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

Brexit minister plays down prospect of article 50 extension
Thailand election: princess apologises as future of Thai Raksa party in doubt
Africans who fought for British army paid less than white soldiers
Taiji dolphin hunt: activists to launch unprecedented legal challenge
UK foreign secretary condemns attack on BBC cameraman at Trump rally
Spanish PM may call snap general election if budget rejected
Huawei tells New Zealand: banning us is like banning the All Blacks
'Nothing left in Baghuz': Isis families flee as war enters endgame
Six California police officers fire shots at rapper asleep in car, killing him
South Sudan peace deal funds spent on renovating politicians' homes
First photographs of rare African black leopard captured in more than a century
How to make an incinerator popular? Put a ski slope on it
Joy of six: the buildings transformed by 3D hexagon murals
‘I have a carpet Take That stood on’: meet the ultimate superfans
Austerity causing stress and trauma to officers, say police
High court rejects attempt to challenge Australia's indefinite detention regime
'It was hell': Parkland massacre survivor sets focus on healing ... and soccer
'If it gets me, it gets me': the town where residents live alongside polar bears
PM pushes off medevac loss by launching a sonic boom on border protection | Katharine Murphy
Water flows at key sites in Murray-Darling are worse than before basin plan, report says
Restaurants could make £7 for every £1 invested in cutting waste, report reveals
Ogoni widows testify at The Hague over Shell's alleged complicity in killings
Deflagging of refugee rescue ship a 'dark moment' for Europe
Door slams on guilty El Chapo after old mob pals line up to squeal
Donald Trump v Beto O'Rourke: rival rallies on US border security – video report

Brexit minister plays down prospect of article 50 extension

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 12:41 AM PST

Stephen Barclay says delay would be 'disruptive' and is not government's plan

The Brexit secretary, Stephen Barclay, has played down the possibility of an extension to article 50 as the UK prepares to leave the European Union.

His comments follow reports on Tuesday night that Theresa May's chief negotiator, Olly Robbins, was overheard in a Brussels bar saying MPs would be given a last-minute choice between her deal and a lengthy delay to Britain's departure from the EU.

Thailand election: princess apologises as future of Thai Raksa party in doubt

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 10:35 PM PST

King's sister says she is sorry for causing 'problems' as authorities recommend dissolution of her party

The political turbulence in Thailand has continued to escalate in the build-up to the election, with a political party likely to be forcibly dissolved, the military suspending a critical TV station and the king's sister apologising after she was disqualified from running for prime minister.

The latest incident in a week that has stunned Thailand, saw the election commission recommend the Thai Raksa Chart party be dissolved by the constitutional court, preventing it from running in the election, for violating the rules of a constitutional monarchy. The constitutional court is expected to approve the election commission's request.

Africans who fought for British army paid less than white soldiers

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 10:00 PM PST

Document reveals more than 500,000 black soldiers were underpaid in second world war

'We were abandoned': the Kenyan soldier forgotten by Britain

More than half a million black African soldiers who fought in the British army during the second world war were paid up to three times less than their white counterparts, a newly unearthed document has revealed, prompting calls for an investigation and the government to compensate surviving veterans.

The document, buried in Britain's national archives, reveals how the government systematically discriminated against African soldiers, paying white personnel – even those living in African colonies and serving alongside African soldiers in British colonial units – far more than their black counterparts.

Taiji dolphin hunt: activists to launch unprecedented legal challenge

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 10:27 PM PST

Exclusive: lawsuit in Japan contends that dolphins are wrongly classified as fish and should be protected as mammals

Animal rights activists have launched an unprecedented legal challenge to the slaughter of dolphins in Japan, claiming that fishermen are routinely violating animal welfare laws and exceeding government-set quotas.

The London-based organisation Action for Dolphins and the Japanese NGO Life Investigation Agency on Wednesday submitted evidence they hope will halt the annual dolphin hunts in Taiji, a whaling town on Japan's Pacific coast, the Guardian can reveal.

UK foreign secretary condemns attack on BBC cameraman at Trump rally

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 03:10 PM PST

A man was seen shoving BBC cameraman Ron Skeans before being pulled away, according to a BBC video

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt has condemned an attack on a BBC cameraman by a supporter of Donald Trump at a campaign rally in El Paso, Texas.

Asked whether it was acceptable for Trump to whip up his fans to the point that a cameraman was attacked, Hunt told Sky News: "It is never acceptable when journalists and cameramen are attacked just for doing their job."

Spanish PM may call snap general election if budget rejected

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 09:00 PM PST

Catalan secessionists likely to join right against Pedro Sánchez's government

Spain's socialist government could be forced to call a snap general election if rightwing parties and Catalan secessionists make good on their threats to reject the national budget in a key vote on Wednesday.

The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, faces an uphill battle to secure approval for the budget in the face of opposition from critics of his minority government.

Huawei tells New Zealand: banning us is like banning the All Blacks

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 08:40 PM PST

Chinese tech company uses full-page ads to push for inclusion in 5G rollout despite concerns it is a security risk

China's Huawei has taken out full-page ads in major New Zealand newspapers in which they equate the idea of ban on the company to a rugby tournament without the All Blacks.

The advertisement reads: "5G without Huawei is like rugby without New Zealand", referring to the upcoming nationwide rollout of the mobile technology.

'Nothing left in Baghuz': Isis families flee as war enters endgame

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 09:30 PM PST

Small enclave of extremists holds out in Syria against intensive bombardment

Clamouring up dirt berms, clutching babies and blankets, the newest refugees of the Islamic State could well be the last.

Inside the nearby enclave they fled are perhaps no more than 500 people – nearly all of them fighters who are refusing to leave a two square kilometre corner of eastern Syria that is all that remains of the group's so-called caliphate.

Six California police officers fire shots at rapper asleep in car, killing him

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 03:15 PM PST

Family of Willie McCoy allege racial profiling after Vallejo police fire 'multiple rounds' at man

California police officers fatally shot a 20-year-old rapper who was sleeping in his car outside a Taco Bell, authorities said.

Six Vallejo officers fired "multiple rounds" at the man, identified by family as Willie McCoy, police said. McCoy had a handgun on him when the officers fired out of "fear for their own safety" on Saturday night, according to the department. The family of McCoy, whose rapper name was Willie Bo, said Tuesday that police had racially profiled the young black man and that there was no justification for using deadly force against someone who was sleeping and not a threat.

South Sudan peace deal funds spent on renovating politicians' homes

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 11:00 PM PST

Guardian investigation reveals government allocated money for home improvements while appealing for support from international community

South Sudan's cash-strapped government is spending almost half of the money ear-marked for the country's fragile peace deal on funding renovations for politicians' homes.

Two sets of internal government documents seen by the Guardian show that in December and January more than $135,000 (£105,000) was authorised by the National Pre-Transitional Committee (NPTC) – the group charged with overseeing the initial phases of the peace deal and managing money allocation – to renovate two politicians' houses. They include the home of first vice president Taban Deng Gai, and that of the late Dr John Garang. His widow, Rebecca Nyandeng De Mabior, is expected to be one of the country's five vice presidents under the new agreement.

First photographs of rare African black leopard captured in more than a century

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 08:47 PM PST

Images were taken by British wildlife photographer, Will Burrard-Lucas, in Laikipia Wilderness Camp in Kenya

The wild African black leopard has been the stuff of legend and campfire story for decades.

The animal – whose coat is sooty black as a result of melanism, the opposite of albinism – is extremely rare.

How to make an incinerator popular? Put a ski slope on it

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 09:00 PM PST

Idea of topping municipal plant in Copenhagen with urban ski resort won accolades for Danish architecture firm

It might be the first waste incinerator the neighbours actually want next door. The shop at the foot of the Amager Bakke waste-to-energy project in Copenhagen is packed with families desperate to be among the first to try its unique selling point: the ski slope on the roof.

"I live so close by that I could follow the development," says Ole Fredslund, who lives in neighbouring Amager, as he helped his sons Felix and Victor strap on their boots as the slope opened its lifts for the first time on Tuesday. "I guess 90% of the focus is on the fact that there's a skiing hill coming, so in a way it's very clever. Everybody talks about the ski hill to be, not the waste plant to be."

Joy of six: the buildings transformed by 3D hexagon murals

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 05:36 AM PST

Street artist Mr June brings facades to life with his abstract, colourful designs

The Dutch artist David Louf, who goes by Mr June, is the person behind these striking 3D hexagon murals, which have appeared on walls from Berlin to the Bronx.

Louf grew up in Amsterdam immersed in hip-hop and graffiti, and turned to graphic design as an adult. Eight years ago he moved back to street art and now combines his skills to create vibrant, abstract murals on buildings across the world.

‘I have a carpet Take That stood on’: meet the ultimate superfans

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 11:23 PM PST

From the academic who has seen U2 73 times to the Bros fan who had Matt Goss's autograph tattooed on her leg, some fans just don't know when to stop …

Amanda Bradshaw, 46, academic writer from Lowton, Lancashire

Austerity causing stress and trauma to officers, say police

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 04:01 PM PST

Call for more government funding as survey finds 80% of officers felt stress in past year

Police officers have reported being driven to breaking point by the dual pressures of staffing cuts and rising demands, with a survey finding eight out of 10 had felt stressed in the past year.

The survey by the Police Federation is part of a campaign to pressure the government to fund more officers on the beat after years of cuts.

High court rejects attempt to challenge Australia's indefinite detention regime

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 10:32 PM PST

Plaintiff's lawyers wanted to suspend case after argument about his identity came unstuck in Canberra high court

The high court has rejected an attempt to reopen a controversial ruling which effectively enabled indefinite immigration detention in Australia.

The full bench in Canberra took the highly unusual step of delivering an immediate judgement, after a tumultuous day which saw the plaintiff's lawyers seek to stop them hearing the case and have it sent back to a single judge for reassessment.

'It was hell': Parkland massacre survivor sets focus on healing ... and soccer

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 10:00 PM PST

The Marjory Stoneman Douglas student was hailed as a hero for saving 20 students, but the teen only wants the freedom of playing on the field

When the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school commandeered the streets of Washington DC to march for their lives last year, Anthony Borges was still in a Florida hospital, fighting for his.

The soft-spoken 15-year-old, then a freshman at the school in Parkland, had been shot five times during the onslaught of violence on 14 February 2018, which left 17 students and teachers dead.

'If it gets me, it gets me': the town where residents live alongside polar bears

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 01:00 AM PST

Residents of Churchill, Canada share their streets with the largest land carnivore in the world as their isolated town's identity faces a reckoning: a revitalized port

Spend enough time in Churchill, and you will hear the stories.

Of hearing a noise outside, pulling open the drapes and seeing a polar bear looking in through the window.

PM pushes off medevac loss by launching a sonic boom on border protection | Katharine Murphy

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 12:56 AM PST

We're now so far down the truthy tunnel, we'll require a map, a floodlight and some grappling hooks to find our way back

We can start with a statement of the obvious. Governing is about choices.

Scott Morrison has made a number of significant choices over the past few days.

Water flows at key sites in Murray-Darling are worse than before basin plan, report says

Posted: 13 Feb 2019 01:37 AM PST

Wentworth Group finds the Murray-Darling Basin Plan's environmental objectives are not being met

Water flows at key environmental sites in the Murray-Darling Basin are unimproved or worse than before the basin plan was implemented, a scientific report has found, raising serious questions about where the $8.5bn of environmental water purchased by taxpayers is going.

The Wentworth Group of Concerned Scientists, a group of eminent environmental scientists formed a decade ago to advocate for the river system, have looked at two key sites which they identified when the plan was put in place in 2010.

Restaurants could make £7 for every £1 invested in cutting waste, report reveals

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 09:00 PM PST

Global study sets out how industry could make waste reduction pay, using data taken from across 12 countries

Restaurants can make a profit of £7 for every £1 they invest in cutting food waste, a global report reveals today, in findings that are hailed as proving the business case for stopping edible food from being binned.

The study is based on research for Champions 12.3, a group of political, business, NGO and farmers' leaders from across the world who have united to tackle waste, using data taken from 114 restaurant sites across 12 countries.

Ogoni widows testify at The Hague over Shell's alleged complicity in killings

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 11:34 AM PST

Four Nigerian women bring landmark case over state executions of nine activists in a military court

Four Nigerian women at the centre of a long-running legal battle against oil giant Royal Dutch Shell saw their historic case reach the Hague on Tuesday.

The company is accused of complicity in the state execution of nine Ogoni protesters and human right abuses dating back to 1993. The allegations concern the 1990s violent government crackdown in Ogoniland, in the oil-rich Niger delta region, where oil spills inflicted environmental damage on a huge scale.

Deflagging of refugee rescue ship a 'dark moment' for Europe

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 02:15 AM PST

Report by Human Rights at Sea says revoking of Aquarius's flag sets precedent for states to ignore international humanitarian law

The deflagging of the Aquarius, the last migrant rescue ship in the Mediterranean, represents a "dark moment" in European history, setting a dangerous precedent for states to flout international humanitarian laws.

A report by the charity Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) cited "inconsistencies in reasoning" given by Gibraltar and Panama for revoking the flag of Aquarius, which it said had acted transparently.

Door slams on guilty El Chapo after old mob pals line up to squeal

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 10:34 AM PST

Guzman's dramatic trial showed how the cartels that traffick most of the world's drugs today do not honour the mafia code of omertà

When Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is sentenced on 25 June, he will most likely be sent to US maximum-security prison from which there will be no more tunnels and no more escapes.

Guzmán was convicted on all 10 charges after years of painstaking behind-the-scenes work by US Department of Justice prosecutors who cut deals with captive drug traffickers to get their man.

Donald Trump v Beto O'Rourke: rival rallies on US border security – video report

Posted: 12 Feb 2019 04:29 AM PST

Donald Trump and potential presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke held rallies in El Paso, Texas, on Monday night offering their contrasting views on Trump's US-Mexico border wall. The president addressed his crowd in front of a big US flag along with three 'finish the wall' banners. Meanwhile nearby, O'Rourke told supporters El Paso was, 'safe not because of walls but in spite of walls'.