Authorities axe flights and school classes as typhoon closes in, with China’s Hainan and Guangdong provinces also on high alert

Hong Kong issued its highest tropical cyclone warning as Typhoon Wipha battered the city, with authorities cancelling school classes and grounding hundreds of flights.

Wipha was located around 60km south-east of Hong Kong as of 10am on Sunday, according to the city’s weather observatory. Huge waves were spotted off the eastern coast of Hong Kong Island.

Michael McGrath awaits results of secret shopper investigation amid crackdown on Chinese retail platforms

The EU justice commissioner has expressed shock at the toxicity and dangers of some goods being sold by Shein and Temu, amid a crackdown on the popular Chinese retail platforms.

With 12m low-value parcels each day coming into the EU from online retailers outside the bloc, Michael McGrath has vowed to crack down on the sale of goods that blatantly break the law.

Some in an east London park say they like the incessant beeping, but others that it’s an indication of low-level crime

Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Was that exhausting to read? Well, imagine if that noise was the soundtrack to your summer.

To the ire of many city dwellers this year, it is. The piercing and persistent sound, something akin to a half-bothered fire alarm you accidentally set off, has been everywhere. Its origin? Lime e-bikes, specifically the stolen variety.

• Pacquiao, 46, fights to majority draw in comeback bout

• Barrios keeps WBC title after strong final three rounds

• As it happened: Manny Pacquiao MD 12 Mario Barrios

By the time the final bell rang, Manny Pacquiao had done everything but win the fight. He out-threw, out-landed and out-hustled a champion 16 years his junior on Saturday night in Las Vegas, but the scorecards told a different story.

Pacquiao’s spirited return to the ring after a four-year layoff ended in a majority draw against WBC welterweight titleholder Mario Barrios. One judge scored it 115–113 for Barrios, while the other two had it 114–114, allowing the 30-year-old Texan to retain his belt by the narrowest of margins. (The Guardian scored it 115-113 for Pacquiao.)

Officially, the party says there is no mission to court Conservative defectors, but insiders suggest otherwise, and warn against the dangers of doing so

At last year’s GB News Christmas party, Suella Braverman was the centre of attention. The former home secretary is popular in rightwing media circles, but it wasn’t her straight-talking brand of conservatism that was topic of the evening, rather it was the growing whispers about what some thought was her imminent defection to Reform UK.

“It was like a panto – everyone saying: ‘Oh yes you will’, and her saying: ‘Oh no, I won’t’,” says one Reform party guest. “We all thought she was just biding her time until the right moment.”

Pen names have a long history. Now Liadan Ní Chuinn is shunning publicity in an industry that demands ever more exposure

What’s in a pen name? Irish writer Liadan Ní Chuinn’s debut short story collection, Every One Still Here, is receiving rave reviews and rapturous praise, but hardly anyone seems to know who they are. A cursory Google turns up no photos or biographical information. All we know is that the writer is Northern Irish and was born in 1998, the year of the Good Friday agreement.

A statement from Irish publisher The Stinging Fly reads: “The Stinging Fly has been working with Liadan on these stories for the past four years. From early on in the process, they expressed a desire to publish their work under a pseudonym and to protect their privacy throughout the publication process. No photographs of the author are available and Liadan will not be participating in any in-person interviews or public events.”

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

Do you feel ready to merge your past and your present? By considering a friendship with this man, you can see if this will work for you

Until four years ago, I was a sex worker – specifically, a high-end escort. In my experience, when clients treat you with respect and understand the boundaries, it’s possible to form a relationship not unlike that between a therapist and a client.

One client I was particularly fond of was a man a few years older than me. He is on the autism spectrum, which makes him somewhat socially awkward, but he is intelligent, creative and empathetic – and passably handsome. I always felt he would make a wonderful partner for a woman who could see past his quirks.

The Palestinian Authority’s ability to use the Gaza Marine field could leave them less dependent on aid

Recognition of Palestine as a state would put beyond doubt that the Palestinian Authority (PA) is entitled to develop the natural gas resources of the Gaza Marine field, according to one of the experts that worked on the stalled project.

Michael Barron, the author of a new book on Palestine’s untapped gas reserves, has suggested the field could generate $4bn (£3bn) in revenue at current prices and it is reasonable that the PA could receive $100m a year over 15 years.

£6 a pint, £199 a month for gym membership, £1,200 to rent a studio flat? The Guardian’s former North of England editor asks if the city she’s worked in for 12 years is changing for the better – or worse

Arriving in Manchester after moving up from London in 2013, I spotted something I took as a sign of how different my new life would be – how much cheaper, how much less pretentious. I told everyone back in London about the £1 Brew Stall at Piccadilly station. “Can you imagine being able to get a cup of tea at Euston for only a pound?” I would ask.

For a while, I was always seeking to prove I had not made a mistake leaving behind the bright lights of the capital city. I was the last staff reporter the Guardian had left in the whole of the north of England, and I felt isolated in a place no one in London really seemed to care about. It made me extremely chippy. This was a year before George Osborne anointed Manchester the centre of his fictional “northern powerhouse”; four before Andy Burnham abandoned Westminster to become the region’s mayor.

Christina Block is standing trial in Hamburg accused of kidnapping of her own children from her ex-husband

For over half a century Block House has ranked as one of the most recognised restaurant chains on the German high street – a collection of family-friendly steakhouses whose staples include the “classic Block burger” and filet mignon.

But for months the Hamburg-based chain has been making headlines for an altogether different reason: a bitter and extraordinary custody battle between the heiress to the family business, Christina Block, and her ex-husband over the youngest two of their four children.

Murdering and massacring innocents is indefensible. So why on earth is it allowed to continue? The answer is moral relativism

The quest for peace in major conflicts has rarely been so desperate and so seemingly futile. In Gaza, talk of ceasefires, truces and pauses typically ends in tears. In Ukraine, the war is now well into its fourth year with no end in sight, despite Donald Trump’s new 50-day deadline. Syria burns anew. Sudan’s horrors never cease. Last year, state-based conflicts reached a peak – 61 across 36 countries. It was the highest recorded total since 1946. This year could be worse.

The sheer scale and depravity of war crimes and other conflict-zone atrocities is extraordinary. The deliberate, illegal targeting and terrorising of civilians, the killing, maiming and abduction of children, and the use of starvation, sexual violence, torture and forced displacement as weapons of war have grown almost routine. Israel’s killing last week of children queueing for water in Gaza was shocking, made doubly so by the fact that scenes like this have become so commonplace.

Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator

Northern parts of the country hit on Sunday morning, according to authorities, after some of the heaviest hourly rainfall on record

At least two people were killed and more are missing in heavy downpours in South Korea, officials said, amid heavy rain, flooding and landslides, bringing the death toll to 14 from torrential rains that have lashed the country for a week.

Close to 170mm of rain hit the resort town of Gapyeong county in Gyeonggi province, 70km east of Seoul, early on Sunday, said disaster authorities, after a landslide engulfed houses and flooding swept away vehicles during a period of heavy rainfall.

Police in London detain scores of people and confiscate placards under section 13 of the Terrorism Act 2000

More than 100 people have been arrested across the UK at events related to Palestine Action, in the third week of demonstrations since the group was banned as a terrorist organisation.

Demonstrations were held in London, Manchester, Edinburgh, Bristol and Truro on Saturday as part of a campaign coordinated by Defend Our Juries.

• United States 5-40 England in rugby double header at Audi Field

• Ilona Maher stars as US women hold on to beat Fiji 31-24

On a perfectly unlovely summer’s day in Washington DC, amid lasering sunshine, lowering clouds, debilitating humidity and lengthy lightning delays, Steve Borthwick’s Lions-light England sweated to a six-try win over the US Eagles.

Borthwick expressed satisfaction, telling reporters his men did well “in the challenging conditions, two lightning breaks, so the game lasted effectively a long time. There’s a scenario that none of us had faced before. We wanted a short half-time to deal with that but it wasn’t possible, but that’s six new caps in today.”

Measles on the rise and vaccination rates falling; EPA to be gutted of its crucial research function. Key US politics stories from Saturday 19 July at a glance

“The current administration is waging a war on science,” warned Celine Gounder, a professor of medicine and an infectious disease expert at New York University in a keynote talk in May to graduates of Harvard’s School of Public Health.

That war appeared to enter a new phase in the aftermath of a recent supreme court decision that empowered health and human services secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr, a prominent vaccine sceptic, and other agency leaders, to implement mass firings – effectively greenlighting the politicization of science.

New codes developed by the tech sector and eSafety commissioner come into effect in December, with major ramifications for internet users

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As the old adage goes, “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog”. But in Australia it might soon be the case that everything from search engines and social media sites, to app stores and AI chatbots will have to know your age.

The Albanese government trumpeted the passage of its legislation banning under 16s from social media – which will come into effect in December – but new industry codes developed by the tech sector and eSafety commissioner Julie Inman Grant under the Online Safety Act will probably have much larger ramifications for how Australians access the internet.

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Cornelius Taylor was killed during a sweep of a homeless encampment in city’s preparation for MLK weekend

The family of a man who was killed after city workers crushed his tent with a bulldozer during a sweep of a homeless encampment in Atlanta, Georgia, filed a lawsuit against the city on Friday over his death, calling it “tragic and preventable”.

The lawsuit filed by Cornelius Taylor’s sister and son alleges that city employees failed to look to see if there was anyone inside the tents in the encampment before using a bulldozer to clear it in the 16 January sweep. Taylor, 46, was inside one of the tents and was crushed by the truck when his tent was flattened, the lawsuit says.

• Ukrainian adds IBF belt to WBA, WBC and WBO titles

• Dubois suffers second defeat to Usyk in two years

The mighty Oleksandr Usyk is, yet again, the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world as he decisively defeated Daniel Dubois in the fifth round after a display as clinical as it was brutal. At the age of 38, Usyk outclassed and outfought his British rival, who is 11 years his junior, to establish himself definitively as the best heavyweight, so far, of the 21st century.

The end was as conclusive as it was crushing. A sharp combination set up an opening for Usyk’s crunching right hook. Dubois crumpled to the canvas then, bravely, he rose unsteadily to his feet. But the outcome had already been decided. Usyk moved in with shark-like speed and stealth. A shuddering overhead left detonated against the already listing head of Dubois who fell heavily to the canvas, his gumshield spitting helplessly from his mouth.

The goalkeeper Ann-Katrin Berger produced one of the all-time great European Championship saves as a courageous performance from 10-player Germany stunned France to progress to the Euro 2025 semi-finals on a night of compelling drama in Basel.

In an absorbing affair packed with unpredictable moments, including a shocking, early red card offence, video assistant referee drama, two penalties and two disallowed France goals, ultimately it was the more familiar conclusion of Germany’s mental strength excelling in a penalty shootout that led to the elimination of a France side who had struck the crossbar in the 120th minute.

There is no shortage of contenders but who will finish as the tournament’s top scorer in Switzerland?

The race to be top scorer at the Women’s Euros 2025 in Switzerland is a fascinating one. Spain, the world champions, have several players who can top the list: Esther González, Clàudia Pina and Salma Paralluelo. The beaten finalists in Australia and New Zealand – England – count Alessia Russo as their main threat but also have Beth Mead, Chloe Kelly, Lauren James and Lauren Hemp who can chip in with goals.

Germany and France also have high hopes of going all the way this summer and have, among their ranks, Lea Schüller, Jule Brand, Klara Bühl, Marie-Antoinette Katoto, Sandy Baltimore and Kadidiatou Diani.

• Live updates from the rematch at Wembley in London

• Donald McRae’s fight preview | And you can mail Bryan

And now here’s Usyk. The unbeaten heavyweight champion walks slowly to the ring to a haunting version of Ave Maria by Tommee Profitt and Stanaj. He’s wearing a silver hooded robe and looks all business. Nothing new there. He makes the final approach to Браття by Василь Жадан, one of his more familiar ringwalk songs.

The lights have gone down and Daniel Dubois is making his ring entrance. A half-dozen stage pyrotechnicians are doing their thing on stage to a Chase & Status banger. And now here’s Dubois, making the long way to the ring wearing a sleeveless black shirt with black shorts. He looks calm and composed, making his final approach as Dennis Brown’s Want To Be No General blasts from the stadium sound system.

• Dominant Scheffler moves four clear of the field

• Li Haotong and Matt Fitzpatrick lead pursuit

Scottie Scheffler still had 20 holes of this Open Championship to play. History tells us leads can evaporate in just one. Dense rough, links bunkers, the scale of pressure attached to the oldest major. Open calamity is written in folklore. The ghost of Jean van de Velde still lingers. And yet, the bookmakers had Scheffler at only 1-8 to lift the Claret Jug. The fat lady had cleared her throat. Twenty holes. What sporting planet is this?

It is possible to run out of adjectives for Scheffler. Unflappable, remarkable, relentless. Nobody will ever match the impact of Tiger Woods on golf but it really is no exaggeration to suggest Scheffler can be similarly dominant. Come Sunday evening on the Causeway Coast, Scheffler will surely be a four-time major winner and three-quarters of the way towards a career grand slam. This is only his 24th major start as a professional. In one of them, his pursuit of glory was undermined by being thrown into a police cell.

Andy Byron leaves startup Astronomer after he and Kristin Cabot were placed on leave over Jumbotron incident

The married CEO who was filmed at a Coldplay concert in the US with his arms around his company’s HR head in a video that went viral has now resigned, the company Astronomer said on Saturday.

In a post on Linkedin, the software startup said: “Andy Byron has tendered his resignation, and the Board of Directors has accepted.”

At first, Australian soprano Nicole Car found her costar’s confidence curiously endearing. Later she realised they had serious chemistry, on and off the stage

• Find more stories from The moment I knew series

In 2015 I was making my European debut singing the role of Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin in Berlin. I’d been offered the contract at relatively short notice and was assured by the casting director not to worry, my French-Canadian co-star was “a real charmer”. I took it with a grain of salt.

On the first day of rehearsals, Étienne (the charmer) arrived for a brief introduction before he rushed off to debut a very big role, playing Posa in Verdi’s Don Carlos.