The newest way to bet on bitcoin will be available later on Sunday when futures in the wildly fluctuating cryptocurrency start trading. The first bitcoin future trades are set to kick off at 6 pm local time on a Chicago exchange.The launch on the Cboe futures exchange has given an extra kick to the currency’s scorching run this year. It has nearly doubled in price since the start of December, but recent days saw sharp moves in both directions, with bitcoin losing almost a fifth of its value on Friday after surging by more than 40% in the previous 48 hours to $16,600. On Sunday, bitcoin was up about 3% at $15,000 on the Luxembourg-based Bitstamp exchange and on the Gemini exchange it was at $15,650.But while some market participants are excited about a regulated way to bet on or hedge against moves in bitcoin, others warn that risks remain for investors and possibly the clearing organisations underpinning the trades.

The futures are cash-settled contracts based on the auction price of bitcoin in dollars on the Gemini exchange, owned and operated by virtual currency entrepreneurs Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.(theguardian)…[+]

A Palestinian man stabbed an Israeli security guard in the chest in what police described as a “terrorist” attack, the first since Donald Trump sparked widespread Palestinian anger with his decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Palestinian media identified the assailant as 24-year-old Yasin Abu al-Qur’a from a village near Nablus in the northern West Bank.  Shortly before the attack Qur’a reportedly posted on Facebook mentioning Jerusalem. “In your path, O homeland, O Jerusalem, O Al Aqsa, our blood is cheap,” he wrote less than a day before, referring to the sensitive al-Aqsa mosque.

The incident at Jerusalem’s central bus station came as violence flared elsewhere, including during a demonstration against the move outside the US embassy in Beirut. Meanwhile, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, arrived in Europe on his first foreign trip since US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. At a press conference following a meeting with Netanyahu, Emmanuel Macron, the French president, said he had “told Netanyahu that Trump’s statement on Jerusalem is a threat to peace and we are against it”.(theguardian)…[+]

The saga of the only Leonardo Da Vinci painting in private hands has taken another twist with reports that US intelligence has identified the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, as the true buyer of the work, which was sold for $450m (£335m) at auction. The claim will raise eyebrows, coming in the midst of a sweeping anti-corruption drive in the kingdom that has seen 159 business leaders, including members of the royal family, imprisoned in a five-star hotel over allegations of financial malfeasance.

The actual buyer of Salvator Mundi, a painting depicting Jesus Christ, was identified on Thursday as Prince Bader bin Abdullah, a little known Saudi prince who was appointed to a commission led by Bin Salman in July and appears to be an ally of the crown prince.(theguardian)…[+]

Pope Francis has called for the English wording of the Lord’s Prayer to be changed, because it implies God “induces temptation”.The prayer asks God to “lead us not into temptation”.

But the pontiff told Italian broadcasters he believed the wording should be altered to better reflect that it was not God who led humans to sin. He told the TV2000 channel: “It is not a good translation because it speaks of a God who induces temptation.”

He added: “I am the one who falls; it’s not him pushing me into temptation to then see how I have fallen. “A father doesn’t do that, a father helps you to get up immediately. It’s Satan who leads us into temptation, that’s his department.” The 80-year-old also highlighted that the Catholic church in France had adapted the prayer, and uses the phrase “do not let us fall into temptation” instead.

The two versions of the Lord’s Prayer most commonly used in England both say “lead us not into temptation”. “I’m not aware of any plans to change the translation in the English-speaking world but you can certainly see the logic of doing so,” said Austen Ivereigh, the pope’s biographer. “It is not God who tempts us into sin but the enemy of human nature. But tradition and familiarity are also important factors in weighing up any decision to modify a translation.”(theguardian)…[+]

The global homicide rate rose last year for the first time in more than a decade, with marked increases in Venezuela and Jamaica, a study has shown.The Small Arms Survey report, published on Thursday, estimated that 385,000 people were killed in homicides across the world in 2016, an increase of 8,000 on the previous year.

Despite that, the report estimated that the overall number of violent deaths had decreased, primarily as a result of fewer people being killed in wars in 2016 than in 2015. Of the five countries with the highest violent death rates in 2016 – Syria, El Salvador, Venezuela, Honduras, and Afghanistan – only two had armed conflicts last year.

The researchers noted that while the increase in the homicide rate “does not necessarily indicate a new trend … it signals growing insecurity in non-conflict areas”. Taking into account population rises, 2016 had a global homicide rate per 100,000 of 5.15 – 0.04 points higher than in 2015. “As the uptick in homicides affects far more people’s perceptions of local security than does the drop in conflict deaths, however, the overall decrease in violent deaths is unlikely to lead to an increased sense of safety at the global scale,” the researchers said.(theguardian)…[+]

Wildfires blazing through California have entered the heart of Los Angeles as authorities warned of an “extreme fire danger” across the city.

Firefighters in the affluent Bel-Air neighbourhood battled to save multimillion-dollar estates in the path of the flames, which have destroyed homes near the Getty museum in America’s second-largest city. Video and photographs posted on social media showed hillsides above busy roads covered in flames, rows of houses reduced to ash, and firefighters spraying water on walls of fire. The largest blaze, the Thomas fire, has covered more than 90,000 acres (36,000 hectares), destroying more than 150 homes and threatening thousands more in Ventura, about 50 miles (80 km) north-west of Los Angeles. With winds forecast to reach 80mph, officials have warned the worst could be yet to come. An alert sent by the countrywide emergency system in Los Angeles said: “Strong winds overnight creating extreme fire danger.”(theguardian)…[+]

A landmark treaty delineating the borders between Greece and Turkey, regarded as a cornerstone of regional peace, should be placed on the rubbish heap of history, according to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. The comments by the notoriously confrontational politician, who rarely travels to Europe, came on the eve of a historic visit to Greece that many had hoped would put fraught bilateral relations on a new footing. Instead, Erdoğan’s words drew sharp rebukes from Greece’s president and head of state, Prokopis Pavlopoulos, and prime minister, Alexis Tsipras.

“The Treaty of Lausanne defines the territory and the sovereignty of Greece, and of the European Union, and this treaty is non-negotiable,” Pavlopoulos said as Erdoğan sat stony-faced next to him, surrounded by Greek and Turkish officials. “It has no flaws, it does not need to be reviewed, or updated.” The row appeared to intensify when Erdoğan insisted that Athens would not have been able to join Nato had it not been for the support of the Turkish government. Attempting to ameliorate the frosty atmosphere, Tsipras told his guest in subsequent talks that respect for international law was the basis of solid ties between the two neighbours.(theguardian)…[+]

Doctors treating the victims of mysterious, invisible attacks on the US embassy in Cuba have discovered brain abnormalities as they search for clues to explain the damage to their hearing, vision, balance and memory.

The most specific finding to date about physical damage from the attacks shows that whatever it was that harmed the Americans, it led to perceptible changes in their brains. It is one of several factors fuelling growing scepticism that some kind of sonic weapon was involved. Medical testing has revealed the embassy workers developed changes to the white matter tracts that let different parts of the brain communicate, several US officials said, describing a growing consensus held by university and government physicians researching the attacks. White matter acts like information highways between brain cells.

Loud, mysterious sounds followed by hearing loss and ear-ringing had led investigators to suspect “sonic attacks”. But officials are now avoiding that term. The sounds may have been the byproduct of something else that caused damage, said three US officials briefed on the investigation.(theguardian)…[+]

India’s government has expanded a scheme offering payment incentives to Hindus who marry members of the country’s poorest and most oppressed Dalit caste.

A scheme introduced in 2013 offered 250,000 rupees (£2,900) to encourage Hindus from higher castes to marry members of the Dalit (“untouchable”) community, in the hope that it would help to remove the stigma of inter-caste marriage and foster greater social cohesion. To qualify, the annual income of the spouse from the high caste had to be less than 500,000 rupees (‎£5,800). The government envisaged about 500 such marriages annually, but less than 100 have taken place each year. On Wednesday, the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment announced it would scrap the income ceiling, and said all couples in which one spouse is from the Dalit caste would receive the cash incentive.

Ancient prejudices against Dalits remain stubbornly entrenched in India. Marriages between the higher castes and Dalits are very rare, with the vast majority of Indians marrying within their own caste. Many Indians will not even eat with a Dalit. Dalits were traditionally thought to fall outside the four castes that determined the shape of Hindu lives, from jobs and diets to marriage prospects.(theguardian)…[+]

A cacophony of angry and despairing voices across the Middle East and the world has urged Donald Trump not to recognise Jerusalem as the capital of Israel at a planned speech on Wednesday, warning him that any such announcement would destroy the peace process, strengthen the extremists and weaken the US’s standing in the world.

The pope issued an unusually heartfelt plea to the president to respect the status quo on the city, and to conform with UN resolutions. He told thousands of people at his general audience: “I cannot keep quiet about my deep worry about the situation that has been created in the last few days.” Pope Francis said he hoped “wisdom and prudence prevail, in order to avoid adding new elements of tension to a global panorama that is already convulsed and marked by so many cruel conflicts”.

The spokesman for the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said the US was “plunging the region and the world into a fire with no end in sight”. He added that the Organisation for Islamic Co-operation would meet in Istanbul on 13 December in a special session to co-ordinate a response.(theguardian)…[+]