World news | The Guardian

Drop marks end of teacher-led grading following cancellation of exams in 2020 and 2021Pass rates for Scottish pupils have fallen markedly after schools returned to using exams to grade performance for the first time since 2019.This year’s results showed the overall pass rate for Highers, heavily used for students aiming for university, fell from 89.3% in 2020 to 78.9%. The pass rate for National 5s, awarded largely to 16-year-olds, fell from a peak of 89% in 2020 to 80.8%. Continue reading...

Man took jamón from warehouse where he worked, defrauding employers out of €520,000 over six yearsA man in Huelva in southern Spain has been jailed for defrauding his employers out of €520,000 (£439,000) after he stole and resold 7,000 hams.The man, who has not been named, stole the jamón from the curing warehouse where he worked over a period of six years from 2007 to 2013. Although he faced a six-year sentence, it was reduced to 11 months and 29 days because the case took so long to come to trial. Continue reading...

Technical difficulties have led to backlog of unfulfilled orders and stock shortages in store for the bookshop chainHigh street bookshop chain Waterstones has said it is working hard to shift a backlog of unfulfilled orders after a problem with warehouse technical systems led to stock shortages.The retailer, which has more than 300 stores across the UK, upgraded to a new system called Blue Yonder several weeks ago, but it has been struggling to get stock out to shops and fulfil customer orders. Continue reading...

City raises upper limit of penalties for causing disturbance after botellones grow in popularity since CovidBarcelona is clamping down on outdoor drinking parties known as botellones by imposing fines of up to €600 (£506).Until now, fines have ranged from €60-€100, which, if paid within 30 days, are reduced by 75%. Continue reading...

Government urged to announce more support for struggling households as Ofgem price cap expected to rise againPressure is mounting on the government to announce a fresh support package for struggling households as energy bills are now forecast to top £4,200 from January.The consultancy Cornwall Insight said on Tuesday that it expected the energy price cap to reach £4,266 a year for the first three months of next year. Continue reading...

Ruling party steps up rhetoric by suggesting it could unseat European Commision’s Ursula von der LeyenPoland’s national-conservative government has significantly toughened its rhetoric in its rule-of-law standoff with Brussels, threatening to turn “all our cannon” on the European Commission and if necessary build a coalition to unseat its president.If the EU executive “tries to push us against the wall we will have no choice but to pull out all the weapons in our arsenal” and respond “an eye for an eye”, said Krzysztof Sobolewski, the general secretary of the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party. Continue reading...

Barilaro was not present at 2 June meeting and Petinos says she ‘did not take any action in relation to the matters’ raised by company

Four patients on why they went overseas for dental care due to costs and being unable to obtain treatment locallyPeople in the UK are travelling abroad for dental care as treatment closer to home becomes increasingly inaccessible.Nine in 10 practices in England are not offering NHS appointments to new adult patients amid chronic underfunding and the pandemic. Cuts to funding over the last decade mean that NHS dentistry would require an additional £880m to return to 2010 levels, according to the British Dental Association. Continue reading...

Former US envoy given award at conference now engulfed in row over changes to reproductive rights pledges, while participant list revealed to have included members of group accused of hate speechThe British government presented a vehemently anti-abortion former US envoy with an award for his services to freedom of religion just days before watering down a statement on gender equality to remove commitments to reproductive rights.Sam Brownback, a former governor of Kansas who targeted abortion rights while in office and then became Donald Trump’s ambassador-at-large for international religious freedom, was given the award during the international ministerial conference for freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) held in London last month. Continue reading...

Western Australia’s Cottesloe and Peppermint Grove the top-earning area while five of the lowest are in regional NSW

Prime minister Sogavare’s office claims country does not have resources to host Pacific Games and an election at same time, raising outcry from opponentsA bill to delay elections in Solomon Islands has been submitted to its parliament, officials said, prompting concern from opposition politicians.Manasseh Sogavare’s government has said it wants to extend parliament until after it hosts the Pacific Games in November 2023, for which China has donated seven stadiums and venues that are being built by Chinese companies. Continue reading...

‘I fear that Australia will in short time be repatriated with the corpse of Mr [Robert] Pether’, say doctors of imprisoned engineer

Tensions high as Taiwan begins live-fire drills and China continues military exercises it started after US speaker Nancy Pelosi visited Taipei last weekChina used its military drills last week to prepare for an invasion of Taiwan, and its anger over US speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit was just an excuse, Taiwan’s foreign minister has said.The minister, Joseph Wu, addressed the media on Tuesday morning, as China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) continued with military exercises it began last week, and Taiwan started its own live-fire drills. Wu accused China of “gross violations of international law”. Continue reading...

Spanish-born woman sacked from care home after being unable to prove immigration statusA Spanish-born woman who has lived in England for 45 years is still fighting to secure the right to work in the UK, a year after being sacked from her job in a care home because she was unable to prove she had a valid immigration status.The 46-year-old woman, who arrived in Britain as an 11-month-old baby and who has never left the country, has been trying to secure EU settled status since her employers dismissed her last June, as they enforced post-Brexit right-to-work regulations. Continue reading...

Former judge provides 32 recommendations to improve the state’s crime and corruption watchdog

Organisers say On Your Side set up in response to dramatic rise in hate crime directed towards ESEA people since start of pandemicA free nationwide 24-hour helpline offering support for east and south-east Asian victims of racism and other forms of hate in the UK has been launched.The On Your Side helpline will be run by specialist advisers to provide tailored and culturally sensitive support. Longer-term support from a trained casework advocate will be offered, with case workers helping people understand their rights and direct them to specialist support services. Continue reading...

Queensland police believe the alleged attacker was in a relationship with the woman and are appealing for public information

IFS research shows six in 100 patients would have survived if they had been treated by a similar doctor in LondonOne in 25 people who die of a heart attack in the north-east of England could have survived if the average cardiologist effectiveness was raised to the London level, research shows.The research, undertaken by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS), looked at the record of over 500,000 NHS patients in the UK, over 13 years. It highlights the stark “postcode lottery” of how people living in some parts of the country have access to lower quality healthcare. Continue reading...

Feared Gulf Clan has unleashed terror campaign since arrest of leader in May but keen to talk to leftist president Gustavo PetroOne of Colombia’s most feared armed groups has announced a “unilateral” ceasefire in the hopes of entering peace talks with the government of Colombia’s new leftist leader, Gustavo Petro.The Gulf Clan, a notorious drug-trafficking militia, has unleashed a campaign of terror following the May extradition to the US of its leader – Dairo Antonio Úsuga, or “Otoniel”, assassinating dozens of police and holding large swaths of the country hostage. Continue reading...

Event is on track to be most successful games in history with more than 1.5m tickets soldBirmingham is expecting a surge of tourists over the summer as the city’s reputation receives a boost from the Commonwealth Games, business leaders said as the 11-day sports event comes to a close.The event has been heralded as a roaring success for the Midlands city, with more than 1.5m tickets sold – making it on track to be one of the most successful Commonwealth Games in history. Continue reading...

Analysis: there are deep divisions among the party’s MPs about the leadership frontrunner’s spending promisesLiz Truss as prime minister will have to appeal to three very different constituencies. The first is Conservative members, a target audience that has been enthused by talk of tax cuts for both individuals and businesses, as well as cuts to Whitehall waste and a war against “woke”.When she turns to face the wider electorate, that message will need to change considerably but – in between now and then – there is another constituency that will be crucial: agitated and sceptical Conservative MPs. Continue reading...

Tory frontrunner says tax cuts and spending could cost £30bn, but analysis shows a much higher priceLiz Truss’s emergency tax and spending pledges could cost upwards of £50bn a year, with experts warning they will fail to help the worst-off deal with the rising cost of living.Truss, the strong favourite to be the next prime minister, has promised to cancel the national insurance rise, scrap a planned increase in corporation tax, spend more on defence, and remove green levies on energy bills for households and businesses – all of which would cost billions. She has also suggested boosting freeports, which would entail tax cuts for business, and mooted an increase in the married tax allowance. Continue reading...

Mexico and Venezuela send crews to fight fire that has killed at least one and injured 125, with dozens of firefighters still missingA deadly fire that began at Cuba’s main oil terminal in Matanzas has spread after a third crude tank caught fire and collapsed as firefighters struggled to fight the massive blaze.At least one person has died and 125 are injured, with dozens of firefighters reported missing ever since lighting struck one of the facility’s eight tanks on Friday night. A second tank caught fire on Saturday, triggering several explosions at the facility, which plays a key part in Cuba’s electric system. Continue reading...

Review casts doubt on Boris Johnson’s claim that frontline services would not be harmedDoubts have been cast on claims by Boris Johnson that it will be possible to go ahead with plans to axe 91,000 civil servants “without harming” frontline services.The prime minister wrote in May to civil servants justifying plans for a reduction in headcount of almost 20%, saying the government must reduce its costs “just as many families are doing”. Continue reading...

Many areas are still without water and electricity following three days of Israeli airstrikesIn Shujaiya, a neighbourhood of Gaza City already scarred by several rounds of war, men passed around coffee and dates under the shade of a colourful mourning tent while Palestinian Islamic Jihad battle songs blared from a sound system.Men carrying AK-47s, their faces shielded by black balaclavas, lined the entrance to the tent, and the militant group’s black and yellow flag flew overhead. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Lib Dem leader says new PM should let government pay £36bn cost in new ‘energy furlough scheme’Liz Truss or Rishi Sunak should cancel the £1,400 energy price cap increase in October in a new “energy furlough scheme” and government should absorb the £36bn cost of the hike, the leader of the Liberal Democrats has said.Ed Davey said neither candidate appeared to have any policies that grasped the magnitude of what could happen this autumn. “We are facing a catastrophe this winter, a drop in living standards unlike anything we have seen in my lifetime,” he said. Continue reading...

Revival of agreement awaits ‘political decisions’ in Tehran and Washington after negotiators in Vienna agree textThe European Union has submitted a “final text” at talks to salvage the 2015 deal aimed at reining in Iran’s nuclear ambitions.The revival of the agreement now awaits “political decisions” in Tehran and Washington after negotiators in Vienna agreed the text thrashed out between Iranian and European representatives over the past five days was the final text and could not be amended further. Continue reading...

Helen Rhodes was a ‘devoted wife and mother’ and ‘the glue that held her family together’, a friend saidA mother of two died in front of her children and husband after becoming unresponsive on a flight from Hong Kong to the UK.Helen Rhodes, who was flying back to the UK with her family after more than 15 years abroad, was found unresponsive hours into the flight on 5 August, her friend Jayne Jeje wrote in a Go Fund Me which has since raised more than £13,000. Continue reading...

Announcement brings financial aid from US to $8.5bn; Ukraine says staff at plant working under ‘barrel of Russian guns’

Blazes have consumed vast tracts of forest in Newfoundland and Labrador and remain out of controlOfficials in Canada’s easternmost province have issued a state of emergency as crews battle the worst wildfires the region has experienced in more than half a century.Sprawling blazes have consumed thousands of hectares of forest in Newfoundland and Labrador over the last two weeks and remain out of control. Continue reading...

Staffing crisis drives nurses to strike ballot amid warnings of cancelled operations and surge in admissionsThe cost of living crisis will add further strain to an already imperilled NHS this autumn, experts have warned, amid concerns the healthcare crisis could deepen if urgent action is not taken.Healthcare professionals say the NHS is at risk of a surge in hospital admissions, operations being cancelled en masse, and increasing difficulties over discharging patients if such pressures, potentially combined with a further wave of Covid and a bad flu season, are not tackled. Continue reading...

Sunak says Truss’s plan to reverse the increase in national insurance ‘won’t touch the sides’ but neither will hisBritain is facing a cost of living crisis this winter more brutal than any in living memory. Annual energy bills for the average household are set to hit £300 a month from October, almost double the current level. Spending power will be sucked out of the economy as millions of households struggle – and fail – to make ends meet. The courts will be clogged up with people prosecuted for falling behind with their payments.That’s the situation facing the two hopefuls slugging it out to be the country’s next prime minister, yet neither Liz Truss nor Rishi Sunak yet seems to have grasped the magnitude of the problem, in public at least. Continue reading...

Whistleblower says he was instructed to tell customers the products were safe to consume, despite lack of testing evidence

Lawyers confirm both parties have settled differences on a no fault or damages basis in relation to alleged racist claimThe Conservative peer Michelle Mone has paid a settlement understood to be more than £50,000 to settle a libel claim from a former friend of Indian heritage who had previously accused her of sending him a racist message, calling him “a waste of a man’s white skin”.Richard Lynton-Jones sued Lady Mone for libel over comments she made in the media in January after the Guardian first reported the racist and abusive messages she had allegedly sent him in June 2019. Mone’s lawyers confirmed that she and Lynton-Jones had reached a settlement, although they declined to confirm that she had paid him, or how much the settlement was. Continue reading...

Water levels in southern Norway so low domestic consumers may be prioritised over international customersBritish consumers could face even higher bills and potential energy shortages this winter after Norway threatened to ration electricity exports.The UK receives hydroelectric power from Norway through a subsea interconnector cable running beneath the North Sea. Continue reading...

Kyriakos Mitsotakis said eavesdropping on the Pasok party chief, Nikos Androulakis, was wrongThe Greek prime minister has attempted to douse a wiretapping scandal engulfing his government, claiming he had no idea the country’s socialist party leader was being monitored by intelligence services reporting directly to him.In an address to the nation on Monday, Kyriakos Mitsotakis described the phone tapping of the Pasok party chief, Nikos Androulakis, as a mistake that should never have occurred. Continue reading...

Former Manchester United and Wales football star has pleaded not guilty to all charges as trial beginsRyan Giggs head-butted his former partner after subjecting her to a “litany” of physical and psychological abuse over three years, a court has heard.The former Manchester United and Wales footballer, 48, “entirely lost his self-control” and attacked his then partner, Kate Greville, and elbowed her sister in the jaw during an argument about his alleged infidelity, jurors were told. Continue reading...

Train driver’s union speaks out as London to Manchester service scaled back to one an hourThe train drivers’ union Aslef has called Avanti West Coast “lying cheapskates” after the rail operator slashed its intercity timetables, blaming “unofficial strike action”.Avanti, which runs services on the west coast mainline between London, Birmingham, Manchester and Glasgow, has suspended ticket sales and said it would run as few as four trains an hour from Sunday to try to cut the growing number of short-notice cancellations experienced in recent weeks. Continue reading...

Japanese technology and investment group is seeking to float UK-based chip maker ArmSoftbank has reported a record quarterly loss of 3.1tn yen (£19bn)after the global sell-off of tech stocks, prompting the embattled Japanese conglomerate to embark on a big cost-cutting drive.Masayoshi Son, the chief executive of Softbank, said the company was to launch a “dramatic” group-wide cost-cutting drive after a 7tn yen gain in investments made by its Vision Funds were almost completely wiped out over the past six months. Continue reading...

Water shortages across the continent, from France through Italy, Spain and beyond, are creating a critical situationEurope’s most severe drought in decades is hitting homes, factories, farmers and freight across the continent, as experts warn drier winters and searing summers fuelled by global heating mean water shortages will become “the new normal”.The EU European Drought Observatory has calculated that 45% of the bloc’s territory was under drought warning by mid-July, with 13% already on red alert, prompting the European Commission to warn of a “critical” situation in multiple regions. Continue reading...

Stephen House, Helen Ball and Nick Ephgrave were key lieutenants of ex-commissioner Dame Cressida DickThree of the most senior officers at the scandal-hit Metropolitan police have announced their departures five weeks before a new commissioner is due to take over tasked with making sweeping changes.All three were key lieutenants of the former commissioner Dame Cressida Dick who was forced to stand down in February after London’s mayor, Sadiq Khan, accused her of failing to deal with a culture of misogyny and racism. Continue reading...

Estate agent Savills says increase of luxury rents in centre of capital show it is ‘bouncing back’ after pandemicThe super-rich are paying 13.5% more to rent luxurious central London properties than last summer, research has found, in the latest sign that overseas millionaires and billionaires are flocking back to the capital.The estate agent Savills calculated that over the year to June 2022 the average price of “prime central London” rentals rose by that figure, the highest annual increase in more than 20 years. Continue reading...

Finley Downer, eight, bitten on both legs by nurse sharks at Compass Cay before being pulled to safetyAn eight-year-old British boy has been attacked by sharks while on holiday in the Bahamas.Finley Downer was surrounded by three nurse sharks while swimming in a lagoon last week, his family said, before he was pulled to safety after suffering bites on both legs. Continue reading...

Atomic watchdog seeking access to Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest atomic energy plant, after shelling damages radiation sensors and injures worker

No 10 says there are no plans to address crisis as it would be for future PM to work out plan

Campaigners ‘reluctantly accept’ need to reduce height of Stonebridge Mills chimney by six metresA Victorian chimney in Leeds – seen as a significant local landmark by campaigners – is to be shortened due to safety fears.The 33-metre structure, which is more than 150 years old, is part of the Grade II-listed Stonebridge Mills in Farnley, which is being turned into homes as part of a £25m redevelopment. Continue reading...

Evidence comes as John Barilaro tells NSW inquiry ‘I wish I’d never applied’ for New York trade role

Favouring tax cuts above support payments will leave those most in need out in cold, says ex-chancellor