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Islamic State: Trump calls on European allies to take 800 fighters captured in Syria
Macron condemns antisemitic abuse during gilets jaunes Paris protest
Theresa May issues fresh plea to Tory MPs to unite over Brexit
Roma: Yalitza Aparicio says she is proud of her roots after actor's racist slur
Trump's UN ambassador pick, Heather Nauert, withdraws from consideration
Sharp rise in methane levels threatens world climate targets
Cancún shooting: five people gunned down in Mexico's tourist hotspot
Warsaw-Jerusalem tensions rise over ‘Nazi link’ claims
US aid for Venezuela arrives in Colombia, but delivery uncertain
Oscars reverses plan for ad-break presentations after industry outcry
Nan Goldin threatens London gallery boycott over £1m gift from Sackler fund
Massive Attack: ‘I have total faith in the next generation’
Police condemn 'reckless' pipe bomb attack in Armagh
Without territory or new recruits, Islamic State is in its death throes | Jason Burke
Buhari and opposition leader blame each other for Nigerian election delay
Leftwing Democrats steal the 2020 spotlight but can centrists fight back?
'We won't be trampled on': striking Mexican workers vow to fight the fight
Labor issues please explain over Paladin’s $420m Manus contract
El Chapo and the men who live by rules shaped by the blood of feuds
The Catholic church is still making excuses for paedophilia | Peter Stanford
The collapse of Isis will inflame the regional power struggle
Trump’s emergency: the arbitrary action of an instinctive autocrat | Simon Tisdall
Calls to ban the Saudi 'wife-tracking' app could be counterproductive | Arwa Mahdawi
Lee Radziwill: a life in pictures
Mike Pence rebukes European powers over Iran and Venezuela – video
Gunman in Illinois warehouse kills five people – video
Five false claims from Trump's national emergency speech – video

Islamic State: Trump calls on European allies to take 800 fighters captured in Syria

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 10:45 PM PST

President says caliphate 'ready to fall' and US doesn't want to watch 'fighters permeate Europe'

Donald Trump has asked his European allies to "take back over 800" Islamic State fighters captured in Syria and put them on trial.

"The Caliphate is ready to fall," the US president said in a tweet. "The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them ..."

Macron condemns antisemitic abuse during gilets jaunes Paris protest

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 10:04 PM PST

Police protect philosopher Alain Finkielkraut after he is targeted during 14th weekend of protests

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has condemned antisemitic abuse of a leading intellectual by gilets jaunes (yellow vests) protesters and said it would not be tolerated.

Police intervened to protect philosopher and writer Alain Finkielkraut after he was targeted by a group of protesters on the fringe of a demonstration in central Paris on Saturday, according to videos posted on social networks.

Theresa May issues fresh plea to Tory MPs to unite over Brexit

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 04:10 PM PST

PM makes appeal in letter for unity and announces further talks with EU president

Theresa May has issued a fresh plea to Conservative MPs to unite and deliver on Brexit, urging her party to "move beyond what divides us" and sacrifice "personal preferences".

The prime minister's rallying cry follows another tumultuous week in Westminster that saw tensions in the Tory party reach boiling point, with one of her ministers accusing his Eurosceptic colleagues of "treachery".

Roma: Yalitza Aparicio says she is proud of her roots after actor's racist slur

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 11:03 AM PST

Aparicio, the first indigenous woman to be nominated for a best actress Oscar, responds to Sergio Goyri's 'fucking Indian' remark

The Oscar-nominated Mexican actor Yalitza Aparicio, who stars in the critically acclaimed film Roma, said on Saturday she was proud of her indigenous roots, after a soap opera star used a racial slur to describe her.

Trump's UN ambassador pick, Heather Nauert, withdraws from consideration

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 04:54 PM PST

Former Fox News host says she is not going ahead with appointment for family reasons

The state department says Donald Trump's nominee for US ambassador to the United Nations, Heather Nauert, has withdrawn.

The department released a statement on Saturday evening Washington time saying Nauert had withdrawn and another nominee would be announced "soon".

Sharp rise in methane levels threatens world climate targets

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 11:00 PM PST

Experts warn that failure to act risks spike in global temperatures

Dramatic rises in atmospheric methane are threatening to derail plans to hold global temperature rises to 2C, scientists have warned.

In a paper published this month by the American Geophysical Union, researchers say sharp rises in levels of methane – which is a powerful greenhouse gas – have strengthened over the past four years. Urgent action is now required to halt further increases in methane in the atmosphere, to avoid triggering enhanced global warming and temperature rises well beyond 2C.

Cancún shooting: five people gunned down in Mexico's tourist hotspot

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 06:44 PM PST

Bar attacked near hotel zone amid rising drug-related violence in the Caribbean resort city

Five people have been shot dead and five more wounded in Cancún after gunmen burst into a bar in the Mexican resort city and opened fire.

Quintana Roo state prosecutors said the attack on Saturday took place in a club called La Kuka, on a main avenue in central Cancún about 6km (4 miles) away from the Caribbean resort city's seaside tourist hotel zone, situated on the Yucatán Peninsula.

Warsaw-Jerusalem tensions rise over ‘Nazi link’ claims

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 11:00 PM PST

Benjamin Netanyahu's comments cause anger in Poland ahead of summit

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's attempts to build friendly relations with central European nations are being tested, on the eve of a Jerusalem summit aimed at showcasing the alliance, by disputes over Holocaust history.

Netanyahu has long been criticised by domestic opponents for seeking political alliances in central Europe while turning a blind eye to historical revisionism and antisemitism in the region. However, the Israeli leader was caught up in the dispute last week, when he said during a visit to Warsaw that Poles had collaborated with the Nazis in the Holocaust.

US aid for Venezuela arrives in Colombia, but delivery uncertain

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 08:32 PM PST

Juan Guaidó calls on military to let supplies in, but President Maduro denies any crisis

A US military transport plane carrying humanitarian aid meant for Venezuela has landed in the Colombian border city of Cúcuta, where food and medicine is being stored amid uncertainty over how and where aid will be distributed.

The shipment on Saturday is the second arrival of large-scale US and international aid for Venezuelans, many of whom have scant access to food and medicine, since the opposition leader Juan Guaidó declared himself interim president last month in defiance of the socialist president, Nicolás Maduro.

Oscars reverses plan for ad-break presentations after industry outcry

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 02:11 PM PST

Decision to relegate four awards, including best cinematography and best editing overturned following protests by Martin Scorsese, Brad Pitt and others

Bowing to a backlash that had threatened to engulf an already blunder-plagued Academy Awards, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Ampas) reversed its decision to present four awards during the commercial breaks of this year's Oscar broadcast.

Nan Goldin threatens London gallery boycott over £1m gift from Sackler fund

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 10:59 PM PST

Artist brands planned donation from pharmaceutical family to National Portrait Gallery unethical over OxyContin link

The National Portrait Gallery will be forced to turn down a gift of £1m from members of the multibillionaire Sackler family if it goes ahead with a prestigious new exhibition of the work of US artist Nan Goldin.

The photographer and activist is threatening to boycott the gallery if it accepts the donation from the owners of the American pharmaceutical company that makes the addictive painkiller OxyContin, the Observer has learned.

Massive Attack: ‘I have total faith in the next generation’

Posted: 17 Feb 2019 01:00 AM PST

Twenty-one years since the release of Mezzanine, their most successful album, Massive Attack are taking it on tour – with films. The band and their visuals director, Adam Curtis, tell us why

Robert del Naja is in no mood to talk about the past. Which is tricky, because as the force behind Massive Attack's current live spectacle (a reconfigured outing for their 1998 album Mezzanine), a degree of unpicking old memories might seem unavoidable. Still, sitting backstage in the clinical dressing room of an Amsterdam concert hall, each of us angled at either end of a sofa an hour before he's due on stage, Del Naja considers his unease with historical rehashing.

"I don't think I've got a problem with nostalgia, because a lot of the time things are self-referential. When you're working in the way we do, taking things from the past and making them new, making collages…" He pauses. "I stopped feeling nostalgia for the moment because I imagine myself looking back on it from the future, which really freaks me out. I get this vertigo where I'm not thinking about the past, I'm thinking about how I'm going to feel in 10 years' time." Nostalgia isn't as good as it used to be, I joke. Del Naja rubs a hand forwards through his hair.

Police condemn 'reckless' pipe bomb attack in Armagh

Posted: 17 Feb 2019 01:52 AM PST

Residents evacuated after explosion outside house in Enniskeen area of Craigavon

Police have criticised as "reckless" an incident in county Armagh in which a pipe bomb exploded close to a house where young children were living.

Residents in the Enniskeen area of Craigavon reported hearing a loud bang between 11.20pm and 11.30pm on Saturday.

Without territory or new recruits, Islamic State is in its death throes | Jason Burke

Posted: 17 Feb 2019 01:22 AM PST

Dimninished and cornered, the terrorist group has lost its appeal for young Muslims

The last fighters are holding out, just. The leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, is still alive but hiding somewhere in the desert. We have already had one "final defeat " of Islamic State. This came 18 months ago when the organisation's capital, Raqqa, fell. Once, it held territory the size of the UK; now, it holds a square kilometre of the remote town of Ba ghouz in eastern Syria. Soon, it will no longer hold even that.

There is a strong argument for caution before anyone talks of "mission accomplished". Many of the circumstances that favoured the rise of the organisation remain. In Iraq, these include the weakness of the state and security forces, the dominance of the Shia majority and the shortsightedness of its leaders, as well as the alienation and marginalisation of the Iraqi Sunni minority, long the extremists' core constituency. Deeply rooted criminal networks don't help, nor does the legacy of radicalisation and brutalisation of decades of violence. Syria remains an anarchic battleground of factions, militia and forces, where powers great and small, near and far, still seek advantage. So it should be no surprise that recent attacks in Iraq suggest that a new Isis-led insurgent campaign is well under way.

Buhari and opposition leader blame each other for Nigerian election delay

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 09:27 AM PST

The vote was rescheduled just five hours before polls were to open

Nigeria's president and his main challenger have blamed each other for the last-minute postponement of the country's election, delayed just five hours before polls were due to open.

Millions of Nigerians who had planned to vote woke up to the news on Saturday that the independent electoral commission (INEC) had deemed holding the poll "no longer feasible". It will now be held on 23 February, INEC said.

Leftwing Democrats steal the 2020 spotlight but can centrists fight back?

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 10:00 PM PST

Many Democratic contenders have touted their progressive credentials – which some say leaves the center lane open

It was a tale of two presidential launches.

'We won't be trampled on': striking Mexican workers vow to fight the fight

Posted: 17 Feb 2019 01:00 AM PST

Strikes close or slow production at dozens of assembly plants and factories as workers demand better salaries

Despite the winter chill in the air, the mood on the picket line outside the Matamoros Coca-Cola bottling plant was optimistic.

"We're not fighting for ourselves, but for a better quality of life for our kids and their children. They won't be screwed over or trampled upon by these kinds of people any more," said Juan Luis Gaytán, 37, a mechanic at the plant, which is operated by Arca Continental, the world's second-biggest Coca-Cola bottler.

Labor issues please explain over Paladin’s $420m Manus contract

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 04:08 PM PST

Penny Wong says it's 'deeply concerning' a company with 'such a poor track record' was awarded a lucrative sum through closed tender

Penny Wong has indicated Labor will target the Paladin offshore detention security contract in Senate estimates this week, accusing the government of failing to explain why the company was awarded $420m in contracts through closed tender.

The Australian Financial Review has reported that Paladin Group's $420m of contracts to provide security to refugees on Manus Island in Papua New Guinea was extended by the home affairs department in January after a closed tender process.

El Chapo and the men who live by rules shaped by the blood of feuds

Posted: 17 Feb 2019 12:05 AM PST

The creator of the series Gomorrah explores our unending fascination with the crimes and codes of organised gangs

Since I started writing movies and television series on organised crime, the question I'm most often asked is: why do the stories of crimes committed by men such as El Chapo command such passion across generations and across continents?

When I tried to answer the question for myself, I was persuaded that watching stories about the mafia registers reality as it is, without mediation.

The Catholic church is still making excuses for paedophilia | Peter Stanford

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 11:00 PM PST

Cardinals around the world are joining the pope at a forum on tackling abuse. But only radical reform can solve the crisis

When the first meeting in the Vatican of cardinals from around the world to discuss clerical sexual abuse was announced, hopes were high among Catholics. Finally, it seemed, the courageous, mould-breaking Pope Francis was going to force through root-and-branch reforms to tackle the scandal that has done such damage to the reputation of the institution he leads.

Yet even before 180 cardinals assemble on Thursday in Rome for this unprecedented four-day summit, the chance of such prayers being answered is looking increasingly remote. The Vatican press office has been downplaying the event as simply an opportunity to remind senior clerics of the patchy efforts that global Catholicism has made this past quarter of a century to address the thousands upon thousands of cases of priests molesting, abusing and traumatising children in their care.

The collapse of Isis will inflame the regional power struggle

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 10:59 PM PST

From Russia to Turkey and Iraq, the rout of the caliphate brings new political considerations and shifting alliances

The collapse of the Isis caliphate's last stronghold in Syria is sending shockwaves across the region, changing the calculations of the major powers as they jockey for advantage. Triumphalism in Washington, Moscow and Damascus risks obscuring the human cost of a "victory" that may quickly prove transitory.

Of immediate concern is the fate of civilians, mainly women and children, displaced from formerly Isis-controlled areas where many were held against their will. The independent International Rescue Committee says up to 4,000 people are fleeing towards the al-Hawl refugee camp in north-east Syria.

Trump’s emergency: the arbitrary action of an instinctive autocrat | Simon Tisdall

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 06:22 AM PST

US president's latest ploy is the product of an immature, egotistic mind, and is based on a lie

The phrase "national emergency" conjures up images of riots in the streets and burning cities, a disease pandemic killing millions, or an inter-planetary invasion by little green men from Mars.

Donald Trump's national emergency, over his thwarted plans to build a border wall with Mexico, is prompted by none of these horrors. According to him, the safety and wellbeing of the world's richest, most powerful country is threatened with utter destruction by penniless Guatemalans.

Calls to ban the Saudi 'wife-tracking' app could be counterproductive | Arwa Mahdawi

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 06:00 AM PST

While Absher is awful, having it removed will further restrict women. Let's not let politicians off the hook for their complicity in how Saudi women are treated

Sign up for the Week in Patriarchy, a newsletter on feminism and sexism sent every Saturday.

Lee Radziwill: a life in pictures

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 10:02 AM PST

Radziwill, the younger sister of Jackie Kennedy, has died at the age of 85. Married three times, she was a well-known socialite and a successful interior designer

Mike Pence rebukes European powers over Iran and Venezuela – video

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 07:03 AM PST

The US vice-president rebuked European powers over Iran and Venezuela on Saturday, in a renewed attack on traditional US allies, rejecting a call by Germany's chancellor to include Russia in global cooperation efforts. Describing the results of Donald Trump's presidency as 'remarkable' and 'extraordinary', Pence told senior European and Asian officials that the European Union should follow the US in quitting the Iran nuclear deal and recognising the head of Venezuela's congress, Juan Guaidó, as president

Pence hails 'remarkable, extraordinary' Trump tenure in attack on US allies

Gunman in Illinois warehouse kills five people – video

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 05:24 AM PST

A man opened fire on Friday in a warehouse in Aurora, Illinois, an hour's drive west of Chicago. The shooter, identified as 45-year-old Gary Martin, was an employee at the industrial complex in Aurora. He also wounded five police officers before he was shot dead

• Aurora shooting: sacked employee kills five in Illinois warehouse

Five false claims from Trump's national emergency speech – video

Posted: 16 Feb 2019 03:20 AM PST

Donald Trump has declared a national emergency to secure extra funding for his wall at the US-Mexico border. Trump's decision came after weeks of wrangling over his campaign promise, which led to a record 35-day partial government shutdown, damaging his approval rating.

• Trump declares national emergency to build US-Mexico border wall