ghana.The London-listed oil and gas explorer said the chief executive, Paul McDade, and the exploration director, Angus McCoss, had resigned by mutual agreement. The firm will be run by the chair, Dorothy Thompson, a former Drax boss, until a new chief executive is found, while Mark MacFarlane, its East Africa chief, becomes chief operating officer. Continue reading...

Former transport minister is country’s youngest leader ever and third female PM

Anti-corruption inquiry hears Jamie Clements took trips for business and ‘entertainment’ when NSW Labor general secretaryFormer NSW Labor boss Jamie Clements travelled on a private plane organised on behalf of Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo when he was general secretary of the state party, an anti-corruption inquiry has heard.Huang’s former executive assistant Tim Xu told the Independent Commission Against Corruption that Clements used the plane for “probably meetings and sometimes entertainment, sometimes a tennis match”. Continue reading...

Extreme fire danger warnings issued for three regions in Victoria, as NSW braces for temperatures above 40C on TuesdayEast Gippsland residents threatened by out-of-control bushfires were urged to leave their homes on Monday, with temperatures in parts of Victoria forecast to reach as high as 43CExtreme fire danger warnings issued for the Mallee district, while Wimmera and northern country were issued a severe warning. All three were under total fire bans. Continue reading...

Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Araimi, 26, was attacked in KnightsbridgeAn Omani student has been named as one of three young men killed in a series of unrelated stabbings in London in a little over 12 hours.Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Araimi, 26, was was stabbed in a suspected robbery near Harrods in Knightsbridge, west London, as he and a friend made their way home from a nearby restaurant late on Thursday evening. Continue reading...

Photographer Judah Passow has documented those were affected by the Bhopal disaster 35 years ago, which killed an estimated 25,000 people ad has left more than 150,000 suffering from chronic medical conditionsJudah Passow has waived his fee for this work. Contributions to the Bhopal Medical Appeal can be made at www.bhopal.org Continue reading...

Sharks, tuna, marlin and other large fish at risk from spread of ‘dead zones’, say scientistsOxygen in the oceans is being lost at an unprecedented rate, with “dead zones” proliferating and hundreds more areas showing oxygen dangerously depleted, as a result of the climate emergency and intensive farming, experts have warned.Sharks, tuna, marlin and other large fish species were at particular risk, scientists said, with many vital ecosystems in danger of collapse. Dead zones – where oxygen is effectively absent – have quadrupled in extent in the last half-century, and there are also at least 700 areas where oxygen is at dangerously low levels, up from 45 when research was undertaken in the 1960s. Continue reading...

The relationship between the Queen’s son and the late wealthy sex offender may have been closer than previously realisedAnalysis of legal papers, 20 years of newspaper reports and Jeffrey Epstein’s flight logs shows that the deceased financier and convicted sex offender’s friendship with Prince Andrew may have been closer than formerly realised.Related: Photos contradict Trump's claim not to know Prince Andrew Continue reading...

Woman suffered 95% burns in latest case of violence against women to cause public outrageA 23-year-old rape victim who was set on fire by a gang of men, which included her alleged rapist, has died in a New Delhi hospital, the doctor treating her said.The woman was on her way to board a train in Unnao district of northern Uttar Pradesh state to attend a court hearing on Thursday over her rape when she was doused with kerosene and set on fire, according to police. Continue reading...

The Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013. Can the Democrats’ new bill revive it in time?On Friday the House of Representatives showed the country that it will not tolerate racial discrimination at the polls. It passed the Voting Rights Advancement Act, a bill that would restore the 1965 Voting Rights Act to its full strength. Our country needs that reform and others to make the 2020 election free and fair for all.Since its founding, America has moved slowly towards granting suffrage to more and more Americans, bringing more people into the electoral process. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 has been instrumental to that progress. But in 2013 the supreme court dramatically weakened that law. Continue reading...

Officials call for global targets on protection of land, oceans and wildlife to be subject to Paris-style legal frameworkIf humanity wants to reverse the widespread destruction of the natural world, biodiversity needs legal protection like the Paris agreement on climate change, members of the European parliament have said.Action to halt biodiversity decline is based on voluntary commitments but, less than a year before a crucial UN biodiversity conference in China, MEPs pointed to the destruction of precious ecosystems and the more than 1m species facing extinction as evidence that the approach is failing. Continue reading...

Pontiff had been urged to cancel after Joseph Muscat quit in crisis over journalist’s murderThe Vatican has stressed Pope Francis’s commitment to press freedom before a meeting between the pontiff and the Maltese prime minister, Joseph Muscat.The private meeting is due to go ahead despite calls in Malta for the pope to cancel it amid a political crisis triggered by the murder of the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. Continue reading...

Minister says Labour proposal to enfranchise 2m EU nationals would be ‘assault on democracy’

Rowland ‘Boon’ Gould had a long history of mental health issues, doctor told inquestA founding member of the pop band Level 42 who quit the music industry because of mental health issues and moved to Devon took his own life, a coroner has concluded.Guitarist Rowland “Boon” Gould, 64, was found dead at a friend’s home in Uffculme, Devon, on 30 April this year. Continue reading...

How many more years will it take trade union leaders to finally get it? asks Jonathan HarrisHow many more years will it take trade union leaders to finally get it? As John Harris’s perceptive article shows, for most voters they are an irrelevance (The ‘red wall’ is looking shaky. But the rot set in decades ago, Journal, 2 December). For many others who still remember the bad old days before Thatcher, they remain a ball and chain round Labour’s neck.Yet in the last few days before the most important general election in decades, the RMT has decided to press ahead with its own parochial strike (Rail users face months of chaos as South Western guards begin strike action, 2 December). Continue reading...

Macron’s proposed retirement reforms are his latest attempt to erode the safety net. Tomorrow the people are fighting backIt’s shaping up to be one of France’s biggest strikes in recent memory. Responding to calls from unions to protest against the government’s proposed retirement reforms, an impressive swath of the workforce plans to walk off the job tomorrow – everyone from railway workers and truckers to judges, nurses, teachers and students.While it has yet to introduce legislation, Emmanuel Macron’s government has floated a proposal that would mark the deepest overhaul of France’s pension system since its creation in the aftermath of the second world war. This would effectively hike the earliest age at which one can collect so-called full retirement benefits from 62 to 64, overhaul the formula for calculating benefits and merge the country’s 42 existing pension schemes into a single regime – all in all, resulting in likely benefit cuts for millions. Authorities have defended their ambitions with the language of French republicanism, vowing to forge a “universal system” in which everyone is treated equally. But what they neglect to mention is that the new standard would be worse than today’s. Continue reading...

Squabbling, a spreading focus and Trump raise doubts about the effectiveness of the allianceSeventy years after Nato was founded – to protect western Europe from Joseph Stalin’s Soviet Union – the military alliance returned this week to its first home in London to discuss an increasingly sprawling set of goals while bickering leaders competed to see who could offer the most contentious soundbite.Normally this is an arena that would be dominated by Donald Trump, although this time he was somewhat upstaged by Emmanuel Macron, whose pre-summit declaration that the organisation had become “brain dead” obliged Trump to describe his French counterpart’s comments as “very, very nasty”. Continue reading...

German company allowed to use words ‘aceto balsamico’ to market its vinegar productsItalian producers of balsamic vinegar have lost a legal challenge at the EU’s top court to prevent a German company from using the names “aceto” or “aceto balsamico” to market its vinegar products.The Consortium for Balsamic Vinegar of Modena sued the company, Balema, on the premise that it had violated the use of the geographical food designation term aceto balsamico di Modena (balsamic vinegar of Modena), which has been in place since 2009 and can only be used by producers in Modena, in the Emilia Romagna region. Continue reading...

Emissions reduction minister declines to say whether he has given download logs to Strike Force GarradThe embattled emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, says he has established “an administrative point of contact” with the New South Wales police, but has declined to say whether he has handed over relevant metadata and download logs to Strike Force Garrad.Taylor told parliament on Wednesday he had not yet been interviewed by detectives investigating a doctored City of Sydney council document but on Wednesday reported his office had established an administrative point of contact with the NSW police. Continue reading...

Attacker’s relatives express condolences to victims’ families as porter tells how he and others tried to stop KhanThe family of the Fishmongers’ Hall attacker, Usman Khan, have said they are “shocked and saddened” by the atrocity and “totally condemn” his actions.In a short statement issued through the Metropolitan police, they expressed their condolences to the two victims who died and those who were injured in the violence on Friday. Continue reading...

From the shanty towns of Khlong Toei to the hidden parts of Chinatown, Cody Ellingham walked Thailand’s capital every night for five weeks to photograph the city for his book Bangkok Phosphors

Exiled Somali Kamil Ahmed says her job at Gargaar FM is more important than ever as the threat of closure hangs over the campSitting in a small shipping container, Kamil Ahmed, 20, prepares to begin her live radio show.“I feel like the whole community is waiting for me,” the only female reporter at the station says, flicking through her notebook. Continue reading...

‘Cruel, heartless’ move provokes outrage from refugees, Greens and Labor as deal described as ‘dark day’ for Australia. Plus Nationals under pressure over Murray-Darling basin plan. Follow all the day’s political news live6.01am GMTGPs have slammed the government’s repeal of medevac laws, saying it will increase the risk of further deaths and compromise patient care.The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners refugee health network chair, Kate Walker, said the heads of 12 prominent medical colleges are united in their support for medevac for “good reason”.Without medevac, the government must take urgent action to ensure patient safety. They must be transparent in their processes and accept medical advice. Australia has a duty of care for those most vulnerable who remain offshore. Border protection is important but so is our duty of care to the health and safety of those in offshore detention.5.56am GMTGreens senator Richard Di Natale has welcomed news that Behrouz Boochani has applied for asylum in New Zealand. We’ve known for some time that this was likely.Breaking: Behrouz Boochani has applied for asylum in New Zealand, @jacksonw____ understands. He has the exclusive story on Sky now.We wish him all the best, we hope that he’s able to put this trauma behind him. Most people don’t.On behalf of the many decent Australians, we are so sorry for what Behrouz has had to endure. Continue reading...

Only a P2 mask sold in hardware stores is effective against PM2.5 particles. Those with health issues should stay indoors and limit exposure

More than 200,000 people have been evacuated from their homes, say officials, after Typhoon Kammuri slammed into the central Philippines.The typhoon, the country's 20th this year, brought winds of up to 124mph (200km/h) and caused flooding and landslides. Hundreds of flights at Manila's Ninoy Aquino airport were cancelled. At least three people are reported to have been killed

Police say cyclist was in collision with white van, whose driver fled the sceneA heavily pregnant woman has been seriously injured in an apparent hit-and-run in Leicester.Emergency services were called to a collision between a vehicle and a cyclist on Aylestone Road, near the junction with Park Hill Drive, at about 9.30pm on Monday, Leicestershire police said in a statement. Continue reading...

With rape and domestic abuse endemic in the lawless refugee camp, safe spaces have been set up to help the women affectedIn a small, dark hut within the world’s largest refugee settlement, a fan hums quietly as Faizal speaks. He says that last month his 12-year-old sister was raped here in their home. The little girl sits in silence beside him wearing a pink headscarf and red dress.Rape is endemic in the camp in Cox’s Bazar. Although the exact number of victims is unknown, many Rohingya women who experienced rape and torture fleeing Myanmar report facing sexual violence again in their new home. Continue reading...

Former prime minister says he was ‘visiting a friend’ but refused to confirm exactly who he sawThe former prime minister Tony Abbott has been filmed leaving the Melbourne prison where the convicted paedophile Cardinal George Pell is being held, with the former Coalition leader saying he was there “visiting a friend”.Abbott was filmed leaving the Melbourne Assessment Prison on Monday morning by a Seven News crew, but refused to confirm exactly who in the jail he was visiting. Continue reading...

The car left the road, rolled and and hit trees around 60kms west of Jabiru on Monday morningFive people have been killed after a car left the road, rolled and hit trees on the Arnhem Highway in the Northern Territory.The crash occurred about 60 kilometres west of Jabiru on Monday morning. Continue reading...

With commuters across south-west England facing an entire month of travel disruption, we’d like to hear your experiences

Ministry claims change will ‘protect the legitimate rights and interest of citizens in cyberspace’ but critics say it’s dystopianAll mobile phone users in China registering new SIM cards must submit to facial recognition scans, according to a new rule that went into effect across the country on Sunday.The guidelines, first issued in September, require telecoms companies to deploy “artificial intelligence and other technical methods” to check the identities of people registering SIM cards. All physical stores in the country have had until 1 December to begin implementing the new standards. Continue reading...

Faroese art provocateurs want to use canvas of Tal R’s Paris Chic as raw materialA court in Denmark will rule on Monday on whether to prohibit a pair of Faroese art provocateurs from destroying a painting by the Danish artist Tal R and using pieces of the canvas as decorative faces for a line of luxury wristwatches.Dann Thorleifsson and Arne Leivsgard, who five years ago founded the Kanske watch brand, bought Paris Chic, one of Tal R’s brightly coloured Sexshops series, for £70,000 at the Victoria Miro gallery in London in August. Continue reading...

Three emergency workers killed in Marseille while two men died in the French RivieraThree emergency workers were killed in a helicopter crash near Marseille while on a rescue mission in southern France where floods have left two dead, officials have said.Their EC145 helicopter lost radio and radar contact while on a rescue and reconnaissance flight in the Var region on Sunday night. Continue reading...

Video footage shows a puppy jumping when it hears a sonic boom that shook London at 4am. The dog, named Poppy, was sleeping when it heard the loud bang, caused by RAF fighter jets going supersonic. Sonic booms generate huge amounts of energy, which to the human ear can resemble an explosion.

The Westpac scandal highlights the problems Australian institutions have with detecting and reporting dodgy transactionsWestpac’s money laundering and child exploitation crisis has rocked the bank and thrown harsh light on the behaviour of the rest of the financial services sector.It’s also raised questions about why Australia lags in enforcing rules about monitoring potentially dodgy transactions. Continue reading...

Former Cambridge student was killed along with Jack Merritt, 25, in attack on FridayThe second victim of the London Bridge terror attack has been named by the Metropolitan police as Saskia Jones, 23, a former Cambridge University student from Stratford-upon-Avon.Her family paid tribute to her on Sunday as a “funny, kind, positive influence at the centre of many people’s lives”. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson visits scene and says system of automatic early release isn’t working