A new ‘golden passport’ scheme aims to raise funds to relocate people inland as climate change raises sea levels
The Pacific island nation of Nauru is selling citizenship to fund its retreat from rising seas, the country’s president, David Adeang, announced on Tuesday, opening a contentious “golden passport” scheme as climate financing runs dry.
The low-lying island nation of 13,000 residents is planning a mass inland relocation as the human-caused climate crisis raises global sea levels, eating away at the country’s fertile coastal fringe.
Court orders compensation to be paid to 30-year-old from Bangalore, saying ‘in the new era, time is considered as money, each one’s time is very precious’
For some, the adverts that precede the start of a film are the bane of a trip to the cinema; for others, they are a useful buffer as you stand in the popcorn queue.
But for one man in India, the lengthy marathon of cinema advertising was so infuriating that he took the matter to the courts – and won.
Recently married couple selected to look after Great Blasket, the largest island on Europe’s most westerly archipelago
A young couple in search of a new chapter in their lives are swapping creature comforts for life on an otherwise uninhabited island off the coast of Ireland with no hot water, stable electricity or cars.
Camille Rosenfeld, from Minnesota in the US, and James Hayes, from Tralee in County Kerry, have been chosen to be this year’s live-in caretakers of Great Blasket, the largest island of the most westerly archipelago in Europe.
Concerns also raised that practice prevents young working-class people from finding paid work in creative industries
Arts employers could be breaking the law by relying on unpaid interns to perform roles that should be left to paid workers, preventing young people from working-class backgrounds from gaining a foothold, experts have said.
Institutions are getting away with exploiting carve-outs in employment legislation to keep interns working for free, they said, which stops working-class people from finding paid work in the industry.
We are raiding the Guardian Long Read archives to bring you some classic pieces from years past, with new introductions from the authors.
This week, from 2017: Davon Mayer was a smalltime dealer in west Baltimore who made an illicit deal with local police. When they turned on him, he decided to get out – but escaping that life would not prove as easy as falling into it. By Yudhijit Bhattacharjee. Read by Lola Ogunyemi
Stock up on wig tape, plunge your face in icy water, prepare your poses – and get ready for some really tricky interview questions
Awards season draws to a close this weekend, with the Brits on Saturday and the Oscars on Sunday. At both, stars will face the red carpet – a gauntlet of fans, photo ops and rapid-fire interviews, which involves being scrutinised from every angle.
They make it look effortless, “but it’s an intimidating thing, especially if you’ve never done it before”, says Niamh Eastabrook, a publicist at Multitude Media, who helps actors prepare for red carpets. “People forget that this side of the job is not why anyone becomes an actor.” The makeup artist Lisa Eldridge agrees: “It’s such a nerve-racking experience for most actresses. A lot are quite introverted and they have to walk out and be analysed by the world.”
Two of my red-carpet looks: gold gown by Edeline Lee; green dress by Self Portrait, rented from Rites. Photographs: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
Antimicrobial resistance contributing to estimated 35,000 deaths a year in UK, and government ‘a long way’ from containing the problem, says NAO
Superbugs are on the rise in the UK and the government is failing in its efforts to tackle them, ministers have been warned.
The World Health Organization has described antimicrobial resistance (AMR) – where pathogens evolve and develop resistance to antibiotics and other antimicrobials so the drugs usually used to fight them no longer work – as “one of the top global public health and development threats”.
A slow-moving tropical cyclone off north-east Australia is expected to linger in the Coral Sea for at least the next few days, but forecasters say there remains a risk the system could eventually turn towards the Queensland coast.
The Bureau of Meteorology says category 2 Tropical Cyclone Alfred is about 930km north-east of Mackay, and is tracking slowly south through the Coral Sea.
Despite a pledge that life-saving assistance would be exempt from the USAid freeze, countless groups providing critical care have been forced to stop work
Wah K’Ler Paw, a 30-year-old refugee from Myanmar, survived for about two weeks without dialysis after US president Donald Trump suspended foreign aid.
“She never complained about what she was going through,” says her husband, Thaw, from the Mae La refugee camp along the Thai-Myanmar border, where the couple had lived with their two-year-old daughter, Thaw Wah.
A Labour member of the House of Lords offered access to ministers during discussions about a commercial deal worth tens of thousands of pounds, an undercover investigation can reveal. Henry Dyer reports
Lord David Evans of Watford, 82, offered access to ministers during discussions about a commercial deal, an undercover investigation can reveal.
Lord Evans was recorded explaining to Guardian undercover reporters – who were posing as property developers looking to lobby the government – on how to approach Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister and housing secretary.
Drag show They Will be Kings celebrates masculinity through a transmasculine, non-binary and lesbian lens as part of the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras
They Will be Kings is on at the Loading Dock Theatre in Darlinghurst, Sydney until 28 February 2025
Boat tour captures video of Northern right whale dolphins, Pacific white-sided dolphins and light grey baby calves
More than 2,000 dolphins gathered off the California coast to form a “superpod”, gliding and breaching the clear, aquamarine waters off Monterey Bay.
The superpod included Northern right whale dolphins and Pacific white-sided dolphins, as well as light grey baby calves. Evan Brodsky, a captain and videographer with the private boat tour company Monterey Bay Whale Watch, captured a video of the dolphins, and his company shared it on Facebook, calling the spectacle “mind-blowing”.
Malaysia transport minister says firm Ocean Infinity has resumed hunt for the plane, which went missing in one of aviation’s biggest mysteries
A new search for Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 has been launched more than a decade after the plane went missing in one of aviation’s greatest enduring mysteries.
Maritime exploration firm Ocean Infinity has resumed the hunt for the missing plane, Malaysian transport minister Anthony Loke said on Tuesday.
In 2023 the federal court ordered $27.5m compensation for an initial estimated 220 Indonesian minors wrongly detained – but that number has now doubled
The Australian government has revealed that a further 220 Indonesian children may have been wrongly detained as adult people smugglers, doubling the number initially thought.
Late in 2023 the federal court ordered $27.5m in compensation for an estimated 220 Indonesian children who were wrongly detained as adult people smugglers between 2010 and 2012.
A small but growing number of Chinese people are fleeing home, with their sights set on Germany thanks to its reputation as a safe haven for refugees
Ling*, 42, arrived in Germany with his 10-year-old daughter, Feifei* in late 2024. Their journey from Jiangsu province in eastern China to the small town of Schöppenstedt on the outskirts of Hanover took more than three months and cost thousands of pounds in payments to people smugglers and plane tickets. Starting in August, it culminated with a dangerous wintry trek across the Balkan mountains from Bosnia into the European Union – first Croatia, then Slovenia, Italy and, finally, Germany.
Ling is one of the hundreds of Chinese people who claimed asylum in Germany in 2024.
President says ‘I hear he’s coming on Friday’ amid reports that terms of US-Ukraine aid exchange have been reached
Donald Trump has said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy is likely to visit the White House on Friday to sign a rare earth minerals deal to pay for US military aid to defend against Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The announcement followed days of tense negotiations between the US and Ukraine in which Zelenskyy alleged the US was pressuring him to sign a deal worth more than $500bn that would force “10 generations” of Ukrainians to pay it back.
Lionel Messi has been fined an undisclosed amount by Major League Soccer after grabbing the neck of a New York City assistant coach at the end of Saturday’s game between the sides.
The World Cup winner was caught on camera in a confrontation with NYC FC assistant coach Mehdi Ballouchy after the final whistle. Messi twice put his hands on the back of Ballouchy’s neck during the arguments. MLS said in a statement that their disciplinary committee had ruled that the Argentinian had violated the league’s “Hands to the face/head/neck of an opponent policy.”
The UK government will cease attending events hosted by Rwanda, as well as pausing aid to all but the ‘poorest and most vulnerable’
The UK government has announced it will cease attending events hosted by the Rwandan government and suspend aid to the east African nation over advances by Kigali-backed rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Britain has also threatened sanctions against Rwanda, which is supporting the M23 rebel group in the DRC.
News comes as leading network star criticizes management for decision to cancel shows hosted by non-white anchors
MSNBC has told the majority of the employees who produce Rachel Maddow and Joy Reid’s primetime evening news shows they are being let go as part of the network’s programming overhaul with the option to apply for new roles, according to two people directly familiar with the matter.
Maddow, the biggest star and highest-rated anchor at MSNBC, will get to keep her executive producer, Cory Gnazzo, and several other senior producers, the people said.
Taurasi, 42, walks away as WNBA’s all-time scoring leader
Fiery point guard played 20 WNBA seasons with Phoenix
Diana Taurasi is retiring after 20 seasons, ending one of the greatest careers in basketball history.
The WNBA’s career scoring leader and a three-time league champion, Taurasi announced her retirement on Tuesday in an interview with Time magazine. The Phoenix Mercury – the only WNBA team she played for – also confirmed her decision.
When you have lost three games in a row, any win is a good win. And there is no such thing as a bad win by four goals. But equally, the context is unavoidable. This is a Southampton side who are doomed, who are letting in 2.41 goals per game, who have lost 14 of their past 17 league games and who have nothing to play for this season beyond trying to scrape together the three points that would take them above Derby’s record low of 11.
The Premier League’s unique selling point is supposed to be that anybody can beat anybody, but it’s hard to square that with this Southampton. “I’m frustrated,” said Ivan Juric, who pointed out his team had defended well for 20 minutes. “It’s a really tough situation.”
The outbreak, first discovered in three children who ate a bat, has caused 431 cases and 53 deaths
An unknown illness first discovered in three children who ate a bat has killed more than 50 people in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) over the past five weeks, according to health workers.
As of 16 February there have been 431 cases and 53 deaths in two outbreaks across remote villages in Équateur province, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a bulletin.
Decision to shutter development studios comes as gamers cut back on new purchases and instead opt for proven titles
Warner Bros Discovery is shutting down three of its video game development studios in a move aimed at boosting profitability for its gaming division amid a sluggish recovery in the market, a spokesperson for the company’s games unit said on Tuesday.
The studios to be closed are Player First Games, WB Games San Diego and Monolith Productions. Development on Monolith’s Wonder Woman game will also halt, following the shuttering. “Our hope was to give players and fans the highest quality experience possible for the iconic character, and unfortunately this is no longer possible within our strategic priorities,” the spokesperson said.
NHS staff fear power grab by health department as health secretary looks to shrink body due to ‘duplication’ of roles
Wes Streeting will axe thousands of jobs at NHS England after his ousting of its chair and chief executive in what health service staff fear is a power grab.
Elon Musk’s cost-cutting bonanza appears to be having less impact than the world’s richest man is claiming, with a review finding that almost 40% of the federal contracts scrapped so far will save the American taxpayer not a penny.
The Associated Press put under the microscope a list of 1,125 federal government contracts that Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) boasted it had torn up in the first month of the new Trump administration. The news agency found that of those, 417 were likely to produce no savings to the federal budget.
‘We’re not going to fund failure,’ says governor, who warned local authorities they could lose out on millions of dollars
California’s governor warned cities and counties that they could lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars in state funding if they do not make progress in clearing out encampments and tackling homelessness.
Gavin Newsom’s comments on Monday, while announcing $920m in funding to address the crisis, come as he escalates efforts to push local governments to take greater action. Last summer, Newsom told counties he could withhold state support if they failed to do more homeless encampment sweeps.
The initiative, established by executive order, is touted to protect US skies from attacks, much like Israel’s system
Donald Trump’s Iron Dome for America initiative for a missile defense system protecting US skies from attack has been reportedly renamed the Golden Dome for America.
In a video published on Thursday, secretary of defense Pete Hegseth referred to the project as “the Golden Dome or Iron Dome”. A defense official confirmed shortly after that the name of the initiative has been officially changed to “Golden Dome”, according to military news website Defense One.
State of emergency and overnight curfew declared after blackout strands commuters and knocks out traffic lights
Authorities in Chile have declared a state of emergency and overnight curfew after a sweeping blackout stranded commuters, knocked out traffic lights, paralyzed countless businesses and left millions of people in the South American country without electricity.
The National Electrical Coordinator, Chile’s grid operator, said a disruption had occurred in a high-voltage transmission line that carries power from the Atacama Desert of northern Chile to the capital of Santiago in the country’s central valley.
Vote vindicates tech company’s decision to uphold diversity initiatives as other firms give into pressure from president
Apple shareholders voted down an attempt to pressure the technology company into yielding to Donald Trump’s push to scrub corporate programs designed to diversify its workforce.
A proposal drafted by the National Center for Public Policy Research – a self-described conservative thinktank – urged Apple to follow a litany of high-profile companies that have retreated from diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives currently in the Trump administration’s crosshairs.
Mohamed Amra’s arrest ends nine-month manhunt when armed assailants ambushed prison convoy in Normandy
A notorious French fugitive who staged a deadly escape that killed two guards last year has been extradited from Romania to France, days after his arrest in Bucharest ended a nine-month international manhunt.
Mohamed Amra, nicknamed “The Fly”, was arrested near a shopping centre in Bucharest on Saturday after being identified by Romanian police, despite having dyed his hair red, possibly to evade detection. The Bucharest court of appeal approved his extradition request on Sunday.
The document contains a series of previously unpublished claims, including 22 from members of the public
The independent inquiry into what the BBC knew about the former Radio 1 DJ Tim Westwood’s conduct has been published almost three years after a joint investigation by the Guardian and BBC News.
“Hounded” a 17-year-old Black woman with phone calls and texts.
Invited a girl who was 15 or 16 back to his home following an under-16 night, after she had added him on Blackberry to get information about the event.
Contacted a woman who had shared her business card, and appeared agitated when she did not want to meet late at night.
“Hurled” a can of drink at a woman who was serving in a club.
A former BBC staff member told the corporation their son had witnessed Westwood propositioning a 15-year-old girl in a night club in around 2007. The BBC reported the complaint to the Metropolitan police, who took no action.
A BBC employee said in 2022 that a guest on Radio 1 had described potential sexual assault by Westwood between 2004 and 2007. They said they had reported it to a more senior employee, but White found no evidence the complaint had been documented. Westwood’s lawyers said he was never spoken to about the incident.
A student told the review about Westwood referring to her breasts during a 1Xtra DriveTime show in 2010, calling her “cuddly” and miming grabbing her breasts, which his lawyers say he strongly denies.
A Sun journalist contacted Radio 1 in November 2012 saying they had been given tipoffs about Westwood and “inappropriate relations with young girls”. A senior figure flagged allegations made about Westwood on Twitter to HR and the corporate investigations team, which decided that no action would be taken without further evidence.
White concluded that senior BBC staff did not think Westwood had had sexual contact with 15-year-old girls, but that the issue “ought to have been formally raised with him” and the online allegations should have been examined further.
“Many” BBC employees “perceived there to be a close relationship between the controllers and Tim Westwood”.
Witnesses felt they were unable to complain because of the “feeling that … senior management were likely to side with presenters”.
Westwood made repeated comments about guests and staff members’ bodies, particularly about women’s breasts.
Until Westwood was removed from the 1Xtra DriveTime show in 2012, “the approach appears to have been to raise issues informally … and, when the situation did not improve, to move BBC staff working on the 1Xtra DriveTime show to other programmes”.
Vote passes 217-215 in win for president as Democrats assail proposal over planned cuts to social safety-net programs
Republicans unified behind a budget blueprint on Tuesday evening, just barely scraping together the votes to advance Donald Trump’s sprawling tax-cut and immigration agenda over unanimous Democratic opposition and widespread concern that it would slash social safety net programs.
The House approved the plan in a vote of 217-215, with the representative Thomas Massie, a prominent fiscal hawk, as the lone Republican voting in opposition. No Democrats supported the measure, which they have cast as a betrayal of middle and low-income voters on behalf of “billionaire donors” like Trump’s chief lieutenant, Elon Musk.
They should beat Afghanistan to progress, but the batters would have benefited from a hit-out against South Africa
If you were an Australian supporter of a certain pragmatic bent, you might be quite pleased with a washout against South Africa at the Champions Trophy. With a win already banked, you slide past your most dangerous opponent in Group B without having conceded any advantage to them. It leaves you level with them on three points and guaranteed a semi-final as long as you can beat an Afghanistan team that, despite their recent advancements and the memorably close result last time you played an ODI against, you should still beat any time, anywhere across a format as extended as 50 overs.
If you’re an Australian supporter of the sort of bullishness natural to Australian supporters, including any past or current Australian player, you would say that you always want to play the best teams because you’ll beat them while having a grand old time in the process, and that sliding past your most dangerous opponent is just a missed opportunity to bank a second win, go to four points, and all but guarantee your semi-final before the final group game against Afghanistan comes into it.
Taliban’s ban on women playing cricket has led to calls for a boycott by the ECB, but Champions Trophy match proceeds
A day out from what is a must-win game for both Afghanistan and England, Jonathan Trott, head coach of the former, addressed the issue that is impossible to ignore during this Champions Trophy. The Taliban continues its brutal clampdown on women’s rights back in Afghanistan and Trott outlined the position his players find themselves in.
“They know the difference between right and wrong,” said Trott, drawing a distinction between a team that play their cricket in exile under the previous Afghan flag and the regime at home. “They are under no illusions about where they have come from and they’re very courageous. You see that in their cricket and that’s the one thing I’ve not tried to change at all. They know who they are playing for and representing.”
Putin’s Russia is a threat to all Europe, including the UK. Vital aid work will be hit as we spend more on defence, but we must deal with the world as it is
There are moments in history when everything turns, but the extent of change is not perceived until later when the fog has cleared. These are hinge points that require clear leadership and bold action. In the late 1940s, my Labour predecessor and hero Ernie Bevin, alongside Clement Attlee, saw through the fog when they led Britain into Nato and the UN, and secured the development of Britain’s nuclear deterrent. In the 1960s, Harold Wilson saw through the paranoia of the cold war, refusing Lyndon Johnson’s request to send British troops to Vietnam. In the 1990s, Tony Blair understood that unless we stopped the president of Serbia, Slobodan Milošević, there would be no peace in the Balkans.
Three years into Vladimir Putin’s brutal war, this is again a hinge point for Britain. Keir Starmer’s commitment to dramatically raise defence spending in both this and the next parliament shows his leadership through the fog. Putin’s Russia is a threat not only to Ukraine and its neighbours, but to all of Europe, including the UK. Over successive administrations, our closest ally, the US, has turned increasingly towards the Indo-Pacific, and it is understandably calling for Nato’s European members to shoulder more of the burden for our continent’s security. Around the world, the threats are multiplying: from traditional warfare to hybrid threats and cyber-attacks.
After Sunday’s election the far-right party has decided to allow Maximilian Krah and Matthias Helferich to return to the parliamentary group
Two politicians for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) who were sidelined over remarks they made relating to the Nazis have been welcomed back into its parliamentary group after the party’s historic performance in the German general election.
Billionaires have sown a myth that citizens are losing at the expense of undocumented people. The real solution is to empower all workers
Over the last few years, we have witnessed some leaders of the Democratic party retreat from delivering bold policies that would address people’s struggles and aspirations, from a pathway to citizenship for all to a higher federal minimum wage, in favor of Republican-light talking points about the border and those seeking asylum – which only eroded trust with the American people.
Right now, 60% of the country is living paycheck to paycheck. Families are drowning in debt, whether it be from trying to pay for unaffordable childcare, exorbitant student loans, costly medical bills or months of missed rent payments. Homelessness has skyrocketed. Millions are struggling to survive another day and are penny-pinching to be able to afford rent and groceries, while billions of our taxpayer dollars are being spent on turbocharging mass abductions of our neighbors through raids and deportations, all in service of filling detention centers that make the CEOs of companies like GeoGroup and CoreCivic richer by the minute.
PM confirms rise in military spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – three years earlier than planned
Keir Starmer has announced drastic cuts to Britain’s international aid budget to help pay for a major increase in defence spending, amid fears over Donald Trump’s commitment to European security.
The prime minister said the UK government would increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 – three years earlier than planned – as he prepared for what is likely to be a diplomatically fraught visit to Washington DC this week.
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