Thursday: Guardian Australia investigates the epidemic sabotaging efforts to address climate change. Plus, European leaders say Brexit deal is close.Good morning, this is Richard Parkin bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Thursday 17 October. Continue reading...

• ILO announces reforms including minimum wage

Hajar Raissouni says in statement from prison that she was targeted for her work as as a journalistA Moroccan journalist sentenced to a year in prison for an illegal abortion and premarital sex has been pardoned by the country’s king in the latest twist of a case which has come to symbolize repression of women’s rights and freedom of speech.Hajar Raissouni was found guilty of charges of “having an illegal abortion and sexual relations outside marriage”. Her fiancé, Prof Rifaat al-Amin, was also given a one-year sentence, while a doctor, Mohammed Jamal Belkeziz, was given a two year sentence in the same trial for alleged complicity. Continue reading...

Mullah Bahm claimed schools had anal sex and paedophile ‘agenda’ at protest, video showsThe lead protester in the row over LGBT equality teaching has been accused of “inflaming tensions” by inviting a controversial imam who claimed anal sex, paedophilia and transgenderism were being taught in schools to a demonstration.Shakeel Afsar, who has led a long campaign to halt the lessons, was questioned on the third day of a high court hearing to rule on whether an exclusion zone banning protests around Anderton Park primary school in Birmingham should be made permanent. Continue reading...

Special forces could be involved in rescuing orphans and unaccompanied minorsBritain will consider repatriating orphans and unaccompanied children in north-east Syria if they are alerted to their presence by local military or aid agencies.Home Office officials said the UK would assist British orphans trapped in Syria after the Turkish invasion, reversing a previous policy that children had to be taken out of the country before they might get any help. Continue reading...

Everything about Westminster’s invisible man is designed with forgettability in mindIf Stephen Barclay didn’t exist, would anyone notice his absence? He is Westminster’s very own invisible man. Someone so forgettable that not even his own reflection recognises him. A man who slips in and out of rooms without leaving a trace. No one can even be quite sure if he has human form or if he is just some shape-shifting ectoplasm.Everything about him has been designed with forgettability in mind. His voice is liquid valium. Calming to the point of comatose, each word more meaningless than the one before. By the end of a sentence you are far worse informed than if he had said nothing. His ideal job would be a doctor specialising in telling patients that their cancer was now terminal. Because everyone would have either nodded off or died before they had managed to absorb the news. Continue reading...

Safiyya Amira Shaikh is accused of terrorist act preparation and dissemination of terrorist publicationsAn alleged supporter of the Islamic State terror group has appeared in court accused of a plot to bomb St Paul’s Cathedral and a hotel.Safiyya Amira Shaikh, 36, from Hayes, Middlesex, is accused of the preparation of terrorist acts and dissemination of terrorist publications. Continue reading...

Boris Johnson tells Tories negotiations are near peak, but summit is ‘shrouded in mist’

Move announced by senior MPs represents another step away from nuclear deal signed in 2015Iran will further reduce its commitment to the nuclear deal signed with world powers by limiting international inspectors’ access to its nuclear sites, senior Iranian MPs have said.The move, which is expected to take place at the beginning of November, will be the fourth Iranian step away from the deal, and puts pressure on France, Germany and the UK to make some form of counter-move. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Former police officer told information in public interest disclosures he made between 2010 and 2018 ‘is nonexistent’The Queensland police service says it cannot find records of whistleblower complaints – despite being required by law to keep them – including information relating to a former officer who alleges he was targeted for reprisals.Last week the former officer, Rick Flori, was told by the state’s information watchdog that police could not provide information relating to “public interest disclosures” he made between 2010 and 2018 because “the information is nonexistent”. Continue reading...

Capt Colin Nufer tells inquest into death of Joshua Hoole he received no formal guidanceAn experienced army officer who oversaw a course during which a soldier fatally collapsed on a hot summer day has told an inquest he had been given no formal health and safety training.Cpl Joshua Hoole, 26, died within an hour of collapsing on an annual fitness test (AFT) in Brecon, south Wales, in July 2016. Three years earlier, three army reservists sustained fatal heat illness during an SAS selection march in the Brecon Beacons. Continue reading...

Maddison Yetman, 18, tells Canadians on video that despite her ‘limited time’, she managed to cast ballot in the federal electionAfter receiving a devastating diagnosis of terminal cancer last week, an 18-year old Canadian woman is using her final days to inspire her fellow citizens to vote in the country’s upcoming election.Maddison Yetman was diagnosed with cancer last week after finding strange bruising on her legs. She was told the advanced stage of the sarcoma meant she probably had only days left. Continue reading...

Challenge by Italian heritage group threatened to disrupt deal with Paris museumLeonardo da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man will join several works at a blockbuster exhibition on the Renaissance artist’s life at the Louvre after an Italian court rejected an appeal against the drawing being lent to the Paris museum.Italia Nostra, a heritage group, recently filed a complaint saying the drawing, which is kept in a climate-controlled vault at the Accademia Gallery of Venice, was too fragile to travel and risked being damaged by lighting in the Louvre if displayed for a long period. Continue reading...

Turkish offensive and Idlib battle add to Greek concerns over rising asylum claimsTurkey’s military push into Syria has sparked fears in Greece, already struggling with a rise in the number of asylum claims in recent months, of a new wave of migration to Europe.With camps on Aegean islands at breaking point, Athens has insisted the topic should lead the agenda at this week’s EU summit. “Europe shouldn’t be caught unprepared again,” Giorgos Koumoutsakos, the Greek minister for migration policy, told local media. “Nobody can be certain what is going to happen.” Continue reading...

Far-right politician sparks outrage by telling Muslim woman to remove hers on trip to parliamentThe French government has insisted it will not seek to ban Muslim women who wear headscarves from volunteering to help on school trips after outrage when mothers accompanying pupils were told to remove theirs.One mother said pupils were distressed and traumatised when a far-right politician told her to take off her headscarf in a regional parliament in eastern France, where she was helping out on a primary school outing for her son’s class. Continue reading...

After days of unrest, president agrees to stop austerity package – showing the political force of Ecuador’s indigenous groupsWithin hours of a deal which ended Ecuador’s worst political unrest in recent memory, thousands of indigenous people – along with student volunteers and local residents – took to the streets of Quito to clean up the city.Teams worked their way through El Arbolito park, which was still littered with burning tires and paving slabs that had been used as barricades. Continue reading...

Dany Cotton says new guidance needed as she presents report on post-Grenfell responseMore than two years after the Grenfell Tower disaster, the London fire commissioner has indicated that firefighters still need guidance on what to do if a building is burning out of control and advice to “stay put” is no longer safe.Delivering an interim report into how the London fire brigade (LFB) has responded since the 14 June 2017 tragedy claimed 72 lives, Dany Cotton said on Wednesday that a review of stay put policies was needed, admitting “considerable challenges” remained in moving away from the policy that is widely believed to have cost many lives at Grenfell. Continue reading...

IOPC concerned reviews could prejudice decision on whether to investigate alleged misconduct

Boat carrying 50 people capsized off island of Lampedusa last weekItalian authorities have found the bodies of at least 12 people who drowned last week after a boat capsized in rough seas off the island of Lampedusa.Photos released by the Italian coastguard showed some of the clothed bodies floating at a depth of about 60 metres (200ft). Among them was a woman who drowned while embracing her child of about eight months. Continue reading...

250 tubes of wine-flavoured crisps taken in investigation into use of protected nameThe Italian agriculture minister, Teresa Bellanova, has pledged to fight against “identity theft” after hundreds of tubes of prosecco-flavoured Pringles were seized from a supermarket chain in the Veneto region.The supermarket had purchased the crisps, officially labelled “prosecco and pink peppercorn flavour”, from a marketing affiliate of Pringles in the Netherlands. The product is among the brand’s “Dinner Party” range. Continue reading...

Thames Valley police say two men aged 34 and 35 and woman aged 36 are in custodyThree people have been arrested in connection with a burglary at Blenheim Palace in which a gold toilet was stolen.Thames Valley police were called to reports of a burglary at Winston Churchill’s birthplace in Woodstock, Oxfordshire, on 14 September. Continue reading...

With the province’s economy still sluggish the climate crisis seems to be a secondary issue for voters in Canada’s federal electionRobyn Moser still remembers the bidding wars for mansions when Calgary’s oil economy roared.In her best years – the decade before a 2014 crash in petroleum prices – Moser would sell more than 75 luxury homes, including estates with spectacular views of the Rocky Mountains. Last year she sold just 40 properties – and all at reduced prices. Continue reading...

Couple say Trump shocked them by revealing woman involved in son’s death, Anne Sacoolas, was nearbyThe parents of Harry Dunn have vowed to continue their fight for justice following a White House meeting with Donald Trump where they were told the US woman allegedly responsible for their son’s death would not return to the UK.Anne Sacoolas, the wife of a US intelligence officer, fled the UK after 19-year-old Dunn was killed in a road collision. Dunn died near RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire on 27 August. Continue reading...

Specialist stranded abroad after Home Office decision, amid chronic shortage of doctorsAn eye doctor has been stranded overseas and unable to resume his career in the NHS after the Home Office banned him from entering Britain over a visa mix-up.The decision by the Home Office’s immigration department has been branded “inhumane” and prompted warnings it will worsen the NHS’s already serious shortage of doctors. Continue reading...

Brexit secretary suggests PM will send letter to Brussels in absence of agreement

We have to break out of our narrow navel-gazing: this is the Spanish civil war of our timesThese past few days have been a watershed for Europe. I’m not thinking about Brexit, but about Syria – which increasingly looks like our 21st-century Spanish civil war. Western and European defeat in Syria (by which I mean political and moral, not just military defeat) has parallels with the 1930s when democracies were unable or unwilling to stand up to authoritarians when it mattered, or even to play any kind of meaningful role in preventing a catastrophe that would soon enough engulf them, too.Events in north-eastern Syria are obviously tragic, if not lethal, for the tens of thousands of people caught up in them locally. But they will also have an impact on Europe in more ways than we perhaps care to acknowledge. Donald Trump himself has said as much, casually pointing out that Islamic State-connected foreign fighters now on the loose would make their way back to Europe. He made clear that that is a problem Europe would have to handle alone. As bad as that prospect is, it is only one part of a wider picture that should make Europeans feel desolate: at a crucial moment in history, the Russia-Iran authoritarian axis is now fully victorious on Europe’s doorstep. Continue reading...

Police and protesters clashed in Barcelona and other Catalonia towns on Tuesday over the jail sentences handed to nine Catalan separatist leaders. A peaceful candlelit protest outside the offices of the Spanish government in Barcelona escalated and the central government warned that violent demonstrations would be met with a ‘firm, proportional and united’ response

Extreme rightwing groups in Australia will remain an ‘enduring threat’, according to annual report from Australia’s spy agencyThe threat from extreme rightwing terrorism in Australia has increased in recent years and will remain an “enduring threat”, according to Australia’s spy agency.The Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation issued the warning in its latest annual report, adding that “extreme rightwing groups in Australia are more cohesive and organised than they have been in previous years”. Continue reading...

Carrie Lam interrupted twice by angry pro-democracy politicians, who shouted her down during address

Today, we are making a public pledge to ourselves and our readers, that we are committed to taking responsibility for our role - both journalistically and institutionally - on how to impact the climate crisis we are facing. Continue reading...

Thousands trek to Sorte Mountain each year to perform fiery rituals in tribute to the goddess Continue reading...

New extension beyond 31 October seems inevitable, even as PM gains support for his Brexit deal

Paul 'Jock' Palfreeman, who served 11 years in prison for fatally stabbing a Bulgarian student, has been released from immigration detention in the capital, Sofia, nearly a month after being granted parole. Speaking to journalists as he left the detention centre, Palfreeman voiced a desire to stay in Bulgaria if possible. 'Many people probably think, that I have had protection from Australia for the last 12 years, but the truth is, that the people who have helped me were Bulgarians and I trust them' Continue reading...

Business and city leaders warn of economic damage of cancellation and call for 2012 Olympics-style authorityA review of HS2 by northern business and city leaders has called for control of construction of the high-speed railway to be devolved to the north and Midlands – and warned that its possible cancellation would leave no viable alternatives for transforming their economies.The Northern Powerhouse Independent Review (NPIR), established to inform or pre-empt the government’s own review of HS2, recommended a new body, HS2 North, be established to integrate HS2 with proposed Northern Powerhouse Rail links. Continue reading...

Residents of Drenthe, a province in the north-east Netherlands, reacted to the discovery of a group of people believed to have spent years living in the cellar of a remote farmhouse 'waiting for the end of time'.

Four adults and three children were held in ‘baby jail’ in what they call ‘scariest experience’ of their livesThe Foreign Office is helping a British family of seven who were arrested in the US and subject to the “scariest experience” of their lives at the hands of the immigration authorities after inadvertently crossing the border from Canada.David and Eileen Connors and their three-month-old son were on a family road trip on 3 October near Vancouver with David’s cousin Michael, his wife Grace, and their two-year-old twin daughters. Continue reading...

Three-quarters of MPs want the caps, with 23% saying misrepresentation by media their greatest dislikeThree-quarters of federal parliamentarians want caps placed on both donations and election spending to help restore Australians’ trust in the democratic process.On Wednesday, Democracy2025 will release the results of a survey of 98 out of 226 politicians in the last term of parliament, which shows while most politicians are satisfied with Australian democracy (61%) compared with the public at large (41%), they are still concerned about lack of trust and a growing disconnect with the public. Continue reading...

Decision to make first black female winner, Bernardine Evaristo, share £50,000 prize with Margaret Atwood causes controversyThe Booker prize judges’ decision to break the rules and jointly award the prize to Margaret Atwood and Bernadine Evaristo has been criticised, with detractors pointing out that the first black woman ever to win Britain’s most prestigious literary award has had to share it – while receiving half the usual money.Chair of the judges Peter Florence shocked the literary world on Monday night when he revealed that the jury had decided – unanimously, he said – to flout rules, which have been in place since 1992, that the Booker “may not be divided or withheld”. After more than five hours of deliberation, he announced that this year’s £50,000 award would be split between Atwood’s follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale, The Testaments, and Evaristo’s polyphonic novel Girl, Woman, Other. Told in the voices of 12 different characters, mostly black women, Evaristo has said that the novel, her eighth, stems from the fact that “we black British women know that if we don’t write ourselves into literature, no one else will”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Royal British Legion decision means symbol will also mark terror attack deathsIf you wear a red poppy this year, it will mean something different. The Royal British Legion has decided that the symbol that has long represented remembrance of the UK’s armed forces will now also stand for civilian victims, not just of war, but terrorism too.The decision by the 98-year old charity, which distributes 40m red poppies a year, opens up the official meaning of the famous symbol to encapsulate the memory of victims of the Manchester Arena attack in 2017, as well as civilians in Nazi Germany in the second world war. Continue reading...

Unicef report finds poorest children at greatest risk, while price of healthy food in rich nations drives food povertyAt least one in three children under five are either undernourished or overweight, and one in two lack essential vitamins and nutrients, the UN children’s agency has warned.The Unicef report laid bare the alarming rate at which poor diets and a “failing” food system are damaging children, saying that “millions are eating too little of what they need and millions are eating too much of what they don’t need: poor diets are now the main risk factor for the global burden of disease”. Continue reading...

Ex-footballer claims he told woman ‘you’re beautiful’ after another passenger insulted herThe former England footballer Paul Gascoigne wept as he denied sexually assaulting a woman on a train, claiming he wanted to boost her confidence after she was called “fat and ugly”.The 52-year-old denied he was drunk or that he “forcibly and sloppily” kissed the passenger on a packed train on 20 August last year. The ex-Newcastle United star said he told the woman “You’re not fat and ugly – you’re beautiful inside and out”, then gave her a “peck on the lips”. Continue reading...

Royal Court, London

Attendees at ‘immigration surgeries’ at churches and centres told it won’t involve enforcementThe empty doorway: A death in WestminsterThe Home Office is using information gathered in “immigration surgeries” at charities and places of worship to deport vulnerable homeless people who are told that attending will help them get financial support, the Guardian has learned.Interviews and internal emails revealed the Salvation Army, Sikh gurdwaras and a Chinese community support centre are among the bodies allowing Home Office teams in London to run sessions in spaces that are intended to be safe havens for homeless people. Continue reading...

New envoy to UK also says Riyadh is losing confidence in Donald TrumpThe Turkish assault on north-east Syria is a disaster for the region and has dented Riyadh’s confidence in Donald Trump, according to the new Saudi Arabian ambassador to the UK, Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan Al Saud.He also claimed his country had much more to lose than Iran from a conflict between the two countries and wanted to behave as “the adults in the room” by not escalating tensions with Tehran. He said Saudi Arabia would have further to fall if a conflict took place. Continue reading...

Paris show includes treatment of woman France loved to hate in mangas, fashion and filmWhen Marie-Antoinette met a gruesome end at the guillotine 226 years ago this week, she was the most hated woman in France. As the horse-drawn cart carried the former queen, her blonde hair shorn and prematurely grey, through the streets of Paris to her execution in 1793, the crowds jostled to spit and hurl insults at her.She was 37, an Austrian-born “foreigner” accused of treason and of being aloof, branded a shameless spendthrift and nicknamed “Madame Deficit” for the bills she had run up on the finest clothes and jewels. Continue reading...

Government officials admit credit cards can still be used to buy restricted itemsPeople on the cashless debit card (CDC) are still able to gamble and buy alcohol, drugs, cigarettes and pornography because a potential loophole in the system allows them to use credit cards without detection while they are on income management.Government officials have admitted it is unable to track the use of credit cards, and people who have credit cards can still use them to buy restricted items and use their CDC income to pay off the debts. Continue reading...

Two women with ties to Islamist militants sentenced to at least 25 years for unsuccessful 2016 atttackTwo women with Islamist militant ties who tried to set off a crude car bomb outside Notre Dame cathedral three years ago each have been sentenced to at least 25 years in jail.They were among five members of an all-female jihadist cell, aged between 22 and 42, who were arrested after a car packed with seven gas cylinders was found parked near the bustling esplanade in front of the Paris cathedral in September 2016. Continue reading...