A ‘yes’ in the referendum is a vote to regulate rather than criminalise a drug that’s widely used and less problematic than alcoholIn New Zealand, cannabis is classified as an illegal drug under the Misuse of Drugs Act 1975. Its possession, use and supply are subject variously to penalties ranging in severity from fines to many years of imprisonment. On Wednesday, the Helen Clark Foundation released a report which sets out the case for legalising and regulating cannabis. New Zealanders have the opportunity to vote for that in a referendum next year.Related: Into the light: New Zealand's cannabis growers gear up for referendum Continue reading...

£120m haul was removed by police at Felixstowe before container continued on to Netherlands, where four people were arrestedHeroin with a street value of more than £120m has been discovered hidden among towels and dressing gowns on board a container ship.The National Crime Agency (NCA) said the haul weighing nearly 1.3 tonnes represented the largest ever seizure of the class A drug in the UK and one of the largest in Europe. It was recovered from a container on board the MV Gibraltar after it docked at Felixstowe on 30 August. The drugs were stored in packets labelled as protein powder, which were inside boxes filled with towels and dressing gowns. Continue reading...

Police have confirmed fatalities after a bus carrying about 20 overseas tourists crashed in bad weather on the North IslandA number of people have died in a bus crash north of Rotorua on New Zealand’s North Island.Police advised of fatalities after a bus carrying more than 20 people rolled from State Highway 5 at Ngātira in bad weather conditions on Wednesday. Continue reading...

Just 15% of voters are watching events in Canberra intently – and 15% have no interest at allAustralians are largely tuned out of federal politics, with the latest Guardian Essential poll suggesting only 15% are following events in Canberra closely.A further 15% of the sample professed absolutely no interest in politics at all, with the rest casual consumers of national affairs. Continue reading...

PM ticked secret memo while refusing to confirm decision in public, Edinburgh court hears• Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happenBoris Johnson had secretly decided to suspend parliament nearly two weeks before asking the Queen, according to memos from Downing Street read out in court.The court in Edinburgh heard the first memo was written by Nikki da Costa, the prime minister’s senior legal adviser, on 15 August and spelled out the plan to suspend parliament in the week beginning 9 September. Continue reading...

Sarah-Jayne Roche died during surgery 12 days after Cardiff half marathon, inquest hearsA woman died after a broken leg sustained during a half marathon was misdiagnosed as a pulled hamstring, an inquest has been told.Sarah-Jayne Roche, 39, was injured while running the Cardiff half marathon but went to hospital three times before it was realised that she was seriously injured. Continue reading...

Jan Stroh built replica studio in his cellar - complete with palm trees and sound effectsA German lawyer who spent 15 years re-enacting episodes of the TV quizshow Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? in his cellar, said his hobby had paid off as he walked away with the top prize this week.Jan Stroh, 35, even crudely reconstructed the studio of the German version of the popular programme – called Wer Wird Millionär? – complete with palm trees and exotic seascape backdrop, victory glitter and sound effects – in the basement of his Hamburg home. Continue reading...

Independent owner hosted Saudi leader in London last yearEvgeny Lebedev, the owner of the Independent and the Evening Standard, hosted a private dinner for the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, raising further questions about the media mogul’s links to the de facto ruler of the Middle Eastern kingdom.Lebedev’s news outlets are being investigated due to public interest concerns over a mysterious Saudi investment made through a web of offshore bank accounts, with the UK government suggesting that the Independent and Evening Standard are now part-owned by the Saudi state. The culture secretary, Nicky Morgan, has until Friday to decide whether or not to appeal against a court ruling that the UK government missed a deadline to intervene in the deal. Continue reading...

Yihe Xiong had told fellow students he would open fire if presentation went badlyA student who triggered an armed police response when he brandished a fake gun on a university campus has been jailed for eight months.Yihe Xiong, 25, took the realistic-looking imitation Beretta pistol into a University of Exeter building where he was due to give a presentation. Continue reading...

Many of us find someone who rubs us up the wrong way and the typical advice is to try to avoid those negative feelings. But what if we could harness them for our own good?

Wide-ranging records spanning 850 years come together at Kresen Kernow in RedruthA treasure trove of documents charting 850 years of Cornish history, ranging from an elaborate Elizabethan manuscript gifting a nobleman chunks of the county, to recipes for pasties and a spell-busting charm involving hot urine, have been gathered together at a new archive.Housed in a refurbished brewery, the Kresen Kernow (Cornwall Centre) in Redruth is home to 1.5m records that give an insight into the rich history and culture of the far south-west of Britain. Continue reading...

A school ban enforced by separatist rebels has affected 600,000 children in English-speaking areasThe lessons at Seraphine Akwa’s house were supposed to be secret. She had been teaching at a primary school in Bamenda, in anglophone Cameroon, but repeated threats had forced the headmaster to shut the school’s doors.The threats were from the “Amba boys”, separatists who have been fighting a two-year battle with Cameroon’s francophone government to break off and form their own state, Ambazonia. They enforced a school boycott to protest against educational injustices against English-speakers. Continue reading...

Supreme court rejects complaints from Perth woman Cilla Carden, saying they were ‘not reasonable’A vegan in Western Australia who took her neighbours to the supreme court with complaints about the smell of meat and fish from their barbecues has said she is considering further potential legal action.The court and the state’s administrative tribunal have both thrown out Cilla Carden’s complaints about her neighbours, including their cooking smells, cigarette smoke, chairs scraping on concrete, reflective light and the sounds of children playing basketball and pet birds. Continue reading...

US-bound Cubans used to encounter far fewer obstacles on the migration passage, but that’s changed due to crackdownsYatsel Jerez Ramón has been in Mexico for six weeks, and so far, nothing has gone well for the Cuban migrant trying to reach the United States.On his first night in Tenosique, a small city in the southern border state of Tabasco, Jerez, 37, narrowly escaped a police raid at his hotel. The following day, a man posing as a state lawyer convinced him to handover $500 to obtain a humanitarian visa with which, Jerez was told, he’d be able to safely continue his passage north. Continue reading...

Health regulator is investigating complaint against Prabakar Rajan Thomas, already sentenced to 14 months in jailA former Melbourne psychiatrist sentenced to two years in jail for sexually assaulting a female patient is facing a further investigation from the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency.Prabakar Rajan Thomas, 69, received a 14 month non-parole jail sentence in March for abusing a patient. The county court was told he had put his hands in the victim’s bra, asked about her masturbation habits and showed her graphic pornography. Continue reading...

Edwina Neale tells inquest she did not see fall linked to Day’s death, and wasn’t alerted by her unsteadinessThe sergeant in charge of the Castlemaine police cells on the day Yorta Yorta woman Tanya Day was arrested has rejected a suggestion it was “criminally negligent” to extend the time between physical welfare checks, an inquest has heard.Sergeant Edwina Neale was the custody supervisor on 5 December, 2017, when Day, 55, was arrested and put in custody for public drunkenness. Continue reading...

Officials in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas on Monday issued mandatory evacuation orders as 155mph winds batter BahamasThe islands of the northern Bahamas continued to receive a pounding from Hurricane Dorian’s 155mph winds on Monday before the most powerful Atlantic cyclone of modern times set its sights on the US mainland, forcing millions of coastal residents there to flee inland to safety.Officials in Florida, Georgia and the Carolinas on Monday issued mandatory evacuation orders ahead of the expected midweek arrival of the unpredictable monster storm. Continue reading...

No 10 says vote on bill to delay Brexit will be treated as ‘expression of confidence’

Android and Windows devices also targeted in campaign believed to be state-backedChinese Uighurs were the target of an iOS malware attack lasting more than two years that was revealed last week, according to multiple reports.Android and Windows devices were also targeted in the campaign, which took the form of “watering hole attacks”: taking over commonly visited websites or redirecting their visitors to clones in order to indiscriminately attack each member of a community. Continue reading...

Pastor at St Edward junior school in Nashville says JK Rowling’s use of ‘actual spells’ risks conjuring evil spirits.A Catholic junior school in Nashville has removed the Harry Potter books from its library, saying they include “actual curses and spells, which when read by a human being risk conjuring evil spirits”.Local paper the Tennessean reported that the pastor at St Edward Catholic school had emailed parents about JK Rowling’s series to tell them that he had been in contact with “several” exorcists who had recommended removing the books from the library. Continue reading...

University and secondary school students attend pro-democracy rallies in central Hong Kong on Monday as part of a wider anti-government movement that has plunged the region into its biggest political crisis in decades. The boycott follows a weekend marked by some of the worst violence since unrest escalated more than three months ago, with protesters burning barricades and throwing petrol bombs, and police retaliating with water cannon, teargas and batons

The map above shows border crossings in real time over the busiest hour of an ordinary Monday. The currently invisible frontier is not an arcane footnote of the Brexit process but an everyday part of people’s lives and livelihoods Continue reading...

Arrests come as Indonesian police ban demonstrations promoting separatismFour Australians who allegedly took part in a pro-independence demonstration in West Papua are being deported, Indonesian immigration authorities have said.The four Australians will be deported via Bali after they were detained during a protest in Sorong, West Papua’s largest city, on Tuesday. Continue reading...

New South Wales ice inquiry hears that corrections department has no ‘overall strategy’ and is ‘steadfastly opposed’ to needle exchangeThe department responsible for managing New South Wales’ ballooning prison population has “no overall drug strategy” and remains “steadfastly opposed” to a needle exchange program in jails, despite the urging of health officials.On Monday a government-commissioned inquiry into ice and other amphetamines turned its attention to drug use among inmates, hearing that as the state’s prison population has exploded, so too has the use of illicit drugs in jails. Continue reading...

Damage unknown from biggest storm to hit island chain in modern times

Pro-democracy movement unofficially changes names of public spaces and roads in KhartoumAfter the battle on the streets, comes the battle for their names. Campaigners in Sudan have been unofficially renaming public spaces and roads in the capital Khartoum after those people killed in the uprising that started in December last year and led to the toppling of the dictator Omar al-Bashir in April.“Changing the names of the streets means documenting our revolution. People will keep remembering the martyrs for thousands of years,” said Mohamed Hannen, from the Sudanese Professionals Association (SPA), one of the main pro-democracy groups. “We are also changing the … ideology and building a new Sudan with new names of the streets, and a new way of thinking.” Continue reading...

Human rights groups voice concerns over measures announced amid fears of migrant crisis re-escalationThe Greek government has announced emergency measures to deal with what it calls “huge waves” of asylum seekers arriving from Turkey amid mounting fears of the 2015 migrant crisis being replayed on the country’s shores.With boatloads of men, women and children once again arriving on Aegean islands, the new centre-right administration vowed to bolster patrols along sea borders that are being targeted with renewed vigour by people-smugglers. Continue reading...

Jeremy Dixon, the father of slain comedian Eurydice Dixon, speaks outside court after Jaymes Todd was sentenced to a non-parole period of 35 years for the rape and murder of Eurydice last year in Carlton. Dixon says he won't comment on the sentence but is 'glad a killer is off the street'. 'What I wish for Jaymes Todd and what I believe Eurydice would wish is that he gets better,' Dixon says Continue reading...

Aran Mylvaganam of the Tamil Refugee Council says the Australian legal system is failing Tamils who are still being 'disappeared' in northern Sri Lanka where the ethnic minority are repressed under military occupation. Mylvaganam says the legal system fails to investigate asylum claims, focusing on legal technicalities, and that asylum seekers have no recourse to prove their claims of persecution. Scott Morrison is refusing to allow a Tamil family that had settled in Biloela in Queensland to stay in Australia. Priya, her husband, Nadesalingam, and their Australian-born children Kopika, four, and Tharunicaa, two, are currently detained on Christmas Island and are facing deportation Continue reading...

Sunshine Coast Daily image ‘had the potential to trigger violence’ against premierA News Corp paper that put Annastacia Palaszczuk in the crosshairs of a rifle with the words “Anna, you’re next” had the potential to trigger violence against Queensland’s premier, the Australian Press Council has found.The article “went beyond political comment and showed the premier being the subject of potential significant violence”, the media watchdog said. Continue reading...

Frank-Walter Steinmeier makes speech at Warsaw event to mark 80 years since start of warThe German president vowed his country would never forget the atrocities of the Nazi period on Sunday as he asked forgiveness from Poland during a series of commemorative events to mark the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the second world war.“In no other square in Europe do I find it more difficult to speak, and to address you in my native language of German ... I ask for forgiveness for Germany’s historical guilt and I recognise our enduring responsibility,” Frank-Walter Steinmeier said at a ceremony in Piłsudski Square in Warsaw. Continue reading...

Thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators have descended on Hong Kong’s international airport, blocking roads and filling a bus terminus, in the latest wave of political unrest to hit the city. Less than 24 hours after protesters and police clashed in running battles on Saturday, demonstrators attempted to paralyse the airport

Zalmay Khalilzad, the US envoy for peace in Afghanistan, says agreement would reduce violence and allow ‘intra-Afghan’ talksUS and Taliban negotiators are close to an agreement that would reduce fighting and allow full peace talks among Afghans, a top US official said on Sunday, a day after insurgent forces stormed the strategic northern city of Kunduz.But only hours after Zalmay Khalilzad, the Afghan-born US diplomat overseeing negotiations for Washington, spoke the Taliban attacked a second Afghan city, Puli Khumri, the capital of Baghlan province, an official said. Continue reading...

$150,000 fund is aimed at increasing survival rates for leukaemia, lymphoma and myelomaBlood cancer kills 20 Australians each day on average, with death rates due to double by 2035 unless something is done.The federal government has announced a $150,000 taskforce aimed at increasing survival rates for leukaemia, lymphoma and myeloma. Continue reading...

Anne Ruston says ‘it wouldn’t be easy’ to live on the $40-a-day unemployment payment and says it’s only intended as a ‘safety net’Social services minister Anne Ruston has refused to endorse the Newstart payment as adequate amid growing calls for it to be lifted, saying the payment was always intended as a “safety net”.Ruston said the prime minister, Scott Morrison, had already made clear the government was not considering boosting the payment. She repeatedly declined to say the unemployment benefit was enough for daily living costs such as heating and food. Continue reading...

The New South Wales Nationals leader, John Barilaro, and the Liberal environment minister, Matt Kean, argue contradictory positions over whether wild brumbies are wreaking havoc in Kosciuszko national park. Kean openly contradicted Barilaro, who was the driving force behind the greater protection of brumbies in NSW, saying: 'One of the biggest threats to our national parks is feral pests: feral cats, feral dogs, feral rabbits and, let us call them for what they are, not brumbies, feral horses.' At one point, Barilaro gestures to the public gallery, saying 'And you want to give me the finger, sir? Keep your finger down, because that shows a lack of respect in this House'. Continue reading...

Teenager arrested on suspicion of murder after man in 20s killed and another woundedA teenager has been arrested on suspicion of murder after police were called to a car crash and fight.Hertfordshire constabulary said they were called to Gammons Lane at the junction on Leavesden Road in Watford just before 3am on Saturday to reports of a three-vehicle collision and subsequent fight. Officers found a man in his 20s with possible stab wounds. Police said he was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. Continue reading...

As we mark the 80th anniversary of the start of the second world war, with liberal democracies again under siege, Britain should be leading the fight against extremismEighty years ago, the start of the second world war saw Nazi Germany invading Poland. Six years later, up to 85 million people were dead. I’m in Poland this weekend to commemorate the start of the bloodiest war in human history.An entire generation of brave men and women around the globe sacrificed everything to defeat the singular evil of Nazism and fascism. Continue reading...

An upcoming exhibition at London’s House of Illustration collects 185 posters and magazines from Cuba’s golden age of design, from the 1960s to the early 90s.

An award-winning foreign correspondent looks back on the human stories that helped bring down the Berlin Wall and East Germany’s regimeIt should have been a normal family chat in late midsummer in Berlin. Kerstin Falkner, 22, and her new partner, Andreas, eight years her elder, were sitting in the back of Metzer Eck, the corner bar run by her mother, Bärbel, discussing where they might go for their holidays.Only one thing was out of key: instead of joining in, Bärbel was sitting in the corner next to me, trying to keep back her tears. She simultaneously feared and hoped for the same thing: that they might not be coming home. Continue reading...

Boy, 15, remains in critical condition after incident in Tottenham on FridayA man in his early 20s has become the fourth person to be arrested on suspicion of attempted murder over the stabbing of a 15-year-old boy.The victim is in a critical condition in hospital after the attack in Tottenham, north London, on Friday morning. He was found with multiple stab wounds on Willan Road, in the Broadwater Farm estate, at about 11.15am. Continue reading...

Benjamin Carle’s new TV documentary shows a baffled Frenchman’s attempt to understand EnglandFrenchman Benjamin Carle likes a challenge. First he set out to live using only French-made products. Then he decided to make a sandwich from scratch, including growing his own wheat and catching his own tuna.Now Carle, 31, has completed what may be his toughest test so far: trying to understand and identify with the English. Continue reading...

Crowds march, wave banners and chant ‘stop the coup’ in cities across UK

Jeremy Corbyn supports protests as more than 80 demonstrations get under wayProtests are under way across the country against the suspension of parliament.Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators are expected to take to the streets on Saturday to protest against Boris Johnson’s move to suspend parliament. Continue reading...

Their journeys over, many asylum seekers in Europe find themselves struggling with mental health problems. Seven people – and the therapists working with them – share their storiesFor Muntaser, it’s the memory of militiamen raiding his village in Darfur. For Ahmad, who fled Afghanistan as a child, it’s the terrible vision of his father murdering his mother and sister. Abdul saw his home city devastated by Saudi bombs.Hundreds of thousands of migrants have crossed deserts, the snows of the Alps, or Balkan forests carrying the weight of similarly traumatic events, to find a new life in an increasingly inhospitable Europe. Once they get there – if they do – how do they begin to process the painful experiences that prompted their journeys? Continue reading...

Blind date blogger the Guyliner goes behind the scenes of the Guardian column – and finds out what happened next on five of his favourite datesDid Saturdays even exist before the Blind date column? Not as far as I’m concerned. The start of the weekend was a joyless desert until, in 2009, Weekend magazine started sending two hapless (my words) strangers out for dinner in the hope that three courses, a bottle of house white and the terror of appearing in a national newspaper would be the accelerant a romantic spark needs to go full inferno.I have been obsessed with Blind date for most of its 10-year existence. Its simplicity is deceptive: what the daters say leaves plenty of room for interpretation. On the surface, the questions are formulaic – somewhere between inane smalltalk at a stranger’s house party and the sexless interrogation of a dietary questionnaire from your GP. But in the context of the column, they are traps – and I love to see the participants fall right in, revealing themselves via the short aside that they shared a pudding with their date. And let’s not forget that score out of 10. Brutal to have adults rate one another, you might say. Delicious, I say. Continue reading...

Sonia Khan was accused of misleading PM’s strategist over contact with ex-Hammond aide