World news | The Guardian

Know as ‘fake clinics’ by pro-choice activists, ‘crisis pregnancy centers’ give counseling, pregnancy tests – and outnumber abortion providers three to one in GeorgiaIn her office at the Crossroads Pregnancy Center in Milledgeville, Georgia, Pam Alford hung a picture of a grave-filled cemetery in memory of the thousands of the abortions taking place every day in America. Or so says the caption.Other indications of the center staff’s attitude to abortion fill public areas of the building. Someone has stenciled “life is beautiful” in a hallway. Figurines of Jesus and the cross line the lunch area walls. Continue reading...

The national stud farm, which was established in the 16th century to breed and train ceremonial horses for the Habsburg court, has become a Unesco world heritage site. Located 56 miles east of Prague in the town of Kladruby nad Labem, it is the first stud farm in the world to be be listed by UN agency Continue reading...

Saudi Arabia denies claims that staff at detention facilities treat violent abuse of undocumented migrants ‘like a sport’When police arrested Tayib Mohammed at the southern border of Saudi Arabia, they seized all his worldly possessions and set them on fire.The 45-year-old undocumented Ethiopian migrant was trying to cross from Yemen after a five-day trek through the bush. “They told me to undress,” he recalled several weeks later in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, wearing sandals and pyjamas. “They took away everything I had – phone, clothes, money. They burned them in front of me.” Continue reading...

Anger as Muslim representatives banned from visiting … month’s rain could fall today in England and Wales … and why global markets have got the jittersGood morning – Warren Murray with the news you need to know, now. Continue reading...

Ney is accused of killing Michaela Dunn and wounding Linda Bo with a knife in the Sydney CBD on TuesdayA man accused of murdering a young woman in a Sydney unit before allegedly going on a stabbing rampage in the CBD has been released from hospital.Mert Ney, 20, allegedly killed Michaela Dunn, 24, in a Clarence Street apartment on Tuesday before allegedly stabbing Linda Bo, 41, at the Hotel CBD. Continue reading...

200 years ago, a crowd of people seeking political change became victims of a massacre. Are their issues now our issues?At 8am on 16 August 1819, a bugle sounded at Barrowfields in Middleton, a town six miles north of Manchester. A crowd of 3,000 fell silent as Samuel Bamford, a radical reformer, poet and weaver, climbed on a chair to speak. They were, he bellowed, about to embark on “the most important meeting that had ever been held for parliamentary reform”.There was to be no silly business. No sticks, no weapons, no back-chat. He admired their attire, “not even one who did not exhibit a white Sunday’s shirt”. Their conduct was to be “marked by a steadiness and seriousness befitting the occasion”, Bamford later recalled, casting shame upon their enemies, “who had always represented the reformers as a mob-like rabble”. Continue reading...

Alex Smith, 16, died at the scene in Camden, with two men, 23 and 18, in custodyDetectives investigating the murder of a teenager in north London have formally named the victim and made two arrests.Alex Smith, 16, from Brent, northwest London, was stabbed multiple times in Munster Square, Camden on Monday after being chased by a group of people. Three young men were heard “screaming and laughing” as they pursued the victim with a machete, according to eyewitnesses. Continue reading...

Contractor smashes in door just hours after evicting Gambian woman from Hounslow propertyA Home Office contractor has smashed a door to asylum seeker accommodation to allow an asylum seeker with an active case back into her room after locking her out just hours before.The Home Office U-turn came after the Guardian highlighted that the locks to the asylum seeker’s room had been changed. Continue reading...

Party finds itself isolated after opposition figures – and some Tories – say they would back Labour planThe Liberal Democrats are under growing pressure to back Jeremy Corbyn as a caretaker prime minister to stop a no-deal Brexit after leading opposition figures and even one former Conservative minister said they were open to the idea.With anti-no-deal groups rapidly calibrating their positions in the aftermath of Corbyn’s intervention, a split has opened up among MPs hoping to block Boris Johnson’s Brexit strategy. But while the SNP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens said they would engage with Corbyn’s offer, the Lib Dem leader, Jo Swinson, laid out a rival plan for a national unity government led by the Tory veteran Ken Clarke or Labour’s Harriet Harman. Continue reading...

Matt Healy tells gay fans God loves them, in country where gay sex is illegalThe singer of the band the 1975 defied Dubai’s anti-LGBT laws during a concert on Wednesday by venturing into the crowd and kissing a male fan on the lips.Video footage taken by fans and posted on Twitter showed Matt Healy telling gay fans that he loved them and that God did too. Continue reading...

Labour’s move towards a no-confidence vote is making others declare their handArguably, there are more plans for preventing a no-deal Brexit than there are parties in the Commons. But after Jeremy Corbyn wrote to opposition MPs setting out Labour’s plan to seek a no-confidence vote then attempt to form a temporary government, other groups have been forced to say where they stand.Related: Jeremy Corbyn urges opposition leaders and Tory rebels to help oust PM Continue reading...

Wiltshire officer who had displayed signs of low exposure to novichok brings total number of initial victims to fourA second police officer was poisoned in the Salisbury novichok attack, Scotland Yard has confirmed, after traces of the deadly nerve agent were discovered in a blood sample.The poisoning of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia, both of whom survived after fighting for their lives, also left a policeman critically ill after he searched their home. Continue reading...

Territory says Tehran has promised oil is not for Syria but US is challenging decisionGibraltar’s chief minister has said he will allow a detained Iranian oil tanker to be released after Tehran gave the territory’s government an assurance that it would not allow its cargo to be discharged in Syria.But Fabian Picardo acknowledged that his decision could yet be overturned after the US Department of Justice (DoJ) launched a challenge in the territory’s courts. Continue reading...

How Guardian writers explored the legacy of Peterloo, a century after the day government forces charged a crowd protesting for parliamentary reform, killing 18 and injuring more than 600by James Haslam

Comprehensive independent analysis will add pressure after June ruling that UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia are unlawfulAn international law group has submitted new evidence to the UK government alleging that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen has covered up evidence of its unlawful airstrikes on civilian targets.The allegations will put pressure on the UK government as it prepares its response to a court order directing it to reconsider all existing British government licences to export arms to Saudi Arabia for use in Yemen. Continue reading...

Fires in northern Iraq have reduced a potentially bumper harvest to ashes. The government blames mischance – but is something more sinister afoot?Plumes of smoke shroud the summer sky of Iraq’s northern plains, creating an ominous veil of grey. Fires in Nineveh province have broken out on a scale that farmers here describe as unprecedented, turning tens of thousands of acres of wheat and barley fields into barren patches of black.“Look at that, the livelihood of the people is destroyed,” says Jalal Muamah as he picks up a handful of charred barley spikes that pepper his field near the town of Sinjar. “We won’t have a harvest better than this year, not even in the next hundred years.” Continue reading...

State minister for equality said the laws would make a ‘contribution to saving lives’A bill to allow transgender and gender diverse people to change the sex listed on their birth certificate without surgery has cleared its first hurdle, passing the Victorian legislative assembly on Thursday.The equality minister, Martin Foley, said the legislation was an opportunity for trans and gender diverse people to have “their true self reflected” on their birth certificate. Continue reading...

Politicians neglect minorities’ needs due to focus on ‘mystical’ demographic, report saysThe focus on the needs of a “mystical” white working class in the aftermath of the Brexit vote has led politicians to neglect the needs of a growing ethnic minority population across the north of England, the authors of a report warned on Thursday.Researchers behind the paper by the Runnymede Trust and the University of Leeds said that “deep racial and ethnic inequalities” were not being adequately addressed by existing plans to boost economic growth in the region, such as the “northern powerhouse”. And they argued that most discussions of the northern working class in the media and political debates since Brexit had left out minority groups who have lived in the region for decades. Continue reading...

Former minister will not stay beyond his current seven-year term, in which he was criticised for accepting donations from arms companiesThe head of the Australian War Memorial, Brendan Nelson, will leave the role at the end of this year.The government has announced that Nelson, who has directed the institution for seven years, will not stay on beyond his current term. Continue reading...

Senior US politician says Brexit cannot be allowed to imperil Good Friday agreementThere is no chance of Congress approving a US-UK trade agreement if Brexit undermines the Good Friday peace agreement in Northern Ireland, the speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, has said.Pelosi was restating the entrenched position of congressional Democrats and many Republicans in the wake of remarks made by Donald Trump’s national security adviser, John Bolton, during a visit to London this week. Continue reading...

Much-discussed Virgin of the Rocks to be centrepiece of National Gallery exhibitionAn “abandoned composition” by Leonardo da Vinci has been discovered underneath one of his most discussed paintings, which will take centre stage at a ground-breaking exhibition dedicated to the Renaissance master.The National Gallery, which is hosting an “immersive exploration” of the artist’s work, found the unfinished earlier version after conducting scientific research into the Virgin of the Rocks. The London gallery’s researchers found the Leonardo’s initial designs for the angel and the infant Christ, with “significant differences to how they look in the finished painting”. Continue reading...

Clashes between forces backed by former Gulf allies UAE and Saudi threaten ‘new civil war within a civil war’, says thinktank“Scores” of people were killed and hundreds wounded during recent fighting in Yemen’s key port of Aden when southern separatists – trained by the UAE – seized key locations of the city from Saudi-backed government forces.The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Aden told the Guardian that large parts of the city were also left without electricity and water during the fighting after services were targeted. Humanitarian staff warned that any further fighting between forces allied with the two coalition partners would be “devastating”. Continue reading...

More than 1.6m accounts identified in data shared with Australian authorities by 65 countries including tax havensIndividual Australians hold more than $100bn offshore, spread across more than 1.6m accounts, according to new taxation office data collected under an international cooperation agreement.The Australian Taxation Office has already sent about 2,000 letters to Australians who it has identified have failed to declare $20m in income held offshore, telling them it knows about their formerly secret accounts, assistant commissioner Karen Foat said. Continue reading...

Many went missing between 1973 and 1990 during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet – and relatives are still seeking answersIt has been 43 years since Cesar Cerda, a member of Chile’s Communist party, was dragged off by agents of Augusto Pinochet’s dictatorship. Cerda is just one of 1,000 former opponents of the far-right regime still listed as missing, despite the tireless efforts by family members to find them. Cerda was 47, and a father of three, when he was arrested on 19 May 1976 after months of regime persecution of Communist party leaders. Continue reading...

Domingo, who has been accused of sexual harassment by several women, has seen an invitation rescinded as internal investigations are mountedThe Philadelphia Orchestra rescinded an invitation to opera singer

Éric Woerth hits back after social media ridiculeA French politician has hit back at claims he changed the angle in a photograph to make the his ascent of an icy summit in the Alps seem more perilous.Éric Woerth, a senior right-of-centre MP, insisted the picture he tweeted of his climb up the Aiguille d’Argentiere was genuine and said he was astonished French media had judged mocking of him on social media newsworthy. Continue reading...

Monument designed by Jeremy Deller made public despite accessibility concernsCampaigners have accused Manchester city council of a PR own goal after a £1m memorial to the Peterloo massacre was quietly made public three days before the 200th anniversary.The monument, designed by the Turner prize-winning artist Jeremy Deller, prompted criticism earlier this year when disability rights groups pointed out it would be inaccessible to wheelchair users. Continue reading...

Labor leader says the government just seems to be drifting along without a plan as our big cities feel the strainThe Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, says Australia needs to have a “mature debate” about population growth, saying a damning infrastructure audit has highlighted the strain being felt in our biggest cities.Following the release of an Infrastructure Australia report that found $40bn in annual infrastructure spending was needed to cope with a forecast population of 31.4 million by 2034, Albanese said the findings were a “wake-up call” for the government to fast track spending on major road and rail projects. Continue reading...

Beijing’s rhetoric escalating alongside video of troop carriers at border, yet experts say deployment a last resortThe messages from Beijing to protesters in Hong Kong are increasingly ominous. First there was propaganda footage of Chinese soldiers garrisoned in Hong Kong drilling for intense urban fighting that looked more like a civil war than search and rescue or crowd control.Now footage has emerged of armoured paramilitary vehicles massing across the border. Two months into demonstrations sparked by a controversial extradition law, official rhetoric from Beijing has escalated too. Authorities recently denounced protests as “terrorist acts”, promised an “iron fist” response and, perhaps most alarmingly, described the movement as a “colour revolution”. Continue reading...

Move would be to reassure Hong Kong’s people rather than facing down Chinese threats, he saysThe UK should give Hong Kong citizens full UK nationality as a means of reassurance amid the current standoff with Beijing, the chair of the influential Commons foreign affairs committee has argued.Tom Tugendhat said this should have happened to people in the formerly British-ruled territory in 1997, when it was handed back to Chinese control, and that doing so now would reassure Hong Kong’s people that they were supported by the UK. Continue reading...

Police say 21-year-old suspect from western Sydney was carrying information on extremist ideologies when arrested

Despite shocking reports of abuse and a social media outcry, there is little sign of stricter laws to protect children

Despite its poverty, Kibera is a vibrant place where people survive in testing conditions, both physical and mental. These images by four photographers born and bred there capture the spirit of Africa’s largest slum.An exhibition, ‘Kibera: Living in the slum’, is on show at the Guardian’s London offices until 31 August Continue reading...

Shunned by hipsters, adored by local Scots, they’re the fringe’s biggest show. How did this retro cocktail of cheesy euphoria become such a phenomenon?Friday night in Edinburgh and a troupe of transgender Thai showgirls and their kilted male friends – plus Jamie John, a self-described gay dwarf – are onstage in highland regalia swaying to The Bonnie Banks o’ Loch Lomond, the words of which are being enthusiastically bellowed by the audience. Part wedding reception, part concert, part cabaret, but with a potent flavour all of its own, this Saltire-flying extravaganza is the climax of the latest show by The Lady Boys of Bangkok, who made their debut in Edinburgh 21 years ago, and have been coming back every year since.While critics and much of the media have more or less ignored the Lady Boys, they’re the biggest show on the fringe, drawing in a cross-section of local Scots. There are grans, family groups, hen parties and young couples tucking into wine and Thai food at tables in a sweltering big top; tourists and London hipsters however, are conspicuous by their absence. “It’s one of the things of the fringe, you’ve got to come and see it,” says audience member Gary Erskine during the interval. Will he be going to see much other stuff? “This is pretty much it.” Continue reading...

Actor questioned at beauty conference about support for India’s armed forces amid tension between two countriesPriyanka Chopra has been accused of “encouraging nuclear war” over comments she made amid worsening tensions between India and Pakistan.The Indian actor, who made her name in Bollywood before moving to the US, was confronted by an audience member at a cosmetics event in Los Angeles. Continue reading...

A quarter of worldwide emissions is from food production. No more engastrated confit wagyu chicken, mother!

Regulator had accused bank of not working out whether customers could afford loansThe corporate regulator has lost legal action it brought against Westpac accusing the bank of lending irresponsibly more than 250,000 times by using a controversial benchmark to decide whether to make home loans instead of working out whether each customer could afford to repay the money.The federal court judge Nye Perram, who forced the case to go to trial by rejecting a $35m settlement deal between the Australian Securities and Investments Commission and Westpac, dismissed the regulator’s case on Tuesday. Continue reading...

The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, has released a list of food products the EU wants protected as ‘geographical indicators’Australia is gearing up for a fight with the European Union over the naming of hundreds of products including feta, gruyere and scotch beef as negotiations continue over an “ambitious” free trade agreement.The trade minister, Simon Birmingham, has released a list of names the EU wants protected as part of the new trade deal – known as “geographical indications” or GIs – which are aimed at protecting European products. Continue reading...

Mass protests at Hong Kong’s international airport have forced flight cancellations to and from AustraliaAustralian travellers are facing major delays after thousands of pro-democracy protesters descended on Hong Kong’s international airport, forcing authorities to shut it down.Qantas cancelled three flights to Australia on Monday night. Continue reading...

Opponents of chaotic exit from EU still divided on strategy to outmanoeuvre Boris Johnson

Indian prime minister also spoke of growing up poor and developing a love of natureThe Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, joined Bear Grylls on the latter’s survival TV programme Man vs Wild to talk about his relationship with nature and growing up in a poor family, all the while crossing a freezing river on a flimsy raft.In the episode broadcast in India on Monday, the two men were filmed on the riverbank of the country’s Jim Corbett National Park, with deer and a herd of elephants seen in the distance. Continue reading...

Duke of York yet to explain photo of him with arm around alleged victim Virginia GiuffreWhen New York prosecutors announced the death of Jeffrey Epstein over the weekend, Prince Andrew and his ex-wife Sarah, Duchess of York, were reportedly holidaying in Balmoral with the Queen. It must have have made for an uncomfortable moment: the Duke of York’s former friendship with the disgraced New York hedge fund manager has proven a persistent headache for Buckingham Palace, which has repeatedly been forced to deny allegations that Andrew had sexual encounters with a 17-year-old who had been coerced by Epstein.The death of the financier, a convicted sex offender who was facing federal charges for sex trafficking, is unlikely to end questions about his relationship to both Prince Andrew and the Duchess of York, to whom Epstein once lent £15,000 to clear her debts. The duchess later described the arrangement as “a gigantic error of judgment”. Continue reading...

My friend Clare Lindop, who has died of a rare lung cancer aged 45, was a wise, fun and caring person who made a lasting contribution to our local community in north London.After moving to Cockfosters, near Enfield, in 2013, Clare was appalled that walking her children to school involved dodging cars on the busy four-lane Bramley Road. With Naomi, the eldest of the three, she campaigned for a pedestrian crossing – using hand-drawn leaflets, social media and old fashioned lobbying – with the result that Enfield borough council installed a crossing in summer 2018. Continue reading...

Facebook post featuring mugshot of Jermaine Taylor, 21, garners 89,000 commentsA police force which posted a wanted drug dealer’s mugshot on Facebook has warned it could take action against abusive comments after his hairstyle was mocked online.The appeal for assistance by Gwent police in their search for Jermaine Taylor, 21, had garnered more than 89,000 comments by Monday after they posted the image last week. Continue reading...

Kim Carr concerned about unintended consequences on trade union activity and whistleblowersThe Labor senator Kim Carr has branded proposed new penalties for encouraging trespass on agricultural land “unnecessary”, joining the Law Council in expressing concern about the Coalition’s “vegan activist” bill.Carr said the bill is “unlikely to actually be used” but has the potential for unintended consequences, including limiting trade union activity or for whistleblowers raising animal protection and food safety concerns. Continue reading...

Labor and unions hit back, saying some Liberals want to ‘relive the glory days of John Howard’s WorkChoices’Labor and unions have hit back at calls by a Liberal senator for employers to be able to sack workers if they are not “the right fit”, arguing the Coalition is preparing to gut unfair dismissal laws.Amanda Stoker – who made the remarks at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Friday – renewed the call on Monday arguing it was “untenable” to ignore industrial relations’ impact on productivity and accusing the Coalition of being “tentative” after John Howard lost the 2007 election in part due to its Work Choices reforms. Continue reading...

Through Our Eyes is a photographic project by teenage asylum seekers living in a camp on Samos island, Greece. They were each given a disposable camera and asked to document their daily lifeThis collection of photographs taken by teenage asylum seekers in Samos offers an intimate and powerful portrait of the hardship they face at the island’s refugee camp, which was built for 650 people but is home to more than 4,000. The camp is one of five registration centres, or “hotspots”, for asylum seekers on the Greek islands in the Aegean Sea. Continue reading...

Ambulance Victoria was called to Royal Parade, Parkville, about 8.30am on Monday after a falling tree killed a woman. The victim, believed to be in her 30s, was taken to the Royal Melbourne hospital in a critical condition but died soon afterwards. The City of Melbourne says it is now examining other trees in the area Continue reading...

A runaway ostrich has been captured on video sprinting down busy streets in Yilong in Yunnan province, south-west China. In CCTV footage from 2 August, the ostrich, which stands at more than two metres, was seen racing down the streets in the town. After half an hour, the ostrich's owner found it and took it back home Continue reading...