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French president’s offer seems calculated to appease Donald Trump’s discontent with the current ‘bad deal’ on Iran’s nuclear programme

Emmanuel Macron has proposed negotiations on a “new deal” aimed at curbing Iran’s military power and regional activities, to exist alongside a three year-old agreement that restricts the country’s nuclear programme.

Related: The Trump-Macron minibreak makes for some fantastique photographs

The officer, identified as Ken Lam, arrested Alek Minassian, who allegedly drove a van into pedestrians, killing 10 and injuring dozens

A Canadian police officer is being hailed for the restraint and professionalism he showed in arresting the suspect in the Toronto van attack without firing a single shot.

Related: 'This lady died in front of me': Toronto shocked into silence after van fatalities

Photographs from Sihanouk in the country’s south west reveal locals living amid a staggering tide of plastic pollution

Looking down into the water that lies beneath the ramshackle houses of Sihanouk, Cambodia, it is hard to imagine that the sea is there at all. Instead, there is dense layer upon layer of plastic waste clogging the water, piling up around poles that support the wooden homes, carpeting the beach.

Remains found near mausoleum destroyed after 1979 revolution, which deposed Pahlavi dynasty

A mummified body found near a shrine in Tehran could be of the early 20th-century Iranian monarch Reza Shah, a polarising figure whose reappearance would be problematic for the country’s present Islamic leaders.

Local media have published conflicting reports about this week’s discovery at Shah Abdol-Azim shrine, close to a former royal mausoleum south of the capital where the shah had been buried.

Prime minister reportedly discussed the plight of Raif Badawi, Saudi sentenced to 1,000 lashes, whose wife has asylum in Canada

Canada’s prime minister, Justin Trudeau, expressed his “serious concern” over the continued imprisonment of the Saudi blogger Raif Badawi to the kingdom’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz, his office said on Tuesday.

The 34-year-old prisoner, who ran a blog that promoted free speech and women’s rights in Saudi Arabia, was arrested in 2012 and sentenced to 1,000 lashes and 10 years in jail for “insulting Islam” in a case that sparked an international outcry.

Jaime Rodríguez’s grim suggestion for punishing those who steal from the public purse drew incredulty and mockery, then terrifying reality

When a Mexican presidential candidate proposed in a televised debate that public servants who steal should have their hands cut off, his comments were initially greeted with disbelief, and then mockery.

Hours later, however, there was a much grimmer reaction: drug cartel members dumped a dismembered corpse in the Pacific city of Acapulco with a sign saying that they were already enforcing the punishment.

Samples taken from five locations found concentrations of more than 12,000 microplastic particles per litre of sea ice

Scientists have found a record amount of plastic trapped in Arctic sea ice, raising concern about the impact on marine life and human health.

Up to 12,000 pieces of microplastic particles were found per litre of sea ice in core samples taken from five regions on trips to the Arctic Ocean – as many as three times higher than levels in previous studies.

Exclusive: panel told researcher Aleksandr Kogan that Facebook’s approach fell ‘far below ethical expectations’

A Cambridge University ethics panel rejected research by the academic at the centre of the Facebook data harvesting scandal over the social network’s “deceptive” approach to its users privacy, newly released documents reveal.

A 2015 proposal by Aleksandr Kogan, a member of the university’s psychology department, involved the personal data from 250,000 Facebook users and their 54 million friends that he had already gleaned via a personality quiz app in a commercial project funded by SCL, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica.

EU says Mexican producers can use manchego name to describe their cheaper, cow’s milk cheese

Makers and lovers of manchego, Spain’s famous sheep’s milk cheese, have vowed to fight an EU decision allowing Mexican producers to carry on using the same name to describe their cheaper, cow’s milk cheese.

A battle over ownership of the name had delayed a major trade deal between the EU and Mexico for months, but agreement was finally reached over the weekend in a deal that will allow 99% of goods to be traded between Mexico and the EU on a tariff-free basis.

Shell company tied to the Fox News host bought homes through Jeff Brock, who was charged in 2016 with fraud and conspiracy for his role in a scheme to rig auctions on foreclosed properties

• Michael Cohen case shines light on Sean Hannity’s property empire
  
• Will Sean Hannity’s ties to Michael Cohen be his undoing?
  

Sean Hannity’s real estate venture bought houses through a property dealer who was involved in a criminal conspiracy to fraudulently obtain foreclosed homes, according to records reviewed by the Guardian.

In 2012, a shell company linked to the Fox News host bought 11 homes in Georgia that had been purchased by the dealer, Jeff Brock, following foreclosures. Brock transferred the properties to corporate vehicles that sold them on to the Hannity-linked company at a profit.

US president calls North Korean leader ‘very open and honourable’ – a dramatic turnaround from previous insults directed his way

Donald Trump has called Kim Jong-un “very open” and “very honourable” and said the North Korean regime wanted a summit as soon as possible.

The president’s compliments marked a dramatic turnaround from “Little Rocket Man” – one of the insults Trump aimed at Kim before the North Korean dictator’s announcement last week that he was suspending nuclear and missile testing.

Post appears to connect alleged killer with ‘incel’, or ‘involuntary celibate’, communities that have made sexual frustration the basis for misogyny

Shortly before a rented van ploughed into a crowd of pedestrians in Toronto, killing 10 and wounding 14 others, a short and cryptic message was posted on the Facebook account of Alek Minassian, the man accused of carrying out the attack.

The post referred to another mass killer – Elliot Rodger, who shot dead six people and wounded 13 others in Isla Vista, California, in 2014 – and said that the “incel rebellion has already begun. We will overthrow all the Chads and the Stacys”.

EU security commissioner says new regulations may have to be brought in if tech firms fail to tackle issues voluntarily

Brussels may threaten social media companies with regulation unless they move urgently to tackle fake news and Cambridge Analytica-style use of personal data before the European elections in 2019.

The EU security commissioner, Julian King, said “short-term, concrete” plans needed to be in place before the elections, when voters in 27 EU member states will elect MEPs. The Cambridge Analytica affair had “served to highlight how important [the issue] is”, he told the Guardian.

Law clamping down on people pushing services and trinkets aims to protect valuable but fragile tourism industry

For some tourists at Egypt’s renowned archeological sites, being hectored to buy pieces of parchment, a camel ride or an alabaster statue is all part of the experience.

But the harassment might become a thing of the past, after parliament approved a law allowing authorities to fine up to EGP10,000 (about £405) anyone found to be pestering tourists “with the intention of begging or promoting, offering or selling a good or service”.

Inadequate support for Hong Kong’s ageing population means for some older citizens, scavenging and selling boxes and scrap is the only way to scrape by

Miss Wong, 65, scavenges the streets of Hong Kong’s Sheung Shui area in search of disused cardboard to sell to local recycling plants. She starts her day at 7am and often works until 9pm, seven days a week. For her efforts, she receives about HK$41 (£3.60) per day.

Wong is one of an estimated thousand senior citizens nicknamed “cardboard grannies” who collect and sell waste boxes and other scrap across nine of the poorest districts in the city.

‘Bicycle Day’ on 19 April is the 75th anniversary of the day Albert Hofmann accidentally discovered LSD, changing his perceptions – and the city’s future

Seventy-five years ago, the Swiss chemist Albert Hofmann experienced the world’s first full-blown LSD trip on his way home from his lab in Basel. Hofmann had been researching the ergot fungus, hoping to develop a drug to treat fatigue. Among the compounds he was analysing was lysergic acid – Lysergsäure-Diethylamid in German, also known as LSD. On Friday 16 April 1943, Hofmann left the lab feeling a little dizzy: “I lay down and had these wonderful dreams – I saw every thought as an image,” he said in an interview for his 100th birthday. The chemist concluded that he had accidentally touched the substance, and was intrigued by its powerful effect.

Three days later, on 19 April, he returned to the lab and swallowed a tiny amount just to see what would happen: “As it later turned out, it was five times too much and gave me a horror trip.” He asked an assistant to take him home by bicycle, and Basel transformed into a panorama of hellish and heavenly visions. The bike seemed to freeze to the spot; a friendly neighbour turned into an evil witch. Hours later, Hofmann felt wonderful. “LSD called me, I didn’t seek it out,” he recalled. “It came to me.”

For decades, Haifa has been Israel’s model of what a ‘mixed’ Jewish-Arab city could be. But as the country’s 70th anniversary nears, the strain is showing

Ben-Gurion Boulevard climbs from the bustling port on Haifa’s Mediterranean shore up Mount Carmel towards the famous Bahai shrine, its gleaming golden dome surrounded by lush terraced gardens. On the south side of the palm-lined road, on a spring lunchtime, the Fattoush restaurant is packed with customers chatting noisily in Arabic and Hebrew over Levantine and fusion salads, cardamom-flavoured coffee and exquisite Palestinian knafeh desserts.

Fashionable eateries like Fattoush are one reason why Israel’s third largest city and its biggest “mixed” one, as officially classified, is held up as a model of Jewish-Arab coexistence. Not everyone agrees with the concept, of course, and the “c” word is often qualified, placed in inverted commas, or simply dismissed as propaganda. Official figures say Arabs make up 14% of Haifa’s 280,000-strong population; unofficial estimates are closer to 18%, swelled by students and commuters from nearby Galilee. Public spaces, at least, are open to all. And the ever-present Israeli-Palestinian conflict is, usually, softer-edged than elsewhere in the country.

Perth, Darwin, Adelaide, Melbourne, Brisbane, Hobart, Canberra and Sydney have Instagram presences as distinct as their characters

• See the whole Australian cities week series here

Australia is one of the most urbanised countries in the world, with a full 40% of its population living in either Melbourne or Sydney: large, sprawling, coastal cities with very different personalities. Factoring in the other state, territory and national capitals – Adelaide, Brisbane, Canberra, Hobart, Perth and Darwin – takes that share to two-thirds of the total population of nearly 25 million.

Each of these cities has its own character, typically a result of its geography or weather. There’s Perth, the westernmost city, closer to Bali than the east coast. Canberra, the flat, planned federal capital of fake lakes and roundabouts. Melbourne, with its changeable weather. Harbour-centric Sydney. Hobart, Australia’s second-oldest city. Brisbane, split by the river. Darwin, the largest city of the Northern Territory, changing character from wet season to dry. Post-industrial Adelaide.

As Finland’s government calls time on a bold experiment in giving citizens cash, can others still attempt such utopian schemes?

When the Finnish government embarked on a trial of basic income it was lauded as bold, evidence-focused and innovative. The country became something of a standard bearer in a worldwide push towards basic income projects. In failing to commit to widening the scope of the trial in 2019 beyond its current group, however, that reputation is under threat.

Universal basic income (UBI) in its purest form is a payment that every citizen receives on a regular basis, without condition and as of right, in and out of work. Universal credit is paid on a household basis, is means tested and conditional, for example on recipients proving that they are actively searching for and accepting offers of work. The Finnish trial is not universal, as only 2,000 unemployed people were selected for it, but it is a basic income.

25 April 1986: Her death yesterday came two months short of her 90th birthday and only eight months before the 50th anniversary of King Edward VIII’s abdication to marry her

The Duchess of Windsor, who shook the British monarchy and inspired the children’s playground song, “Hark the herald angels sing, Mrs Simpson’s pinched our king,” will be buried privately on Tuesday beside the husband who gave up a throne and empire for her.

Her death yesterday came two months short of her 90th birthday and only eight months before the 50th anniversary of King Edward VIII’s abdication to marry her.

Who would have thought the Anzac Day opening of a new Monash museum at Villers-Bretonneux in France would turn into a diplomatic incident?
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Those damn French never could be trusted. The opening of the Monash Centre at Villers-Bretonneux was supposed to mark a century of amity between our two peoples yet the French prime minister, Édouard Philippe, delivered a speech that blew Malcolm Turnbull’s to smithereens.

A lot of words have been shed on the western front. This is a place of blood and poetry. A national leader opening a new museum commemorating these battles has to have something to say.

Humanitarian chief and special envoy warn of potential for a humanitarian catastrophe

The UN’s two most senior Syria experts have warned of an Aleppo-style humanitarian catastrophe in Idlib as an EU donor conference aimed to raise up to $6bn (£4bn)to help Syrians displaced both inside and outside the country.

Idlib is the last major territory still in rebel hands. It is partly held by Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham, a jihadi group that Russia and the Syrian government regard as a legitimate target in an area where civilians and fighters continue to pour in as part of evacuation deals in other parts of the country.

The ban comes with the world’s stiffest fines and some businesses are struggling to find affordable alternatives, but in Nairobi’s shanty towns the clean-up is changing lives

Waterways are clearer, the food chain is less contaminated with plastic – and there are fewer “flying toilets”.

A year after Kenya announced the world’s toughest ban on plastic bags, and eight months after it was introduce, the authorities are claiming victory – so much so that other east African nations Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi, Rwanda and South Sudan are considering following suit.

Relief for party and Trump after surprising Democratic special election victories in other Republican strongholds

Republicans held onto a deeply conservative Arizona congressional seat on Tuesday night in a special election race to replace an incumbent lawmaker who resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations.

The Associated Press called the race for Republican Debbie Lesko shortly after 8pm local time, when the results from the first batch of early votes showed she had a 9,000-vote lead over her Democratic opponent, Hiral Tiperneni.

Manaro volcano rumbling, spewing torrents of ash, gas and rocks from its crater

A landslide and flash flood on the Vanuatu island of Ambae is complicating evacuation efforts, with as many as 800 people now sheltering in emergency relief centres.

Ambae Island is home to 11,000 people, and for the second time in six months Manaro volcano on top of Mount Lombenben has started rumbling, spewing torrents of ash, gas and rocks from its crater. The debris is causing breathing and health problems, and threatening livelihoods by burying vegetable plots and crops.

For all the hysteria around Chinese activity in the Pacific Islands, the real point is that Australia’s standing in the region has weakened

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Australia’s responsibility to the Pacific is unique – besides our historical ties with the UK, it is the only relationship specifically mentioned in the constitution. And for 10 of the more than dozen island nations in the region, unquestionably their most important bilateral relationship is with our country. Two things we often forget.

But for the last half decade or so there have been three very clear signs of a distinct step back in terms of Australia’s engagement with the Pacific – all of which has materially changed the way we are viewed in the region we call home.

Britain and the EU are under fire for engaging with a nation with one of the world’s worst human rights records – all in the name of stemming migration

When Amjed Farid was transferred to a small cell in Kober prison on 5 April, he had a sense of deja vu. “I suddenly realised it was the same one I’d been in five years before,” he says. “It brought back some unpleasant memories. I spent a month in solitary, and had hoped I’d never have to see the place again.”

Farid was one of hundreds imprisoned in Sudan in January following peaceful protests against government austerity measures. While some were released after a few weeks, dozens were detained for nearly three months without charge, including British citizen Sidqi Kaballo. Many were kept in a bitterly cold security centre in Khartoum notorious for interrogations and torture, dubbed “the Hotel” by officials.

With the majority of rapes committed by someone known to the victim, the new law could drive offenders to murder to avoid detection

On Saturday India’s government approved the death penalty for convicted rapists of girls under the age of 12, amid a groundswell of public outrage following the gang-rape and murder of an eight-year-old Muslim girl in Jammu and Kashmir state.

The shocking case involved a girl from the Bakarwal nomadic tribe, who was out grazing her horses when she was abducted, drugged and murdered after a week of torture and repeated rape. It led to a nationwide outcry for swifter justice.

Progress has been made but fire safety initiatives are soon to end, unions are being stifled and wages are still the lowest in the world

Five years ago, Asma Khatun pushed through the crowds that had formed around the Rana Plaza building, determined to see the destruction with her own eyes.

Deep cracks had appeared in the eight-storey building outside Dhaka the day before. That morning, workers who had been producing clothes sourced by major international brands had begged not to be sent inside. Managers would not relent. More than 2,000 people filed in. Some time before 9am, floors began to vanish and workers started falling.

In a Bogotá district where violence often dominates headlines, the paper La Esquina is flying off the shelves, covering everything from recipes to plastic surgery tips

In the streets of Bogotá’s infamous red light district, something new and colourful has begun appearing, pasted up between the graffiti on the walls.

Monica Quiroz, biting off strips of thick adhesive tape, is sticking up the laminated, fluorescent pages of this month’s edition of a newspaper written for and by local sex workers.

UN data suggests that the world’s population will hit 11 billion by 2100, with the fastest rises being recorded in Africa and Asia

How many people are there in the world?

We don’t know for sure as all figures are estimates, but UN data suggests there were about a billion people in 1800, 2 billion in 1927, 5 billion in 1987 and just over 7.5 billion today.

Experts say suit alleging election conspiracy could inform the public about Trump and Russia, but some Democrats have voiced concern

By suing the Trump campaign, the Russian government and others, the Democratic National Committee has opened up a new front in a legal battle that is either a campaign for justice or a pitiable attempt to overturn the 2016 election result, depending on whom you ask.

Related: 'Protecting our democracy': DNC chair defends suit against Trump and Russia

North Korean leader’s surprise freeze should be seen more as diplomatic manoeuvre than step towards giving up warheads

Rockets, satellites, missiles and atoms pepper the landscape in Pyongyang. They are the anchors of funfair rides, feature in extravagant floral tributes to the country’s “dear” and “supreme” leaders from the Kim dynasty, and appear on stamps, apartment buildings and school walls.

These celebrations of the country’s weapons programme serve as a constant reminder to residents and visitors of how critical North Korea’s nuclear project has been to its national identity and security.

Two-thirds of young people think abortion should be legal in all or most cases – a glimmer of good news in a time of few wins

The Week in Patriarchy is a weekly roundup of what’s happening in the world of feminism and sexism. If you’re not already receiving it by email, make sure to subscribe.

A win for security, but real acid test of Pyongyang’s intentions is whether it will give up the weapons it has already built

North Korea has announced it will cease testing nuclear devices and missiles, and promised to shut down its primary nuclear test site at Punggye-ri. If this is genuine, it is a serious step forward, but we should greet it with cautious optimism.

We have been on the cusp of a breakthrough with North Korea before, only to be disappointed. There will be a lot of questions. But there is no need to be recalcitrantly hawkish about this. Within the limits of North Korea’s strained credibility, this is a win for allied security.

The US president, Donald Trump, and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, exchange a vigorous handshake at the White House. Macron is the first leader to be accorded a state visit since Trump came to power in January 2017 

The US president has treated his French counterpart to a colourful welcome at the White House. As the two leaders stood for a photo-op, Donald Trump said he and Emmanuel Macron had 'a very special relationship' before brushing away what he said was a 'little piece' of dandruff from Macron's jacket to 'make him perfect'. While the French president has tried to develop a close relationship with Trump since taking office last May, he has so far seen few tangible results on issues from Iran to climate politics.

The French president and his wife Brigitte opened their pomp-filled three-day state visit with a double date with Donald and Melania Trump at George Washington’s house

Political dramas Homeland and Designated Survivor have recently explored how a president could be removed from office using the 25th amendment to the US constitution. It can only be triggered if the president is deemed 'unfit for office'. But how would it work in reality? Who would be needed to trigger it? And why has it never been used before? The Guardian's US political reporter Sabrina Siddiqui explains

Kim Jong-un visited survivors after dozens of Chinese tourists were killed when their bus plunged off a bridge in North Korea. The state-run KCNA news agency reported on Tuesday that the North Korean leader had visited two survivors of the crash on Sunday in which 32 Chinese and four North Koreans died

• 'Uncontrollable grief' of Kim Jong-un over North Korea bus disaster

The Toronto police chief, Mark Saunders, says Alek Minassian, suspected of driving a van into pedestrians, killing 10 people and injuring 15, was not known to police. The federal public safety minister, Ralph Goodale, standing next to Saunders, says: 'There would appear to be no national security connection.'

• Toronto van incident in which 10 pedestrians died appeared deliberate, say police

A van jumped a kerb in a northern suburb of Toronto and ran into a crowd of pedestrians, leaving numerous casualties

• Toronto van incident – follow the latest live updates