Dozens tumble as Mexican footbridge collapses during opening ceremony

Mayor of Cuernavaca was inaugurating structure when it gave way, injuring eight people, many with broken bones

The mayor of the Mexican city of Cuernavaca was proudly inaugurating a footbridge over a scenic stream on Tuesday when the bridge collapsed, sending him and about two dozen other people plunging into a gully.

The hanging bridge made of wooden boards and metal chains had recently been remodeled. Video of the collapse suggested the boards separated from the chains supporting them.

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Children of shot crime reporter confront accused in Dutch court

Daughter of Peter R de Vries tells his alleged killers ‘I hate you’ and says her father was a hero

The children of a Dutch crime reporter who was fatally shot last year have confronted his alleged killers in court.

Peter R de Vries, 64, was shot in the head outside an Amsterdam television studio in July 2021 in a crime that prosecutors say was linked to his role in the trial of a Dutch drugs mafia kingpin.

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John Kerry commits to look into case of missing British journalist in Brazil

Dom Phillips, a Guardian contributor, was last seen on Sunday morning travelling with Indigenous expert Bruno Araújo Pereira

The US climate envoy John Kerry has committed to pursuing the facts behind the disappearance of a veteran Guardian contributor and a celebrated Indigenous expert in the Brazilian Amazon.

Dom Phillips and Bruno Araújo Pereira were last seen on Sunday morning travelling by boat through the remote Javari Valley, a region plagued by violence involving illegal fishermen, illegal loggers, drug traffickers and security forces.

Kerry, a former US secretary of state, appears shocked at details of the case recounted by the Brazilian Indigenous leader Sonia Guajajara in a WhatsApp video of the encounter seen by the Guardian.

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Russian assault on Sievierodonetsk redoubled after counterattack

Non-stop street fighting and bombardments as Kremlin seeks full control of Luhansk province

Russian forces are bombarding Ukrainian positions in the symbolic eastern city of Sievierodonetsk with intense artillery barrages, airstrikes and non-stop street-by-street fighting, according to the governor of Luhansk province.

After a Ukrainian counterattack over the weekend, Russian soldiers were seeking to regain the initiative. They were trying to move forward to dislodge Ukrainian fighters from their last stronghold in an industrial zone. Between 10,000 and 11,000 civilians remain in the city.

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Missing British journalist’s wife pleads with Brazil to find ‘love of my life’

Alessandra Sampaio, whose husband Dom Phillips was last seen in the Amazon on Sunday, makes appeal in tearful video message

The wife of the British journalist who has vanished in a remote corner of the Amazon with a celebrated Indigenous expert has issued an emotional plea for Brazilian authorities to work harder to find “the love of my life”.

“I want to make an appeal to the federal government and the relevant organs to intensify their search efforts, because we still have some hope of finding them,” Alessandra Sampaio, the wife of longtime Guardian contributor Dom Phillips, said in a tearful video message.

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Israel’s coalition on brink of collapse after losing settler law vote

Nationalist party New Hope threatens to exit arrangement after vote on West Bank settlers

Israel’s coalition government is teetering on the brink of collapse after a dramatic Knesset showdown over legislation to extend legal protections for settlers in the occupied West Bank.

In what was variously described by Israeli media as “one of the most surreal votes in Israeli history” and “political suicide”, the first reading of a bill renewing civilian legal rights for Jewish settlers in the West Bank failed to pass on Monday night.

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China accuses Australia and Canada of ‘disinformation’ over jet encounters

Beijing warns Australia of ‘serious consequences’ if it does not stop ‘provocations’ after incident Canberra called ‘very dangerous’

Beijing has accused Australia and Canada of “spreading disinformation” over allegedly dangerous manoeuvres by Chinese military pilots in international airspace.

China also warned Australia to stop “provocations” or face “serious consequences” after the Albanese government said a Chinese jet intercepted an RAAF plane in a dangerous manoeuvre in late May.

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Zelenskiy says stalemate with Russia is ‘not an option’ – as it happened

This live blog is now closed, you can find our latest coverage of the Russia-Ukraine war here

A Fiji court has ruled Russian-owned superyacht Amadea be removed from the Pacific island nation by the United States because it was a waste of money for Fiji to maintain the vessel amid legal wrangling over its seizure. The yacht is linked to sanctioned Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov.

The FBI has said the $300m luxury vessel had running costs of more than $25m per year, and the US would pay to maintain the vessel after it was seized. However, the Fiji government has been footing the bill while an appeal by the vessel’s registered owner, Millemarin Investments, worked its way through Fiji’s courts.

Currently, the enemy continues to storm Sievierodonetsk, fighting continues. The Russian assault in the direction of Novookhtyrka and Voronove was also repulsed. In the area of Bilohorivka, the enemy uses sabotage and reconnaissance groups.

During the past day, ten enemy attacks were repulsed, one tank, three artillery systems, two armoured combat vehicles, one car and two ammunition depots were destroyed.

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Rome’s citizens ask Unesco to help save city from ‘mortifying’ mess

Residents ask world heritage chief to press council into honouring duty to clean up historic centre

Culture sector workers, artists, professors and environmentalists living in Rome’s historic centre have urged Unesco to remind the city’s council of its duty to protect the world heritage site as they decried “mortifying” scenes of rubbish and other signs of decay.

In a letter addressed to Lazare Eloundou Assomo, the chief of Unesco’s world heritage centre, and signed by 150 people, the group said its complaints to authorities in the Italian capital had been ignored.

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Spanish police investigate 20,000 unposted letters from decade ago

Former Alicante postman arrested after bags of letters dating back to 2012 discovered at sold home

From Monday to Friday, he clocked in dutifully at the central post office in the Spanish city of Alicante, picking up bags and bags of mail to be delivered.

But exactly what the former letter carrier did next is now under investigation after more than 20,000 undelivered letters – dating back to 2012 and 2013 – were found crammed into bin bags in his home.

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India: more countries join Muslim protests over Muhammad remarks

Disciplinary action against members of BJP fails to quell growing anger in Muslim world over comments insulting the prophet

Six more countries have joined diplomatic protests across the Muslim world over derogatory remarks insulting the prophet Muhammad made by spokespeople for the party of Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi.

Indonesia, the UAE, the Maldives, Jordan, Bahrain and Libya have joined Qatar, Kuwait, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, and Afghanistan in lodging official complaints over comments from representatives of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party. Meanwhile hardline party members have reacted angrily to disciplinary action against the pair after their comments went viral in the Middle East.

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Ukraine’s Zelenskiy ‘very happy’ at Boris Johnson confidence vote win

President says result is ‘great news’, while adviser says ‘the world needs such leaders’

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, has declared himself “very happy” at Boris Johnson’s confidence vote win, hours after one of his senior advisers tweeted a picture of the two men and thanked the UK prime minister for helping to protect “the free world from barbaric invasion”.

Zelenskiy described Johnson’s narrow victory on Monday evening as “great news”, in remarks via video link to an event hosted by the Financial Times on Tuesday. “I’m glad we haven’t lost a very important ally. This is great news,” he said.

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South Africa seeking to extradite Gupta brothers after arrest in Dubai

Police begin process to transport Indian-born pair wanted on criminal and money-laundering charges

Police in Dubai are coordinating with their South African counterparts to secure the extradition of two wealthy Indian-born brothers wanted by South African authorities on criminal and money-laundering charges who were arrested in the emirate on Monday.

Atul and Rajesh Gupta are accused of paying bribes in exchange for lucrative state contracts and influence over ministerial appointments during the chaotic nine-year presidency of Jacob Zuma, which ended amid allegations of systematic corruption in 2018. The brothers fled to Dubai shortly after Zuma’s fall from power.

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Exhausted Russian fighters complain of conditions in eastern Ukraine

Long deployments and a lack of training, support, food and equipment all affecting morale as war drags on

Russia’s assault on Ukraine’s east has brought it some battlefield success as its military has advanced slowly in fierce fighting in Donbas.

But those gains have come at a high price for the Russian invasion force, with evidence that high-level casualties are growing and that some units may be approaching exhaustion as the war moves past its 100-day mark.

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Let Africa exploit its natural gas reserves, says Mary Robinson

Ex-UN climate envoy says continent’s need for energy is so great it should be able to widely use the fossil fuel

African countries should be able to exploit their vast natural gas reserves despite the urgent need to cut global greenhouse gas emissions, the former UN climate envoy Mary Robinson has said.

Robinson, the chair of the Elders group of former world statespeople and business leaders, said African countries’ need for energy was so great that they should use gas widely, in contrast to developed countries that must halt their gas use as quickly as possible to stave off climate breakdown.

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New Zealand court quashes murder conviction of man imprisoned for 19 years

Chief justice says it is clear that justice had seriously miscarried in case of Alan Hall, who was convicted of murder of Arthur Easton in 1985

A New Zealand man who spent 19 years in prison for murder has had his conviction quashed after the supreme court found there had been a substantial miscarriage of justice when key evidence was not disclosed in the original trial – something the crown itself acknowledged was wrong.

Alan Hall, who has autism, was convicted at age 23 of the murder of Arthur Easton in his Papakura home in 1985. Easton had been stabbed by an intruder and the murder weapon – a bayonet – and a woollen hat were found at the scene.

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Ukraine winery in area shelled by Russia wins gold at Decanter wine awards

Exclusive: Beykush winery struggled to get bottles to judges in UK from its site on edge of Russian-occupied territory

A small Ukrainian winemaker whose vineyards sit on the edge of territory newly occupied by Russia has won gold in the prestigious Decanter World Wines awards.

“I can’t say we were surprised that we won because our wine is really, really good,” said Svitlana Tsybak, the chief executive of Beykush winery and president of the Ukrainian association of craft winemakers.

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Chinese military ‘to have exclusive use of parts of Cambodian naval base’

Reports of presence at Ream base on Gulf of Thailand would significantly expand its presence in Indo-Pacific

A Cambodian naval base being constructed with the assistance of China will include a portion for the exclusive use of the Chinese military, according to a report in the Washington Post.

The Chinese and Cambodian governments have previously denied reports that Cambodia will allow a Chinese military presence at the Ream naval base on the Gulf of Thailand.

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Polio outbreak in Pakistan worsens as eighth child reported paralysed

Investigation launched as first cases in a year blamed on vaccine refusal fuelled by clerics and falsification of records by parents

Pakistan’s polio eradication campaign is in disarray after an alarming jump in cases last week. Eight polio cases have now been reported in children over the past month in North Waziristan district, bordering Afghanistan. They are the first cases in more than a year.

This new outbreak, officials believe, is due to parents falsely marking themselves and their children as vaccinated, and the government has launched an investigation into the outbreak.

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Israeli coalition dealt a blow with loss of West Bank settler law vote

Two members of government vote against extending emergency regulations, which give 475,000 Jewish settlers the same rights as citizens in Israel

Israel’s government suffered a defeat at the hands of the opposition on Monday when it voted down a push to uphold Israeli law in settlements on the occupied West Bank, posing a challenge for the ruling coalition.

In force since Israel’s 1967 occupation of the West Bank, the law, giving settlers there the same rights as citizens in Israel, is automatically ratified by parliament every five years. But two members of the broad coalition, a member of the Arab Ra’am party and a member of the leftist Meretz party, voted at first reading against the bill.

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