World news | The Guardian

Two men, aged 33 and 33, had been arrested on suspicion of murder after nine-year-old was shot in her homePolice have released on bail two men arrested on suspicion of murdering nine-year-old Olivia Pratt-Korbel, who was shot dead in her home in Liverpool.A 36-year-old man from Huyton was arrested on Friday and a 33-year-old man from Dovecot was arrested on Thursday in an operation involving armed officers. Continue reading...

Home Office figures also show spending on asylum has risen by 50% in two years and claims are highest for two decadesWomen and children were among a group of people brought ashore by an RNLI lifeboat on Saturday as the number of people crossing the Channel this year by small boats neared 25,000.About 40 people were brought to Dungeness in Kent before they were taken by coach to a Home Office processing facility. Continue reading...

Fellow riders remember 19-year-old motorcyclist killed in collision, allegedly by hit-and-run driver who then left UKA group of motorcyclists gathered outside the US embassy in London to hold a “rev-off” and say prayers on the third anniversary of the death of fellow motorcyclist Harry Dunn.The 19-year-old was killed in a collision with a car outside the US military base RAF Croughton in Northamptonshire. Continue reading...

Artist was inspired by ‘them Greek statues of old’ and much-ridiculed Cristiano Ronaldo bustHistory’s greatest people have long been immortalised in statue form, from Julius Caesar to Admiral Lord Nelson. Now, a Birmingham artist has rendered four of his own city’s men in bronze.Local artist Tat Vision unveiled a statue of “four lads in jeans” outside Birmingham New Street station on Saturday – in reference to a viral internet meme sparked from a photograph taken a few years ago. Continue reading...

MoD donates lightweight autonomous vehicles and skills to help make Ukrainian coastline safe for grain exports

US says ambassador-at-large will engage with other Arctic nations, Indigenous groups and other stakeholdersThe US has said it will create a position of Arctic ambassador to step up diplomacy as Russia and China increase their presence in waters opened up by climate breakdown.The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, will soon name an ambassador-at-large who will engage with other Arctic nations, Indigenous groups and other stakeholders, state department spokesperson Vedant Patel said. Continue reading...

Aleksandar Vučić admits ‘violation of minority rights’ while citing fears of clashes at LGBTQ+ event in BelgradeSerbia will not allow a pan-European LGBTQ+ Pride event to take place in Belgrade next month, the president has said, citing threats from rightwing extremists and fears of clashes.The Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, announced the decision to cancel the EuroPride celebration on 12-18 September during a news conference where he also proposed extending the term of Serbia’s prime minister, who identifies as a lesbian. Continue reading...

Dealerships in UK report drop in demand for BMWs and Audis and more interest in used modelsDrivers all over the UK are downsizing to cheaper, less prestigious and more fuel-efficient vehicles and banking the cash difference as the cost of living crisis continues.BMWs and Audis are out – instead, dealerships report an increase in demand for used cars, particularly mid-range models such as Vauxhall Corsa, Volkswagen Golf and Ford Focus in the past two months. There has also been a drop in the number of people seeking to lease vehicles, with those who do so wanting cheaper deals. Continue reading...

Observer investigation of firm supplying workers for Boohoo, PrettyLittleThing and other major brands uncovers cases where it withheld wagesA jobs agency that supplies warehouse workers to fast fashion and high street brands repeatedly underpaid staff and deprived them of holiday pay, an Observer investigation has found.Workers hired on zero-hours contracts to help process orders for PrettyLittleThing, its parent company Boohoo, The Very Group, Sainsbury’s and Currys are among those who claim to have had wages withheld by Mach Recruitment. Continue reading...

Caroline Mothershill, 37, to appear in court after man’s body was found following fire at property in StratfordA woman has been charged with murder and arson after a man’s body was found following a fire at a home in Stratford, east London.Caroline Mothershill, 37, of Stratford, was charged on Friday and is due to appear in custody at Thames magistrates court on Saturday, Scotland Yard said. Continue reading...

Scotland Yard says police were in process of detaining man on Kingston Bridge in south-west LondonA man in his 20s has died after falling into the River Thames while being arrested by police.Following a routine police patrol on Friday police were flagged down on Kingston Bridge at around 10.30pm to intervene in a verbal altercation which involved a man and a woman who were known to each other. Continue reading...

Olympic champion reveals she is being treated for sepsis, kidney infection and fever after miscarriageThe Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington has had emergency surgery after a miscarriage.The former competitive swimmer, 33, shared a lengthy post on Instagram describing how she discovered she had lost her pregnancy during a 12-week scan on Tuesday. Continue reading...

US state to spend up to $20m to bring women to its abortion clinics from parts of country where procedure is now outlawedCalifornia is preparing to spend up to $20m (£17m) to bring women from other states to its abortion clinics, a policy aimed at increasing access to a procedure that has been outlawed or restricted in many states since the US supreme court overturned Roe v Wade.California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, had previously restricted the money in the state’s “abortion practical support fund” for in-state travel only, saying “we have to be realistic about what we can absorb”. That decision surprised pro-choice advocates, especially since Newsom, a Democrat, had vowed to make California a sanctuary for women in other states seeking abortions. Continue reading...

A ‘kiss and fly’ farewell by the Stansted terminal costs £7 and two-thirds of major airports have raised feesDrop-off fees have increased at two-thirds of the UK’s major airports since 2019, according to research.Sixteen of the 22 airports analysed have introduced or raised charges for dropping off passengers in the past three years, an RAC investigation found. Continue reading...

Greens call for immediate pay rises for minimum wage earners; 86 Covid deaths reported. This blog is now closed

Nadhim Zahawi says energy price hike will be ‘really hard’ for middle-earners, as well as society’s most vulnerablePeople earning around £45,000 a year, as well as those on benefits, could need government help to pay their energy bills this winter, the chancellor has said.Britain’s energy industry regulator, Ofgem, on Friday confirmed an 80% rise in the consumer price cap from October that will take a typical household’s gas and electricity bill from £1,971 to £3,549 a year. Continue reading...

Greeks take their seas seriously, with the construction of one of the world’s biggest sewage treatment plants a real game-changerThe shimmering waters along the Athenian riviera offer a welcome respite in the summer heat. In one of Europe’s most congested cities the sight of ever more beaches attaining blue flag status – a mascot of water quality – has heightened the sense of relief that the coastal location affords. For those who flock to its coves, rocks and sandy stretches, the shoreline that extends from the Greek capital’s southern suburbs has become the perfect antidote to the rising temperatures that have accompanied climate breakdown.It was not always so.Tell us what you think about the Guardian’s climate reporting – it takes just two minutes Continue reading...

Anthony Albanese announces the NBA legend will be part of the effort to mobilise support in the lead-up to a referendum

Welfare group says breeding numbers are still too high and surpass the industry’s capacity to rehabilitate the dogs

Shadi Al Daoud says chance for family to restart their lives on NSW Central Coast with support of local church is a dream come true

Lawyers for Wikileaks founder, who is indicted on 17 espionage charges in US, say he faces persecution for his ‘political opinions’Lawyers for WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange have filed an appeal against his extradition to the US, as the United Nations human rights chief lends support to the Australian’s cause.Assange, 51, has been indicted on 17 espionage charges in the US and one charge of computer misuse over WikiLeaks’ publication of thousands of military and diplomatic documents leaked by whistleblower Chelsea Manning. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 175 years in prison. Continue reading...

Medical officials say three children among those killed as fighting resumes in northern Ethiopia days after a truce collapsedAn airstrike on a children’s playground has killed at least seven people in the capital of Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, medical officials there said, in the first such attack after a four-month-old ceasefire collapsed this week.The officials said three children were among the dead but a federal government spokesperson denied any civilian casualties. Continue reading...

Zelenskiy says situation at Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant remains ‘very risky’; UN inspectors reportedly set to visit facility in days

Experts say 80% price cap increase will plunge people into destitution and cause avoidable deathsMillions of households are bracing for a winter catastrophe of rising energy bills that experts say will plunge people into destitution and cause an increase in avoidable deaths without urgent government support.After Britain’s energy industry regulator confirmed an 80% rise in the consumer price cap from October that will take a typical household’s gas and electricity bill to £3,549 a year, there were stark warnings about its potentially devastating effects. Continue reading...

Experts say the trend in New York, Chicago and San Francisco appears to be linked to immunity and behavior changesMonkeypox cases in some large US cities appear to be declining, matching trends seen in Europe, and experts are cautiously optimistic the outbreak may have peaked in places hit hardest by the virus.The optimism comes just as US officials on Friday said there’s enough of a supply of monkeypox vaccine available now – though the shots aren’t getting to some of the people who need the protection the most. Continue reading...

Keir Starmer praises an ‘unrivalled social democratic thinker’ who was vital to party regaining power in 1997Keir Starmer has paid tribute to former Labour politician Giles Radice, after reports he has died aged 85.The party leader praised the peer and former MP as a “wise and kind man” and “unrivalled social democratic thinker”. Continue reading...

Ashton has discussed her difficulties in getting a series commissioned, including being shouted at by a producerThe actor Zawe Ashton has revealed that she has suffered incidents of “bullying, demeaning and gaslighting” during her career.The 38-year-old, best known for her role in Manchester-based comedy series Fresh Meat, stars in new Regency period drama Mr Malcolm’s List. Continue reading...

Students were then turned over to commander of the local army base who ordered their killingsSix of the 43 Mexican students forcibly disappeared in 2014 were allegedly kept alive in a warehouse for days, and then turned over to the commander of the local army base who ordered their killings, the Mexican government official leading the Truth Commission said Friday.The interior undersecretary, Alejandro Encinas, made the revelation with little fanfare during a lengthy defense of the commission’s report, first released a week earlier. At that time, despite declaring the disappearances a “state crime” and saying that the army watched it happen without intervening, Encinas made no mention of six students being turned over to Col José Rodríguez Pérez. Continue reading...

Business Council of Australia also calls for migrant intake boost as Greens set up Senate standoff to raise wages in female-dominated industries

The 850 metre-long strip in the innercity suburb of Fitzroy was the only street in Australia to make Time Out’s 2022 list. So what makes it so special?

Giovanna Boniface received an $8,000 bill from Avis after driving roughly 300km around Toronto and surrounding areaCar rental companies have long earned a reputation for gouging customers, penny-pinching on frills and finding new and unscrupulous ways to charge for add-ons.But a Canadian woman says she was billed thousands in extra mileage after a rental company claimed she drove a distance nearly the circumference of the Earth over a three-day period. Continue reading...

War’s six months of horror; shelling cuts Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant from Ukraine grid; five predictions for conflict’s next six months

Robert Hendy-Freegard, subject of Puppet Master: Hunting the Ultimate Conman documentary, may face attempted murder chargesA British conman who was the subject of a Netflix documentary is on the run and facing possible attempted murder charges in France after injuring two police officers while fleeing a raid, local officials have said.Robert Hendy-Freegard had been illegally breeding dogs while living in the French village of Vidaillat, according to the local mayor, Martine Laporte. Continue reading...

James Purnell, a minister under Gordon Brown, says corporation feared his appointment would anger Boris Johnson’s governmentA former BBC executive has claimed he was blocked from a top job at the broadcaster due to fears his background in Labour politics would anger Boris Johnson’s government.James Purnell spent almost a decade at the BBC in a variety of executive roles, before leaving two years ago after the arrival of Tim Davie as director general. He had previously been an MP and served as a cabinet minister in Gordon Brown’s government. Continue reading...

Tory MPs are jittery while Keir Starmer is gaining traction with his plan for a price freeze

This live blog has now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war hereWhen Mikhail Sokolov signed up to work for the FSB security services, he never imagined his journey would end here: in a crowded refugee camp on the outskirts of a sleepy town in the rural Netherlands.“The last six years were a rollercoaster. I am happy I am no longer in the claws of the FSB,” the former FSB informant and staffer for the jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny’s anti-corruption network said in an interview with the Guardian this week.[The new names] should perpetuate the memory of significant historical events of Ukraine, as well as famous figures and heroes who glorified Ukraine and fought for the independence of our state.” Continue reading...

Watchdogs say six-year investigation had determined no grounds for action against unnamed individualsCity regulators have cleared former bosses of HBOS of misconduct in the lead-up to its near-collapse in 2008, despite previously having blamed the bank’s board for its failure.The Bank of England and Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) said on Friday that they had concluded “rigorous and forensic investigations” into unnamed former managers, after gathering more than 2m documents, interviewing former bank managers, and undertaking “substantial analysis” of the bosses’ roles and responsibilities at what was then the country’s biggest mortgage lender and savings institution. Continue reading...

Some MPs backing leadership frontrunner showing signs of jitters over lack of response to soaring billsThe Conservatives were in disarray over their response to the energy crisis on Friday, with some Tory MPs backing Liz Truss showing signs of jitters over her refusal to spell out how she would help households.The frontrunner to be prime minister in just over a week’s time said she would “ensure people get the support needed to get through these tough times” but had no new suggestions about how much or who would get assistance, with the average energy bill set to hit £3,549 from October. Continue reading...

Exclusive: London mayor treated former commissioner unfairly, Sir Tom Winsor’s inquiry will findAn official inquiry will find that the mayor of London wrongly ousted Cressida Dick as commissioner of the Metropolitan police, the Guardian has learned.The findings come from a special commission conducted by Sir Tom Winsor, the former chief inspector of constabulary, after Dick’s decision to resign in February. Continue reading...

Government to review aid package as energy companies who seek share of surcharge post billion-euro earningsThe German government is under pressure to radically revise or scrap a controversial new gas levy on already stretched consumers after it emerged that some energy companies seeking a share of the surcharge have posted billion-euro earnings.Robert Habeck, the economy minister, said his ministry acknowledged the angry response to the surcharge and would urgently review the aid package in an attempt to prevent gas importers whose businesses have profited from recent energy inflation from benefiting from it. Continue reading...

The boys, thought to be brothers, were on holiday at the Eiserbachsee in Simmerath, near AachenGerman police say they are investigating the death of two British boys who drowned in a lake in western Germany on Thursday evening.The boys, aged seven and nine, were pulled from the Eiserbachsee near Aachen after their parents reported them missing. Doctors fought overnight to save their lives but they were pronounced dead in hospital in the early hours of Friday morning. Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed, you can read more on this story hereLiz Truss may trigger article 16 proceedings against the European Union within days of becoming prime minister, as a legal war with Brussels looms over the Northern Ireland protocol.The foreign secretary and Tory leadership frontrunner is understood to have received fresh advice from trade and legal experts about invoking the emergency clause contained in the post-Brexit deal. Continue reading...

Chongqing authorities criticised for move as area faces heatwave, wildfires, severe drought and power outagesResidents of the south-western Chinese city of Chongqing have been queueing on the streets to be tested for Covid, despite extreme temperatures that have soared past 40C (104F) this week.Photos posted on Chinese social media also showed health workers testing residents while wearing full hazmat suits in the heatwave. Other images showed that the tests were being carried out while bushfires raged in the background, prompting descriptions of the situation as “apocalyptic”. Continue reading...

As Ofgem raises the price cap hugely again, people explain how they will struggle to copeThe latest energy price cap increase by the regulator Ofgem threatens millions of households with an 80% energy bill rise from 1 October.As the new price cap for a household with “typical consumption” on a dual-fuel tariff paying by direct debit has risen to £3,549 per year – and is forecast to jump to £5,341 between April and June 2023 – three people from across the country explain what the latest price rises will mean for them as the cold weather approaches. Continue reading...

Party hits out at charity’s factcheckers after being accused of miscalculating households’ winter energy useLabour is at odds with Full Fact, the independent factchecking charity, after it claimed the party’s energy price cap freeze was underfunded by at least £5bn.The party said Full Fact had got its sums wrong, saying the charity did not understand how direct debit works. Continue reading...

Strictly winner tells Edinburgh TV festival she had to break through ‘countless barriers’ to succeedThe actor Rose Ayling-Ellis has said she is tired of playing the “token deaf character” in shows and says the TV industry needs to have more realistic storylines for disabled people.The Strictly Come Dancing winner also said she felt enormous pressure as the most prominent deaf actor in the UK. Continue reading...

Multimillion-pound programme to give Rooney’s account of libel case against Rebekah VardyColeen Rooney has secured a multimillion-pound deal with Disney for the rights of a tell-all documentary based on the “Wagatha Christie” saga.The programme, which will detail her high court case against Rebekah Vardy, will appear on the streaming service Disney+ after a bidding war with Amazon Prime, Netflix and Discovery. Continue reading...

Man, who has no criminal record, says Home Office is unfairly targeting Albanians as it fast-tracks removalsAn Albanian man who was taken to Harmondsworth immigration removal centre near Heathrow airport last week has been told he faces imminent deportation, the day after the Home Office announced plans to fast-track the removal of refused Albanian asylum seekers.The man, who claimed asylum in the UK a decade ago, has no criminal record, has never absconded and says he has consistently complied with immigration requirements by reporting fortnightly to the Home Office. His two children were born in the UK and have leave to remain. Continue reading...

Actor tells Edinburgh TV festival audience that media mogul would find him ‘tiresome and boring’Brian Cox has said Logan Roy, the character he plays in Succession, would “hate him” if the pair ever met.“I have a lot of respect for Logan,” said the Scottish actor, who is filming his fourth series as the foul-mouthed media mogul. Continue reading...