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

Beijing warns Hong Kong marchers not to challenge mainland rule
Celebrations across Canada mark country's 150th birthday
'Architect of German unity': world leaders pay tribute to Helmut Kohl
'Dumb as a rock Mika': Donald Trump back on attack against Morning Joe hosts
'I don't think it's civil to kill people': rage continues over Republican health bill
In Seattle US old-timers rediscover the high life on cannabis tours
Barack Obama urges world to stand against 'aggressive nationalism'
Tower of human skulls found in Mexico City dig casts light on Aztec sacrifices
How a Capa photo of bombed flats in Madrid could help today’s residents
Little Rock shooting of 25 at rap show prompts call to curb growing violence
Cyber expert says GOP operative wanted to expose hacked Clinton emails
Pope replaces top rival in latest move to make church more inclusive
New York hospital shooting: killed doctor named, one victim still critical
Ken Burns returns to take on Vietnam – 'a war we have consciously ignored'
Internet regulation: is it time to rein in the tech giants?
Museum risks wrath of Inuit with display from tragic Arctic voyage
'A violence no autopsy can reveal': the deadly cost of India's campus prejudice
Canada Day 2017 - in pictures
Al-Jazeera, insurgent TV station that divides the Arab world, faces closure
Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?
Residents near Grenfell Tower will not have to pay rent, says council
Russia begins cleaning up the Soviets' top-secret nuclear waste dump
Yemen's cholera death toll rises to 1,500, says World Health Organisation
The old liberal order is on its knees – I’ll miss it when it’s gone | Nick Cohen
How Trump's foreign policy threatens to make America weak again
Greens senator Lee Rhiannon says she is 'disappointed' in Di Natale's leadership
Qatar rejects deadline demands, saying it does not fear military action
We need to rethink the way we imagine race and culture | Kenan Malik
China tears up promises to UK and shows the world who is in charge
Not One Day More protest in London – in pictures
Small ads sex trafficking: the battle against Backpage
Doctor and suspect dead in New York hospital shooting, say police – video
Police: at least 17 shot at Little Rock nightclub – video

Beijing warns Hong Kong marchers not to challenge mainland rule

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 12:28 PM PDT

Twenty years after Britain returned its colony, China's president provokes pro-democracy anger

Tens of thousands of pro-democracy protesters delivered a rebuke to President Xi Jinping after the Chinese leader warned that Hong Kong must not become a launchpad for challenges to Beijing's authority.

Celebrations across Canada mark country's 150th birthday

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 01:56 PM PDT

The prime minister, Justin Trudeau, leads festivities in Ottawa with guests including Prince Charles and members of U2

The celebrations in pictures

Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau, has kicked off celebrations to mark the country's 150th birthday amid heavy security as many citizens braved incessant rain and long delays to reach the main site in the nation's capital.

'Architect of German unity': world leaders pay tribute to Helmut Kohl

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 04:24 PM PDT

Bill Clinton and Angela Merkel among senior figures at memorial for former chancellor who oversaw fall of Berlin Wall

European leaders have joined former US president Bill Clinton to pay tribute to former German chancellor Helmut Kohl, who oversaw German reunification and the end of the Cold War.

Kohl was a founder of modern-day Europe and served as chancellor from 1982 to 1998. He died on 16 June aged 87.

'Dumb as a rock Mika': Donald Trump back on attack against Morning Joe hosts

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 03:12 PM PDT

President issues new abuse of MSNBC hosts Scarborough and Brzezinski
Opinion: the president of the US appears untethered from reality

Donald Trump aimed a series of tweets at familiar targets on Saturday, complaining about the media and so-called voter fraud but saving his most direct fire for MSNBC hosts Mika Brzezinski and Joe Scarborough, the subjects of a fierce controversy over online bullying, sexism and accusations of White House blackmail.

The president sent his tweets from his golf club in Bedminster, New Jersey, where he was spending the Fourth of July holiday. He began with best wishes to Canada on its national holiday then continued with another attack on the hosts of the weekday news show Morning Joe.

'I don't think it's civil to kill people': rage continues over Republican health bill

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 09:50 AM PDT

Republican legislators face fiery town hall meetings, as constituents fume over figures that say 22 million would lose insurance under their plan

Anger over Republican efforts to replace the Affordable Care Act (ACA) continues to spill over into town hall meetings, as voters express fears that they and millions of others could be left uninsured by any Trump-endorsed healthcare legislation.

At a town hall in Baton Rouge on Friday, Senator Bill Cassidy of Louisiana faced angry questions over the Senate healthcare bill.

In Seattle US old-timers rediscover the high life on cannabis tours

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 04:03 PM PDT

Retirement home residents take a trip to a producer

Forget bingo, tea dances and seaside trips. Residents from a chain of Seattle retirement homes are going on Pot for Beginners tours to learn about – and buy – cannabis in the city, where it's now legal.

Connie Schick said her son roared with laughter when he heard she was joining a field trip to a cannabis-growing operation, an extraction plant and shop. The 79-year-old, who smoked the odd joint in the 70s, wanted to know how legalisation has changed the way the drug is used and produced.

Barack Obama urges world to stand against 'aggressive nationalism'

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 03:56 AM PDT

Former US president says countries must defend tolerance, moderation and respect for others or risk chaos and violence in speech in Indonesia

Barack Obama has called on the world to stand up for tolerance, moderation and respect for others – warning that sectarian politics could lead to chaos and violence.

The former US president said some countries had adopted "an aggressive kind of nationalism" and "increased resentment of minority groups", in a speech in Indonesia on Saturday that could be seen as a commentary on the US as well as Indonesia.

Tower of human skulls found in Mexico City dig casts light on Aztec sacrifices

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 12:57 PM PDT

Archaeologists find more than 650 skulls near site of Templo Mayor
Presence of skulls of women and children is 'a first', says scientist

A tower of human skulls unearthed beneath the heart of Mexico City has raised new questions about the culture of sacrifice in the Aztec empire, after crania of women and children surfaced among the hundreds embedded in the forbidding structure.

How a Capa photo of bombed flats in Madrid could help today’s residents

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 01:04 PM PDT

Campaigners seek heritage status for shrapnel-scarred walls, eight decades after civil war raid by Hitler's forces

Number 10 Peironcely Street has seen better days. The fresh white paint that coats a warren of long, narrow patios can't hide the fact that its walls are crumbling, nor can the cover on the well or the rusty manholes keep the rats and mosquitoes at bay.

But it has seen far worse days. In the winter of 1936, the working-class Madrid district of Vallecas in which it stands was pummelled by the bombers that Hitler sent to help Francisco Franco overthrow Spain's republican government – and rehearse the blitzkrieg tactics later used in the second world war.

Little Rock shooting of 25 at rap show prompts call to curb growing violence

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 10:09 AM PDT

Arkansas police: shooting not terror-related or an active shooter incident
Shooting follows week of nearly a dozen drive-by shootings in Little Rock

Police said 25 people were shot early on Saturday at a rap show at a nightclub in downtown Little Rock, prompting pleas from community leaders to curb the growing violence in Arkansas' capital city.

Police said the shooting at Power Ultra Lounge was the result of a dispute among club-goers and not an active shooter or terror-related incident. Little Rock police said later on Saturday that 25 people were shot and three others suffered unrelated injuries. All were expected to survive, police said.

Cyber expert says GOP operative wanted to expose hacked Clinton emails

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 12:03 PM PDT

British internet security consultant Matt Tait's allegations may shed new light on Russia's election meddling and possible collusion by Trump aides

A former British government intelligence official has said he was approached last summer by a veteran Republican operative to help verify hacked Hillary Clinton emails offered by a mysterious and most likely Russian source.

The incident, recounted by Matt Tait, who was a information security specialist for GCHQ and now runs a private internet security consultancy in the UK, may cast new light on one of the pathways the Russians used to influence the 2016 presidential election in Donald Trump's favour.

Pope replaces top rival in latest move to make church more inclusive

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 07:26 AM PDT

Vatican says five-year mandate of conservative German Cardinal Müller as head of key department won't be renewed

The Vatican has signalled a major shake-up of its administration, with Pope Francis replacing his top theologian, a conservative German cardinal who has been at odds with the pontiff's vision of a more inclusive church.

A brief Vatican statement said Cardinal Gerhard Ludwig Müller's five-year mandate as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, a key department charged with defending Catholic doctrine, would not be renewed.

New York hospital shooting: killed doctor named, one victim still critical

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 01:57 PM PDT

Detectives unsure if Dr Tracy Sin-Yee Tam, 32, who died on Friday knew Dr Henry Bello, who attacked his former workplace before killing himself

A portrait of an angry doctor seeking revenge on the medical professionals he believed turned their backs on him emerged on Saturday, as a New York hospital began to recover from a shooting that left one doctor dead, another critically injured and four staff members and a patient wounded.

Ken Burns returns to take on Vietnam – 'a war we have consciously ignored'

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 06:37 AM PDT

Burns's new 10-part, 18-hour epic film covers the conflict from all sides, and hopes to 'shape more courageous conversations about what took place'

James Rogers and Renan Reyes, veterans of the Vietnam war, each made a trip to Washington on Wednesday to see the Vietnam Veterans Memorial for the first time.

"Very impressive," said Rogers, who is from Madison, Alabama, as a river of parents and children flowed past in bright sunshine.

Internet regulation: is it time to rein in the tech giants?

Posted: 02 Jul 2017 01:30 AM PDT

Fake news and Isis propaganda have raised concern about the power of the web. But with cyberspace controlled by a handful of giant firms, can governments ever hope to curb them – and is that even desirable?

"Enough is enough," said Theresa May outside 10 Downing Street after the London Bridge attack last month. "When it comes to taking on extremism and terrorism, things need to change." And one of those things was the behaviour of internet firms, which should not allow extremism a place to breed. "Yet that is precisely what the internet – and the big companies that provide internet-based services – provide," she continued.

May's speech was only the latest example of the frustration among governments with the way that the internet, and internet companies, seem to elude and ignore the rules by which everyone else has to live. From encrypted apps used by terrorists (but also by peaceful activists) to online abuse, and fake news to hacking and radicalisation, the friction between the two sides is growing. France and Germany have implemented fines for companies that allow Nazi content to remain online, while in the US the FBI demanded that Apple write software to hack into an iPhone used by one of the San Bernardino killers, and took the firm to court when it refused.

Museum risks wrath of Inuit with display from tragic Arctic voyage

Posted: 02 Jul 2017 12:19 AM PDT

Exhibition may solve riddle of Franklin's lost expedition

After 165 years under icy seas, the lost secrets of Sir John Franklin's doomed British Arctic expedition in search of the North-West Passage are to form the centrepiece of a major London exhibition, Death in the Ice. But who really owns these salvaged artefacts?

This weekend it has emerged that the historic items painstakingly retrieved from the wreck of HMS Erebus, one of Franklin's two lost expeditionary vessels, were taken without permission from waters now owned by the Inuit people in Canada.

'A violence no autopsy can reveal': the deadly cost of India's campus prejudice

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 11:00 PM PDT

Many Dalit students regard university as a place of ridicule and abuse. Amrit Dhillon investigates the aftermath of two suicides and asks: is it time to make campus caste discrimination a criminal offence?

Vikas Kumar Moola has been troubled by two questions ever since his best friend Muthu Krishnan, a postgraduate history student at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), killed himself on 13 March. "What could I have done to stop it? Should I have done more to help him make friends?"

Theirs was an old and close friendship based on caste (both are Dalits, the lowest rung of the Hindu caste system), poverty, missed meals, penny pinching and dreams. "I knew he was unhappy, he was lonely, but what else did I miss?" asks Moola, a PhD sociology student at JNU.

Canada Day 2017 - in pictures

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 04:41 PM PDT

Canada celebrates 150 years since its founding

Full report on the celebrations

Al-Jazeera, insurgent TV station that divides the Arab world, faces closure

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 04:16 PM PDT

The network has raised political awareness across the Middle East. No wonder Qatar's conservative enemies want it shut down

On Monday a bold and controversial experiment in Middle Eastern media and politics may be abruptly brought to an end. Al-Jazeera – once heralded as the beacon of free Arab media that broke the hegemony of the western networks and reversed the flow of information from east to west for the first time since the middle ages – faces closing its doors for good.

On 23 June, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt subjected Qatar to unprecedented diplomatic and economic sanctions, followed by an aggressive blockade and threats of further action if Qatar fails to meet a list of 13 demands, one of which is to shut down the al-Jazeera network.

Are cryptocurrencies about to go mainstream?

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 03:00 AM PDT

Experts call for caution about digital currencies, such as bitcoin and Ethereum, but financial firms are considering adopting them or even establishing their own

Last Sunday a message posted on message board 4Chan started the rumor that Vitalik Buterin, the founder of cryptocurrency Ethereum, had been killed in a car crash. News of the 23-year-old, Russian-born programmer's demise was soon proved false – but not before 20%, or roughly $4bn, had been wiped from Ethereum's soaring market value.

The hoax not only drew attention to Ethereum, the second largest digital currency after bitcoin, which had seen its value rise fiftyfold since the start of the year to $300 a coin, but also to the booming market in other so-called cryptocurrencies that could now be on the cusp of mainstream financial credibility.

Residents near Grenfell Tower will not have to pay rent, says council

Posted: 02 Jul 2017 02:17 AM PDT

People living in three buildings, who have been without hot water since fire, will not pay until end of January 2018

Residents forced to leave their homes near Grenfell Tower because of a lack of utilities will not have to pay rent, the council has said.

Kensington and Chelsea council said payments would not be requested for those living in the so-called "finger blocks" until January 2018 at the earliest. The move came as campaigners warned that those affected by the fire, which is believed to have killed at least 80 people, might boycott an inquiry into the disaster amid concerns about its scope.

Russia begins cleaning up the Soviets' top-secret nuclear waste dump

Posted: 02 Jul 2017 02:00 AM PDT

When the Soviet Union collapsed a vast store of spent nuclear fuel was abandoned in the Russian Arctic – an environmental disaster waiting to happen. Decades later an international clean-up has finally begun

As the Rossita pulled away from the pier at Andreyeva Bay, sounding a long boom of its horn, a military band struck up a jaunty march. On board the ship were nine sealed metal casks, each four metres high and weighing 45 tonnes, containing canisters of spent nuclear fuel. Dozens of Russian and foreign nuclear specialists looked on applauding, as the chilly rain of a northern summer fell on the bay deep inside the Russian Arctic.

The ceremony, held on Tuesday afternoon, marks the culmination of a long international project to begin removing nuclear fuel from the site, formerly a top-secret Soviet installation. Nuclear specialists say Andreyeva Bay contains the largest reserves of spent nuclear fuel in the world, in fragile conditions that have disturbed the international community for years.

Yemen's cholera death toll rises to 1,500, says World Health Organisation

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 06:44 PM PDT

War between Saudi-led coalition and Iran-aligned Houthi group makes Yemen a breeding ground for cholera

The death toll from a major cholera outbreak in Yemen has risen to 1,500, Nevio Zagaria, the World Health Organisation's representative in Yemen, said on Saturday, and appealed for more help to put an end to the epidemic.

Yemen has been devastated by a 27-month war between a Saudi-led coalition and the Iran-aligned Houthi group, making it a breeding ground for the disease, which spreads by faeces getting into food or water and thrives in places with poor sanitation.

The old liberal order is on its knees – I’ll miss it when it’s gone | Nick Cohen

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 04:05 PM PDT

Putting kleptocrats like Teodorin Obiang on trial harks back to a time when we valued justice but the future looks less encouraging

It is hard to find reasons to be cheerful, but the sight of the law finally catching up with Teodorin Obiang is among them. His trial in Paris ought to represent the triumph of the globalisation of justice. Yet as liberalism shudders under the blows of Trump, Putin and Brexit, support for the values that can check men such as Obiang is fading. The case feels like yesterday's news, even though Obiang's prosecution is by any reasonable standard a sensational event.

This is the first time the serving minister of a tyrant has been arraigned on corruption charges. Obiang is something more than a mere official, I should add. Dictatorships can always turn into monarchies, as the strong man decides that only his brats are fit to succeed him. True to form, Obiang became Equatorial Guinea's vice president as a reward for being the son of a dictator who has been in power since 1979. He is its Prince of Wales in all but name.

How Trump's foreign policy threatens to make America weak again

Posted: 02 Jul 2017 02:00 AM PDT

The president talks a tough game – but he has alienated allies. And the more he tries to assert US leadership, the less of a leadership role he plays

Donald Trump does not travel well. At his first major summit, he was too tired to walk through the Sicilian streets with the other G7 leaders, and took to his golf cart. He literally pushed aside the prime minister of a small European country to stand at the head of the pack. He found himself in a minority of one over the Paris climate accord, rejecting arguments that he was ceding world leadership to China. And he was irritated by all the tough-guy talk from France's president, Emmanuel Macron, who boasted to a French newspaper that his white-knuckle handshake with Trump was "a moment of truth".

When he returned home, Trump's response was to embrace his isolation. "I was elected to represent the citizens of Pittsburgh, not Paris," he declared as he pulled out of the Paris agreement, barely a month ago.

Greens senator Lee Rhiannon says she is 'disappointed' in Di Natale's leadership

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 11:49 PM PDT

Rhiannon says potential rule change would 'rob members of their rights' and make Greens less democratic

The Greens senator Lee Rhiannon says she is "disappointed" with Richard Di Natale's leadership after her suspension from contentious party room decisions.

She said Di Natale had blocked the voices of New South Wales Greens members from being heard at the federal level by supporting her suspension.

Qatar rejects deadline demands, saying it does not fear military action

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 05:59 PM PDT

Foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani rejects demands from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Bahrain and United Arab Emirates

Qatar said on Saturday it does not fear any military retaliation for refusing to meet a Monday deadline to comply with a list of demands from four Arab states that have imposed a de-facto blockade on the Gulf nation.

During a visit to Rome, foreign minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani again rejected the demands as an infringement on Qatar's sovereignty. He said any country is free to raise grievances with Qatar, provided they have proof, but said any such conflicts should be worked out through negotiation, not by imposing ultimatums.

We need to rethink the way we imagine race and culture | Kenan Malik

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 04:04 PM PDT

The decision to deny a Sikh couple the right to adopt a white child exposes the need for a new vision of who we are

Last week, Sandeep and Reena Mander were denied the chance to adopt a child. It was not because their local council, Windsor and Maidenhead, thought that they would not have provided a loving family home. Nor because there were no children to adopt. It is rather that the Manders are of Indian Sikh heritage – though both born in Britain – and the only children needing adoption were white. "They took the colour of our skin as the overriding reason not to progress with the application," Mr Mander said.

Many have seen in the attitude of Windsor and Maidenhead council a straightforward case of racism. The councillors are predominantly white, and overwhelmingly Conservative. They "appear not to appreciate diversity", claimed Narinderjit Singh, general secretary of the Sikh Federation (UK).

China tears up promises to UK and shows the world who is in charge

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 12:37 PM PDT

Xi Jinping offered no concessions on civil liberties during his visit to Hong Kong

Xi Jinping's tough talk in Hong Kong reflects growing self-confidence in China's ability to shape world events and browbeat or ignore less powerful countries such as Britain.

Not One Day More protest in London – in pictures

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 08:23 AM PDT

Thousands march in UK capital to protest against austerity and Theresa May's Conservative minority government

Small ads sex trafficking: the battle against Backpage

Posted: 02 Jul 2017 01:00 AM PDT

Backpage started out with small ads for household goods. So how did it grow into a major online market for child sex trafficking? Annie Kelly meets some of the survivors – and reveals how their fight for justice became a battleground for free speech on the internet

The first time Kubiiki Pride used Backpage, America's largest classified website, was to buy a fridge. The second time she sold some clothes. The third time she was looking for her 13-year-old daughter.

The family had spent nine frantic months looking for MA, posting flyers, launching public appeals and scouring the streets. It took Kubiiki less than five minutes to find her on Backpage. "We were so desperate we were trying everything, but when my husband said check Backpage I was confused because I thought it was a site where you sold stuff you didn't want any more. It never occurred to me that children were being bought and sold, too."

Doctor and suspect dead in New York hospital shooting, say police – video

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 07:33 AM PDT

Police commissioner James O'Neill describes the actions of Dr Henry Bello, who went to the Bronx Lebanon hospital on Friday with an assault rifle hidden under a lab coat and shot seven people, killing one woman, before turning the gun on himself. Mayor Bill de Blasio joined O'Neill at the press conference, offering condolences to the people affected

New York shooting doctor 'promised to kill' colleagues after hospital fired him

Police: at least 17 shot at Little Rock nightclub – video

Posted: 01 Jul 2017 06:59 AM PDT

Police chief Kenton Buckner says at least 17 people were wounded after gunfire erupted at a concert in Little Rock, Arkansas, early on Saturday. All shooting victims are alive and the incident is not believed to be a terror-related act