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Donmar Warehouse, London

Rose Hudson-Wilkin, born in Jamaica, will be consecrated in November as bishop of DoverThe Church of England has appointed its first black female bishop.Rose Hudson-Wilkin, the chaplain to the Speaker of the House of Commons, was announced by Downing Street as the new bishop of Dover. Continue reading...

New owners have proposed to refurbish the existing building and deliver 89 apartments, as well as retail and commercial spacesSydney’s embattled Sirius building will be refurbished after being sold by the state government for $150m.The housing minister, Melinda Pavey, on Friday announced the former public housing building, a striking example of Brutalist architecture in the Rocks district of Sydney’s city centre, had been sold to Sirius Developments Pty Ltd following a competitive tender process which attracted national and international interest. Continue reading...

British PM will reiterate determination to bring suspects to justice when she meets Russian presidentTheresa May will use a face-to-face meeting with Vladimir Putin on Friday to reiterate the UK’s determination to bring the suspects in the Salisbury poisoning to justice, she has insisted.The announcement that the prime minister would hold a bilateral meeting with Putin at the G20 summit in Osaka sparked concerns that she was preparing to rekindle relations with Moscow, as one of the final acts of her premiership. Continue reading...

Enver Hoxha’s villa in central Tirana, once sealed off by the Albanian secret service and home to party elites, is to be opened to the publicThe interiors of Enver Hoxha’s cavernous three-story villa are mostly just as they were when Albania’s communist leader died in 1985. By then, Hoxha had led a Stalinist dictatorship in the country for four decades, turning Albania into one of the most isolated and repressive states in the world.During the communist period, the whole area around Hoxha’s house in Albania’s capital city, Tirana, was sealed off by police and secret agents. Known as the Blloku, the district functioned as a kind of wall-less Kremlin in the heart of Tirana, reserved for the party elite and their families. Continue reading...

Jeremy Hunt says Britain would stand with the US in the case of military intervention. How has Iraq been forgotten so quickly?The imperial city of Persepolis, ruined capital of Persia’s kings, rises from the desert north-east of Shiraz like a rebuke to invaders, ancient and modern. Its marble columns, many still standing, were erected about 500BC when inhabitants of the British Isles were capering around in animal skins and it was Greeks who posed the biggest military threat. Donald Trump’s America was a bad idea whose time had not yet come.Britain’s recent history with Iran is, for the most part, shaming. Nineteenth-century imperialists and traders exploited and bullied, redrawing its borders with the Raj. British armies invaded and occupied and, in the 1920s, helped to elevate Reza Shah to the peacock throne. The ensuing era of autocratic rule sowed the seeds of the anti-western 1979 Islamic revolution. At Persepolis, graffiti left by Victorian army officers still defaces its pillars. Continue reading...

Indigenous figure became Liberal candidate several months after $200,000 awarded for his TV show, Mundine Means BusinessWarren Mundine received approval for government funding for a second season of his Sky News TV show before his application for the grant had been submitted, documents obtained by Guardian Australia reveal.Mundine, a former president of the Australian Labor Party who became Scott Morrison’s pick for the seat of Gilmore at the 2019 federal election, had hosted two seasons of a Sky News TV series showcasing Indigenous businesses called Mundine Means Business. Continue reading...

As residents queue for daily rations and businesses suffer, city’s politicians squabble over how to tackle shortagesTravelling through Chennai, it is not hard to find a row of empty pots dotting the pavements. Deep in the slums of Mylai, a long line collects behind a bright yellow tanker. The driver fills the public tank while people wait their turn to fill four pots of water. Any more than four is considered risky and can provoke clashes.Related: India heatwave: rain brings respite for some but death toll rises Continue reading...

PM says he has no new information on Alek Sigley, while Bob Carr says finding him will require ‘deft diplomacy’Prime minister Scott Morrison says he’s been unable to obtain any new information about the “troubling” disappearance of Australian man Alek Sigley in North Korea.Family and friends of Sigley, who has been living and studying in Pyongyang, have not been able to speak to the 29-year-old from Perth since Tuesday, which they say is “unusual”. Continue reading...

Australian PM speaks after meeting Donald Trump before G20 summit in JapanScott Morrison says Australia has not yet been asked to take part in any military action in Iran but says any request from the Trump administration will be considered “seriously and on its merits”.The US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has asked Australia to toughen its stance on Tehran and play a key role in a new “global coalition” against the regime. Continue reading...

At least 36 illegal miners killed by collapse in open excavation pitAt least 36 illegal miners are believed to have died in a copper mine owned by Glencore in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) on Thursday.The miners were killed when two ‘galleries’ overlooking an open excavation pit collapsed at the same mining site which claimed six lives in 2016. Continue reading...

Kate Cairns said woman used her sister’s name to oppose scheme that ‘would have saved her life’The family of a woman killed cycling in London say they have identified the woman they accused of pretending to be the victim’s relative in order to oppose new protected cycle lanes in London.Eilidh Cairns, a 30-year-old TV producer from Alnwick in Northumberland, was killed by a tipper truck in Notting Hill in the borough of Kensington and Chelsea in 2009. Continue reading...

Health officials warn ‘the worst is still to come’, with temperatures expected to exceed 44C in some areasFirefighters battled wildfires at a scale not seen for 20 years in Spain and southern France was placed on unprecedented red alert as much of western Europe sweltered in an extreme early-summer heatwave on Thursday.With temperatures in northern Spain and southern France set to exceed 44C, governments urged their citizens to take the utmost precaution, warning that in some areas the worst was yet to come. Continue reading...

Losing candidate Prabowo Subianto had claimed April’s poll was rigged against himIndonesia’s constitutional court has rejected a lawsuit filed by the presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto, who has for months alleged April’s election – was rigged against him.During a marathon court session in Jakarta on Thursday, a panel of nine judges unanimously ruled against the former army general. Continue reading...

As his band gear up for Glastonbury, the singer talks about his Jewish politics and how there are musicians far more privileged than himIf you have never been to Glastonbury, you will always get people telling you that “it’s just got a different vibe to other festivals, man”. Even platinum-selling musicians. “It’s like being in some weird medieval village,” says Ezra Koenig, frontman of Vampire Weekend, who had played Glastonbury three times with the band before going as a punter in 2014, when it finally clicked. “I stayed up all night and understood: this is very special. I can’t think of many festivals where there are old hippies who do their thing and keep to themselves, and keep that spirit of the 60s alive with arts and crafts. And there’s all the secret stuff you find in the woods, the various raves, little mini pubs everywhere ... Everybody’s walking through the mud and there’s a real communal energy to it. Probably a lot of them are on drugs, too.”His band are playing their biggest-ever slot at this year’s festival, Sunday night on the Pyramid stage just before the Cure’s headline performance. They released their fourth – and best – album Father of the Bride in May, and like the previous two, it went to No 1 in the US and Top 3 in the UK. It came six years after the last one, Modern Vampires of the City, with Koenig having taken creative control after fellow songwriter Rostam Batmanglij left the band. Continue reading...

State-owned operator transported 102,000 Jews to Nazi death campsThe Dutch railway has accepted a recommendation that it pay up to €50m (£45m) to relatives of thousands of people it transported to Nazi death camps during the second world war.Roger van Boxtel, the chief executive of the state-owned Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS), said it was time for the company to make a gesture to those “directly involved” as he reiterated an apology first made in 2005. Continue reading...

Firms operating in UK likely to relocate in event of no-deal Brexit, says foreign minister

Tibetan spiritual leader also reiterates that his female successor must be ‘attractive’The Dalai Lama has said Donald Trump lacks moral principle and that he is open to the next spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhists being a woman, but only if she is “attractive”.In an interview with the BBC, the Dalai Lama also said that while he was a supporter of the EU and thought it would be better for the UK to remain part of it, he did not want to see Europe become “Muslim” or “African”. Continue reading...

ABS data shows real estate losses drove a decline in household wealth per personPlummeting house prices meant Australians’ mortgage debt continued to grow faster than the value of real estate assets during the March quarter.But Thursday’s data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics revealed a fifth consecutive quarter of residential real estate losses, which was the main factor behind a decline in household wealth per person by $1,500 to $404,566. Continue reading...

Murder investigation under way with stop-and-search order imposed after 18-year-old was found fatally wounded in London roadA teenager has been stabbed to death in west London. The victim, believed to be aged 18, was found with a stab injury in Uxbridge Road, Shepherd’s Bush, on Wednesday night.The Metropolitan police said officers were called at about 9.20pm, along with paramedics and the London Air Ambulance. Despite the efforts of medics, the teenager died at the scene a short time later. Continue reading...

Any coherent response to the rise of populism must place the creation of real, sustainable jobs at its heart

Millions of people have taken to the streets over the past three weeks in opposition to an extradition law. The Guardian correspondent Emma Graham-Harrison discusses covering the demonstrations and what could happen next. Plus: Angie Zelter on why she doesn’t regret being arrested at an Extinction Rebellion protestHong Kong has been rocked by its biggest political crisis in decades, with millions of people taking to the streets in central business districts to protest against a proposed law that would allow the extradition of suspects to mainland China, where the court system has a conviction rate as high as 99%.The chief executive of Hong Kong, Carrie Lam, eventually suspended the bill and apologised. Emma Graham-Harrison, who has been reporting from the special administrative region, tells India Rakusen about the murder case that prompted the extradition legislation and why those in Hong Kong fear Beijing is attempting to erode their democracy. Continue reading...

Abdul Aziz Muhamat delivers a plea for urgent action to the Human Rights CouncilSince Abdul Aziz Muhamat left Manus Island for the last time, he has climbed a mountain in his new home of Switzerland, and then returned to advocating for the resettlement of the hundreds of men and women he left behind.The Sudanese refugee spent more than six years in Australia’s offshore processing and detention system in Papua New Guinea, before he was granted residency in the European nation earlier this month. Continue reading...

Policy is disempowering and has chilling effect provoking self censorship, says LibertyThe Prevent strategy for curtailing extremism in the UK is the biggest threat to free speech at universities rather than media caricatures of “snowflake” students, according to a director of Liberty.Corey Stoughton, director of advocacy at the human rights organisation, said the tactics of the strategy for monitoring campus activism had a “chilling effect” on black and Muslim students, provoking self censorship for fear of being labelled extremist. Continue reading...

Senior adviser to Trump found no interest in his proposals for ending Israel/Palestine conflictIn the end, the ‘deal of the century’ was little more than a failed clearance sale. Jared Kushner arrived in Bahrain touting bedrock principles at untenable discounts. And even then there were no buyers.The conference that was supposed to offer a new way out of the malaise of the Israel/Palestine conflict provided little of the sort. Its central premise of prosperity as a precursor to a lasting solution barely appeared to register on either side of the separation wall. Continue reading...

Met commissioner says phone and CCTV data could improve ‘woefully low’ crime figuresThe Metropolitan police commissioner has hit out at “woefully low” rates for solving crimes, with courts “emptying” despite some offences rising.Cressida Dick used a keynote lecture to call for better use of data and public consent to avoid charges of a “police state”. Continue reading...

Expert who led study of 5,000 IVF cycles at London clinic busts myth that male fertility lasts for everIVF success rates decline significantly in older men, according to scientists who call for greater awareness of the male biological clock.The analysis of nearly 5,000 IVF cycles performed at a London fertility clinic found that success rates were about one third lower in men aged over 51 compared with men under 35. Continue reading...

But he voices concern about persecution they may face if they came out as gay or lesbianThe Duke of Cambridge has said he worries about the pressures his children may face if in future they came out as gay or lesbian.Prince William said he would be “absolutely fine” if they did, but had concerns about the persecution they may face, admitting he had discussed the subject with his wife, the Duchess of Cambridge. Continue reading...

Stephan Ernst cites pro-refugee stance as motive for shooting CDU’s Walter LübckeA far-right extremist has confessed to murdering a pro-refugee German politician who was found dead outside his house on 2 June having been shot in the head.Stephan Ernst, a 45-year-old German man with a string of convictions for violent anti-migrant crime, was arrested two weeks after the murder of Walter Lübcke, 65. Police had matched Ernst’s DNA with evidence recovered from the scene of the crime. Continue reading...

Since March 2015, the photographer and author Joey Lawrence has had unprecedented access to Kurdish guerrilla organisations fighting Isis, embedding himself into the Iraq and Syrian civil war. His powerful portraits of the fighters give a different perspective to the conflictWe came from fire, and we will return to fireThe war against Islamic State in Iraq and Syria has flooded our daily news with troubling statistics of massacres and mass migrations, yet there are faces and human stories at the heart of the conflict. Joey L wrote: “From Iraq, one crosses the Tigris River into war-torn Syria, and is catapulted into a worldview crafted by the guerrilla.” Continue reading...

Global Commission on Drug Policy calls for a reclassification of drugs including cocaine, heroin and cannabisIllegal drugs including cocaine, heroin and cannabis should be reclassified to reflect a scientific assessment of harm, according to a report by the Global Commission on Drug Policy.The commission, which includes 14 former heads of states from countries such as Colombia, Mexico, Portugal and New Zealand, said the international classification system underpinning drug control is “biased and inconsistent”. Continue reading...

Exclusive: the shadow minister for multicultural affairs is convinced public sentiment on asylum seekers has shiftedPublic sentiment on asylum seekers has shifted, and Labor must use the looming parliamentary term to “give Australia’s hopeful side a fair chance to prevail over the politics of fear, and division” according to the shadow minister for multicultural affairs, Andrew Giles.Giles will use a speech to Australian Fabians on Wednesday to argue the recent community debate around the medical evacuations bill, and the tone of the federal election, suggests Australians are over the toxic politics of border protection, and are fatigued by the “false binaries and unnecessary aggression” from the home affairs minister, Peter Dutton. Continue reading...

Josie Birds said to have ‘thoroughly enjoyed’ gesture by Greater Manchester police

Plan demands Palestinians put a price on their surrender or risk losing even more groundIn the long, lamented history of Israeli-Palestinian peace plans, rarely have expectations been so low. As Jared Kushner took to the stage in Bahrain to effectively lay waste to decades of doctrine on how to solve the conflict, a solution seemed more out of reach than ever.Kushner’s proposal has been put together by hardliners who have tossed out the rulebook and written a formula of their own serving the interests of the Israeli rightwing. Continue reading...

PM to call for China to match its economic power with ‘additional responsibilities’ in major speech before G20 summit in TokyoThe prime minister, Scott Morrison, has warned that the “strained” relationship between the US and China risks “collateral” damage in the region, amid growing uncertainty in the global economy.In a major speech ahead of the G20 summit in Osaka this weekend where the US president, Donald Trump, will meet with China’s president, Xi Jinping, Morrison has called on China to match its extraordinary economic power with “additional responsibilities”, saying it has been a key beneficiary from the rules-based international trading system. Continue reading...

Exclusive: government accused of thwarting the release of politically-sensitive documentsA whistleblower has accused the government of flagrantly breaching laws to thwart the release of politically-sensitive documents, including records of the former prime minister Tony Abbott’s taxpayer-funded entitlements.A freedom of information officer who has worked across federal government blew the whistle internally in late 2017 on what he described as a “culture of disdain for the rule of law” within the prime minister’s department. Continue reading...

No Israelis or Palestinians present for launch of plan that shreds decades of diplomacy

Hassan Rouhani and US president traded insults similar to 2017 clashes between US and North Korea while ramping up sanctionsThe Iranian and US presidents have traded insults, with Hassan Rouhani suggesting that Donald Trump suffered from a “mental disorder” and Trump once more threatening Iran with “obliteration”.The very personal exchange was reminiscent of similar verbal clashes between the US and North Korean leaders in late 2017, and underlined the volatility of US foreign policymaking in the present standoff in the Gulf. Trump has swung between dire threats and offers of talks without preconditions, while ramping up sanctions. Continue reading...

Three people could face jail if found in contempt of court over Blackpool protestThree anti-fracking protesters have gone on trial accused of breaking an injunction designed to stop disruption of a fracking site in Lancashire.Katrina Lawrie, Lee Walsh and Christopher Wilson took part in a “lock-on” at Preston New Road, near Blackpool, on 24 July last year, less than a fortnight after a judge granted an injunction to the energy company Cuadrilla. Continue reading...

NHS says outbreak of invasive group A streptococcus began in Braintree and has spreadTwelve people have died from a rare bacterial infection that has spread in Essex, the NHS has said.There have been 32 reported cases of the disease, called invasive group A streptococcus (iGAS). The NHS Mid Essex clinical commissioning group said the outbreak started in Braintree and had spread to the Chelmsford and Maldon areas, but did not give a timeline for this. Public Health England said it was a “local incident”. Continue reading...

Lee Pomeroy died after receiving stab wounds in neck in front of 14-year-old sonA train passenger was stabbed 18 times in front of his 14-year-old son after a heated row over blocking the aisle, a court has heard.Lee Pomeroy, 51, was attacked by 36-year-old Darren Pencille five minutes after boarding a London-bound train at Guildford, Surrey, in January, the Old Bailey was told. Continue reading...

Foreign minister says there are ‘individual incidents’ that can be compared to UK knife crimePakistan’s foreign minister has sought to dismiss accusations of Christian persecution, claiming there were “individual incidents” comparable to knife crime in the UK.Shah Mahmood Qureshi, speaking during a visit to Brussels, said reports of religious minorities being targeted in Pakistan did not constitute a trend and the recent claims of Christian persecution were an example of “western interests” that “want to paint Pakistan in a particular way”. Continue reading...

UK ambassador says Berlin is willing to hear fresh ideas for Irish border problem

Court rules against Georg Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia’s claim on Rheinfels CastleA German court has ruled against a claim by the great-great-grandson of the country’s last kaiser to the picturesque ruins of a 13th-century castle overlooking the Rhine valley.Georg Friedrich Ferdinand, Prince of Prussia, argued the ruins of Rheinfels Castle should be returned to the Hohenzollern family because the current owners had breached a century-old agreement, a claim rejected on Tuesday by a court in Koblenz. Continue reading...

In 2013 the Irish capital was ranked among the world’s top 20 bike-friendly cities, but only a small part of the promised cycle network was ever builtOne sunny May afternoon in Dublin, as the Spice Girls prepared to kick off their Spice World 2019 tour at Croke Park stadium, the coaches bringing their fans unwittingly sparked another reunion – the city’s cycle activists.It had been two years since the direct action group I Bike Dublin had mobilised to protect cycle tracks from car parking – uniting around twice a week under the hashtag #freethecyclelane – but as police officers directed coach drivers to park in the bike lane by Dublin Bay, blocking the track, the protesters were back. Continue reading...

Former ambassadors say far-right leader has cuddled up to rightwing nationalists, irked China, infuriated Middle Eastern partners, and jettisoned its position as climate crisis leaderIt has long been considered one of the jewels of Latin American statecraft; a shrewd, dependable and highly trained foreign service that helped make Brazil a global climate leader and soft power heavyweight.But six months into the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro, even veteran diplomats struggle to mask their horror at the wrecking ball being taken to the country’s nearly two century-old foreign office, known as Itamaraty after the Rio palace where it was once housed. Continue reading...

Contemporary Worlds: Indonesia reveals the tensions and fraught history of the world’s third-largest democracy

Papua New Guinea police say man will also be charged with arson, which carries a sentence of up to life in prisonThe Papua New Guinea police will charge a man with arson and attempted suicide after he set fire to himself and his room at asylum seeker accomodation on Manus Island.After initial treatment for burns to his face and hand, the 30-year-old man, who has been denied asylum, was taken to the police station and held overnight before he was evacuated to Port Moresby for further medical treatment. Continue reading...

UN special rapporteur says blackout has led to rights violations and a ‘clearance operation’ was taking placeMore than a million people in Myanmar’s conflict-ridden Rakhine state have been plunged into an information blackout three days after authorities ordered telecommunications companies to stop providing internet services to the area.Rights groups have condemned the move as threat to civilians’ safety. Continue reading...

Frogmore Cottage underwent six months of renovation work before birth of Archie in MayThe Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s official residence, Frogmore Cottage, may have been a gift to the couple from the Queen, but has cost the taxpayer £2.4m, royal accounts reveal.The 18th century Grade-II listed house, close to Windsor Castle, required extensive renovation to make it habitable for Harry, Meghan and their newborn son Archie. Continue reading...