World news | The Guardian

Team exploring field of synthetic biological intelligence hopes to create better AI machines' - despite concerns over the existential risks' of such technology

Green party candidate to fight Brighton Pavilion constituency says Keir Starmer is abandoning pledges

Conservatives avoided a 3-0 defeat but face a daunting task if they are to retain an overall majority at next election

Victorian premier says it is possible a $5bn budget allocation was proposed earlier this year, prior to Games being cancelled

Board finds memoir by non-binary writer Maia Kobabe appropriate for its intended audience' following an appeal

Joon Seong Tan, 38, deliberately tried to hide his crime, a judge said as she handed down a 28-year sentence for the 2021 murder in Epping

Keir Starmer will face discontent from unions and MPs at the National Policy Forum in NottinghamKeir Starmer faces battles over the two-child benefit cap and other flashpoints at a key Labour policy gathering this weekend where trade union delegates will cite new evidence of the mounting cost of living crisis facing their members.Discontent at all levels of the party over his resistance to pledging to scrap the cap if Labour wins power forms the backdrop to potentially stormy negotiations behind closed doors at the National Policy Forum (NPF). Continue reading...

Property in Henderson linked to Duane Keffe D' Davis, whose late nephew, Orlando Anderson, was long suspected in rapper's killingA home that Las Vegas police searched this week in connection with the 1996 drive-by shooting of Tupac Shakur is tied to a man whose nephew had emerged as a suspect shortly after the rapper's killing.Detectives sought items concerning the murder of Tupac Shakur" from Duane Keffe D" Davis, according to a copy of the warrant obtained Thursday. Davis is the uncle of Orlando Anderson. Anderson denied involvement in Shakur's killing at the time, and died two years later in an unrelated gang shooting in Compton, California. Continue reading...

Forestry workers unable to resuscitate unnamed pilot, 41, after helicopter went down near Haig Lake in north-western AlbertaA helicopter pilot has been killed in a crash in western Canada, in the third death in recent days connected with efforts to fight fires in the country's worst wildfire season on record.The pilot was the sole occupant of the helicopter when it crashed on Wednesday near Haig Lake in north-western Alberta province, and forestry workers were unable to resuscitate him, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said. He was declared dead at a nearby airport. Continue reading...

Standards committee had recommended suspension of Conservative MP after upholding groping allegationsFormer government whip Chris Pincher is to appeal against an eight-week parliamentary suspension imposed on him following allegations that he drunkenly groped two men at the Carlton Club in central London last year.This month, the standards committee found that the MP's conduct last summer was profoundly damaging" and amounted to an abuse of power. Continue reading...

Private lender's reputation is at risk after decision to cut ties with former Ukip leader and comments about him

Case watched by advocates as a slew of states move to restrict abortion accessAn 18-year-old north-eastern Nebraska woman was sentenced on Thursday to 90 days in jail and two years of probation for burning and burying a fetus she aborted with her mother's help in a case watched by advocates as a slew of states move to restrict abortion access.Celeste Burgess, of Norfolk, was sentenced in Madison county after pleading guilty earlier this year to concealing or abandoning a dead body. Two other misdemeanor charges of false reporting and concealing the death of another person were dropped, in an agreement with prosecutors. Continue reading...

Helicopters and chairlift used to carry almost 300 people from ski station at altitude of 3,000 metresHelicopters have been used to evacuate nearly 300 people from a high-mountain station in the Swiss Alps after a cable car to the top broke down.A technical problem was detected on Thursday morning involving a cable car up to the popular Glacier 3000 ski resort in Les Diablerets mountain massif in south-western Switzerland, the station chief said. Continue reading...

Grassy Narrows' exposure to toxic metal helped cause a suicide rate three times higher than other communities, research findsDecades of mercury exposure has been linked to the high youth suicide rates in an Indigenous community in Canada, in the latest finding to underscore the catastrophic legacy of environmental contamination.Researchers who studied three generations of mothers and their children from the community of Grassy Narrows, Ontario, have concluded that sustained exposure to the toxic metal helped cause a suicide rate three times higher than any other First Nations community - which are already far higher than among the country's general population.In the UK, the youth suicide charity Papyrus can be contacted on 0800 068 4141 or email pat@papyrus-uk.org, and in the UK and Ireland Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline is at 988 or chat for support. You can also text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis text line counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org Continue reading...

Translation into Nheengatu hailed as a historical moment for the country and its native populationsThe Brazilian constitution has gained its first ever official translation into an Indigenous language, in what has been hailed as a historical moment for the country and its native populations.The translation into Nheengatu was unveiled on Wednesday in Sao Gabriel da Cachoeira, a town deep in the Amazon, in a ceremony attended by Brazilian authorities and Indigenous leaders. Continue reading...

More than a third of Alzheimer's patients could miss out on certain drugs because they have no recorded diagnosis, NHS figures showMore than 250,000 dementia patients could miss out on new treatments for the disease because they do not have a formal diagnosis, according to government figures.NHS data published for the first time shows the prevalence of different types of dementia with which people in England have been diagnosed. Continue reading...

Consultants and hospital dentists taking part in two days of industrial action say they felt compelled to take a stand' over payHundreds of striking NHS consultants gathered at a rally in central London on Thursday were told: Every single one of us has wrestled with this decision."Dr Vishal Sharma, from the British Medical Association's UK consultants committee, told the gathering at the BMA headquarters that it had not been an easy decision". But action was necessary as consultants' pay risked a brain drain in the form of an exodus from the UK, or to the private sector, he said. Continue reading...

Prime minister also recalls charge d'affaires from Sweden as protesters storm Swedish embassy in BaghdadIraq expelled the Swedish ambassador on Thursday in protest at a planned burning of the Qur'an in Stockholm that had prompted hundreds of protesters to storm and set alight the Swedish embassy in Baghdad.A government statement said Baghdad had also recalled its charge d'affaires in Sweden, and Iraq's state news agency reported that Iraq had suspended the working permit of Sweden's Ericsson on Iraqi soil. Continue reading...

Though some neighbours still object to Miranda Dickson's front door colour, the council has backed downFirst it was an unacceptable pink, and then an unacceptable green. Now the owner of Edinburgh's most famous front door has won, with a colour which can perhaps charitably be called off-white.After nearly 10 months of dispute over conservation standards in the city's New Town, council officials have declared defeat in their standoff with Miranda Dickson of Drummond Place. Continue reading...

Palestine Red Crescent Society says there were 193 incidents targeting healthcare staff and vehicles in 2023Medics working in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem are being supplied with helmets and bulletproof vests after the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) reported what it said was a rise in attacks on healthcare workers and ambulances by Israeli forces and settlers.According to the PRCS, there were 193 incidents targeting staff and vehicles in 2023 - a 310% increase compared with the same period last year. Violence has been increasing steadily in the region since March 2022, when the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) began launching near-nightly raids on the West Bank towns of Nablus and Jenin in response to a spate of deadly terror attacks against Israelis. Continue reading...

Consultants say they are taking action because below inflation pay rises are damaging retentionOutside Manchester Royal Infirmary, dozens of consultants had joined the picket line, taking part in a 96-hour strike organised after the health secretary refused an improvement of the 6% pay rise offered to NHS staff.Dr Indy Kapila, an intensive care consultant at Manchester University NHS foundation trust and chair of the BMA regional consultant committee, said strike action was necessary due to the wage stagnation consultants have faced over the past decade and the sub-optimal" pay awards the government has offered since. Continue reading...

Police watchdog investigating concerns force repeatedly failed to take appropriate actionThe police watchdog has launched multiple investigations into concerns the Metropolitan police repeatedly failed to take appropriate action when serious criminal allegations were made against the serial rapist David Carrick while he was an officer.The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) said that if a 2002 allegation of harassment made by a former partner of Carrick had been investigated, he could potentially have been sacked before beginning the series of attacks for which he was jailed.A 2016 report of harassment and stalking made by a former partner, which was investigated by Hampshire constabulary.A 2019 report of a woman being attacked and dragged out of Carrick's house by him, which was investigated by Hertfordshire constabulary.A February 2021 report of a woman being raped by Carrick, which was initially recorded by Sussex police. Continue reading...

Severance pay for former PM and chancellor equal to about 400 for every day they held roles, accounts showLiz Truss and Kwasi Kwarteng received about 400 in severance pay for every day they were in office, according to government accounts published on Thursday.The former prime minister and former chancellor each received more than 16,000 on leaving their jobs after just a few weeks, the Treasury's annual report shows, while Tom Scholar, the department's most senior civil servant, received 457,000 after being sacked by Truss. Continue reading...

Set of 13 Gideon tapestries in Hardwick Hall unveiled after painstaking work cleaning and stitching huge piecesAfter a 24-year project, the National Trust has finally finished the restoration of a set of 16th-century tapestries at Hardwick Hall in Derbyshire, the longest such endeavour in its history.On Thursday, the final tapestry in the set of 13 Gideon tapestries was unveiled on the wall of the long gallery, the culmination of a painstaking effort to clean and handstitch the huge pieces one at a time, at a cost of 1.7m. Continue reading...

Indian PM had been criticised for failing to talk about deadly ethnic conflict taking place in north-eastern stateThe Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, has broken his months-long silence on the deadly ethnic conflict raging in the state of Manipur after a video emerged of women being stripped naked, paraded and assaulted before it is alleged they were gang raped.Outrage erupted across India after footage was circulated from Manipur of two women from the minority Kuki tribe being forcibly stripped naked by a mob of the majority Meitei tribal group who can be heard shouting: If you don't take off your clothes, we'll kill you." The women are then publicly groped and dragged to a field, where it is alleged they were gang raped. Continue reading...

Sovereign grant to shrink from 25% to 12% of crown estate's profits, after monarch asked for money to be used for public good'King Charles has agreed to take a smaller share of the crown estate's profits ahead of a multibillion-pound windfall from Britain's offshore windfarms.The Treasury said it would halve the proportion of the crown estate's profits paid to the royal household through the sovereign grant, which will fall from 25% in recent years to 12% from next year. Continue reading...

Hundreds of dead birds including guillemots, razorbills and gannets found on Pembrokeshire beachesAn outbreak of avian influenza has been confirmed in one of the world's most important areas for seabirds with hundreds of guillemots, razorbills and gannets discovered washed up on beaches in south-west Wales.Members of the public visiting the Pembrokeshire coast have been urged not to handle dead or sick birds and keep dogs away from them.If anyone finds sick or dead seabirds in Pembrokeshire they are asked to report them. Details of how to do so can be found here. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Departments to be forced to release more information about meetings with lobbyists, say sourcesLobbying rules will be toughened up across Whitehall in a long-awaited response by ministers to issues raised by the Greensill scandal, the Guardian has learned.Government departments will be forced to release more information about meetings with lobbyists and extend current requirements for disclosure to phone and video calls, sources say. Continue reading...

Byrne, who is also an award-winning playwright, said he would shape a rejuvenating culture' at one of London's most prestigious theatresDavid Byrne, an award-winning playwright and director who has built a powerful reputation at a small studio theatre in London, is to be the new artistic director of the Royal Court.Byrne promised to continue his risk-taking approach and shape a rejuvenating culture" at the Royal Court, one of London's most prestigious and influential theatres. Continue reading...

A 39-year-old male driver and 37-year-old female passenger were arrested after the lengthy chase ended near Parramatta

eSafety commissioner received 795 requests to remove alleged bullying of children from various social media platforms in past 18 months, with 309 from TikTok

Sir Richard Moore says Xi Jinping's regime has supported Vladimir Putin diplomatically and amplified Russian tropes' such as Nato being to blameThe head of MI6 has accused China's government and its leader, Xi Jinping, of being absolutely complicit" in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in a rare public address in Prague.Sir Richard Moore, who has been chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service since 2020, also offered comment on the extraordinary mutiny in June by the mercenary Wagner group led by Yevgeny Prigozhin. Continue reading...

Jim Arrington, who was recognized as the planet's oldest bodybuilder in 2015, explains how a low opinion' motivated himLike many in the US who are grappling with pressure to look better, Jim Arrington is unimpressed with his physique - but he says that self-perception has motivated him to keep winning bodybuilding competitions at age 90.The nonagenarian great-grandfather spoke about how he has achieved a level of physical fitness which is superior to that of many people more than half his age in an interview published on Wednesday by Guinness World Records, which first recognized him as the planet's oldest bodybuilder in 2015. Continue reading...

Routine care to come to virtual halt for 48 hours this week and in August after improved pay offer ruled outTens of thousands of patients in England face surgeries being cancelled this summer with consultants striking for 96 hours, after Steve Barclay ruled out an improved pay offer.Routine care across the NHS will come to a virtual standstill from 7am on Thursday as consultant doctors and hospital-based dentists begin their first industrial action in a decade for 48 hours until 7am on Saturday. Continue reading...

Report criticises range of shortcomings' in qualifications intended to be equivalent to A-levelsThe government's gold standard" vocational qualifications, T-levels, have been strongly criticised by Ofsted for offering poor value, inappropriate work placements and having high dropout rates.The report, the first independent evaluation of T-levels commissioned by the Department for Education (DfE), is highly critical of the complex teaching and industry placements required during the two-year courses, which are intended as a vocational equivalent to A-levels in England. Continue reading...

The bureau of statistics labour numbers will be examined closely by the Reserve Bank when it meets on August 1 to consider interest ratesAustralia's employers added 32,600 more jobs last month as the economy maintained its resilience despite a leap in interest rates.Australia's unemployment rate in June was 3.5%, the Bureau of Statistics said on Thursday. Economists had expected the rate to remain unchanged for the month from May's 3.6% tally, with a net 15,000 positions added. The ABS revised May's rate down to 3.5%. Continue reading...

Former ABC host and co-author of The Voice to Parliament Handbook says language used by Peter Dutton has been cowardly'

Claims from head of organisation spark outrage in Kyiv and from the International Federation of Red and Red Crescent Societies

Royal commission found the former head of the Department of Human Services was responsible for department that had established an unlawful program'

Aukus requests would be handled faster than almost all applications other than from Taiwan and Ukraine'

Bloc asked to clarify position after Buenos Aires declare triumph' over use of term in summit declarationForty-one years after the Falklands war, the UK has suffered a diplomatic defeat over the archipelago as the EU appeared to endorse the Argentine name for the disputed territory, Islas Malvinas.Brussels supported an Argentina-backed declaration referring to Islas Malvinas at a summit of EU leaders with Latin America and the Caribbean (Celac) leaders on Tuesday, which Buenos Aires called a diplomatic triumph". Continue reading...

Bereaved families welcome proposals to create aggravating factor for murder at the end of a relationshipPartners who murder at the end of a relationship could face longer sentences under a proposed overhaul of punishments for domestic murder.In a move welcomed by bereaved families who have fought for the law to be changed, the proposals announced on Thursday will seek to lengthen the prison sentences for abusers who kill by creating a new aggravating factor for murder at the end of a relationship. Continue reading...

Morrison government stopped releasing reports on MPs' use of business jet fleet in 2021, citing unspecified security concerns

Police say 43-year-old man was armed with a knife and died at the scene after being shot

Protests against tax rises and cost of living turn violent with hospitals reporting many wounded by gunshotAt least two people have been killed during anti-government protests in Kenya, as police opened fire on demonstrators protesting against the cost of living and tax increases.Demonstrators hurled rocks at police and burned tyres in the streets on Wednesday, while the security forces fired teargas in the third round of anti-government protests called by the opposition this month. Continue reading...

Dan Wootton accused of offering Sun colleagues tens of thousands of pounds for sexual materialThe Sun's parent company has hired external lawyers to help investigate very serious" allegations regarding Dan Wootton's time at the tabloid, the Guardian has been told.Wootton is facing allegations he used a pseudonym to secretly offer current and former Sun colleagues tens of thousands of pounds in return for sexual materialIf you wish to contact the author of this article with further information, please email jim.waterson@theguardian.com or contact the Guardian securely. Continue reading...

Votes in the three very different seats could indicate general election swings and prompt cabinet reshuffleThe Conservatives are braced for painful byelection results in a vote on Thursday that could become a damning verdict on Rishi Sunak's ability to win a broad enough coalition of voters at the next election to retain his party's majority.The party could lose all three of the constituencies that are up for grabs - which each have significantly different demographics that the Tories would need to win - with the prospect of hanging on to just one being touted by senior ministers as a victory. Continue reading...

Green members select the party's former co-leader to stand in Brighton Pavilion at next electionThe Green party has selected Sian Berry as its candidate to stand in Brighton Pavilion to replace Caroline Lucas MP.Berry, Emily O'Brien and Dan Rue were vying to be the Green's candidate in the Sussex constituency which Lucas, the former leader of the party, has represented in parliament since 2010. Continue reading...

FCA chief says banks cannot discriminate' against political views, but chair argues it's up to Coutts who they do business with'The City regulator has said it has contacted the owner of Coutts bank amid a growing row over its decision to close Nigel Farage's accounts, but told MPs that while lenders cannot discriminate against customers, it is ultimately up to firms to decide who to do business with.It came as the prime minister, the home secretary and the City minister waded in to the growing debate over the rights of lenders to shut or refuse accounts based on concerns over customers' political views. Continue reading...

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story hereSuspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, has posted this latest news update from Odesa. It writes:During the night attack on Odesa region, rockets hit the grain and oil terminal, damaged tanks and equipment for loading, and a fire broke out, said Vladyslav Nazarov, the spokesperson for the South" command.In the Odesa region, an industrial facility was hit, where an employee was injured, and two warehouses in different locations were also hit - with tobacco and fireworks. Continue reading...