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Supporters gather enough valid signatures to put measure – that would enshrine abortion rights into constitution – on to ballotVoters in Colorado will have a say on abortion rights this fall after supporters collected enough valid signatures to put a measure on the ballot, part of a national push to pose abortion rights questions to voters since the US supreme court removed the nationwide...

Samantha Power says barely 100 trucks of aid a day enter Gaza, far less than 600 needed to address threat of famineHumanitarian assistance has begun to arrive in Gaza along a US-made pier, but the US aid chief said the new sea corridor could not be a substitute for land crossings, and warned that deliveries of food and fuel entering Gaza had slowed to...

Four suspects arrested at the scene of attack in Bamiyan, with four more foreigners and three Afghans reported woundedThree Spanish tourists and an Afghan civilian have been killed in a shooting attack in Bamiyan province, central Afghanistan.The Spanish prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, wrote on social messaging platform X that he was “shocked by the news of the murder of Spanish tourists in Afghanistan”. Continue...

‘Bakery scent’ added via microcapsules to postage stamp celebrating ‘jewel of French culture’The French Post Office has released a scratch-and-sniff postage stamp to celebrate the baguette, once described by President Emmanuel Macron as “250 grams of magic and perfection”.The stamp, which costs €1.96, depicts a baguette decorated with a red, white and blue ribbon. It has a print run of 594,000 copies. Continue reading...

Young girl was among six people killed in gunfire in an area of Chiapas where shootings have become common and widespreadA mayoral candidate and five other people have been killed when gunmen opened fire at a campaign rally in the violence-racked southern Mexico state of Chiapas.State prosecutors said a young girl was among the six people killed in the gunfire late on Thursday, along...

Bodies of Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter also recovered from Gaza as Israel says 129 hostages remain in captivityThe bodies of three hostages kidnapped by Hamas, including the German-Israeli Shani Louk, have been retrieved from Gaza by the Israeli military, it announced.The other two hostages were identified as Amit Buskila, 28, and Itzhak Gelerenter, 56, according to the military spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari,...

Tigran Gambaryan faces allegations of ‘serious criminality’ on behalf of world’s largest cryptocurrency exchangeA Nigerian court has ruled that Tigran Gambaryan, the Binance executive detained on charges of tax evasion and money laundering, can face trial on behalf of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange.In a judgment in Abuja on Friday – Gambaryan’s 40th birthday – the presiding judge, Emeka Nwite, denied the American national...

Updated guidelines strip bishops of power to recognise ‘supernatural’ nature of purportedly divine eventsApparitions of the Virgin Mary and weeping statues have been part of Catholicism for centuries, but the age of social media has prompted the Vatican to issue a crackdown against potential scams and hoaxes.New rules issued on Friday say that only a pope, rather than local bishops, can declare apparitions and...

Israel complains of ‘obscene exploitation’ of genocide convention and asks judges to throw out bid to halt Rafah offensiveIsrael on Friday attacked South Africa’s case against it in the international court of justice as an “obscene exploitation” of the genocide convention, claiming it aimed not to protect Palestinian civilians but to defend Hamas militants.Israel’s representatives told the court their country was fighting a war...

Attack on prime minister lifts lid on divided politics of ‘one of the most polarised countries in Europe’On Friday morning, Father Tomáš stood solemnly in the small Catholic church nestled near a park along the banks of the Danube River in Bratislava.He had seen an increase in visitors since Wednesday’s shock shooting of Slovakia’s prime minister, Robert Fico, which has prompted soul-searching among the...

San Pedro Sula is rated ‘dangerous’ as effects of forest fires, El Niño and the climate crisis cause a spike in respiratory illnessesThe air quality in San Pedro Sula, the second-largest city in Honduras, as been classified as the most polluted on the American continent due to forest fires and weather conditions aggravated by El Niño and the climate crisis.IQAir, a Swiss air-quality organisation...

‘Adversaries know migration is our vulnerability,’ says Kaja Kallas, spelling out negative consequences to Europe of Ukrainian defeatVladimir Putin is seeking to weaponise the threat of mass migration to divide and weaken Europe as supporters of Ukraine struggle to maintain unity to defeat Russia, Kaja Kallas, the Estonian prime minister, says.“What our adversaries know is migration is our vulnerability,” she said. “The aim is...

Robberies, shootings, extortion and rapes have surged since the Rwandan-backed M23 militia cut off the eastern Congolese capitalIn broad daylight on 16 April, three armed and uniformed men held up a city centre mobile phone shop.Threatening staff, they helped themselves to about £700 worth of goods, before making off on a motorbike, disappearing into the busy streets of Goma, in the eastern Democratic Republic...

Local authorities will be allowed to turn unsold homes from developers into affordable housingChina will cut mortgage rates and allow local authorities to turn unsold homes from developers into affordable housing, in a series of drastic measures by Beijing aimed at propping up the country’s faltering property market.The People’s Bank of China said it would scrap the minimum rate of interest and reduce down-payment...

Exclusive: The director of The Seed of the Sacred Fig details how he discarded electronic devices and fled over the mountains on foot after authorities sentenced him to eight years in prison and floggingIranian director Mohammad Rasoulof escaped imminent imprisonment in Iran by discarding all trackable electronic devices and walking across a mountainous borderland on foot, the film-maker has told the Guardian in an...

Israel is appearing at the international court of justice (ICJ) after South Africa asked it to urgently order an end the assault on RafahYemen’s Houthis said they downed a US MQ9 drone on Thursday evening over the south-eastern province of Maareb, the group’s military spokesperson said on Friday.According to Reuters, the Iran-aligned group said they would release images and videos to support their claim...

The attacker was carrying a knife and iron bar, according to local authoritiesChmouel Lubecki, a rabbi in Rouen, said today’s incident was “shocking.”“It is important to light the candles of Shabbat to exactly show that we are not afraid,” he said. Continue reading...

Russian forces have advanced further into Kharkiv but the situation in the region has “stabilised” as of Friday, according Volodymyr ZelenskiyRussian forces expanded the area of active combat by almost 70 km by launching their offensive in the Kharkiv region, Ukraine’s army chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Friday.Syrskyi said Russia launched the offensive to force Ukraine to throw additional reserve brigades into fighting. Continue...

Interior ministry says armed suspect ‘neutralised’ after attempting to set fire to synagogue in Normandy cityFrench police shoot dead armed man who set fire to Rouen synagogue – latest updatesFrench police have shot dead a man armed with a knife and iron bar who tried to set fire to a synagogue in the Normandy city of Rouen, officials said.The interior minister, Gérald Darmanin, posted...

As much as 40cm fell in less than a day in part of Seoraksan national park. Plus, a powerful tornado in AustraliaThere was unusually heavy snowfall this week in the highlands of the mountainous region of eastern Gangwon province in South Korea. Between 5.30pm local time on Wednesday and 9am on Thursday, as much as 40cm fell at the Socheong shelter of Seoraksan national...

In today’s newsletter: The shooting of the Slovak prime minister, Robert Fico, was the first attempt on the life of a European head of state since 2003 – and reflects a growing polarisation across the continent• Sign up here for our daily newsletter, First EditionGood morning.After a government meeting in the small town of Handlová on Wednesday, the Slovakian prime minister, Robert Fico, went...

American Museum of Natural History says Dr Lorenzo Prendini was working on research project and ‘has arrived safely home’A curator at the American Museum of Natural History in New York who was detained in Istanbul on Monday while allegedly attempting to smuggle spider and scorpion samples out of Turkey has been released.In statement on Thursday, a spokesperson for the museum said Dr Lorenzo Prendini,...

Foreign ministry says it will reject all such stopovers because ‘the Middle East does not need more weapons, it needs more peace’Spain has refused permission for a ship carrying arms to Israel to dock at a Spanish port, its foreign minister, José Manuel Albares, said on Thursday.“This is the first time we have done this because it is the first time we have detected...

This live blog is now closed. You can read our latest reporting below:Michael Cohen admits to prior lies in cross-examination in Trump trialMichael Cohen receives a grilling: Trump trial key takeaways, day 18Republican invokes Trump’s call to far-right group in trial visitJudge Juan Merchan is on the bench and the court is in session.Donald Trump has arrived in the courtroom for day 18 of...