World news | The Guardian

TaxPayers’ Alliance says HMRC, health department and atomic energy authority all use old servers that make them vulnerableGovernment departments responsible for running health and social care, and for collecting taxes, are using outdated software that leaves them wide open to cyber-attacks, according to a disturbing new investigation.The use of “legacy” servers and databases has been uncovered through freedom of information (FoI) requests from the low-tax pressure group the TaxPayers’ Alliance. It has found that many of the systems in Whitehall were so out of date that they were no longer supported by Microsoft and would cost huge sums to replace. Continue reading...

On the publication of today’s 4,000th Everyman crossword, setter Alan Connor is asked about the ‘entry-level’ puzzle’s history and his five predecessorsReaders, how might one describe “the angry outburst of a common man who is stumped by a cryptic clue on his birthday”? Answer: Everyman’s anniversary crossword. This weekend, with the sort of opening riddle that would never pass muster alongside our weekly Everyman grid, the Observer is taking time to mark the 4,000th outing of its celebrated, supposedly entry-level Sunday puzzle.First published in August 1945, Everyman is one of Fleet Street’s most established and beloved crossword challenges and yet has passed down through only six skilled compilers’ hands. This Sunday the occasion is celebrated in a special anniversary layout, featuring an appropriate selection of historic Everyman clues. Continue reading...

Russian occupiers have unleashed a reign of terror in the city of Enerhodar, detailed here by one survivor of the secret police

Mark Taylor is used to steering through dangerous seas – now he will have to navigate the London art marketStormy seas are a common challenge for lifeboatman Mark Taylor. As a skilled coxswain of the RNLI boat that serves the coast around Tynemouth in the north-east of England, he has often faced down dangerous swells to reach mariners in distress.But this weekend Taylor, who has also become a sought-after artist, is getting used to the contrasting waters of the Thames. After working on his painting in his studio near his North Shields home, the 43-year-old has been picked out for a London exhibition and a new artistic residency on the banks of the Thames in Canary Wharf. Continue reading...

Former social worker now helping in Kherson says her account was closed after missing a text messageA retired social worker who has spent the past year doing humanitarian work across Ukraine – frequently dodging missiles and other attacks – was left with no access to her pension or life savings after Lloyds Banking Group, possibly fearing she was a sanctions risk, shut her bank account.Fiona Hancock and her partner, Robert Paliwoda, have been working as volunteers helping women and children across various parts of the country since June last year. Continue reading...

Irish dancer who found fame with Riverdance to be focus of ‘no holds barred’ TV biopicThe premise may sound familiar: an ageing, little-known athlete from the wrong side of the tracks gets a belated shot at the big time and triumphs, finding fame and redemption, but the price is a broken, battered body.It’s not Rocky Balboa, it’s Michael Flatley in a “no holds barred” biopic series about his rise, fall and Pphoenix-like resurrection in the world of Irish dancing. Continue reading...

Broadcaster gives no explanation for decision to pull long-planned documentary examining Westminster’s handling of allegationsA BBC Panorama documentary commissioned to look into the internal handling of claims of widespread sexual harassment inside the Palace of Westminster has been dropped for the foreseeable future, the Observer understands, despite months of research.The prestigious investigative programme, which had been due to go out this summer, has now been removed from future broadcast schedules without any public explanation from the BBC. Continue reading...

Met Office warns of heavy showers and some flooding in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern IrelandThunder, lightning and heavy rain is set to lash large swathes of the UK on Father’s Day.A yellow Met Office weather warning for thunderstorms almost entirely covers England and Wales between noon and midnight on Sunday, and there is also a warning in place until 9pm in Northern Ireland. Continue reading...

The youngest life peer in UK history at the age of 29, the former assistant to Boris Johnson was covering maternity leave in his officeConcern is growing within Whitehall over Boris Johnson’s decision to make a former political aide the UK’s youngest ever life peer, amid claims that she only entered Downing Street’s political office to cover for another official’s maternity leave.The former prime minister’s resignation honours list caused months of angst within the government as a result of some of the names that Johnson intended to either place in the House of Lords or award with another gong. It has already been confirmed that eight people that Johnson had wanted to place in the second chamber were rejected by the commission tasked with vetting new peers. Continue reading...

The former prime minister is at war with the parliament whose powers and authority he claimed to hold so dear to bolster the Vote Leave endeavourIn the long June days running up to the 2016 referendum on EU membership, Boris Johnson toured the country to promote the supposed benefits of Brexit. Wherever he went he drew large crowds. Leaving the European project, he told voters, would allow the UK to take back control of its money, its laws and its borders.While the Vote Leave slogans cut through because they were simple (if often misleading), there were also high-minded constitutional themes, central to the great Johnson-led push for freedom. During a visit to Ipswich on 20 June 2016 he alluded to the most important, saying that staying in the EU would mean “the steady and miserable erosion of parliamentary democracy in this country”. Continue reading...

Futurebuilders England Fund doubled economic output of some areas and improved deprivation levels by up to 17%A long-term anti-poverty fund created during the government of Tony Blair doubled the economic output of some local areas and improved deprivation levels by up to 17%.The Futurebuilders England Fund gave £142m in loans and other financing to 406 charities and enterprises in England from 2004 to 2010. Continue reading...

Half of all Tory voters take a dim view of the former prime minister whereas the ex-president has a strong Republican supportThere are two very big differences between the situation confronting Boris Johnson and that facing the man with whom he is frequently compared, Donald Trump – namely, popularity and context.Johnson is weaker than Trump. First, because he is less popular with Conservative voters than Trump is with his Republican supporters. About half of 2019 Conservative voters disapprove of Johnson’s performance in office. And at the time he left office, 40% or more rated him as untrustworthy, dishonest and/or incompetent. Continue reading...

The senator – who denies any wrongdoing – resigned from the Liberal party on Saturday and claimed he has been denied procedural fairness

Sporting teams, friends and family used weekend to mourn the victims as fundraising effort tops $600,000

Witnesses say some groups were forced into the most hazardous part of the vessel that sank, leaving hundreds feared deadPakistani nationals appear to have been singled out on the trawler that sank off Greece last Wednesday with hundreds of passengers feared dead.Macabre details have emerged of conditions on the boat, as questions mount over whether the Greek coastguard “covered up” its role in the tragedy. With about 500 people still feared missing, new accounts from survivors indicate that women and children were forced to travel in the hold, and that certain nationalities were condemned to the most dangerous part of the trawler. Continue reading...

Eleven first-time members chosen as results reignite debate about representation of traditional owners

Nineteen-year-old accused of killing Patrik Weiss, 45, at his home in Lockridge last week

Mediators from the US and Saudi Arabia broker pause after airstrikes on Khartoum kill 17 civilians including five childrenSudan’s warring generals agreed to a new 72-hour truce to take place from Sunday, US and Saudi mediators said, after fighting intensified with deadly airstrikes in Khartoum and an exodus of wounded from Darfur over the border into Chad.Airstrikes killed 17 civilians, including five children, in the capital on Saturday, a citizens’ group said, while medics in Chad reported hundreds of wounded from Darfur seeking treatment. Continue reading...

Authorities warn of landslides after conducting several thousand flood rescues in two daysAt least 11 people were killed in Brazil’s southern state of Rio Grande do Sul after an extra-tropical cyclone struck the region, according to the state’s authorities.The storm on Friday caused torrential rains and helicopter searches were under way in flooded neighbourhoods to find 20 others who were missing, the government of Rio Grande do Sul said. Continue reading...

Writer of comic medical memoir This is Going to Hurt reveals surrogacy on BBC’s Desert Island DiscsAdam Kay, the author of This is Going to Hurt, the bestselling “secret diary” of a junior doctor, is now the father of two babies, he has revealed.Kay, who was portrayed by Ben Whishaw in the Bafta-winning BBC1 adaptation of his comic memoir, said life with his husband, TV producer James Farrell, has been “absolutely transformed for the better” by the arrival through surrogacy of their two children. Continue reading...

Tories suspended MP in April last year amid claims over sexual harassment and drug useThe Conservative MP David Warburton has announced that he is resigning his seat.Warburton was suspended from the party in April 2022 pending the outcome of an independent complaints and grievance scheme (ICGS) investigation into allegations of harassment and drug use. Continue reading...

Animal Justice party will put forward an amendment to the government’s bill that further strengthens laws allowing renters to own pets

Bella Montoya, 76, who knocked on her coffin during her wake, has died seven days later from a strokeA 76-year-old woman who had been declared dead and surprised her relatives by knocking on her coffin during her wake earlier this month has died after seven days in intensive care.Ecuador’s health ministry confirmed in a statement that Bella Montoya died from an ischemic stroke after spending a week in intensive care. It added that Montoya had remained under “permanent surveillance” but didn’t provide further information on the medical investigation surrounding the case. Continue reading...

Headteachers say situation is critical as they try to fill vacancies for September

Members of the NEU will strike on 5 and 7 July in a long-running dispute over pay and fundingTeachers in England are to stage fresh strikes in their long-running dispute over pay.Members of the National Education Union (NEU) will strike on 5 and 7 July, causing disruption to schools in the current term. Continue reading...

There are no applicants at all for some posts, and pupils are paying the price, warn heads and parentsKirsten Griffiths’ daughter is in a class of 35 for GCSE English and has “limited input” from her overstretched teacher. In September, when she starts her crucial exam year at her Hampshire state school, she has been told that many English lessons will have a non-specialist cover teacher as the school manages the juggling act of coping with too few staff.“We’re really grateful we are in a position to support her with a private English tutor, but that makes me feel guilty because I know many families can’t do that,” she says. Continue reading...

Workers at luxury hotel where John Heathco and Abby Lutz died report managers had disabled carbon monoxide alarmsTwo Americans whose bodies were found in their room at a resort in the Mexican state of Baja California Sur on 13 June died from inhaling toxic gas, according to officials’ preliminary findings.The couple – identified as 41-year-old John Heathco and 28-year-old Abby Lutz, of California – had reportedly been dead between 10 and 11 hours before being discovered in their room at the oceanfront Hyatt Rancho Pescadero Hotel in El Pescadero, Mexico. The cause of death was ruled as intoxication of an unspecified gas substance that local officials as of Saturday were still working to determine. Continue reading...

Government adviser says Britain should confiscate mansions to fund postwar rebuildingMinisters should confiscate the mansions, country estates and UK assets of Russian oligarchs to help pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine, a senior adviser in President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s office said this weekend.Vladyslav Vlasiuk, a sanctions expert working in the presidential office, said Ukraine’s government would like the UK to follow Canada in implementing new regulations that allow authorities to seize and redistribute assets belonging to sanctioned individuals and entities. Continue reading...

Valdo Calocane appears at magistrates court after alleged murder of Grace O’Malley-Kumar, Barnaby Webber and Ian CoatesA murder suspect has been remanded in custody by magistrates after two students and a school caretaker were killed in knife attacks in Nottingham.A former University of Nottingham student named by police as Valdo Calocane, who gave his name in court as Adam Mendes, appeared in the dock at Nottingham magistrates court on Saturday wearing a grey T-shirt and jogging bottoms, and flanked by three security officers. Continue reading...

Survey comes as government rhetoric on immigrants gets increasingly toxic, adopting far-right slogansBritons have among the most positive attitudes towards refugees in the world, a new global poll has found, despite increased hostility from the UK government to asylum seekers.An international survey of almost 22,000 adults across 29 countries found British people had the third-most enthusiastic outlook towards refugees, just behind Spain and New Zealand. Continue reading...

Ukraine forces slowly pushing back Putin’s troops, claims Kyiv, aided by western hardware

Covid inquiry will be given redacted notes and WhatsApp messages from former PM’s time in officeA collection of 25 notebooks from Boris Johnson’s time in office is being withheld by the government after a security services review found they contained highly sensitive material.It comes after officials advised that only those with the highest level of security clearance should be able to see the sensitive passages, according to the Times. Continue reading...

Shadow health secretary adds he would ‘die happy’ if he had chance to become Labour leaderWes Streeting has revealed he does harbour ambitions to be prime minister one day, saying he would “die happy” if he had the chance to be a Labour leader like Keir Starmer, Tony Blair or Gordon Brown.The shadow health secretary, often tipped to be a future party leader, has previously said he was “sick and tired” of being asked whether he would like the top job and that he would be too old for it after Starmer leaves the role. Continue reading...

Militants believed to be Allied Democratic Forces abducted others in attack on secondary school in MpondweMilitants linked to Islamic State reportedly killed at least 41 people and abducted others in an attack on a school in western Uganda, police have said.“Our forces are pursuing the enemy to rescue those abducted and destroy this group,” defence spokesperson Felix Kulayigye said on Twitter. Continue reading...

Resignation follows multiple allegations of inappropriate behaviour which Van has rejected

Prime minister Anthony Albanese also lambasts Greens over Senate stalemate, saying they are ‘happy to promise the world, while organising a petition against every new apartment building’

Kim Jong-un attended the conference to review defence strategies and the country’s struggling economyNorth Korea opened a key political conference with leader Kim Jong-un in attendance to discuss improving its struggling economy and reviewing defence strategies in the face of growing tensions with rivals, according to state media reports.The enlarged plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ party’s central committee came as the US sent a nuclear-powered submarine to South Korea in the allies’ latest show of force against the North, which has ramped up its testing of nuclear-capable missiles to a record pace in recent months. Continue reading...

Max Chandler-Mather says the Greens will keep pushing for a freeze and caps on rent increases

More than 2.4m deals are ending in 2024, raising fears of financial timebombMore than a quarter of UK homeowners on a fixed-rate mortgage are heading for sharp increase in monthly payments before the next election, in a financial timebomb that will rock the Conservatives just as voters prepare to choose the next government.With the Bank of England expected to increase its key interest rate next week for the 13th time, figures shared with the Guardian by UK Finance, the banking industry trade body, show more than 2.4m fixed-rate homeowner deals will expire between now and the end of 2024. Continue reading...

The opposition leader has promised the Liberals will ‘come back again’ at a gathering of party faithful

‘Lacklustre’ cover has meant a slow start to the alpine ski season but there is snow on the way, according to forecasts

Ukraine’s counteroffensive pushes south towards Mariupol; Putin confirms first nuclear weapons deployed to Belarus

Rishi Sunak says he is suspending anti-obesity measure to avoid restricting consumer options during cost of living crisisThe government is to delay its planned ban on two-for-one junk food deals – a key anti-obesity measure – for another two years amid the cost of living crisis.Rishi Sunak will shelve the expected measure targeting multi-buy promotions on products high in fat, sugar or salt (HFSS) to avoid restricting consumer options while prices remain high. Continue reading...

Extreme weather warnings issued across the US as more storms are expected; millions also warned of heatwaveAcross the world this month, temperatures have accelerated to record-setting levels, an ominous sign in the climate crisis ahead of a gathering El Niño that could potentially propel 2023 to become the hottest year ever recorded.Preliminary global average temperatures taken so far in June are nearly 1C (1.8F) above levels previously recorded for the same month, going back to 1979. Continue reading...

Bullying campaigner and founder of UK buddy system for Ukrainian refugees also among hundreds recognisedSuzanne Richards lost her son Joel, 19, brother Adrian, 49, and father, Pat, 78, in the 2015 terrorist attack in Sousse, Tunisia. Her other son Owen, then 16, was also shot and injured by the gunmen but survived the attack in which 38 people were killed.Their memories live on in the Smile for Joel charity, supporting families who are victims of homicide, which she and Owen run from her home in Wednesbury, West Midlands. Continue reading...

Public notice issued to watch out for the flippered creatures as they start to leave their breeding colonies and venture out into New ZealandSunbathing on roads, breaking through catflaps, visiting film sets, invading homes and taking in the heat of backyard spa bath covers – New Zealand’s “seal silly season” has officially begun and the country is bracing for an influx of adolescent marine mammals exploring the country’s highways, patios and golf courses.This week, the government issued a formal public notice that “seal season” had begun – and New Zealanders could expect to encounter higher numbers of the flippered young creatures out and about, exploring human-dominated spaces. From May until December, adult males and freshly weaned pups from New Zealand’s growing fur seal population will leave their breeding colonies and head out into the wider world – many for the first time. They’re young, inexperienced and prone to adolescent misbehaviour and mishaps, hitting the wider world en masse like a cohort of fresh-minted spring breakers. Continue reading...

Wooden artefacts dating from 15th century and bought from indigenous people were treated with pesticides while in museumGermany has returned two wooden masks of the indigenous Kogi community to Colombia but conceded that wearing the sacred artefacts in ceremonies may come with a health risk because they were treated with toxic pesticides during their time in German museums.The masks, which date back to the mid-15th century and have been held in ethnological collections in Berlin for over a century, were handed over to Colombia’s president, Gustavo Petro, by his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier at a ceremony in Berlin on Friday. Continue reading...

Safe Third Country Agreement does not infringe refugee claimants’ rights to liberty and security of the person, court rulesCanada’s top court has ruled that an agreement with the United States aiming to control the flow of refugees across the shared border is constitutional, ending a lengthy legal challenge by advocacy groups who argue the deal violates the rights of asylum seekers.In a unanimous judgment released on Friday morning, the supreme court found the controversial Safe Third Country Agreement did not infringe refugee claimants’ rights to liberty and security of the person. Continue reading...

Centre of fighting has moved as Ukrainian forces slowly push back Russians, says Hanna Maliar, a deputy defence minister

Sir Michael Wilshaw says he now thinks differently about use of one-word headline grades in EnglandThe former chief inspector of schools in England Sir Michael Wilshaw has said Ofsted’s style of school inspections needs to change after the death of the headteacher Ruth Perry.Wilshaw, who led Ofsted until 2016, said Perry’s death, following an inspection that downgraded her school from “outstanding” to “inadequate”, had changed his mind over the use of one-word headline grades to rate schools in England. Continue reading...