World news | The Guardian

Togo-sponsored resolution called to phase out traditional map that depicts continent as similar size to Greenland

The United Nations has voted to adopt a resolution for the world to formally phase out the traditional Mercator map of the globe in favour of one that more accurately displays Africa’s size.

In a session at its headquarters in New York, the UN general assembly officially retired the 16th-century Mercator projection in favour of one based on the more accurate 2018 Equal Earth design.

Continue reading...

Pedro Sánchez continues to defend Rabat after police report claiming border forces helped 70,000 cross border

• Europe live – latest updates

Spain has seen no evidence “whatsoever” that Morocco planned or facilitated a mass border breach into its north African territory of Ceuta, the Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, has told parliament.

The address on Thursday followed the emergence of a police report, commissioned by a judge and widely quoted in the media, claiming Moroccan border forces had actively aided about 70,000 people to cross the border in late July.

Continue reading...

Claim relating to 1960 attack on hundreds of protesters part of wave of litigation over apartheid crimes in South Africa

The day dawned brightly on 21 March 1960, as residents of the South African township of Sharpeville gathered to protest against pass laws, which forced “Black, Indian and Coloured” South Africans to carry documents at all times specifying where they were allowed to be.

Abraham Mofokeng joined the march, one of dozens organised nationwide by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), a breakaway group from the African National Congress (ANC). “The weather was very nice, the sun was out. You could not have suspected that the day would go so horribly,” said Mofokeng, who was then a 20-year-old factory worker.

Continue reading...

Referendum result means fewer seats in parliament and new rules on candidates, ahead of December elections

Guinea-Bissau voters have approved a new constitution, which critics say will undermine democracy, that significantly expands presidential powers ahead of elections due in December.

According to provisional results, 70% of voters approved sweeping changes in the tiny west African state’s first constitutional amendment since revisions that ended the one-party socialist state more than three decades ago.

Continue reading...

Study reveals that pesticide poisoning kills 11,000 people each year, with India accounting for nearly 60% of fatalities

Almost half of the world’s farmers are poisoned by pesticides every single year, a study has found.

Using publicly available data from 2006-2023, the study, which was commissioned by Pesticide Action Network, found there to be an estimated 402-433m cases of unintentional acute pesticide poisoning of farmers and farm workers every year.

Continue reading...

Carlos de Almeida Baptista Júnior describes 2022 meeting in new book as ex-leader’s son vies with Lula for presidency

The far-right populist Jair Bolsonaro was in his final days as Brazil’s president when, six weeks after losing the election and still refusing to recognise the result, he summoned the heads of the armed forces to a meeting.

The defence minister, Gen Paulo Sérgio Nogueira de Oliveira, took out a document from a plastic folder and handed copies to the commanders of the navy, army and air force.

Continue reading...

US president suggests he might support his Argentinian acolyte’s drive to reclaim sovereignty of disputed islands

Donald Trump has long embraced vengeance. “I am your retribution,” he declared to an admiring audience at the 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) as he commenced his march back to the White House.

It is unlikely Argentina, and far-flung holdovers of the former British empire, were on the US president’s mind at the time.

Continue reading...

Abelardo De La Espriella posts video of himself with rows of body bags as performative populism continues to sweep Americas

Colombia’s hardline president, Abelardo De La Espriella, has provoked outrage after posting a video on social media in which he strides through rows of white body bags that he says contained the corpses of 23 “neutralised” guerrillas.

De La Espriella took power last month vowing “all-out war” against illegal armed groups and he published the footage on Thursday in an apparent attempt to show he was fulfilling that pledge.

Continue reading...

President cites Trump’s suggestion that he might reconsider US stance on British sovereignty and threatens swifter sanctions on UK oil interests

President Javier Milei has said “winds of change” favourable to Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands are blowing around the world in a televised address, citing signs that Donald Trump may reconsider the US position on the islands’ sovereignty.

“Recently, President Trump declared that the US is re-evaluating its historic position in relation to the Malvinas,” he said, using the Argentinian name for the islands.

Continue reading...

Ed Miliband says Britain’s position remains ‘unwavering’ in response to remarks by Argentina’s president

• UK politics live – latest updates

British ministers have hit back after the Argentinian president said “winds of change” favourable to his country’s claim to the Falklands were “blowing around the world”.

The foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, said the UK would “resolutely uphold” the self-determination of the islands after the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, said his country needed to take them back.

Continue reading...

Chinese man at Trishuli hydropower project and Nepali woman in Nuwakot found 10 days into rescue operation

Emergency responders have rescued a Chinese man and a Nepali woman in two separate operations as authorities continued to search for thousands of people missing 10 days after massive floods hit Nepal.

The Nepali military said on Saturday a joint team comprising personnel from its army and South Korean disaster experts rescued the man from a 225-metre (740ft) tunnel in the Upper Trishuli-1 hydropower project, and that he was undergoing a health assessment. Pictures showed him being evacuated by helicopter after being carried out of the tunnel.

Continue reading...

Seoul reportedly seeking parliamentary approval to send military assets to Middle East but president’s office plays down claims

South Korea is reviewing a possible deployment of military assets to the strait of Hormuz amid pressure from Donald Trump over Seoul’s reluctance to provide support in the region, according to domestic media reports.

Citing unnamed government and military sources, the reports published on Thursday and Friday said preparations were under way and that the government intended to seek parliamentary approval for a new deployment. The reports, which appeared in major South Korean outlets, said the exact scale and timing had not been agreed.

Continue reading...

Jump lifts currency to highest level against dollar in a month, while global markets remain jittery

• Business live – latest updates

The Japanese yen has soared by more than 2% against the dollar amid speculation the Bank of Japan is set to raise interest rates.

The latest jump on Thursday lifted the yen to its highest level against the dollar in a month, at 155.57, and followed a 0.9% move the previous day.

Continue reading...

Oil consumption plummets and EV sales soar as analysts say demand may not fully return even if crude price falls

China’s carbon dioxide emissions fell by 1% after the outbreak of the US-Israeli war on Iran, thanks to a sharp reduction in oil consumption and a steady rise in the use of electric vehicles and public transport, analysis shows.

The report reveals the role of clean energy in cushioning the price shocks caused by the strait of Hormuz crisis to the world’s biggest oil importer. It also reinforces hopes that China, which is the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitter, may be nearing a turning point in decarbonising its economy.

Continue reading...

Speed limit dropped from 60km/h for around 70% of general roads in the hope of making narrow streets of crowded cities safer

Drivers on residential roads in Japan have been forced to take their foot off the accelerator, after the speed limit was slashed from 60km/h (37mph) to 30km/h in an attempt to reduce deaths and injuries among pedestrians on narrow urban streets.

The new limit, which went into effect on Tuesday, applies to residential roads with no centre line or maximum speed signs, media reports said.

Continue reading...

A total fire ban is in place for greater Sydney with extreme fire danger exacerbated by hot and windy conditions

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Summer heat is due to arrive early across much of eastern Australia with potentially record early September temperatures predicted for Brisbane and Sydney, while snow was expected in southern New South Wales.

Maximum temperatures in Sydney during the first days of September were on track to match the city’s midsummer average of 26.4C, warmer than any other start to spring since the city’s Observatory Hill station opened in 1858.

Continue reading...

Cotality says prices have declined in most capital cities over winter. Search the data to see how they have changed in your area

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Australia’s property market is facing a rare price correction, as rising interest rates and less favourable tax settings for investors accelerate a downturn.

Most capital cities recorded winter price falls, according to Cotality data, with Sydney leading the decline. That weakness is expected to continue, as higher inflation could lead to further interest rate hikes, denting demand.

Continue reading...

This blog is now closed

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

‘Gut-wrenching’: Bowen to meet with Nepali community today

Chris Bowen said he would meet members of the Nepali Australian community later today.

Every person who’s been rescued or found is a relief to their family and to the broader Australian community. But of course, we still have 36 Australians who are missing and unaccounted for, which is just gut-wrenching for all Australians and for the Nepalese Australian community in particular, whom I’m spending time with later today.

But all I can say is that we’re continuing to send any support that the Nepalese government asked for.

I think that leaders in the Pacific were deeply concerned: one, that a missile test was done without permission of the countries whose airspace it had travelled through, and two, that there was no notice of the said missile test. So I think it’s both. It is a concern about sovereignty and safety, and one that Australia fully backs.

It’s a pretty strong statement, Sally, and one that Australia played a role in crafting.

Continue reading...

Charles says claims by developer Jean Nassif in an intercepted phone call that ‘we’re reshuffling the government’ did not reflect promises allegedly made to Nassif

• Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

The younger brother of Dominic Perrottet has denied asking his brother to appoint a cabinet minister to achieve outcomes for a property developer, a corruption inquiry has heard.

Charles Perrottet told the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) on Friday that claims made in an intercepted phone call featuring developer Jean Nassif days before his brother became the NSW premier – in which Nassif described Dominic Perrottet as “my boy” – did not reflect promises allegedly made to Nassif.

Continue reading...

‘Challenging’ weather conditions and lack of snowfall are being blamed after a winter that broke multiple heat records

• Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here

Major Australian alpine resorts are closing their ski operations up to a month early after a winter that broke multiple records for heat with limited snow falls being washed away by rain.

Predictions in June that a building El Niño could combine with global heating for a challenging ski season came to pass, with seven resorts either already closed or announcing ski lifts will stop operating this weekend.

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter

Continue reading...

US envoys expected to meet Vladimir Putin before going to Kyiv, after peace efforts floundered in recent months

The US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have arrived in Moscow to try to resuscitate a deal to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as both sides said they would halt airstrikes for the visit.

The envoys were met at the airport on Saturday by the Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, a key interlocutor for the Trump administration’s efforts to end the Ukraine-Russia war. The US outlet Axios reported that they were expected to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, later in the day.

The visit came as Trump suggested on Friday a new proposal to end the war, without providing any details on what his new plan might be. Trump made ending the war a priority early in his second term, but his efforts have so far yielded little results.

Continue reading...

Security experts fear Putin may be winning hybrid war with the west amid rise of pro-Kremlin, far-right parties

Defence planners working with Nato fear that if war broke out with Russia, Europe could not currently sustain a prolonged war of attrition owing to a public lack of war readiness, a conference on the future of European military coordination heard this week.

The pessimism reflects concern that Russia may be winning a so-called hybrid war with Europe, weakening the options available to Nato war planners in the event of military conflict.

Continue reading...

Scale of deportations made public for first time amid criticism of hardline approach to UK citizens

Sweden has confirmed 458 British citizens have been deported or forcibly removed by police since Brexit.

It is the first time the scale of the deportations of citizens who failed to secure residency in Sweden post-Brexit has been made public and comes amid mounting criticism of a cruel and hardline approach to Britons who had chosen to make the country their home before Brexit.

Continue reading...

Irish boxer lauded for her tenacity and inspiration before her last fight in front of 80,000 people at Croke Park

When Katie Taylor steps into the ring on Saturday night to defend her titles and once again enthral Ireland, there will be a bittersweet tinge. After a singular career that pioneered women’s boxing, the super-lightweight champion and Olympic gold medallist is bowing out. She is 40 and it is to be her final bout.

“The end of an era, isn’t it?” said Trevor McMahon, her brother-in-law and founder of a gym where she trains. “It’ll be an amazing night but it’ll also be a little bit sad. Everything she did, it might not ever be achieved again.”

Continue reading...

This blog is now closed, you can read more on this story here

in Magdeburg, Saxony-Anhalt

Polls have suggested that the election on Sunday could yield Germany’s first-ever state government led by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), shattering a postwar taboo and leaving minorities’ fate in the hands of a party that has promised to launch deportations “from day one”.

Continue reading...

Officials said US aircraft carrier and destroyer avoided attacks before three Iranian tankers were struck by the US

The US military said Saturday it struck three Iranian oil tankers after US navy warships came under missile attack, further escalating tensions in the region and warning it would “if necessary, destroy Iran’s limited and exposed oil fleet”.

According to the military, a US aircraft carrier and destroyer avoided “multiple unprovoked Iranian attacks” while patrolling the region. No US personnel were injured.

Continue reading...

Houthi rebel offensive against government forces on west coast leads to some of deadliest clashes in years

Clashes between Yemen’s Saudi-backed government forces and the Iran-aligned Houthi rebel movement have killed more than 60 people, including civilians, as the Houthis pushed forward with a military offensive on Yemen’s western coast.

Twenty-six government troops and 31 Houthi fighters were killed during several hours of fighting in the country’s south-west on Saturday, medical and military sources told Agence France-Presse (AFP). A missile strike also killed six civilians and injured seven others travelling by bus in the city of Taiz.

Continue reading...

Exclusive: Guardian investigation reveals targeting of World Central Kitchen convoy was result of widely used military tactic

• Death on the road to Rafah: the night the IDF targeted WCK aid workers

Seven aid workers killed in an airstrike in Gaza were marked as targets under an Israeli military practice of establishing guilt by association, a Guardian investigation shows.

A top Israeli military prosecutor announced last month that he would not pursue criminal proceedings for the April 2024 incident in which drones fired missiles at three clearly marked World Central Kitchen (WCK) cars soon after they had escorted a food aid delivery to Gaza. Three British humanitarian workers along with an Australian, a Palestinian, a Pole and a dual US-Canadian national were killed.

Continue reading...

Anwar, who lives in Glasgow, says Home Office refused visa application despite Maryam having cancer

A man living in the UK has said he believes his sister-in-law who died from cancer in Gaza would still be alive today if the Home Office had agreed to bring her and her family to Britain.

Anwar, who lives in Glasgow, fled Gaza in 2020 and was granted refugee status in the UK in 2021. After the destruction of large areas of Gaza by Israeli forces following the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023, he applied to bring his brother Hassan, Hassan’s wife, Maryam, their two young children and other family members to the UK in October 2025. He said the Home Office rejected their application.

Continue reading...

The Israeli army had helped plan the delivery of food aid on 1 April 2024, but things went wrong from the beginning and ended in seven deaths

• Exclusive: why seven international aid workers were killed in Israeli airstrike

On the evening of 1 April 2024, a team of aid workers from World Central Kitchen (WCK) stood on Gaza’s Mediterranean shore overseeing the unloading of a barge full of desperately needed food on a makeshift jetty made of sand and rubble.

The Gaza war had been raging for six months and Israel’s closure of land crossings had left the whole territory facing the threat of famine. WCK and local Palestinian contractors had constructed the jetty out of everything they could lay their hands on, including debris from the bombed house of one of the contractors, so that the pallets of humanitarian assistance could be delivered by boat from Cyprus.

Continue reading...

Officials say pair were rescued from Trishuli 3A hydropower tunnel in Nepal after being trapped at depth of 170 metres

Two people have been pulled out alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal nine days after deadly flash floods buried the projects in deep mud and left them trapped.

The workers were rescued during an operation at the Trishuli 3A tunnel, a hydropower project in one of the areas worst affected by last week’s floods, according to the army spokesperson Brig Gen Raja Ram Basnet.

Continue reading...

About 46 people believed to be trapped in ‘room-like’ structure inside hydro plant tunnel on Nepal-Tibet border

• After the flood: human suffering on an unfathomable scale in Nepal’s worst-hit districts

Nepal authorities have said they are “confident” that dozens of workers in Nepal’s Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant are still alive, more than a week after deadly flash floods left them trapped in an underground chamber.

Authorities said that at least 639 workers were still missing from hydropower plants built along Nepal’s Bhote Koshi and Triushuli rivers.

Continue reading...

Bangladeshi complainants allege Rampal power station’s pollution and climate risks threaten the Sunderbans, a world heritage site

Barclays Bank is facing a formal complaint over its financial links to a coal-fired power station near the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest and home to millions of people in Bangladesh and India.

Three complainants from the region have submitted a case to the UK government’s Office for Responsible Business Conduct, alleging that the British bank breached international guidelines by underwriting companies involved in the emission-heavy Maitree super thermal power project, also known as the Rampal power plant.

Continue reading...

Several missing Australians have been found since Tuesday morning, bringing the total citizens unaccounted for to 38

• Australians missing in the Nepal floods: what we know so far

A total of five Australians missing after devastating floods ravaged the Nepal-Tibet border last week have been found.

Of the five Australians confirmed safe, one was found in Nepal, one in Tibet, and three outside the crisis-hit area. The total number still missing is 38.

Continue reading...

More than 1,000 people confirmed dead and more than 4,000, including 36 British nationals, remain missing

A British aid worker was mistakenly identified by Nepalese authorities as a rescued survivor after returning to Kathmandu on a humanitarian aid flight.

Alastair Chambers, a 45-year-old former Gloucester councillor, said he flew to Nepal last week to distribute sleeping bags, food and essentials to communities cut off by collapsed bridges.

Continue reading...

Reform UK leader maintains innocence in overseas funding controversy on last day of party conference

• UK politics live

Nigel Farage has claimed that he “wasn’t even listening” during a meeting at the centre of a controversy about whether his party considered evading the law on accepting donations from overseas.

The Reform UK leader also claimed that he knew donation law “better than anybody” during interviews as he sought to salvage the final day of his party conference from the fallout that has already cost him two of his closest aides.

Continue reading...

Port authorities say access roads ‘free flowing’ again after large group forces road closures in both directions

Dozens of people dressed in black and wearing balaclavas blocked the road at the port of Dover in Kent, forcing closures in both directions on Saturday morning.

Kent police said they were were in attendance and engaging with the protest, which the Port of Dover described as a “public order incident”. No arrests were made during the incident. Responsibility for the demonstration appears to have been claimed by an anti-immigration group with links to the far right.

Continue reading...

‘Sometimes we will get things wrong and get a bit of a kicking for it,’ party leader tells gathering in Birmingham

No real mention by Anderson of the problems that overshadowed events yesterday. He ended his opening speech saying: "Yesterday was great. Today is going to be absolutely brilliant.”

Laila Cunningham is speaking next.

Continue reading...

Ryan Bridge, arrested this year on suspicion of religiously and racially aggravated harassment, says party invited him

The leader of a flag campaign group who was arrested on suspicion of causing religiously and racially aggravated harassment was given access to Reform UK’s annual conference.

Ryan Bridge, whose Raise the Colours group has put up hundreds of union and St George flags across England, told the Guardian he was invited to the conference.

Continue reading...

MPs applaud PM’s ambition and optimism but John Healey has yet to show he can match leader’s radical perspective

Until now, Andy Burnham has been a lucky prime minister. In office for just over six weeks, no major domestic crisis derailed his plans over the summer, Reform has been on the back foot, and he arrived back at Westminster with his personal approval ratings soaring and optimism undampened.

But underneath the sense of relief that many Labour MPs are feeling that their high-stakes gamble of ousting Keir Starmer appears – for now – to have paid off, there is an unease that Burnham’s premiership is yet to make contact with economic reality.

Continue reading...

Politicians on the right and left are pushing back against Flock as more Americans voice opposition to the tech

Growing factions from both sides of the political aisle in the US are pushing back against surveillance cameras made by a single company, a rare response in a sharply divided country with a president pushing an unwaveringly pro-tech agenda.

The bipartisan backlash against Flock Safety cameras resembles nationwide rage toward the construction of large datacenters that power artificial intelligence. Polling shows roughly 75% of Americans oppose new datacenter construction in their areas.

Continue reading...

District attorney must decide whether to retry case after jury’s failure to reach verdict despite hours of deliberation

Lindsay Clancy, prosecutors, defense lawyers, the judge and millions watching on are back where they started after her five-week trial over the murder of her three children ended in a mistrial.

America’s saddest case has ceased for the moment, but the legal wrangling is not over, and a second trial could now be on the horizon, prolonging and repeating an agonizing spectacle that has gripped America and the world.

Continue reading...

Atlanta’s Bradley Carlisle first played Kris Kringle for kids with Down’s syndrome and has now completed elite Santa Academy

After recently gaining recognition as the first professional Santa Claus with Down’s syndrome in the US, Bradley Carlisle has already gotten a lot more than the traditional serving of milk and cookies that is usually left out for Father Christmas each year.

That is because the 37-year-old community theater actor from suburban Atlanta landed an honorary induction into the International Santa Claus Hall of Fame upon completing one of the largest Christmas performer schools in the US in late August – a distinction meant to recognize the important representation his emergence on the holiday scene has brought, according to his supporters.

Continue reading...

The US defense secretary faces internal dissent and discord at the Pentagon, accused of focusing on culture war issues and his own political ambitions as the Iran war drags on

In a different Washington, under a different president, a return to the well-worn playbook of all-out sanctions to counter Iran might have been the signal for a publicity-hungry US secretary of defense to adopt a lower profile.

But these are no ordinary times. And Pete Hegseth is no ordinary defense secretary.

Continue reading...

This live blog is now closed.

• Sign up for US Breaking News emails

President Trump threatened in a social media post on Friday to stop trade with some countries unless the US Federal Reserve moves to cut interest rates.

Trump cited August’s strong jobs report as sufficient justification to lower rates, and warned that, if the central bank didn’t go along, he’d halt trade between the US and any nations with which it maintains a trade deficit.

Continue reading...