Rows over Eta and racism loom large as Spain holds local elections

Votes will allow the parties to hone their strategies before December’s general election

Spain heads to the polls on Sunday to elect 12 regional governments and 8,000 municipal councils in votes that will allow the governing Socialists and the opposition conservatives to gauge their strengths and hone their strategies before December’s general election.

Isabel Díaz Ayuso, the rightwing, populist president of the Madrid region, will be aiming to secure an absolute majority for the People’s party (PP), while Barcelona’s leftwing mayor, Ada Colau, will be hoping to see off challenges from the regional branch of the Socialist party and a centre-right Catalan pro-independence party.

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Man who opened plane door over South Korea says he wanted out ‘quickly’

Asiana Airlines flight was about 200 metres above the ground when the passenger pulled emergency exit

A man who opened an emergency exit on a flight mid-air felt “suffocated” and wanted to get off quickly, South Korean police said.

The Asiana Airlines plane was carrying nearly 200 passengers as it approached the runway on Friday at Daegu international airport, about 150 miles south-east of Seoul, on a domestic flight.

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Defeat would leave Russia brutal and vindictive even if Putin ‘disappeared’, says RAF chief – as it happened

Air Chief Marshall Sir Mike Wigston says Russian threat to UK could get worse if Putin was ousted. This blog is now closed

Russian forces have temporarily eased their attacks on the besieged eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut to regroup and strengthen their capabilities, a senior Kyiv official said on Saturday.

Russia’s Wagner private army began handing over its positions to regular Russian troops this week after declaring full control of Bakhmut after the longest and bloodiest battle of the war, Reuters reported.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 458 of the invasion

Toll from Russian missile attack on Dnipro rises to two; Medvedev says conflict could last decades; Blinken to visit Finland, Sweden and Norway

The death toll from a Russian missile attack on an outpatient clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro has risen to two, with 30 people wounded, according to media reports. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said: “Russian terrorists once again confirm their status of fighters against everything humane and honest.”

A deal allowing the safe export of grain and fertiliser from Ukrainian Black Sea ports has not yet resumed full operations, the UN said on Friday, having come to a halt before Russia’s decision last week to extend it.

Russia’s deputy security council chair, Dmitry Medvedev, has said the conflict in Ukraine could last for decades and that negotiations with Ukraine were impossible as long as Volodymyr Zelenskiy was in power.

The US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, plans to visit Finland, Sweden and Norway from this Monday to deepen cooperation on top national security and economic issues, the US state department has said. Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Finland has joined Nato, with Sweden’s bid to join awaiting ratification from Hungary and Turkey.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, has told China’s special envoy Li Hui there are “serious obstacles” to resuming peace talks, blaming Ukraine and western countries.

The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, has said in a phone call with his Brazilian counterpart, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, that Russia is open to dialogue over Ukraine. Lula tweeted that he had reiterated Brazil’s willingness to talk to both sides of the war in Ukraine but declined Putin’s invitation to visit.

The former UK prime minister Boris Johnson and former US president Donald Trump discussed Ukraine and “the vital importance of Ukrainian victory” on Thursday, a spokesperson for Johnson said.

Russia has blamed Kyiv for dozens of strikes on its southern Belgorod region. Its governor, Vyacheslav Gladkov, said the Ukrainian military was responsible for artillery, mortar and drone attacks across the region over 24 hours but reported no casualties. In a rare attack on the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, east of Crimea, two drones damaged buildings in the city centre, officials said. In the neighbouring Rostov region, the governor said a Ukrainian missile had been shot down near Morozovsk, where there is a Russian airbase.

Canada has said it backs Ukraine’s application to join the comprehensive and progressive agreement for trans-Pacific partnership (CPTPP). Canada’s trade minister, Mary Ng, tweeted: “Following the UK’s accession, as more economies express interest in joining, Canada welcomes Ukraine’s application to join CPTPP.”

The Russian arms company Kalashnikov, maker of the world’s most widely used assault rifle, is launching a division for the production of kamikaze drones – a key weapon used in the Ukraine war

Canada will donate 43 AIM-9 missiles to Ukraine to help the country “secure its skies”, the national defence has said. “Canada’s support for Ukraine is unwavering,” said Canada’s defence minister, Anita Anand.

Moscow’s city court will hold a preliminary hearing next Wednesday in a new criminal case against the jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny on charges including incitement to extremism.

Ukraine claims to have shot down 10 missiles and 25 drones launched by Russia in overnight attacks on the capital of Kyiv, the city of Dnipro and eastern regions. Several drones and missiles hit targets in the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions, officials said on Friday. There was no immediate word of any deaths.

The city of Donetsk has come under fire from Ukrainian forces, the Russian-imposed leader of the occupied Donetsk region, Denis Pushilin, has said. As a result, he said, a young woman died and another was injured.

Japan will place additional sanctions on Russia after the Group of Seven (G7) summit the country hosted last week agreed to step up measures to punish Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, the chief cabinet secretary, Hirokazu Matsuno, has said.

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Report: ‘massive’ Tesla leak reveals data breaches, thousands of safety complaints

Whistleblower files reveal customer and employee information plus complaints about driver assistance system

Tesla has failed to adequately protect data from customers, employees and business partners and has received thousands of customer complaints regarding the carmaker’s driver assistance system, Germany’s Handelsblatt has reported, citing 100 gigabytes of confidential data leaked by a whistleblower.

The Handelsblatt report said customer data could be found “in abundance” in a data set labelled “Tesla Files”.

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Judge pauses South Carolina abortion ban; emerging debt ceiling agreement ‘has fewer cuts than expected’ – live

Temporary block on restrictions until state supreme court can review; Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy reportedly closing in on a deal

A judge has blocked a South Carolina law enacted this week that bans most abortions past the six-week mark, a point at which most women are not yet aware they are pregnant, the Associated Press reports.

The ruling by judge Clifton Newman is the latest complication conservative state lawmakers have faced as they move to cut off abortion access following the supreme court’s decision last year overturning Roe v Wade and allowing states to restrict the procedure entirely. Newman ordered the law put on hold until the state supreme court can review it, in a ruling that came 24 hours after the law was signed by governor Henry McMaster, the AP reports.

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Ex-fraternity members in Belgium found guilty over death of student

Sanda Dia died in hospital in December 2018 after enduring a degrading two-day initiation ritual

Eighteen former members of an elite university fraternity have been found guilty for their role in the death of a student during a brutal and degrading initiation ritual in 2018.

Sanda Dia was 20 when he died in hospital in December 2018 after he and two other first-year students endured two days of vicious hazing to enter the student fraternity, Reuzegom.

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Russian attack on outpatient clinic in Dnipro kills two people

Volodymyr Zelenskiy describes missile strike as a crime against humanity after 30 people are injured

A Russian missile strike on an outpatient clinic in the city of Dnipro has killed two people and injured 30, in what ​President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described as a crime against humanity.

In the latest wave of aerial attacks on Ukraine, a salvo of air-launched missiles aimed at Kyiv were launched by Russian aircraft over the Caspian Sea early on Friday morning but they were all intercepted, according to the capital’s military administration, in what they said was the 13th attack on the city this month.

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Belgium aid worker freed in prisoner swap with Iranian diplomat jailed for bomb plot

Deal to release Olivier Vandecasteele in exchange for Assadollah Assadi raises concerns Tehran’s hostage diplomacy has been rewarded

A Belgian aid worker jailed in Tehran has been released in a prisoner swap with an Iranian diplomat who had been sentenced to 20 years in jail for his role in a plan to bomb an Iranian opposition rally in Paris in 2018.

Assadollah Assadi had served just over two years of his 20-year sentence, and his release will raise questions about whether Iranian hostage diplomacy – the practice of seizing dual nationals as bargaining chips – has been rewarded by the Belgian authorities. The final stages of the deal were negotiated by Oman, but Belgium had been negotiating with Iran over the fate of the diplomat for much longer.

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Berlin police investigate Roger Waters over Nazi-style uniform at concert

Pink Floyd singer wore costume during performance in which he imagines himself as fictional fascist dictator

Police in Germany have launched a criminal investigation into the Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters over a Nazi-style uniform he wore at a recent concert in Berlin.

“An investigation has been opened over the costume displayed at the concerts on 17 and 18 May,” Berlin police spokesperson Martin Halweg told the Guardian.

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Supporters of jailed Iranian journalists call for trials to be held in public

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi reported on death of Mahsa Amini and face charges of conspiring with foreign powers

Supporters of the two award-winning Iranian female journalists who were among the first to report on the death of Mahsa Amini, the young Kurdish woman who died last year in police custody, have demanded that their trials due to start next week are held in public.

Niloofar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who both have a prestigious record of on-the-ground reporting on social affairs in Iran, have been kept in jail since first being arrested eight months ago and are accused of conspiring with hostile foreign powers, a charge that potentially carries the death penalty.

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British man, 85, ‘shot and wife starved to death’ after being left in Sudan

Family say couple were not offered support to evacuate despite living near British embassy in Khartoum

An 85-year-old British citizen was shot by snipers and his wife died of starvation after they were left behind in Sudan, their family has said.

Abdalla Sholgami, who owns a hotel in London, lived with his 80-year-old wife, Alaweya Rishwan, who is disabled, close to the UK’s diplomatic base in Khartoum, the BBC said.

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Vietnamese cities cut public lighting to save energy amid heatwave

Measures come after warning of electricity shortages due to high demand and decreased hydropower production

Cities in Vietnam are cutting the use of public lighting to save energy as unusually hot temperatures threaten to stretch the country’s power supplies.

A sweltering heatwave has gripped swathes of Asia over recent months, causing school closures and deaths in India, as well as health warnings across many countries in the region.

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Peruvian police seize 58kg of cocaine bearing pictures of Nazi flag

Drugs found in shipment said to be destined for Belgium also had the name Hitler printed on them

Peruvian anti-drug police have seized 58 one-kilo packages of cocaine destined for Belgium bearing a picture of a Nazi flag on the outside and the name Hitler printed in low relief.

The discovery occurred in the port of Paita, on Peru’s northern Pacific coast close to its border with Ecuador.

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Russian weapons manufacturers hosted at Saudi trade event

Companies with direct links to Russian military set to attend, which is likely to heighten tensions with US

Seven sanctioned Russian companies, including a manufacturer of military helicopters deployed in the war in Ukraine, are visiting Saudi Arabia next week as part of a trade mission to increase business with the Gulf state.

Companies including weapons manufacturers with direct links to the Russian military, state corporations involved in the invasion of Ukraine, and the agency overseeing a Ukrainian nuclear plant in the country seized by the Russian military last year, are set to attend.

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Wind buffets plane passengers as door opened on flight in South Korea

Asiana Airlines officials say man pulled lever to open emergency exit shortly before landing

Police in South Korea have arrested a man who allegedly opened the door on an Asiana Airlines flight shortly before the aircraft landed, triggering panic among the 194 passengers onboard and leaving several requiring hospital treatment for breathing problems.

The Airbus A321 plane landed safely, but with its door still open, at Daegu airport in South Korea at about 12.40pm (0340 BST) after leaving Jeju island an hour earlier, the airport’s flight schedule showed.

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Japanese kabuki actor found collapsed at home alongside parents

Ennosuke Ichikawa taken to hospital but mother and father died after taking overdose

The world of Japanese kabuki, a classical form of Japanese theatre that combines highly stylised movement and unusual vocalisation, has been rocked after the popular actor Ennosuke Ichikawa was taken to hospital and his parents found dead.

Ennosuke was found by his manager collapsed at his home in Tokyo along with an apparent suicide note and taken to hospital.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: two dead and 30 injured in Russian attack on Dnipro clinic – as it happened

Zelenskiy says rocket attack on Friday morning hit medical facility after night of heavy bombardment across country

Ukraine struck two regions in southern Russia with a rocket and a drone, though the missile was shot down by air defences, according to Russian officials and media reports.

In the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, a blast damaged a residential and office building, officials said. Reuters reports they did not say what caused the blast, though Russian media said it was a drone attack. Unverified videos on social media showed a drone flying over the city.

A peace summit is needed today. Everyone understands this fact. Also, everyone accepts as an absolutely logical and fair argument that the basis should be the Ukrainian peace plan: 10 points of President Zelenskiy.

Now Ukraine’s position is clear: our plan is the basis, but we are ready to listen to all those countries that respect our sovereignty and territorial integrity. We are ready to accept some elements of other proposals.

1. Radiation and nuclear safety.
2. Food security.
3. Energy security.
4. Release of all prisoners and deportees.
5. Restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity and Russia reaffirming it.
6. Withdrawal of Russian troops and cessation of hostilities, restoration of Ukraine’s state borders with Russia.
7. Justice, including the establishment of a special tribunal to prosecute Russian war crimes.
8. Prevention of ecocide.
9. Prevention of escalation of conflict.
10. Confirmation of the war’s end, including a document signed by the involved parties.

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Weather tracker: Typhoon Mawar narrowly avoids landfall as it hits Guam

Wind and rain bring island to a standstill but eye replacement cycle fortuitously weakens it temporarily

Earlier this week, Typhoon Mawar whipped up a storm in western Micronesia as the category 4 storm came close to landfall on the island of Guam. Starting out as a tropical depression over the weekend, Mawar rapidly deepened and intensified over the following couple of days, almost reaching category 5 by Tuesday evening. Wind gusts peaked at 155mph (250km/h), briefly making Mawar a super typhoon about 100 miles south-east of the US island territory.

In a stroke of luck an eyewall replacement cycle occurred overnight, hours before the then super typhoon was due to reach Guam. The cycle involves the slight degradation of the storm’s structure as a new eye develops around the old eye. Consequentially, the storm’s intensity weakened temporarily while simultaneously spreading strong winds over a larger area. Mawar’s winds dropped to a sustained speed of 140mph as the typhoon brushed the northern edge of Guam at about 7am local time (2200 BST) Had Mawar made landfall, it would have been the first category 4 typhoon to do so since Typhoon Pamela in 1976.

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James M Cain: lost story by ‘poet of the tabloid murder’ discovered in Congress library

Strand Magazine will publish Blackmail, a tale of a blind Korean war veteran, found by New York editor Andrew Gulli

A New York editor and literary detective is celebrating the discovery and release of an unpublished short story by James M Cain, one of the greats of American noir, a “poet of the tabloid murder” whose works made famous on film include The Postman Always Rings Twice, Double Indemnity and Mildred Pierce.

“For all the work that you do,” said Andrew Gulli, editor-in-chief of the Strand Magazine, “like 2% of the time you hit the jackpot. I just feel so good. It’s worth it.”

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