© Tyrone Siu/Reuters
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.
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© Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images
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.
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© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters
© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters
© Photograph: Dado Ruvić/Reuters
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.
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© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
Pacquiao, 46, fights to majority draw in comeback bout
Barrios keeps WBC title after strong final three rounds
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.)
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© Photograph: John Locher/AP
© Photograph: John Locher/AP
© Photograph: John Locher/AP
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.”
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© Composite: Guardian Design / Getty Images / The Guardian / PA
© Composite: Guardian Design / Getty Images / The Guardian / PA
© Composite: Guardian Design / Getty Images / The Guardian / PA
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
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© Photograph: incamerastock/Alamy
© Photograph: incamerastock/Alamy
© Photograph: incamerastock/Alamy
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.
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© Illustration: Alex Mellon/The Guardian
© Illustration: Alex Mellon/The Guardian
© Illustration: Alex Mellon/The Guardian
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.
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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
£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.
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© Photograph: Duncan Elliott/The Guardian
© Photograph: Duncan Elliott/The Guardian
© Photograph: Duncan Elliott/The Guardian
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.
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© Photograph: Marcus Brandt/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Marcus Brandt/AFP/Getty Images
© Photograph: Marcus Brandt/AFP/Getty Images
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
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© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
© Photograph: Anadolu/Getty Images
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