Novo Nordisk cuts profit outlook after weaker sales of weight-loss drug Wegovy

Danish company, which also makes Ozempic, faces increasing competition from US rival Eli Lilly

Novo Nordisk has cut its annual profit expectations after posting weaker-than-expected sales of its weight-loss drug Wegovy, fuelling investor concerns over growing competition and sending its shares lower.

The Danish drugmaker’s market value has soared over the past year, making it the most valuable company in Europe, on the back of the success of its obesity and diabetes injections Wegovy and Ozempic, used by celebrities including Elon Musk and Oprah Winfrey. However, the company is facing increasing competition from its US rival Eli Lilly’s drugs Zepbound and Mounjaro.

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Court bans largest Thai political party over pledge to change lese-majesty law

Leaders of progressive group Move Forward, which won most votes in last year’s election, also barred from politics for 10 years

Thailand’s constitutional court has ordered the dissolution of the country’s most popular party, and banned its leaders from politics for 10 years, over its election promise to reform the country’s strict lese-majesty law.

Move Forward, a youthful pro-reform party, won the most votes in the 2023 election after pledging major changes to the country’s political system, including a promise to amend a law that punishes criticism of the monarchy with up to 15 years in prison for a single charge. However, the party and its leader were blocked from taking power by military royalist opponents, and have since faced legal cases.

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Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus to head Bangladesh’s interim government

Decision came during meeting of military chiefs and organisers of the student protests that helped drive longtime prime minister Sheikh Hasina from power

The Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus will be the head of Bangladesh’s interim government after the longtime prime minister Sheikh Hasina fled the country amid a mass uprising that left hundreds of people dead and pushed the south Asian country to the brink of chaos.

The decision, announced early on Wednesday by Joynal Abedin, the press secretary of the country’s figurehead president, Mohammed Shahabuddin, came during a meeting that included military chiefs, organisers of the student protests that helped drive Hasina from power, prominent business leaders and civil society members.

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Texas: judge rules against Black high school teen in hair discrimination case

Darryl George, 18, filed civil rights lawsuit after Barbers Hill school system punished him for refusing to alter hairstyle

A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed most of the claims in a lawsuit filed by a Black high school student who alleged that school officials committed racial and gender discrimination when they punished him for refusing to change his hairstyle.

The ruling in the case of Darryl George was another victory for the Barbers Hill school district near Houston, which has said its policy restricting hair length for male students instills discipline while teaching grooming and respect for authority.

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Kamala Harris introduces running mate Tim Walz at raucous Philadelphia rally

Democratic nominee calls Walz ‘the kind of vice-president America deserves’ as pair vow to take fight to Donald Trump

Kamala Harris introduced her running mate Tim Walz as “the kind of vice-president America deserves” at a raucous rally in Philadelphia that showcased Democratic unity and enthusiasm for the party’s presidential ticket ahead of the November election.

Casting their campaign as a “fight for the future”, Harris and Walz were repeatedly interrupted by applause and cheering as they addressed thousands of battleground-state voters wearing bracelets that twinkled red, white and blue at Temple University’s Liacouras Center – a crowd Harris’s team said was its largest to date.

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Hamas names Yahya Sinwar, architect of 7 October attack, as new leader

Announcement comes after former Hamas political chief Ismail Haniyeh killed in bombing attack last week

Hamas has named Yahya Sinwar as the new head of its political bureau, elevating the hardline militant to the group’s top post after the assassination in Tehran of its previous political leader.

Sinwar’s appointment was announced in a brief statement by Hamas on Tuesday that was aired on pro-Hamas Iranian state media channels.

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Moscow says Ukraine has launched cross-border attack inside Russia

Russian military claims it repelled incursion by 300 soldiers up to six miles into Kursk border region

Moscow has said about 300 soldiers from Ukraine launched a cross-border attack into a hitherto quiet part of the front on Tuesday, with reports of fighting at a town as deep as six miles (10km) inside Russia.

Moscow’s ministry of defence said late on Tuesday that up to “300 Ukrainian militants” from Ukraine’s 22nd mechanised brigade launched the attack at 8am, supported by “11 tanks and more than 20 armoured fighting vehicles”.

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Evidence shows Venezuela’s election was stolen – but will Maduro budge?

Analyses indicate Nicolás Maduro lost the presidential election, but country’s leader shows no signs of stepping aside

It is not new for Nicolás Maduro to be accused of attempting to steal a presidential election – the US described his claim to have won re-election in 2018 as an “insult to democracy” – but the evidence for such allegations has never before been quite so overwhelming.

Analyses carried out by the opposition, academics and media organizations have offered strong evidence to suggest that the Venezuelan president lost – by a landslide – to the main opposition candidate, retired diplomat Edmundo González.

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Global markets partly recover but analysts fear ‘we’re not out of woods’

Shares on Wall Street and in Asia and Europe start to recover after Monday’s rout

Shares on Wall Street rose and many Asian and European markets staged a recovery after this week’s global stock market rout, but analysts warned: “We might not be out of the woods.”

The FTSE 100 index in London rose 18 points, or 0.2%, on Tuesday to close at 8,026.69, after losing 166 points, or 2%, on Monday, its biggest one-day points drop in more than a year.

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Tim Walz thanks Kamala Harris for ‘honor of a lifetime’ as she praises running mate for ‘fighting for middle-class families’ – live

Democrats welcome choice of Minnesota governor to be Harris’s running mate in race against Donald Trump and JD Vance

As we await Kamala Harris’s running mate announcement, Americans in some states are heading to the polls today.

Voters in Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington state will cast ballots in their congressional primaries today. Results in Michigan will be especially scrutinized, as the battleground state will play a key role in the presidential election.

The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (Aipac) pumped more than $8.5m into the race in Missouri’s first congressional district in support of Bush’s rival, St Louis prosecutor Wesley Bell, through its campaign funding arm, the United Democracy Project (UDP). …

The UDP accounts for more than half of all the money spent on the race outside of the campaigns themselves. Much of it comes from billionaires who fund hardline pro-Israel causes and Republicans in other races, including some who have given to Donald Trump’s campaign.

With the support of 99% of all participating delegates in the virtual roll call, Vice-President Harris has historic momentum at her back as we embark on the final steps in officially certifying her as our Party’s nominee.

We thank the thousands of delegates from all across the country who took seriously their responsibility throughout this process to make their voices – and the voices of their communities – heard.

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Middle East crisis: UN peacekeepers have never been more crucial on Israeli-Lebanese border, says forces chief – as it happened

Jean-Pierre Lacroix says peacekeeping force is ‘only liaison channel between Israeli and Lebanese sides’

A United Nations expert on Tuesday condemned Israel’s killing last week of Al Jazeera journalist Ismail Al-Ghoul and cameraman Ramy El Rify in Gaza and urged that the deaths be prosecuted as a war crime.

The two men died in a 31 July airstrike by the Israeli military, which said Al-Ghoul was a Hamas operative who took part in the October attack against Israel.

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German court convicts activist for leading ‘from the river to the sea’ chant

Judge says phrase ‘denied right of Israel to exist’ but woman’s lawyer says ruling is a defeat for free speech

A Berlin court has convicted a pro-Palestinian activist of condoning a crime for leading a chant of the slogan “from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” at a rally in the German capital four days after the Hamas attacks on Israel, in what her defence team called a defeat for free speech.

The presiding judge, Birgit Balzer, ordered 22-year-old German-Iranian national Ava Moayeri to pay a €600 (£515) fine on Tuesday, rejecting her argument that she meant only to express support for “peace and justice” in the Middle East by calling out the phrase on a busy street.

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Oilfield slowdown exposes political volatility in Libya and beyond

Apparent shutdown attempt shows potential for some leaders to use such threats to enforce personal agenda

The political complexities of Libya’s oil industry were highlighted at the weekend when allies of the warlord Khalifa Haftar were said to have tried to shut down a Spanish-operated oilfield in reprisal for an arrest warrant issued by Spain for his son over alleged weapons smuggling.

Saddam Haftar, a key military figure in his father’s self-styled Libyan National Army (LNA), was detained at an airport in Naples, Italy, for an hour on Friday after his name appeared on a common EU database. Those close to Haftar say he was questioned by Italian officials in relation to Spanish allegations, but insist he was never arrested.

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Bangladesh parliament dissolved a day after resignation of prime minister

Move comes after longtime leader Sheikh Hasina resigned and fled country after weeks of deadly unrest

The president of Bangladesh has dissolved the country’s parliament after an ultimatum issued by the coordinators of student protests that forced the resignation on Monday of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina.

The office of the president, Mohammed Shahabuddin, also announced that the former prime minister and opposition leader Begum Khaleda Zia had been officially released from prison and given a full presidential pardon.

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Japanese stocks soar after massive sell-off shook global markets

Japan’s Nikkei 225 index closes more than 10% up with other Asia markets rebounding on Tuesday

Japanese stocks soared more than 10% on Tuesday, a day after experiencing their biggest fall in 37 years, setting markets tumbling in Europe and on Wall Street.

Other markets in Asia also appeared to settle somewhat after the rollercoaster ride that started the week.

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‘It made me cry’: photos taken 15 years apart show melting Swiss glaciers

Married couple from Bristol attract awe and abuse on X with photos that show ‘staggering’ changes in the Alps

A tourist has posted “staggering” photos of himself and his wife at the same spot in the Swiss Alps almost exactly 15 years apart, in a pair of photos that highlight the speed with which global heating is melting glaciers.

Duncan Porter, a software developer from Bristol, posted photos that were taken in the same spot at the Rhône glacier in August 2009 and August 2024. The white ice that filled the background has shrunk to reveal grey rock. A once-small pool at the bottom, out of sight in the original, has turned into a vast green lake.

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Owners of Colorado funeral home where 190 bodies found ordered to pay $950m

Jon and Carie Hallford found liable as court rules for victims’ families – but amount unlikely to be paid out

The Colorado couple who owned a funeral home where 190 decaying bodies were discovered last year were ordered to pay $950m to the victims’ families – a largely symbolic victory for families of the deceased.

According to an email sent to victims by Leventhal Lewis, the firm that filed the lawsuit, it is the largest judgment in Colorado’s history.

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Iran says it has duty to punish Israel over killing of Hamas leader in Tehran

Crisis meeting of Arab states this week may set agenda for retaliation as countries urge Iran to show restraint

Iran has called in foreign ambassadors based in Tehran to warn of the country’s moral duty to punish Israel for what it sees as its “adventurism” and law-breaking in assassinating Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader, a week ago in the Iranian capital.

Iran has also secured an emergency meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday where it will try to press Arab states to back its right to take reprisal actions against Israel.

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Nine Unrwa staff members ‘may have been involved’ in 7 October attack

UN fires employees from Palestinian refugee agency following internal investigation into their role in the Hamas-led attack on Israel

The UN has fired nine staff members from its agency for Palestinian refugees, Unrwa, after an internal investigation found they may have been involved in the Hamas-led 7 October attack against Israel.

The UN secretary general’s office announced the move in a brief statement on Monday. It did not elaborate on the Unrwa staffers’ possible role in the attack. It said the nine included seven staffers who were fired previously over the claims.

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Venezuela opposition leaders urge army and police to abandon Nicolás Maduro

Edmundo González and María Corina Machado call on officials to ‘join the side of the people’ after Maduro enforces post-election crackdown

Venezuela’s opposition leaders, who are widely believed to have beaten Nicolás Maduro in last week’s disputed presidential election, have urged the police and armed forces to abandon the strongman leader and his “despicable interests”.

In an open letter to Venezuelan security forces, Edmundo González Urrutia and María Corina Machado claimed they had won an “avalanche” victory over Maduro in the 28 July vote – a conclusion supported by analyses of election data carried out by the Associated Press and the Washington Post and which a growing number of western governments have also reached.

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