The brutal ambush in the Himalayas is the latest aggressive move from Beijing by a nation battling crises on several frontsThe ambush set up by Chinese soldiers for an Indian patrol was medieval. In the high-altitude Himalayan no man’s land claimed by both countries, their forces have agreed not to carry guns, to diminish the chance of the long-running territorial dispute flaring into open war.So the People’s Liberation Army had dammed up mountain streams, which they unblocked as the Indian troops approached. The rush of water knocked many off their feet, and then the Chinese soldiers swept down, brandishing sticks encrusted with nails, Indian media reported. Continue reading...

Police arrest one man at scene and are not looking for anyone else over attack that they are not currently treating as a terrorism incidentThree people have died and another three have been seriously injured after a stabbing attack on Saturday night in Reading, police have confirmed.A 25-year-old man from Reading, about 40 miles west of London, was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and is in custody, Thames Valley police said. They are not looking for anyone else in connection with the incident. Continue reading...

Omar Abdulaziz, who was close to murdered journalist Jamal Khashoggi, told of threat posed by Saudi ArabiaA prominent Saudi dissident who is living in exile in Canada said he was recently warned by Canadian authorities that he was a “potential target” of Saudi Arabia and that he needed to take precautions to protect himself.Omar Abdulaziz, a 29-year-old activist who had a close association with Jamal Khashoggi, the murdered Washington Post journalist, told the Guardian that he believed he was facing a threat to his safety and that the Canadians had credible information about a possible plan to harm him. Continue reading...

Pressure group claims disproportionate number of black people held for longer periods to ‘reduce black and brown migration to UK’Black people are detained significantly longer than white people inside the UK’s immigration detention system, prompting fresh claims of “institutional racism”.Although the Home Office does not record ethnicity data for detainees, analysis of nationalities of those recently held within the immigration detention estate found that citizens from countries with predominantly black and brown populations are held for substantially longer periods than those from predominantly white countries. Continue reading...

British firms fulfilling fighter jet contracts which enable kingdom to wage war in Yemen, despite the trade being ruled unlawfulThe government stands accused of ignoring a landmark court ruling restricting UK arms sales to Saudi Arabia.In a judgment handed down a year ago, the court of appeal ruled it was “unlawful” for the government to have allowed the sale of arms to the kingdom for use in Yemen, where independent estimates suggest a Saudi-led coalition has been responsible for the deaths of more than 8,000 civilians since 2015. Continue reading...

Backbenchers and party activists are unimpressed by U-turns and dithering as public support continues to fallMinisters are expecting a wide-ranging government reshuffle in September in which Boris Johnson will sack key figures who are judged to have underperformed in the Covid-19 crisis.Cabinet sources said the move was now seen as inevitable. They believe sweeping changes will be made in an attempt to defuse mounting discontent on the Tory backbenches following a stream of U-turns and a fall in the party’s poll ratings. Continue reading...

Campaigners want affordable kits for all but health experts doubt efficacy of a mass exerciseA new divide is opening up between the “haves” and the “have nots” – this time over Covid-19 testing. While private schools and big businesses have introduced testing for their pupils and employees, allowing them to return to school and work, state schools and small businesses will be left to rely on the state. Campaigners warn that “testing inequality” could fuel greater financial inequality.Financial giants, such as Credit Suisse, have introduced antibody testing for their employees, while the Premier League restarted its season last week, thanks to rapid antigen testing of players and backroom staff. Ocado bought 100,000 testing kits for its staff when lockdown began and some private schools intend to use testing as part of their plan to get all children back into classrooms at the start of the next academic year. Continue reading...

A 36-year-old man has died after being shot in Manchester’s Moss Side area, police sayA 36-year-old man has died after being shot in Manchester, police said.A second victim, aged 21, is in a life-threatening condition after the incident, which is believed to have taken place in the Moss Side area of the city. Continue reading...

Nirvana frontman’s 1959 Martin D-18E sold to Australian who will put it on tour, with proceeds going to help struggling artistsThe guitar used by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain during the band’s famous MTV Unplugged in New York concert has sold for more than $6m (£4.8m) at auction.The 1959 Martin D-18E featured in the grunge group’s performance in November 1993, five months before Cobain’s death aged 27. Continue reading...

Testing a ‘double-edged sword’, says Trump; Chile death toll nearly doubles; Australian state ‘absolutely at risk’ of second peak

Bodies of French bulldogs were among about 500 dogs discovered on flight from Ukraine at Toronto airportCanada has launched an investigation after some 500 puppies – 38 of them dead – were found on board a Ukraine International Airlines plane at the Toronto airport, officials said Saturday.The surviving French bulldogs, a popular breed in Canada, were suffering from symptoms including dehydration, weakness and vomiting when they were found on the flight from Ukraine that landed at Toronto Pearson airport on 13 June, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency said in a statement. Continue reading...

Every summer, the Presena glacier in northern Italy is protected from the sun with huge reflective tarpsA vast tarpaulin unravels, gathering speed as it bounces down the glacier over glinting snow. Summer is here and the alpine ice is being protected from global warming.In northern Italy, the Presena glacier has lost more than one third of its volume since 1993. Continue reading...

The defence department confirms 145 personnel continue to assist Queensland police with border controls

Scientists say current methods of estimating lion numbers could be drastically wrong, with serious consequences for the big catsFrom widescreen high-definition wildlife documentaries to food brands, royal crests, sporting teams and Disney movies, the lion is one of the most appropriated and revered animals on the planet.But this reverence sits in contrast to the falling numbers of the living, breathing muscular cats in Africa. Continue reading...

Geoffrey Berman says he will continue to investigate duke’s relationship with sex offender despite pressure to resignThe senior US prosecutor investigating links between Prince Andrew and Jeffrey Epstein has vowed to carry on with his enquiries despite a dramatic attempt by the Trump administration to force him to resign.In a late-night announcement on Friday, US attorney general William Barr declared Geoffrey Berman was stepping down, a development seen by critics as designed to benefit Trump politically and challenge the independence of the Justice Department. Continue reading...

Partial draft of legislation shows Beijing intends to set up national security agency in cityBeijing has released details of a controversial anti-sedition law under which China will set up a national security agency in Hong Kong and maintain jurisdiction in “certain circumstances”.A partial draft of the legislation widely seen as a blow to the city’s autonomy was released on Saturday, paving the way for the central government to ram the law through despite opposition within Hong Kong and international condemnation. Continue reading...

The PM is expected to announce travel agreements with a small number of countries within days

Gelsenkirchen bucks global trends with new monument as other cities confront relics of colonial pastWhile a global row rages over the controversial pasts of historical figures immortalised as statues, on Saturday a divisive new monument to the former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin will be unveiled in Germany.More than 30 years after the communist experiment on German soil that followed the second world war ended, the tiny Marxist-Leninist party of Germany (MLPD) will install Lenin’s likeness in the western city of Gelsenkirchen. Continue reading...

As counties end the second week of Governor Ron DeSantis’ ‘safe, smart, step-by-step’ policy, the state marks a record high in daily casesIt has been seven weeks since Florida’s governor Ron DeSantis took a coronavirus “victory lap”, pressing ahead with a swift reopening program while berating the media for a “doom and gloom” approach he said bore little relation to reality.“We haven’t seen an explosion of new cases,” DeSantis insisted during a 29 April news conference, a day on which the state’s Covid-19 tally increased by 347. Continue reading...

A vampire in Shanghai, artists on Hydra, and identical twins run away to New Orleans... dazzling novels plus the best politics, history,and memoir to take you away from lockdown

My contribution to The Good Immigrant prompted a stream of apology emails: forgive me, ethnic friend, for I have sinnedFour years ago, I wrote an essay that appeared in a collection called The Good Immigrant. The story, based on an episode from my life, opens with a South Asian girl waking up in the bed of a (white) stranger after a one-night stand in the dark. Dawn is breaking, and as the light fills the room she notices something: he has flags. Union jack flags hanging all around the room. I won’t spoil the story, but if you’re beginning to panic, don’t. No hate crime occurs (well, not there anyway), and the piece is a comedy.My reason for writing it was relatively simple. At the time, Britain was in the midst of a campaign to leave the EU. For us – the writers, the children of immigrants – it was urgent to counter the xenophobic rhetoric that reduced people who love, hurt, bleed and dream to £-signs. Continue reading...

How far can you drive and what are the travel restrictions in NSW, Queensland and Victoria? How many people can you have over at your house in Tasmania, ACT, SA, WA or NT? Untangle Australia’s Covid-19 laws and guidelines with our guide

Piers Corbyn, 73, faces two charges after attending protests in central London last monthPiers Corbyn, the brother of the former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn, has been charged with two counts of breaching coronavirus regulations after attending protests in central London, the Metropolitan police said.Corbyn, 73, of Southwark, south London, was pictured at a protest over 5G in Hyde Park on 16 May, and he has also been charged in relation to a protest on 30 May. Continue reading...

New London case follows police referral to IOPC for another arrest where man pepper-sprayed while in cuffsThe Metropolitan police force is under pressure to refer itself to the Independent Office for Police Conduct after footage emerged of a black man being kneed in the face while handcuffed during a stop and search by two officers in Hackney, east London.It comes after the Met referred itself to the police watchdog for a separate incident, where another black man was pepper-sprayed in nearby Greenwich at close range while in cuffs on the ground during lockdown, footage also released to the Guardian showed. Continue reading...

Ros, 29, PA, meets Emily, 31, junior doctorWhat were you hoping for?

Regime creating piles of propaganda in retaliation for similar campaign from South amid worsening relationsNorth Korea is gearing up to send propaganda leaflets over its southern border, denouncing North Korean defectors and South Korea, its state media said on Saturday, the latest retaliation for leaflets from the South as bilateral tensions rise.The North’s Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported: “The enraged people across the country are actively pushing forward with the preparations for launching a large-scale distribution of leaflets to pour the leaflets of punishment upon those in South Korea who are bereft of even elementary morality.” Continue reading...

Australian Strategic Policy Institute stands by claim the attacks were ‘95% or more’ likely to have been launched from ChinaThe US secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, has said he raised China’s “coercion” of Australia during a frank, six-hour meeting with China’s top diplomat in Hawaii.It comes as experts say some of the same computer code and tactics used in cyber-attacks revealed by the Australia prime minister, Scott Morrison, on Friday were also used in a February 2019 hack into Parliament House, which was also blamed on China. Continue reading...

Dr Max Abbott was accused of harassing a more junior Australian-based colleague over a number of years, mostly by textA New Zealand academic at the centre of a trans-Tasman dispute between the Australian National University and Auckland University of Technology over an alleged case of sexual harassment has resigned.Dr Max Abbott, a senior New Zealand academic, was accused of harassing a more junior Australian-based colleague over a number of years, mostly by text. Continue reading...

A spokesperson blamed the Australian Strategic Policy Institute thinktank for fabricating the claim. This blog is now closed

New Zealand’s new opposition leader has a stiff task against the wildly popular incumbent, but the conservative senses an opening thanks to the Covid crisisThe man who will challenge Jacinda Ardern in the hope of becoming New Zealand’s next prime minister introduced himself to the country in front of a loyal, local crowd in his old rugby clubrooms. There were scones with butter, rugby trophies proudly on display, and on the wall, someone from the club had put up a tino rangatiratanga – or Indigenous Māori sovereignty – flag (it turned out to be upside down, something the rugby club say they were responsible for).

Traditional practice of tabu – marking a portion of fishing ground off limits – is helping preserve Fiji’s reefs for future generationsMosese Vesikara and his uncle, Kinikoto Mailautoka, are on the reef collecting sea urchins for lunch. Beneath the shifting skiff, the swelling water is clear despite Fiji’s bustling capital Suva sprawling along the next point, an easily walkable distance.When out collecting Vesikara and the other fishers carefully skirt the tabu – pronounced TAM-bo – a no-fishing zone demarcated by barnacled pillars embedded into the reef floor. Continue reading...

Ovidio Guzmán was briefly captured in October only to be let go hours later as security was overwhelmed by cartel forces

Ramzan Kadyrov defends compatriots in France after an attack on Chechen teenager sparked unrestRamzan Kadyrov, the autocratic leader of Chechnya, has expressed support for compatriots involved in clashes in the French city of Dijon this month, saying they were protecting one of their own because police failed to act.Kadyrov’s message came as French police carried out raids and made a number of arrests of Chechens after several nights of violence blamed on members of the Chechen community from last Friday to Monday, when the city was rocked by clashes and car burnings. Continue reading...

This week Katharine Murphy talks with the Australian trade, tourism and investment minister, Simon Birmingham. They discuss the challenges of economic recovery after the bushfires and coronavirus, and address the escalating trade actions from China. Will Birmingham appease an angered Beijing and reverse China’s tariffs? Or will the relationship see a continued decline in civility? Continue reading...

Fredson de Silva, mayor of Pau d’Arco, issued decree locking down only indigenous peopleLocal authorities in the Brazilian Amazon have been accused of racism after locking down a string of indigenous villages and banning indigenous people from entering a local town because of a coronavirus outbreak.Federal prosecutors on Friday called for the mayor of Pau D’Arco in the Amazon state of Pará – population 6,000 – to revoke the decree, which he said had been issued to protect public health. Continue reading...

Gaps in the country’s coronavirus defences have taken the shine off its triumphant story

The education secretary has pledged that all children in all year groups in England will return to school in September. He said he understood parents' anxiety about the move, but that safety measures including protective bubbles would be in place to limit the risk of transmitting Covid-19

Businesswoman is seeking £1.5bn from bank in high court action over £2bn Qatari loanA businesswoman embroiled in a £1.5bn high court battle with Barclays broke down in tears after bank bosses accused her of engaging in a “hustle”.Amanda Staveley has made complaints about bank bosses’ behaviour when negotiating investment deals during the 2008 financial crisis. Continue reading...

Although modelled on the storytelling of Dickens and Tolstoy, his enormously popular novels were sharply attuned to our times

Delhi says Chinese dammed a river and lay in wait for clash in which 20 Indians diedIndia has accused Chinese troops of meticulously preparing an attack on its soldiers on the treacherous Himalayan border, claiming they erected a tent on the Indian side, dammed a river, brought in machinery and then lay in wait with stones and batons wrapped in barbed wire.The incident on Monday night, in which 20 Indian soldiers died and 76 were injured, was the worst violence between India and China for 45 years. China has not said whether it sustained any casualties. Continue reading...

Last of the Kennedy siblings who, as US ambassador to Ireland, made notable contributions to the peace processAlthough her mother once described her as “being born so late she was only able to enjoy the tragedies and not the triumphs” of being a Kennedy, as the last survivor of the nine children of Joseph P Kennedy and Rose Fitzgerald, Jean Kennedy Smith enjoyed more than her share of both.Considered the shyest of the Kennedy siblings, Jean kept a low public profile but despite maintaining her privacy became an admirable public servant, promoting the arts and care for disabled children, as well as serving as US ambassador to Ireland during the toughest days of the Northern Ireland peace process, and playing a controversial role in part of its success. Continue reading...

Charging of ex-diplomat and businessman seen as retaliation for arrest of Huawei chiefChinese prosecutors have charged two detained Canadians with espionage, escalating a diplomatic row that has pitted China and the tech company Huawei on one side and Canada and the US on the other.The charges come more than 18 months after Michael Kovrig, a former diplomat, and Michael Spavor, a businessman, were detained in late 2018, days after Canadian authorities arrested Huawei’s chief financial officer, Meng Wanzhou, in Vancouver on a US warrant. Continue reading...

Official toll passed a thousand on 22 consecutive days – far more than daily briefings said

Leaders clash over coronavirus recovery funds, with Germany pushing for swift resolution

The prime minister has said anti-racism activists should focus less on symbols and statues in the wake of Black Lives Matter protests across the UK. Johnson said he wanted to focus on ‘the substance of the issue’ and on stories of success in black and other minority groups in the country

Alexander Lukashenko says ‘masks have been ripped off puppets and puppet-masters’Belarus’ autocratic leader, Alexander Lukashenko, has claimed to have thwarted a revolution backed by “foreign puppet-masters” after harassing and arresting his opponents ahead of the country’s presidential elections in August.“We have managed to take steps to anticipate and thwart a major plan to destabilise Belarus (this is not a joke or a scare tactic) and bring a new Maidan [revolution] to the country,” said Lukashenko, referring to the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, in remarks carried by the Belta state news agency. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Pierrette Herzberger-Fofana, Germany’s first MEP of African origin, talks of her ‘traumatising’ encounter with police and her struggle against discrimination in the EUPierrette Herzberger-Fofana, Germany’s first member of the European parliament of African origin, came to Brussels to make a difference in tackling all forms of discrimination.She did not expect to be telling her fellow MEPs she had been the victim of discrimination at the hands of the Belgian police. Continue reading...

TV viewers watched as Édouard Philippe’s white patch grew, along with his popularity

Educational campaigner tweets about completing PPE degreeThe Nobel prize-winning campaigner Malala Yousafzai has expressed her “joy and gratitude” after completing her degree at University of Oxford.The 22-year-old shared two pictures of herself covered in confetti on Twitter with the caption: “Hard to express my joy and gratitude right now as I completed my Philosophy, Politics and Economics degree at Oxford. Continue reading...

Asked multiple times during Friday's press conference, Australia's prime minister Scott Morrison declined to name, at this stage, which country was believed to be responsible.“What I can confirm is there are not a large number of state-based actors that can engage in this type of activity and it is clear, based on the advice that we have received, that this has been done by a state-based actor, with very significant capabilities.”