World news | The Guardian

Mark Butler is urging Australians to get their booster jabs as case numbers rise and pandemic supports are scaled back

YouGov poll indicates nearly one in 10 HR professionals were not open to recruiting a person with disability in the future

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war hereRussia’s Tass news agency is reporting that “dozens of people were injured as a result of the strike of the armed forces of Ukraine at Novaya Kakhovka”.Novaya Kakhovka is on the Dnieper river in an area of Kherson occupied by pro-Russian forces in the south of Ukraine.Unfortunately, there are casualties, a large number of injured, dozens of people were left homeless. The victims were admitted to both the city hospital and the military hospital. We still have to assess the damage, because the situation is still ongoing. Continue reading...

Students who engaged with the meditation practice benefitted but many were bored by it, say researchersSchool-based mindfulness training does not appear to boost wellbeing or improve the mental health of teenagers, according to research that found many pupils were bored by the course and did not practise it at home.At a time when concern is mounting about poor mental heath among children and young people in the UK, researchers wanted to find out whether a universal mindfulness intervention in secondary schools might help build resilience and have a positive impact on pupil wellbeing. Continue reading...

Brigade says it now has fire at The Admiralty under controlMore than 100 firefighters tackled a “challenging” blaze at a pub in Trafalgar Square in central London.The fire broke out at The Admiralty pub shortly before 5.50pm on Tuesday, and huge plumes of smoke could be seen billowing from the building. Continue reading...

Rajapaksa, 73, and his wife boarded a special air force flight bound for the Maldives, local officials saidSri Lanka’s embattled president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has flown out of the country, heading to the neighbouring Maldives, according to local officials.The 73-year-old leader, his wife and a bodyguard were among four passengers on board an Antonov-32 Sri Lankan military aircraft which took off from Colombo’s international airport on Tuesday, immigration officials told Agence France-Presse. Continue reading...

The Bridgerton actor, Doctor Who writer and I May Destroy You creator are among 60 new fellows appointed to the UK’s charity for the advancement of literatureBridgerton actor Adjoa Andoh, I May Destroy You creator Michaela Coel, Doctor Who writer Russell T Davies and poet Lemn Sissay are among the new fellows elected to the Royal Society of Literature (RSL).The RSL, the UK’s charity for the advancement of literature, announced 60 new appointments at an event held at Battersea Arts Centre in London. Continue reading...

Six complaints of bullying and sexual misconduct were made to the corporation between 1994 and 2013The BBC has said it will publish an internal investigation into bullying and sexual misconduct allegations against radio presenter, Tim Westwood, within the next two weeks.The DJ, who was a BBC radio presenter for almost 20 years, stepped down from his show on Capital Xtra in April after accusations by several women of sexual misconduct and predatory behaviour. The claims were uncovered by a joint investigation involving the Guardian and the BBC. Continue reading...

Offenders ‘emboldened’ by failure of authorities to investigate, says three-year investigation into scandalMore than a thousand children in Telford were sexually exploited over decades amid the failure of authorities to investigate “emboldened offenders”, an independent inquiry into the scandal has concluded.The three-year investigation by the independent inquiry into child sexual abuse (IICSA) found that exploitation was allowed to continue for years and children, rather than perpetrators, were often blamed. Continue reading...

Call to tighten rules after residents voted for demolition or rebuilding of their estates in 20 out of 21 votesBouncy castles and free pizza may be helping skew votes on housing estate demolitions, according to activists who want stricter rules to stop landlords gaining an unfair advantage.Hundreds of thousands of pounds are being spent on tactics ranging from family fun days to repeated door-to-door canvassing by landlords determined to persuade social housing tenants to approve multimillion pound redevelopments in a way that would breach the rules of standard democratic elections, campaigners warn. Continue reading...

Six groups will be chosen to read a shortlisted book, with the most ‘original and engaging’ readers to be invited to the prize ceremonyBook clubs across the UK are being invited to take part in the inaugural Booker prize book club challenge, with seats at the prize ceremony dinner up for grabs.Six book clubs will be chosen for the challenge by this year’s judging panel, which is chaired by cultural historian Neil MacGregor. MacGregor and his fellow judges – broadcaster Shahidha Bari, historian Helen Castor, author and literary critic M John Harrison and novelist Alain Mabanckou – will be looking for the “most interesting, passionate and wide-ranging set of readers possible”. Continue reading...

New leader will take over from Frances O’Grady when she retires after 10 yearsThe Trades Union Congress has named Paul Nowak, a former call centre worker from Merseyside, as its next general secretary.Nowak will become general secretary designate at the TUC conference in Brighton in September, taking over from Frances O’Grady when she retires at the end of the year after 10 years at the helm. Continue reading...

French government plans to buy remaining 16% of energy giant to keep bills down could cost up to €10bnShares in EDF have surged on reports that the French government is prepared to pay more than €8bn (£6.8bn) to nationalise the energy company.France’s prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, announced plans last week to take full control of the power group in an attempt to keep a handle on spiralling household electricity bills. Continue reading...

Banks and traders have been ‘let off the hook’ by G7 despite being more to blame for the looming crisis than ChinaWestern governments should “compel” private lenders to ease loan repayments from low-income countries to tackle a debt crisis, according to campaigners.Debt Justice, formerly the Jubilee Debt Campaign, said African governments owe three times more debt to western banks, asset managers and oil traders than they do to China, and are charged double the interest. China has been “mistakenly” blamed by western leaders for the failure to make progress on debt restructuring. Continue reading...

Information commissioner will look into the personal information handling practices of the retail giants

Members of the public pay their respects to former prime minister outside Buddhist templeFamily and friends of Japan’s former prime minister, Shinzo Abe, have attended his funeral at a Buddhist temple in Tokyo while members of the public paid their respects outside, four days after he was shot dead while making a campaign speech.Mourners in black suits and dresses gathered at Zojoji temple for the private funeral service, while police officers monitored onlookers, some holding bunches of flowers, who had braved the early afternoon heat. Continue reading...

Rebecca Louise Burden pleads guilty to attempted murder but tells court she believes ‘I am a good person who made a grave mistake’

Human rights lawyer’s team calls on new Philippines president Ferdinand Marcos Jr to ‘stop the rot’ and allow a free pressHuman rights lawyer Amal Clooney has condemned a decision by a court in the Philippines to uphold the conviction of Nobel prize-winner Maria Ressa in a cyber libel case and her legal team has said the world is watching to see if newly elected president Ferdinand Marcos Jr will “stop the rot” or continue attacks on journalists.Maria Ressa, co-founder of the website Rappler, lost her appeal last week against a conviction for cyber libel – just one of an onslaught of legal cases and investigations the journalist is battling. Continue reading...

Those in home isolation will be forced to wear a bracelet tracking their movements as territory introduces China-style QR code systemHong Kong will mandate electronic tracking bracelets for people in home isolation and bring in a China-style electronic health code system as part of fresh measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus.The quarantine bracelets, to be introduced on Friday, will be mandatory for people who have tested positive and are quarantining at home to ensure they do not leave the building during their isolation period. Continue reading...

Economists and Conservative opponents say proposals would blow hole in public financesThe scale of tax cuts promised by Conservative leadership hopefuls would blow a hole in the public finances and could lead to rampant inflation, Tory opponents and economists have warned.Nadhim Zahawi, who took over as chancellor last week, used a leadership speech on Monday to announce tax policies that would cost an estimated £50bn a year, almost as much as the combined budgets of the Ministry of Defence and Foreign Office. Continue reading...

High-profile professors in Europe and the US were engaged as part of lobbying campaign, leak showsUber paid high-profile academics in Europe and the US hundreds of thousands of dollars to produce reports that could be used as part of the company’s lobbying campaign.The Uber files, a cache of thousands of confidential documents leaked to the Guardian, reveal lucrative deals with several leading academics who were paid to publish research on the benefits of its economic model. The reports were commissioned as Uber wrestled with regulators in key cities around the world. Continue reading...

Richard Marles delivers speech in US warning of increased militarisation in South China Sea and importance of climate action to Pacific allies

Elective surgeries are again at risk of being delayed with predictions hospitalisations may exceed past Covid waves

Gotabaya Rajapaksa informs PM’s office of resignation intention as brother Basil is turned away at airport and opposition leader signals plan to run for presidentSri Lanka’s government has confirmed the president, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, is to resign, paving the way for the appointment of a successor, amid reports that the beleaguered leader had fled the country on Monday.A statement from the office of the prime minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, said “Rajapaksa has officially informed Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe that he will be resigning”, in the most formal confirmation yet that the president intends to step down later this week. Continue reading...

Auditor general’s report says waiting list has grown 78% since 2018 and amount of housing stock has not kept pace

Authorities says some customers will start getting their money back after angry crowd in Henan was broken up by heavy-handed security guardsA rare large-scale protest in China’s central Henan province has been violently broken up by unidentified security personnel, amid outcry over a financial scandal that has exposed the fragility of the country’s banking system.A crowd of more than 1,000 protesters, according to some estimates, had gathered on Sunday in front of the Zhengzhou sub-branch of the People’s Bank of China to attempt to recover frozen savings held in rural banks. Continue reading...

Opposition leader calls withdrawal from PIF an ‘extreme move’ and claims the reasons offered by Kiribati’s president were just excusesKiribati’s decision to withdraw from the Pacific Islands Forum on the eve of the event was an extreme move driven by pressure from China, the Micronesian nation’s opposition leader says.Tessie Lambourne, a former top diplomat who was elected to Kiribati’s parliament in 2020, said she was “shocked and extremely disappointed” by the government’s move to withdraw from the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF). Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war hereThe death toll from a Russian rocket attack that hit an apartment block in eastern Ukraine over the weekend rose to 18 this morning, and rescuers were still trying to reach survivors in the rubble, the emergency services said.

Attorneys respond to request by Heard’s lawyers, who say the verdict was nonsensical and a juror was misidentifiedLawyers for Johnny Depp have urged the judge in the dueling defamation case with Amber Heard to leave his $10m judgment intact after attorneys for Heard requested that the verdict be set aside, including on grounds that one juror on the panel was misidentified.In court papers filed on Monday, Depp’s lawyers dispute arguments from Heard’s team that the jury’s verdict was nonsensical and unfounded. They also say that the Heard team’s complaints about the juror’s identity are irrelevant. Continue reading...

Critics accuse ministers of introducing a ‘scab charter’ that risks public safety and workers’ rightsMinisters have approved controversial plans to allow agency workers to replace striking workers, voting through the regulations on Monday night by 289 votes to 202.While the business minister, Jane Hunt, said the change, which was accelerated as a result of the ongoing rail strikes, was needed to remove the “outdated blanket ban” on using agency workers to cover official industrial action, critics say the measure is akin to a “scab charter”. Continue reading...

Almost two-fifths of children in north-east live in poverty after a decade of decline as campaigners warn of worse to comeThe north-east of England has the highest rate of child poverty of anywhere in the UK, for the first time overtaking London as the nation’s hotspot for hardship and deprivation, new analysis shows.Although the latest UK-wide figures show child poverty rates overall fell slightly in the first year of the pandemic due to the temporary £20 weekly uplift to universal credit, detailed breakdown shows child poverty continued to rise in areas like Sunderland, Newcastle and Middlesbrough. Continue reading...

Police order dispersal of crowds awaiting rapper at Cafe Koko after numbers threaten public safetyA meet and greet scheduled in Camden for Nicki Minaj had to be cancelled due to overcrowding.Adoring fans descended upon Cafe Koko in their droves after the rapper took to social media to reveal she would be at the venue from noon on Monday. Continue reading...

Chair of 1922 Committee says candidates will now need 20 MP backers to enter, in move to speed up processBritain’s new prime minister will be announced on 5 September, it has been announced, as the starting gun was fired on a Tory leadership race that will see the hopefuls whittled down to two by Thursday.With just two contenders so far having the support of the 20 Tory MPs needed to get them on to the ballot, the nine remaining hopefuls were scrambling to shore up support by Tuesday night before knockout votes begin on Wednesday afternoon, with the first results announced later that day. Continue reading...

Ex-chancellor to kick off his Tory leadership campaign as speculation grows over who could back himRishi Sunak will kick off his leadership campaign on Tuesday with a promise to grip inflation and lower taxes, as speculation mounted over which candidates could swing in behind the former chancellor.Sunak will promise “a return to traditional Conservative economic values – and that means honesty and responsibility, not fairytales.” Continue reading...

UK data watchdog said there had been extensive use of such channels within the health department, which risked transparencyThe UK data watchdog has urged ministers to review the use of private correspondence channels after reprimanding the Department of Health and Social Care for sharing official information via WhatsApp, texts and private email accounts.The Information Commissioner’s Office said there had been extensive use of such channels within the department, which represented real risks to accountability and transparency within government. Continue reading...

Temperatures in south-east could exceed 35C at weekend and pose potential risk to life, says forecasterThe Met Office has issued an amber weather warning for extreme heat across a large part of the UK next weekend as temperatures on Monday reached 32C and rail services were disrupted.The alert, starting from Sunday 17 July, came as sales of fans, ice-cream, sun lotion and parasols soared in the heatwave. The Met Office said temperatures in the south-east could exceed 35C (95F) this weekend, posing a potential risk to life. Continue reading...

Local district attorney accused of blocking release of footage, taken from surveillance video at Robb elementary schoolTexas officials have agreed to make public video footage from inside Uvalde’s Robb elementary school during the deadly mass shooting there, an official said on Monday, though the district attorney in the local county is being accused of blocking the video’s release.State representative Dustin Burrows, the chairperson of a special legislative committee investigating the shooting, said Texas’ department of public safety had agreed to release surveillance footage from inside the hallway at the school. Continue reading...

Insurance firm redirected funding from club to Australian Human Rights Commission campaign after racism claims

EU executive responds following claims Neelie Kroes lobbied Dutch PM and othersThe EU executive has announced that it will write to its former vice president, Neelie Kroes, “for clarification” following revelations that she secretly helped Uber lobby the Dutch prime minister, Mark Rutte, and a string of other national politicians.The European Commission has been facing calls to open an immediate inquiry and “defend the EU’s integrity” in the wake of the reports, which showed that Kroes called Dutch government authorities about Uber less than six months after leaving her post as the EU’s top official on internet policy. Continue reading...

Typical amount borrowers pay rises to highest level in 13 years at 5.06% after successive interest rate risesThe average standard variable rate paid by UK mortgage borrowers has topped 5% for the first time in more than 13 years, piling more pressure on households.The financial data provider Moneyfacts said the typical SVR rose to 5.06% at the start of July and is at the highest level since January 2009, when it stood at 5.14%. Continue reading...

Composer whose work is indelibly associated with 007 also worked on a string of successful West End musicalsMonty Norman, composer of the instantly recognisable James Bond theme music, has died aged 94. The BBC first reported the news, saying his family had confirmed his death.Norman’s most famous work was created as part of the score for the first Bond film, Dr No, which was released in 1962, and starred Sean Connery in the lead role. Norman said he based the distinctive rolling phrase, which first appeared as part of a medley during the film’s opening, on an earlier piece called Good Sign, Bad Sign, which he created for a musical adaptation of VS Naipul’s A House for Mr Biswas. A jazz arrangement by John Barry for the film led to Barry often being mistakenly identified at the composer; Norman went to court, winning an action for libel against the Sunday Times in 2001, to defend his credit. Continue reading...

Monday’s sitting was delayed as police draped coverings over the central table and buckets were placed around the green benchesThe latest leak to hit parliament has come not from another scandal or high-profile resignation, but water pouring through the House of Commons chamber ceiling.Monday’s sitting of the house was delayed as police officers were seen entering the chamber carrying water-absorbent blankets as a protective covering was draped across the central table and numerous buckets were placed around the green benches catching the falling water. Continue reading...

Three-month pause will not affect the nearly 18,000 people expected to arrive in coming months, says governmentScotland is to pause its Ukrainian refugee sponsorship scheme for three months as it faces a lack of suitable accommodation, the government has announced.Pausing the scheme would “ensure that those displaced people who are already here, and those who will arrive in the coming months, will be safe, secure and supported for as long as they need, after the dangers they have faced at home”, a government statement said. Continue reading...

Airport asks airlines including British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air France to remove flightsHeathrow airport cancelled more than 60 flights on Monday and warned it may have to ask airlines to remove more as it struggles to cope with the rebound in travel demand after the pandemic.The flights were spread across Terminals 3 and 5, with British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and Air France among the airlines affected, disrupting plans for about 10,000 passengers. Continue reading...

At least 18 people dead after Russian missile attack on eastern Ukrainian town; residents in two southern regions urged to evacuate as Ukraine prepares to launch counteroffensive

Stabbing of 12-year-old during row about a Snapchat video caused ‘shock and revulsion’ across the cityA teenage boy has been jailed for a minimum of 13 years for murdering the 12-year-old Liverpool schoolgirl Ava White in a stabbing that caused “shock and revulsion” in the city.The 15-year-old boy, who has a legal right to anonymity, stabbed Ava in the neck in a row about a Snapchat video at the switching on of the Christmas lights on 25 November last year. Continue reading...

Almost all European countries have reported surge in infections, driven mainly by Omicron variant BA.5European regulators have recommended a second Covid-19 booster jab for everyone over 60 as well as all medically vulnerable people across Europe amid mounting infections and hospitalisations.The EU’s health and medicine agencies had previously recommended a second booster for people over the age of 80 in April. But with concerns growing over the rise in cases in Europe, driven mainly by the Omicron variant BA.5, the advice has been widened effective immediately. Continue reading...

Indian police say gang went to great lengths in betting scam reminiscent of the 1973 film The StingA gang set up a fake “Indian Premier League” tournament with farm labourers acting as players to dupe Russian punters in a betting scam reminiscent of the 1973 film The Sting.The so-called “Indian Premier Cricket League” reached the quarter-final stage before the racket was busted by police in India. Continue reading...

Junior medics in England being sent home from day shifts and told to come back to plug gaps at nightHospital doctors are being sent home from daytime shifts and told to come back and work overnight in the latest stark illustration of the NHS’s crippling staff shortage.Medics are having to change their plans at the last minute because hospitals cannot find any others to plug gaps in the night shift medical rota and need to ensure they have enough doctors on duty. Continue reading...

Man, 23, was trying to retrieve mobile phone and he and his family now face charges for entering forbidden areaAn American tourist sustained minor injuries after he fell into the crater of Mount Vesuvius as he scrambled to retrieve his phone.The 23-year-old and his family reached the 1,281m-high (4,202ft) summit of the volcano towering over the southern Italian city of Naples after bypassing a visitor turnstile and proceeding along an out-of-bounds path. Continue reading...