Seven Keys to Get Out of a Rut

Prime minister likely to have to request long article 50 extension after Bercow intervenes

Theresa May’s government has been plunged into constitutional chaos after the Speaker blocked the prime minister from asking MPs to vote on her Brexit deal for a third time unless it had fundamentally changed.

With 11 days to go until Britain is due to leave the EU, May was forced to pull her plans for another meaningful vote because John Bercow said she could not ask MPs to pass the same deal, after they rejected it twice by huge margins. EU officials, meanwhile, were considering offering her a new date for a delayed Brexit to resolve the crisis.

President describes scale of disaster as huge, as Red Cross says most of Beira damaged or destroyed

More than 1,000 people are feared dead in a devastating cyclone that hit Mozambique on Friday, the country’s president has said.

Filipe Nyusi told Mozambican radio he had seen “many bodies” floating in the overflowing Pungwe and Busi rivers. “It appears that we can register more than 1,000 deaths,” he said, adding that more than 100,000 people were at risk because of severe flooding.

Prime minister says she will do everything she can to avoid attracting attention to Christchurch attack accused

Jacinda Ardern has said she will render the person accused over the Christchurch terrorist attack “nameless” and urged the public to speak the victims’ names instead.

Addressing parliament for the first time since Friday’s attack, the New Zealand prime minister said the accused would face “the full force of the law in New Zealand” but that she would never speak his name.

Weibo users post selfies of themselves in full make-up after woman stopped by security from boarding a train

China’s goth community have united in an online protest after a woman was ordered to remove her dramatic make-up before being allowed on the subway to avoid “distressing” her fellow passengers.

In a post on Chinese social media site Weibo, the woman, who remains unnamed, recounted how subway security in the southern city of Guangzhou had stopped her from travelling because of her heavy eye make-up and dark lipstick.

California town bars access to site as stunning flowers draw at least 50,000 visitors

This weekend thousands of tourists frolicked through fields of poppies in southern California, posting photos tagged #superbloom. But for the town of Lake Elsinore, the influx of visitors quickly became a #poppynightmare.

Related: Super bloom: can this tiny California town avoid another 'flowergeddon'?

Aid agencies struggle to cope with rise in new arrivals, with scores dying on the way to the settlements

An estimated 7,000 women and children from more than 40 nations, including the US, UK, Australia and Europe, are living in tense and chaotic conditions in camps in north-eastern Syria, where they are “not wanted” due to their supposed affiliation with Islamic State.

Among them are hundreds of unaccompanied or separated children, some just babies as young as five months, according to aid groups and other sources.

Fears of Chinese influence and ‘Russian propaganda’ dog last weeks of campaigning before vote in April

Voter lists have become the latest battleground in the run-up to elections in the world’s third-largest democracy, with claims of infiltration by Chinese and Russian hackers and millions of “ghost voters” being added.

Last week – a month before the election – the head of Indonesia’s election commission (KPU) fuelled foreign meddling fears after he was quoted as saying that hackers from Russia and China had been unrelenting in attempts to “manipulate and modify” Indonesia’s electoral roll, which includes the data of more than 187 million eligible voters.

Since the Stockholm deal in December, airstrikes on Hodeidah have decreased but casualties have doubled elsewhere

Yemen is continuing to experience a steady stream of violence, claiming at least one life every eight hours – despite the agreements reached between the internationally recognised government and the Houthis at talks in Sweden just over three months ago.

According to figures compiled by two international aid agencies, in some areas of the country the number of casualties, far from falling, had doubled where the conflict was flaring up.

Exclusive: Environment Agency chief calls for use to be cut by a third

England is set to run short of water within 25 years, the chief executive of the Environment Agency has warned.

The country is facing the ‘‘jaws of death”, Sir James Bevan said, at the point where water demand from the country’s rising population surpasses the falling supply resulting from climate change.

The quirky home features dinosaurs and a sign proclaiming ‘Yabba-dabba-doo’, but neighbors aren’t amused

California architecture has captured the world’s imagination with its classic midcentury bungalows and beach houses. But one architectural landmark in the state has gone a distinctively different route, and it’s not to the town’s liking.

The “Flintstones” home in northern California appears to take its architectural cues from the town of Bedrock. The experimental house was built in the 1970s using a technique that involved spraying concrete to create curved walls. The result is a building where Fred and Wilma would feel at home, and it has become a landmark for drivers passing on I-280.

Democratic presidential hopeful has tweeted at least 14 times in 10 years about cheating on sleep with his ‘hot friend’ coffee

The US Democratic presidential hopeful Cory Booker has been exposed on Twitter for making the same joke – about loving coffee so much he is “dating it” – almost every year for the past 10 years.

The New Jersey senator has tweeted slight variations on the same phrase – that he has “broken up with” sleep and is now “dating coffee” – 14 times over the past decade.

The Hong Kong MTR’s ‘rail plus property’ model keep fares cheap and makes the company completely self-sustaining. Could loss-making metro systems in other cities learn lessons?

“Once we build the railway, the value of land rises and we capture the increase in value,” says Jacob Kam, managing director and soon-to-be chief executive, of Hong Kong’s Mass Transit Railway (MTR) Corporation.

Related: Hong Kong faces commuter chaos after rare train collision

Bridges are often defining urban features – but what if your city had chosen one of these designs instead?

Gender-specific “Frauenticket” will be 21% cheaper than usual and available on 18 March in stunt to flag German pay gap

Women travelling on Berlin’s metro, buses or trams will pay 21% less than men next Monday in a stunt to boost the visibility of Germany’s gaping gender pay gap.

The city’s public transport operator, BVG, said its “Frauenticket” will be available on 18 March only, to mark Equal Pay Day in Germany. Under the slogan “Mind the pay gap”, it said its cut-price ticket was intended to flag the 21% difference between men and women’s average earnings, one of the biggest gender pay gaps in Europe.

Cities have long sought to preserve historic views of landmarks or mountainous horizons. Architect Tom Brigden maps out protected ‘viewing corridors’ in cities from London to Vancouver

Value in the View is published by Riba

The 38-year-old prime minister has been tested like no other New Zealand leader before by the worst terrorism attack in the nation’s modern history

In the hours after a gunman killed 50 people at two mosques in central Christchurch, prime minister Jacinda Ardern called a press conference that set the tone for a grief-stricken country. It has become a seminal moment of her leadership story.

The 38-year-old prime minister has been tested like few New Zealand leaders before, leading the country as it deals with the worst terrorism attack in the nation’s modern history.

Bill Giles calls on broadcasters to add slot explaining humans’ impact on climate

The veteran weatherman Bill Giles is calling on the BBC and other major broadcasters to radically overhaul their forecasts to incorporate information about climate change.

The former head of BBC weather presenters has said more needs to be done by broadcasters to highlight climate change to face the “reality more squarely and openly”.

Elena Anosova, a Russia-based photographer, travelled to Siberia to document isolated communities for her project Out of the Way. The village of Taiga has a population of 100 adults, the closest town is 185 miles away, and a helicopter shuttle visits twice a month at the most

At its best, social work can break cycles of crisis, and help people change their lives and communities

• Guardian Jobs: see the latest vacancies in social care
  

Too often, social services are designed as rotating doors. They focus on individuals in crisis who, when the symptoms of the emergency have eased, are sent directly back to the stressful situation that caused all the damage – a painful, costly and tragic cycle.

There is little focus in formal social services on helping people to transform their environments to provide ongoing support and love, let alone engaging people to become advocates for their rights. Yet outside these limitations, social workers are supporting connections in communities designed to last people’s whole lifetimes. In many countries we call it “working beyond services”. There are countless examples around the world.

Policy shifts such as more in-person interviews, stricter guidance on denying student visas, travel bans and lower refugee caps have reduced immigration

When Moshe Schulman’s then fiancee visited the United States consulate in Casablanca, he believed that she would leave her interview – for a K-1 visa – with permission to return to New York and they could finally stop conducting their relationship long-distance.

Instead, she walked out with even more paperwork.

Michael Wernick to resign as clerk of the privy council as Trudeau battles allegations he and his aides pressured ex-attorney general

Canada’s top civil servant – a central figure in the political crisis that continues to damage the prime minister, Justin Trudeau – has resigned from his post, following allegations of political bias from parliamentarians.

Related: Trudeau scandal: PM's party blocks ex-attorney general from testifying again

Christian Porter estimates that as many as 185,000 Australians could be experiencing elder abuse each year

The federal government is aiming to crack down on elder abuse with a new national hotline and $18m over four years for frontline services trials designed to support victims.

Announcing the initiative on Tuesday, the federal attorney general, Christian Porter, said the trials would consist of five specialist elder abuse units, three health justice partnerships, and four case management and mediation services.

Backing calls from the TaxPayers’ Alliance to face down ‘NGO cartels’ shows a profound misunderstanding of how the aid system works

Priti Patel is not known for her transparency or her subtlety.

The former international development secretary was forced to resign over misleading prime minister Theresa May over an undeclared “family holiday” to Israel that – among other things – saw her fail to tell the British embassy that she would be meeting with Israeli politicians and visiting the occupied Golan Heights, against all British government conventions for a serving minister.

Draft documents suggest US will refuse to reaffirm commitment to international declaration on women’s rights at New York forum

US officials in New York are attempting to water down language and remove the word “gender” from documents being negotiated at the UN, in what is being seen as a threat to international agreements on women’s rights.

In negotiations at the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), which resume at UN headquarters this week, the US wants to replace “gender” in the forum’s outcome document with references only to women and girls.

Wildlife trust that funded ‘eco-guards’ at the centre of rights abuse claims comes under scrutiny over failure to alert charities’ watchdog

A British charity set up to fund conservation parks in the Congo basin knew about allegations that tribal people were being abused by park guards but failed to alert the charities’ watchdog, the Guardian can reveal.

Last week, WWF launched an inquiry into claims that it has funded paramilitary guards accused of torturing, sexually assaulting and murdering people in Africa and Asia. In response to the claims, published by BuzzFeed News, the organisation said it has “stringent policies” to ensure the safeguarding of indigenous peoples’ rights and would take “swift action” should the review uncover any breaches.

Young unmarried mothers are often forced to live in poverty, unable to find work and shunned by their families and communities

Photographs: Carol Allen-Storey/Hope for Rwanda

Senior doctors go on strike as president is warned that lack of medicine could lead to collapse of emergency services

A doctors’ strike in Zimbabwe entered its second day on Wednesday with health workers claiming patients in the biggest state hospital are dying due to a lack of drugs and medical supplies.

Dozens of doctors picketed outside Parirenyatwa hospital demanding improvements and claiming government promises to improve the health service had come to nothing.

When someone makes an inappropriate joke, or when a senator makes incendiary remarks, speak up

When I walked into work on Monday I told myself I was going to be strong. Then an Indigenous colleague pulled me aside and hugged me and I crumbled in her arms. She told me that the Indigenous community was so sorry for what has happened to our community, and we talked and cried. I, like many other Muslims, have felt the pain of the Christchurch mosque massacre so viscerally.

I was so shaken that I did not step out at all over the weekend.

Any 28-year-old has grown up in a time when racism was ratcheting up in the public culture

The worst terror attack in New Zealand’s modern history took place on Friday, and the alleged perpetrator is an Australian.

Appropriately, this calamity has started a process of deep reflection in the man’s home country. Everywhere, decent Australians are asking, how did we get here? Do we own him?

There has been extensive, international discussion about the role of the online subculture of the far right in these events – the codes, memes and signals of internet-mediated white supremacy.

Related: To prevent another Christchurch we must confront the right’s hate preachers | Jonathan Freedland

This ugly form of racism shapes the way Muslims are perceived and treated

On Friday morning, as the news from Christchurch was still rolling across radio bulletins, Sir Mark Rowley, the former head of counter-terrorism at the Met, was commenting on the horror on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. Fifty Muslims had been brutally murdered, and 48 seriously injured. For 17 horrifying minutes, a white supremacist terrorist unloaded round after round of bullets into men, women and children.

Islamophobia was undoubtedly real and on the rise and being propagated online, said Rowley. But, he went on to quibble, Islamophobia wasn’t racism. To conflate the two was, he claimed, “clumsy thinking”.

The pattern has changed and must not be ignored

Christchurch has turned everyone’s attention to the phenomenon of extreme rightwing terrorism. But it is an alarm bell that authorities in the UK have been ringing for some time, having seen an ascendant extreme-right threat. Our collective attention, when thinking about terrorism, may be dominated by Isis, but given the rich vein of references to the UK in Brenton Tarrant’s screed, there are clearly other concerns to which we should pay attention.

Around the turn of the century and during the early noughties, the extreme-right threat in the UK tended to consist of a ragbag of isolated loners. For the most part middle-aged white men, they tended to be discovered by chance – violent characters with spotty employment histories, a few of them picked up as a result of investigations into online paedophilia. Some particularly shambolic cases, such as that of Neil Lewington, were uncovered by accident. Lewington was arrested by British Transport police after urinating on a train platform in 2008. Subsequent investigations uncovered an aspirant one-man terror campaign, planning pipe-bomb attacks and gathering Nazi memorabilia.

MPs in New Zealand's parliament have paid tribute to the victims of the Christchurch terror attacks this afternoon, opening the day's session with a Muslim prayer

Hundreds of people have been forced to evacuate as a statewide emergency was declared after rivers overflowed their banks and multiple levees failed

Aerial footage shows the scale of damage to Beira in Mozambique following Cyclone Idai. Up to 90% of the port city has been damaged or destroyed, according to the Red Cross.

Idai hit Beira last week before moving inland and spreading heavy winds and rain to Zimbabwe and Malawi. More than 215 people have been killed by the storm across the affected countries, while hundreds more are missing and more than 1.5 million people have been affected by the widespread destruction and flooding

• Cyclone Idai death toll in Mozambique 'could rise above 1,000'

Students from various schools paid tribute to two of their peers who died in the Christchurch shooting by performing a haka, a ceremonial Maori dance to mourn the victims and honour the dead. They were joined by scores of fellow students to form a deafening chorus. At least 50 people were killed in the attack, which was the worst mass killing in New Zealand's history.

The owner of Gun City, David Tipple, has said his shop sold the alleged Christchurch gunman four category A firearms and ammunition, after police verified the online mail-order process. It is still unknown where the alleged assailant obtained the semi-automatic weapon reportedly used in the attack

Thousands of people have mourned victims of the Ethiopian Airlines flight 302 crash, as 17 empty caskets draped in the national flag were accompanied through the streets of the capital, Addis Ababa, amid emotional scenes. Relatives, friends, and colleagues of the 157 people killed when the plane crashed on 10 March lit candles and held prayers during the service. The identification of some remains of crash victims could take weeks or months, according to experts

• Ethiopian Airlines crash: thousands turn out for funeral service