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

Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage': scientists despair at latest coral bleaching data
Egypt: Isis claims responsibility for Coptic church bombings
Trump aide drew plan on napkin to partition Libya into three
Russia decries cancelled Boris Johnson visit and warns on further Syria attacks
Leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon shakes up France's presidential race
Russian computer programmer held in Spain 'under US warrant'
Thousands protest in Hungary over threat to Soros university
Six die after Indian police open fire on Kashmir poll protesters
Marine Le Pen denies French role in wartime roundup of Paris Jews
Chris Bevington named as Briton who died in Stockholm truck attack
Trump officials broadcast president's plan for Syria: wait for global response
Chuck Berry fans pay last respects to influential musician in his hometown
Conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi enters Iran's presidential race
Baby on board: woman gives birth on Turkish Airlines flight
False alarms: hackers take over Dallas's 156 sirens before system deactivated
China offers rewards to root out foreign spies
Watchtowers, drones and a toxic moat: the designs for Trump's border wall
Member's views: 'A rounded discussion with a fascinating woman'
'Americans bomb our children every day, so why would they care about polio?'
Police seek possibly diabetic girl who left London hospital
Why Trump’s missiles are shaking Putin’s home front | Mary Dejevsky
Donald Trump's first 100 days as president – daily updates
Centrelink inquiry told debt retrieval system should be abolished due to flaws
Monday briefing: a 'shambles' of an asylum system
Syria strike designed to intimidate North Korea, Chinese state newspaper says
Alexandria Coptic church attack: video shows lead-up to suicide bombing
Teenage Russian asylum seeker arrested over explosive device in Oslo
'It's a shambles': data shows most asylum seekers put in poorest parts of Britain
Rochdale: where every 200th person is an asylum seeker
The rights and wrongs of US missile strikes on Syria | Letters
Palm Sunday around the world – in pictures
Is O Canada sexist – and does it need a rewrite?
In ‘forgotten France’, Le Pen’s young backers say only she cares for them
Syria conflict: Russia must act now to end bloodshed, says Fallon
Norwegian police carry out controlled explosion in Oslo – video
For survivors of Halabja massacre, Syria gas attack evokes flashbacks of death
Paraguay's youth mobilize against president: 'Anger needs to be organised'

Great Barrier Reef at 'terminal stage': scientists despair at latest coral bleaching data

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 02:01 PM PDT

'Last year was bad enough, this is a disaster,' says one expert as Australia Research Council finds fresh damage across 8,000km

• 'Australia's politicians have betrayed the reef and only the people can save it'

Back-to-back severe bleaching events have affected two-thirds of Australia's Great Barrier Reef, new aerial surveys have found.

The findings have caused alarm among scientists, who say the proximity of the 2016 and 2017 bleaching events is unprecedented for the reef, and will give damaged coral little chance to recover.

Egypt: Isis claims responsibility for Coptic church bombings

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 09:11 AM PDT

State of emergency declared after attacks on churches in Tanta and Alexandria kill dozens and injure more than 100

Isis has claimed responsibility for two bomb blasts that struck Coptic churches in Egypt, killing at least 47 people as members of the country's largest religious minority celebrated Palm Sunday.

An explosion in the city of Tanta, about 56 miles (90km) north of Cairo killed 29 and injured 71 as they prayed at the Mar Girgis church according to the Egyptian health ministry. A second blast struck the Egyptian port city of Alexandria three hours later, killing 18 and wounding 35.

Trump aide drew plan on napkin to partition Libya into three

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 11:00 PM PDT

Exclusive: Sebastian Gorka told proposal would be 'the worst solution' when he suggested it to senior European diplomat

A senior White House foreign policy official has pushed a plan to partition Libya, and once drew a picture of how the country could be divided into three areas on a napkin in a meeting with a senior European diplomat, the Guardian has learned.

Sebastian Gorka, a deputy assistant to Donald Trump under pressure over his past ties with Hungarian far-right groups, suggested the idea of partition in the weeks leading up to the US president's inauguration, according to an official with knowledge of the matter. The European diplomat responded that this would be "the worst solution" for Libya.

Russia decries cancelled Boris Johnson visit and warns on further Syria attacks

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 10:20 PM PDT

Moscow says decision to cancel trip shows Britain has no real influence and new aggressions in Syria will be met with force

Russian officials have launched a scathing attack on the UK before a gathering of G7 foreign ministers on Monday, criticising Boris Johnson's decision to cancel an upcoming trip to Moscow due to increased tensions about Syria.

The foreign secretary faced criticism at home and abroad on Sunday for postponing the visit, prompting his allies to say critics had put "polls and politics above sorting out a civil war".

Leftist candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon shakes up France's presidential race

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 07:00 PM PDT

After strong performances in two debates, several new surveys show the Communist-backed candidate's popularity surging

The French Communist-backed presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon is closing in on the frontrunners Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, according to new polls.

Russian computer programmer held in Spain 'under US warrant'

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 05:09 PM PDT

Pyotr Levashov reportedly suspected of being involved in hacking attacks linked to alleged interference in 2016 election

A Russian computer programmer has been arrested in Barcelona, a spokesman for the Russian embassy in Madrid said on Sunday.

It was unclear why Pyotr Levashov was arrested. The embassy spokesman declined to give details and Spanish police and the interior ministry were not available for comment.

Thousands protest in Hungary over threat to Soros university

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 10:55 AM PDT

Demonstrators call for president to veto legislation passed by parliament targeting Central European University

Tens of thousands of people have protested in Budapest against legislation that could force the Central European University, founded by the financier George Soros, to move out of Hungary.

A bill passed in parliament by the ruling rightwing Fidesz party of the prime minister, Viktor Orbán, a critic of liberal civil organisations funded by Soros, targeted CEU by setting out numerous conditions under which it must operate.

Six die after Indian police open fire on Kashmir poll protesters

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 10:07 AM PDT

Scores injured after bullets and shotgun pellets fired as thousands of people storm polling stations in Budgam district

Six civilians were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir when police opened fire on protesters who stormed polling stations during a byelection for a parliamentary seat, a top officer has said.

State and paramilitary police fired bullets and shotgun pellets as thousands of protesters who were shouting slogans against Indian rule charged into voting booths in Budgam district near the main city of Srinagar.

Marine Le Pen denies French role in wartime roundup of Paris Jews

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 01:03 PM PDT

French Jewish organisations call far-right presidential candidate's remarks on the Vel d'Hiv mass roundup 'an insult to France'

The French far-right presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has denied that the French state was responsible for the wartime roundup of Jews at a Paris cycling track who were then sent to Nazi death camps.

The former president Jacques Chirac and the current leader, François Hollande, have both apologised for the role French police played in the corralling of more than 13,000 Jews at the Vel d'Hiv cycling track, which was ordered by Nazi officers in 1942. But Le Pen told the LCI television channel on Sunday: "I don't think France is responsible for the Vel d'Hiv."

Chris Bevington named as Briton who died in Stockholm truck attack

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 09:43 AM PDT

Victim's father pays tribute to 'talented, compassionate and caring son' who died alongside a Belgian and two Swedes

Chris Bevington, a Briton who was one of four people killed in the Stockholm truck attack, was a "talented, compassionate and caring son", his father said after news of his death emerged on Sunday.

Bevington, 41, died along with two Swedes and a Belgian when a truck mowed down pedestrians in a busy shopping district of the Swedish capital on Friday.

Trump officials broadcast president's plan for Syria: wait for global response

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 09:24 AM PDT

HR McMaster, Nikki Haley and Rex Tillerson defend president's missile strikes, emphasizing Russia's role in 'the solution' and new priority to depose Assad

In world capitals, at the United Nations and in military briefings, leaders spent the weekend trying to deduce what doctrine might lie behind the first direct attack by the US on the forces of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad. On Sunday, the White House articulated Donald Trump's message: your move, world.

Chuck Berry fans pay last respects to influential musician in his hometown

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 07:44 AM PDT

Rolling Stones sent guitar-shaped flower arrangement to rock'n'roller's funeral in St Louis, where he died about three weeks ago at age 90

Fans lined up before dawn on Sunday to pay their final respects to Chuck Berry, roughly three weeks after his death at age 90 near his hometown of St Louis.

Conservative cleric Ebrahim Raisi enters Iran's presidential race

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 07:17 AM PDT

Close ally of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei makes surprise declaration that he will challenge the moderate incumbent, Hassan Rouhani

Iran is bracing for a heated and divisive election season after a powerful conservative cleric threw himself into the presidential race to challenge the moderate incumbent, Hassan Rouhani.

Official registration for candidacy begins on Tuesday but Ebrahim Raisi, who is a close ally of the country's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has upended the race with a surprise declaration that he would put his name on the list.

Baby on board: woman gives birth on Turkish Airlines flight

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 10:41 AM PDT

Nafi Diaby, 28 weeks pregnant, gave birth to girl with help of passengers and cabin crew shortly after takeoff from Guinea

A unexpected passenger joined a Turkish Airlines flight when a woman went into labour and gave birth mid-flight.

Shortly after takeoff from Guinea's capital, Conakry, crew onboard a Turkish Airlines flight came to the aid of Nafi Diaby, who was 28 weeks pregnant and had begun to have contractions.

False alarms: hackers take over Dallas's 156 sirens before system deactivated

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 09:43 AM PDT

Unknown hackers triggered about 15 alarm cycles before city officials took down emergency notification system used during inclement weather events

Hackers took control over the 156 sirens in Dallas this weekend, triggering false alarms on the system used to alert residents to take shelter from inclement weather, until officials deactivated the system early Saturday morning.

The person or people responsible were able to hack into a part of the system that was communicating with all 156 of the city's sirens, said Rocky Vaz, who heads the city's office of emergency management, at a news conference.

China offers rewards to root out foreign spies

Posted: 10 Apr 2017 01:27 AM PDT

Citizens could receive up to £58,500 for intelligence on infiltration, subversion and theft of information

"We should go to the masses and learn from them," Chairman Mao once counselled his comrades.

Not least, it now seems, if the masses have inadvertently stumbled upon the names and addresses of ill-intentioned foreign spies who have infiltrated Chinese society and are trying to bring down the Communist party.

Watchtowers, drones and a toxic moat: the designs for Trump's border wall

Posted: 10 Apr 2017 01:00 AM PDT

Some proposals for Trump's border wall may look like spoofs, but they provide a fascinating window into the lurid anxieties of middle America

Monorails, shipping containers and nuclear waste dumps are just some of the ways that US construction companies have interpreted Donald Trump's call for an "impenetrable, physical, tall, powerful, beautiful wall" to march 2,000 miles across the country's border with Mexico. Up to 400 bidding contractors were expected to submit their schemes this week to the US Customs and Border Protection agency, in a militarised beauty pageant worthy of one of Trump's own reality TV shows.

Member's views: 'A rounded discussion with a fascinating woman'

Posted: 10 Apr 2017 01:00 AM PDT

Guardian members Laurie Roxby and Kym Hamer recount an evening of lively discussion with Sayeeda Warsi, the UK's first Muslim cabinet minister

Laurie and Kym attended The Enemy Within: A Tale of Muslim Britain with Sayeeda Warsi on Tuesday 4 April at the Barbican Centre in London.

Laurie Roxby, 25, is a copywriter from Bow, east London.

'Americans bomb our children every day, so why would they care about polio?'

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 11:00 PM PDT

A Taliban health chief says the resumption of a polio vaccination scheme in north Afghanistan does not alter lingering suspicion of the international community

Just over a fortnight ago, a 14-month-old girl in the Afghan province of Kunduz was diagnosed with polio. Within days, the Taliban granted health workers access to parts of northern Afghanistan for the first time in 15 months, enabling them to resume a polio vaccination programme.

Until it was blocked, leaving about 170,000 children in Kunduz province without inoculations, the scheme had almost eradicated the disabling viral disease in Afghanistan. But polio can spread quickly, with even a single case potentially enough to widen the disease's footprint. When the girl in Kunduz's Dasht-e-Archi district became the third child this year diagnosed with polio, Taliban commanders relented.

Police seek possibly diabetic girl who left London hospital

Posted: 10 Apr 2017 01:04 AM PDT

Nine-year-old and her family attended St Mary's hospital in Paddington on Sunday and gave staff false address

Detectives have issued an unusual appeal for help tracing a nine-year-old girl whom doctors believe in need of urgent medical treatment.

The Metropolitan police were contacted by staff at St Mary's hospital in Paddington, west London, after the unwell girl attended with a man and woman believed to be her parents on Sunday. The family left before the child could receive treatment.

Why Trump’s missiles are shaking Putin’s home front | Mary Dejevsky

Posted: 10 Apr 2017 01:00 AM PDT

He may be the hero of Crimea, but for the Russian leader the US strike on Syria could hardly have come at a worse moment

Many reasons were advanced for Donald Trump's decision to order last week's strike on a Syrian airfield. In addition to the justifications he gave – the US national interest, the need to demonstrate that the use of chemical weapons had a cost, the emotional response to the pictures of dead children – were more speculative considerations to do with domestic politics.

These included a desire to contrast his own principled resolution with his predecessor's failure to enforce his "red line", an opportunity to demonstrate that he was not beholden to the Russians, and a gamble that the relatively risk-free strike would improve his flagging ratings. Rightly or wrongly, the home context can never be avoided.

Donald Trump's first 100 days as president – daily updates

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 03:19 PM PDT

Follow daily updates on the 45th president of the United States as we track Trump one day at a time

Centrelink inquiry told debt retrieval system should be abolished due to flaws

Posted: 10 Apr 2017 12:14 AM PDT

Senate inquiry hears data-matching wrongly created debts, which were exacerbated by lack of human involvement

Centrelink's automated debt recovery system relies on a flawed method of data-matching that means people are wrongly identified as owing money, which is exacerbated by the lack of any human involvement to check for errors, a Senate inquiry has heard.

Witnesses who gave evidence to the inquiry in Adelaide on Monday said those features were central to the failure of the "robo-debt" system, which may have wrongly identified thousands of people as owing money to Centrelink.

Monday briefing: a 'shambles' of an asylum system

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 10:35 PM PDT

Asylum seekers concentrated in poorest areas of UK … G7 ministers meet amid Syria fallout … woman stares down the EDL

Good Monday morning to you, Graham Russell here with the news to start your week.

Syria strike designed to intimidate North Korea, Chinese state newspaper says

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 10:25 PM PDT

Global Times warns of catastrophic consequences if the US launch a strike against Pyongyang, after navy moves strike group to western Pacific

Donald Trump's decision to attack Syria had also been designed to intimidate North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, a Chinese newspaper has claimed, as G7 foreign ministers meet to discuss the fallout from last week's missile incursion.

The state-run Global Times said a US strike against North Korea would unleash carnage on the Korean peninsula. The US navy has deployed a strike group towards the western Pacific Ocean, to provide a presence near the Korean peninsula.

Alexandria Coptic church attack: video shows lead-up to suicide bombing

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 06:29 PM PDT

CCTV footage has emerged showing the moments leading up to the bombing of St Mark's Cathedral in Alexandria, Egypt. The attack at the Coptic church killed at least 16 people and wounded 41. In the footage, the suicide bomber can be seen approaching the gates to the church and being turned away, before he walks over to a security screening gate and detonates his explosives

• Isis claims responsibility for Coptic church bombings

Teenage Russian asylum seeker arrested over explosive device in Oslo

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 04:47 PM PDT

Youth known to intelligence agencies detained on suspicion of handling explosives, Norway's security service says

A 17-year-old has been arrested in connection with an explosive device found near a busy subway station in Oslo and defused before it detonated, Norway's security service has said.

Signe Aaling, chief prosecutor with the PST security service, said on Sunday that the youth had been detained on suspicion of handling explosives.

'It's a shambles': data shows most asylum seekers put in poorest parts of Britain

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 02:00 PM PDT

Analysis shows five times as many live in poorest third of country as in richest third, sparking calls for overhaul of system

More than five times as many asylum seekers live in the poorest third of the country as in the richest third, according to a Guardian analysis, which has prompted leading politicians to call for a complete overhaul of the dispersal system.

MPs have labelled the way asylum seekers are distributed around Britain "appalling", "dreadfully designed" and "a deeply unfair shambles" because of the way it disproportionately houses people in poor, Labour-voting areas in the north of England and Wales, as well as Glasgow.

Rochdale: where every 200th person is an asylum seeker

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 02:00 PM PDT

The north-west town has a higher concentration of asylum seekers than anywhere in England. Locals have been both generous and furious

With its Victorian-era town hall, its high street full of chain coffee shops and its generous sprinkling of churches and mosques, Rochdale is in many senses an unremarkable northern market town.

But demographically, Rochdale is unusual. For in this town north of Manchester, every 200th person is an asylum seeker.

The rights and wrongs of US missile strikes on Syria | Letters

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 10:30 AM PDT

Two myths and an omission infest much of the coverage of the Syrian government's sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun last Tuesday and President Trump's kneejerk response (Editorial, 8 April). The omission is the blatant illegality of the US missile strikes, done neither in self-defence nor with UN authority. That Bashar al-Assad's use of chemical weapons was a shocking war crime can't justify such a breach of international law – another war crime – in response.

The first myth is that in 2013 the UK parliament voted against participation in a military response to Assad's chemical weapon attack on Syrian rebels and that this influenced Obama against a US military attack. In fact parliament merely rejected both Labour's and the government's proposed lists of criteria for a justified air strike against Syria, but Mr Cameron chose to interpret the votes as a rejection of military action, period.

Palm Sunday around the world – in pictures

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 09:03 AM PDT

Christians around the world gather to commemorate Jesus Christ's triumphant arrival in Jerusalem and the beginning of Holy Week

Is O Canada sexist – and does it need a rewrite?

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 06:00 AM PDT

After 12 attempts in 37 years, the country could finally be about to change its national anthem to make it more inclusive

In 2011, Canadian senator Nicole Eaton launched a campaign to get rid of one of her country's main symbols. The beaver had to be dumped as the national animal, she said. It's a "dentally defective rat" that does little more than "wreak havoc on farmlands, roads, lakes, streams and tree plantations". Tradition be damned; the polar bear should be Canada's symbol.

Today, in contrast, Eaton is the main barrier to changing another of Canada's beloved symbols: its national anthem. Last year, a bill was put forward to change two words of the English version of O Canada so it would include women as well as men. Under the plan, a line that says "in all thy sons command" would become "in all of us command".

In ‘forgotten France’, Le Pen’s young backers say only she cares for them

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 04:59 AM PDT

A generation feeling let down by traditional parties and excluded from opportunity are putting their faith in Front National victory

Along the winding roads of Yonne, one of France's poorest and most sparsely populated départements, Marine Le Pen's smiling face is now part of the landscape.

Strictly speaking, fly-posting is illegal. But in the villages of flint houses and conical-roofed chateaux surrounded by fields of yellow rapeseed blooms, some of Le Pen's young foot soldiers have been busy ignoring the law and threat of a €9,000 (£7,694) fine.

Syria conflict: Russia must act now to end bloodshed, says Fallon

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 03:03 AM PDT

UK defence secretary says Moscow directly complicit in suffering, writing that 'latest war crime happened on their watch'

Russia is directly complicit in the bloodshed taking place in Syria and must act immediately to help bring an end to the country's long-running conflict, the UK defence secretary, has said.

Russia must "show the resolve necessary to bring this regime to heel", said Michael Fallon in remarks that came a day after Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary, cancelled a trip to Moscow after a chemical attack on civilians in Idlib province and the subsequent US missile strike against the Syrian regime.

Norwegian police carry out controlled explosion in Oslo – video

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 02:54 AM PDT

Norwegian police set off a controlled explosion after a "bomb-like device" was found in central Oslo on Saturday. The device appeared to be capable of causing only a limited amount of damage, police said. They also declined to give information about the suspect found with the device at the intersection of Lakkegata and Gronland in Oslo. The suspect is being held in custody over the incident

Norway: explosive device found in central Oslo

For survivors of Halabja massacre, Syria gas attack evokes flashbacks of death

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 02:15 AM PDT

The Iraqi town was poisoned in one of the deadliest chemical attacks in history in 1988, a trauma that remains with those who believe Trump's strikes are justified

In a corner of northern Iraq, the images that shocked the world of Syrian children poisoned by chemical weapons carried a particular charge of horror.

In the faces of victims – contorted, breathless or pale in death – Loqman Abdulqader saw echoes of his own brothers, killed by the same poison gas nearly three decades ago.

Paraguay's youth mobilize against president: 'Anger needs to be organised'

Posted: 09 Apr 2017 02:00 AM PDT

Horacio Cartes's plans to amend constitution to draw out term has incensed students to take action against police violence and government's abuse of power

Paraguay's ongoing crisis over rushed plans to change the constitution – which last week saw congress go up in flames – is thrusting students and young people onto the front lines of political activism.

Young people made up the bulk of the crowds which braved tear gas and rubber bullets to protest a congressional back-room vote which could see Horacio Cartes, of the rightwing Colorado party, stay in power for another five years from 2018.

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

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