World news | The Guardian

Antonio Guterres decries conflict's utter disregard' for human rights law as clashes reported in multiple statesSudan is on the brink of a full-scale civil war" that could destabilise the entire region, the United Nations has warned, after an airstrike on a residential area killed about two dozen civilians.The health ministry reported 22 dead and a large number of wounded among the civilians" from the strike on Khartoum's sister city Omdurman, in the district of Dar al-Salam. Continue reading...

Outgoing president of Royal College of Psychiatrists will say issue must be tackled to improve recruitmentRacism is a stain on the NHS" and tackling it is key to recruiting and retaining staff, the outgoing president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCP) will warn.The health service has a moral, ethical and legal duty to do more to stamp out racism, Dr Adrian James is expected to say at the college's international congress in Liverpool. Continue reading...

Unison says some workers given substandard accommodation and 80-hour weeks and forced to repay recruitment feesCare operators have been accused of shocking abuse" of migrant workers who are allegedly being forced to pay back thousands of pounds in recruitment fees, housed in substandard accommodation and asked to work 80-hour weeks.Christina McAnea, the general secretary of Unison, the health care trade union, has written to the social care minister, Helen Whately, urging the government to step in and demanding a meeting over a situation she described as a crisis".Required to be permanently on callWorking 19-hour shifts without breaksHaving wages withheldRequired to pay large sums to recruitment agencies, which are then split with the care operator. Continue reading...

Justice secretary cites significant progress', but campaigners point out that vast majority of rape survivors still do not report to policeViolence against women campaigners have accused ministers of being too quick to celebrate increased rape convictions while overall reporting rates remain low.The justice secretary, Alex Chalk, said on Monday that the government was on course to exceed a target to reverse low conviction rates for rape by the end of this parliament. Continue reading...

Berlin to buy 100 Boxer heavy weapon carriers made in Brisbane by German manufacturer Rheinmetall

Both victims, one of whom was attacked at a hotel housing Afghan refugees, taken to hospital after incidentA man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after two people were stabbed, including one at a hotel housing Afghan refugees, in south-west London.One person is believed to have been attacked at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Surbiton, while another man was attacked at a garage next door. The incident occurred at approximately 1.45pm on Sunday. Both victims were taken to hospital and the man was taken into police custody. Continue reading...

Scheme aims to raise standard of insulation in 19m of the UK's leakiest homesLabour has said that job opportunities for almost 4 million workers would be created under its plan to bring 19m of the UK's leakiest homes up to an acceptable standard of insulation.While it has previously said that the plan would reduce annual household energy bills by up to 500, the party has set out details of what it said would be a major expansion of the retrofitting workforce. Continue reading...

Shadow foreign secretary to accuse Conservatives of treating international law with cavalier disrespectLabour will restore the UK's tarnished global reputation by backing a global anti-corruption court and by reinstating a requirement to follow international law in the ministerial code, the shadow foreign secretary will say in a speech on Monday.David Lammy says the measures will restore the country's reputation for keeping its word, as well as going some way to undo the damage caused by Conservative party scandals in recent years. Continue reading...

Metropolitan police name Nuria Sajjad, eight, as second victim of impact in south-west London on ThursdayA second child has died after a Land Rover crashed through a school fence in south-west London on Thursday.The Metropolitan police named the girl as eight-year-old Nuria Sajjad. Continue reading...

Scandal over male presenter could define Tim Davie's tenure and set future direction of the corporationTim Davie is facing possibly the biggest crisis of his crisis-strewn stint as the BBC's director general after one of the corporation's prominent male television presenters was suspended.How Davie handles the crisis - and whether he survives it - could define his tenure at the helm of the broadcaster and shape the BBC's future. Continue reading...

The Cessna C550 crashed on approach during its second attempt to land at French Valley airport, where visibility was limitedAuthorities have identified the six California residents who died on Saturday when the small plane they were traveling in crashed after after taking off in Las Vegas.A spokesperson for the Federal Aviation Administration, Mina Kaji, told the Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California, that the Cessna C550 business jet took off from Harry Reid international airport at about 3.15am on Saturday. The plane crashed about an hour later at French Valley airport in Murrieta, California, about 80 miles (130km) south-east of Los Angeles. All those onboard were killed. Continue reading...

Stephen Cottrell tells General Synod mistakes have been made', while sacked safeguarding board member says we did our job too well'The archbishop of York has said there is a crisis of safeguarding" within the Church of England after its executive disbanded an independent body on abuse.Stephen Cottrell told the C of E's ruling body, the General Synod, on Sunday that mistakes have been made" and that Jesus would be weeping at the events of recent weeks. We recognise things have gone wrong," he said. This is a watershed moment for us. We can't get this wrong again." Continue reading...

The US and Germany are unwilling to support Ukraine's membership while the conflict with Russia is ongoingUkraine is increasingly pessimistic about taking a significant step forward in joining Nato as leaders of the western military alliance are set to assemble on Tuesday in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius.Kyiv is expected to be offered a package of last-minute enabling security guarantees" at the two day summit - an assurance from countries such as the US, UK, France and Germany that military aid and training will continue in the long term. Continue reading...

Chancellor says barriers to careers in public life must be removed after being refused account as a politically exposed person'Jeremy Hunt was refused a bank account with Monzo last year, which the chancellor said was an example of the barriers" faced by people wanting to work in public life.Hunt said he believed he was denied the account - before he became chancellor - because he was a politically exposed person" (PEP). Continue reading...

Meeting between US president and UK PM carries more significance than previous visits in light of recent disagreementsJoe Biden's meeting in Downing Street on Monday with Rishi Sunak - their fifth in the past five months and the sixth since Sunak become prime minister - probably carries more significance than any other.Never mind that it is essentially a stopover on the way to the Nato summit in Vilnius and being squeezed between tea with King Charles at Windsor Castle and a speech on climate finance. Continue reading...

Youssouf Traore in hospital after being tackled to ground at rally in memory of his brother, as government bans fireworks for Bastille DayA brutal arrest during a peaceful march against police violence has again put French law and order under the spotlight, as the government, fearing further unrest, banned fireworks outside authorised displays during the Bastille Day holiday weekend.Amid continuing tensions after rioting sparked by last month's fatal shooting of a teenager, police faced further accusations of brutality on Sunday when video emerged of the arrest of the brother of a black man who died in custody seven years ago. Continue reading...

Three monitored river bathing zones in the French capital will open in 2025, said the mayor, Anne HidalgoA quarter of a century after the late president Jacques Chirac promised Parisians they would be able to swim in the Seine within three years, the French capital's mayor has confirmed three river bathing areas are to open in the city in 2025.The sites - opposite the central Ile Saint-Louis in the centre, by the Quai de Grenelle in the 15th arrondissement to the west, and at Bercy in the eastern 12th arrondissement - will be monitored by lifeguards and marked by buoys, Anne Hidalgo said on Sunday. Continue reading...

Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe is among prominent figures promoting the semi-formal collection on social mediaWimbledon is working with influencers to promote its clothing range for the first time in its 146-year history. In a break from tradition, the club has hired style influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers to appeal to a younger audience.Melissa Holdbrook-Akposoe, who is better known as Melissa's Wardrobe and is the rapper Stormzy's stylist, normally posts pictures of herself in Prada and Victoria Beckham. This week, the 32-year-old Londoner, who has 314,000 Instagram followers and is one of Britain's biggest fashion influencers, posted a photo of an 85 Oxford shirt from Wimbledon's new semi-formal" collection. Continue reading...

Officers under investigation for misconduct should be forced to hand over relevant information, says peerPolice officers under investigation for discipline offences should have to hand over data from their personal mobile phones, Doreen Lawrence has said.Concerns have been raised that government attempts to streamline and reform the system for rooting out bad officers are too slow and being delayed. Continue reading...

Possessing images of a child undertaking sexual acts has a starting sentence of 26 weeks, says obscenity lawyerThe BBC presenter accused of paying a 17-year-old for explicit photographs could face a six-month prison sentence if they are found guilty of a criminal offence, according to a leading obscenity lawyer.Myles Jackman, who has represented individuals accused of similar crimes, said possessing images of a child undertaking sexual acts had a starting sentence of 26 weeks in prison. The sentence could increase substantially if they are found to have shared those images. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Therapeutic Goods Administration documents reveal separate reports made in 2022 about two boys, aged six and seven, were false

As mechanical bird's 250th anniversary arrives, time and lack of regular use in lockdowns has taken tollUnderstandably, because it is 250 years old, the mechanical silver swan of Barnard Castle is not quite at its best.It does work but when it moves the neck has to be supported," said the curator Vicky Sturrs, also doing a visual impression of how the swan's neck would normally twist and dip down into a pool of water to grab fish. Continue reading...

Watch station at RAF Ibsley is thought to be structurally unique as well as historically importantIts walls are made of crumbling concrete and covered in graffiti, its windows shattered or stolen, and the landscape it was built to oversee has long since been dug up and carted away.But this derelict shell in a corner of rural Hampshire, once a wartime RAF watching station, is so rare and important that it must urgently be saved, according to building conservation campaigners. Continue reading...

With cruise ships decanting thousands of tourists in Athens, tough new controls have been imposed at the country's most visited siteIt's official: more than 25 centuries after it was built and nearly 200 years after it began attracting tourists, the Acropolis will adopt crowd control policies to ease the very modern plague of soaring visitor numbers.Unprecedented queues at the foot of the site, a dramatic rise in sightseers since the Covid-19 pandemic and unruly scenes at the gateway to the sanctuary have spurred the Greek government to take action. Continue reading...

Company made after-tax profits of 20m as wagers rise sharply across industryThe bookmaker Betfred has reported a jump in profits as gamblers' losses mounted after the end of coronavirus restrictions.The gambling company made profits after tax of nearly 20m in the year ending on 25 September 2022, up from just over 5m the year before, according to newly published accounts at Companies House. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Victoria Prentis's shareholdings not disclosed in registers despite potential for conflicts of interest

Exclusive: MPs found to hold in effect secret' stock in listed firms from banks to housebuilders

The traditional staple is losing the battle with more convenient and cheaper alternative foodsThe Dojima branch of Yoshinoya in Osaka is doing a roaring lunchtime trade. As soon as one diner vacates their counter seat, another takes their place, while staff take just seconds to assemble the next order of the restaurant's trademark dish: gydon.The Observer has joined the rush, ordering a set lunch of seasoned beef and onion on rice, and side dishes of pickled cabbage and miso soup - all for a extremely affordable 632 (3.46). Continue reading...

After years of deepening economic and military mistrust between the superpowers, they were finally back in a room togetherWhen Janet Yellen left Beijing on Sunday after four days of talks, the US treasury secretary in effect admitted that the delegation achieved its main objective simply by sitting down with top Chinese officials.After years of dangerous and deepening separation between the people running the world's two biggest economies, they were finally back in a room together. Continue reading...

Well-known' presenter reportedly accused of paying teenager more than 35,000 for explicit imagesThe BBC should now be given the space" to investigate allegations that an unnamed presenter paid a teenager for sexually explicit images, the culture secretary, Lucy Frazer, has said after holding urgent talks with the broadcaster's director general, Tim Davie.After speaking with him on the phone about the deeply concerning" allegations involving one of the BBC's presenters, she said he had assured her that the BBC are investigating swiftly and sensitively". Continue reading...

Study claims taxpayer is subsidising up to 90% of weapons companies' research and development budgetsThe UK government is wasting billions of pounds of taxpayers' money on corporate welfare" for arms manufacturers that is siphoned into massive shareholder returns, a new report claims.The study, by thinktank Common Wealth, suggests that long-term purchase orders and direct subsidies, which sometimes paid for more than 90% of private defence firms' research and development budgets, were allowing leading defence companies to give billions of pounds to their shareholders. Continue reading...

Conscripts will serve longer in attempt to improve current crop of strawberry soldiers' who bruise too easilyFor many people in Taiwan, the threat of conflict with China is a distant prospect that has been lingering in the air for some seven decades. Concern in the west that the Chinese Communist party, led by Xi Jinping in Beijing, is moving ever closer towards attempting to realise its goal of reunifying" China and Taiwan, by force if necessary, can seem hysterical.The only beneficiary of the increasing tension between China and Taiwan is the US, which is making money from selling arms to Taipei, jokes one resident of Kinmen, a small Taiwanese island a few miles from China's eastern coastline. Continue reading...

Fans of boyband brave heavy rain to gather at Seoul bookshop for Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTSThe K-pop megastars BTS have released their hotly anticipated memoir in South Korea, marking their 10th anniversary as a group.Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS is the group's first official book, and contains a chronological summary of their musical career as well as hints at their future endeavours. Continue reading...

The upcoming action could be averted if consultants received the same offer as junior doctors in ScotlandNHS consultants in England will call off two days of hugely disruptive strike action in hospitals if they are offered the same inflation plus pay deal made to junior doctors in Scotland, the Observer can reveal.In a significant move that puts further pressure on ministers before strikes by junior doctors and consultants south of the border in the coming days, a senior British Medical Association figure said that a 12.4% offer - and commitment to reform the annual pay review process - would be enough to halt the consultant strikes, which are set to take place on 20 and 21 July. Continue reading...

Care Quality Commission finds many services inadequate, needing improvement or shut over safety concernsNearly half of all NHS hospital maternity services covered so far by a national inspection programme have been rated as substandard, the Observer can reveal.The Care Quality Commission (CQC), which regulates health and care providers in England, began its maternity inspection programme last August after the Ockenden review into the Shropshire maternity scandal, which saw 300 babies left dead or brain damaged by inadequate NHS care. Continue reading...

American groups have helped to establish global web who share ideas and funding in bid to restrict gay and trans rightsWhen the US evangelical preacher and anti-LGBTQ+ crusader Scott Lively landed in Uganda in 2009 to warn of the gay agenda", he was arriving after a series of culture-war defeats at home.More and more US states were recognizing same-sex marriage, and opinion polls were showing fewer and fewer Americans objected. Lively was there to offer Uganda's lawmakers some advice on how to drum up outrage. Emphasize the issue of the homosexual recruitment of children," he advised. Continue reading...

Former ministers could have their pensions docked, Angela Rayner will say in speech on broken' standards systemFormer government ministers will be fined or have their pensions docked if they breach tough new rules on lobbying, to be proposed by Labour this week.In a major speech on cleaning up politics, Labour's deputy leader and shadow chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Angela Rayner, will spell out plans to end the revolving door" culture that currently allows ministers to switch from government posts into lucrative lobbying roles related to their former ministerial responsibilities. Continue reading...

Shocking figures gathered by the Observer show social care provision is dictated by money, not needNew children's care homes are being disproportionately placed in cheaper and more deprived parts of England, according to an Observer investigation. .Over the past five years the number of children's care homes located in areas with the cheapest house sale prices has risen almost three times faster than in the most expensive places. Among the regions with big increases in homes was the north-west, including in parts of Blackpool and Burnley and other northern cities such as Bradford. Children's services directors warned that the trends were driven by the blatant profiteering" of private care providers, targeting cheap housing and local labour. Continue reading...

Shocking to learn politicians and public servants were basically just lying to us', Andrew Wilkie says

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UK capital as huge generator of wealth' under threat as a third of visual artists struggle to pay for studiosWhat makes Britain's capital city so magnetic? Familiar landmarks? The nightlife? Or its financial, fashion and art trades? Maybe. But behind the glamour and money a network of artists is giving London the crucial appeal of a place where new things happen, while working on the edge of poverty.A survey released on 13 July is to reveal just how close many of London's visual artists are to giving up on a career that has pushed them to the bottom of the pile. Close to a third of those asked said lack of funds might force them out within five years. And just under half said they cannot afford to build savings or pay into a pension plan. Continue reading...

Action could be directed at Rishi Sunak's keynote speech, seen as vital in run-up to general election campaignTeachers are preparing to target Rishi Sunak's make-or-break Tory conference speech with strike action this autumn, amid growing cabinet support for a compromise to end months of public sector walkouts.Should ministers fail to support a deal that would hand teachers a 6.5% increase this year, all major teaching unions in England are increasingly confident that their members will back more strikes when the new school year begins. Continue reading...

La Jornada said the body of Luis Martin Sanchez Iniguez was found on the outskirts of Tepic, capital of the coastal stateA journalist from Mexican national newspaper La Jornada has been found dead in the Pacific coast state of Nayarit, the publication has said.La Jornada reported on Saturday the body of Luis Martin Sanchez Iniguez was found on the outskirts of the state capital, Tepic. Continue reading...

Volodymyr Zelenskiy announces return of Mariupol commanders from Turkey and Rishi Sunak reiterates UK's ban on cluster munitions Continue reading...

British broadcaster says it will continue to provide impartial news after being accused by Bashar al-Assad's government of politicised coverageSyria's information ministry says it has cancelled the accreditation of two local journalists working for the BBC, accusing the British broadcaster of false" and politicised" coverage.The accreditations of an unidentified correspondent and a camera operator had been revoked following subjective and false information and reports" on Syria, the ministry said on its website on Saturday. It described other BBC reports as politicised". Continue reading...

Energy security secretary Grant Shapps will this week outline plans for Britain's atomic power's renaissance and 2050 emissions commitmentIn London's Science Museum sit full-size turbine engines that tell the story of 300 years of steam power. This week, the museum will play host to the government's dreams for a new industrial renaissance - this time for nuclear energy.The secretary of state for energy security and net zero, Grant Shapps, has chosen the venue to set out his ambitions for the UK's nuclear programme. He is expected to illuminate the path towards the government's existing commitment to build 24 gigawatts of nuclear power capacity - the equivalent of a quarter of Britain's total generating capacity - by 2050. Continue reading...

76-year-old pays touching tribute to audience as he performs final date of huge tour in SwedenSir Elton John has told his fans they will remain in his head, heart and soul" as he closed the final show of his big farewell tour in Sweden in spectacular fashion.The 76-year-old has been travelling around the globe performing his Farewell Yellow Brick Road show since 2018, and his second night at the Tele2 Arena in Stockholm finally brought the 330-date run to a close. Continue reading...

Moscow says men's return to Ukraine is a direct violation' of prisoner swap agreement

President Zelenskiy flies men back to Ukraine as Russia says Turkey has violated terms

Dozens more injured in state notorious for political violence during polls to elect local leadersAt least seven people were killed and dozens more injured in India after clashes over local polls in West Bengal, a state notorious for political violence during election campaigns.India's ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) has in recent years worked hard to gain a toehold in West Bengal - ruled by a Communist party for much of its history - to expand its reach beyond its Hindi-speaking northern heartlands. Continue reading...