World news | The Guardian

Regime says Saturday’s test launch was part of strategy to counter ‘mounting military threats and pressure offensive of hostile forces’The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, oversaw the test of a “super-large multiple rocket launcher” on Saturday, the state news agency KCNA reported on Sunday.North Korea fired what appeared to be two short-range ballistic missiles into the sea off its east coast, the South Korean military said, the latest in a series of launches in recent weeks amid stalled denuclearisation talks. Continue reading...

Labor senator says she can’t understand how Peter Comensoli‏ can continue defending paedophileThe Labor senator Kristina Keneally has blasted Melbourne’s Catholic archbishop for his response to Cardinal George Pell losing his appeal against child sexual abuse convictions.Keneally, herself a prominent Catholic, said she was gobsmacked that Archbishop Peter Comensoli‏ had maintained that Pell was innocent and had questioned whether his victim was mistaken. “It’s distressing for so many reasons,” she told Sky News on Sunday. Continue reading...

The two men had been accused of killing a ruling party official but activists say the shooting appeared to be stagedTwo Rohingya refugees were shot dead by Bangladesh police during a gunfight in a refugee camp on Saturday after they were accused of killing a ruling party official, police said.Nearly one million Rohingya live in squalid camps in southeast Bangladesh; 740,000 fled a 2017 military offensive against the Muslim minority in Myanmar. Continue reading...

Met police said man in his 30s arrested on suspicion of murder after incident in SouthallA man in his 60s has been stabbed to death in west London. The Metropolitan police said a man in his 30s has been arrested on suspicion of murder after the incident on Saturday evening in Southall.The man was pronounced dead at the scene in St Mary’s Avenue and his family has been informed. The arrested man is in hospital where he is under police guard and being treated for minor injuries. Continue reading...

Analysts say sending a warship to patrol the Strait of Hormuz risks binding Australia to an incoherent and inflammatory US foreign policyAustralia’s announcement this week that it will join US-led freedom of navigation operations patrolling the Strait of Hormuz brings the number of American allies willing to contribute to America’s latest Middle East sortie to just three.The increasing tensions in the narrow, but critical, strait are almost universally regarded as an avoidable, US-created crisis, the result of Washington tearing up the Iran nuclear deal. Continue reading...

Two other teenagers are in a life-threatening condition after BMW hits tree in LoughtonA 16-year-old girl has died and two other teenagers are in a life-threatening condition after a car crashed into a tree.A 21-year-old man also died in the crash in Loughton, Essex, in the early hours of Saturday. Continue reading...

Riot police have deployed teargas and batons against thousands of protesters rallying against government surveillance, includin lamp posts equipped with sensors. Hundreds of officers charged at protesters, beating them as they fled. Continue reading...

Former senior diplomats write to PM urging him to ‘signal a different approach’ at G7 summitLeaving the European Union without a deal would vastly shrink the UK’s international influence and would represent “the biggest unilateral abandonment” of long-term British interests in recent history, a group of former ambassadors have claimed.In a letter, signed by 25 former senior diplomats and published in the Times, they urged the prime minister, Boris Johnson, to “signal a different approach” at this weekend’s G7 summit in Biarritz, France, and retain “close relationships with our European neighbours”. Continue reading...

WA Labor president apologises to Indigenous Australians for walkout by right faction union delegatesWestern Australia’s Labor conference has turned chaotic after a large number of delegates walked out during a Welcome to the Country ceremony and tribute to the former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke.It was reported a large portion of the crowd heckled Perth MP Patrick Gorman and the WA Labor president, Carolyn Smith, before storming out of the complex. Continue reading...

Labor leader will borrow and adapt a famous Rudd line to seek the state’s help in winning next federal electionAnthony Albanese will use the first anniversary since Malcolm Turnbull was rolled as prime minister to rally the Labor base in Queensland, declaring the Coalition’s electoral popularity there is only temporary.Addressing the Queensland Labor conference on Saturday, Albanese will borrow and adapt Kevin Rudd’s famous opening line to his first national conference as opposition leader in 2007: “My name is Kevin, I’m from Queensland and I’m here to help” to: “My name’s Albo, I’m in Queensland, and I’m here to ask for your help.” Continue reading...

Elena Vavilova’s book offers rare insight into the Soviet deep-cover ‘illegals’ programme“A spy has to be an actor, but an actor that doesn’t need a public or a stage, and doesn’t require the approval of others,” says Elena Vavilova, as she sips a cappuccino in a Moscow cafe.Vavilova acted the part of a Canadian woman named Tracy Foley, an identity stolen for her by the KGB, for two decades. Almost no one knew her real identity, not even her own children. She was an “illegal”, a deep-cover Russian operative sent to the west along with her husband Andrei Bezrukov, who used the name Donald Heathfield. Continue reading...

Johnson demands ‘highest standards’ of discipline in new ministerial code of conductBoris Johnson has warned senior members of his administration against bullying, leaking, or trying to frustrate Brexit, as he published a new edition of the ministerial code of conduct.Theresa May’s cabinet was described as “the worst example of ill-discipline in cabinet in British political history”, by Julian Smith, her own chief whip and the man responsible for keeping his colleagues in order. Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

New figures reveal that it is far easier to pass driving test in Highlands than in inner city BirminghamThere are no proper roundabouts. Complaints of gridlock probably just mean sheep are blocking the road. And traffic lights are few and far between.It may be no surprise, then, that figures have revealed that the isolated Highlands village of Gairloch has the highest rate of driving test passes in the country, with 86.5% of candidates succeeding against a national average of 45.8%. Continue reading...

Exclusive: songwriter discusses her political awakening in a Guardian interviewTaylor Swift has spoken of her disillusionment with American values in an exclusive interview with the Guardian.The 29-year-old songwriter said she began feeling conflicted about what the US stood for when “all the dirtiest tricks in the book were used and it worked”. The Pennsylvania-born musician described the atmosphere in her home country as “gaslighting the American public into being like, ‘If you hate the president, you hate America.’” Continue reading...

Critics say many street thieves operate with impunity, leaving tourists particularly vulnerableThe Catalan government has called for tougher penalties for violent crimes after a surge in knife attacks and violent robberies in Barcelona.Miquel Buch, the regional interior minister, said the law needed to be changed after it emerged that 90% of those charged with violence in recent months had been released on bail. Continue reading...

Trump had threatened high tariffs on French wine as punishment for Macron’s tax on tech firmsFrench wine-makers are increasingly concerned about Donald Trump’s threats to introduce high tariffs on French wine in retaliation for Emmanuel Macron’s tax on global technology giants, as world leaders gather at the Biarritz G7 summit this weekend.A new front in Trump’s international trade wars could open up across France’s vineyards, damaging the livelihoods and jobs of small producers, if the US president decides to substantially increase tariffs on French wine as punishment for what he has called the “foolishness” of the new levy on annual revenues of technology firms. Continue reading...

Beachgoers in town near Rome express impatience with latest round of manoeuvringsVulgar, irresponsible, opportunistic, immature. These are just some of the adjectives beachgoers in Santa Severa, a town near Rome, used to describe the motley crew of politicians at the centre of Italy’s latest political drama.“I’m bewildered,” said Mirella Castracane-Mombelli as she read a newspaper at a beach bar on Friday morning. Continue reading...

According to Iain Duncan Smith I’ll still be expected to work when I am just one giant stiffened jointI need varifocals. I make noises of extreme contentment as I sit down and extreme discontent as I get up off the sofa. It takes 20 minutes every morning before I feel my joints are truly working smoothly. I look at the laughter lines on my face in the mirror and mutter: “Nothing’s that funny.” In the shower, I can’t turn round enough to perform vital ablutions with ease, and if you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me just say enjoy it while you can. Continue reading...

Unicef report points to three-fold increase in number of schools closed in the region in two years due to intensifying conflictMore than 1.9 million children are forced out of school across west and central Africa due to rising violence and insecurity, putting them at higher risk of recruitment by armed groups, the UN’s children agency has warned.In an urgent report published on Friday, Unicef revealed that more than 9,000 schools have been shut down as of June this year in eight countries; Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Mali, Niger and Nigeria. Continue reading...

Ri Yong-ho says US secretary of state cast ‘dark shadows’ over nuclear talksNorth Korea’s top diplomat has called the US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, a “diehard toxin” who only complicates denuclearisation talks and said North Korea was ready for both dialogue and standoff.Talks aimed at dismantling the North’s nuclear and missile programmes have stalled since a failed second summit between Donald Trump and the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, in Hanoi in February. Continue reading...

Satirist Samantha Kureya seized at home, stripped and forced to drink sewageOne of Zimbabwe’s best-known comedians and political satirists is in hiding after being abducted from her home by unidentified armed men, then beaten, stripped and made to drink sewage.The attack on Samantha Kureya is one of a series in recent weeks targeting critics of President Emmerson Mnangagwa and the ruling Zanu-PF party. Continue reading...

Former Labor prime minister says Andrew Hastie and Malcolm Turnbull went ‘all hairy-chested’ on ChinaThe former Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd has accused members of the Liberal party of fomenting national hysteria and “going all hairy-chested” over China.In an interview at the National Press Club on Friday, Rudd condemned Liberal backbencher Andrew Hastie, the chair of parliament’s intelligence and security committee, who compared western tolerance of Chinese expansionism with the appeasement of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. Continue reading...

The corporate regulator says National Australia Bank broke credit law, exposing customers and itself to potential fraudThe corporate regulator has launched legal action against National Australia Bank seeking fines of up to $530m over a program the bank ran where it paid “introducers” including gym instructors and hairdressers to bring in home loan customers.NAB’s introducer program was closely examined during last year’s banking royal commission, which heard evidence that the program helped contribute to fraud by bankers in western Sydney who were accepting cash kickbacks to write home loans. Continue reading...

The speeding double amputee in New Zealand says he didn’t have time to stop because he needed to get his tea readyNew Zealand police embarked on what may be the world’s slowest chase while attempting to stop a man fleeing them on a mobility scooter.The slow-motion pursuit took place on Wednesday in the small town of Timaru on the east coast of the South Island. Continue reading...

Thousands of photos and letters available online to mark 200th anniversary of birthThousands of photographs, prints and letters that reveal the private passions and public interests of Queen Victoria’s husband Prince Albert have been published online to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth.The Royal Collection has digitised 17,500 documents for a new website, the majority publicly available for the first time. Continue reading...

Friday: Guardian Australia’s landmark Deaths Inside project highlights government failures. Plus, Jofra Archer rips through AustraliaGood morning, this is Stephen Smiley bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 23 August. Continue reading...

Dead include two children after thunderstorm in trekking location in the Tatra mountainsAt least five people, including two children, have died and more than 100 have been injured during a sudden thunderstorm in Poland and Slovakia’s Tatra mountains, according to rescuers.Most of the victims were in Poland, where lightning struck a metal cross atop Mount Giewont as well as a metal chain near the summit, according to local media. The four dead in Poland included two children, a spokeswoman for the Polish air ambulance service, Kinga Czerwinska, told the news broadcaster TVN24. One person died in Slovakia. Continue reading...

Jeering activists interrupted a speech by Ricardo Salles on Wednesday at the Latin America and Caribbean Climate Week conference in Salvador, Brazil. Booing protesters virtually drowned out Salles' speech during which one activist held a placard reading: 'Don't you get tired of your own lies?' The minister and the government of the far-right president, Jair Bolsonaro, have come under fire for their policies, which activists say are harming the environment

Allegation directed at employee of consulate in Hong Kong is often used by Bejing authorities to smear criticsChinese state media has accused a worker at the British consulate in Hong Kong who is detained in mainland China of visiting prostitutes – an accusation often used by the authorities to smear the reputation of government critics.Simon Cheng, 28, a trade and investment officer for Scottish Development International, travelled to Shenzhen, a city that borders Hong Kong, on 8 August. He sent messages to his girlfriend as he was about to cross back over the border at about 10pm and has not been heard from since. Continue reading...

There have been more than 72,000 fire outbreaks in Brazil so far this year, up 84% on the same period in 2018, according to the country’s National Institute for Space Research. More than half were in the Amazon. It followed reports that farmers were feeling emboldened to clear land for crop fields and cattle ranches because the new Brazilian government was keen to open up the region to economic activity. The Brazilian president, Jair Bolsonaro, instead accused environmental groups of starting fires

ONS figures released after it admitted reliability of data had been downgradedImmigration to the UK from the EU remains at its lowest level since 2013, according to disputed estimates from the Office for National Statistics.The quarterly migration statistics report has been released a day after the ONS had to admit the reliability of the data set had been called into question and had been downgraded from the gold-plated “national statistic” status to “experimental”. Continue reading...

Former TV presenter denies sexually touching a woman without her consent in 2008The former TV presenter John Leslie has denied sexually assaulting a woman in London more than a decade ago.Leslie, from Edinburgh, appeared at Southwark crown court in south-east London on Thursday accused of sexually touching a woman, then aged 30, without her consent in 2008. Continue reading...

The family of Tanya Day welcome ‘a great first step’ and push for a ‘health and wellbeing based approach’

Trevor Mallard, New Zealand's House of Representatives speaker, cradled and bottle fed Tāmati Coffey's baby while he presided over a debate Continue reading...

For 90 minutes, while their team plays, people of the war-torn Indian region of Kashmir forget curfews and protests and enjoy normalityBefore an away match, Mohammed Hammad used to call his mother in Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir and ask her to pray for the team, Real Kashmir, a football club in the city whose miraculous rise in three years has made football-mad Kashmiris proud.On Saturday, the team was playing Goa FC at Kalyani stadium outside Kolkata for an important match but he didn’t call his mother. Or rather, he couldn’t. Continue reading...

We need to dig beneath the scar tissue to find the power that is within all of us

The girl was fed an exclusively vegan diet, and had severe physical and mental development issuesThe Sydney parents of a severely malnourished baby girl have avoided jail and instead been sentenced to 300 hours community service.The pair, who can’t be identified for legal reasons, pleaded guilty in 2018 to failing to provide for a child, causing danger of serious injury. They were sentenced on Thursday to an 18-month intensive corrections order in Downing Centre district court. Continue reading...

Thanks to his clever use of social media, he was dubbed the first prime minister of the Instagram age – but after four years in power, cracks in his image have started to show.By Ashifa KassamOn the last night of March 2012, Justin Trudeau climbed into a boxing ring in downtown Ottawa, the Canadian capital, intent on rescuing his public image. He was clad in a lustrous red robe, the colour of the Liberal party, for which he was then a junior member of parliament. In the opposite corner, wearing Tory blue, was a young aboriginal leader and Conservative senator named Patrick Brazeau, who is a former navy reservist and a second-degree black belt in karate. Bookies had given the lanky Trudeau, a former high school teacher, three-to-one odds against.The televised match was ostensibly a fundraiser for cancer research, but in Ottawa it became a sensation – a display of partisan pageantry rarely seen in the staid world of Canadian politics, where “bland works” had been the watchword of one long-serving provincial premier. The fight’s symbolism was lost on no one: in recent years, the Conservatives had battered the Liberals, turning a narrow lead in the 2006 election into a majority government by 2011. The Liberal party, which had governed Canada for much of the 20th century, had been reduced to a historically low number of seats. Continue reading...

‘Alternative care’ arrangements on the rise, and 42% of children IndigenousThe New South Wales government spent $68m in the past year keeping children who were removed from their families in motels, hotels and other kinds of “alternative care” and, according to the government’s own figures, these arrangements are on the rise.According to minutes from the now-disbanded Family and Community Services (Facs) ministerial advisory group, there were 161 children and young people living in motels, hotels and serviced apartments in October last year. Continue reading...

French observers fear Britain’s PM is setting up France to take blame over no-deal departureEmmanuel Macron will hold a friendly but “frank” working lunch with Boris Johnson on Thursday after dismissing his request to renegotiate the Brexit withdrawal agreement and scrap the Irish backstop as “not an option”.The French president told reporters on Wednesday night that there was a “British democratic crisis” over Brexit and he was seeking “clarification” from Johnson on his proposals as the 31 October exit date approaches. Continue reading...

Corporate regulator cracks down on sale of binary options and contracts for difference in major move in financial sectorThe corporate regulator says it will ban or restrict the sale of two exotic investment products that cost customers almost $2bn a year.Using new product intervention powers gained in April, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission wants to ban the sale of binary options to ordinary Australians for 18 months – the maximum period allowed under the law. Continue reading...

Former Nationals leader was an internationalist who forged closer relationships with Asia and spoke out against Pauline HansonWhen Tim Fischer, who has died aged 73, announced just after question time on 30 June 1999 that he was quitting as the deputy prime minister of Australia to be more present in the lives of his two young sons, the reaction was unusually sentimental.Sustained applause broke out in the House at the conclusion of Fischer’s farewell, and the standing ovation extended for more than a minute. Journalists also stood in the gallery above the bear pit and applauded as a mark of respect, and possibly contrition, given his rise to the Nationals leadership had been treated derisively by many commentators. During his farewell at the dispatch box, Fischer had cocked an eyebrow at the correspondents and observed: “To the media I would say this. It was about 12 months ago that you stopped calling me idiosyncratic. I knew then it was time to start thinking about getting out of politics.” Continue reading...

Mother pays tribute to Lucas Briscoe, 12, who fell on last day of stay in Costa del Sol resortA 12-year-old British boy who died after falling from the balcony of a Spanish apartment block has been named as Lucas Briscoe.The schoolboy, from Lostock Gralam in Cheshire, was on holiday with his mother Nicola Marshall and a friend in the Costa del Sol resort of Fuengirola when he fell on Tuesday afternoon. Continue reading...

First venture to the ship in 15 years finds that features have decayed completelyThe first dive to the Titanic in nearly 15 years has revealed “shocking” deterioration in the state of the wreck.An international team of explorers made five dives with manned submersibles in early August to survey and photograph the ship, which lies at a depth of 3,800 metres in the North Atlantic. The once opulent vessel is rapidly being destroyed by metal-eating bacteria, salt corrosion and deep ocean currents. Continue reading...

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen6.54pm BSTHere are the main points from the press conference.If one is able to solve this conundrum, if one finds this solution, we said we would probably find it in the next two years to come but we can also maybe find it in the next 30 days to come. Then we are one step further in the right direction and we have to obviously put our all into this.You [Merkel] rightly say the onus is on us to produce those solutions, those ideas, to show how we can address the issue of the Northern Irish border and that is what we want to do. I must say I am very glad listening to you tonight Angela to hear that at least the conversations that matter can now properly begin. You have set a very blistering timetable of 30 days - if I understood you correctly, I am more than happy with that.I think what we need to do is remove it whole and entire - the backstop - and then work, as Chancellor Merkel says, on the alternative arrangements.There are abundant solutions which are proffered, which have already been discussed. I don’t think, to be fair, they have so far been very actively proposed over the last three years by the British government.We do think there are alternative arrangements that could readily be used to address the problem of frictionless trade at the Northern Irish border and you’ll have heard them before, whether it is trusted trader schemes or electronic pre-clearing, all that type of solution and more besides is what we will be wanting to discuss.Remember the EU did not think the Alternative Arrangements Commission work was a basis for replacing the backstop. So we haven't really gone any further forward. And remember the lack of trust in the UK Government from all sides... https://t.co/T6goriYfOfI have, in my life, watched a lot of European negotiations and, believe me, it looks at first as though it is, you know, irresistible force and immovable object.What in my experience happens is that people find a way through and I think that if we approach this with sufficient patience and optimism, as I say, we can get this done and it is in the final furlong generally when the horses change places and the winning deal appears.Oh for goodness sake we're back to the EU blink at the last minute rubbish... yes for internal negotiation, but Brexit is not an internal negotiation. And they don't on external negotiation (from Guardian politics live). pic.twitter.com/2XV0QTf2RZI am aware of the moves to reintegrate Russia into the G7 ... I just have to say that given what happened in Salisbury in Wiltshire, given the use of chemical weapons on British soil, given the continuing instability, civil war, the war in Ukraine, given Russia’s provocations, not just in Ukraine but in many other places, I must say I am very much with Chancellor Merkel in thinking that the case has yet to be made out for Russia to return to the G7.As the situation is today I would say there is not yet sufficient progress for saying the reasons we had in 2014 [for excluding Russia] are obsolete.6.33pm BSTHere is Jeremy Cliffe, the Economist’s Brussels bureau chief, and former Berlin correspondent, on the Merkel/Johnson press conference.The Westminster lobby doesn't speak German, doesn't understand German politics and is endlessly willing to read things into Angela Merkel's statements that she doesn't mean.

Buckinghamshire villagers say project has already caused irreversible damage

The Brazilian president has said NGOs could be burning down the Amazon rainforest to embarrass his government after he cut their funding. Bolsonaro had no evidence but said 'everything indicates' that NGOs are going to the Amazon to set fire to the forest

Every day the mounting horrors are broadcast in real time, but it feels like nobody is watching any moreThis is often how the news comes in: “Regime airstrikes on Tuesday killed nine civilians in rebel-held northwest Syria, the target of months of regime and Russian bombardment, says the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.” Working for an international news channel, we follow up these stories with our sources on the ground, the local monitoring group or news agency. Where possible we go to verify for ourselves. Usually, though, I’m miles away on the other side of the border in Hatay, Turkey. Safe.Related: Rebels withdraw from key Syrian town as pro-Assad troops advance Continue reading...

Poles apart for decades, the similarities are now uncanny as populist governments produce ever more extreme policiesFor most of the time since 1945, the politics and government of Britain and Italy have seemed like polar opposites. True, both were important European powers. True too, each had a place among the world’s major economies. Even now, Britain and Italy will be among the select group of economically powerful nations whose leaders will gather in the Second Empire splendour of Biarritz’s Hotel du Palais this weekend for the latest G7 summit.Related: Italy's Matteo Salvini calls for fresh elections as coalition fractures Continue reading...