Large crowds have queued in Hong Kong to buy the final edition of the Apple Daily. The closure of Hong Kong's largest pro-democracy newspaper comes one week after five high-profile staff were arrested, the company's office raided and millions of dollars in assets frozen in Beijing's crackdown on the media outlet. Sales of the newspaper began at 1am with some vendors selling out of copies within hours

Million copies printed of last issue as journalists at newspaper that was forced to close mourn ‘historical moment’Across Hong Kong on Thursday morning the queues stretched for hundreds of metres, wrapping around corner after corner. Starting before dawn, crowds in the city of 7.5 million people lined up for hours to buy the final print edition of the Apple Daily newspaper, forced to close by authorities which had accused it of national security offences.Normally selling 80,000 copies a day, they printed a million. It was in such hot demand that by mid morning Hongkongers were crowdsourcing an online spreadsheet of convenience stores that still had copies for sale. Continue reading...

Buckingham Palace also said it aims to improve diversity of staff as Queen’s annual financial accounts releasedBuckingham Palace has admitted it “must do more” in terms of diversity and is “not where we would like to be” as figures show people from ethnic minority backgrounds make up 8.5% of its staff.It also emerged that Prince Charles funded Harry and Meghan with a “substantial sum” until the summer of 2020. Harry had told Oprah Winfrey that his family had “literally cut me off financially” in the early part of last year. Continue reading...

From the Irish civil war to anti-apartheid protests, a new exhibition delves into the legendary Guardian picture libraryIt was in 1905 that the Manchester Guardian published its first ever photograph, of the Angel Stone in Manchester Cathedral. Three years later, the paper hired its first staff photographer, Walter Doughty. In many ways the story of photography at the Guardian mirrors the story of the 20th century itself. And it’s a story that’s currently being told in a new exhibition, The Picture Library, at the Photographers’ Gallery, London, opening this week. Continue reading...

Medical charity says abuse and attacks have escalated as more migrants are intercepted at sea and camps become increasingly overcrowdedIncreasing violence towards refugees and migrants held in Libyan detention centres has forced Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to suspend its operations at two facilities, the medical charity said.MSF said its teams witnessed guards beating detainees, including those seeking treatment from MSF doctors, during a visit to the Mabani detention centre in Tripoli last week. Continue reading...

‘A crisis is brewing’, experts warn, with contaminated water exposing villagers to increased risk of cancer and affecting children’s brain developmentNine members of Pankaj Rai’s family have died from cancer over the past 20 years. But the 25-year-old farmer from Bihar only found out their deaths were likely a result of arsenic poisoning when his father got sick.In 2017, Pankaj took his father, Ganesh Rai, to the Mahavir Cancer Institute & Research Centre in Patna. Ganesh had stage 4 kidney cancer. But Dr Arun Kumar, a scientist at the institute, identified the severe skin lesions on his body as signs of arsenic poisoning. Continue reading...

For the hardline conservatives ruling Poland and Hungary, the transition from communism to liberal democracy was a mirage. They fervently believe a more decisive break with the past is needed to achieve national liberationIn the summer of 1992, a 29-year-old Hungarian with political ambitions made his first visit to the US. For six weeks he toured the country with a coterie of young Europeans, all expenses paid by the German Marshall Fund, a thinktank devoted to transatlantic cooperation.America had long fascinated Viktor Orbán, but he seemed disengaged and unaffected as the group walked around downtown Los Angeles, which was still reeling from the Rodney King riots two months earlier. One Dutch journalist on the trip recalled that the eastern Europeans in the group preferred to spend their daily stipends on “a Walkman and other electronics” rather than on food or fancy hotels. The free market and cutting-edge technologies certainly appealed more to Orbán than American debates and struggles over equality, justice or the rights of people of colour. Continue reading...

Campaigners fear for victims of trafficking, modern slavery and the elderly as 30 June deadline loomsCampaigners for EU citizens have warned that the Home Office’s plan to send 28-day enforcement notices to anyone who has not applied for settled status by the 30 June cut-off date is a “recipe for disaster”.“We know the types of people who will not be making applications. They are the vulnerable, people like victims of trafficking, modern slavery, the elderly, children. Continue reading...

First Nation in southern Saskatchewan says discovery is ‘most significantly substantial’ find yet in CanadaA First Nation in southern Saskatchewan has discovered hundreds of unmarked graves at the site of another former residential school for Indigenous children.A statement from the Cowessess First Nation and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous First Nations, which represents Saskatchewan’s First Nations, said on Wednesday that “the number of unmarked graves will be the most significantly substantial to date in Canada.” Continue reading...

US found link between vaccines and cases of inflammation in adolescents and young adults, but say benefits outweigh risksThe US Food and Drug Administration will add a warning to the Covid vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna about rare cases of heart inflammation in adolescents and young adults, the agency announced on Wednesday.US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advisory groups, meeting to discuss reported cases of the heart condition after vaccination, found the inflammation in adolescents and young adults is likely linked to the vaccines, but that the benefits of the shots appeared to clearly outweigh the risk. Continue reading...

Analysis: Royal Navy ship sailing near Crimea may also be test of Beijing reaction to territorial reachBritish ministers will have been under no illusions that the decision to sail HMS Defender into disputed waters off the coast of Russian-annexed Crimea would provoke a reaction from the Kremlin.A dispute about whether warning shots were fired or not is beside the point – although if they were, they were miles out of range. Because even if the west considers Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014, to be still part of Ukraine, the Russians do not and will act accordingly. Continue reading...

On the one hand Gareth Southgate may feel gratified but, on the other, he might detect significant cause for concern. Surely Germany will be better than this when they face England at Wembley on Tuesday, an outcome that for most of a chaotic night seemed beyond them, and if they are not then those Euro 96 ghosts will probably be banished at last. They were six minutes from finishing bottom of Group F and this result was an affront to a dogged, clever Hungary side who came close to completing a shock for the ages.It would have been Hungary rolling back the years, albeit a few decades further, in London if the substitute Leon Goretzka had not hammered low past Peter Gulacsi from 16 yards to equalise and break their hearts. Continue reading...

The Queen has held her first in-person weekly audience with the prime minister in 15 months, and informed him she had been speaking to 'your secretary of state for health, poor man'. Her sympathetic comment could be a reaction to the weight of responsibility resting on Hancock because of the Covid-19 pandemic, or could reflect the criticism he has received from the former No 10 aide Dominic Cummings

Police officer shot the former footballer with a stun gun for 33 seconds and kicked him in the headOn his final day alive, Dalian Atkinson felt trapped. Draining physical challenges, from hypertension and kidney disease, had left him weakened and his mental health was crumbling, the jury heard.He had once thrilled tens of thousands of people in football stadiums in England, Turkey and Spain. Now he was causing concern to two of those closest to him: his partner, Karen Wright, and Jonty, the friend whose house he was staying in. Continue reading...

MoD and Moscow disagree over whether shots were fired at destroyer near disputed territoryBritain was unexpectedly embroiled in a diplomatic and military dispute with Russia on Wednesday after Royal Navy destroyer HMS Defender briefly sailed through territorial waters off the coast of the disputed territory of Crimea.The warship sailed for about an hour in the morning within the 12-mile limit off Cape Fiolent on a direct route between the Ukrainian port of Odesa and Georgia, prompting Russian complaints and a disagreement about whether warning shots were fired. Continue reading...

Documents showed no more than 12 disabled people lived in the tower but it was in fact home to 37 and 15 died in the fireThe chief executive of the landlord of Grenfell Tower has blamed his staff for allowing the block’s fire safety plan to become 15 years out of date so it failed to account for more than two dozen of the disabled people in the block.Robert Black, the most senior executive at the Kensington and Chelsea Tenants Management Organisation (TMO), told the public inquiry into the disaster that the obsolete plan showing no more than 12 vulnerable or disabled people was caused by staff not carrying out managers’ instructions. The tower was in fact home to 37 disabled people and 15 of them died. The inquiry has heard claims from lawyers for the bereaved that the fire was a “landmark act of discrimination against disabled and vulnerable people”. Continue reading...

Lawyers say Valérie Bacot, on trial for murder, is victim of authorities’ gross negligenceLawyers representing a woman who killed her stepfather turned husband after 24 years of violence that started when he raped her at 12 are taking legal action against the French state for “gross negligence” after claims the authorities failed to act on reports she was being abused.Valérie Bacot’s defence team said a summons for liability had been filed with the Paris tribunal. Her lawyers point out that her children twice went to the police to report their father – who was Bacot’s stepfather – for abusing her but no action was taken. Continue reading...

• Three protesters injured and three police hit by arrows• Congress mulls diluting protection for indigenous territoriesRiot police have fired teargas and rubber bullets at indigenous activists protesting outside Brazil’s congress against new legislation that would undermine legal protections for indigenous territories, and open them up to commercial agriculture and mining.Thick clouds of teargas enveloped the demonstrators, including children and the elderly, as police attempted to clear the camp in Brasília on Tuesday where they have been protesting for the past two weeks. Continue reading...

Conference in Berlin also calls for phased withdrawal of all foreign forces from the countryForeign powers and Libya’s new interim government of national unity have called for nationwide elections on 24 December and the phased withdrawal of all foreign forces, starting with some mercenaries in a matter of days.There are thought to be as many as 20,000 foreign fighters in the country on both sides of its civil war, including Syrians under Turkish control, Turkish government forces, Russians in the Wagner Group and Sudanese forces. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Wesley College offered parents discounts of 20%, waived other costs and made a $5m transfer to its scholarship fund last yearAn elite Melbourne private school offered parents fee discounts of 20% last year after it received nearly $20m in jobkeeper subsidies.Wesley College in Melbourne, which charges some of the highest private school fees in Victoria, gave its parents fee rebates, waived other costs and made a $5m transfer to its scholarship fund after it received $18.2m in jobkeeper last year. Continue reading...

French car designer who helped create three of Citroën’s most popular vehiclesFrom the 1930s to the 1970s, Citroën cars featured distinctive designs that always seemed typically French, usually quirky, often innovative, sometimes ugly, but at their best very elegant. One of their creators was Robert Opron, who has died aged 89 from Covid-19 complications.Opron was Citroën’s chief designer from 1964 to 1974. During that time he and his team were responsible for three landmark cars: the SM coupé and the GS small family car, both introduced in 1970, and the larger CX saloon of 1974. All three demonstrated a preoccupation with good aerodynamics. The GS and the CX were, respectively, chosen as the European Car of the Year in 1971 and 1975. Continue reading...

Council of Europe and human rights groups demand answers after footage shows man being pinned to the groundHuman rights organisations are leading calls for an urgent investigation into the death of a Czech man who died after being restrained by police, after footage of the incident went viral on social media.The neck restraint technique used during the arrest of a Romany man was “reckless, unnecessary and disproportionate, and therefore unlawful”, according to Amnesty International, who also called on the local authorities for an immediate, impartial investigation and a ban on coercive techniques that severely restrict breathing. Continue reading...

Critics say EU is building ‘fortress Europe’ that rides roughshod over rights of asylum seekersA proposal for the EU to fund controls at Turkey’s eastern border is “really problematic” and could lead to refugees being forced back into Syria, Iran and Iraq, critics have warned.According to a leaked plan seen by the Guardian, the European Commission wants to fund “border control” at Turkey’s eastern frontier as part of efforts to deter refugees and migrants from coming to Europe. Continue reading...

WHO reports issues with quality control data and test results as Slovakia announces it is offloading 160k doses

German leader’s comments come as disease control agency says Delta variant will account for 90% of EU cases by end of August

Rebecca Price terminated pregnancy after being mistakenly told foetus had fatal abnormalityA couple in Ireland are to be awarded damages for being mistakenly told their unborn baby had a fatal foetal abnormality, which led them to terminate the pregnancy.The high court in Dublin will consider the damages to be paid to Rebecca Price and Patrick Kiely on Wednesday after medical personnel and institutions involved in the case admitted liability. Continue reading...

Tabloid founded by Jimmy Lai and targeted by police raid last week will print final edition on Thursday

Hungarian PM pulls out of attending match in Germany as Uefa criticised over ban on stadium illuminationThe Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has cancelled a trip to Munich for the Euro 2020 football match between Hungary and Germany in response to widespread criticism of his government over anti-LGBTQ+ legislation it passed last week.Orbán made his announcement hours after the European football governing body, Uefa, turned down a request from Munich city council to illuminate the Allianz Arena in rainbow colours in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, in particular in Hungary. Continue reading...

Analysis: A palpable chill has run through the Hong Kong media, amid warnings about ‘fake news’The fate of Apple Daily, one of Hong Kong’s bestselling tabloids, should not come as a surprise. On the day Jimmy Lai, its founder, was sentenced to 14 months in prison in April, a commentary in the pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao called for a ban on Apple Daily in order to “close national security loopholes”.The 72-year-old media tycoon and his 26-year-old newspaper have been among the most high-profile critics of Beijing and the controversial national security law (NSL), which they deem “draconian”, but which the authorities say is “necessary”. The law bars secession, subversion and foreign collusion. Continue reading...

Rijksmuseum reproduces Dutch master’s work in all its glory, 300 years after it was cut to fit between doorsThe Night Watch by Rembrandt has enraptured millions visiting Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum and its previous homes over the centuries, dazzling with its scale and fine detail.But it is only from today, thanks to the use of artificial intelligence to recapture some of the Dutch master’s genius, including the sweep of his brush strokes and perspective of his eye, that it can for the first time in 300 years be enjoyed in its complete form. Continue reading...

ECDC says too many vulnerable people not yet fully vaccinated, with Delta on course to make up 90% of cases

Recent French regional elections suggest next year’s contest won’t simply be Macron versus the far rightOn Sunday, France held the first round of this year’s regional elections – and two-thirds of eligible voters chose to stay home. As the country slowly emerges from lockdown, politics is clearly not a priority for most people. While it may be a fool’s errand to try to interpret the voice of the people when the vast majority preferred to remain silent, Sunday’s voting has changed the conversation about what lies ahead.Voters were asked to choose the representatives who will govern France’s 18 regions (13 domestic and five overseas). In their current form, the regions are only five years old, the product of the most recent of many efforts to add a modicum of decentralisation to France’s traditionally top-down administrative setup. Continue reading...

Los Angeles police were called to San Fernando Valley residence where a woman alleges the R&B star hit herR&B singer Chris Brown is being investigated for the alleged battery of a woman in Los Angeles.A police spokesperson told NBC News that Brown is accused of hitting the unnamed woman during an argument. Officers had been called to a residence in the city’s San Fernando Valley area on Friday 18 June. Continue reading...

Details of incident near Tehran remain scarce as media reports say there were no casualties or damageAuthorities in Iran claim to have thwarted a “sabotage attack” targeting a civilian nuclear facility near the country’s capital, Iranian media have reported, as details about the incident remained scarce.A website believed to be close to Iran’s supreme national security council, Nournews, said the move was foiled “before causing any casualties or damage” to the sprawling centre located in Karaj city, 25 miles west of Tehran. Continue reading...

Planning a trip across state borders during the school holidays or a weekend away? Before you leave home, check our state-by-state guide to coronavirus travel restrictions to see if you can travel into our out of Sydney city suburbs, from NSW to Qld, between Victoria and South Australia or to NZ.

The Creed and Black Panther actor has agreed to scrap the brand name J’Ouvert after criticism from Nicki Minaj and the government of Trinidad and TobagoMichael B Jordan has issued an apology, in the fallout from his announcement over the weekend that he was launching a line of rums called J’Ouvert.The term signals the start of carnival in the Caribbean and is a cornerstone of tradition in Trinidad and Tobago; Jordan’s use of the word was felt by many to be cultural appropriation. Continue reading...

More than 200 UK acts including the Chemical Brothers, Kano and Wolf Alice back Let the Music Move initiative, calling for financial help and cutting red tape for EU toursBritish music acts including Radiohead, the Chemical Brothers, Biffy Clyro and Annie Lennox are calling on the UK government to offer financial support to help artists tour the EU post-Brexit.The terms of the Brexit agreement mean that performing artists of all kinds must now have work permits to earn money from gigs in EU countries, and have a “carnet” that allows the transport of goods such as musical instruments across borders. Continue reading...

Defamation trial hears allegations Victoria Cross recipient confessed to wife he was behind anonymous threats – a claim he denies.Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith has been accused in court, by newspapers defending a defamation claim, of writing an anonymous threat letter to another SAS soldier, warning him he would “go down” for murder if he did not recant his evidence to a military inquiry into war crimes allegations. Continue reading...

Icai review cites lack of access to officials and papers to assess aid budget since Foreign Office-DfID mergerUK aid cuts have been imposed with inadequate transparency, according to an independent watchdog, which said it was becoming increasingly difficult to interact with the government.The Independent Commission for Aid Impact (Icai), a public body that reports to parliament, said the lack of cooperation, partly due to the disruption of aid cuts, has meant it was unable even to assess whether recommendations it had previously made had been followed. Continue reading...

Judicial review hears Grant Shapps did not properly consider damage to ancient sites and artefactsThe transport secretary’s decision to allow a road tunnel to be built near Stonehenge was unlawful because it did not properly consider damage that would be done to a string of prehistoric sites and many thousands of ancient artefacts, the high court has been told.Campaigners including archaeologists, environmental groups and the druids who regard the great Wiltshire stone circle as a sacred site have launched a judicial review calling for the decision by Grant Shapps to allow the £1.7bn road scheme, including the two-mile tunnel, to be quashed. Continue reading...

Successful legal bid to trademark Love is in the Air and Girl with Balloon comes after a similar move in Europe failedThe street artist Banksy has successfully trademarked two of his most famous artworks in Australia, in an attempt to stop them being copied and sold.The secretive artist applied for the trademarks via a law firm based in Perth, and although the tactic ultimately failed in Europe, the Australian applications were successful and will be registered next week. Continue reading...

NSW urgently investigating four mystery cases overnight as premier Gladys Berejiklian announces Sydney restrictions. Follow all the latest updates, live

Human rights groups call for bar on junior entry, which accounts for quarter of intake to armyMinisters have been urged to stop the practice of recruiting children to Britain’s military by a coalition of 20 human rights organisation as MPs debate the armed forces bill.The pressure to end the practice also comes as figures showed that girls aged under 18 in the armed forces made at least 16 formal complaints of sexual assault to military police in the last six years – equivalent to one for every 75 girls in the military. Continue reading...

The singer will today make a bid to take back control of her life. After a glut of speculative documentaries and conspiracy theories, her own voice can finally be heardBritney Spears never used to be an enigma. In the early years of her career, she did interviews for print, TV and radio. She held press conferences and endured day-long junkets. She shot behind the scenes videos, documentaries, TV specials. Britney was candid and trusting. “I’m from the south,” she told the Observer in 2001, “so I’m a very open person and I’ve had to teach myself not to open up to too many people.”These days however, if Britney interviews are granted, they are conducted under such strict terms that few publications have bothered. Even the radio and TV appearances when she has a record to sell are strictly surface level. Her music gives few clues to her state of mind. Her last four albums offer up sexy party tunes that don’t reflect the artist’s lived reality: now 39, by her own account she doesn’t drink, keeps a small circle of friends, only went out clubbing twice in the four years she spent in residence in Las Vegas, and prior to meeting current boyfriend Sam Asghari in 2016, was “over” dating. Continue reading...

Games officials faced accusations the event was getting preferential treatment while other Tokyo businesses still faced alcohol restrictions

On the 5th anniversary of Brexit, commentators reflect on the EU’s success at rallying together after Britain’s exitOn the night of 23 June 2016 a storm broke out over Brussels. Rain poured, thunder rolled and lightning flashed over the headquarters of the European Union’s institutions.Then in the small hours came a political thunderbolt almost no one had forecast: the UK had voted to leave the union. Five years on, the Brexit tempest has subsided – in Brussels, if not in London. Continue reading...

Posts ranging from wanted posters to death threats remain online for months, breaching platform’s own standardsFacebook is promoting content that incites violence against Myanmar’s anti-coup protesters and amplifies junta misinformation, despite promising to clamp down on the misuse of its platform, according to a study.An investigation by the rights group Global Witness found that Facebook’s recommendation algorithm continues to invite users to view content that breaches its own policies. After liking a Myanmar military fan page, which did not contain recent posts violating Facebook’s policies, the rights group found that Facebook suggested several pro-military pages that contained abusive content. Continue reading...

Thierry Breton, who is also single market commissioner, believes downsides of leaving bloc are exposed by pandemicBrexit has proved an “aberration that has weakened and isolated the UK”, the EU’s single market commissioner, Thierry Breton, has said, with any concrete benefits for Britain “hard to see” and multiple downsides cruelly exposed by the pandemic.Breton, a former French finance minister in charge of the bloc’s Covid vaccination programme, now outpacing Britain’s, said that five years after the referendum, Brexit’s promised outcomes were “far from reality”. Continue reading...