World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

François Fillon under formal investigation for 'fake jobs offences'
President paid $38m in 2005, leaked document reveals – as it happened
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: 'We know Dutch from Srebrenica massacre'
Syria 'the most dangerous place on earth for healthcare providers' – study
Sean Spicer defends healthcare plan amid reports 24m could lose insurance
More than 250 skulls found in 'enormous mass grave' in Mexico
Google’s DeepMind makes AI program that can learn like a human
Netanyahu hits out at 'libellous' report his wife threw him out of car
Polish MEP punished for saying women are less intelligent than men
World's spiders devour 400-800m metric tons of insects yearly – experts
Rex Tillerson used email alias at Exxon to discuss climate, says New York AG
'Spinning sail' rebooted to cut fuel and make ocean tankers greener
Cow slaughter to be punishable by life sentence in Gujarat
iPhone case that is also an Android phone raises $100,000 on Kickstarter
Trump travel ban devastating for Somali refugees cleared for new life in US
Social media sites face heavy hate speech fines under German proposal
Pirates hijack oil tanker off Somalia's coast
Pakistan and Afghanistan close to defeating Polio - in pictures
Yemeni couple on verge of reuniting in US may be derailed by new travel ban
Trump travel ban: opposition rallies as new order set to take effect
Polio's last stand: frantic effort to eradicate Pakistan's 'badge of shame'
Brexit won't mean 'cliff-edge' shift in migration policy, minister says
Dutch election: PM Mark Rutte 'boosted by spat with Turkey' as voting begins
Donald Trump and the ‘rise’ of scare ‘quotes’
Woman arrested after child found dead in Oxfordshire home
'Last time I got food, armed men took everything': famine in South Sudan | Simona Foltyn
Colombia's coca production soars to highest level in two decades, US says
US could take more than 1,250 refugees from Manus and Nauru, Senate told
Malcolm Turnbull gets gas industry guarantee on domestic supply
Wednesday briefing: Jack forgives Katie, and all the president’s money
Irish woman found dead near beach in Indian tourist state of Goa
Li Keqiang warns Donald Trump against trade war with China
Moon shot: Russia launches recruitment drive for lunar mission
Czech zoo to remove horns of 18 white rhinos following French attack
Ireland voices anger over EU rivals wooing finance firms from London
Pirates demand ransom for oil tanker captured off coast of Somalia
Timor-Leste could be 'architect of its own demise', gas treaty inquiry told
Canadian church group denied entry to US over fears they would 'steal' jobs
Cold war border not as cast iron as I thought | Letters
Bro-go areas: the last few men’s only clubs
'Faith communities are not welcome in Europe': views on the headscarf ban ruling
François Fillon under formal investigation over misuse of funds – video report
Eastern US winter storm hits major cities – in pictures
Burqa bans, headscarves and veils: a timeline of legislation in the west
Erdoğan stakes all on winning referendum as diplomatic row simmers | Patrick Wintour
Charities criticise new government rules on Dubs child refugees
Europeans: share your views on the ruling banning headscarves
'Real Americans' have always been rebels: a guide for progressive patriotism
Racism in Rotterdam: how a diverse city got infected with Islamophobia
‘Countless lives at stake’ warn NGOs as hunger in east Africa prompts major appeal
Green beans from the African famine zone | Letters
In Somalia, little sign of promised food aid for 6 million people facing starvation
Hot air and intrigue: did Donald Trump leak his own tax return?
Republicans call kicking millions off their healthcare 'freedom'? That's perverse | Adam Gaffney
Michael Brown shooting: new footage raises questions – video
Winter storm blankets north-east but spares major cities – video
Top US marine to women amid Facebook scandal: 'Trust me' – video
US east coast hit by Storm Stella blizzards – video

François Fillon under formal investigation for 'fake jobs offences'

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 08:09 AM PDT

Decision over allegations of misuse of public funds increases pressure on campaign of French presidential candidate

The rightwing French presidential candidate François Fillon has been placed under formal investigation for misuse of public funds.

Fillon is alleged to have given his wife and children generous fake jobs funded by the taxpayer as parliamentary assistants.

President paid $38m in 2005, leaked document reveals – as it happened

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 08:15 PM PDT

MSNBC report sparks angry response from the White House as return shows that Trump made more than $150m and paid $38m in taxes
SEC document shows Trump was worth less than half of $10bn claim in 2012
The changing story of Donald Trump's tax returns – video
Reporter who obtained tax return: 'Publishers assumed Trump would soon disappear'

3.13am GMT

That's all for the blog tonight. We're closing out with analysis from the Guardian's Washington correspondent, David Smith, who has delved into the question raised on Rachel Maddow's show about whether Trump was behind the leak of his tax return.

It would be a classic Trump tactic to deflect attention from his troubles with wire-tapping claims and replacing the healthcare law, also known as Obamacare. But it would also be a risky one, driving attention back to the issue of why he is the first president in 40 years to refuse to release his tax returns. This is the man who, when in the first presidential debate Clinton suggested he doesn't pay federal income taxes, interjected: "That makes me smart."

Trump claims he cannot release his taxes while he is under audit. Yet he did so on Tuesday night in the White House's preemptive statement. Zac Petkanas, a senior adviser to the Democratic National Committee, said: "The White House's willingness to release some tax information when it suits them proves Donald Trump's audit excuse is a sham. If they can release some of the information, they can release all of the information.

2.45am GMT

The Guardian's previous reporting has also raised questions about what Donald Trump could be hiding regarding his wealth – another reason why he may want to keep his tax returns secret.

Although on the campaign trail he claimed he is worth more than $10bn, a 2012 statement filed to the Securities and Exchange Commission by Wells Fargo Securities on behalf of Trump suggested he was then worth less than half of that:

In the document, which concerned the securitization of commercial mortgages on properties including Trump Tower in New York City, Trump was described as being worth more than $4.2bn, with liquid assets of more than $250m...

While $250m is a large amount of money, it is nowhere near enough to finance a modern presidential campaign. Trump has already loaned between $43m and $50m to his campaign, raising questions about how much he can afford to continue to spend without selling off assets or taking on significant loans.

Recep Tayyip Erdoğan: 'We know Dutch from Srebrenica massacre'

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 08:00 AM PDT

Turkish president holds the Netherlands responsible for massacre of 8,000 Bosnian Muslims as row over rallies deepens

The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has held the Netherlands responsible for the worst genocide in Europe since the second world war as the row over Turkish ministers addressing pro-Erdoğan rallies in the country deepened.

In a speech televised live on Tuesday, Erdoğan said: "We know the Netherlands and the Dutch from the Srebrenica massacre. We know how rotten their character is from their massacre of 8,000 Bosnians there."

Syria 'the most dangerous place on earth for healthcare providers' – study

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 05:01 PM PDT

Researchers in Lancet study say the 'weaponisation' of healthcare in Syria, involving killing of hundreds of medical workers, is unprecedented

The "weaponisation" of healthcare in Syria, involving the targeted destruction of medical facilities and the killing of hundreds of healthcare workers, is unprecedented and has profound and dangerous implications for medical neutrality in conflict zones, according to an authoritative study.

"Syria has become the most dangerous place on earth for healthcare providers," say the researchers involved. Their study of the attacks on healthcare in Syria since 2011, published by the Lancet medical journal, reveals that the death toll among medical workers is at least 814. Some of those health workers were tortured and executed.

Sean Spicer defends healthcare plan amid reports 24m could lose insurance

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 03:12 PM PDT

Press secretary rejects Congressional Budget Office's coverage figures but embraces findings on deficit, saying CBO is 'good at dollars, not as good at people'

The White House was forced to defend its healthcare plan on multiple fronts on Tuesday after a damning report found it would deprive millions of people of insurance, deepening divisions in the Republican party.

A nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) study released on Monday predicted that by 2026, the number of people without insurance would increase by 24 million if House Republicans' legislation to replace the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA) – also known as Obamacare – is adopted.

More than 250 skulls found in 'enormous mass grave' in Mexico

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 10:10 AM PDT

Secret burial pits in Veracruz contain drug cartel victims, state prosecutor said
Advocacy groups push for excavation to find people missing for years

More than 250 skulls have been found in what appears to be a clandestine burial ground on the outskirts of the Mexican city of Veracruz.

State prosecutor Jorge Winckler said the clandestine burial pits appear to contain the victims of drug cartels killed years ago.

Google’s DeepMind makes AI program that can learn like a human

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 10:27 AM PDT

Program brings artificial general intelligence a step closer by using previous knowledge to solve fresh problems

Researchers have overcome one of the major stumbling blocks in artificial intelligence with a program that can learn one task after another using skills it acquires on the way.

Developed by Google's AI company, DeepMind, the program has taken on a range of different tasks and performed almost as well as a human. Crucially, and uniquely, the AI does not forget how it solved past problems, and uses the knowledge to tackle new ones.

Netanyahu hits out at 'libellous' report his wife threw him out of car

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 07:50 AM PDT

Israeli PM appears in court in defamation case over claims his wife expelled him from official motorcade during furious argument

Israel's prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has appeared in court to deny a claim that his wife, Sara, expelled him from an official motorcade during a furious argument in 2015, endangering his security arrangements.

The claims and counterclaims emerged during a high-profile defamation case that has brought together two of Israel's longest-running political soap operas – the battle between the country's prime minister and its media, and claims about his wife's allegedly volatile behaviour.

Polish MEP punished for saying women are less intelligent than men

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 06:04 AM PDT

Janusz Korwin-Mikke has been suspended for 10 days and will lose allowance for 30 days after tirade in European parliament

A far-right Polish MEP who said women must earn less than men because they are weaker, smaller and less intelligent has been handed an unprecedented punishment by the European parliament.

World's spiders devour 400-800m metric tons of insects yearly – experts

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 01:25 PM PDT

'We hope that these estimates and their significant magnitude raise public awareness and increase the level of appreciation for spiders,' study authors say

The world's spiders eat 400-800m tonnes of insects every year – as much meat and fish as humans consume over the same period, a study said Tuesday.

In the first analysis of its kind, researchers used data from 65 previous studies to estimate that a total of 25m metric tonnes of spiders exist on Earth.

Rex Tillerson used email alias at Exxon to discuss climate, says New York AG

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 08:59 AM PDT

Eric Schneiderman's office, investigating whether Exxon misled public on climate change, says secretary of state used email pseudonym 'Wayne Tracker'

The US secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, the former chairman and chief executive of ExxonMobil Corp, used an alias email address while at the oil company to send and receive information related to climate change and other matters, according to the New York attorney general.

'Spinning sail' rebooted to cut fuel and make ocean tankers greener

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 04:57 AM PDT

Invented a century ago, rotating columns fixed to ship's deck interact with wind to provide forward thrust and could make 10% fuel saving

An ocean-going tanker is to be fitted with a type of "spinning sail" invented almost a century ago in a step that could lead to more environmentally friendly tankers worldwide.

The unusual sails are rotating columns fixed to the deck of the ship, whose interaction with the wind provides forward thrust. The trial is backed by Maersk, one of the world's biggest shipping companies and Shell's shipping arm.

Cow slaughter to be punishable by life sentence in Gujarat

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 04:50 AM PDT

Government of Indian state to introduce a bill bolstering existing laws against butchering the revered animals

The leader of an Indian state has announced that slaughtering cows and transporting beef will soon be punishable by a life sentence, the harshest penalty yet for crimes against the revered animal in the Hindu-majority country.

The chief minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani, said his government would introduce a bill in the next week to bolster existing laws against butchering cows and related crimes. The current punishment is a Rs50,000 fine (£622) and up to seven years in jail.

iPhone case that is also an Android phone raises $100,000 on Kickstarter

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 05:44 AM PDT

Although it's hard to see how any self-respecting Apple customer would want the $189 accessory, 'Eye' prototype has met its funding target and will be made

Can't decide between an iPhone or Android for your next device? Want to get both at the same time but don't want the logistical hassle of duct-taping them together in a way that leaves the camera usable? There may be a Kickstarter for you.

The Eye is a $189 case for your iPhone which has raised over $100,000 on the crowdfunding site with a huge checklist of features: "a 5 inch display, battery power, up to 256GB storage, SIM slots, an IR blaster & wireless charging!" But, look, there's a simpler way to sum it up. It's an iPhone case that is an Android phone.

Trump travel ban devastating for Somali refugees cleared for new life in US

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 05:22 AM PDT

Revised executive order puts lives on hold for refugees from Kenya's Dadaab camp, who were set to travel to US after many years of waiting

After eight years of a rigorous resettlement process at Kenya's Dadaab refugee camp, Dahabo Hashi and her five children were due to travel to South Dakota on 10 March. Civil war in Somalia had forced them to flee to Dadaab. But their plans to start a new life in the US are now on hold, after President Donald Trump last week signed a new executive order banning travel from six Muslim-majority countries.

This is the second time that Hashi's family has been hit by the US president's travel ban. On 27 January, as their flight was being booked, they were told that all travel arrangements had been cancelled.

Social media sites face heavy hate speech fines under German proposal

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 07:57 AM PDT

Justice minister Heiko Maas, a critic of Facebook's regulation efforts, says plan could result in penalties of up to €50m

Germany's justice minister has proposed a law that could lead to social networks such as Facebook being hit with heavy fines if they fail to remove illegal hate speech from their sites.

Heiko Maas, who has been highly critical of Facebook's efforts to clamp down on outlawed racist and xenophobic posts, said on Tuesday the new measures could carry penalties of up to €50m (£44m).

Pirates hijack oil tanker off Somalia's coast

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 02:43 AM PDT

Officials say eight Sri Lankan crew were on board ship targeted in first hijacking of a large vessel since 2012

Pirates have hijacked an oil tanker off the coast of Somalia in the first the first such incident involving a large commercial vessel there since 2012, Somali officials and piracy experts said.

The Aris 13, which had been carrying fuel from Djibouti to Mogadishu, reported being approached by two skiffs on Monday, according to the organisation Oceans Beyond Piracy.

Pakistan and Afghanistan close to defeating Polio - in pictures

Posted: 15 Mar 2017 01:10 AM PDT

Vaccinations at border crossings and other innovative solutions reach children who have missed the chance to be protected against the devastating virus

Yemeni couple on verge of reuniting in US may be derailed by new travel ban

Posted: 15 Mar 2017 01:00 AM PDT

Arwa al-Abili reached the final stage of visa approval to join her fiance in New York – but now it's unlikely to happen before the new travel ban comes into effect

They fear they have only a 24-hour window left.

Nagi Ali and Arwa al-Abili are a young couple kept apart by 9,000 miles, a pending final visa interview, her Yemeni citizenship, and they will probably beplunged into indefinite limbo on Thursday when the president's updated travel ban comes into effect.

Trump travel ban: opposition rallies as new order set to take effect

Posted: 15 Mar 2017 01:00 AM PDT

New ban, same problems: activists and lawyers will challenge the revised travel ban they say is motivated by 'the same religious animus' as the first

Lawyers and anti-Trump protesters are preparing for renewed confrontation at US airports over the president's revised travel ban on visitors from six majority-Muslim countries that is scheduled to come into effect at midnight.

Trump's travel ban has been revised in the wake of judicial opposition to remove some its most glaringly anti-constitutional provisions. But it remains highly contentious, and in the eyes of many civil rights experts openly discriminatory against Muslims.

Polio's last stand: frantic effort to eradicate Pakistan's 'badge of shame'

Posted: 15 Mar 2017 01:00 AM PDT

Health experts aim for zero transmission by targetting children at bus stations and border crossings with vaccinations

At a busy toll plaza in Kohat, Pakistan, a three-member vaccination team is working fast. Flanked by armed military personnel, the vaccinators approach a white van as it pulls away from the scattered stream of traffic, cars rattling east toward Islamabad and west to the nearby border with Afghanistan.

One worker leans toward the driver to ask a question as another reaches into a cooler to prepare the vaccine. Among the crush of passengers in the van, they identify one child who has not yet been vaccinated.

Brexit won't mean 'cliff-edge' shift in migration policy, minister says

Posted: 15 Mar 2017 12:26 AM PDT

Robert Goodwill said bespoke policy between UK and EU will be agreed, and insisted: 'What we don't want is some sort of cliff edge'

The immigration minister has tried to reassure business and industry that there will be "no cliff-edge" change in migration policy post-Brexit.

But Robert Goodwill has hinted that the new system for controlling migration from the European Union could involve different rules for different sectors of the British economy as well as allowing flows to fill skill shortages in UK industries.

Dutch election: PM Mark Rutte 'boosted by spat with Turkey' as voting begins

Posted: 15 Mar 2017 12:00 AM PDT

Diplomatic row over Turkish minister ban 'letting statesman-like Rutte snatch ground from rival Geert Wilders, say analysts

Millions of Dutch voters head to the polls today in a high-stakes general election overshadowed by an ugly diplomatic standoff between Turkey and EU capitals that analysts believe has played in the prime minister's favour.

On Tuesday, a day before the vote widely viewed abroad through the prism of the UK's Brexit referendum and Donald Trump's US victory, late polls gave Mark Rutte's liberal centre-right VVD party its clearest lead yet over Geert Wilders' populist, anti-Islam, Freedom party, which some surveys put down in third or even fifth place.

Donald Trump and the ‘rise’ of scare ‘quotes’

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 10:04 AM PDT

The US president has made much use of quote marks to distance himself from his outlandish statements – is Steve Martin to 'blame' for this phenomenon?

Did Barack Obama wiretap Donald Trump's office, or merely "wiretap" them? On 4 March, Trump tweeted: "Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower." At a press briefing on Monday, those quotation marks formed the basis of a justification for the outlandish accusation. "The president used the word 'wiretap' in quotes," said Trump's press secretary, Sean Spicer, using his fingers to make the air-quote sign, "to mean broadly surveillance and other activities." The quotation marks, he said when pressed, meant the president was "referring to surveillance overall". So, not necessarily wiretapping then – handy should evidence fail to materialise in future. Or "evidence", as Trump might say.

It's a distancing tactic, says Philip Seargeant, senior lecturer in applied linguistics at the Open University. "It's part of a strategy Trump has of saying things he can deny later, and this is a perfect example. He also does this generally, saying something without committing to it by using 'You tell me' or 'I guess'."

Woman arrested after child found dead in Oxfordshire home

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 05:52 PM PDT

Woman being held on suspicion of murder after the 'very shocking discovery' at an address at Bromsgrove Cottages, Faringdon

A woman has been arrested on suspicion of murder after a child was found dead at a home in Faringdon in Oxfordshire.

Thames Valley police said officers were called to an address at Bromsgrove Cottages, where the child was found dead.

'Last time I got food, armed men took everything': famine in South Sudan | Simona Foltyn

Posted: 15 Mar 2017 12:00 AM PDT

With aid delivery under threat from armed gangs and terrified civilians in hiding, agencies warn that intensifying famine could become unmanageable

After months of eating water lilies and palm fruits, Nyanai Riek finally gets her hands on a life-saving bag of sorghum. Aid has now arrived in Leer, one of two counties in South Sudan where famine was recently declared – but it may not mean an end to Riek's fight for survival.

"Last time I got food, armed men came to my house and took everything," she says. They pointed their guns at her, threatening to kill her family if she didn't reveal the spot behind her mud hut where she had buried the grains in a futile attempt to hide them.

Colombia's coca production soars to highest level in two decades, US says

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 03:48 PM PDT

Cultivation of plant used to make cocaine climbed 18% last year compared to 2015, with an estimated 188,000 hectares containing crops despite US efforts

Coca production in Colombia has surged to levels unseen in two decades of U.S. eradication efforts, according to a new White House report.

Cultivation of the plant used to make cocaine rose 18% last year from 2015, with officials in the Andean nation estimating 188,000 hectares (465,000 acres) of Colombian land now contained coca crops.

US could take more than 1,250 refugees from Manus and Nauru, Senate told

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 10:51 PM PDT

But Australia's ambassador for people smuggling and human trafficking concedes deal won't empty island detention centres

The US could take more than the mooted 1,250 refugees from Australia's offshore immigration detention islands of Manus and Nauru, Australia's ambassador for people smuggling and human trafficking has told a Senate inquiry.

But Andrew Goledzinowski has also conceded the US deal will not be sufficient to empty the islands of the refugees currently held there.

Malcolm Turnbull gets gas industry guarantee on domestic supply

Posted: 15 Mar 2017 01:02 AM PDT

Prime minister warns if commitment not met the commonwealth would use power to control exports 'in national interest'

Malcolm Turnbull has said the gas industry has guaranteed greater supplies for Australians but warned he would use the commonwealth export powers "in the national interest" if the companies did not deliver.

After a two-hour meeting between key ministers and gas chiefs, the prime minister said two producers had promised they would supply more into the domestic market but he gave no details of how much supply or when it would be made available.

Wednesday briefing: Jack forgives Katie, and all the president’s money

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 11:47 PM PDT

White House voices outrage as finances are revealed on-air … defamed food writer offers columnist a meal … and 'Maine hermit' tells his story after 27 years

Good morning – Warren Murray waking you up to the best of the news.

Irish woman found dead near beach in Indian tourist state of Goa

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 09:40 PM PDT

Police say they have arrested one person in conection with the death of a 28-year-old in the Canacona area

An Irish woman in her twenties has been found dead by police near a beach in the popular Indian resort state of Goa.

The woman, 28, was reportedly found naked near Deobagh beach in the Canacona area in the south of the state, according to local media reports.

Li Keqiang warns Donald Trump against trade war with China

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 09:27 PM PDT

Chinese premier says foreign companies stand to lose the most from any battle between the world's two largest economies

China's premier Li Keqiang has cautioned Donald Trump against locking horns with Beijing over trade ahead of a hotly anticipated meeting between the United States president and Chinese leader Xi Jinping next month.

Xi and Trump, who has labelled Beijing a US "enemy" and threatened to slap hefty tariffs on Chinese imports, are widely expected to hold a two-day summit at Trump's exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort on 6-7 April.

Moon shot: Russia launches recruitment drive for lunar mission

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 06:54 PM PDT

Roscosmos space agency looking for six to eight cosmonauts who will operate a new-generation spaceship headed to the moon in 2031

Russia's space agency has announced a recruitment drive for young would-be cosmonauts who it hopes will become the country's first on the Moon.

In the first such drive for five years, Roscosmos has said it is looking for six to eight cosmonauts who will operate a new-generation spaceship now in development and "will become the first Russians to fly to the Moon".

Czech zoo to remove horns of 18 white rhinos following French attack

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 06:39 PM PDT

Zoo deems danger to animals from poachers to be 'really intense', with black market rhino horn selling for more than gold or cocaine

A Czech zoo has said it will use a chainsaw to remove the horns from its herd of rare rhinos after a brutal attack last week in a French zoo where poachers shot dead a white rhino and hacked off its horns.

"It's for the sake of rhino safety," Andrea Jirousova, spokeswoman for the zoo in the central Czech town of Dvur Kralove nad Labem, said.

Ireland voices anger over EU rivals wooing finance firms from London

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 05:50 PM PDT

Dublin makes complaint about other European cities using undercutting to attract businesses looking to relocate after Brexit

Ireland has complained to the European commission that it is being undercut by rival centres competing to host financial firms looking for a base in the European Union outside London after Brexit.

Last week, the US insurer AIG became the biggest company so far to pick Luxembourg as its EU base, alarming Irish officials who fear that others may follow.

Pirates demand ransom for oil tanker captured off coast of Somalia

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 03:44 PM PDT

European Union anti-piracy force confirms that armed men are onboard Comoros-flagged Aris 13 in first such seizure since 2012

Armed men are demanding a ransom for the release of an oil tanker they have seized off the coast of Somalia and the crew is being held captive, the European Union anti-piracy operation in the region announced late on Tuesday.

An EU naval force statement said the operation had finally made contact with the ship's master, who confirmed that armed men were onboard the Comoros-flagged tanker Aris 13.

Timor-Leste could be 'architect of its own demise', gas treaty inquiry told

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 02:07 PM PDT

The ripping up of gas treaty in pursuit of a greater share of revenue from Sunrise gas field could create a failed state if no new agreement is forged, expert says

Timor-Leste's decision to rip up a treaty with Australia on the carve-up of future revenue from Greater Sunrise oil and gas reserve in the Timor Sea could make it an "architect of its own demise", experts have told a parliamentary inquiry.

In January Timor-Leste announced it wished to terminate the treaty which split future revenue 50-50 with Australia and put a 50-year moratorium on a permanent maritime boundary.

Canadian church group denied entry to US over fears they would 'steal' jobs

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 12:42 PM PDT

US border officials were concerned that foreign volunteers would 'steal American jobs' in New Jersey, one Ontario church member said

A group of Canadian church volunteers hoping to carry out relief work in New Jersey said they were denied entry to the US over fears that they would be "stealing" American jobs.

The Rehoboth United Reformed church, based in Hamilton, Ontario, had spent months organising its March break trip. The plan was to spend the week helping a central New Jersey church in its ongoing efforts to rebuild homes hit by Hurricane Sandy.

Cold war border not as cast iron as I thought | Letters

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 11:42 AM PDT

I read Patrick Wintour's account of his trip to the far north of Norway – up to the frontier with Russia – with great interest (Report, 13 March). He rightly points to the complex history of relations between the two countries even during the darkest days of the cold war. During that time, when I was the Guardian's European editor, and visited that region, I was struck by the drama surrounding Norway's "Checkpoint Charlie" frontier with the then-Soviet Union. It was highly militarised, all barbed wire, searchlights and military posts. We were only allowed to view across to the Soviet side for a maximum of two minutes at a time with binoculars. A subsequent tour of the frontier revealed wide gaps in border defences. An embarrassed Nato officer admitted this was to allow the ethnic minority nomadic Sami reindeer herdsmen to cross either way with their animals. Maybe this explains Wintour's reference to people with families divided by the border who still hold "joint visas." The James Bond-type spies working for the KGB, CIA or MI5 might have saved themselves a lot of trouble if they had only realised how easily they could ply their trade across the frontier then by posing as Sami.
John Palmer
London

• Join the debate – email guardian.letters@theguardian.com

Bro-go areas: the last few men’s only clubs

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 10:40 AM PDT

Now that Muirfield golf club has voted to allow women in, where can men go to be surrounded only by other men? We rate the blokiest holdouts around

Now that the golf club Muirfield, one of the last bastions of banter and short irons, has taken the drastic decision to allow women to join after almost 300 years of splendid isolation, what's a poor chap to do to enjoy an escape from the fairer sex? We can't all join Donald Trump's cabinet. Here follows a search for men-only sports clubs, each given a handy misogyny rating.

'Faith communities are not welcome in Europe': views on the headscarf ban ruling

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 09:54 AM PDT

The EU's highest court has ruled employers can ban staff from wearing visible religious symbols. Here are your responses

The European Union's highest court has ruled that employers can ban staff from wearing visible religious symbols. It comes as part of a ruling on the issue of women wearing Islamic headscarves at work. "An internal rule of an undertaking which prohibits the visible wearing of any political, philosophical or religious sign does not constitute direct discrimination," the court said in a statement.

We asked for your views on this, and heard from a wide range of people across Europe. Here are a selection of your responses.

François Fillon under formal investigation over misuse of funds – video report

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 09:10 AM PDT

French presidential hopeful François Fillon has been placed under formal investigation over possible misuse of public funds. A newspaper alleged his wife Penelope was paid out of parliamentary funds over eight years for a job it claimed she never carried out

Eastern US winter storm hits major cities – in pictures

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 07:41 AM PDT

Winter storm Stella doesn't look set to dump the predicted 20 inches of snow across the north-east of the US, but it still brought travel chaos to the region and caused the closure of all public schools in New York City

Huge winter storm cuts power to 100,000 across eastern US

Burqa bans, headscarves and veils: a timeline of legislation in the west

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 06:56 AM PDT

European states have moved over the years to outlaw Muslim headwear in public

The movement to limit women wearing headscarves and Muslim veils, such as the burqa and niqab, has been growing in Europe for more than a decade. Now the European court of justice, the EU's highest court, has ruled that employers can ban staff from wearing headscarves, its first decision on the issue of employees wearing visible religious symbols at work.

Erdoğan stakes all on winning referendum as diplomatic row simmers | Patrick Wintour

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 06:43 AM PDT

It is hard to see how the vitriol will subside this side of Turkey's vote, but for the president that is a problem for another day

It is a mark of Turkey's abandonment of its once pre-eminent diplomatic priority – membership of the European Union – that Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been so ready to wade into a vitriolic diplomatic row with Europe.

The Turkish president has sparked fury from Angela Merkel and Mark Rutte, two of the EU's most liberal leaders, with his evocation of nazism and Islamophobia. For good measure he has also reminded Turks of the Dutch role in the Srebrenica massacre.

Charities criticise new government rules on Dubs child refugees

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 06:38 AM PDT

Cut-off date set by Home Office will exclude the majority of lone children now in camps in Greece, campaigners say

New Home Office criteria to fill the last 150 places under the Dubs scheme to bring lone refugee children in Europe to Britain have been sharply criticised by charities and campaigners.

The department has said only children who arrived in Europe before 20 March 2016 will be eligible for the remaining places before the scheme is closed in April.

Europeans: share your views on the ruling banning headscarves

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 04:01 AM PDT

Employers can ban staff from wearing visible religious symbols, including headscarves, if they want. We want to hear from Europeans on this decision

The European Union's top court has decided employers can ban staff from wearing visible religious symbols if they want, in a ruling on the issue of women wearing Islamic headscarves at work.

'Real Americans' have always been rebels: a guide for progressive patriotism

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 03:00 AM PDT

Former Occupy Wall Street leader Micah White explores patriotism's roots in resistance, back when loving one's country meant fighting against oppressors

After the collapse of Occupy Wall Street, my wife and I fled the progressive groupthink of Berkeley, California and resettled out here in Nehalem, in rural Oregon, close to unpoliced forests and far from the nearest university, airport or anarchist infoshop.

All was reasonably well until I ran for mayor of my tiny town, provoking a backlash. When I received a racist death threat shortly after Donald Trump was elected president, I was forced to see my rural community and my diverse country in a newly sinister light.

Racism in Rotterdam: how a diverse city got infected with Islamophobia

Posted: 15 Mar 2017 12:00 AM PDT

As the Netherlands goes to the polls for its most controversial elections in decades, few would have expected this multicultural city to be hitting the headlines because of protest and unrest – yet that is exactly what is happening

"Police were beating men and women with bats," Jessy De Abreu says. "They hit people in the face. Hair was pulled out, dreadlocks were pulled out."

De Abreu, 27, the co-founder of StopBlackFace.com, was describing a protest in Rotterdam last November, in which she was among roughly 200 activists arrested while protesting the controversial Black Pete (Zwarte Piet) character – St Nicolas' Moorish "helper", who is portrayed with a painted black face and curly wig.

‘Countless lives at stake’ warn NGOs as hunger in east Africa prompts major appeal

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 05:10 PM PDT

The Disasters Emergency Committee calls for urgent response to humanitarian emergency unfolding in east Africa, with 16 million people facing hunger

A major appeal is being launched on Wednesday to help more than 16 million people facing hunger in east Africa.

The Disasters Emergency Commission is calling for funds to scale up the response to drought in the region and prevent "hunger on a massive scale", while aid agencies warn that "countless lives are at stake".

Green beans from the African famine zone | Letters

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 11:43 AM PDT

Yesterday, I made a donation to the Oxfam East African Famine Appeal, following Bill Nighy highlighting the horrific situations in Kenya, Somalia, Ethiopia and South Sudan on TV (Report, 11 March). Today, I got my husband to pick up some green beans on the way home from work. Trimmed dwarf green beans. Product source: Kenya. Where do I direct my anger?
Farakh Masud
Cambridge

• Here we go again. The Football Association will investigate Millwall fans for singing what are deemed racist chants which demoralised a player so much that he scored an excellent hat-trick (Report, 13 March), while Spurs fans chanted that Millwall fans were "pikeys" and "the wheels on the house go round and round". Who determines who is offended and what needs investigating?
Andrew Allen
Sevenoaks, Kent

In Somalia, little sign of promised food aid for 6 million people facing starvation

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 06:35 AM PDT

As UN calls for coordinated global efforts to help Somalia, South Sudan, Nigeria and Yemen, humanitarian aid is slow to reach some of those on brink of famine

Sitting silently on a Somali hospital bed with a drip attached to his severely malnourished little body, Saalax Muxumed, nine, is just one face of what the UN says could be the worst humanitarian crisis since 1945.

He and his mother are ethnic Somalis from Ethiopia who made the arduous journey across the border because they believed it was their only hope of finding help amid the devastating impact of a third consecutive year of drought in the Horn of Africa.

Hot air and intrigue: did Donald Trump leak his own tax return?

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 08:10 PM PDT

It would be a classic Trump tactic to deflect attention from his troubles with wire-tapping claims and replacing the healthcare law – but it would also be risky

At 7.44pm ET Brian Fallon, former press secretary to Hillary Clinton, tweeted breathlessly: "The holy grail."

Ninety-eight minutes and a somewhat anticlimactic Rachel Maddow Show later, Fallon tweeted again: "Dems should return focus to Trumpcare tomorrow & the millions it will leave uninsured, not get distracted by two pages from '05 tax return."

Republicans call kicking millions off their healthcare 'freedom'? That's perverse | Adam Gaffney

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 08:38 AM PDT

Trumpcare does nothing but serve the rich at the expense of the poor and the sick. This is no freedom – it is a form of oppression

Paul Ryan is promoting Trumpcare as if it were some sort of medical Magna Carta – a brave declaration of healthcare freedom. "We're not going to make an American do what they don't want to do. You get it [healthcare] if you want it. That's freedom" he recently said on Face the Nation. Freedom to die uninsured, that is.

It's not that House Republicans are proposing some libertarian healthcare promised land wherein open heart surgeries and rounds of chemo are bartered and traded like tubes of toothpaste – far from it. Instead, the bill largely relies on Obamacare's blueprint, although it mangles its details for the benefit of the rich while stripping coverage from a staggering 24 million people by 2026 (according to Monday's estimates from the Congressional Budget Office).

Michael Brown shooting: new footage raises questions – video

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 12:44 PM PDT

A new documentary containing previously undisclosed video of Michael Brown at a convenience store hours before he was shot and killed by a white police officer is raising new questions in the case. The film-maker Jason Pollock claims the footage shown in his documentary Stranger Fruit shows a much friendlier exchange between Brown and the store workers than what police initially released. That version of the tape showed Brown pushing a worker before walking out with cigarillos in an apparent robbery

Prosecutor says film's edit of Michael Brown shooting distorts incident

Winter storm blankets north-east but spares major cities – video

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 09:53 AM PDT

Snow piled up rapidly in parts of the north-eastern United States on Tuesday as a blizzard began blowing in, with residents being advised to stay at home, airlines grounding flights and schools canceling classes. However, earlier predictions of up to two feet of snow in major cities like New York and Washington DC were revised down as precipitation turned to sleet early

Eastern US winter storms hits major cities – in pictures

Top US marine to women amid Facebook scandal: 'Trust me' – video

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 09:35 AM PDT

At a Senate hearing to discuss the growing nude photo-sharing scandal rocking the marines, commandant Gen Robert Neller makes an impassioned plea to women asking them to trust him. The Marine Corps has been rattled by a scandal involving a private Facebook group called Marines United and its surreptitious distribution of explicit images of women in the armed forces – often with obscene, misogynist commentary

US east coast hit by Storm Stella blizzards – video

Posted: 14 Mar 2017 05:18 AM PDT

Storm Stella hits the US east coast on Tuesday, bringing blizzard conditions and heavy snowfall overnight, with authorities warning of 'life-threatening' conditions. Officials predict snowfall totals as high as 20in (50cm) in New York City, with around 5,000 flights cancelled as of late Monday afternoon and further travel disruption in the north-east corridor

Storm Stella: flights cancelled as 'life-threatening' conditions due to hit US north-east

Aneka Info

World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

World news and comment from the Guardian | guardian.co.uk

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