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?€?The report recounts ten episodes involving the President and discusses potential legal theories for connecting these actions to elements of an obstruction offense,?€? Barr says.
It?€?s hard to avoid the sense that Barr is going out of his way to defend Trump here. Because while Mueller documented those ten episodes, Barr says he and deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein:
Although the Deputy Attorney General and I disagreed with some of the Special Counsel?€?s legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law, we did not rely solely on that in making our decision.
BREAKING: Mueller report examines 10 episodes of potential obstruction by Trump. Barr says he and Rosenstein 'disagreed with some of the special counsel's legal theories.'
Volodymyr Zelenskiy is hot favourite to triumph in Sunday?€?s presidential election
Latest polling in Ukraine suggests that the actor and comedian Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who has eschewed traditional political campaigning and given little insight into his policy positions, is set to win a crushing victory in Sunday?€?s presidential election.
Zelenskiy is known for his television series Servant of the People in which he plays a history teacher who wins a shock victory in presidential elections. He is now odds-on to pull off the feat in real life, after capitalising on widespread disappointment with the incumbent, Petro Poroshenko, who won elections in 2014 after the Maidan revolution kicked out the previous government.
Number of organisations and individuals permanently banned for being ?€?dangerous?€?
Facebook has permanently banned a number of far-right organisations and individuals including the British National party (BNP), the English Defence League (EDL) and Britain First under its ?€?dangerous individuals and organisations?€? policy.
The ban, which came into effect at midday on Thursday, extends beyond the groups and individuals specifically cited as hate organisations: posts and other content that ?€?expresses praise or support?€? for them will also be banned, as will users who coordinate support for the groups.
President says he has won a second term, defeating challenger Prabowo Subianto
The Indonesian president, Joko Widodo, has announced he has won re-election after receiving an estimated 54% of the vote, backtracking on his promise to wait for official results after his challenger made improbable claims of victory.
Widodo, after meeting with parties in his coalition, told reporters the leaders of Malaysia, Singapore, Turkey and other countries had congratulated him on securing a second term.
Summit between North Korean leader and Russian president to take place in late April
The North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, will visit Russia in late April for his first meeting with Vladimir Putin, Moscow has said.
?€?Following an invitation from Vladimir Putin ... Kim Jong-un will visit Russia in the second half of April,?€? said the Kremlin in a statement on its website on Thursday.
Move by Islamic authorities condemned as attempt to ?€?intimidate women activists?€?
Three women in Malaysia who held an event discussing their decision to stop wearing the hijab are being investigated by Malaysian Islamic authorities.
The event, hosted over the weekend at the Gerakbudaya bookshop in the Petaling Jaya area, was held to mark the launch of Unveiling Choice, a book documenting the author and activist Maryam Lee?€?s decision to stop wearing the hijab.
Nation known for its natural beauty is under pressure with extinctions, polluted rivers and blighted lakes
A report on the state of New Zealand?€?s environment has painted a bleak picture of catastrophic biodiversity loss, polluted waterways and the destructive rise of the dairy industry and urban sprawl.
Environment Aotearoa is the first major environmental report in four years, and was compiled using data from Statistics New Zealand and the environment ministry.
Three charged over protest that halted DLR services, as climate action enters fourth day
Three people have been put on remand for a month over an Extinction Rebellion protest in which activists climbed on top of a train at Canary Wharf station in east London.
Cathy Eastburn, 51, from south London, Mark Ovland, 35, from Somerton in Somerset, and Luke Watson, 29, from Manuden in Essex, were charged with obstructing trains or carriages on the railway by an unlawful act, contrary to section 36 of the Malicious Damage Act 1861, over the protest on Wednesday that halted Docklands Light Railway (DLR) services.
Police Scotland say former boxing champion?€?s death is being treated as murder
The author Irvine Welsh has led tributes to the Trainspotting 2 actor Bradley Welsh, who has been shot dead in Edinburgh.
Police Scotland confirmed on Thursday lunchtime that the killing was being treated as murder and reassured the public that, while shootings remain extremely rare in the Scottish capital, considerable resources would be dedicated to the inquiry.
Flexible screen failed on several £1,800 tester devices in run-up to public release
The screen at the heart of Samsung?€?s new Galaxy Fold phone, which literally folds in half, has been failing in testers?€? hands within days, prompting concerns about the durability of the £1,800 device.
The company distributed the device to publications across the US on Monday before its release to the public on 26 April. But within two days testers were reporting that the all-important central flexible screen started to break under normal use.
Other schools look to follow after Tàber school takes out one-third of its collection, deeming the books ?€?highly stereotypical and sexist?€?
Several schools across Barcelona are considering purging their libraries of stereotypical and sexist children?€?s books, after one removed around 200 titles, including Little Red Riding Hood and the story of the legend of Saint George, from its library.
The Tàber school?€?s infant library of around 600 children?€?s books was reviewed by the Associació Espai i Lleure as part of a project that aims to highlight hidden sexist content. The group reviewed the characters in each book, whether or not they speak and what roles they perform, finding that 30% of the books were highly sexist, had strong stereotypes and were, in its opinion, of no pedagogical value.
With teenage girls a particular target of street harassment, Farah Benis is on a mission to document incidents and raise awareness
CatcallsofLdn is an Instagram account that raises awareness about street harassment using chalk art. Inspired by and working with @catcallsofnyc, founder Farah Benis collects submissions from the public then chalks them onto the pavement in the place where they happened. The hope is that chalking, documenting and sharing images of the words will help to raise awareness of street harassment and ultimately prevent it.
72% of submissions are from under 17-year-olds, 60% of those were wearing school uniforms and 100% of the perpetrators were adult men
Photographer Zhang Kechun travelled across China to document how urbanisation is reshaping the country?€?s natural landscapes. The often dreamlike images of his series Between the Mountains and Water depict tiny figures dwarfed by the immense scale of China?€?s economic development
In Erdo?an?€?s latest high-stakes megaproject, 10,000 pieces of equipment will be relocated in a single weekend
?€?This is not just an airport. It?€?s a monument to victory,?€? is how posters around the terminal describe Istanbul?€?s colossal new airport.
That remains to be seen. After starting on Friday, Turkish Airlines will have a 45-hour window to complete one of the most complex logistical projects in history, as it switches its entire operation to the new Istanbul airport from its existing hub at Atatürk international airport.
In my career, I have investigated many of the UK?€?s worst disasters. Few cases were as harrowing as the sinking of the Marchioness in 1989, which left scores dead and almost impossible to identify. By Richard Shepherd
Warning: this piece contains graphic descriptions of dead bodies.
I took a call early one Sunday morning in August 1989 to warn me that there had been a disaster. It was during the summer holidays and I was the forensic pathologist in charge of London and the south-east of England. At this stage, no one knew how many bodies there would be but one thing was certain: there would be bodies.
The catastrophe had occurred on the River Thames. I waited for more news before setting off; my first stop was the police pier in Wapping, to the east of the city. A leisure boat had sunk somewhere near Southwark and bodies recovered from the vessel were here. That was all I knew. An old police sergeant greeted me and, to my astonishment, he was close to tears.
Thomas Orchard died days after being arrested and restrained at a police station in Exeter
A judge cannot be sure a restraint belt placed across the face of a mentally ill man while in police custody contributed to him suffering a fatal cardiac arrest, a court has heard.
Thomas Orchard, 32, died in hospital seven days after being arrested and taken to Heavitree Road police station in Exeter, Devon, in October 2012.
UN says arrest and detention of Moncef Kartas violates diplomatic immunity
A UN-appointed expert on breaches of the Libyan arms embargo has been arrested and kept in a Tunisian jail for nearly a month.
Moncef Kartas, a Tunisian-German dual national, was arrested on 26 March. He is one of six UN experts appointed to investigate breaches of the UN-imposed embargo on arms to Libya first introduced in 2011. The UN says his detention is a violation of his diplomatic immunity.
US will allow lawsuits against firms using property nationalised by the revolution, cap remittances and restrict ?€?non-family?€? travel
Donald Trump has taken another step towards reversing Barack Obama?€?s historic rapprochement with Cuba with a measure that earned swift criticism from allies in Canada and Europe.
The US announced on Wednesday that it would enable lawsuits against foreign companies that use properties nationalised by the communist government after Fidel Castro?€?s 1959 revolution.
High-quality international offsets should be part of any credible policy, industry says
Business groups are defying the Morrison government?€?s political assault on the use of international permits, arguing a credible climate policy should include access to high-quality international offsets, because they are a key mechanism to help Australia meet its Paris target.
With climate change persisting as a significant campaign flashpoint, the chief executive of the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, James Pearson, told Guardian Australia international permits were part of the toolkit for mitigating climate change in a cost-effective way.
As France announces contest to redesign spire after fire we want to hear from design-minded readers
An international architectural competition to redesign the roofline of Notre Dame Cathedral has been announced days after fire ripped through its roof causing its 300ft spire to collapse.
Residents of a village in Russia have been stunned by the sight of a polar bear 700km from its usual habitat. The people of the far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula looked on as the bear searched for food. Russian media reported on Wednesday that the exhausted-looking animal apparently travelled from Chukotka to the village of Tilichiki, about 700km (434 miles) south. Environmentalists say the bear may have lost its sense of direction while drifting on an ice floe
Nusrat Jahan Rafi was doused with kerosene and burned at her school, dying 10 days later of her injuries
A teenage Bangladeshi girl who reported being sexually harassed has died after being set on fire at school. Police and school authorities had ignored her complaints.
The murder of 19-year-old Nusrat Jahan Rafi, who was doused with kerosene and set on fire at her school in Feni on 6 April, followed her allegations of sexual harassment against her headteacher two weeks before. Nusrat suffered 80% burns to her body and died 10 days later from her injuries.
Aziza?€?s story reflects the growing number of violent public assaults on women deemed to be in breach of sharia law in Afghanistan
One of four women who was recently subjected to a brutal public lashing by armed Taliban fighters in Afghanistan has spoken about her experience, amid an increase of violent punishments given to those violating its strict interpretation of religious law.
Aziza, who like many other Afghan women only uses one name, was rounded up by the Taliban?€?s shadow police for being out of her house without her husband and not being fully veiled. She was beaten so badly she lost consciousness.
As a voluntary agreement is struck for forces to withdraw from the port city, two friends recount the horror of conflict in their neighbourhood in Yemen
Friends Majed Al-Wahidi and Ali Al-Zazai remember the constant buzzing of drones overhead in Hodeidah on 18 November last year.
Majed, a teacher and father of six daughters, had left Ali?€?s house to return to his home nearby, but went back because he had forgotten his lighter. It was about 5pm and Majed?€?s daughters were in their bedroom, having taken a break from studying to pray in their modest, corrugated iron-covered home.
Judge rules that stopping access to safe housing, counselling and financial assistance after 45 days risks ?€?irreparable harm?€?
A high court judge has suspended a Home Office policy that cuts off after six weeks all statutory support to slavery victims in the UK, ruling that it risks causing ?€?irreparable harm to very vulnerable individuals?€?.
The Home Office must now immediately extend assistance to all slavery and trafficking victims requiring support in the UK, estimated to be about 600 people, over the next few months.
Study reveals 31% increase in sexual attacks since 2017, with many related to gang culture
Rates of sexual violence in El Salvador rose by a third last year, with the majority of cases involving teenage girls.
More than 60% of the 4,304 cases of sexual violence recorded in 2018 involved 12- to 17-year-olds, according to a report published this week by the Organisation of Salvadoran Women for Peace (Ormusa).
Trump and Republicans are using Omar to drive a wedge within the Democratic party and ?€?foment hatred of Muslim Americans?€?
When Ilhan Omar became one of the first two Muslim women elected to Congress in November, the American Muslim community saw her victory as a symbolic rejoinder to Donald Trump.
Omar?€?s remarkable journey - from a Somali refugee camp to the Minnesota state legislature and the hallways of the US Capitol - stood out among a historically diverse class of freshman lawmakers. The sight of Omar?€?s hijab on the House floor, made possible only by a rules change that for the first time in 181 years allowed religious headwear inside the chamber, reinforced the immediacy of her impact.
On Thursday, the US justice department is expected to release a redacted version of special counsel Robert Mueller?€?s long-awaited report on Russian election tampering and the Donald Trump campaign to the public. The attorney general, William Barr, has announced a press conference at the justice department at 9.30am to discuss it.
French president postponed his address to the nation but the stakes have been raised
The broadcast was ready to go. Emmanuel Macron?€?s address to the nation in response to months of protest and violence from the gilets jaunes (yellow vests) movement and the ?€?great national debate?€? they sparked had been recorded that afternoon and was due to go live at 8pm.
Running to 26 minutes, it was, said Le Monde, ?€?a make-or-break moment for the presidency and for this president, confronted [?€?] with one of the most serious social crises the country has known for 30 years?€?.
By many measures, Buttigieg?€?s mayoral career has been a success - but his policies have not pleased everyone and poverty and crime are still high
Jack Colwell was a young reporter with a big story. Trade union sources told him that the Studebakercar plant, the beating heart of South Bend, Indiana, was closing down with a loss of nearly 7,000 jobs that would devastate the community. On 9 December 1963, above his byline, the front page headline on the South Bend Tribune newspaper read: ?€?Auto output to end here.?€?
Pete Buttigieg, the mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and Democratic presidential candidate, was heckled by a protester at a rally in Des Moines, Iowa. The person shouted: 'Remember Sodom and Gomorrah' - a reference to two biblical cities - to which Buttigieg responded: 'The condition of my soul is in the hands of God but the Iowa caucuses are up to you'
Notre Dame Cathedral was '15 to 30 minutes' away from complete destruction as firefighters battled to stop flames reaching its Gothic bell towers, French authorities have said. The blaze destroyed the roof and spire of the Parisian landmark. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has said he wants to see the cathedral rebuilt 'more beautiful than before' within five years, but there are warnings that the repairs could take decades
Aerial footage reveals the extent of the damage to Notre Dame Cathedral after a fire tore through the 850-year-old structure. Up to 500 firefighters had battled to contain the flames on Monday evening. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, has vowed to rebuild the Paris landmark within five years. The fire started at the base of the 93-metre spire and spread through the cathedral?€?s ribbed roof, made up of hundreds of oak beams, some dating back to the 13th century
In a televised address on Tuesday evening, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he wanted to see the Notre Dame Cathedral rebuilt within five years. French authorities have revealed that the historic building was ?€?15 to 30 minutes?€? away from complete destruction
The Muslim American congresswoman Ilhan Omar says she has received an increased number of death threats since a video was tweeted by Donald Trump featuring footage from 9/11 and a clip from a speech she made in March this year, with the president accusing her of downplaying the attacks. Omar said in a statement on Sunday: 'Since the president?€?s tweet on Friday evening, I have experienced an increase in direct threats on my life - many directly referencing or replying to the president?€?s video'
Large number of US citizens demonstrated against the war in Iraq (and the possible war in Iran) during this October weekend. Massive turnout in Boston and San Fransisco, and also in Chicago, LA and DC people took to the streets. The message was: NO more war in Iraq! NO to a war with Iran!
