World news | The Guardian

Early results give João Lourenço more than 60% of the vote despite surge for rival party UnitaEarly results from elections in Angola have put the incumbent president, João Lourenço, and the ruling People’s Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) ahead.The polls are the most tightly contested vote in the country’s democratic history, and have been described by analysts as an “existential moment”. Continue reading...

More than three-quarters have claims approved, as figures show big rise in Albanians crossing ChannelThe proportion of refugees granted asylum in the UK has reached a 32-year high, as figures show the number of Albanians crossing the Channel in small boats has increased substantially over the last few months.Despite threats to send those reaching the UK by irregular means to Rwanda, the Home Office disclosed that more than three-quarters (76%) of asylum seekers had their claims for asylum, leave or humanitarian protection approved in the year ending June 2022. Continue reading...

Derek Skipper achieves highest possible grade – level 5 – in foundation maths and is ‘very pleased indeed’

Returning to previous grade distribution after two years of teacher assessment masks a slight improvement on 2019This summer’s GCSE results are the first from examinations in three years. Results are significantly lower than they were last year, but we really shouldn’t read anything into that. After two years of grades increasing with the use of teacher-assessed grades, the government signalled its intentions early that we should begin the process of returning to pre-pandemic grade distributions. In September, the qualifications regulator, Ofqual, announced that results would be around the midpoint of those seen in 2019 and 2021.This is exactly what we have seen in today’s data. The proportion of entries from 16-year-olds awarded a grade 4 or above is down from 79% last year to 75% today, and the proportion getting the higher grades (grade 7 and above), which peaked at 30% in 2021, has fallen to 27% this year. Continue reading...

Airlines have cut 290,000 seats from schedules, while drivers advised to ‘pack their patience’Travellers hoping to get away for the bank holiday weekend by road, rail and air are being advised to adjust their travel plans or “pack their patience” in anticipation of traffic jams, train disruptions and plane seat cancellations.According to aviation data from Cirium, about 290,000 seats have been cut from August bank holiday flight schedules in recent weeks. Outbound flights for the approaching weekend are 21% below 2019 levels, and approximately 900 inbound flights between Friday and Tuesday have been cancelled. Continue reading...

Pupils tell of struggle to study in lockdown as top grades fall in England following period of grade inflationWhen Oscar dos Santos opened his GCSE results at Birmingham’s City academy, he ran whooping through the school hall. “I got a nine!” he screamed. “I got a nine!”It had been a long journey for the 16-year-old, who spent the best part of two academic years studying at home during the Covid lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, and was now part of the first cohort to sit GCSE exams in two years. Continue reading...

Company that produces 60% of country’s supplies says high energy prices are forcing planned shutdownThe government has urged CO producers “to do everything they can” to meet food and drink industry demand, after one of the UK’s largest suppliers confirmed it was going to pause production at a key factory.CF Industries, the private US company that accounts for 60% of the UK’s CO supplies, said soaring energy prices meant it would have to “temporarily halt” production at its remaining UK ammonia plant, which creates the gas as a byproduct. Continue reading...

Hospitality sector in particular is finding it hard to renew contracts, with some asked for £10,000 depositMajor energy firms are refusing to supply small businesses out of concern that they could go bust, while some are demanding £10,000 up front, business owners and industry experts have told the Guardian.In the latest sign of the deepening energy crisis, business owners said they were struggling to find a supplier in the run-up to the busy October period for renewing gas and electricity contracts, leaving them facing “extortionate” bills or demands for a deposit. Continue reading...

Former interim chief, who helped develop voluntary contributions strategy, returns to companyThe Guardian’s parent company has appointed Anna Bateson as its new chief executive, shortly after the business announced its best financial results in recent years.Bateson previously spent four years at Guardian Media Group (GMG), where she helped develop the company’s voluntary contributions strategy which has seen millions of readers contribute towards the cost of running the news organisation without it installing a paywall. Continue reading...

Legislation that says consent cannot be assumed by default or silence was drawn up after ‘wolf pack’ caseSpain’s “only yes means yes” legislation on sexual consent is expected to become law when it is put to the vote in congress on Thursday.The law, under which consent must be affirmative and cannot be assumed to have been given by default or silence, was drawn up in the wake of the “wolf pack” gang rape in 2016. Continue reading...

Workers inundated with calls as people ‘have to choose between feeding themselves and feeding pets’The RSPCA has recorded a 24% increase in pets being dumped this year as shelters report they are “drowning in animals” amid the cost of living crisis.Workers are being inundated with calls from owners struggling to feed and care for their pets. Between January and July this year, the charity received 22,098 animal abandonment reports, up from 18,375 in the same period last year, while in the first five months of 2022, 49% more rabbits, 14% more cats and 3% more dogs were abandoned. Continue reading...

North Sea’s biggest oil and gas producer enjoys jump in fossil fuel prices following invasion of UkraineThe North Sea’s biggest oil and gas producer has become the latest big energy company to report huge earnings on the back of rising wholesale prices, with half-year profits rising 12-fold to $1.5bn (£1.3bn).Harbour Energy said it would hand an extra $200m to shareholders on the back of the bumper revenues, which were boosted by the jump in fossil fuel prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as extra income linked with its merger with Premier Oil. Continue reading...

Some asylum seekers have received letters saying government intends to remove them, the Guardian has learnedThe Home Office is planning a new deportation flight to Rwanda, the Guardian has learned.Some newly arrived asylum seekers in hotels have received letters from the department telling them their asylum claims are deemed inadmissible for consideration in the UK. Continue reading...

Vicky Bowman and her Burmese husband reportedly detained and charged with immigration offencesAuthorities in Myanmar have detained Britain’s former ambassador to the country in Yangon, a source said.Vicky Bowman and her husband, Htein Lin, a Burmese artist and former political prisoner, were arrested on Wednesday and charged with immigration offences, Reuters reported. They were remanded in custody and were being sent to Insein prison, it added. Continue reading...

Itaru Nakamura says fresh start needed after assassination ‘to ensure this never happens again’Japan’s most senior police officer has said he will resign to take responsibility for security lapses leading up to the fatal shooting last month of the former prime minister, Shinzo Abe.Itaru Nakamura said on Thursday that he intended to step down as head of the national police agency to give the organisation a “fresh start”, weeks after Abe was gunned down while making an election campaign speech. Continue reading...

Anthony Albanese expected to announce details of investigation into former PM’s actions on Friday as more questions emerge over his secret portfolios

Police barred until 1 September from arresting former PM, whose supporters gathered outside courtA Pakistani court has barred police from arresting the former prime minister Imran Khan through the end of the month, officials said.Khan is accused of making verbal threats to police officers and a judge in a speech at a rally over the weekend. The latest development on Thursday comes days after the government of the prime minister, Shahbaz Sharif, levelled terrorism charges against Khan, escalating political tensions and drawing condemnation from Khan’s Tehreek-e-Insaf party. Continue reading...

Councillor to contest for third time in Sandringham with backing of group that campaigned for independent federal MP Zoe Daniel

Domestic violence charity says social media users ‘misunderstood’ the message behind its campaign featuring a man accompanied by a request for a donation for its prevention programs

Ofgem says company will refund and compensate 11,275 customers after it sent them the wrong ratesShell has agreed to pay half a million pounds for overcharging thousands of prepayment meter customers on default tariffs over the past three years.The energy giant’s consumer arm, Shell Energy Retail, will use the cash to refund and compensate 11,275 customers after it discovered it had sent the wrong rates to users’ meters. Continue reading...

Joint inquiry will examine care provided to Shiralee Tilberoo and Vlasta Wylucki and their supervision

‘Just close this place down,’ witness tells inquiry examining sexual abuse allegations at Ashley Youth Detention Centre

Canberra service examined 58 samples in August with nearly a third of potential users discarding drugs once made aware of what they actually contained

Investigation into attacks by Bashar al-Assad’s forces that left 700 people dead could help bring justice for victimsThe “startling display of violence” meted out by Syrian government forces against civilians in the town of Daraya 10 years ago has been laid bare in the first detailed investigation into the massacre.At least 700 people were killed when forces loyal to president Bashar al-Assad stormed the town between 24 and 26 August 2012. Troops went door to door killing and detaining men, women and children. Terrified people sheltered in basements. Continue reading...

Jacqueline Taylor tells court she was running desk alone with 96 patients on afternoon Aishwarya Aswath presented

One million Rohingya remain in Bangladesh refugee camps and the persecuted group has little hope of returning to MyanmarIt has been five years since Myanmar’s military launched a campaign of massacres that killed about 7,000 Rohingya in a single month and compelled 700,000 to flee for the Bangladeshi border.Since the first major military operation against the Rohingya minority in 1978, which forced out 200,000, the Rohingya have been collectively stripped of their citizenship and targeted by increasing violence and discrimination that culminated in the “clearance operations” that began on 25 August 2017. Those operations were years in the planning, according to military documents uncovered by the Commission for International Justice and Accountability and sent to the international criminal court. Continue reading...

WHO hails west African country as first in world to stamp out Guinea worm, lymphatic filariasis, sleeping sickness and trachomaTogo has been praised by the World Health Organization for becoming the first country in the world to eliminate four neglected tropical diseases.The WHO presented the west African country with an outstanding achievement award this week for eliminating Guinea worm, lymphatic filariasis, sleeping sickness and trachoma in just 11 years. Continue reading...

Tributes paid to Dominic Abelen, the first New Zealander to die in the conflict, who was on leave without pay from the defence forceA New Zealand soldier who was on leave without pay from his country’s army when he was killed in Ukraine has become the latest foreign fighter and first New Zealander to die in the war.Friends of Cpl Dominic Abelen, 30, told the Guardian he had enlisted with Ukraine’s international legion, joining thousands of soldiers who have travelled to the conflict from around the world in the months since Ukraine’s government called for volunteers. Continue reading...

Man became a top 10 player at the Star Gold Coast after being banned from Melbourne and Sydney casinos

Women less interested in ‘macho competitiveness of violence’ in conflict, says authorA new book has shed light on the little-known history of nearly 200 female journalists from 29 countries who covered the Spanish civil war.While Ernest Hemingway and Arthur Koestler were among writers who made their names reporting on the war, Bernardo Díaz Nosty’s 900-page Periodistas extranjeras en la Guerra Civil (Foreign Female Journalists in the Civil War) uncovers the story of 183 women whose writing gave a new slant on the 1936-39 conflict, distinct from the masculine and bellicose tales of life on the frontline. Continue reading...

Filings cover period ex-chancellor worked for controversial clients including Saudi governmentThe former chancellor Philip Hammond’s private consultancy has generated almost £1m in profits while working for controversial clients including the government of Saudi Arabia, company filings suggest.Accounts filed this month suggest the Conservative peer has built a lucrative business since leaving government in 2019 providing “advisory services” to an array of private sector and foreign government clients. Continue reading...

Airline’s loss halves on back of revival in travel as company announces share buyback of up to $400m

It remains unlikely the public will ever see the scrapped $90m film, with the directors saying ‘it cannot be released in its current state’Warner Bros Discovery are reportedly holding a series of discreet “funeral screenings” for their never-to-be released DC film Batgirl, starring Leslie Grace, Michael Keaton and Brendan Fraser.The Hollywood Reporter confirmed with multiple sources that a select few who worked on the film, including cast, crew and studio executives, would be attending the screenings this week on the Warner Bros lot in California. One source described them as “funeral screenings”, as it is likely the footage will be stored forever and never shown to the public. Continue reading...

PM office says journalists cannot operate in the Pacific as they do in other countries, accusing Australia’s ABC of ‘racial profiling’ in China coverageThe Solomon Islands government has reportedly threatened to ban foreign journalists from entering the Pacific nation if they are not “respectful” or if they engage in “racial profiling” in stories about the country’s ties with China.The office of the prime minister, Manasseh Sogavare, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that overseas journalists needed to understand they could not operate in the Pacific the same way they did in other countries, the ABC has reported. Continue reading...

Magistrate says teenager ‘has shown no contrition’ but accepts his prospects for rehabilitation are ‘strong’

Company’s owner, Centrica, says extra support will begin in autumn and last for the ‘duration of the energy crisis’British Gas has announced it will donate 10% of its profits to help its poorer customers manage rising gas and electricity bills for the “duration of the energy crisis”.Ahead of an expected rise in the price cap on energy on Friday, the company’s owner, Centrica, said it would donate £12m this autumn into an existing support fund. Grants of £250 to £750 would be given to poorer customers, and the pledge to donate 10% of profits every six months would last for the duration of the energy crisis “backdated to the start of 2022”, it added. Continue reading...

Tory leadership candidates called on to commit to fixing growing regional disparities in educationThis year’s GCSE results for England and Wales are expected to confirm a widening north-south education gap, prompting a prediction that the government will miss one of its key levelling-up targets if it continues to hold back pupils in the north of England.A coalition of school leaders, charities and the Northern Powerhouse Partnership has written to the Conservative leadership candidates urging them to commit to fixing growing regional disparities in education. Continue reading...

Rocket attack in Chaplyne wounds 50 people as country marks six months since Moscow’s invasionAt least 22 people have been killed and 50 wounded in a Russian rocket strike on a Ukrainian railway station, as the country marked six months since Moscow’s invasion on a sombre independence day overshadowed by warnings of further “brutal” attacks.Addressing the UN late on Wednesday, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the rockets struck a train in a station in the town of Chaplyne, about 145km (90 miles) west of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. Continue reading...

US to send anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, counter-drone defences and radar equipment as Zelenskiy praises ‘unwavering support’Joe Biden has announced nearly $3bn in new military assistance to Ukraine, including anti-aircraft missiles, artillery, counter-drone defences and radar equipment.It is the biggest tranche of US military aid to date, bringing to over $13bn the total the US has supplied or pledged to Kyiv under the Biden administration. The new equipment, however, will have to be ordered by defence manufacturers and will not be delivered for months or years. US officials said it represented a longer-term investment in Ukrainian security. Continue reading...

Joseph Nee, 35, was out on licence and serving prison sentence when gunman shot at him in streetDetectives are increasingly confident of identifying the name and hiding place of the gunman who shot dead a nine-year-old girl in her Liverpool home, as the intended victim is revealed to be a criminal on release from prison with convictions for drugs and burglary.The Guardian understands that police believe Joseph Nee is a “well-established organised crime group member” with connections to drugs. Continue reading...

Dawn Walker, who says she fled domestic abuse, is arrested and accused of stealing friend’s identity to cross borderAn acclaimed writer who says she fled Canada to escape domestic abuse is to be extradited from the US, amid accusations she faked her own death, kidnapped her son and illegally crossed the American border.Dawn Walker, an Indigenous author from Okanese Cree Nation in the province of Saskatchewan, was due to be driven to the border on Wednesday by US officials and handed over to Canadian police, more than a month after she first went missing. Continue reading...

Show offers young men insight into female counterparts, says Kevin Lygo, as channel adds Big Brother to rosterCynics have suggested Love Island’s popularity is built on the opportunity to watch contestants walking around a villa in swimwear. But according to ITV’s boss, the show’s real appeal for young men is the insight it offers into the mentality of women.Kevin Lygo, who oversees ITV’s programme output, said the hit dating show allows straight men to hear conversations they are usually excluded from. Continue reading...

Positive results in first ‘rigorous’ trial investigating compound’s effect on alcohol useThe most rigorous test yet of psilocybin as a treatment for alcoholism has found that the compound in psychedelic mushrooms helped heavy drinkers cut back or quit entirely.Psilocybin, found in several species of mushrooms, can cause hours of vivid hallucinations. Indigenous people have used it in healing rituals and scientists are exploring whether it can ease depression or help longtime smokers quit. Continue reading...

This live blog has now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war hereThe UN has said it is “very concerned” about plans by Russian-backed authorities to hold trials for captured Ukrainian soldiers in Mariupol.Pro-Russian officials appear to be installing metal cages in a hall in Mariupol as part of plans to establish what they were calling an “international tribunal”, a UN rights office spokesperson said, adding that such a process could itself amount to a war crime. Continue reading...

Former Newsnight presenter says former No 10 communications chief Sir Robbie Gibb on board acting as ‘arbiter of impartiality’Emily Maitlis has said a BBC board member is an “active agent of the Conservative party” who is shaping the broadcaster’s news output by acting “as the arbiter of BBC impartiality”.The former Newsnight presenter highlighted the role of Sir Robbie Gibb, who previously worked as Theresa May’s director of communications and helped to found the rightwing GB News channel. Continue reading...

Kyiv celebrations cancelled over concerns of ‘Russian provocations’ as US expected to announce further $3bn in aid

One psychologist was forced to close a thriving practice; another waives her fees for ‘desperate’ patients who can’t get a referral because of GP wait times