Business executives implicated in a Brazilian corruption scandal and relatives of an Angolan politician who has been accused of bribery have secretly bought access to Europe via the government of Portugal.A businessman sentenced to 18 years under house arrest and the former president of a scandal-ridden construction conglomerate are also among those named in a leaked document as having paid hundreds of thousands of euros in their pursuit of a “golden visa” in Portugal. The news follows another leak that showed Russian oligarchs and a Syrian businessman under US sanctions were among hundreds of investors granted citizenship from Cyprus in exchange for cash investment. The two leaks offer a detailed insight into golden visa schemes, whereby countries trade passports, citizenship or visas for investment from wealthy individuals.  Portugal’s “golden resident permit” programme requires investors to place €500,000 (£440,000) in property in exchange for permanent residency. After five years, residency can be converted to citizenship, granting investors the right to live and work throughout Europe under EU rules.(theguardian)…[+]

President Trump on Sunday re-tweeted doctored footage that showed him hitting Hillary Clinton with a golf ball, knocking her over. In doing so he continued an enduring feud that was given new energy this week with the publication of Clinton’s campaign memoir, What Happened.The gif, which uses old film of Clinton stumbling as she enters a plane and complements “Trump’s amazing golf swing #CrookedHillary”, came from an account, @Fuctupmind, which on Sunday also published a gif of a kitten falling asleep. Seven hours later, the account tweeted: “What happened?”The president’s retweet drew condemnation reminiscent of the response to doctored footage he tweeted in July, which showed him attacking a man with a CNN logo for a head.(theguardian)…[+]

Rightwing populists could make up the biggest opposition force in the next German parliament after a series of scandals appear to have galvanised rather than weakened the chances of the far-right in next Sunday’s election. The Eurosceptic, anti-immigration Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party has pulled up to third place in four of the last five polls conducted. A survey published on Sunday by the polling institute Emnid in Bild am Sonntag newspaper has the AfD on 11%, behind Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union on 36% and the centre-left SPD on 22%.

Should Merkel and her main challenger, Martin Schulz, agree to continue governing in a “grand coalition” between the two strongest parties, the AfD could lead the opposition in the Bundestag, a role that traditionally carries additional privileges, such as the presidency of the parliament’s budget committee. According to a projection published last week by Berlin’s Tagesspiegel newspaper, the far-right party could end up with as many of 89 out of 703 members in the Bundestag.(theguardian)…[+]

Detectives are continuing to question two men, aged 18 and 21, arrested in connection with Friday’s London Underground attack as the government concluded a follow-up attack was not imminent and downgraded the UK terror threat assessment from critical to severe.

The home secretary, Amber Rudd, claimed “good progress” had been made in the investigation following the rush hour incident on Friday morning which involved a crude bomb which failed to detonate properly but still resulted in injuries to 30 people at Parsons Green tube station. Police searched three addresses in Surrey and west London on Sunday, one the home of a couple who fostered children and who were decorated by the Queen for their public service, the other believed to be the home of a 21-year-old man close to the perimeter road of Heathrow airport who was arrested late on Saturday. It was unclear what connection the third address had with the investigation.(theguardian)…[+]

Iceland could face its second snap election in a year after one of the three parties in its ruling coalition said it was quitting because of a “serious breach of trust” over the alleged cover-up of a scandal involving the prime minister’s father. The Bright Future party said on its Facebook page that it had “decided to terminate cooperation with the government”, effectively bringing down Bjarni Benediktsson’s administration barely nine months after it was formed.

The walkout follows reports that the prime minister’s Independence party tried to conceal a letter written by his father, Benedikt Sveinsson, to help a friend convicted of child sexual offences have his criminal record cleared. The justice minister, Sigridur Andersen, of the Independence party, told Benediktsson of the letter in July but the government did not publicly disclose its existence until forced to do so by a parliamentary committee this week.

Sveinsson’s letter recommended that his friend Hjalti Sigurjón Hauksson, sentenced to five years in prison in 2004 for repeatedly raping his stepdaughter for 12 years since the age of five, should have his “honour restored”. The widely criticised Icelandic legal procedure restores the “civil standing” of people who have served sentences for serious offences – allowing them, for example, to apply for certain jobs – without erasing their criminal records. One requirement for the status is a letter of recommendation from a close friend.(theguardian)…[+]

A terrorist incident has been declared at Parsons Green tube station in west London after reports of a blast.

• A terrorist incident has been declared at Parsons Green underground station in west London after an explosion on a tube carriage.
• The Metropolitan police and British Transport Police (BTP), including armed officers, are at the scene, along with the London ambulance service (LAS).
• The Met’s assistant commissioner Mark Rowley said a suspected improvised explosive device (IED) was thought to be responsible for the blast. Scotland Yard said no one has
• Police sources said the device only partially exploded. Initial examination by explosives experts led them to conclude it was “viable”, meaning the device was meant to explode more fully. A circuit board was recovered from the scene.
• A massive search is under way for whoever planted the homemade device. Detectives are examining CCTV from the London Underground network to determine where the perpetrator entered and exited the tube system.
• Scotland Yard’s counter-terrorism command, SO15, has taken the lead in the investigation, supported by MI5. The inquiry into the explosion was initially led by BTP.
• St Mary’s hospital in Paddington, central London, has declared a major incident, and there have been reports of people sustaining burns. Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS foundation trust also declared a major incident.
• LAS said it had taken 19 people to a number of London hospitals. “None are thought to be in a serious or life-threatening condition,” a statement said. Three others went to hospitals independently.
• One witness, Sham Shakil, told the BBC he saw several people “falling over themselves” as they tried to get out of Parsons Green station.(theguardian)…[+]

Reports of a deal between Donald Trump and Democratic leaders to protect undocumented migrants who arrived in the US as children have generated ripples of doubt among the president’s supporters, some of whom were alarmed by Trump’s statement on Thursday that “a wall will come later”.

Trump’s campaign promise to build a wall along the US border with Mexico was a main selling point that led conservative elected officials such as Justin Simmons, a state representative in Pennsylvania, to throw their support behind the real-estate developer turned politician. For Simmons and others, reports that Trump had cut some sort of deal on immigration – one that apparently did not include funding for a border wall – over a cozy White House dinner with House minority leader Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer raised a red flag. “I’m actually disappointed in that deal by the president,” Simmons said. “I think a lot of people are starting to wonder if he’s going soft on that issue. I do not agree with that deal. I think had the wall been a part of the deal, I’d be fine with it, but I’m not OK with it at all.”(theguardian)…[+]

Donald Trump has offered condolences to Mexico’s president one week after the country’s worst earthquake in a century, claiming he had been unable to reach Enrique Peña Nieto for several days because of bad mobile phone reception.

Trump’s condolences represent his first public comments on the earthquake, which took place last Thursday and left an estimated 2.5 million people in need of assistance. Mexico’s minister of agriculture, Jose Calzada, said on Tuesday that the death toll had climbed to 98 people, mostly in the southern state of Oaxaca. Several US mayors and members of Congress shared their condolences with Mexico in the immediate aftermath of the 8.2 earthquake, as did Canadian president Justin Trudeau. But the White House did not mention the earthquake until Thursday afternoon. “Spoke to President of Mexico to give condolences on terrible earthquake,” Trump said on Twitter. “Unable to reach for 3 days b/c of his cell phone reception at site.” Peña Nieto has travelled twice to areas affected by the quake, but has also spent time this week in the national capital.(theguardian)…[+]

Brazil’s prosecutor general’s office has filed charges of racketeering and obstruction of justice against President Michel Temer and six other leading politicians from his party – three of whom are already in jail. They are all accused of racketeering.

“They practiced illicit acts in exchange for bribes by way of diverse public organs,” prosecutors said. “Michel Temer is accused of having acted as the leader of the criminal organisation since May 2016.” Temer and two others are also accused of obstruction of justice. It will now be up to the lower house of Congress to vote on whether or not the president should stand trial before the supreme court. Last month, the lower house rejected a prior corruption charge Temer faced.(theguardian)…[+]

Google systematically pays women less than men doing similar work, according to a class action-lawsuit accusing the technology company of denying promotions and career opportunities to qualified women who are “segregated” into lower-paying jobs.The complaint, filed Thursday on behalf of all women employed by Google in California over the last four years, provided the most detailed formal accounts to date of gender discrimination and pay disparities at the company after months of criticisms and a growing chorus of women publicly speaking out.“We’ve been talking about these issues for a long time, and it hasn’t really changed,” Kelly Ellis, a former Google employee and a lead plaintiff on the case, told the Guardian in her first interview about the suit. “There’s been a lot of PR and lip service, but … this is going to be one of the only ways to get these companies to change how they hire and compensate women.”(theguardian)…[+]