More than 120,000 Rohingya people have fled Myanmar for Bangladesh in the last two weeks after a rise in violence against the Muslim ethnic minority, according to the United Nations. The situation has raised fears of a humanitarian crisis in overstretched border camps, with another 400,000 stateless Rohingya people estimated to be trapped in conflict zones in western Myanmar since more “clearance operations” by security forces in Rakhine state began last month. UN aid agencies continue to be blocked from delivering food, water and medicine to the Rohingya, while humanitarian workers on the ground say warehouses stocking vital emergency supplies are being looted. As the international outcry over the crisis grew, an aid group that has been rescuing tens of thousands of refugees from the Mediterranean Sea announced it was redirecting its ship to south-east Asia.(theguardian)…[+]

A Bavarian tax inspector has demonstrated he can hold his drink better than most, by breaking the world record for the number of beer tankards carried over 40 metres (130ft). Oliver Strümpfel carried 29 litre vessels, weighing almost 70kg (154lbs) at a Bavarian beer festival on Sunday. He would have managed 31, had one glass not fallen at the last minute, and another not lost more than 10% of its contents, contravening the rules of Maßkrugtragen – or beer tankard carrying.

The 45-year-old was cheered on by 1,500 spectators shouting “Oli, oli”, at the Gillamoos Fair in Abensberg, which evolved from a 14th-century pilgrimage and is one of Bavaria’s oldest beer fairs. A competition judge from Germany’s record institute and a notary were present to witness Strümpfel’s feat. The most difficult part of the operation was to avoiding excessive spillage before placing the beers on a table at the end of the 40-metre stretch. Strümpfel has been working on his barman skills for almost 10 years, initially taking up the sport in order to oust an Australian who held the record as the Meister of Maßkrugtragen. He managed to beat him in 2010, when he carried 21 tankards. By 2014 he had upped the number to 25.(theguardian)…[+]

A man charged with kidnapping a nine-year-old French girl during a wedding in the Alps has admitted to police that she got into his car but he denies abducting her, his lawyer has said. A week after Maëlys de Araujo went missing in the eastern village of Pont-de-Beauvoisin, a 34-year-old man was remanded in custody on Sunday on charges of “kidnapping, illegal confinement or arbitrary detention”.

The man was a guest at the wedding that Maëlys was attending with her parents when she went missing in the early hours of 27 August. Her DNA was found in his car, which was parked next to the community hall where the celebrations were held and was cleaned the day after. The suspect’s lawyer, Bernard Meraud, said his client told police that Maëlys “got into his car with a little boy, onto the back seat, to see if his [the suspect’s] dog was in the boot.” Meraud confirmed a trace of her DNA had been found on the dashboard but that his client “completely denied” kidnapping her. Meraud said several DNA traces, including that of his client, had been found on the dashboard and that someone who was in contact with the child could have “transferred” her DNA into the vehicle.(theguardian)…[+]

The Turkish government has accused Angela Merkel and Martin Schulz of practising the politics of populism and exclusion after the German election frontrunners agreed that the EU should break off negotiations over future Turkish membership.

In a televised debate on Sunday evening, the German chancellor said she did not believe Turkey should become a member of the EU, and that she would take up with her EU partners the issue of ending accession talks with Ankara. Schulz, her Social Democrat rival in elections on 24 September, said if he became the next chancellor, he would be much more candid than Merkel in his criticism of Turkey’s contravention of human rights under the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.

Turkey, he said, had “crossed all the red lines” and therefore it could no longer become a member of the EU. He added that as German chancellor he would break off EU accession talks with Ankara. İbrahim Kalın, a spokesman for Erdoğa, said Merkel and Schulz had focused on Turkey in their television encounter – which was watched by between a third and a half of German voters – to divert attention from more pressing problems.(Theguardian)…[+]

Pope Francis has revealed that he sought the help of a psychoanalyst for six months when he was 42 and the leader of the Jesuit order in Argentina during the country’s military dictatorship. The pope’s disclosure was made in a book based on 12 in-depth interviews with the French sociologist Dominique Wolton, to be published next week.Francis said the weekly sessions with the psychoanalyst helped him a lot. “For six months, I went to her home once a week to clarify a few things. She was a doctor and psychoanalyst. She was always there,” he told Wolton for the 432-page book Pope Francis: Politics and Society. “Then one day, before she died, she called me. Not to receive the sacraments – because she was Jewish – but for a spiritual dialogue. She was a good person.” Francis told Wolton he now felt free. “Of course, I’m in a cage at the Vatican, but not spiritually. Nothing frightens me,” he said. The pope also took aim at priests who were “rigid and afraid to communicate”.(theguardian)…[+]

Young black people are nine times more likely to be locked up in England and Wales than young white people, according to Ministry of Justice analysis.The official exploratory study also shows that young black people are more likely to be identified with “gang concerns” and be considered a risk to others when being sentenced than any other ethnic group.The research was released on Friday, before next week’s expected publication of the final report of the landmark review into the treatment of black people by the criminal justice system. The report, commissioned by Downing Street and carried out by the Labour MP David Lammy, is expected to include strong recommendations for action.

The Lammy review was given a political boost by Theresa May when she pledged to fight racial injustice during a speech on the steps of No 10 after she became prime minister last year. “If you’re black, you’re treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you’re white,” she said. An interim report by Lammy last November confirmed that people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds were more likely to be jailed for some crimes than those who were white. It revealed ethnic disparities at many stages of the criminal process, including arrest, charging, prosecution and imprisonment. However, the MoJ analysis shows that the problem is more acute for young black people. While black people are four times more likely to be in prison than white people, the incarceration rate rises to nine times more likely for those under the age of 18.(theguardian)…[+]

A week after the storm Harvey began battering southeast Texas, residents in some places returned home and began the long, hard slog toward recovery, while other areas remained very much in the midst of a crisis on Friday. For the second day in a row, there was no running water in Beaumont, after flooding shut down the two pumping stations that supply that city of almost 120,000 people near the Louisiana border. With most routes in and out of Beaumont blocked by water and debris, and floodwater still rising there even as it dropped elsewhere, federal and state agencies struggled to truck in enough bottled water to meet the need. In Houston, where thousands of people had been pulled to safety from stranded vehicles and rooftops, city work crews collected trash and cleared debris-choked streets, and people by the thousands returned to their homes to see what was left of their belongings. “This is going to be a multiyear project for Texas to be able to dig out of this catastrophe,” Gov. Greg Abbott said on Friday morning.(nytimes)…[+]

A Brazilian court has blocked an attempt by the president, Michel Temer, to open up swaths of the Amazon forest to mining companies after an outcry by environmental campaigners and climate activists. The federal judge Rolando Valcir Spanholo said the president went beyond his authority in issuing a decree to abolish Renca, an area of 46,000 sq km (17,760 sq miles) that has been protected since 1984. Approving an injunction requested by public prosecutors, the judge said the dissolution of Renca (more formally known as the National Reserve of Copper and Associates) could only be done by Congress. But this may be only a temporary reprieve for the area, which is thought to contain deposits of gold, copper, tantalum, iron ore, nickel and manganese.

The attorney general has appealed. In several previous cases related to development of environmentally sensitive areas or indigenous territory, higher court judges have overturned rulings made by local courts. But the injunction buys a little time for opponents and adds to the pressure on Temer, who has repeatedly come under fire for putting economic interests ahead of the environment.(theguardian)…[+]

One of Yemen’s most prominent political analysts and activists is being held incommunicado, without access to a lawyer or his family, after he was detained in Sana’a by the Houthi rebels that control the city. Hisham al-Omeisy has been a rare on-the-ground commentator during Yemen’s civil war, and has been critical of both sides in his outspoken Twitter posts.

He is understood to have been detained on 14 August in Sana’a’s Jawlat al-Misbah neighbourhood. The Iran-backed Houthis are allied with Yemen’s former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, and have been in conflict with forces loyal to another president, the ousted Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, since 2015. A military intervention led by Saudi Arabia aimed at reinstating Hadi has exacerbated a dire humanitarian situation. Omeisy’s last post on Twitter indicated that “armed” forces had showed up at his doorstep. He is now being held in an undisclosed location.(theguardian)…[+]

Hundreds of people were feared cut off by flood waters on Wednesday as tropical storm Harvey spared Houston overnight but moved east, inundating the industrial Texas cities of Beaumont and Port Arthur and making landfall again, coming to shore in south-west Louisiana.On Wednesday morning, the Harris County sheriff’s office confirmed two drowning deaths north of Houston, bringing the official death toll to 20 though there were reports by local officials of as many as 30 deaths. One victim was in a truck that was washed away and another was seen swimming in deep water. The toll was expected to rise. Jeff Lindner, a meteorologist with the Harris County flood control district, told the AP that in the Houston area, “the water levels are going down. And that’s for the first time in several days”. But in Port Arthur, near the coast, rescue teams struggled to reach desperate residents.(theguardian)…[+]