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

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


‘We wanted democracy’: is Hong Kong's two-systems experiment over?

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 08:38 AM PDT

As China tightens its grip on the city over which British rule ended 20 years ago, pro-democracy activists are still fighting against erosion of freedoms

For President Xi Jinping, the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China is a moment to toast the reunification of a nation and hail its unstoppable rise. But for activists such as Eddie Chu, one of the leading lights of a new generation of pro-democracy politicians, it has become an occasion for something quite different.

"Boot-licking. Unprecedented boot-licking!" he says, a smile breaking across his face as he reflects on how many members of the local elite have chosen to mark two decades of Chinese rule by plastering their homes and businesses with patriotic slogans and red flags in the hope, he suspects, of currying economic favour.

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Ex-doctor kills one and wounds six in New York hospital shooting, officials say

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 05:07 PM PDT

Henry Bello, forced from the hospital because of sexual harassment accusations, said to have worn a lab coat with an assault rifle concealed inside

A doctor forced from a New York hospital because of sexual harassment accusations returned Friday with an assault rifle hidden under a lab coat and shot seven people, killing one woman, authorities said.

The gunman, Dr Henry Bello, fatally shot himself after trying to set himself on fire at Bronx Lebanon Hospital, officials said. He staggered, bleeding, into a hallway where he collapsed and died with the rifle at his side.

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Justin Trudeau visits with indigenous group in Canada at protest camp

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 04:08 PM PDT

Activists aimed to engage in four days of 'reoccupation' to draw attention to the history of Canada's indigenous people during country's 150th birthday festivities

Canada's prime minister Justin Trudeau has met with aboriginal activists who set up a demonstration tipi on Parliament Hill ahead of Canada Day celebrations.

Related: Canada celebrates 150 but indigenous groups say history is being 'skated over'

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Jacob Zuma under new pressure to quit over alleged links to tycoons

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 05:38 AM PDT

South African leader denies wrongdoing as leaked documents suggest influential family holds undue sway over officials

Jacob Zuma, South Africa's embattled president, faces renewed pressure to step down this weekend after a series of media reports detailed links between elected officials and a family of tycoons accused of holding undue sway over his administration.

More than 100,000 documents and emails leaked to reporters in recent weeks appear to detail improper dealings in lucrative government contracts made with the Gupta family - secretive and immensely wealthy businessmen of Indian origin who have lived in South Africa for decades.

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US federal court tosses out lawsuit over Yemeni men killed in drone strike

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 12:50 PM PDT

In unanimous ruling, three-judge panel says court lacks authority to question government decision-making in strike that allegedly killed innocent bystanders

A US federal appeals court has thrown out a lawsuit by the families of two Yemeni men allegedly killed as innocent bystanders in a US drone strike in 2012.

The unanimous ruling by a three-judge panel of the US court of appeals for the District of Columbia circuit in Washington upheld a lower court's finding that it lacked the authority to question decision-making by the government over the missile strike.

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Venus Williams sued over fatal car crash but star will play at Wimbledon

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 02:38 PM PDT

  • Family of Jerome Barson, 78, file lawsuit seeking unspecified damages
  • Williams has not been cited or charged over crash in Florida in early June

Venus Williams is being sued by the estate of a Florida man who died after a car crash police say she caused.

Related: Venus Williams 'at fault' in fatal car crash, say Florida police

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Marine Le Pen charged in inquiry into misuse of EU funds

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 08:27 AM PDT

French far right leader has previously denied any wrongdoing in a case that she says is politically motivated

Marine Le Pen, the leader of France's far-right Front National, has been placed under formal investigation over allegations that her party illegally claimed millions of euros from the European parliament to pay for France-based staff.

Le Pen's lawyer said she had been summoned by investigating magistrates in Paris and "as expected" had been placed under formal investigation for breach of trust. She will appeal against the decision.

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Mammoth task: billionaire Peter Thiel funded effort to resurrect woolly beast

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 11:58 AM PDT

The Silicon Valley titan, who has openly challenged death as an inevitability, invested $100,000 in a project to bring the extinct mammoth back to life

PayPal billionaire and Gawker war-wager Peter Thiel has invested $100,000 in a research effort to resurrect the woolly mammoth.

Thiel, who believes that viewing death as inevitable is a sign of "complacency of the western world", gave the money to Harvard University genomics professor George Church, whose laboratory is attempting to revive the extinct pachyderm.

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Europe's extreme June heat clearly linked to climate change, research shows

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 06:06 AM PDT

Heatwaves that saw deadly forest fires in Portugal and soaring temperatures in England were made up to 10 times more likely by global warming, say scientists

Human-caused climate change dramatically increased the likelihood of the extreme heatwave that saw deadly forest fires blazing in Portugal and Spain, new research has shown.

Much of western Europe sweltered earlier in June, and the severe heat in England, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Switzerland was also made significantly more likely by global warming. Such temperatures will become the norm by 2050, the scientists warned, unless action is taken to rapidly cut carbon emissions.

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Why Trump's $1.42bn Taiwan arms sale could backfire with China

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 05:45 AM PDT

The president is laying down crude reminders before his meeting with Xi, but Beijing tends to react badly to bullying

The US announcement of a $1.42bn arms sale to Taiwan is a not-so-subtle warning shot across the bows of China's president, Xi Jinping, who is due to meet Donald Trump for potentially tense bilateral talks at next week's G20 summit in Hamburg. But Trump's pre-emptive strike could backfire badly.

Official confirmation of the arms sale, under consideration since January, coincided with Xi's officiation at an ostentatious military parade in Hong Kong on Friday, celebrating China's reunification with what until 1997 Beijing regarded as a "renegade province" similar to Taiwan.

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How Antarctica became home to a new kind of scientific diplomacy

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 01:00 AM PDT

The International Geophysical Year in 1957 paved the way for the Antarctic treaty, an accord born amid the cold war that continues to reserve an entire continent for peace and science

It all started over dinner: on 1 July 1957, the International Geophysical Year began, paving the way for an international agreement like no other – the Antarctic treaty – which reserves an entire continent for peace and science.

Today's Antarctica is a tightly regulated continent surrounded by equally carefully managed and cared-for oceans. The Antarctic treaty ensures that Antarctica is used only for peaceful purposes, and that there is freedom of scientific investigation.

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‘I was sold seven times': Yazidi women welcomed back into the faith

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 01:00 AM PDT

Captured and raped by Isis fighters, Yazidi women fear rejection on their release. Now they are learning to heal thanks to a revolution in their religion

No one wears shoes in Lalish. The village is so sacred that all visitors must walk its paths barefoot. Perched at the top of a narrow valley, in the parched, scrubby hills of northern Iraq, close to the Kurdish border, its cluster of shrines are a revered site for followers of the Yazidi faith.

At the heart of Lalish is a pool of water sheltered by a small cave, its entrance shaded by mulberry trees and watched by a guardian in a red turban. This is the "holy white spring", where newborns must be brought for baptism, the waters mixed with the Lalish soil for the rites of marriage, birth and death. For generations, the rituals carried out at the spring had been unchanged. But two years ago, groups of women, usually silent, often with young children, began joining the families filtering in and out of the cave.

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The 20 photographs of the week

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 12:02 AM PDT

Iraqi forces advance in Mosul, Eid al-Fitr around the world, protests in Caracas and power cuts in Gaza – the news of the week captured by the world's best photojournalists

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'Tourism is our lifejacket': debt-stricken Greece gets record number of visitors

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 12:00 AM PDT

Industry accounted for eight out of 10 new jobs last year and arrivals are increasing as tour operators pull out of Turkey and Egypt

Up high, above the hills of Arcadia, historic Dimitsana is on a roll. Its hotels are brimming, its cafes are full, and its footpaths and monasteries lure busloads of tourists decanted daily from other parts of the Peloponnese.

Either side of the main road that splits the mountain village – in a world far removed from talk of emergency bailout funds, international stewardship and gruelling austerity – Greeks are hard at work, running boutique guesthouses, eateries and bars in the stone mansions that line Dimitsana's cobbled streets.

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Vince Cable: Lib Dems should emulate tactics of Emmanuel Macron

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 12:00 AM PDT

Former business secretary says anti-Brexit message did not resonate with voters and party needs to offer 'hope and inspiration'

Vince Cable, the only declared contender for the Liberal Democrat leadership, says his party should try to mimic the success of Emmanuel Macron in the French presidential race and offer "hope and inspiration", after its anti-Brexit message failed to cut through at the general election.

The 74-year-old former business secretary, who began his political life in the Labour party, regained his Twickenham seat on 8 June, having lost it two years ago, and almost immediately threw his hat into the ring to lead the party when Tim Farron resigned.

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Xi Jinping: any challenge to China's power in Hong Kong 'crosses a red line'

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 09:19 PM PDT

President warns against any attempt to 'sabotage' the mainland via Hong Kong, as scuffles break out between rival protest groups

Hong Kong must not be used as a launchpad to challenge Beijing's authority and any questioning of China's sovereignty in the territory "crosses a red line", Chinese president Xi Jinping has said during a visit marking 20 years since the handover of the former colony.

Little more than an hour before his speech, democracy protesters were attacked by pro-China demonstrators and hauled away by police as they attempted to march on the daily flag-raising ceremony.

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‘Final warning’: Liverpool's Unesco status at risk over docks scheme

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 12:00 AM PDT

City could be scrubbed from world heritage list unless regeneration plans for its historic waterfront are reconsidered

"This is the final warning shot," says Henrietta Billings, director of the campaign group Save Britain's Heritage. She's talking about Liverpool and the oversized buildings that are threatening to do a lot more damage to the city than just clog up its waterfront. "Losing world heritage status because of crass planning decisions would be an international embarrassment, as well as a hugely costly mistake."

Billings wants the city planners of Liverpool to heed the warnings of Unesco, the international organisation that has threatened to scrub the city from its coveted list of world heritage sites unless it reconsiders the regeneration plans for its historic docks. In it strongest warning to date, the watchdog has announced that this could happen as early as 2018. If the site is struck off, it will only be the second such deletion in Unesco's history.

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'Funding Isis? He still gets pocket money from me': doubts over Egypt crackdown

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 06:43 AM PDT

Amani Othman's sons are among 170 people imprisoned in Egypt over suspected links to Isis. Many observers echo her belief that a government drive against Islamic State is ensnaring innocent people

"These are the terrorists," says Amani Othman, showing a mobile phone video of her two sons playing ping pong while on holiday in Kuwait.

Sitting in a Cairo coffee shop, Othman giggles at the idea her boys could truly be extremists. But both Omar and Ahmed, seen in the video joking around as they hit the ball back and forth, are in an Egyptian prison where they have been awaiting trial for nearly two years. Omar, the eldest, is one of 170 defendants facing a litany of charges connected to ideological and financial support for Islamic State. Her younger son is accused of "belonging to a banned group".

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Tracking Trump: healthcare, travel ban, blackmail – oh my!

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 12:00 AM PDT

The president ended the week in a familiar position – under fire for comments about a high-profile woman – and a less familiar one: his staff accused of blackmail

This week was a mixed bag for Donald Trump. The president was finally able to implement a limited version of his "Muslim ban", but another campaign pledge – to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act – stalled in the Senate in the face of damning predictions about how many people would lose health insurance if a Republican healthcare bill became law.

Trump then ended the week in one familiar position – under fire for comments about a high-profile woman – and a less familiar one: seeing his staff accused of blackmail.

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If you think the EU should stand up to Trump, it must stand up to China | Natalie Nougayrède

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 11:00 PM PDT

The scandalous treatment of nobel prizewinner Liu Xiaobo means Europe has to challenge President Xi over human rights at next week's G20 summit

Next week Donald Trump and the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, travel to Europe for a G20 summit in Hamburg. Who do you think will attract the most protests? Very probably Trump. But what about attitudes towards the Chinese leader, whose regime is currently preventing the Nobel peace prize winner Liu Xiaobo from travelling freely to receive cancer treatment in a place of his choice? Surely this scandal warrants a strong reaction.

Related: Angela Merkel and Donald Trump head for clash at G20 summit

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'Let's take our party back': Tony Abbott hits out at Liberal hierarchy

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 10:39 PM PDT

Former prime minister denies this is a veiled critique of Turnbull, while latter says 'this is a time for builders, not wreckers'

Tony Abbott has launched an attack on the Liberal party's hierarchy in a speech that calls on conservative supporters to "take our party back".

Speaking at a New South Wales Liberal party member forum on Saturday, Abbott said the party hierarchy showed no respect for its members.

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China 'humiliating' the UK by scrapping Hong Kong handover deal, activists say

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 10:58 PM PDT

Pro-democracy leaders say Britain has 'legal, moral and political responsibility' to stand up to Beijing

Hong Kong democracy activists have accused Chinese president Xi Jinping of "humiliating" the British government by appearing to rubbish the deal that secured the former colony's return to China by guaranteeing its way of life for 50 years.

On Friday, the eve of the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover, on 1 July 1997, Beijing controversially announced that the Sino-British joint declaration was "now history" and no longer had "any practical significance nor any binding force".

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Hong Kong handover: timeline

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 10:00 PM PDT

Twenty years ago today, Hong Kong was returned to China, ending over a century of British rule

1842: Hong Kong was ceded "in perpetuity" - for good - to Britain after China lost the first opium war. This is how the Manchester Guardian told its readers the news.

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Former Phoenix bus driver charged with nine counts of murder

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 07:32 PM PDT

String of night time shootings of people outside their homes or sitting in cars kept Maryvale residents on edge for a year

A former city bus driver accused in a string of deadly night time shootings of people outside their homes or sitting in cars that kept residents of a Phoenix neighborhood inside after dark has been formally charged with nine counts of murder.

The indictment of Aaron Juan Saucedo, 23, came nearly two months after police said he was responsible for fatally shooting nine people and wounding two others during a nearly one-year period that ended in July 2016.

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Thousands of Mosul civilians trapped in Isis territory as Iraqi forces close in

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 06:59 PM PDT

For civilians held as human shields by the extremists, supplies have run low and drinking water is scarce

Hundreds of civilians fled Mosul's Old City on Friday as Iraqi forces slowly squeezed the last pockets of Islamic State resistance, and the UN warned that the "intense and concentrated" fighting put innocent lives in even greater danger.

People climbed over mounds of rubble and through narrow alleys as gunshots and explosions rang out nearby. The neighborhoods where government forces are fighting have been under siege for months as grueling urban warfare drew out the operation to retake Iraq's second-largest city.

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Fantastic beasts and where to find them: Australian native wildlife – in pictures

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 03:16 PM PDT

The National Geographic Photo Ark is a travelling exhibition of photographer Joel Sartore's quest to create a photo archive of biodiversity around the world. So far, Sartore has captured studio portraits of more than 6,000 species – a number that he hopes to double.

On 1 July, the ark will open at Melbourne zoo – the first time it has been exhibited in the southern hemisphere. More than 50 portraits will be on display, including many of Australian endangered animals being protected by programs at the zoo itself. These captions have been edited from text supplied by Melbourne zoo.

The National Geographic Photo Ark exhibition is open at Melbourne Zoo from 1 July until 1 October

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Venezuela chief prosecutor seeks protection amid conflict with Maduro

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 02:28 PM PDT

Luisa Ortega Díaz seeks help of Inter-American Commission on Human Rights after supreme court barred her from leaving country and froze her bank accounts

Venezuela's chief prosecutor has asked the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for protection, days after the supreme court barred her from leaving the country and ordered her bank accounts frozen.

Tensions between Luisa Ortega Díaz and President Nicolas Maduro's socialist administration have been steadily escalating since she contested a supreme court decision in late March that dissolved the opposition-controlled National Assembly and sparked a deadly wave of unrest.

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Did Merkel trip on gay marriage vote, or was this more canny politics?

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 11:27 AM PDT

The German leader's no vote is a sign she has to appease her core conservative base – but the snap election might be more deliberate than she let on

Sixteen years after the Netherlands became the first country in the world to pass legislation in favour of gay marriage, Germany has finally followed suit.

The answer to why it took so long is that much of Germany remains conservative at heart. While Angela Merkel has helped create the impression of her country as a liberal democracy, aided by issues such as her refugee policy and the decision to dismantle the country's nuclear power stations, in reality it is steeped in conservative values.

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We knew Trump was a misogynist. But this week was extreme | Jessica Valenti

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 11:16 AM PDT

The best thing I can say about this week is: at least it's Friday

There's never a dull week under the Trump presidency. In addition to pushing a healthcare plan that would leave 22 million without coverage, the president has spent his mornings this last week attacking a cable news host in a bratty, sexist tirade.

We already knew Donald Trump was a raving misogynist, but having a leader in uncertain times who whines about petty grievances instead of running the country does not exactly inspire confidence. The best thing I can say about this week is: at least it's Friday.

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China attacks Boris Johnson over 'incorrect' views on Hong Kong

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 09:56 AM PDT

Foreign secretary's hopes for a 'fully democratic' government are met with statement that 'outsiders should not make incorrect remarks'

China criticised the "incorrect" views of the foreign secretary, Boris Johnson, as a war of words broke out between London and Beijing on the eve of the 20th anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China.

Johnson released on Thursday what had seemed a relatively restrained statement marking the anniversary of the former British colony's transfer back to China on 1 July 1997.

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After the rain: what is happening to Hong Kong's democracy? - video

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 08:24 AM PDT

Two decades after the UK handed it back to China, President Xi Jinping is in Hong Kong for the first time to celebrate the anniversary. The 'one country, two systems' principle was designed to preserve democratic freedoms in the wealthy former colony. After troubled years of protest at the perceived erosion of those rights, the Guardian meets young Hong Kong citizens struggling to afford property, those moving abroad for opportunities, leaders of the pro-democracy umbrella movement and movers in the pro-Beijing establishment

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No-confidence vote for British Columbia Liberals delivers blow to pipeline project

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 07:51 AM PDT

New Democratic party set to form new government in western Canadian province, which could threaten controversial Trans Mountain pipeline expansion

British Columbia's Liberal government has been defeated in a non-confidence vote, as expected, paving the way for the left-leaning New Democrats to rule the western Canadian province for the first time in 16 years.

Related: Fight to stop controversial Canadian pipeline gets fresh backing in BC

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'Remove the poison of nationalism': readers' hopes for Cyprus' reunification

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 06:47 AM PDT

As talks are underway to reunify Cyprus, Guardian readers in favour of reunification share their hopes and memories of the divided island

Representatives from Cyprus' estranged Greek and Turkish communities, along with their guarantor powers Greece Turkey and the UK, have embarked on an historic effort to reunify the island.

The attempt at reunification comes more than four decades after the Mediterranean's largest island was divided. The UN has taken the unprecedented step of signalling it will end the island's peacekeeping mission, UNFICYP, if talks collapse again. The force is the world's longest-running peace operation.

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Simone Veil obituary

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 06:00 AM PDT

Survivor of Nazi death camps who made her name as the French health minister responsible for legalising abortion

In November 1974, the French minister for health, Simone Veil, rose to address the national assembly and to propose a law legalising abortion. For the next three days, she fought a tremendous battle under the eye of the media. Outside the assembly, "Let them live" campaigners distributed leaflets containing terrible illustrations, and a number of women, led by a priest, walked in procession reciting prayers.

The measure was the most controversial in France for many years, and the situation politically complicated. Within the government, the prime minister, Jacques Chirac, was not in favour of the projected law, and the minister for justice, who was absent from the assembly, had pronounced that, for him, "abortion means death". The president of the republic, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, had insisted on the law, but not succeeded in persuading his followers. The project was passed only because the opposition endorsed it. This was considered a triumph for Veil, who has died aged 89, and, despite her protests, the law became widely known as "la loi Veil".

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Mexican spy scandal escalates as study shows software targeted opposition

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 05:36 AM PDT

Pegasus software, sold to governments for use against terrorists and criminals, found to be used against people across 'the political and civil society spectrum'

The text messages seemed innocuous enough when they buzzed on to the smartphone of Roberto Gil, a senior member of Mexico's opposition National Action Party.

"I wanted to share this report from [the Mexican newsweekly] Proceso where your name is mentioned," said one.

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Greater Manchester doubles number of police trained to use stun guns

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 04:38 AM PDT

Force to train 1,100 officers to use Taser weapons to better protect region after terrorist attacks in London and Manchester

Greater Manchester police are doubling the number of officers trained in the use of stun guns to 1,100.

Related: Met to increase number of officers with Taser electronic weapons

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Simone Veil, Auschwitz survivor and abortion pioneer, dies aged 89

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 04:21 AM PDT

Veil played leading role in legalising contraception and abortion in France and was European parliament's first president

Simone Veil, an Auschwitz survivor who played a leading role in legalising contraception and abortion in France, has died aged 89.

Veil, an icon of French politics and the first president of the European parliament, died at home, her son Jean said.

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Hitler house seizure backed by Austria's highest court

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 03:44 AM PDT

Judges uphold government decision to expropriate Nazi leader's birthplace in Braunau to stop it becoming pilgrim site

Austria's highest court has ruled that the government was right to seize the house where Adolf Hitler was born, ending a long-running and bitter saga between the state and the former owner.

Related: Hitler bust among Argentina's biggest haul of Nazi artefacts found in secret room

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Hong Kong, 20 years, then and now – in pictures

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 03:00 AM PDT

Hong Kong will mark the 20th anniversary of the handover from British to Chinese rule on 1 July 2017. AFP photographer Anthony Wallace takes a look at how the city has changed over those years

Parts of Hong Kong were ceded to Britain in perpetuity as a prize in the wake of the Opium Wars, but the majority of its territory was leased to the UK in 1898 for a period of 99 years.

By the time discussions between the UK and China began over the future of Hong Kong, the parts of the ceded city and those that were leased were entirely integrated.

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#HeterosexualPrideDay backfires as LGBT users subvert it on Twitter

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 02:52 AM PDT

Attempt to mock gay pride movement is hijacked by LGBT people using it to highlight discrimination they still face

An attempt to mock and belittle the LGBT pride movement on social media has backfired spectacularly. The #HeterosexualPrideDay hashtag ended up trending, but not for the reasons those initially posting it had hoped.

This is the greatest hashtag in twitter history!! Proud straight male here ! RT if you're a proud heterosexual #HeterosexualPrideDay

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Sarin used in April Syria attack, chemical weapons watchdog confirms

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 02:30 AM PDT

Report into attack on Khan Sheikhun says it is likely nerve agent spread from hole in road where projectile hit

The nerve agent sarin was used in an attack in April on the Syrian town of Khan Sheikhun and was likely to have spread from a crater in a road where a projectile had hit, the global chemical weapons watchdog has confirmed.

A report by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) also found that hexamine – a known component of the Syrian regime's stockpiles – was contained in samples taken from the scene and from the blood and urine of victims.

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What do we know about the regime's use of chemical weapons in Syria?

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 02:26 AM PDT

Assad regime has deployed chemical weapons including chlorine and sarin on number of occasions since outbreak of war in 2011

It has deployed them in a variety of ways over the past five years: in grenades and makeshift bombs dropped from helicopters; rockets fired from jets; and artillery rounds and custom made rockets fired from the ground.

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The president of the United States appears untethered from reality

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 01:06 PM PDT

The way he treated Morning Joe's hosts is abnormal. And this abnormality has effects that extend far beyond the fate of the Trump presidency

It's hard to be disappointed by Donald Trump. Unlike his predecessors, he never promised to heal the nation. Or if he did, nobody believed him.

George W Bush said he was a uniter, not a divider. Barack Obama said there was no red America and no blue America. Only the United States of America. The closest thing to a unity message from Donald Trump came at his curiously underpopulated inauguration, when he said: "When America is united, America is totally unstoppable."

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Trump's next attack on democracy: mass voter suppression | Russ Feingold

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 10:31 AM PDT

The Trump administration's 'election integrity' commission is declaring war on voters – our democratic legitimacy be damned

  • Russ Feingold is a former US senator for Wisconsin

The most important aspect of any democratic election is participation. A democracy gains its legitimacy through elections only so far as those elections represent the will of the people. Limit voter participation, and there is a direct correlation between the legitimacy of an election and the democratic system. President Trump and Vice-President Pence's "election integrity" commission is unequivocally declaring war on voters – our democratic legitimacy be damned.

The commission recently sent a letter to all 50 states asking that they provide all the names and associated birthdays, last four digits of social security numbers, addresses, political parties, and voting histories since 2006 of people on their voter rolls. This letter is helping to lay the groundwork for nationalized voter suppression.

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American healthcare is in crisis. We must fight for the real needs of the people | Bernie Sanders and James Clyburn

Posted: 30 Jun 2017 08:44 AM PDT

Community health centers serve roughly 25 million people. We believe our bill will double that number, write senators Bernie Sanders and James E Clyburn

Today in America, we have a major crisis in primary healthcare. Tens of millions of people, including many with health insurance, are unable to access a doctor or a dentist when they need one. The result is that patients suffer unnecessarily and become sicker than they should. Some end up at expensive emergency rooms and some in hospitals. Our healthcare system wastes billions of dollars on expensive care that could be avoided with a strong primary care system.

Related: 'Every day until we know it's dead': how people are fighting GOP healthcare bill

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