World news | The Guardian

Rescuers struggle with search operation to find president and foreign minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian because of poor weather conditions

This blog has now closed. Follow our live coverage of the search for Ebrahim Raisi's helicopter on our new blog here.Here is a video of the Israeli war cabinet minister, Benny Gantz, threatening to resign if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to adopt an agreed plan for Gaza:Here are some of the latest images coming out from the newswires: Continue reading...

Police at Gablecross police station declared detainee dead early on Sunday and have referred incident to police watchdogA man in his 30s has died while in custody at a police station in Swindon, Wiltshire police said. He had been in custody at Gablecross police station since Saturday morning, and became unwell on Sunday morning.He was declared dead at about 9am on Sunday, the force added. The incident has been referred to the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC). Continue reading...

Coup leader killed and 50 people, including Americans, arrested after men reportedly attacked presidency in capital KinshasaThe leader of an attempted coup on Sunday in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has been killed and some 50 people including three American citizens arrested, a spokesperson for the Central African country's army told Reuters.Gunfire rang out around 4am in the capital Kinshasa, a Reuters reporter said. Armed men attacked the presidency in the city centre, according to spokesperson Sylvain Ekenge. Continue reading...

A country already in political transition could soon be forced to replace more than one leaderThe Iranian helicopter crash comes at a time when the country, faced by unprecedented external challenges, was already bracing itself for a change in regime with the expected demise in the next few years of its 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.In the country's hydra-headed leadership where power is spread in often opaque ways between clerics, politicians and army, it is the supreme leader, and not the president, that is ultimately decisive. Continue reading...

Taliban says four arrested over attack at Bamiyan heritage site that killed three Spanish visitors and an AfghanIslamic State has claimed responsibility for an attack by gunmen in Afghanistan's central Bamiyan province that killed three Spanish tourists on Friday.The Taliban's interior ministry spokesperson, Abdul Mateen Qani, said on Sunday that four people had been arrested over the attack. One Afghan citizen was also killed and four foreigners and three Afghans were injured in the attack, he added. Continue reading...

Labour sees no electoral gain in flagging sector's funding crisis - but losses cannot be sustained much longer

Music mogul says in video statement that he is truly sorry' after CNN released clip of him attacking Cassie in hotel hallway in 2016The rap mogul Sean Diddy" Combs admitted in a video apology that he punched and kicked his ex-girlfriend in 2016 in the hallway of a hotel after CNN released footage of the attack, saying he was truly sorry" and his actions were inexcusable".I take full responsibility for my actions in that video. I was disgusted then when I did it. I'm disgusted now," he said in the video statement, posted Sunday on Instagram and Facebook.In the US, the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). In the UK, call the national domestic abuse helpline on 0808 2000 247, or visit Women's Aid. In Australia, the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. Other international helplines may be found via www.befrienders.org Continue reading...

Exclusive: Vice-chancellors suggest fee rise of 2,000 to 3,500 a year, but others say that is politically impossible'

Labour leader's appearance on chatshow reflects politicians' more general move away from hard news outlets to cosier, more niche settingsWhen Keir Starmer appeared on Channel 4's Sunday Brunch to cook his favourite tandoori salmon recipe, host Tim Lovejoy had a question: What on earth are you doing here? You should be on the BBC with Laura Kuenssberg."This is so much nicer!" replied the Labour leader. Continue reading...

Le Pen, Orban and Meloni rail against socialism and massive illegal migration' at great patriotic convention' in MadridInternational far-right leaders, including France's Marine Le Pen, Hungary's Viktor Orban, Italy's Giorgia Meloni and Argentina's Javier Milei, came together in Madrid to rail against socialism and massive illegal migration" three weeks before hard-right parties are expected to see a surge in support in June's European elections.Sunday's great patriotic convention", which was organised by Spain's far-right Vox party, offered conservatives and far-right populists a chance to congregate and take aim at a variety of familiar targets, from the welfare state to wokeness" and the agendas of Brussels-based bureaucrats. Continue reading...

Raisi and the foreign minister are missing after their aircraft came down in mountain terrain near border with Azerbaijan in heavy fogA rescue operation is under way in the mountains close to the Iranian-Azerbaijani border after one of the helicopters in a convoy carrying Iran's president, Ebrahim Raisi, was involved in a hard landing" on Sunday, according to Iranian state media. This is what we know so far.The incident, which involved one helicopter in a convoy of three, was described by Iranian state television as an accident.An unnamed Iranian official told Reuters that the lives of the president and his foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, were at risk" after a crash" as it was crossing mountain terrain in heavy fog.Three rescue workers searching for the crashed helicopter were reported missing by the Red Crescent but were later accounted for. A spokesperson said the search and rescue operation will slow down as the weather is expected to get severely cold" soon with more rain forecast.Raisi was travelling in Iran's East Azerbaijan province. State TV described the area of the helicopter incident as being near Jolfa, a city on the border with Azerbaijan.The president had been in Azerbaijan earlier on Sunday to inaugurate a dam with the country's president Ilham Aliyev. The dam is the third one that the two nations have built on the Aras River.Iran's army chief of staff said all army resources will be used for the search and rescue operations, state TV reported. Maj Gen Mohammad Bagheri has also ordered guards to take part in the search efforts, it said.Iraq has instructed its interior ministry, the Red Crescent and other relevant bodies to offer help to neighbouring Iran and assist in the search. Continue reading...

Emergency relief coordinator says famine looming as Israel's Rafah offensive blocks vital aid routes

Human Rights Watch says Clementine De Montjoye's case raises fresh questions about UK's asylum seeker schemeThe Rwandan government has barred a senior human rights researcher from entering the country, prompting accusations that officials are seeking to dodge independent scrutiny just weeks before the UK government is due to send asylum seekers there for the first time.Rwandan immigration authorities denied entry to Clementine de Montjoye, a senior researcher in Human Rights Watch's Africa division, when she arrived at Kigali International Airport on 13 May. Continue reading...

Fico remains in intensive care but has emerged from immediate threat to his life', Robert Kaliak tells reportersSlovakia's prime minister, Robert Fico, is out of immediate danger but remains in intensive care four days after he was shot by a gunman, the country's deputy prime minister has said.He has emerged from the immediate threat to his life, but his condition remains serious and he requires intensive care," Robert Kaliak, Fico's closest political ally, told reporters. Continue reading...

Tribunal in London will hear claims Richard Branson's airline used Covid redundancies to target older staffHundreds of long-serving Virgin Atlantic cabin crew are suing the airline for unfair dismissal, claiming that the airline used Covid redundancies to target older staff.An employment tribunal in London will start examining more than 200 cases next month, at which former crew will argue that Sir Richard Branson's airline unfairly made them redundant while retaining cheaper new hires. Continue reading...

Company says it can offer much-needed choice' in bid to create direct competition for Avanti West CoastRichard Branson's Virgin Group hopes to make a comeback on Britain's railways - with plans for up to four new services on the West Coast main line it used to run.Virgin has submitted proposals to operate separate train services between London Euston and Manchester, Liverpool, Birmingham and Glasgow Central respectively, on an open access basis. Continue reading...

Some borrowers have been abandoned in a cost-of-living crisis and lenders must meet their obligations, the regulator says

Emergency services called to report of 14-year-old and 13-year-old in river near bridge in OvinghamA 14-year-old boy has died and a 13-year-old boy is in a critical condition after getting into difficulty in the River Tyne in Northumberland, police have said.Police were called to the river at 3.30pm on Saturday after they received a report about two teenage boys in water near a bridge in Ovingham, a village east of Hexham. Continue reading...

The subversive work of Eliza Haywood, the feminist forerunner of the TV show's gossip columnist, is about to be republishedShe is the real-life Lady Whistledown, an eyebrow-raising female writer who penned a salacious anonymous gossip sheet that skewered 18th-century London society.Like the fictional pamphlet from Netflix hit Bridgerton, which returned for a third series last week, Eliza Haywood's The Parrot, published in 1746, has a distinctive, mocking voice that punches up and speaks truth to power". Now, a new book will republish Haywood's funny, subversive periodical, which she wrote from the perspective of an angry green parrot, and seek to raise awareness of her groundbreaking work. Continue reading...

Stephen Watson says process will be carried out fairly and impartially' in his most extensive public comments on the claimsThe chief constable of the police force examining claims against Angela Rayner has defended the decision to investigate the Labour party deputy leader, vowing it would be done fairly and impartially" and would establish whether culpability is proven or otherwise".Stephen Watson, who leads Greater Manchester police (GMP), gave his most extensive public comments so far on the investigation, which was triggered by a complaint from a senior Conservative. Continue reading...

New furnaces will be powered by electricity from 2027 but up to 2,800 workers will be made redundantTata Steel has reached a deal with the UK's electricity grid to start supplying the energy for new furnaces in south Wales from 2027, as the company moves ahead with its plan despite union opposition.The agreement with the National Grid's electricity supply operator (ESO), the company that controls how energy is moved around Great Britain, will provide hundreds of millions of megawatts of power to a new electric arc furnace at the steelworks in Port Talbot. Continue reading...

Hungarian police called to scene of accident on shore of the River Danube near VeroceHungarian police say two people have died and five are missing following a boat collision on the Danube.Hungarian police received a report late on Saturday night that a man had been found bleeding from his head on the shore of the river near the town of Veroce, about 30 miles (50km) north of the capital, Budapest. Continue reading...

Coventry MP, whose antipathy for David Cameron sparked her interest in politics, has largest TikTok following in parliamentWhen the UK foreign secretary, David Cameron, sat in the BBC TV studio last Sunday morning, he clearly had no idea of the identity of the woman sitting on the panel opposite him, simply referring to her as the Labour MP".By contrast, Zarah Sultana, the MP for Coventry South, knows everything about Lord Cameron, telling the Guardian that it was her hatred of him as prime minister that first brought her into politics as a young, leftwing, Muslim woman. Her whole political outlook has been shaped by Cameron: the trebling of tuition fees and austerity. Continue reading...

Book prompts conflict over claims of Metis identity in eastern part of country where group doesn't have a homeland or deep historic tiesA graphic novel investigating Indigenous identity in Canada has prompted outrage from Metis groups, who say the book undermines their history and represents an attack on their sovereignty.The work is the result of a third-year history seminar at Dalhousie University, where students collaborated on a book examining thorny questions over ancestry and identity. Continue reading...

Shadow minister says it is Justin Welby's job to speak out but Labour could not commit to scrapping policyThe shadow health secretary, Wes Streeting, has praised the archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, for calling on Labour to scrap the two-child benefit cap, saying it was literally his job" to speak out on such matters.Streeting said he did not like the cap, which campaigners say has pushed hundreds of thousands of families into poverty, but that the party could not commit to ending it until it knew how this would be financed. Continue reading...

Anthony Olubunmi George, 61, has been refused leave to remain despite living most of his adult life in BritainA disabled man who has lived in the UK for 38 years has been threatened with removal from the UK by the Home Office.Anthony Olubunmi George, 61, came to the UK at the age of 24 in 1986 from Nigeria. He has not left the UK since and has no criminal convictions. In 2019, he had two strokes, which left him with problems with speech and mobility. Continue reading...

Cast member of Palme d'Or contender shot in Kent says the high number of chaperones and intimacy coordinators on set was over the topIs Britain leading the way in protecting young people and children from the potential traumas of working on a film set, or has it all gone far too far? Two of the most prominent European stars attending the Cannes film festival, both with high-profile premieres, have very different views.Franz Rogowski, the acclaimed German actor who plays a key role in Bird, British director Andrea Arnold's contender for the top Palme d'Or prize, said this weekend that the proliferation of chaperones and intimacy coordinators that had been required on the shoot on location in Kent qualified as well-intended madness". Continue reading...

Council spending cuts are forcing studios and venues to close, driving out the city's creative businessesLast year, the city of Leeds held a year-long celebration of culture, complete with festivals, newly commissioned works of art and community projects. More than 1,000 events took place, with hundreds of volunteers and local schools taking part.This year, however, artists and creatives in the West Yorkshire city are being forced out of their workshops and galleries, and say the dwindling number of spaces is crushing Leeds's creative scene. Continue reading...

Defence says it carries out random drug testing on an ongoing basis and investigations into Fitzgibbon's death continue

Heavy-handed' crackdown ignores underlying reasons for failure to attend classes, say criticsSome schools in England are sending police to the homes of children who are persistently absent, or warning them their parents may go to prison if their attendance doesn't improve, the Observer has learned.Headteachers say they are now under intense pressure from the government to turn around the crisis in attendance, with a record 150,000 children at state schools classed as severely absent in 2022-23. From September, all state schools in England will have to share their attendance records every day with the Department for Education. Continue reading...

Waiting lists are at a record high, almost double since 2020, with heart disease being the largest cause of premature death in deprived areasFifteen hospital trusts across England each have more than 200 patients waiting longer than a year for heart procedures, NHS figures reveal.The British Heart Foundation (BHF) warns that heart care waiting lists are now at a record high, reaching 414,596 at the end of March 2024 in England, almost double what it was in 2020. The number of people waiting longer than a year for heart tests and treatments has risen to 10,893. Four years ago, the figure was just 53. Continue reading...

Education secretary Gillian Keegan, Jeremy Hunt and David Cameron oppose move, while university leaders warn of economic and cultural impactRishi Sunak is facing a cabinet revolt over plans to scrap a graduate visa scheme that allows overseas students to live and work in the UK for up to two years after graduation.Under pressure from some on the right of his party to demonstrate that the Tories are tougher on immigration than Labour, Downing Street is considering further restricting or even ending the graduate scheme, which some believe can be used as a backdoor entry route to the UK. Continue reading...

Passengers were left abandoned and humiliated after operator banned staff from providing assistanceEurostar has reversed a new accessibility policy that left a wheelchair user stranded and has retrained its London staff following pressure from the Observer.Travellers with disabilities claimed that they would be barred from Eurostar services after the company banned its London staff from pushing passenger wheelchairs. Those who require assistance were told they must travel with a companion or cancel their ticket if they were unable to access services unaided, according to passengers who contacted the Observer. Continue reading...

Rail, Tram and Bus Union's Vik Sharma says Melbourne's lack of airport train line is a global embarrassment

La Trobe on Friday followed Deakin in issuing a formal directive for protesters to end their encampment

Paramedics treated an officer for non-life-threatening head injuries and police said there was no ongoing threat to the public

Prosecution of three high-ranking Syrian officials to be tried in absentia could pave way for president's caseAt midnight on 3 November 2013, five Syrian officials dragged arts and humanities student Patrick Dabbagh from his home in the Mezzeh district of Damascus.The following day, at the same hour, the same men, including a representative of the Syrian air force's intelligence unit, returned with a dozen soldiers to arrest the 20-year-old's father Mazzen. Continue reading...

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Benny Gantz's threat to withdraw his opposition party from coalition calls into question future of governmentThe Israeli war cabinet minister Benny Gantz has threatened to resign if Benjamin Netanyahu fails to adopt an agreed plan for Gaza, calling into question the future of the Israeli government.During a press conference on Saturday, Gantz announced that if a plan for postwar governance of the territory is not consolidated and approved by 8 June, his opposition National Unity party will withdraw from the coalition government. Continue reading...

In latest Opinium poll, only 16% say accepting rightwing Tory MP's defection was the right move - against 33% who see it as a mistakeMore voters believe Keir Starmer was wrong to allow a rightwing Tory MP into Labour than think it was the right move, after anger from within the party's ranks over the defection.Natalie Elphicke, the Dover MP, said the Tories had become a byword for incompetence and division" when she made her shock departure to Labour earlier in May. The party leadership regarded it as a major coup to win the support of the MP on the frontline of the Channel crossings issue that Rishi Sunak has attempted to prioritise. The move came despite concerns among MPs that her views conflict with Labour in a variety of areas. Continue reading...

As the inquiry publishes it final report, the chancellor is under pressure to find 10bn to put right a longstanding injusticeThe chancellor, Jeremy Hunt, will come under pressure to stay true to his word and sign off on immediate compensation payments totalling up to 10bn to victims of the contaminated blood scandal when the long-awaited final report on the affair is published on Monday.The scandal is described as the worst treatment disaster in NHS history, with more than 3,000 people having died as a result of receiving contaminated blood products in the 1970s and 1980s. It is estimated that, even today, a person infected during the scandal dies every four days. Continue reading...

IDF says senior terrorist operative' Islam Khamayseh was killed in strike on the city of JeninIsrael says its jets have struck 70 targets across Gaza in the past 24 hours, while an airstrike in Jenin killed a significant" Islamic Jihad figure who operated as the head of logistics for the organisation's brigade in the city.The strike, carried out on Friday night by a fighter jet and a helicopter, killed Islam Khamayseh, a senior terrorist operative in the Jenin camp" who was responsible for a series of attacks in the area, the IDF said. Continue reading...

Head of Church of England Justin Welby tells Observer that ending policy would lift thousands of UK children out of poverty

Media is barred from hearing as 71-year-old man appears in closed session over attempted assassination of prime ministerThe suspect in the shooting of Slovakian prime minister Robert Fico appeared in a closed court hearing on Saturday outside Bratislava amid growing fears about the future of the deeply divided nation.The media was barred from the hearing, and reporters were kept behind a gate by armed police officers wearing balaclavas. Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Israel-Gaza war coverage hereIsrael on Friday attacked South Africa's case against it in the international court of justice as an obscene exploitation" of the genocide convention, claiming it aimed not to protect Palestinian civilians but to defend Hamas militants.Israel's representatives told the court their country was fighting a war of self-defence it did not want and did not start". They said Israel had made extraordinary" efforts to protect civilians, and had complied with orders from the court to let more aid into Gaza. Continue reading...

Locals hope TV adaptation of One Hundred Years of Solitude will bring new life to Aracataca, birthplace of author's magical realismIn sweltering mid-afternoon heat, children splash in the clear water of the canal that threads through town as elderly neighbours look on from rocking chairs on the porches of their sun-washed houses. Butterflies spring from every bush, sometimes fluttering together in kaleidoscopes.At the foot of Colombia's Sierra Nevada mountains, about 20 miles from the Caribbean coast, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's fictional world of Macondo lives on. Continue reading...

Myrteza Hilaj and Kreshnik Kadena convicted after NCA operation into Albanian crime group involved in illegal migrationTwo men who used a plane to smuggle people from northern France to an aerodrome in Essex have been jailed.Myrteza Hilaj and Kreshnik Kadena, both from Leyton in east London, were found guilty at Southwark crown court in March of facilitating the commission of a breach of immigration law. Continue reading...

When on holiday in Berwick the artist often gave his work away. Now a new exhibition reveals the value of drawings that survived in a shoeboxA 1958 drawing of a family with their dogs by LS Lowry from one of his many holidays in Berwick-upon-Tweed is to go on public display for the first time. But the sketch is lucky to have survived: it was kept in a shoe box for 43 years, emerging somewhat creased because its recipient had little idea of Lowry's significance.The signed and dated drawing on headed notepaper from the Castle Hotel, where the artist stayed for most summers from the 1930s until the 1970s, was given to hotel receptionist, Anne Mather. I didn't think much about it, and only after he died did I remember it," Mather told the Berwick Advertiser in 2001 when she put the sketch up for auction. He was quiet and reclusive, but I can still visualise him in the lounge. He would sit and doodle, with his glasses at the end of his nose." Continue reading...

Nelson Shardey, 74, became tearful on hearing of support for effort to gain settled status after 50 years in UKA retired 74-year-old newsagent who has lived in the UK for nearly 50 years said tears were running" from his eyes after strangers fundraised more than 30,000 to support his legal fight to remain in the country.Nelson Shardey, who has been described as a Merseyside local legend", is pursuing a legal challenge against the Home Office after he was refused indefinite leave to remain, despite living and working in the UK since 1977. Continue reading...