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

German election 2017: polls open amid fears over surge of far-right AfD
Donald Trump in angry row with sports stars after withdrawing Warriors invitation
New Zealand gets hung parliament as Jacinda Ardern falls short in election
North Korea foreign minister says firing rockets on US mainland 'inevitable'
Bali volcano: 34,000 flee Mount Agung as tremor magnitude intensifies
Fearful neighbours look on as Iraq’s Kurds stake claim to nationhood
Crisis grows in Puerto Rico as towns without water, power and phone service
Mexico City hit by fresh panic as aftershock rocks buildings
Thousands join Mélenchon protest in Paris against Macron’s labour reforms
Charles Bradley, celebrated soul singer who found fame late, dies aged 68
The view from Madrid: anger and sadness as Catalans prepare for vote
US bombers fly near North Korea amid fears about further nuclear tests
Iran defies Washington as it announces successful missile test
Hurricane Maria adds to damage caused by Irma on Turks and Caicos
How did that get there? Plastic chunks on Arctic ice show how far pollution has spread
China to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea
Saudi cleric banned for saying women's brains 'a quarter the size' of men's
Israel co-opts Giro d’Italia in race to paint over canvas of conflict
In Between review – the struggle of free spirits trying to fly
The day I photographed the Queen and her dogs at Balmoral
In the Last Days of the City review – elegiac portrait of Egyptian revolution
Trump attacks McCain and other Republicans over healthcare failure
Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, NAB and Westpac axe ATM fees for customers of rivals
Jacinda Ardern remains positive of way forward after New Zealand election – video
New Zealand election: 'positive' Jacinda Ardern vows to fight on
Melanesian leaders condemn UN for turning 'a deaf ear' to West Papua atrocities
Saudi Arabia allows women into stadium as it steps up reforms
'Everything's changed': despair of Briton held without charge in Bangladesh
China finds its own Top Gun and Rambo in wave of patriotic movies
The world is moving on – with or without Trump’s crude bravado | Jeffrey Sachs
The week in patriarchy: Ivanka Trump continues to disappoint | Jessica Valenti
Jacinda Ardern: ‘We gave it our all’ – video
Trump: I’ll handle ‘little rocket man’ Kim Jong-un – video
Puerto Rico: dam wall cracks on Lake Guajataca - video

German election 2017: polls open amid fears over surge of far-right AfD

Posted: 24 Sep 2017 12:30 AM PDT

The chancellor is on course for a fourth term but the emergence of the anti-immigrant party promises a bittersweet outcome

Polls have opened in Germany for an election that could serve a bittersweet victory for incumbent chancellor Angela Merkel.

While Merkel is widely expected to be reelected as chancellor for a fourth term, Sunday's vote is likely to see a far-right party enter parliament for the first time in over six decades.

Donald Trump in angry row with sports stars after withdrawing Warriors invitation

Posted: 24 Sep 2017 12:24 AM PDT

President tweets: 'Curry is hesitating, therefore invitation is withdrawn!'
Warriors: 'We'll use our trip to celebrate equality, diversity and inclusion'
Stephen Curry said Friday he'd vote no when team met to decide on trip

Donald Trump was the subject of startlingly strong abuse from major sports stars on Saturday, after he criticised NFL players protesting against racial injustice and withdrew an invitation for the NBA-champion Golden State Warriors to visit the White House, breaking a tradition dating back to the Reagan years.

New Zealand gets hung parliament as Jacinda Ardern falls short in election

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 07:22 AM PDT

Labour and National court New Zealand First leader Winston Peter who becomes kingmaker for third time

The future of New Zealand's new government has been put in the hands of Winston Peters, a cantankerous, anti-immigration politician who prefers fishing to politics, after vote counting finished in the general election.

Neither of the major parties – National, led by the incumbent prime minister, Bill English, or Jacinda Ardern's Labour – secured enough seats to form a majority government in a frustrating poll on Saturday. National secured 46% of the vote, giving it 58 seats in parliament, while Labour took home 35.8% and 45 seats.

North Korea foreign minister says firing rockets on US mainland 'inevitable'

Posted: 24 Sep 2017 12:25 AM PDT

Ri Yong Ho tells the UN general assembly that Donald Trump was on a 'suicide mission' as tensions between the nations escalate further

North Korea has said that firing its rockets at the US mainland was "inevitable" after Donald Trump called Pyongyang's leader "rocket man", in a further escalation of rhetoric between the two leaders.

North Korean foreign minister Ri Yong Ho's remarks before the United Nations general assembly came hours after US Air Force B-1B Lancer bombers escorted by fighter jets flew in international airspace over waters east of North Korea, in a show of force the Pentagon said demonstrated the range of military options available to the US president.

Bali volcano: 34,000 flee Mount Agung as tremor magnitude intensifies

Posted: 24 Sep 2017 12:28 AM PDT

Number of people leaving homes in the shadow of the volcano has tripled amid fears it could erupt for the first time in more than 50 years

More than 34,000 people have fled from a rumbling volcano on Bali as the magnitude of tremors grows, prompting fears it could erupt for the first time in more than 50 years, an official has said.

Fearful neighbours look on as Iraq’s Kurds stake claim to nationhood

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 12:32 PM PDT

Monday's independence poll for the Kurdish north is supported by voters but opposed by Turkey, Baghdad and the west, which fear it will deepen instability

Below the Erbil citadel, where empire and insurrection have been fought out over the course of 5,000 years, Kurdish flags stake out the claim to a nascent era – that of a sovereign state.

Banners were gathering rapidly during the week in advance of a referendum on independence in the Kurdish north of Iraq due to take place on Monday. Hours ahead of the ballot, the citadel square and nearby markets were teeming with Kurds draped in nationalistic red, white and green, symbolising the struggle that they believe will deliver them a new nation from the rump of another.

Crisis grows in Puerto Rico as towns without water, power and phone service

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 02:03 PM PDT

Death toll from Hurricane Maria stands at 10 but likely to rise
Governor says: 'This is the biggest catastrophe in our modern history'

A humanitarian crisis grew on Saturday in Puerto Rico as towns were left without fresh water, fuel, power or phone service following Hurricane Maria's devastating passage across the US territory.

Mexico City hit by fresh panic as aftershock rocks buildings

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 04:02 PM PDT

Tremor comes days after earthquake that killed more than 300

A powerful aftershock has caused panic as buildings again swayed in Mexico City just days after more than 300 were killed by the country's deadliest earthquake for a generation.

Rescue and clean-up efforts were temporarily suspended on Saturday amid fears that unstable structures could collapse, causing further anguish for dozens of families whose relatives are still missing under the rubble.

Thousands join Mélenchon protest in Paris against Macron’s labour reforms

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 04:04 PM PDT

Hard-left leader accuses president of throwing away postwar social gains

Thousands of demonstrators heeded a call by the hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon to demonstrate their opposition to the government's labour law reforms.

The leader of La France Insoumise (Unbowed France) claimed that 150,000 people were at Place de la République to hear him say: "You are the pride and honour of a country that will not stand and be insulted … it was the people who beat the kings, the Nazis … We are here to defend the republic."

Charles Bradley, celebrated soul singer who found fame late, dies aged 68

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 02:13 PM PDT

Bradley had been battling stomach and liver cancer
Former James Brown impersonator was also compared to Otis Redding

The soul singer Charles Bradley has died, it was announced on Saturday. He was 68.

The view from Madrid: anger and sadness as Catalans prepare for vote

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 01:00 PM PDT

Beyond Catalonia, there are calls for Spanish unity and bitterness about claims that the northern region is footing the bill for the rest of the country

It was chance that made Ana Luque Sillero a native of Madrid and her cousins Catalan. Their parents all left southern Spain decades ago in search of work and a better life for their children, but one couple found jobs in the capital and the others had more luck further north.

No one imagined that the family might one day find themselves facing the possibility of living on different sides of an international border.

US bombers fly near North Korea amid fears about further nuclear tests

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 11:48 AM PDT

China reports 'suspected explosion' but South Korean experts suggest minor tremor was a natural occurrence

A series of earthquakes in North Korea have sparked fears the country may have conducted another nuclear weapons test, although experts said the tremors were natural.

Speculation around further testing came as US air force bombers flew east of North Korea on Saturday in 'demonstration of US resolve', said Pentagon officials.

Iran defies Washington as it announces successful missile test

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 09:34 AM PDT

State television shows Khoramshahr missile launch as US says such activities are grounds for halting nuclear deal

Iran has said it successfully tested a new medium-range missile, in defiance of warnings from the US that such activities were grounds for abandoning the countries' landmark nuclear deal.

State television carried footage of the launch of the Khoramshahr missile, which was first displayed at a high-profile military parade in Tehran on Friday. It also carried in-flight video from the nose-cone of the missile, which has a range of 1,250 miles (2,000km) and can carry multiple warheads.

Hurricane Maria adds to damage caused by Irma on Turks and Caicos

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 08:01 AM PDT

Other territories including British Virgin Islands and Anguilla heavily hit by Irma have escaped full force of Maria

Hurricane Maria has added to the extensive damage on the British overseas territory of the Turks and Caicos Islands, the Foreign Office has said, after the region was pummelled by a second major storm in two weeks.

The hurricane barrelled across the Caribbean over the past few days, claiming the lives of at least 19 people, with many others missing.

How did that get there? Plastic chunks on Arctic ice show how far pollution has spread

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 04:01 PM PDT

Discovery by UK scientists prompts fear that melting ice will allow more plastic to be released into the central Arctic Ocean – with huge effects on wildlife

A British-led expedition has discovered sizeable chunks of polystyrene lying on remote frozen ice floes in the middle of the Arctic Ocean.

The depressing find, only 1,000 miles from the north pole, is the first made in an area that was previously inaccessible to scientists because of sea ice. It is one of the most northerly sightings of such detritus in the world's oceans, which are increasingly polluted by plastics.

China to enforce UN sanctions against North Korea

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 01:42 AM PDT

Beijing bans exports of some petroleum products and imports of textiles as Pyongyang and US urged to calm tensions

China has said it will ban exports of some petroleum products to North Korea, as well as imports of textiles from the isolated country, in line with a United Nations security council resolution passed after Pyongyang's latest nuclear test.

The announcement from Beijing came at the end of a week that saw tensions rise between the US and North Korea, with the leaders of both countries trading insults.

Saudi cleric banned for saying women's brains 'a quarter the size' of men's

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 04:42 AM PDT

Saad al-Hijri suspended from all religious activity for saying women should not drive because their brains shrink after shopping

A Saudi cleric who said women should not drive because their brains shrink to a quarter the size of a man's when they go shopping has been banned from preaching.

Saad al-Hijri, head of fatwas (legal opinions) in Saudi Arabia's Assir governorate, was suspended from all religious activity after advising against allowing women to drive in a speech that contained comments "diminishing human value", a spokesman for the governor of Asir province said.

Israel co-opts Giro d’Italia in race to paint over canvas of conflict

Posted: 24 Sep 2017 01:00 AM PDT

La grande partenza in Jerusalem will be a historic first but brings an unprecedented level of political controversy to cycling's second biggest event

Israel is a country of builders. Almost 70 years after its foundation skycrapers jostle for space along the Mediterranean strand, planted in the fertile soil of a Tel Aviv property boom. Up in the Judean Hills, other kinds of structures – architectures of military control in the occupied Palestinian territories – spring up, too.

Israelis are now turning their attention to a new kind of construction: image. Despite the occupation and condemnation from the international community, Israel is ready to project its pride at what it has built and paint over the canvas of conflict. Holding the brush is Sylvan Adams, an ebullient 58-year-old property billionaire who emigrated from Canada in 2016.

In Between review – the struggle of free spirits trying to fly

Posted: 24 Sep 2017 01:00 AM PDT

Three female flatmates in Tel Aviv fight the constraints of their Muslim faith and families in an inspiring directorial debut

This bittersweet debut feature from Maysaloun Hamoud is a spiky treat, an empowering tale of three Palestinian women living in Tel Aviv, each fighting their own battles for independence and fulfilment. Balancing tragicomic relationship blues with sharp sociopolitical observation, Hamoud's slyly subversive drama draws us deep into an often hidden world. As the title suggests, these women occupy a liminal space, caught between freedom and repression, religion and secularism, the past and the future. Theirs is a world in flux, in which the drugs and partying of the underground scene stand in stark contrast to the strict hypocrisies that dominate the cultural landscape. As one of them tells her devout father: "Some people live in palaces, but God knows what their life is like inside…"

Laila (Mouna Hawa) is a force of nature, a chain-smoking, leather-jacketed lawyer who can drink and snort the boys under the table and takes pride in overturning the conventions of her profession and her gender. She lives with Salma (Sana Jammalieh), an aspiring DJ who works long hours in kitchens and bars and whose strict Christian parents don't know she's gay. When strait-laced and studious Nour (Shaden Kanboura) arrives from Umm al-Fahm in northern Israel, the ultra-conservative Muslim lifestyle she leads is out of step with that of her new flatmates. No wonder Nour's sanctimonious fiance, Wissam (Henry Andrawes), worries about their influence, eager to bring the marriage forward and remove his bride from such corrupting company.

The day I photographed the Queen and her dogs at Balmoral

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 10:00 PM PDT

It's 1967, and a terrified young American photographer is commissioned to shoot our monarch at home

I was a fledgling photographer, just starting out in London in 1967. The Observer called and asked me if I'd like to shoot the Queen. The thought of it really scared the pants off me, so I said: "I don't think I can." I'm not going to tell you what my wife said to me when I told her.

So I had second thoughts and I phoned them back. They said: "We want to show people that the Queen is a real living person, that she can do everyday things."

In the Last Days of the City review – elegiac portrait of Egyptian revolution

Posted: 24 Sep 2017 12:00 AM PDT

Cairo is the star of a profound film about the two years leading up to the turmoil of 2011

Part documentary, part fiction, this profound, elegiac picture is as trickily undefinable as its subject, the city of Cairo in the two years in the run-up to the Egyptian revolution in 2011. The film uses the device of a fictional film-maker grappling with a documentary portrait of his home city, a mercurial subject, as he struggles with more quotidian concerns such as the quest to find somewhere to live. Woven into the story are messages from friends – video missives from Berlin, Baghdad and Beirut – and documentary footage of the city.

It's a work of gentle, swelling sadness that mourns a spirit of artistic and creative freedom quashed and it has become something of a cause celebre, since it was effectively banned in Egypt after being unceremoniously pulled from the Cairo international film festival last year.

Trump attacks McCain and other Republicans over healthcare failure

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 09:51 AM PDT

President says veteran Republican senator has 'let Arizona down'
McCain seemed to have dashed GOP hopes of repealing Obamacare

Donald Trump went on the attack on Twitter on Saturday morning over the latest failure of the Republican-controlled Senate to pass healthcare reform.

Commonwealth Bank, ANZ, NAB and Westpac axe ATM fees for customers of rivals

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 10:19 PM PDT

Greg Hunt and Scott Morrison welcome decision but Bill Shorten says royal commission into banks is still needed

All four of Australia's biggest banks have decided to stop charging customers of other banks a $2 fee to withdraw cash from their ATMs.

The Commonwealth Bank was the first to announced early on Sunday the abolition of the fee, citing ongoing consumer unhappiness with it.

Jacinda Ardern remains positive of way forward after New Zealand election – video

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 10:36 PM PDT

Speaking outside her Auckland home on Sunday, Labour party leader Jacinda Ardern vows to fight on for change in New Zealand government despite falling short of unseating the ruling National party. With talks set to begin between the two major parties and kingmaker New Zealand First's Winston Peters, Ardern says 'I think New Zealanders would expect that we would form a credible, stable government with the parties that they have voted into office'

New Zealand election: 'positive' Jacinda Ardern vows to fight on

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 08:34 PM PDT

Labour leader is optimistic about forming a government despite falling well short of unseating the ruling National party

Jacinda Ardern has vowed to fight on for change in New Zealand government as coalition talks begin between the two major parties and kingmaker New Zealand First's Winston Peters.

Speaking outside her Auckland home on Sunday, Ardern said she was feeling positive and rested after Saturday's election stalemate, which saw the ruling National party win 58 seats and Labour 45 – both short of the 61 needed to form a government in the 120-seat parliament.

Melanesian leaders condemn UN for turning 'a deaf ear' to West Papua atrocities

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 07:12 PM PDT

Solomon Islands and Vanuatu leaders want investigation into alleged abuses and support for independence campaign

Melanesian leaders have accused the United Nations of having "turned a deaf ear" to human rights atrocities in the Indonesian province of Papua and urged the world to support the region's campaign for independence.

At the UN General Assembly in New York, the prime ministers of the Solomon Islands and Vanuatu called on the UN's Human Rights Council to formally investigate long-standing allegations of human rights abuses in the provinces.

Saudi Arabia allows women into stadium as it steps up reforms

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 06:02 PM PDT

Mixed audience permitted for the first time as national day festivities promote patriotic pride and aim to open up society

Saudi Arabia has allowed women into the national stadium for the first time as it launched celebrations to mark the 87th anniversary of its founding with an unprecedented array of concerts and performances.

'Everything's changed': despair of Briton held without charge in Bangladesh

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 05:28 PM PDT

Hasnat Karim remains in prison although no evidence has been produced to implicate him in 2016 Holey Bakery attack in which more than 20 were killed

It was supposed to be a celebration. On 1 July 2016, Hasnat Karim, a British-Bangladeshi businessman, and his wife, Sharmina Parveen, took their two children out for their daughter's 13th birthday at Holey Artisan Bakery Cafe, an upscale Dhaka restaurant. They had gone early so their son could later watch a cartoon at home, where a birthday cake was waiting.

As they scanned the menu, gunmen claiming allegiance to the Islamic State stormed the cafe. Over 10 hours, they murdered more than 20 people, mostly foreigners, and held the others hostage.

China finds its own Top Gun and Rambo in wave of patriotic movies

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 04:04 PM PDT

Big-budget war films are breaking box-office records as the movie industry portrays an emerging power that 'won't be bullied

When terrorists overrun an unnamed central Asian nation, capturing Chinese civilians and seizing missiles which they threaten to turn on Beijing, China's top gun heads straight for the eye of the storm.

"Sit tight!" declares Zhao Yali, a beautiful, fearless fighter pilot, as her made-in-China jet prepares to barrel down the runway towards its next mission. "Rescue number one is ready for take off!"

The world is moving on – with or without Trump’s crude bravado | Jeffrey Sachs

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 04:05 PM PDT

The renowned economist and UN sustainable development adviser says the time when the US was in charge is long gone and that the country has to change its mindset

President Trump's remarks to the UN general assembly last week made me shudder. And I think I speak for a lot of people who were in the room that morning. I've never heard of a US president standing at the assembly's podium saying "If you threaten us, we will totally destroy your nation" which is what Trump said about North Korea. It's provocative, it's ugly, it's not how to find a way out of this crisis.

But the good news is that roughly two-thirds of Americans are not in Trump's camp. And I think most Americans are shocked, like most of the world, by the crudeness, by the threats, by the tweets and by the substance of what he's pushing domestically,such as his healthcare proposals which would have taken more than 20 million people off the healthcare rolls even when his own voters were saying "No we don't want that". The Republicans are going to try again next week.

The week in patriarchy: Ivanka Trump continues to disappoint | Jessica Valenti

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 05:00 AM PDT

She won't have to worry about her children being denied the healthcare because she is wealthy. What about the rest of us?

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This week, Ivanka Trump came out about having postpartum depression after the births of each of her three children. Struggling with mental health challenges after childbirth is common, and terrible, and I feel awful for anyone who had to deal with it.

However, it's a bit ironic that the same week Ivanka is talking about her experience, her father is pushing for a healthcare repeal bill that would gut pregnancy and mental health protections for Americans.

Jacinda Ardern: ‘We gave it our all’ – video

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 07:16 AM PDT

Labour party leader says her party gave its all in the 2017 election campaign. Winston Peters will determine who ends up governing, with his New Zealand First party holding enough seats to form a coalition with either National or Labour

• New Zealand gets hung parliament as Ardern falls short in election

Trump: I’ll handle ‘little rocket man’ Kim Jong-un – video

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 03:01 AM PDT

Donald Trump lambasts Kim Jong-un at a rally in Huntsville, Alabama, on Friday night, saying 'we have no choice' with North Korea. Trump called Kim 'little rocket man' and described him as a madman. The president also criticised NFL players who didn't stand during the national anthem at games and denied any collusion with Russia

• Kim Jong-un, the NFL and 'screaming at senators': Trump's Strange night in Alabama

Puerto Rico: dam wall cracks on Lake Guajataca - video

Posted: 23 Sep 2017 02:40 AM PDT

Water pours through the municipalities of Isabela and Quebradillas after a dam on Lake Guajataca in Puerto Rico cracks on Friday. About 70,000 people have been evacuated after the dam sustained structural damage from Hurricane Maria. Nearly 40cm of rain fell in the area, significantly raising water levels on the 90-year-old dam

• Watch the full clip on Weather Nation's social media