Andreas Kalbitz is vying to become rightwing German party’s first state premierA German olitician vying to become the first state premier for the rightwing populist Alternative für Deutschland in elections this Sunday took part in a neo-Nazi rally in Athens in 2007, documents leaked to the media show.Andreas Kalbitz, 46, is the AfD’s lead candidate for Brandenburg, where polls suggest the party is competing with the centre-left Social Democratic party (SPD) in the race to become the state’s strongest political force. Continue reading...

People who cannot prove links to region from before 1971 face being sent to detention campsMillions of people in north-eastern India could lose their citizenship on Saturday in what could become the biggest exercise in forced statelessness in living memory.Human rights experts have raised serious concern over the drive against suspected illegal immigrants in the border state of Assam, warning it could create a humanitarian crisis that disproportionately affects Muslims and the region’s poorest communities. Continue reading...

After nearly 300 years of colonial rule, Portugal withdrew from East Timor in 1975, sparking a bitter rivalry between local groups that ended in Fretilin forces declaring East Timor independent. Indonesia invaded nine days later, beginning an brutal regime of occupation that would last until 1999. More than 200,000 East Timorese died and many more suffered during massacres, torture and starvation. In the 1990s, a combination of the independence movement gaining strength, growing worldwide pressure and political reform in Indonesia led to a UN-sponsored referendum on independence on 30 August 1999. The historic ballot saw 78% of East Timorese vote for independence. Indonesian-backed militias responded by unleashing a wave of terror with attacks on civilians, looting and burning of homes until an Australian-led peacekeeping force arrived in late September 1999.• East Timor: Indonesia's invasion and the long road to independence

30 August 1972: Actor releases record of poem promoting peace as he thinks politicians have tried and failedMr Richard Harris, the actor, greatly publicised until recently as a hell-raising brawler, yesterday put himself forward as a disciple of peace. He called a press conference in his office 12 floors up above the Thames to launch his new 7-inch record containing a message of peace for Northern Ireland, in the course of which he pushed his forefinger at the chest of one importunate and partial questioner (another Irishman) and said “It is f...ing thinking like yours that keeps getting people shot.”Related: Richard Harris obituary Continue reading...

UN refugee chief warns of generation condemned to grow up unable to find work, as special education envoy Gordon Brown calls for urgent fundingMore than half of the world’s 7.1 million school-age refugee children are failing to get an education despite recent spikes in enrolment rates, the UN refugee agency has found.School shortages, oversubscribed classrooms and a lack of teachers in host countries are among the barriers faced by the 3.7 million refugee children aged five to 18 who are currently out of school, according to a UNHCR report published on Friday. The vast majority are missing out on secondary school. Continue reading...

Newly released diplomatic cables show the realpolitik behind the scenes as Indonesian militias prepared to torch DiliAustralia’s precise role in bringing independence to Timor-Leste two decades ago continues to simmer as unsettled business at the heart of modern Australian diplomatic and military history.Twenty years is the blink of an eye, of course. And my memories of having a front-row seat on the Australian domestic politics, and the diplomatic and military movements preceding and following the East Timorese autonomy ballot, are vivid. Continue reading...

The 1999 referendum came after 24 years of occupation by Indonesian forcesThe landmark vote in 1999, in which 78.5% of East Timorese chose independence from Indonesia, was the culmination of 24 years of occupation by Jakarta and, before that, hundreds of years of colonial rule by Portugal. Continue reading...

Men in YouTube video lambast the Colombian president, Iván Duque, and his government for not keeping its end of the dealTwo former commanders of the demobilised Colombian rebel group the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Farc, have announced a that they are returning to war, nearly three years after a peace deal which sought to end South America’s longest guerrilla conflict.The two men, known by their aliases, Iván Márquez and Jesús Santrich, released a video to YouTube early on Thursday morning in which they lambasted president Iván Duque and his government for not keeping its end of the deal, negotiated over four years of talks in Cuba. Continue reading...

Decision to rule out UK and Hong Kong would be major blow to both financial centres

The 16-year-old is believed to have flown to Heathrow after talking online to older manA 16-year-old girl from the US thought to have been lured to the UK by an older man has been found safe by police.The teenager, from Queens in New York, boarded a flight at JFK airport on Saturday. It is believed she had been speaking to an older British man online before her disappearance. Continue reading...

If you have encountered problems applying to the EU settlement scheme or your application has been denied, share your stories with usEU citizens living in Britain have asked the government for clarification on their status in the event of a no-deal Brexit. Though 1 million have applied for settled status, at least 2.6 million have yet do so.More than 100 EU citizens who have yet to apply contacted the Guardian on Tuesday to express fears about what their status would be immediately after a no-deal Brexit. Continue reading...

At least one Indonesian soldier and six civilians have been reportedly killed in the restive regionUp to six protesters and one soldier have been killed in clashes across the restive West Papua and Papua provinces, although protesters and police dispute how many have died.A source at one protest in the Deiyai Regency told The Guardian on Thursday that police had fired lived rounds into a crowd of demonstrators outside the regency offices on Wednesday. Six people were killed and two seriously injured, the source, who requested anonymity fearing reprisals, said. “Shots were fired at the protesters, but people continued to sit in protest,” the source added. Continue reading...

PM to lead coalition of ruling Five Star Movement and opposition Democratic partyThe Italian prime minister, Giuseppe Conte, has said now is the time to “turn a crisis into an opportunity” after accepting a fresh mandate to try to form a new government that could mark a turning point in Italy’s fractured relations with the EU.President Sergio Mattarella has tasked Conte with securing a pact between the anti-establishment Five Star Movement (M5S) and the centre-left Democratic party (PD) in a move that would oust the far-right League from government and stave off early elections. Continue reading...

Thomas Griffiths can be named after judge lifts reporting restrictions at Bristol crown courtA teenager has admitted murdering the schoolgirl Ellie Gould. Thomas Griffiths, 17, appeared before Bristol crown court on Thursday morning to plead guilty to the murder charge.He was arrested on 3 May, shortly after Wiltshire police were called to Ellie’s family home in Calne. Continue reading...

David Sassoli echoes MEPs’ concerns as Brussels insiders weigh up risk of no-deal Brexit

Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo had been found guilty of killing Hannah Witheridge and David MillerThe two migrant workers who were found guilty of the murders of two British backpackers on the Thai island of Koh Tao have had their convictions upheld by the country’s supreme court.In December 2015, Zaw Lin and Wai Phyo were sentenced to death after being found guilty of the rape and murder of Hannah Witheridge, 23, from Norfolk, and the murder of 24-year-old David Miller, from Jersey, on the island popular with tourists and backpackers. Continue reading...

Australia’s religious discrimination bill has a broad meaning including religious observance, dress and expression of religious beliefThe religious discrimination bill prohibits discrimination in certain areas of public life on the ground of religious belief or activity. Continue reading...

University of Technology Sydney makes 10-point adjustment in hope to address gender imbalance in engineering, computing and constructionThe University of Technology Sydney is trying to encourage more young women to study engineering, computing and construction degrees by adjusting year 12 entry scores for female applicants.The university has received approval from the NSW Anti-Discrimination Board to make a 10-point adjustment to the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank of female students applying for those degrees for the 2020 academic year. Continue reading...

Power outages and flooding were reported in the Virgin Islands and the Puerto Rican islands, but no damagesHurricane Dorian caused limited damage in the northern Caribbean as it left the region and gathered strength late Wednesday, setting its sights on the US mainland as it threatened to grow into a Category 3 storm.Puerto Rico, which had braced for the worst, seemed to be spared any heavy wind and rain, a huge relief to many on an island where blue tarps still cover some 30,000 homes nearly two years after Hurricane Maria. The island’s 3.2 million inhabitants also depend on an unstable power grid that remains prone to outages since it was destroyed by Maria. Continue reading...

Faced with state indifference to their plight, the indigenous community is fighting back

Movements, which have been portrayed as a scheduled troop rotation, come days ahead of anti-government protestsChinese military vehicles have been seen moving across the border into Hong Kong, in what the military said were regular troop movements, as fears rose that the city could see a Beijing-led crackdown after months of political unrest.Following witness reports of the movements in the early hours of Thursday, state-run news agency Xinhua released a report that the Hong Kong Garrison of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) was making a scheduled rotation and that it was an “annual normal routine”. Continue reading...

Australian citizen, potentially facing the death penalty on an espionage charge, begs PM to ‘please help me’Scott Morrison has called China’s allegation that an Australian writer detained in Beijing is a spy “absolutely untrue” after Yang Hengjun issued a plea to the Australian prime minister to “please help me go home as soon as possible”.Morrison said he respected China’s sovereignty, “but we do expect Australians, indeed all citizens, to have their human rights appropriately looked after”. Continue reading...

Government will prorogue parliament in September, with Queen’s speech on 14 October

While changing attitudes to ensure it doesn’t happen in the first place, Japan is taking yet more measures to tackle a serious problemGroping on public transport is a problem the world over, but the scale of it in Japan, where it is known as “chikan”, is infamous. According to Tokyo’s metropolitan police department, 1,750 cases of groping or molestation were reported in 2017, with more than 50% of sexual harassment cases occurring on trains, and a further 20% in train stations. Some reports suggest that more than 75% of all Japanese women have been groped.No wonder women there are looking for a deterrent. Introducing the latest gadget: a stamp that brands gropers with invisible ink, which police can then reveal with UV light. It is the latest measure to try to fix the problem. Others have included women-only train carriages – which are still occupied by groups of men in protest, despite having been introduced over two decades ago – and an app that enables victims to play a voice shouting “Stop it!” at ear-piercing volume or bring up a full-screen message reading: “There is a molester. Please help,” to other passengers. Continue reading...

Multiple attacks in region suggest drone warfare could extend to distant battlefieldsA spate of drone attacks in Syria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and now Lebanon has raised the spectre of a new era of conflict in the region, due to the ability of stealth-like weapons to penetrate distant battlefields and hit closely guarded targets.Drone warfare has become an instrumental factor in the escalating conflict between Israel and Iran, now being fought over both sides of the Israeli border and in skies across the region. Continue reading...

Documents reveal ‘muted’ attempts to convince Indonesian officials to allow free vote to proceedThe US government knew for months that Indonesia’s military was supporting and arming militias in East Timor in the lead-up to the 1999 independence referendum but continued to push for stronger military ties, declassified documents have revealed.The hundreds of documents provide a window into US policy on the months of terror inflicted on the Timorese and the “muted” attempts by the US to convince Indonesian officials to allow a peaceful and free vote to proceed. Continue reading...

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, shot in broad daylight, had survived two previous attempts on lifeThe Russian government has denied responsibility for the killing of a Chechen exile in Berlin, after German authorities reportedly voiced suspicions of a state-backed attack similar to that carried out against a former Russian military officer in Salisbury, Britain, in 2018.Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, who fought against Russia during the second Chechen war in the early 2000s, was shot twice in the head at close range in the Kleiner Tiergarten park, in central Berlin, just before midday last Friday. Continue reading...

The US retailer Costco has said it will limit the number of shoppers at its first store in China after overcrowding forced it to shut early on the opening day. Large crowds caused traffic jams as they flocked to the store in Shanghai on Tuesday, and shoppers jostled to grab products off the shelves before joining the huge queues at checkouts

Kevin P Joseph was killed after he applied to register his marriage to Neenu Chacko from a higher casteA court in Kerala has sentenced 10 men to life in prison for the killing of a Christian from India’s lowest dalit caste who wanted to marry a woman from a higher caste.Kevin P Joseph, a 23-year-old electrician, was killed in May last year, two days after he applied to register his marriage with Neenu Chacko, 21, also a Christian. Continue reading...

Decision will cut dramatically the time MPs will have to take action to prevent no-deal Brexit

At an odd mix of memorial and garage sale, greatest demand is for objects the people’s PM might have cared aboutIt’s hard to put a price on what Bob Hawke meant to Australians, but at an auction of more than 200 of the former prime minister’s possessions in Sydney on Tuesday night they did their level best.A curious mix of a few hundred bargain hunters and true believers gathered in an upstairs room at the Paddington RSL to bid for a piece of the people’s prime minister’s private life at an auction grandly titled “Bob Hawke & Blanche d’Alpuget: Mementos, Curiosities, Art and Design”. Continue reading...

Gavin Watson was at the centre of claims of systematic graft involving leading ANC figuresOpposition politicians in South Africa are calling for a “thorough and transparent” investigation into a car crash that killed a controversial South African businessman accused of bribing dozens of top government officials.Gavin Watson, 71, died when his Toyota Corolla hit a concrete bridge support in Johannesburg in the early hours of Monday morning as he was travelling alone to the city’s international airport. Continue reading...

The winners of the 2019 RAF photographic competition have been announced. More than 1,000 photos and 25 videos captured by RAF photographers were entered, and the best nine images are open to a public vote to win the people’s choice category Continue reading...

Briton, 19, says she withdrew allegation of rape against Israeli youths under duressA 19-year-old British woman who accused a group of Israeli youths of gang raping her in Cyprus has pleaded not guilty to charges of making up the accusation.A judge set the start date of the trial for 2 October and released the woman on bail, finding it “proper and fair” to free her after she spent nearly two months in police detention. Continue reading...

Justin Welby reportedly in talks with MPs over chairing citizens’ assemblies to stop no dealThe archbishop of Canterbury has been criticised for reportedly meeting MPs with a view to chairing citizens’ assemblies to stop a no-deal Brexit.Justin Welby was reportedly in talks to chair citizens’ assemblies at Coventry Cathedral next month with leading Commons figures who were due to meet on Tuesday to discuss tactics to oppose the UK crashing out the EU on 31 October, the Times reports. Continue reading...

Escaping poverty and drought, Ethiopians are making the dangerous sea crossing from Djibouti to Yemen and then on foot to the Saudi border. Many only realise they are crossing a conflict zone when they are picked up by gangs or militiasPhotographs by Susan Schulman Continue reading...

Deaths include two teenagers from suspected drug overdosesThree people died after attending events over the bank holiday weekend, including two teenagers from suspected drug overdoses.The death of a man who fell ill at Reading festival is being treated as unexplained. Emergency services were called to an area near one of the Berkshire music festival’s stages just before 11pm on Saturday, Thames Valley police said. Continue reading...

From Trump to Orbán, politicians are winning votes by stoking age-old hatreds. Where does this fear of migrants come from? By Suketu MehtaThe west is being destroyed, not by migrants, but by the fear of migrants. In country after country, the ghosts of the fascists have rematerialised and are sitting in parliaments in Germany, in Austria, in Italy. They have successfully convinced their populations that the greatest threat to their nations isn’t government tyranny or inequality or climate change, but immigration. And that, to stop this wave of migrants, everyone’s civil liberties must be curtailed. Surveillance cameras must be installed everywhere. Passports must be produced for the most routine of tasks, like buying a mobile phone.Take a look at Hungary, where Viktor Orbán has forced out the Central European University and almost destroyed the country’s free press and most other liberal institutions, using immigrants and George Soros as bogeymen. Or Poland, whose ruling party purged the judiciary, banished political opponents from government media, greatly restricted public gatherings and passed a law, modified only after an international outcry, making it a crime to accuse Poland of complicity in the Holocaust. Or Austria, where the neo-Nazis in the governing coalition want to fail kindergarteners for not knowing German. Or Italy, where a fanatically anti-immigrant coalition that won power is now going after the Roma. All these rode to power, or intensified their grip on it, like Orbán, by stoking voters’ fear of migrants, promising to ban new immigrants and to take away the rights of immigrants already in the country. Once in power, they energetically set about depriving everyone else of their rights, migrants or citizens. Continue reading...

Magistrate says he was not satisfied by LNP-led council’s arguments the protest should be stopped because of traffic disturbance

Inquiry told Kaila Murnain saw large bag of cash at ALP state headquarters following a visit by Huang XiangmoThe current New South Wales Labor secretary saw an Aldi bag filled with cash after a visit to the party’s state headquarters by Chinese billionaire and banned donor Huang Xiangmo, a corruption inquiry has heard.The Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry is examining the circumstances behind $100,000 in cash donations given to NSW Labor in 2015, about the time of the state election. Continue reading...

Outgoing prime minister joins heads of PD and M5S in effort to avoid snap election

Organisation applauded for being prepared to be criticised in public and for gains made by commitment to workforce gender equalityVictoria police has “unacceptably high” levels of sexual harassment and discrimination, with 25.8% of female employees and 9.8% of male employees reporting having experienced sexual harassment at work, a report by the state’s human rights body has found.The finding was included in the Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commission’s third and final report into sexual harassment and discrimination in Victoria police, released on Tuesday. The first report, published in 2015, found sexual harassment was rife. A separate report found high rates of homophobic “banter” and discrimination against LGBT officers. Continue reading...

Unintentional deaths increased 38% between 2001 and 2017, annual report reveals

PM repeatedly declines to rule out proroguing parliament if MPs try to thwart his Brexit policyBoris Johnson has repeatedly refused to rule out proroguing parliament to try to push through his Brexit policy.Pressed repeatedly at a press conference at the end of the G7 summit about what he would do if MPs tried to thwart his policy, the British prime minister declined to rule out shutting down parliament. Continue reading...

Capital controls imposed on depositors in 2015 will end, says new PM Kyriakos MitsotakisCapital controls imposed on depositors at the height of Greece’s debt crisis are being lifted after four years.The policy change will finally remove restrictions on companies and individuals sending money abroad, which were introduced to prevent bank runs during the 2015 Grexit crisis. Continue reading...

Lottery winner Vicky Mitchell used the last £1.50 in her account to buy ticketShe is now rich enough to drive a Maserati and holiday in Monaco, but the latest lottery winner insists a Skoda and caravanning in Skegness are still good enough for her.Vicky Mitchell, 42, was celebrating with her partner of 18 years, Adam Fry, 38, after she won £10,000 every month for the next 30 years – the top prize in the national lottery’s Set For Life game. Continue reading...

Folkloric festival urged to ditch practice of parading a chained white man in black makeupAn anti-racism activist has said he was forced to leave the Belgian town of Ath on Sunday after a row with local authorities about a folkloric festival.A carnival float featuring a white man in blackface called “the savage” featured on Sunday as part of Ath’s annual festival, despite calls to abandon the practice, which campaigners say is an act of “symbolic violence” towards black people in Belgium. Continue reading...

Only 6% ready for legal and cashflow implications of crashing out of EU, shows reportMost businesses in the Irish Republic and Northern Ireland that trade across the border are completely unprepared for a hard Brexit, according to a report.Only 6% are ready for cashflow and liquidity problems if the UK leaves the EU without a deal on 31 October, according to a survey commissioned by InterTradeIreland, a body that advises small and medium-sized companies. Continue reading...

Protesters decry racism and call for self-determination one week after violence flaredThousands of protesters have taken to the streets in highland areas of West Papua, one week after violent demonstrations flared across Indonesia’s easternmost provinces, leaving one dead and dozens injured.An anti-racist solidarity protest drew thousands of people in Dogiyai region, where marchers decried racism and called for determination, according to local reporter at the scene. Schools in Dogiyai were closed in anticipation of the rally with students joining the action, the reporter said. Continue reading...

Chinese billionaire Huang Xiangmo allegedly took cash to the former NSW Labor boss Jamie Clements at party headquartersFormer New South Wales Labor boss Jamie Clements was seen with an Aldi bag filled with $100,000 in cash after meeting Chinese billionaire and banned donor, Huang Xiangmo, the state’s anti-corruption body has heard.The Independent Commission Against Corruption on Monday began its inquiry into a complex and potentially unlawful donations scheme that the commission has heard may have helped to hide a $100,000 donation from Huang, whose associations with property development prohibit him from giving money to political parties. Continue reading...