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

US government goes into shutdown after Senate rejects funding bill
Britons in Jamaica's Montego Bay urged to stay in resorts
Thai police arrest notorious wildlife trafficking suspect
Mike Pence visits Middle East but US role as peace broker may be over
'Gangsta jihadi' Denis Cuspert killed fighting in Syria
Jacinda Ardern: 'New Zealand will help us raise our child'
Trump-Russia inquiry is told Nigel Farage may have given Julian Assange data
Gaza family kills member who allegedly acted as Israeli informant
Turkey begins assault on Kurdish-held enclave in Syria
Captured, raped, ransomed: the kidnappers preying on Eritrean refugees | Sally Hayden
'Buy a flat, meet Trump Jr' offer criticised as 'ethics atrocity'
Pope Francis accuses Chilean church sexual abuse victims of slander
Ain't no sunshine: winter is one of darkest ever for parts of Europe
Tim Cook: 'I don't want my nephew on a social network'
London cinema workers launch fresh wave of strikes
Use of sand vests to calm children with ADHD sparks concern
Bushfire forces closure of Sydney's Royal national park
Women’s March organisers issue rallying call to Britons
With government shutdown, Republicans reap what they sow | Richard Wolffe
Mitch McConnell: Democrats got "their very own government shutdown" – video
One year in a county that flipped for Trump – in pictures
One year on, has Trump kept his promise? A Pennsylvania county gives its verdict – video
Weirdest photos of Trump's year one, from the Saudi orb to a big truck's cab
'We will always defend the right to life' says Trump in March for Life rally - video
Jacinda Ardern is not the first world leader to be pregnant in office – video report
Russian president braves subzero lake to mark Orthodox Epiphany – video

US government goes into shutdown after Senate rejects funding bill

Posted: 20 Jan 2018 12:00 AM PST

White House calls Democrats 'obstructionist losers' as federal agencies head into the first closure for five years

The United States has its first government shutdown in nearly five years after senators failed to reach a deal to keep the lights on.

An effort by Republicans to keep the government open for one month was rejected in a vote on Friday night after they failed to address Democratic concerns about young undocumented immigrants known as Dreamers.

Britons in Jamaica's Montego Bay urged to stay in resorts

Posted: 20 Jan 2018 01:56 AM PST

Warning from Foreign Office comes as Jamaican military carries out crackdown on violent crime in district

Tourists in the Jamaican city of Montego Bay have been urged to stay in their resorts while the military carries out a crackdown on violent crime.

St James Parish, of which Montego Bay is the capital, has been hit by a surge in gang-related killing and violence, according to authorities, and a state of emergency was declared on Thursday.

Thai police arrest notorious wildlife trafficking suspect

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 10:00 PM PST

Exclusive: Boonchai Bach allegedly ran tusk and horn smuggling route from Africa

Police in Thailand have arrested one of the world's most notorious wildlife traffickers, allegedly involved in the smuggling thousands of tonnes of elephant tusks and rhino horns from Africa to Asia, the Guardian has learned.

Boonchai Bach, who goes by multiple aliases including Bach Mai Limh, was arrested at his operational base in the north-eastern province of Nakhon Phanom, next to the Mekong River on Thursday.

Mike Pence visits Middle East but US role as peace broker may be over

Posted: 20 Jan 2018 02:04 AM PST

Under Trump, relations between the Palestinian leadership and Washington have soured – and Pence's trip is expected to confirm the enmity

It's not the trip to the Holy Land that Mike Pence might have imagined. For a start, the US vice-president – an evangelical Christian – is no longer welcome in Jesus's birthplace of Bethlehem.

Donald Trump doomed Pence's chances of a visit to the West Bank when he reversed decades of US policy last month by recognising Jerusalem as Israel's capital. This broke a longstanding international consensus that the issue would be negotiated in peace talks with the Palestinians, who also claim parts of the city.

'Gangsta jihadi' Denis Cuspert killed fighting in Syria

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 06:50 AM PST

News site posts pictures of body said to be that of German rapper known as Deso Dogg

A German rapper turned Islamic State fighter notorious for holding a human head on camera has been killed fighting in Syria.

Denis Cuspert – known as Deso Dogg – was one of the so-called "gangsta jihadis" who travelled from European cities to join Isis after it declared a caliphate in Syria and Iraq.

Jacinda Ardern: 'New Zealand will help us raise our child'

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 09:00 AM PST

Prime minister tells of delight at pregnancy but rejects trailblazer label

Having found herself in the midst of tough coalition negotiations after a closely fought election, Jacinda Ardern was facing far more than her political colleagues could have guessed.

Six days before becoming New Zealand's prime minister-elect, the Labour leader discovered she was pregnant, but was desperate to keep it, and the accompanying morning sickness, a secret during the post-election maelstrom.

Trump-Russia inquiry is told Nigel Farage may have given Julian Assange data

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 10:03 AM PST

Private investigator tells House panel Farage gave thumb drive to Assange, who officials view as a conduit for the Russian government

Nigel Farage may have given Julian Assange a thumb drive of data and was possibly a more frequent visitor than was publicly known to the Ecuadorian embassy where the WikiLeaks founder lives, according to testimony given to US congressional inquiry into the Trump campaign's alleged ties to the Kremlin.

Gaza family kills member who allegedly acted as Israeli informant

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 12:42 PM PST

Ahmad Said Barhoum accused of supplying information that led to deaths of three Hamas militants

A family in Gaza has killed one of its own members for allegedly passing on information to Israel that led to the deaths of three Hamas militants, Palestinian sources said.

Hamas, which rules the territory, held Ahmad Said Barhoum for several months without trial before handing him over to the family, several of whose members belong to the Islamist movement.

Turkey begins assault on Kurdish-held enclave in Syria

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 03:51 AM PST

Bombardment risks inflaming relations with US, which has allied with Kurds against Isis

The Syrian Kurdish YPG militia has said Turkish forces have fired about 70 shells at Kurdish villages in the Afrin region of north-western Syria, as Ankara said its threatened military assault was "de facto" under way.

The bombardment from Turkish territory began at around midnight and continued into Friday morning. Turkey considers the Syrian Kurdish militia as an extension of Kurdish rebels fighting Turkey and has vowed to attack their Afrin enclave, massing troops and tanks on its border for several days.

Captured, raped, ransomed: the kidnappers preying on Eritrean refugees | Sally Hayden

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 05:07 AM PST

When Ella and her cousin reached a refugee camp in Sudan, it seemed to herald safety. Instead, it was the start of an all too familiar ordeal

It was right at the moment Ella thought she was safe that she was kidnapped.

The 17-year-old had just entered eastern Sudan's Wad Sherife refugee camp with her teenage cousin. The girls had been walking for days, in a desperate bid to escape compulsory, indefinite military service in their birth country Eritrea, which begins as soon as school ends.

'Buy a flat, meet Trump Jr' offer criticised as 'ethics atrocity'

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 07:25 AM PST

Trump Towers project in India lures investors with chance of meeting US president's son

The developers behind a Trump Towers project near Delhi are offering to fly the first 100 investors in the property to the US to meet Donald Trump Jr, the US president's eldest son.

The promotional materials for the project – the fifth in India to take the Trump name – claim the address in the Indian capital is "so powerful, a letter would reach you from any part of the world".

Pope Francis accuses Chilean church sexual abuse victims of slander

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 08:47 AM PST

Pontiff on allegedly complicit bishop: 'It's all calumny. Is that clear?'
Comments undermine church's already shaky reputation in Chile

Pope Francis has accused victims of Chile's most notorious paedophile of slander, in an astonishing end to a visit meant to help heal the wounds of a sex abuse scandal that has cost the Catholic church its credibility in the country.

Francis said that until he sees proof that Bishop Juan Barros was complicit in covering up the sex crimes of the Rev Fernando Karadima, such accusations against Barros are "all calumny".

Ain't no sunshine: winter is one of darkest ever for parts of Europe

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 08:09 AM PST

Brussels had less than 11 hours of sun last month, while Lille has had less than three in January

Sunshine is in short supply across a swathe of north-west Europe, shrouded in heavy cloud from a seemingly never-ending series of low pressure systems since late November and suffering one of its darkest winters since records began.

If you live in Brussels, 10 hours and 31 minutes was your lot for the entire month of December. The all but benighted inhabitants of Lille in France got just two hours, 42 minutes through the first half of January.

Tim Cook: 'I don't want my nephew on a social network'

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 10:29 AM PST

Apple chief talks about tax affairs and overuse of tech at launch of school coding initiative

The head of Apple, Tim Cook, believes there should be limits to the use of technology in schools and says he does not want his nephew to use a social network.

Cook was talking at Harlow college in Essex, one of 70 institutions across Europe that will use Apple's Everyone Can Code curriculum, it was announced on Friday.

London cinema workers launch fresh wave of strikes

Posted: 20 Jan 2018 01:49 AM PST

Staff at Picturehouse chain will walk out for 13 days from Saturday as part of long-running dispute over pay and union recognition

Cinema workers at five theatres across London have launched a fresh wave of strikes in a long-running dispute over pay and union recognition.

Staff at the Picturehouse chain will walk out for 13 days from Saturday in Crouch End, Hackney, East Dulwich and Central Picturehouses, as well as the Ritzy in Brixton.

Use of sand vests to calm children with ADHD sparks concern

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 11:00 PM PST

Experts divided over heavy weights adopted by 200 schools in Germany to curb students' restlessness

German schools are increasingly asking unruly and hyperactive children to wear heavy sand-filled vests in an effort to calm them and keep them on their seats, despite the misgivings of some parents and psychiatrists.

The controversial sand vests weigh between 1.2 and six kilograms (2.7 – 13Ib) and are being used by 200 schools across Germany.

Bushfire forces closure of Sydney's Royal national park

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 09:26 PM PST

Emergency warning issued and firefighters are also battling a blaze in the Southern Tablelands

Firefighters are battling several big bushfires in New South Wales – one is threatening homes in the Southern Tablelands, and the other has forced the closure of the Royal national park in Sydney's south.

An emergency warning has been issued for an out-of-control bushfire south of Bundeena in the park.

Women’s March organisers issue rallying call to Britons

Posted: 20 Jan 2018 12:16 AM PST

Sunday's protests on anniversary of Trump inauguration aim to capitalise on #MeToo campaign

The UK organisers of the global Women's March have called on people to once again gather in protest, a year after millions marched in seven continents.

Saying it is time for a "conscious revolution", they have urged women to capitalise on the momentum created in 2017 by rallying outside Downing Street at 11am on Sunday – a year and a day after the inauguration of Donald Trump, which sparked the initial protests. Other UK rallies are being held in Bristol and Sheffield.

With government shutdown, Republicans reap what they sow | Richard Wolffe

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 08:45 PM PST

It takes a special type of hypocrite to accuse your opponents of hypocrisy for following in your footsteps

Today's Republican party is built on principle. As a matter of principle, the GOP believes it is the only party that can shut down government as a negotiating tactic. The Democrats' job is to keep that government open and to cave in to its demands.

These truths we hold to be self-evident, after watching several rounds of this sad kabuki theater through the Clinton and Obama years.

Mitch McConnell: Democrats got "their very own government shutdown" – video

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 10:53 PM PST

Speaking on the floor after the vote, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell blamed the government shutdown on a "cynical decision by the Democrats". However, his counterpart, minority leader Chuck Schumer, blamed Donald Trump, saying the president had "walked away from two bipartisan deals" and that "a Trump shutdown will serve as a perfect encapsulation for the chaos he has unleashed".

One year in a county that flipped for Trump – in pictures

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 10:00 PM PST

The Guardian US spent a year interviewing voters in Northampton County, Pennsylvania, which voted twice for Obama before supporting Trump. Here's a look back at the scenes over the year

One year on, has Trump kept his promise? A Pennsylvania county gives its verdict – video

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 10:00 PM PST

Members of Donald Trump's base in Northampton County, which supported him in 2016 after twice backing Barack Obama, remain passionate – but some voters appear to be moving away from the president.

Weirdest photos of Trump's year one, from the Saudi orb to a big truck's cab

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 09:00 PM PST

On the anniversary of Donald Trump's inauguration, we look back at some of the strangest photos from his first year as president

'We will always defend the right to life' says Trump in March for Life rally - video

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 01:11 PM PST

Donald Trump used a speech to anti-abortion activists to describe plans to give "conscience protections" to medical providers who refuse to perform abortions for moral or religious reasons. Trump, formerly a supporter of a woman's right to choose, has become the first sitting president to address the annual March for Life in Washington.

Trump hails anti-abortion measures in speech at March for Life

Jacinda Ardern is not the first world leader to be pregnant in office – video report

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 08:58 AM PST

Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, has announced she is pregnant. The last time an elected world leader was pregnant in office was in 1990 when Pakistan's prime minister, Benazir Bhutto, had her daughter Bakhtwar

Jacinda Ardern: New Zealand prime minister announces first pregnancy

Russian president braves subzero lake to mark Orthodox Epiphany – video

Posted: 19 Jan 2018 07:51 AM PST

Vladimir Putin has joined millions of Orthodox believers by plunging bare-chested into icy waters in a Russian tradition to mark the Epiphany. Surrounded by priests and glittering religious icons, and braving subzero temperatures, the president lowered himself into Lake Seliger, 220 miles (350km) north-west of Moscow. It is the first time the 65-year-old, who has often posed topless on wilderness expeditions, has taken part publicly in the ritual

• Vladimir Putin takes icy plunge to mark Orthodox Epiphany