The Guardian

As Abelardo de la Espriella takes office as president vowing a new military offensive, the country’s last leftwing rebels are getting ready to fight back As the boat approached the riverbank, camouflaged figures watched from the tree line. Behind them, in the dim understory of the jungle, a commander of the National Liberation Army (ELN) sat with his rifle on his lap, amid the buzz and whine of i…

Disruption after power failure at regional signalling centre likely to continue until noon with many crews and trains in wrong locations Business live – latest updates Rail passengers are facing a second day of travel disruption across parts of north-west England, after a power failure hit the signalling centre controlling the railway in the region. The power failure, which occurred shortly befor…

Exclusive: Neet crisis review to call for teachers to be asked to spot those at risk of leaving education jobless at 16 What can Dublin teach us? Milburn goes on quest to learn Primary schools in England should be required to identify children at risk of leaving education at 16 without finding a job, a government review is to recommend. Alan Milburn, who is leading a review into Britain’s crisis …

With the debate over prison overcrowding and what to do about it raging, one initiative offers an alternative solution As the prison overcrowding crisis shows no sign of abating and the debate rages over early releases , an initiative in the West Midlands offers an alternative to custodial sentences. The Guardian was offered rare access to the project, under which, instead of being sent to prison…

Barrister alleges ‘account of penis wiggling is an attempt to humiliate’ broadcaster who has pleaded not guilty to 22 charges of indecent assault and sexual touching Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Alan Jones’s defence barrister has told a Sydney court one of the broadcaster’s alleged victims invented details of a…

Slovakia reaches new high of 42C as authorities in Poland forced to shut down Kozienice and Połaniec power plants Temperature records have been broken in several countries across central and eastern Europe as the extreme weather that has caused wildfires and droughts across the continent continues. Countries including Slovakia, Austria and Hungary registered record temperatures. On Thursday, the …

Visits down 3.8% after 6.2% fall in June, with many choosing to buy online instead, research for retail body finds Shoppers stayed away from UK high streets during last month’s heatwave temperatures , with many choosing to buy online instead as the mercury in some areas rose into the mid-30Cs. Trips to high streets were down by 3.8% year on year in July after a 6.2% fall in June, according to res…

Donald Trump’s second term is unlike his first. The politicians who challenged him are gone. The lawyers who once pushed back now choose their battles. What remains is an imperial president with almost no internal checks, using executive power to reshape everything from the economy, immigration and even the presidency itself. Few journalists have covered Trump as closely as the New York Times jou…

Nominees to face off in November in redistricted seat central to Trump’s bid to retain slim Republican majority Tennessee primary voters picked a pair of Memphis-area lawmakers to square off in a dramatically reconfigured US House seat central to Donald Trump’s plan to try to hold on to a slim Republican majority in the midterm congressional elections. Republicans chose state senator Brent Taylor…

For more than a decade, president has been fixated on trying to undermine a key constitutional right With a pair of executive orders on Thursday, Donald Trump has tried – once again – to undermine the guarantee of birthright citizenship, a right enshrined in the US constitution and reaffirmed by the supreme court just five weeks ago. The orders attempt to broaden the categories of children who wo…

Police say body of 23-year-old found at Eschol Park property with significant injuries, indicating he may have been attacked before death Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast A young man has died after a suspected dog attack at a rural property, as police begin an investigation. Authorities were alerted to the discover…

Ruling comes as part of second phase of landmark trial that found social media company enabled harm against users A New Mexico court has ordered Meta, the parent company of Facebook, to pay $567m for mental health harm to children from its platforms. Judge Bryan Biedscheid said the bulk of the money – $420m – would be used for treatment services for young people. The rest will go toward awareness…

Jump in imports narrowed Australia’s goods trade surplus to $1.1bn in June quarter. Follow today’s news live Penny Wong says Australia has ‘more work to do’ forging relationships in the Pacific The foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong , is in Fiji today amid a meeting with her counterparts from across the Pacific. We’ve got work more work to do. We’ve announced that we do want to engage with and …

Westminster council has recommended banning ‘vertical drinking’ or ordering at the bar in new draft licensing policy No 10 has vowed to confiscate powers from local councils which try to restrict customers from standing up while drinking in pubs or ordering at the bar. It comes after the Guardian revealed on Thursday that Westminster council in central London recommended not allowing “vertical dr…

Cases have passed 4,000 and health watchdog plans to go door to door to find patients in major response escalation The virus causing a massive outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo could be mutating, health officials fear, as confirmed cases pass 4,000. Africa’s public health watchdog said the time for incremental action was over as they announced plans to scale up every aspec…