Whale is having a ‘full harbour experience’, says an expert aboard a maritime boat shadowing the supersized mammal

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An “inquisitive” humpback whale that wandered from its usual migratory route and into the centre of Sydney Harbour is causing “navigational challenges” for ferries and vessels as its tour of the world-famous harbour continues.

The sub-adult whale was spotted by commuters on a harbour ferry service near Fort Denison about 8am on Wednesday. It swam to Circular Quay – Sydney’s central ferry terminal – before moving east towards the defence base of Garden Island then to Watsons Bay and north to Balmoral Bay.

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Search for missing man comes after spate of attacks across Japan this month in which at least two people have died

Authorities in Japan are searching for a hunter who went missing on a mountain in Hokkaido near where a brown bear was recently spotted, amid a spate of deadly attacks by the animals that has triggered the declaration of a bear emergency in one town.

The hunter was reported missing by a friend on Mt Esan on Tuesday afternoon in the northern island of Hokkaido after he failed to return home. A rifle believed to belong to the missing man was found on the side of a mountain road, and bloodstains were discovered nearby. A large brown bear was seen near the road on Saturday.

Leading figures say skilled freelancers feel ‘massive fear’ about speaking out and are leaving industry

Toxic behaviour in British television is jeopardising one of the UK’s most important cultural and economic assets, industry experts have warned.

In the wake of a damaging report from the BBC on Monday that upheld 45 complaints about the former MasterChef presenter Gregg Wallace, leading figures in television said a workforce populated by financially insecure freelance workers remained too scared to speak out about harmful behaviour.

There is no guarantee the US president’s impatience with Russia will last, but the Kremlin may come to regret testing his patience

Before Donald Trump was a politician he was a property tycoon. Naturally, he thought he could fix the Ukraine war with a real-estate deal. In exchange for a ceasefire, Vladimir Putin would get to keep territory he had already seized.

But before Putin was a politician he was a KGB agent who mourned the collapse of the Soviet Union. His idea of a fair solution begins with Ukraine’s total submission to an imperial Russian motherland.

Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist

Put aside the mayo and make these spicy riffs on the classic summer salad: chaat and yoghurt, spicy peanut butter, and baked chips with whipped tofu

We are a family of potato lovers, so a summer salad made of tender spuds bound together with something creamy, something acidic and a handful of herbs is a perennial favourite. While I would never throw a classic out of bed, every now andd then I like to swerve the mayonnaise and do something a little more exuberant. Today’s potato salads are a riot of texture and flavour, and pack a serious punch. They are satisfying enough on their own, but serve them at your next barbecue and you are bound to please the potato pleasure-seekers in your life.

After losing his arm in the first world war, pianist Paul Wittgenstein commissioned extraordinary new works that he could perform with just his left hand. I’m aiming to keep his incredible legacy alive at this year’s Proms

I love talking to people about piano music written for the left hand. It’s a corner of the repertoire that’s often seen as a mysterious niche – yet it comprises a handful of hidden gems for solo piano and a few celebrated concertos too.

With most people, the conversation quickly turns to Ravel’s legendary Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (1929-30). This masterwork, a favourite among pianists, has been performed by some of the world’s greatest keyboard titans and – as a pianist born without my right hand – holds a special place in my own output. But there are a great deal more pieces for the left hand out there.

Two southern states cling to past ruling that children are needed for harvest and claim the latest, most favoured slot

Germany’s 16 states are locked in a fierce row over when they are able to take their summer school holidays, with the southernmost two accused of permanently hogging the best slots on the grounds that their children are required to help bring in the harvest.

Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg are resisting calls from the other 14 federal states to join the long-held national rotation system of school summer holidays that the other states take part in.

She is the lawyer who fought against Boris Johnson’s Brexit deal. Now she’s vying to be the university’s first female chancellor – all while going through chemotherapy. She talks about the attack that destroyed her own student years

My first question for Gina Miller is the same one I put to all interviewees – what did you have for breakfast? Since she’s not a chef or a famous foodie, but the activist who fought Boris Johnson over his Brexit plans, and is now standing for chancellor of the University of Cambridge, this is more a journalistic ritual designed to test whether the recording device is working. But her response is startling.

“I rarely have time for breakfast,” says Miller, who turned 60 this year. “I’m only just able to drink coffee again after my chemotherapy treatment for breast cancer, which is amazing. As my dose has just been reduced, I was able to have the one cup I’m limited to today.”

Traders affiliated to Iran-backed rebel group found to have been running weapon stores on social media for years

Arms dealers affiliated with Houthi militants in Yemen are using X and Meta platforms to traffic weapons – some US-made – in apparent violation of the social media firms’ policies, a report has revealed.

The Houthis, an Iran-backed group of rebels who have controlled swathes of Yemen since 2014, are designated as a terrorist organisation by the US, Canada and other countries.

Report comes as government faces growing demands for wealth tax to improve health of public finances after welfare U-turn earlier this month

HM Revenue and Customs has been sharply criticised by parliament’s spending watchdog for being unable to track how many billionaires pay tax in the UK.

In a highly critical report on the collection of tax from wealthy individuals, the influential Public Accounts Committee (PAC) said HMRC could not say how much the super-rich either contributed to the exchequer or avoided.

National parks, famous for their rich natural heritage, should be at the heart of efforts to protect habitats and wildlife. Instead, experts say they are declining – fast

• Photographs by Abbie Trayler-Smith

Dartmoor is a place where the wild things are. Rivers thread through open moorland past towering rocky outcrops. Radioactive-coloured lichens cling to 300m-year-old boulders. Bronze age burial mounds and standing stones are reminders that humans have been drawn here for thousands of years. It is considered one of the UK’s most beautiful and precious landscapes.

Much of this moorland is officially protected as a site of special scientific interest (SSSI) because it is considered home to the country’s most valued wildlife. Its blanket bogs, heathlands and high altitude oak woodlands are treasure troves of nature.

Survey across six continents uncovers accounts of abuse causing defenders to fear for their safety

Death threats, doxing and cyber-attacks are just some of the online threats recounted by land and climate defenders in a new report, amid concerns that harassment is having a chilling effect on environmental activism.

Interviews and questionaires sent out to more than 200 environmental defenders across six continents by Global Witness found that nine in 10 activists reported receiving abuse over their work. Three in four defenders who said they had experienced offline harm believed that digital harassment contributed to it.

Maga’s obsession with the files shows how a fringe QAnon conspiracy theory has taken root in the pro-Trump movement

The release of the “Epstein client list” has long been the holy grail for the Maga movement. Supposedly, this list, once released, would incriminate a veritable who’s who of liberal elites complicit in Jeffrey Epstein’s child sex-trafficking operation and expose the moral rot at the heart of the Democratic establishment.

The mystery surrounding the Epstein files also became a vehicle for QAnon conspiracy theorists to push their ideas about a “deep state” cover-up of a network of global pedophiles into the broader tent of the Maga movement.

Adams’ comments about Israel have provoked particular concern in Malaysia, a staunch supporter of Palestine

Former government ministers and youth politicians in Muslim-majority Malaysia have slammed a decision to nominate right-wing influencer Nick Adams as US ambassador to the country, calling it an insult to the nation.

Donald Trump announced last week that Nick Adams, a self-proclaimed “alpha male”, had been announced as ambassador to Malaysia, praising him as a “incredible patriot”.

Investigation finds wind conditions at 14 July 2023 event exceeded the drones’ capacity shortly after launch, triggering collisions and errors

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Strong winds have been blamed for more than 400 drones falling from the sky into Melbourne’s Yarra River during a light show celebrating the Matildas before the Women’s World Cup.

The light show, using 500 Damoda drones, was scheduled for the evening of 14 July 2023 over the river in Docklands, in Melbourne’s CBD.

‘The spending is not about safety’: rights groups concerned as funding for data centralization increases

Donald Trump’s sweeping tax bill will finance a vast expansion of surveillance along the US-Mexico border, according to a new report.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA) will give the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) – where US immigration agencies are housed – an unprecedented injection of $165bn in additional funding over the next four years. It’s welcome news for the surveillance and defense tech industries that have been racing to cash in on the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown.

As South Korea grapples with an epidemic of loneliness, the capital city has launched an ambitious new programme to address it

On the third floor of a community centre in Dongdaemun in Seoul’s east, a massage chair hums gently at the entrance to an airy room – a cool refuge from the sweltering summer heat.

Inside, the space buzzes with quiet activity: soft bleeps from a touchscreen board game, muted chatter from the cooking area, the rustle of turning pages.

Government review says PAs sometimes used to fill roles designed for doctors, potentially exposing patients to risk

NHS physician associates should be banned from diagnosing patients who have not already been seen by a doctor, a government review has concluded.

The review calls for the government to overhaul the role of physician associates (PAs), who it says have been substituted in for doctors to fill staffing gaps despite having significantly less training.

Report led by former Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson warns of ‘sometimes catastrophic’ treatment of passengers

Airline and airport staff should have mandatory training in disability and accessibility awareness, a government taskforce has urged, to ease the stress, confusion and harm experienced by the growing numbers of passengers requiring assistance to travel.

A report from the group, led by the crossbench peer and former Paralympian Tanni Grey-Thompson, said the experience of flying for disabled people “can be ad hoc, inconsistent and sometimes catastrophic”.

Trump has faced growing resentment over the decision of his attorney general, Pam Bondi, to withhold information

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• Analysis: How Epstein files uproar became a vehicle for QAnon

Mike Johnson, speaker of the House, called for the justice department to make public documents related to the disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, breaking with Donald Trump over an issue that has roiled the president’s rightwing base.

It was a rare moment of friction between Trump and the speaker, a top ally on Capitol Hill, and came as the president faces growing backlash from conservatives who had expected him to make public everything known about Epstein, who killed himself in 2019 while in federal custody as he faced sex-trafficking charges.

• Tennis player suspended for second time after Cas appeal

• Moore blamed contaminated meat for failed drug test

The British tennis player Tara Moore, who was previously cleared of an anti-doping rule violation, has been handed a four-year ban after the court of arbitration for sport upheld an appeal filed by the International Tennis Integrity Agency.

Moore, Britain’s former No 1-ranked doubles player, was provisionally suspended in June 2022 owing to the presence of prohibited anabolic steroids nandrolone and boldenone in a blood sample.

Body of Falconio, who Murdoch killed in the Australian outback in 2001, has never been found

Outback killer Bradley John Murdoch, the man who murdered British backpacker Peter Falconio in 2001, has died from throat cancer at the age of 67.

Murdoch, who had never revealed the location of Falconio’s body, died on Tuesday night at a hospital in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory, a corrections spokesperson confirmed.

• 24-year-old set to sign $120.4m extension through 2030

• Jets also set up $130m deal with WR Garrett Wilson

The New York Jets are making Sauce Gardner the highest-paid cornerback in the NFL.

The Jets and Gardner agreed on a four-year, $120.4m extension through the 2030 season, according to a person familiar with the situation. The person spoke to the Associated Press on condition of anonymity Tuesday because the agreement had not been announced.

There are questions around the race contenders’ teams but Wout van Aert’s form could be key for the Danish challenger

There is always a sense of phoney war in the run-in to the Tour de France’s first stage in the high mountains, and at least one debate of the opening 10 days of this year’s race fits that context to a T. Has Jonas Vingegaard’s Visma-Lease a Bike team at times been towing the bunch deliberately in order to ensure that Tadej Pogacar retains the yellow jersey? It’s a gloriously arcane question, the kind that only comes up in the Tour’s opening phase, but it distracts from a point that could be key in the next 10 days: how the two teams manage the race will probably be decisive.

Firstly, a brief explainer. The received wisdom in cycling lore is that holding the yellow jersey early in a Grand Tour can be as much a curse as a blessing, because the daily media and podium duties cut into recovery time. Hence the thinking goes that Visma might have been chasing down the odd move purposely to keep Pogacar in the maillot jaune, so that he will be answering media questions and hanging about waiting to go on the podium, while Vingegaard has his feet up. Only Visma’s management know if this was the case, but what is certain is that the febrile atmosphere between the two teams will intensify from here on in.