World news | The Guardian

The illustrated city: postcards, pottery and other antique gems tell story of the businesses that grew in the second largest city in the state of New York Continue reading...

Stamford, Lincolnshire: These curious creatures won’t grow into cute froglets, they’ll be menacing little blood suckersIn a week, heat, then rain. Heavy air settles, and thunder seems hiding around its edges. Water collects in everything concave. Then my five-year-old daughter comes in and tells us there are tadpoles outside.It’s late for tadpoles. I’ve seen no frogspawn, but she’s insistent. And there, in an outdoor sink, amid leaf rot, detritus and two inches of stagnant rain, is that familiarly sinuous movement: front heavy, tail frantic. Only not quite. Continue reading...

New Zealand prime minister says deportations are damaging relations with Australia, but Peter Dutton defends policyNew Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern will raise the deportation of Kiwis from Australia on character grounds when she meets Scott Morrison, saying the issue was having a “corrosive” effect on relations between the neighbouring countries.Ardern was due to hold talks with the Australian prime minister on Friday morning and the issue will be discussed alongside terrorism, trade and the Pacific step-up. Continue reading...

Large police presence expected on streets of French cities as Algeria take on SenegalThousands of police will be on the streets in French cities for the Algeria-Senegal football final of the Africa Cup of Nations on Friday night after more than 200 people were arrested when Algeria fans celebrated their semi-final win on Sunday.France, which was a colonial power in Algeria for more than 130 years, has a large number of dual nationality French-Algerians. More than half of the Algerian football team are players who were born, raised or trained in France. Continue reading...

A New South Wales woman died of blood poisoning after her right hand became infectedAn Australian body modifier will stand trial accused of causing a woman’s death by implanting a plastic snowflake under her right hand.Brendan Leigh Russell, 38, was ordered to face Gosford district court in New South Wales on Friday after his failure to appear the previous day was attributed to starting a new job. Continue reading...

Video footage posted to Facebook by James Looyer shows a suburban house lying in ruins after a gas explosion in the New Zealand city of Christchurch on Friday. Six people were injured and dozens of homes evacuated after the blast, which some feared might have been an earthquake or a bomb. Authorities are still investigating the cause. Continue reading...

PC Avi Maharaj was waiting for an undertaker at the home of a family who had lost a childA Met police officer is facing the end of his career after admitting using a grieving family’s cable TV account to order pornography.PC Avi Maharaj, 44, who was based in Earlsfield, was called to the property in south London in February 2018 following the death of a child. Continue reading...

Victorian MP said there was ‘plenty of online training’ for her children and friends to learn in taxpayer-funded jobsA Victorian MP has hired her teenage children on taxpayer-funded salaries to work in her electorate office, saying there is “plenty of online training” for them to learn the job.Independent upper house MP Catherine Cumming told the Herald Sun she obviously had “trust issues” with staff and felt the need to “surround myself with people I can trust and who are capable of doing the job”. Continue reading...

Dozens more injured after ‘man threw liquid and set fire’ to building, police sayJapan has been plunged into a state of shock after an arson attack on an anime studio left at least 33 people dead and dozens injured in the country’s worst mass murder in nearly two decades.The perpetrator, who was also injured and has been taken into police custody, walked into the 1st Studio building of Kyoto Animation in Fujimi ward, Kyoto, at about 10.30am. He poured what is suspected to be petrol in multiple areas of the building before igniting it. Continue reading...

Friday: Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority says only the ‘strongest and fastest’ action on climate change will save the reef. Plus: US destroys Iranian droneGood morning, this is Helen Sullivan bringing you the main stories and must-reads on Friday 19 July. Continue reading...

Andrés Manuel López Obrador also vowed to bring down violence stemming from drug violencePresident Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico has called the jail conditions of drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán inhumane, while vowing to bring down violence stemming from drug violence by creating a society less obsessed with material wealth.Guzmán will spend the rest of his days behind bars in the United States after a judge sentenced him to life in prison plus 30 years. A jury found him guilty in February after a 12-week trial. Continue reading...

Emphatic majority in vote aiming to prevent suspension of parliament in OctoberMPs have given Boris Johnson a brutal preview of the scale of the challenge facing his premiership, as Conservative rebels voted to block any attempt to suspend parliament in order to force through a no-deal Brexit.The new measure was passed by a hefty 41-vote majority, after a day of drama in Westminster which saw the resignation of one minister and abstentions from four rebellious cabinet ministers, who will soon be on the backbenches, as well as half a dozen others. Continue reading...

18-year-old from Mamou says she was eager to complete physics part of baccalaureateNothing could deter Fatoumata Kourouma Conde from completing the high-school exam for which she had spent the past year preparing. Not even childbirth.The 18-year-old from the town of Mamou, in eastern Guinea, realised she was just about to give birth as she sat down for the physics part of her baccalaureate, a high-school diploma that entails exams in a range of subjects. She was rushed to hospital where within 10 minutes she delivered a baby boy. Continue reading...

Teargas and rubber bullets used to disperse demonstration urging Ricardo Rosselló to quitThousands of protesters in Puerto Rico have clashed with riot police, as volleys of teargas and rubber bullets were used to disperse a mostly peaceful protest that descended into chaos just yards from the governor’s residence in San Juan.Related: Lin-Manuel Miranda joins diaspora protests against Puerto Rico governor Continue reading...

Potential PM will not say whether he had police protection during weekend in Italy while foreign secretaryBoris Johnson is refusing to give details of a trip he made to Italy when he was foreign secretary for a weekend-long party held at a restored castle owned by the media billionaire and socialite Evgeny Lebedev.The Guardian has learned that the likely next prime minister went to Palazzo Terranova in Perugia in April 2018 at the invitation of Lebedev, the owner of the London Evening Standard and the Independent who is renowned for hosting glamorous events for the world’s rich and famous. Continue reading...

Speaking at the final of the Tory hustings on Wednesday, the likely-to-be PM Boris Johnson held up a kipper and claimed regulations imposed by 'Brussels bureaucrats' were damaging trade. Holding up the plastic-wrapped fish, he said cost had increased for fishermen since EU regulations had imposed 'that each kipper must be accompanied by a plastic ice pillow'. He added it was 'pointless, pointless, expensive, environmentally damaging "elf and safety"'.However, on Thursday the European commission quashed Johnson's claims, pointing out that these claims were false. 'The case described by Mr Johnson falls outside the scope of the EU legislation and it’s purely a UK national competence'

Europe’s ‘pointless’ regulations on food are in fact UK rules, commission tells MPClaims by Boris Johnson that regulations imposed by “Brussels bureaucrats” were damaging the trade in kippers have been debunked by the European commission, which said that the food safety obligations criticised by him were due to rules set by Britain.Speaking during the final hustings of the Conservative party’s leadership contest on Wednesday night, Johnson held aloft a plastic-wrapped kipper that had come from a fish smoker on the Isle of Man, who he said was “utterly furious”. Continue reading...

Journalist who risked his life by publishing the names of the disappeared during Argentina’s ‘dirty war’During the dark days of the military dictatorship in Argentina in the 1970s, there was only one newspaper that dared to publish the names of the “disappeared” – let alone to put them every day on the front page, as Andrew Graham-Yooll did as news editor of the Buenos Aires Herald.Graham-Yooll, who has died aged 75, nearly paid with his life for such audacity. In 1976 he and his first wife, Micaela Meyer, got out just in time – “out of the back door and straight to the airport”, as he put it – as the men in the black Ford Falcons came looking for him. He never wanted to go into exile but had little choice other than to resettle in London until the generals – “those bastards” as he referred to them – were removed from power by a combination of the Falklands war and economic incompetence. Continue reading...

Report on state TV says ship was smuggling oil but does not say which country crew are fromFears for maritime security in the strait of Hormuz, a vital route for oil shipping, have grown after Iran announced it had impounded a foreign tanker it said was smuggling fuel in the Gulf.State television quoting Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said the vessel was intercepted south of Iran’s Larak Island on Sunday after issuing a distress call. Continue reading...

How an urbanist dream of fixing Brazil’s chaotic metropolises became a nightmareInside Maria Cleudimar da Silva’s flat, gospel music plays softly on the stereo, family photos and religious posters decorate the walls, and a wicker rocking chair and computer furnish the living room. The only evidence of her past life is a faded photo of the home she lived in for 11 years, a shack she called Noah’s Ark for its frequent floods.She moved in in 1996, pursuing the promise of a better life from Brazil’s rural north-east to São Paulo, its largest city, where she settled in Paraisópolis, the city’s largest favela. Continue reading...

Fair Work Ombudsman imposes $200,000 ‘contrition payment’, but United Voice calls for stronger penaltiesUnions have called for George Calombaris to be sacked as a MasterChef judge after it was revealed his companies had underpaid staff at his restaurants by nearly $8m.That figure dwarfed the amount of $2.6m paid to more than 160 people employed by his restaurant empire after it was revealed they had been underpaid overtime for up to six years. Continue reading...

Cyber attack compromised records on incomes, tax, health insurance and loans of millions of peopleA 20-year-old cybersecurity worker has been arrested in Bulgaria and charged with hacking the personal and financial records of millions of taxpayers, as police continue to investigate the country’s biggest ever data breach.Bulgaria’s NRA tax agency is facing a fine of up to €20m ($22.43m) over the hack, which was revealed this week and is thought to have compromised the records of nearly every working adult among the country’s population of 7 million. Continue reading...

Hashem Abedi, 20, to face multiple murder charges after being sent back from LibyaThe brother of the Manchester Arena attacker, Salman Abedi, has been extradited from Libya to the UK to face multiple murder charges over his alleged role in the attack.Hashem Abedi, 20, landed at an unspecified London airport on Wednesday, escorted by British police officers. Continue reading...

Chancellor rubbishes claim by Boris Johnson ally that no-deal exit could boost economy by £80bn

Report says police have only superficial understanding of crimes against older peopleOlder victims of crime are being let down by the police and the wider criminal justice system, according to the first inspection report on the age group.The police have only a “superficial understanding” of the crimes committed against older people, the report by Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary and Fire & Rescue Services and Her Majesty’s Crown Prosecution Service Inspectorate says. Continue reading...

Revolutionary Guards will not allow family to contact her, according to Richard RatcliffeNazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe, the British-Iranian woman detained in Tehran for more than three years, has been transferred to a mental health ward where Iran’s Revolutionary Guards have prevented relatives from contacting her, according to her husband.Richard Ratcliffe said his wife was moved from Evin prison on Monday to the mental ward of Imam Khomeini hospital. Her father tried to visit her there but was repeatedly denied access by the guards, who also prevented him from calling his daughter, Ratcliffe said. Continue reading...

A growing number of MPs speak out, with one calling for a significant lift to $400 a week, up from the current $275A growing number of Labor MPs are pushing for the party to adopt a bolder strategy on Newstart, with one saying the opposition needed to “show some guts” to pressure the government to lift the payment.Mike Freelander, the Labor MP for the western Sydney seat of Macarthur, told Guardian Australia he wants the party to commit to a “significant” increase to the government benefit, proposing it be lifted to $400 a week, up from the current rate of $275. Continue reading...

From ‘closet feminist’ to bossy career woman, detractors paint conflicting pictures of German politicianThe nicknames Ursula von der Leyen has acquired over the course of her 29-year career in German politics tell their own story about the new president of the European commission.During her time in charge of the family ministry, she was first called Krippen-Ursel (“crèche Ursel”), a conservative closet feminist set on expanding nursery places, and then Zensursula, a control freak who wanted to shield German youth from the dark sides of the internet. Continue reading...

Beijing is bullying another democratic neighbour. The EU must stop ignoring authoritarianism for the sake of stability and cashHong Kong’s administration has backed down over the controversial extradition bill, but the canary in the coalmine of China’s tacit acceptance of democracy is already dead.Under China’s “one country, two systems” model, Hong Kong was given the guarantee that the freedoms of its citizens would be preserved and respected. Meanwhile, for a long time in the west, the consensus was that, as its economy grew, China would start to look more like Hong Kong. Regrettably, in recent years the opposite has happened and Hong Kong looks more like China by the year. Perhaps we were naive to believe that this erosion of Hong Kong’s democracy was not inevitable. Beijing makes no secret of its view that democracy and Chinese civilisation are incompatible. The protesters in the streets of Hong Kong would beg to differ, and I hope they succeed through peaceful means. Continue reading...

Ridership is high and there’s plenty of work for drivers, but success has come at a cost to this Ontario townPhotographs by Cole BurstonWhen Daniel Arrega, 19, heads to work at a mall in Innisfil, he has few options for his commute. Walking along the highway would take nearly three hours. A taxi is faster but expensive.So he takes the town’s public transit: Uber. Continue reading...

On 18 July 1955 in Martinstown, Dorset, nearly 11 inches of rain fell – most of it in just nine hoursJuly 1955 was a very warm, dry and sunny month. Large areas of south-east England had very little rain, while Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk did not see a single drop.And yet in any table of Met Office UK weather records, one figure stands out: the wettest day – or to be precise, the heaviest rainfall recorded during a 24-hour period (9am-9am). It happened in the village of Martinstown – also known as Winterborne St Martin – in the Dorset countryside three miles (5km) south-west of the county town of Dorchester (Thomas Hardy’s Casterbridge). Continue reading...

Former president faces allegations he presided over vast corruption networkSouth Africa’s former president Jacob Zuma has told a judicial inquiry into corruption allegations that he is the victim of a plot by foreign intelligence agencies to seek his downfall.Speaking on the first day of five days of testimony, Zuma denied he had presided over an immense system of corruption and patronage that drained billions from the country’s exchequer. Continue reading...

Killer of Iuliana Tudos pleads guilty to murdering Catherine Burke at her home in HaringeyA man who murdered a 22-year-old woman in a London park has pleaded guilty to a second, sexually motivated murder.Kasim Lewis, 32, was jailed for life with a minimum term of 29 years in May 2018 for the murder of Iuliana Tudos on Christmas Eve 2017. Continue reading...

Warning follows resignation of UK’s top arresting officer after breakdown

• Reaction and celebrations after Sunday’s incredible final

Arriving in Brussels on Monday, the UK’s foreign secretary said there was still time to save the Iran nuclear deal. European powers are trying to preserve the landmark deal, which the US abandoned unilaterally a year ago. Iran recently announced it would start enriching uranium beyond agreed limits

The politician has said many things to many people. See how your perception of him comparesAs Boris Johnson closes in on Downing Street, his political positions and approach to leadership are coming under closer scrutiny than ever before. But – as the contrasting accounts from leavers and remainers who have spoken to him privately in recent weeks make clear – he has always had a gift for presenting the most palatable version of his worldview to the audience directly in front of him.Take our quiz to pin down your own sense of Boris Johnson – and then look at the results to see how they compare with other people’s views. Continue reading...

Sara Khan likens protesters outside Parkfield school in Birmingham to a ‘mob’Headteachers dealing with protests over LGBT lessons should have been given more support, the government’s chief adviser on countering extremism has said.Campaigners held banners saying “Don’t confuse our children” and “Let kids be kids” outside Parkfield community school in Birmingham after books featuring same-sex couples were used in a diversity programme. Continue reading...

Sweet-smelling success for Syrians who have settled in Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley is dampened by growing anti-Syrian sentimentWhen the plastic bucket is filled with roses, Nahla al-Zarda takes it into the kitchen, where she separates the petals from the buds. She soaks them in boiling water, which blushes pink.“I love this colour. It will be even stronger when the drink is ready,” she says. Continue reading...

The Wall Street Journal writer gives a compelling insider account of the deadly ambition of the AssadsIn the summer of 2012, news broke that Manaf Tlass, a general in Syria’s elite Republican Guard and a confidante of Bashar al-Assad, had defected and was en route to exile in France. Tlass was not just the tennis partner of the shy ophthalmologist who was presiding over the greatest crisis of the Arab spring; they were close, indeed intimate, family friends.Tlass had been alarmed by Assad’s brutal crackdown since protests erupted in the southern city of Daraa in March 2011: young people inspired by the historic changes taking place in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya called for dignity, freedom and the overthrow of their own oppressive regime. Syria, however, seemed destined from the start to be a different story – and a far bloodier one. Continue reading...

Neil Sherlock recalls a sense of entitlement from his rival in race to become society presidentBoris Johnson seemed convinced his charm alone would be enough to secure him the prize, but ultimately he was thwarted by a rival who sought to portray him as a charlatan – only to eventually triumph by changing his political colours completely.This is not the story of the Conservative leadership candidate’s recent political career, his humbling at the hands of Michael Gove in 2016, or his sudden devotion to the Brexit cause – but of his first forays into student politics about 35 years ago, according to the man who beat him. Continue reading...

Sean Wing calls medical tent at Sydney’s Defqon.1 event a ‘chaotic environment’The senior doctor who treated two critically ill patients within minutes of each other at a Sydney music festival has told an inquest the situation was chaotic but it did not overwhelm him.A Melbourne woman, Diana Nguyen, 21, and a Sydney man, Joseph Pham, 23, died after taking on MDMA and being taken to a medical tent at the festival Defqon.1 in September 2018. Continue reading...

Children aged 10 to 14 took a four-wheel drive that belonged to one of their fathers from Rockhampton to NSWFour Queensland kids who packed fishing rods and cash into a four-wheel drive in an apparent attempt to run away from home have been found 900km away.The children, aged 10 to 14, made it all the way from the central Queensland city of Rockhampton to Grafton in New South Wales before they were found. Continue reading...

Warring clans target women and children after tribe leader’s mother killed, police minister saysThe brutal deaths of about 30 women and children in Papua New Guinea’s highlands amount to the “worst payback killing” in the country’s history, the police minister has said.Bryan Kramer made the declaration after visiting Hela province, where 16 people were slaughtered by rival clansmen who the prime minister, James Marape, described as “warlords”. Continue reading...

Standoff in Sha Tin over extradition bill came one day after unrest in Sheung ShuiViolent clashes have erupted between Hong Kong police and protesters at the end of a peaceful demonstration against the controversial extradition bill. The incidents took place late on Sunday in a bustling town between Hong Kong island and the border with China.The scene descended into chaos shortly before 10pm local time (1400 GMT), after riot police chased protesters into a shopping centre in Sha Tin. Police used truncheons and pepper spray against protesters, who threw objects such as umbrellas and plastic water bottles at them. Some protesters were also seen beating a police officer. Several arrests were made. Continue reading...

The public expect police to pursue bad guys, but a shocking tally of recent deaths has exposed the risks involved. Tom Lamont discusses how the death of Matthew Seddon could change how we think about police chases. And: Sirin Kale on sexist dress codesThe Matthew Seddon police chase lasted 4min 22sec and ended in his death. Its aftermath, however, continued for years. Judges, investigators, witnesses, relatives and their lawyers, constables, police drivers, control-room officers and their silks all picked over the momentary choices made by Seddon and Thames Valley police in an attempt to work out what had happened and who was ultimately responsible for his death – the pursued or the pursuer?Anushka Asthana talks to Tom Lamont, who looked into what happens when a police chase goes wrong. Between the time of Seddon’s death in 2013 and the end of the inquiry into it, at least 93 people died in chases in England and Wales. Julie Sneddon, Matthew’s mother, also talks to Anushka about the impact of his death on her life. Continue reading...

Star clarifies comment: ‘Any actor should be able to play anybody and Art, in all forms, should be immune to political correctness’Scarlett Johansson has said comments she made on the “authentic casting” debate have been taken out of context and asserted that she supports diversity in film.Related: Scarlett Johansson drops out of trans role after backlash Continue reading...

• New Zealand 241-8; England 241 all out

• Djokovic wins 7-6 (5), 1-6, 7-6 (4), 4-6, 13-12 (3)

If Joseph Pham had received immediate treatment to lower his body temperature and been taken to hospital sooner, he may not have died, inquest toldAn independent expert report found that a 23-year-old man who died at the Defqon.1 music festival last year may have survived if he’d received better care at the event.Joseph Pham, 23, was one of two young people who died after taking MDMA at the Defqon.1 festival in western Sydney last September. Continue reading...