World news | The Guardian

Danish agency for palaces and culture requests removal of 14-ton sculpture from Dragor Fort in CopenhagenA debate has erupted in Denmark over the fate of a mermaid statue that is to be removed from public view after being decried as ugly and pornographic" and a man's hot dream of what a woman should look like".The Danish agency for palaces and culture is reportedly removing the 4x6 metre Den Store Havfrue (the Big Mermaid) from Dragor Fort, part of Copenhagen's former sea fortifications, because it does not align with the cultural heritage of the 1910 landmark. Continue reading...

Prime minister faces a choice between high tariffs or giving up cheap oil, putting New Delhi's non-alignment policy under severe strainThe relationship between India and the US is facing one of its most significant challenges in decades, as the Trump administration doubles down on its demands that India stop buying Russian oil or face punitive tariffs.The US president, Donald Trump, has refused to cut tariffs on Indian exports to the US, as he has for other countries, and on Monday said he would significantly raise them over its purchases of cheap Russian oil, which now account for one-third of its imported oil. Continue reading...

Witkoff expected to visit Russia as latest deadline set by Donald Trump exires on Friday, requiring Putin to agree to a ceasefire or face sanctionsUS special envoy Steve Witkoff's visit to Moscow is now expected to take place on Wednesday, Tass news agency reported citing sources.The latest deadline, set by US president Donald Trump, requiring Russia to agree to a ceasefire or face sanctions is set to expire on Friday. Continue reading...

Shipwreck in Gulf of Aden leaves only 32 survivors so far, with the rest missing and presumed dead, says UN agencyA boat has capsized off Yemen's coast leaving 76 people dead and 74 others missing, the UN's migration agency said.Yemeni security officials said 76 bodies had been recovered and 32 people rescued from the shipwreck in the Gulf of Aden in what a senior official from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) described as one of the deadliest" shipwrecks off Yemen this year. The UN migration agency said 157 people were onboard. Continue reading...

Mass accommodation site in Kent, marred by controversy since opening, had been due to close in SeptemberNapier barracks, one of the first mass accommodation sites opened to house asylum seekers, will not be closing as planned in the coming weeks, as the government attempts to deal with an influx of small boats arrivals.Officials informed parliament in a Home Office document uploaded to parliament's cross-party home affairs committee in March 2025 that the Home Office intend to occupy and deliver services at Napier until September 2025, at which point the site will be handed back to the Ministry of Defence". Continue reading...

Karin Keller-Sutter accused of mishandling talks as shares dive after Switzerland hit with 39% tariff

Ruth Szymankiewicz should have been under constant watch at Huntercombe hospitalA 14-year-old girl who was supposed to be constantly observed in a psychiatric hospital died after an agency support worker with a false identity left her alone, an inquest jury has heard.When he heard that Ruth Szymankiewicz, who was suffering from an eating disorder, had died, the worker fled from the UK to Ghana, the court was told.In the UK, Beat can be contacted on 0808-801-0677. In the US, help is available at nationaleatingdisorders.org or by calling ANAD's eating disorders hotline at 800-375-7767. In Australia, the Butterfly Foundation is at 1800 33 4673. Other international helplines can be found at Eating Disorder Hope Continue reading...

Alan Garber told faculty a settlement with the White House is not imminent, according to Harvard's student newspaperThe Harvard University president, Alan Garber, has told faculty a deal between the Ivy League institution and the Trump administration is not imminent - and denied reports that the university is considering a $500m settlement with the White House, Harvard's student newspaper the Crimson reported.The Crimson attributed that information to three unnamed faculty members in a report published early on Monday. Continue reading...

Local rescue service chief says two helicopters had to be used after man, 60, ventured on to path closed due to riskA British hiker has been charged more than 14,000 (12,000) by the Italian mountain rescue service after ignoring danger warnings in the Dolomites.The man, aged 60, had to be rescued after venturing to the Ferrata Berti, a rocky mountain path at an altitude of 2,500 metres (8,200ft) in the San Vito di Cadore area of the northern Italian peaks where dozens of paths were closed last week because of the high risk of landslides. Continue reading...

Rodent said to be 22in (56cm) long from nose to tail found in Normanby, where rat problem is said to be worseningCuts to council pest control services are being blamed for a town's rodent problem, which includes the discovery of a supersize rat said to be 22in (56cm) from nose to tail.The giant rat, about the length of the carry-on luggage people might be wheeling on to a flight - or, if not on holiday, a desktop monitor - was found inside a person's home in Normanby, Teesside. Continue reading...

Pit bull faced traffic and led a stranger to a secluded' tent encampment where a man and woman were unconsciousA dog reportedly braved heavy traffic to catch a stranger's attention and get life-saving emergency help to the animal's two owners after they became unresponsive in a tent encampment in Pittsburgh recently, earning the canine feting as a hero.As local resident Gary Thynes put it both in a social media post and an interview with the Pittsburgh television station WTAE, he was playing with his dog at a park on the evening of 29 July when a pit bull approached barking and evidently trying to get someone's attention. Continue reading...

Flights delayed after technical fault with a single metal detector' but airport says there is no safety or security threat

This blog is now closed

Lawyers for founder of Giggle for Girls app says special measure' under Sex Discrimination Act allows for women-only safe space'

The prime minister is seeking a phone call with Benjamin Netanyahu this week, after a pro-Palestine protest marched across Sydney Harbour Bridge

Low-lying residents in the northern tablelands and Hunter warned to prepare for floods with alerts also issued along the Namoi River

Damning review exposes ongoing issues at Forensic Services Queensland, including failure to properly test sample from violent unresolved crime

Video from local tip and police search of Patterson's Leongatha home made public by Victorian supreme court

Exclusive: School leaders say plans lack precision and do not account for new Send education requirementsProposals for overhauled school inspections have been criticised as cosmetic, vague and potentially out of date by school leaders and Department for Education (DfE) officials, just days before approval by Ofsted's management.Ofsted, the schools inspectorate, has made changes to its new school inspection toolkit - how it will carry out inspections - after earlier criticisms. It plans on renaming grades and shrinking the number of evaluations areas from nine to seven, in the latest draft seen by the Guardian, but appears unlikely to win over sceptical teachers in England. Continue reading...

South Australian premier says more than 15 national and international parties have passed final EOI phase

Organiser claims riot gear and bridge blockade part of display of force' against civilians as Victorian premier backs police response

Group surprised' when their song was used to disrupt an interview with Alice Weidel - but now they face a backlashIt was while Alice Weidel was being interviewed on the terrace of a parliament building overlooking the River Spree in Berlin that members of the Corner Chor's mobile phones began to ping with alerts as their song in protest at her far-right party, Schei AfD Jodler (Shit AfD Yodellers), blasted out from a 100,000-watt sound system on the other bank.We were hugely surprised and truly happy to hear at that moment that our song was receiving such a public airing," one choir member told the Guardian. Continue reading...

Overture from new president Lee Jae Myung is latest effort to revive dialogue with Pyongyang that stalled under his predecessorSouth Korean authorities have begun removing loudspeakers that blare propaganda broadcasts along its border with the North, Seoul's defence ministry said on Monday, as the new government of President Lee Jae Myung seeks to ease tensions with Pyongyang.South Korea's dismantling of the loudspeakers was a practical measure that can help ease inter-Korean tensions without affecting the military's readiness posture," the ministry said in a statement. Continue reading...

A man on a black e-scooter has tagged offensive phrases' on the Melbourne Hebrew Congregation five times between March and July, police say

Home Office's announcement follows growing number of protests outside asylum seeker hotelsMinisters will spend an extra 100m on measures to deter Channel crossings, including on the planned one in, one out" returns agreement with France, the Home Office has said.In a third immigration policy pledge within 24 hours, the home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said the money would pay for up to 300 more National Crime Agency officers, as well as new technology and equipment to step up intelligence-gathering on people-smuggling gangs. Continue reading...

City regulator says motorists should start to get payments in 2026 with most payouts likely to be under 950'

Latest mass capture' in Zamfara state shows banditry crisis shifting from land conflict to organised crimeGunmen have kidnapped more than 50 people in north-west Nigeria in a mass abduction, according to a private conflict monitoring report created for the UN and seen by Agence France-Presse on Sunday.Armed bandits" targeted the village of Sabon Garin Damri in Zamfara state Friday, the report said, the latest attack in a region where residents in rural hinterlands have long suffered gangs who kidnap for ransom, loot villages and demand taxes. Continue reading...

Man understood to have been sitting in London stadium's upper tier was pronounced dead at the sceneOasis have said they are shocked and saddened" after a man fell to his death at Wembley Stadium during the band's Saturday concert.The man was understood to be sitting in the upper tier of the 90,000-seat stadium - the highest stands of which are 50 metres above the ground - as the Gallagher brothers performed as part of their reunion tour. Continue reading...

Itamar Ben-Gvir attended holy site in breach of status quo' arrangements with Muslim authoritiesThe Israeli army has said it entered southern Syria overnight, seized weapons and questioned several suspects it said were involved in weapons trafficking in the area.In a statement, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said the raids followed prior intelligence surveillance and an in-depth field investigation." Continue reading...

Six more people die from malnutrition, while Itamar Ben-Gvir is first minister to publicly pray at sensitive siteAt least 27 people were killed by Israeli forces while trying to get food and six others died from starvation or malnutrition in Gaza on Sunday, Palestinian officials said, amid a regional outcry over an Israeli minister's visit to Jerusalem's most sensitive holy site.Witnesses said Israeli forces fired on hungry crowds who were attempting to get food aid from a distribution site run by the US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) in the south of the territory, with some describing the fire as indiscriminate. Continue reading...

Police say 27-year-old charged with ill treatment and neglect of a child after bus driver spotted a bag movingA New Zealand woman was arrested on Sunday after travelling on a bus with a two-year-old girl trapped in her luggage.DI Simon Harrison said the 27-year-old woman had been charged with ill treatment and neglect of a child. Continue reading...

Video shows black smoke pouring from facility in Sochi, while Russian attack on Mykolaiv wounds seven peopleAn overnight Ukrainian drone attack on an oil depot near the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi ignited a raging fire, as the two countries traded strikes at the end of one of the deadliest weeks in Ukraine in recent months.More than 120 firefighters worked to put out the blaze, said the regional governor, Veniamin Kondratyev, as emergency officials reported a fuel tank with a capacity of 2,000 cubic metres (70,000 cubic feet) had burned before it was extinguished. Continue reading...

Relatives call for aid to be allowed to reach Evyatar David after video is released showing him emaciated and weak

Programme about performer Bonnie Blue condemned for glamorising and normalising' extreme pornographyThe new pornography taskforce will propose legislation this autumn aimed at banning a type of barely legal" content produced by the porn star Bonnie Blue, the Guardian has learned.The proposed action by the independent pornography taskforce, launched last month by the Conservative peer Baroness Gabby Bertin, comes in response to the broadcast of the Channel 4 documentary 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story. The programme followed the performer as she filmed herself having sex with 1,057 clients over the course of 12 hours. Continue reading...

Government to announce taxpayer-funded initiative after three children were brought to UK under private schemeThe UK government will evacuate seriously ill and injured children from Gaza to the UK for NHS treatment under a scheme to be announced within weeks.Ministers will enable children in severe need to receive taxpayer-funded care. Three children were brought to the UK this year through a private scheme by the charity Project Pure Hope. Continue reading...

New archbishop of Wales says faith kept her going through decades-long struggle for acceptance as a woman and lesbian in the Anglican churchThe new archbishop of Wales, the Most Rev Cherry Vann, has told of how she kept her sexuality secret for decades as part of her struggle to be accepted as a female minister in the Anglican communion.Speaking to the Guardian on Thursday, the day after her appointment, Vann, 66, said that without the strong belief that God had called her to the priesthood she would not have survived" her journey through the ranks of the church. Continue reading...

Fewer than 10% of applicants hired, with some dropping out and many not meeting ADF standards

New biography of the Duke of York claims punches were thrown' after heated argument became physicalPrince Harry has denied he gave Prince Andrew a bloody nose" during a fight at a family gathering in 2013.According to an excerpt from a new biography of the disgraced Duke of York, published in the Daily Mail on Saturday, the pair had a heated argument that escalated into a physical altercation. Punches were thrown over something Andrew said behind Harry's back", the author Andrew Lownie claimed. Continue reading...

Union says complex work schedules and paid leave make it almost impossible to know how many took partThe doctors union has rejected NHS figures showing that less than a third of resident doctors joined strike action in England last week and 93% of planned operations and procedures went ahead.NHS England said it maintained care for an estimated 10,000 more patients during the latest doctors' strike compared with last year's, while the health secretary, Wes Streeting, seized on the figures and said it was time to move past the cycle of disruption". Continue reading...

Niece of Agnes Wanjiru says she thinks John Healey is taking us for a ride'The niece of a Kenyan woman who was murdered more than a decade ago, allegedly by British soldiers, has said her family now believe the defence secretary just made a promise for his political gain" when he met them in April.John Healey told the family of Agnes Wanjiru of his determination to see a resolution" in the case of her murder, pledging the UK's full support for the investigation. Continue reading...

Met Office issues amber threat rating in Scotland with severe travel delays expected on MondayHigh winds could pose a danger to life across parts of the UK on Monday, the Met Office has warned, as it upgraded the threat rating of Storm Floris from yellow to amber for Scotland.The storm, which was officially named on Friday, is expected to hit Britain early on Monday morning. The Met Office issued warnings of potential injuries and danger to life" as a result of large waves and beach material being thrown on to sea fronts, coastal roads and properties" and flying debris". Continue reading...

Barristers report going unpaid and cases being turned away amid fears firms will desert legal aid work altogetherLawyers have warned that a cyber-attack on the Legal Aid Agency has pushed the sector into chaos, with barristers going unpaid, cases being turned away and fears a growing number of firms could desert legal aid work altogether.In May, the legal aid agency announced that the personal data of hundreds of thousands of legal aid applicants in England and Wales dating back to 2010 had been accessed and downloaded in a significant cyber-attack. Continue reading...

Allegations were made in legal submission on behalf of former contestant Wynne Evans, Sun on Sunday reportsThe BBC has launched an investigation into alleged cocaine use by two stars of Strictly Come Dancing.The Sun on Sunday reported that the two stars' alleged drug use was talked about widely among the cast" of the BBC One primetime show. Continue reading...

NSW police estimate 90,000 walked despite force and premier opposing rally, while Palestine Action Group claims up to 300,000 peacefully protested

Common Wealth report calls discounted sales of council homes one of the largest giveaways in UK history'Margaret Thatcher's right-to-buy scheme has cost UK taxpayers almost 200bn, according to a report into the policy's contribution to Britain's housing crisis.In its report into the sale of millions of council homes to their tenants at steep discounts since 1980, the Common Wealth thinktank said the policy had fuelled vast shortages in social housing and turbocharged inequality. Continue reading...

Demands for metal detectors and security guards to protect officers facing increasing contact with serious offendersThere needs to be a review of safety for probation officers across England and Wales after a stabbing incident that has deeply concerned frontline staff, a watchdog has told the Guardian.The call from Martin Jones, the chief inspector of probation, follows demands for walk-through metal detectors and security guards to help protect caseworkers as they interact with growing numbers of released offenders. Continue reading...

This blog is now closedAs thousands of people make their way to Lang Park in central Sydney for the start of a march in support of Palestinians in Gaza, the organisers the Palestine Action Group have asked people to arrive early for the 1pm start.Rain, hail, or shine, we will free Palestine!" the group said in a post on Facebook this morning. The weather forecast for the city is for rain.Be patient and look out for each other.We urge everyone to plan for a long day. Bring wet-weather gear, plenty of water and snacks.The Palestine movement is an anti-racist movement. We will not tolerate any form of racism or bigotry, including antisemitism or Islamophobia. Continue reading...

Company says extra payments relating to work for Kelda Holdings were covered by shareholders not billpayersThe boss of Yorkshire Water, one of Britain's biggest water suppliers, has received 1.3m in previously undisclosed extra pay since 2023 via an offshore parent company, the Guardian can reveal.Nicola Shaw received 660,000 from Yorkshire Water's Jersey-registered parent company, Kelda Holdings, in the 2023-24 and the 2024-25 financial years. The size of the fees was not disclosed in the annual report of the regulated subsidiary, Yorkshire Water Services. Continue reading...

At least 100 people involved in rescue operation at El Teniente copper mine, which partially collapsed after seismic event'One of five miners trapped after a partial collapse at the world's largest underground copper mine has been found dead, Chile's state-owned Codelco group announced on Saturday, as rescuers continued their search for survivors.The collapse took place on Thursday at the El Teniente mine in Rancagua, 100km south of Santiago, after a seismic event." Continue reading...

Twenty-six-year-old Chinese engineer was trying to flee a vehicle in a swollen creek in Rothbury, near Cessnock