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Tens of thousands at risk of poverty despite Labour’s benefit U-turn, MPs warn

Changes to welfare reforms not enough to protect newly sick and disabled people from financial hardship

About 50,000 people who become disabled or chronically ill will be pushed into poverty by the end of the decade because of cuts to incapacity benefit, despite ministers dropping the bulk of its welfare reform plans, MPs have warned.

The work and pensions select committee report welcomed ministers’ decision earlier this month to drop some of the most controversial aspects of its disability reforms in the face of a parliamentary revolt by over 100 Labour backbenchers.

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© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

© Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian

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Picnic-perfect: Georgina Hayden’s greek salad tart

All the punchy elements of greek salad in a flaky, puff pastry tart

Everything about this tart screams summer, from the cheery lines of sliced tomato to the ribbons of lemony cucumber. Eat a slice, shut your eyes and you will instantly be transported to the Aegean. Bake the tart ahead of time, because it’s perfect served at room temperature. If I am taking it on a picnic, I like to tub up the cucumber ribbons separately, then squeeze over the lemon and crumble in the feta just before serving.

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© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Lucy Turnbull. Food assistant: Georgia Rudd.

© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Lucy Turnbull. Food assistant: Georgia Rudd.

© Photograph: Matthew Hague/The Guardian. Food and prop styling: Lucy Turnbull. Food assistant: Georgia Rudd.

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The right wants to kill off the NHS. Striking doctors are playing into their hands | Polly Toynbee

The BMA’s demand for pay restoration is a slap in the face for the health secretary who gave them a 22% rise – and it’s testing the public’s sympathy

There were no pickets when I set out at the weekend to talk to striking doctors. Not even at St Thomas’ hospital, a prime site opposite the Houses of Parliament, or at Guy’s at London Bridge. “It’s a bit sparse,” said the duty officer from the British Medical Association, the doctors’ union. The British Medical Journal (owned by the BMA but with editorial freedom) ran the headline: “Striking resident doctors face heckling and support on picket line, amid mixed public response.” Public support has fallen, with 52% of people “somewhat” or “strongly” opposing the strikes and only 34% backing them.

Alastair McLellan, the editor of the Health Service Journal, after ringing around hospitals told me fewer doctors were striking than last time, which isn’t surprising given that only 55% voted in the BMA ballot. Managers told him strikes were less disruptive than the last ones. But even a weaker strike harms patients and pains a government relying on falling waiting lists.

Polly Toynbee is a Guardian columnist

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© Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

© Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

© Photograph: Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images

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‘The real issue is change’: Edinburgh University’s first Black philosophy professor on racism and reform

Prof Tommy J Curry reflects on leading the institute’s slavery review – and why it must lead to meaningful action

For Tommy J Curry the question about Edinburgh University’s institutional racism, or its debts around transatlantic slavery and scientific racism, can be captured by one simple fact: he is the first Black philosophy professor in its 440-year history.

As the Louisiana-born academic who helped lead the university’s self-critical inquiry into its extensive links to transatlantic slavery and the construction of racist theories of human biology, that sharply captures the challenge it faces.

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© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

© Photograph: Murdo MacLeod/The Guardian

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Air India under growing pressure as safety record scrutinised after deadly crash

Indian government has called for better oversight on safety at the legacy airline as regulators issue warnings

Just three years ago, it looked as if the fortunes of Air India were finally looking up.

After decades of being regarded as a floundering drain on the Indian taxpayer, with a reputation for shabby services and dishevelled aircraft, a corporate takeover pledged to turn it into a “world class global airline with an Indian heart” that would outgrow all its domestic and international competitors.

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© Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA

© Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA

© Photograph: Rajat Gupta/EPA

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Gorilla habitats and pristine forest at risk as DRC opens half of country to oil and gas drilling bids

Government launches licensing round for 52 fossil fuel blocks, potentially undermining a flagship conservation initiative and affecting an estimated 39 million people

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is opening crucial gorilla habitats and pristine forests to bids for oil and gas drilling, with plans to carve up more than half the country into fossil fuel blocks.

The blocks opened for auction cover 124m hectares (306m acres) of land and inland waters described by experts as the “world’s worst place to prospect for oil” because they hold vast amounts of carbon and are home to some of the planet’s most precious wildlife habitats, including endangered lowland gorillas and bonobo.

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© Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

© Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

© Photograph: Nature Picture Library/Alamy

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Starmer v Starmer: why is the former human rights lawyer so cautious about defending human rights?

Many of his supporters hoped the Prime Minister would restore the UK’s commitment to international law. Yet Labour’s record over the past year has been curiously mixed

The international human rights system – the rules, principles and practices intended to ensure that states do not abuse people – is under greater threat now than at any other point since 1945. Fortunately, we in the UK couldn’t wish for a better-qualified prime minister to face this challenge. Keir Starmer is a distinguished former human rights lawyer and prosecutor, with a 30-year career behind him, who expresses a deep personal commitment to defending ordinary people against injustice. He knows human rights law inside out – in fact, he literally wrote the book on its European incarnation – and has acted as a lawyer at more or less every level of the system. (Starmer is the only British prime minister, and probably the only world leader, to have argued a case under the genocide convention – against Serbia on behalf of Croatia in 2014 – at the international court of justice.) He is also an experienced administrator, through his time as director of public prosecutions (DPP), which means he knows how to operate the machinery of state better than most politicians do.

Unfortunately, there’s someone standing in Starmer’s way: a powerful man who critics say is helping to weaken the international human rights system. He fawns over authoritarian demagogues abroad and is seeking to diminish the protections the UK offers to some vulnerable minorities. He conflates peaceful, if disruptive, protest with deadly terrorism and calls for musicians whose views and language he dislikes to be dropped from festival bills. At times, he uses his public platform to criticise courts, whose independence is vital to maintaining the human rights system. At others, he uses legal sophistry to avoid openly stating and defending his own political position, including on matters of life and death. He is, even some of his admirers admit, a ruthless careerist prepared to jettison his stated principles when politically expedient. That person is also called Keir Starmer.

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© Composite: Guardian Design/REX/Shutterstock/The Observer/Alamy

© Composite: Guardian Design/REX/Shutterstock/The Observer/Alamy

© Composite: Guardian Design/REX/Shutterstock/The Observer/Alamy

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‘You’ll never save the world with art, but it will help you survive’: artist calls on Ukraine to promote its culture

Living in Kharkiv, where Russian bombs fall every night, Pavlo Makov says his country needs its artistic mettle as well as military strength

Unlike younger men, who must stay in Ukraine in case they are mobilised into the army, Pavlo Makov, 66, could leave the country if he wanted.

Instead, the artist, one of Ukraine’s most senior and respected cultural figures, is living in Kharkiv, his hometown.

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© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

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‘There’s an overwhelming bond of love’: the grandparents whose kids rely on them to raise a family

With many parents struggling to afford childcare, an army of grandparents have stepped up. They speak about the joys – and burdens – of caring for their grandkids at a time when they could be taking it easier

When I first call Rita Labiche-Robinson, a 59-year-old retired project manager, she can’t chat because she is with her nine-year-old granddaughter. Rita looks after Nia two days a week – Thursdays and Fridays. Today is a Tuesday, but they live together, along with Nia’s mum, and Labiche-Robinson is too in the thick of it to talk.

The three of them have been in the same home since March last year, when Labiche-Robinson’s daughter and granddaughter moved back from Canada. “While they’re waiting to be housed, they’re staying with me,” she says. On her designated days, she gets Nia up and takes her to school – a 10-minute walk from her home in Hackney, east London. At the end of the day, she picks Nia up, prepares her dinner and reads to her before bed.

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© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

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Why is a cowboy writer from Ohio venerated in a small Aussie beach town? The incredible story of Zane Grey

The dentist-turned bestselling author had caravan park named after him after making a killer shark movie in 1930s Australia. A swashbuckling new biography unspools the unlikely tale

The story begins with a shadow beneath the waves. A great white, pitiless and silent. Dorsal fin like a mean knife. Eyes dark and empty. The setting: a tight-knit coastal town where the locals are being picked off, one by one. They need a hero – a man with the audacity to challenge a legend. There’s blood in the water. The cameras are rolling. Movie history is being made.

Behind the scenes, it’s chaos. There’s a mechanical shark that barely resembles a living creature and is far more trouble than it’s worth. The production is beset by so many delays and accidents, it begins to feel cursed. But the crew push on. There’s a lot riding on this big fish film: fortunes, careers, legacies.

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© Photograph: Courtesy State Library of NSW

© Photograph: Courtesy State Library of NSW

© Photograph: Courtesy State Library of NSW

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Gaming in their golden years: why millions of seniors are playing video games

Adults over the age of 50 represent nearly a third of US gamers and are becoming more visible in the mainstream

Michelle Statham’s preferred game is Call of Duty. It’s fast and frenetic, involving military and espionage campaigns inspired by real history. She typically spends six hours a day livestreaming to Twitch, chatting to her more than 110,000 followers from her home in Washington state. She boasts about how she’ll beat opponents, and says “bless your heart” while hurtling over rooftops to avoid clusterstrikes of enemy fire. When she’s hit, she “respawns” – or comes back to life at a checkpoint – and jumps right back into the fray.

The military shooter game has a predominantly young male user base, but Statham’s Twitch handle is TacticalGramma – a nod to the 60-year-old’s two grandkids. Her lifelong gaming hobby has become an income stream (she prefers to keep her earnings private, but says she has raised “thousands” for charity), as well as a way to have fun, stay sharp and connect socially.

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© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

© Composite: The Guardian/Getty Images

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Labubu underground: Lafufu makers defy Chinese authorities to feed the world’s appetite for viral doll

The ‘ugly-cute’ elf sold by Chinese company Pop Mart has become a sensation and the authorities are aggressively cracking down on fakes – pushing production into the shadows

Trolleys piled high with decapitated silicon monster heads, tattooed dealers lurking in alleyways, bin bags of contraband hidden behind shop counters: welcome to the world of Lafufus.

Fake Labubus, also known as Lafufus, are flooding the hidden market. As demand for the collectable furry keyrings soars, entrepreneurs in the southern trading hub of Shenzhen are wasting no time sourcing imitation versions to sell to eager Labubu hunters. But the Chinese authorities, keen to protect a rare soft-power success story, are cracking down on the counterfeits.

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© Photograph: Amy Hawkins/The Guardian

© Photograph: Amy Hawkins/The Guardian

© Photograph: Amy Hawkins/The Guardian

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Trump news at a glance: president wants Murdoch deposed in Epstein libel case within two weeks

Trump lawyers ask judge to order Wall Street Journal owner to testify within 15 days. Key US politics stories from Monday 28 July at a glance

Donald Trump has asked a US court to order a swift deposition for billionaire Rupert Murdoch in the president’s defamation lawsuit against the Wall Street Journal.

The US president sued the publication and its owner over a 17 July article asserting that Trump’s name was on a 2003 birthday greeting for Jeffrey Epstein, who was later a convicted sex offender.

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© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Brendan Smialowski/AFP/Getty Images

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Two dead after four people stabbed at business premises in central London

Police say a third man is in a life-threatening condition after incident in Long Lane, Southwark

Two men have died and a third is in a life-threatening condition in hospital after four people were stabbed in a businesses premises in central London.

Police were called to Long Lane, Southwark, at 1pm on Monday and found four men had been stabbed. A 58-year-old died at the scene while three other men were taken to hospital, the Metropolitan police said. A 27-year-old has since died in hospital.

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© Photograph: uknip/UKNIP

© Photograph: uknip/UKNIP

© Photograph: uknip/UKNIP

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I was terrified of bees – until the day 30,000 of them moved into my house | Pip Harry

Two huge swarms have made themselves at home inside author Pip Harry’s house – but learning to live together revealed bees can be excellent housemates

As a child, I was allergic to bees. Just one sting on my fingertip could swell my whole arm. I was allergic to most things – dust, cat hair, pollen – and was always clutching an inhaler, sniffling into my sleeve and keeping a safe distance from stinging insects.

As an adult, when my family bought our first house, a mid-century gem nestled in thick bushland on Sydney’s northern beaches, I wasn’t expecting a visit from my former nemesis. But one warm spring day, we heard the unmistakable hum of 20,000 of those honey-producing insects.

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© Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

© Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

© Photograph: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

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Conspiracy theories have leached into public life. Is it scepticism towards power or a complete worldview?

Ideas that were once fringe are increasingly part of Australian public life. Ariel Bogle and Cam Wilson say they may not be about a singular event, but an overarching interpretation of how the world works

On the edge of George Street in Sydney, a woman is wrapped in an upside-down Australian flag. She holds one side of a large banner that reads “GROOM DOGS NOT KIDS”, showing pictures of poodles with ears dyed rainbow and pink.

There are young people, people in their 60s and 70s, parents with children in prams. There are T-shirts imploring you to “think while it’s still legal”. Another person holds a sign declaring their staunch opposition to a town planning initiative that has been erroneously linked to the rollout of a new surveillance regime, “Aussies SAY NO to 15 minute cities. FREEDOM.”

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© Photograph: MirageC/Getty Images

© Photograph: MirageC/Getty Images

© Photograph: MirageC/Getty Images

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Four alternatives to Spotify: swapping is easier than you think

Artists and listeners are leaving the platform after its CEO invested in defence technology. Here are your options – along with how to keep your playlists

How do you switch over from Spotify to another music service? What are the options?

The music industry has long held mixed feelings about Spotify’s extensive influence over artists – and these feelings have intensified amid ongoing controversy over Spotify’s chief executive, Daniel Ek, leading a €600m (A$1.07bn) investment in Helsing, a German defence technology company specialising in AI-driven autonomous weapon systems.

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© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

© Photograph: Brendan McDermid/Reuters

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New York shooting: gunman kills four people at Manhattan skyscraper

An NYPD officer described as a ‘true blue hero’ was among those killed by a 27-year-old from Las Vegas, officials say

A gunman killed four people at a Manhattan skyscraper that houses the headquarters of the NFL and the offices of several major financial firms before turning the gun on himself, New York officials have said.

An NYPD officer identified as Didarul Islam, an immigrant from Bangladesh and a father of two whose wife is pregnant, was among those killed. He was working off-hours as a security guard at the time, New York mayor Eric Adams told reporters, describing him as a “true blue hero”.

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© Photograph: John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock

© Photograph: John Angelillo/UPI/Shutterstock

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China floods: more than 30 killed in Beijing and tens of thousands evacuated

Authorities relocated 80,000 residents from China’s capital after registering rainfall of up to 543 mm in some districts

More than 30 people have been killed by heavy rain and flooding in Beijing and a neighbouring region, state media have reported, as tens of thousands more were evacuated from China’s capital.

State broadcaster CCTV said that as of midnight on Monday, 28 people had died in Beijing’s hard-hit Miyun district and two others in Yanqing district as of midnight. Both are outlying parts of the sprawling city, far from the downtown.

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© Photograph: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Jade Gao/AFP/Getty Images

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Thailand accuses Cambodia of a ceasefire violation hours after it comes into effect

Military spokesperson says Cambodia attacked Thai territory in several places and that it had responded to ‘maintain national sovereignty’

Thailand has accused Cambodia of violating a ceasefire agreement reached on Monday, saying clashes continued despite a deal aimed at ending five days of fighting.

Maj General Winthai Suvaree, spokesperson for the Royal Thai Army, said Cambodia had attacked Thai territory “in several places” overnight. He said Thailand regarded this as “a deliberate violation of the agreement, aimed at destroying trust between one another”.

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© Photograph: Chantha Lach/Reuters

© Photograph: Chantha Lach/Reuters

© Photograph: Chantha Lach/Reuters

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Colombia’s former president Álvaro Uribe found guilty of witness tampering

Ex-leader convicted over efforts to sway testimony in case tied to country’s armed conflict

A Colombian court has found the country’s former president Álvaro Uribe guilty of witness tampering.

The 73-year-old, who served as president from 2002 to 2010, was convicted on Monday of trying to persuade witnesses to lie for him in a separate investigation. He faces a 12-year prison sentence in a case that has become highly politicised.

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© Photograph: Carlos García Rawlins/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos García Rawlins/Reuters

© Photograph: Carlos García Rawlins/Reuters

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Lifestyle changes and vaccination ‘could prevent most liver cancer cases’

Lancet Commission says three in five cases preventable with action on obesity, alcohol and hepatitis

Three in five liver cancer cases globally could be prevented by reducing obesity and alcohol consumption and increasing uptake of the hepatitis vaccine, a study has found.

The Lancet Commission on liver cancer found that most cases were preventable if alcohol consumption, fatty liver disease and levels of viral hepatitis B and C were reduced.

The commission set out several recommendations for policymakers, which it estimated could reduce the incidence of liver cancer cases by 2% to 5% each year by 2050, preventing 9m to 17m new cases of liver cancer and saving 8 million to 15 million lives.

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© Photograph: Miodrag Ignjatovic/Getty Images

© Photograph: Miodrag Ignjatovic/Getty Images

© Photograph: Miodrag Ignjatovic/Getty Images

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Blackpink review – K-pop queens bring fun to New York with a little fatigue on the side

Citi Field, New York

An oppressively humid night takes its toll on the maximalist pop quartet who deliver moments of sugar rush exuberance but with less power than before

In 2023, the four women of Blackpink – Jennie, Jisoo, Lisa and Rosé – stood on top of the world. In the seven years since their 2016 debut, the K-pop quartet became the biggest girl group of all time, off the back of delirious hooks, hard-ass stunting, cut-glass choreography and relentless work. With billions of streams, sold-out stadiums and YouTube viewership records in their wake, the group became the female face of the boundary-annihilating force that is K-pop, taking pandemonium and hype as its calling card; with the exception of their slender physiques, everything about the band was huge. Their 2023 headliner set at Coachella – the first Asian and all-female group to headline one of North America’s largest music festivals – served as a jet-fueled exclamation point on global domination. I stood in the crowd that night feeling like I’d been leveled by a sonic boom, in the best way.

Much has changed in the two short years since then. The band went on unofficial hiatus for each member’s respective solo careers, and the four subsequent releases – Jennie’s Ruby, Jisoo’s Amortage, Lisa’s Alter Ego and Rosé’s Rosie – all attempted to escape the Blackpink shadow with halting success; the group’s two rappers, Lisa and Jennie, also launched English-language acting careers on HBO, in The White Lotus and The Idol, and returned to Coachella as solo acts with plenty of bombast but less horsepower. The once ascendant wave of K-pop, buoyed up by the massive crossover success of Blackpink and all-male peers BTS, stalled out abroad and lost traction at home, global ambition and misfiring albums costing musical identity and momentum.

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© Photograph: Live Nation

© Photograph: Live Nation

© Photograph: Live Nation

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