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

Cambridge Analytica boasts of dirty tricks to swing elections
Xi Jinping warns he is ready to 'fight bloody battles' against China's enemies
South Korean prosecutors seek arrest of former president Lee Myung-bak
'I'm no puppet': The only candidate running against Sisi in Egypt's election
Self-driving Uber kills Arizona woman in first fatal crash involving pedestrian
Japan prepares to execute up to 13 members of Aum Shinrikyo cult
Emmanuel Macron launches global campaign to promote French speaking
Climate change soon to cause mass movement, World Bank warns
Trump calls for death penalties for drug dealers as focus of opioids plan
Interstellar visitor ’Oumuamua probably came from a two-star system
Cynthia Nixon announces candidacy for New York governor
Norwegian minister faces no-confidence vote after terrorism post
Canada to send force including female troops to support UN mission in Mali
#Pizza4Protesters: community backs students over gun control walkout
China's radical plan to limit the populations of Beijing and Shanghai
Officials seek warrant to enter Cambridge Analytica HQ
Nicolas Sarkozy in police custody over campaign funding
India confirms death of 39 men kidnapped by Isis in Iraq in 2014
Last male northern white rhino is put down
Border patrol agent accused of shooting teen in Mexico to begin trial
Shoestring expedition returns with wild photos of Sumatra
Banking royal commission: CBA admits it failed to find system error for four years
Tuesday briefing: Data firm reveals its dark arts
'I've never been to school': child waste pickers living on Pakistan's streets | Haroon Janjua
Life without toilets: the photographer tackling a global taboo
Saudi crown prince begins US trip as allies share concerns about Trump
The alt-right is in decline. Has antifascist activism worked?
'We have to get tough': Trump calls for death penalty for drug dealers to combat opioids – video
Students turn detention for anti-gun walkout into silent protest – video
Monday's best photos: Tokyo fashion and ice in Denmark
Russian election footage appears to show vote rigging - video

Cambridge Analytica boasts of dirty tricks to swing elections

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 12:00 PM PDT

Bosses tell undercover reporters how honey traps, spies and fake news can be used to help clients

The company at the centre of the Facebook data breach boasted of using honey traps, fake news campaigns and operations with ex-spies to swing election campaigns around the world, a new investigation reveals.

Xi Jinping warns he is ready to 'fight bloody battles' against China's enemies

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 10:00 PM PDT

Emboldened president reserves strong words for activists in Hong Kong and Taiwan who want to 'split China'

Chinese president Xi Jinping has delivered a nationalistic speech in which he vowed the nation would "take our due place in the world" and was ready "to fight bloody battles against our enemies".

Xi also promised "rejuvenation" and warned against attempts to erode China's unity during a speech at the close of the annual session of the National People's Congress, the country's annual parliament often derided by experts as little more than a show that lacks serious policy debate.

South Korean prosecutors seek arrest of former president Lee Myung-bak

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 01:38 PM PDT

Lee accused of accepting £7.4bn worth of bribes from South Korea's national intelligence agency and prominent businesses

Prosecutors in South Korea have requested an arrest warrant for the former president Lee Myung-bak on charges of graft, embezzlement and abuse of power, making him the fourth former leader to face criminal charges.

Lee, who was president from 2008 to 2013, is accused of accepting bribes worth about 11bn won (£7.4m) from South Korea's national intelligence agency and businesses, reportedly including Samsung.

'I'm no puppet': The only candidate running against Sisi in Egypt's election

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 10:00 PM PDT

Mousa Mostafa Mousa is President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi's sole rival, and many fear his bid is designed to provide a veneer of democracy

On the streets of downtown Cairo, there is little evidence that anyone is running against Abdel Fatah al-Sisi in Egypt's presidential election.

Even outside the headquarters of the Ghad party, whose leader, Mousa Mostafa Mousa, is the sole competitor against the incumbent president in this weekend's vote, there are no posters of Mousa.

Self-driving Uber kills Arizona woman in first fatal crash involving pedestrian

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 03:48 PM PDT

Tempe police said car was in autonomous mode at the time of the crash and that the vehicle hit a woman who later died at a hospital

An autonomous Uber car killed a woman in the street in Arizona, police said, in what appears to be the first reported fatal crash involving a self-driving vehicle and a pedestrian in the US.

Tempe police said the self-driving car was in autonomous mode at the time of the crash and that the vehicle hit a woman, who was walking outside of the crosswalk and later died at a hospital. There was a vehicle operator inside the car at the time of the crash.

Japan prepares to execute up to 13 members of Aum Shinrikyo cult

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 11:32 PM PDT

Some cult members, who killed 13 people in a sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway in 1995, have been moved to new facilities

Japan is believed to be preparing to execute as many as 13 members of a doomsday cult in what could become the country's biggest round of hangings in the past decade.

Tuesday marked the 23rd anniversary of Aum Shinrikyo's sarin nerve gas attack on the Tokyo subway, which killed 13 people and caused illness among thousands of others.

Emmanuel Macron launches global campaign to promote French speaking

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 10:00 PM PDT

President has said French could be 'the number-one language in Africa ... and maybe even the world'

Emmanuel Macron will launch an international campaign to promote French speaking across the world in a speech at the Academie Française on Tuesday.

The president will announce what the Elysée says is a unique government-funded programme to boost "learning, communication and creation" in French.

Climate change soon to cause mass movement, World Bank warns

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 09:44 AM PDT

140m people in three regions expected to migrate before 2050 unless environment is improved

Climate change will result in a massive movement of people inside countries and across borders, creating "hotspots" where tens of millions pour into already crowded slums, according to the World Bank.

More than 140 million people in just three regions of the developing world are likely to migrate within their native countries between now and 2050, the first report on the subject has found.

Trump calls for death penalties for drug dealers as focus of opioids plan

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 02:03 PM PDT

Trump's policy rollout focuses on punishment for dealers and traffickers but doesn't propose new legislation to combat the crisis

Donald Trump called on Monday for some drug dealers to receive the death penalty in a new opioids policy rollout in New Hampshire, a state hard hit by the national crisis.

Interstellar visitor ’Oumuamua probably came from a two-star system

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 11:20 AM PDT

Astronomers studying the interstellar asteroid 'Oumuamua find that it probably formed around a binary star

The mysterious, cigar-shaped object now called 'Oumuamua was found crossing the solar system last October by robotic telescopes on Hawaii. The trajectory showed it had come from another star system and was already on its way back into interstellar space. This sparked a race against time. Astronomers had just a week before it faded from view.

Identifying its home star system seemed like a hopeless task. Our galaxy contains hundreds of billions of stars. Now, however, a new study narrows things down a bit. It concludes that 'Oumuamua, meaning "scout" in Hawaiian, probably came from a binary star.

Cynthia Nixon announces candidacy for New York governor

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 12:11 PM PDT

Nixon, who faces a tough battle against Andrew Cuomo, would become both the first female and first openly gay governor

The actor Cynthia Nixon announced that she is running for New York governor on Monday, in a move that will pit her against the incumbent Democrat, Andrew Cuomo.

Norwegian minister faces no-confidence vote after terrorism post

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 07:46 AM PDT

Justice minister Sylvi Listhaug accuses opposition of putting terrorists' rights above security

A social media post by Norway's justice minister accusing the opposition Labour party of putting terrorists' rights above national security has triggered a no-confidence vote that could bring down the country's minority government.

A majority of MPs in parliament back Tuesday's scheduled vote against Sylvi Listhaug, of the populist, anti-immigration Progress party, after widespread outrage at a Facebook post that she has since deleted.

Canada to send force including female troops to support UN mission in Mali

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 12:36 PM PDT

Increasing women's role in peacekeeping is a priority, says minister
Force of helicopters and infantry is smaller than first indicated

Canada will deploy helicopters and troops – including female soldiers – to Mali in support of an ongoing UN peacekeeping mission, the government has announced.

Defence minister Harjit Sajjan told reporters that Canada would deploy two Chinook transport helicopters and four Griffon attack helicopters to provide armed escort and protection in the fight against Islamist militants in Mali.

#Pizza4Protesters: community backs students over gun control walkout

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 07:11 AM PDT

Crowdfunding drive launched after Pennsylvania school gave 225 students detention

Wellwishers have been crowdfunding to send pizza to 225 students at a Pennsylvania school who were given detention for taking part in protests against school shootings.

Students at Pennridge high school took part in a national school walkout on 14 March against the wishes of the school board. The board warned pupils in advance that anybody taking part in the protest would receive the standard punishment for skipping class – a Saturday morning in detention.

China's radical plan to limit the populations of Beijing and Shanghai

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 09:00 AM PDT

Two Chinese megacities implemented population caps last year – and official data shows the policy might already be having an effect

In the weaving alleys of Shanghai's Laoximen district, swathes of residential buildings sit empty. The historic area in the heart of the city is being slowly demolished, and many residents have already abandoned it, leaving behind rows of traditional terraced houses with boarded-up windows and demolition signs on the doors.

Officials seek warrant to enter Cambridge Analytica HQ

Posted: 20 Mar 2018 01:40 AM PDT

Information commissioner demands access to data and orders Facebook to halt audit

The information commissioner is seeking an urgent court warrant to enter the London headquarters of the elections consultancy Cambridge Analytica after the firm was caught in an undercover sting boasting about entrapping politicians, using honey traps and running fake news campaigns.

Elizabeth Denham said she had also demanded that Facebook halt a data audit of Cambridge Analytica, saying it could prejudice her investigation.

Nicolas Sarkozy in police custody over campaign funding

Posted: 20 Mar 2018 02:04 AM PDT

Ex-French president faces claims his 2007 election bid benefited from illicit Libyan funds

The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy has been taken into police custody to be questioned over allegations that he received millions of euros in illegal election campaign funding from the regime of the late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.

Sarkozy, who was France's rightwing president from 2007 to 2012, was being questioned early on Tuesday morning at a police station in Nanterre, north-west Paris, as part of an inquiry into whether Gaddafi and others in Libya illegally financed his winning election campaign in 2007.

India confirms death of 39 men kidnapped by Isis in Iraq in 2014

Posted: 20 Mar 2018 02:06 AM PDT

DNA tests on bodies in mass grave near Mosul show match to missing construction workers

India says 39 of its citizens who were kidnapped by Islamic State in Iraq in 2014 have been confirmed dead after their remains were tested in Baghdad.

The Indian external affairs minister, Sushma Swaraj, told parliament that DNA tests on bodies recovered from a mass grave had shown a match with the construction workers, who disappeared in June 2014 when Mosul fell to Isis.

Last male northern white rhino is put down

Posted: 20 Mar 2018 01:00 AM PDT

Hopes for species rest on IVF with two females after death of Sudan, the 'gentle giant'

The last male northern white rhinoceros has died, leaving only two females with which conservationists hope to save the species from extinction.

Sudan, the "gentle giant" who lived in the Ol Pejeta conservancy in Kenya, was put down on Monday after the pain from a degenerative illness became too great. He is survived by his daughter and granddaughter.

Border patrol agent accused of shooting teen in Mexico to begin trial

Posted: 20 Mar 2018 02:00 AM PDT

Lonnie Swartz on trial for second-degree murder of José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, who was unarmed and on Mexico side of the border

A US border patrol agent accused of shooting across the border into Mexico and killing a teenager five years ago will go on trial on Tuesday on a charge of second-degree murder in a rare justice department prosecution of a fatal cross-border shooting.

The agent, Lonnie Swartz, is accused of killing 16-year-old José Antonio Elena Rodríguez, who was on the street in Nogales, in the Mexican state of Sonora, just across the border from Nogales, Arizona. An autopsy showed the unarmed teen was hit 10 times, mostly from behind.

Shoestring expedition returns with wild photos of Sumatra

Posted: 20 Mar 2018 01:50 AM PDT

A shoestring expedition to one of the remotest places in Sumatra has returned with stunning photos of tigers, tapirs, clouded leopards among other rare species, large and small. Will they find orangutans next?

Last year a motley crew of conservationists, adventurers and locals trekked into one of the last unexplored regions of Sumatra. They did so with a mission: check camera traps and see what they could find. The team – organized by the small NGO, Habitat ID – came back with biological gold: photos of Sumatran tigers, Malayan tapirs, and sun bears. They also got the first record of the Sunda clouded leopard in the area and found a specimen of a little-known legless reptile called Wegner's glass lizard. But most tantalizingly of all is what they didn't find, but still suspect is there: a hidden population of orangutans that would belong to the newly described species, Tapanuli orangutan (Pongo tapanuliensis).

"The trek into the interior was fraught with hordes of leaches, wasps, cliffs, river-crossings, and trackless jungle, and it pushed everyone on the team to their limits," Greg McCann, the head of Habitat ID and a team member, said, clearly relishing the adventure to an undisclosed area they call Hadabaun Hills.

Banking royal commission: CBA admits it failed to find system error for four years

Posted: 20 Mar 2018 12:44 AM PDT

ANZ under pressure over 300,000 unsolicited overdraft offers it sent out to customers

ANZ has been criticised for sending more than 300,000 letters to customers offering overdraft facilities without checking if they could afford the extra debt.

And Commonwealth Bank has admitted to an error in its automated system, that it failed to detect for four years, which gave thousands of customers access to an overdraft facility after setting their rental expenses at zero.

Tuesday briefing: Data firm reveals its dark arts

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 11:33 PM PDT

Sex and bribery part of Cambridge Analytica client package … Weinstein Co files for bankruptcy … stem cells used to treat blindness

Hello everyone, Graham Russell here with Tuesday's news today.

'I've never been to school': child waste pickers living on Pakistan's streets | Haroon Janjua

Posted: 20 Mar 2018 12:00 AM PDT

Eight-year-old Zarmeena is one of the country's 1.5 million homeless children, many of them Afghan refugees, who miss out on education and often fall prey to violence and abuse

On a cold winter morning, as the sun rises above the squalor and stench of the slums of the Islamabad, frail-looking children are already up, picking rags from the dumps. It is a risky and competitive business.

Zarmeena, an eight-year-old Afghan girl, wears ill-fitting wellington boots slashed down to ankle-length, with clothes that are no more than thin pieces of fabric wrapped around her.

Life without toilets: the photographer tackling a global taboo

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 04:48 AM PDT

Andrea Bruce's prize-winning images from India, Haiti and Vietnam document the deeply sensitive issue of open defecation, which affects 1.1 billion of the world's poorest people

Photographs: Andrea Bruce/NOOR/Eyevine

One of the biggest issues at the intersection of sanitation, poverty and global health, open defecation has also long been one of the hardest to represent visually.

For photographer Andrea Bruce, however, the challenge meant she did not have to think too long before agreeing to the year-long project documenting an issue both deeply sensitive and hugely important. The resulting photo essay, commissioned by National Geographic, has been selected for a first prize in the prestigious Pictures of the Year awards.

Saudi crown prince begins US trip as allies share concerns about Trump

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 10:00 PM PDT

Mohammed bin Salman hopes to seal major business deals during a three-week tour but the failure of his relationship with Jared Kushner to deliver progress on Middle East peace and Iran has left him exposed

Ahead of his first visit to Washington as heir to the Saudi throne, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has been warned to set a distance between himself and Donald Trump, who some regional advisers have come to regard as volatile and unpredictable.

The US president will receive Prince Mohammed in the White House on Tuesday during a reciprocal visit after Trump's high-profile trip to Saudi Arabia last May when – on his first trip abroad as leader – he reset bilateral ties, which had become strained under Barack Obama.

The alt-right is in decline. Has antifascist activism worked?

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 02:02 PM PDT

Antifascist tactics have led not only to failed events and dwindling cadres but to infighting and blame games in an increasingly fractious far-right movement

The alt-right appears to be falling apart. The Traditionalist Workers party disintegrated this week after a lurid interpersonal drama among its leadership. Richard Spencer says his alt-right rallies aren't "fun" any more, and is rethinking his college tour in the aftermath of his fizzer of an event in East Lansing, Michigan, two weeks ago.

It's a good time to offer an observation: on the terms it set itself, antifascist organizing in the United States has worked.

'We have to get tough': Trump calls for death penalty for drug dealers to combat opioids – video

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 02:01 PM PDT

President Trump has called for the death penalty for drug dealers in an attempt to combat America's opioids epidemic. He stated that 'we will find you, we will arrest you and we will hold you accountable'

Trump calls for death penalties for drug dealers as focus of opioids plan

Students turn detention for anti-gun walkout into silent protest – video

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 10:06 AM PDT

Students in Pennsylvania who were given detention for taking part in a national school walkout over gun violence used it as an opportunity for another protest. In a silent sit-in, students at Pennridge high school wore signs bearing the names of those killed in the Parkland school shooting in Florida last month

#Pizza4Protesters: community backs students over gun control walkout

Monday's best photos: Tokyo fashion and ice in Denmark

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 07:42 AM PDT

The Guardian's picture editors bring you a selection of photo highlights from around the world

Russian election footage appears to show vote rigging - video

Posted: 19 Mar 2018 03:29 AM PDT

Various clips appear to show ballot box rigging during the presidential election. People can be seen on CCTV stuffing multiple voting slips into ballot boxes throughout Russia. Vladimir Putin won more than 75% of the vote to begin his fourth term as leader.