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US and European diplomats continue standoff over top Bosnia and Herzegovina post

Diplomats from the US and Europe have been unable to resolve their differences and agree on a new top international envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a standoff which has become a transatlantic test of wills over influence in the Balkans. A meeting in Sarajevo to select a new high representative, a post with far-reaching powers, ended without a compromise, in a spat that has undermined western cohesion in the region in the Trump era. All that was agreed on Tuesday was that the current high representative, the German politician Christian Schmidt, should end his tenure immediately, as the US has been demanding, and his American deputy take on the role for two weeks pending a decision on a successor. In a statement on Tuesday evening the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) steering board said it was “committed to reaching agreement on the selection of a new high representative as soon as possible, with the goal of completing the appointment no later than 14 July 2026”. In recent months, US policy has prioritised the pursuit of advantage for US firms, and in particular a company run by associates of Donald Trump, while European powers have so far refused to yield to US demands, despite threats from Washington to cut off funding and participation in the international presence in Bosnia if its wishes are not fulfilled. The Balkan country has consequently become a testing ground for Europe’s capacity to unite and stand up to US Maga foreign policy in its own back yard. The major power contest could have far-reaching implications for Bosnia itself, which has functioned as an international protectorate since a war that ended more than 30 years ago with a settlement which has stopped the bloodshed, but also stifled political and economic development. Ambassadors from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and the EU, as well as envoys from Canada, Japan and Turkey, met in the Bosnian capital to make a second attempt to agree on a new high representative, after the first try broke up amid acrimony in early June. In the run-up to that initial meeting, the Trump administration had rattled European capitals by insisting that the current high representative be removed after he defied US wishes. Under a compromise with Germany, Schmidt was persuaded to resign, but would stay in his post until Bosnian elections in October. In recent weeks, however, the Trump administration reneged on that understanding and demanded Schmidt’s immediate departure. Washington achieved that goal on Tuesday. Kurt Bassuener, co-founder of advocacy group the Democratization Policy Council, said: “This was involuntary. This was not Schmidt leaving of his own accord. This was the Americans kicking him out.” However, the US has so far not prevailed in its choice of Schmidt’s successor. Recently, American officials have been campaigning aggressively for a 76-year-old Italian diplomat, Antonio Zanardi Landi, to replace him, much to the bewilderment of most other PIC steering board members. Landi has no significant previous experience or apparent knowledge of Bosnia. He was once posted in Serbia, but he has not shown much interest in its southern neighbour until now. There has been no clear explanation from Washington for its abrupt manoeuvring, but European officials in Sarajevo suspect it is closely related to the new US priority in the region: to clear the way for a $1bn gas pipeline contract, the Southern Interconnection. This has been provisionally awarded to AAFS Infrastructure and Energy, a US-based company with minimal infrastructure experience, but strong personal connections to Donald Trump. Last month, the Trump administration announced a new policy for the Balkans, stating that henceforth US actions in the region would be guided by the need to pursue “direct return” for American companies, in place of what it called “open-ended institution building”. Jim O’Brien, a former US diplomat, writing on the European Council for Foreign Relations website, said the announcement “reflected what is already happening in the region under the second Trump administration”, as “politically connected Americans seek to earn money by weakening … international institutions”. “This behaviour undermines the peace that has held for 30 years,” O’Brien said. The pipeline deal was awarded without tender, prompting a warning from the EU that this could jeopardise Bosnia’s long-term European integration and generating a confrontation that has culminated in the row over Landi and the high representative’s job. Landi is serving as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta’s ambassador to the Vatican. Contacted by the Guardian, he said it would be “unwise for me to step into the heated debate”, but argued his “key points and focus” manifesto that has been circulated among PIC steering board members was “perfectly in line with the European positions”. The Landi manifesto, seen by the Guardian and first published by the Bosnian investigative journalism website Istraga, promises not to overturn the decrees of previous high representatives, to consult the PIC before taking substantial actions, and not to unilaterally close down the office of the high representative. London, Paris and Berlin have been unconvinced by the Landi campaign, and as of Monday were aligned behind a French candidate, René Troccaz, France’s Balkans envoy. However, the Europeans failed to present a united stance in the face of US pressure on capitals. According to sources in Sarajevo, Germany proposed a Danish diplomat, Peter Sørensen, a former EU envoy in Sarajevo, as a compromise candidate, while senior EU officials in Brussels agreed with Washington that Schmidt’s deputy, the US diplomat Louis Crishock, should take over temporarily as acting high representative, potentially leaving Washington in the stronger position if there is no agreement on Schmidt’s successor in the coming fortnight. The tussle among erstwhile allies has underlined how far Bosnia’s current realities are still defined by the 1992-95 war, which killed 100,000 people, mostly Muslim Bosniaks slaughtered by much better-armed Serb forces and, to a much lesser extent, Croats. The US-brokered Dayton peace deal in late 1995 stopped the bloodshed, but enshrined the dominant role of ethnic politics and the division of the country into two halves, a Bosniak-Croat Federation and a Serb-run entity, the Republika Srpska. The office of the high representative was established with substantial powers to oversee the Dayton agreement and help guide Bosnia towards greater ethnic integration. That latter mission has largely been a failure, with the country as divided as ever and the Republika Srpska under the sway of a Serb separatist, Milorad Dodik. Successive high representatives, all Europeans, have been reluctant to invoke their powers to shape the Bosnian political system, but Schmidt stepped in last year to annul Dodik’s separatist actions, leading to the Serb leader’s ousting last September. It momentarily seemed that the hardliner’s 28-year grip on power in Republika Srpska had been broken, but in the following months the Trump administration came to Dodik’s rescue, abruptly lifting sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on Dodik and his associates for corruption and “divisive ethno-nationalistic rhetoric”. In the months that followed, during which the US president’s son Donald Trump Jr visited Republika Srpska’s main city, Banja Luka, Dodik gave his approval to the Southern Interconnection pipeline. The remaining obstacles to the project going ahead were EU objections and the fact that about a third of the pipeline would be built on state property. Ownership of Bosnia’s lands, forests and other plentiful resources is one of the thorny issues that was supposed to be resolved after the war. Dodik insists that everything on Serb-controlled property should belong to the Republika Srpska, not the Bosnian state. One possible scenario, outlined by an official in Sarajevo, was that on taking office, Landi would issue a special law dividing state property between the Republika Srpska and the Federation, which would bring the pipeline a big step closer to reality. Landi’s manifesto did not mention state property, but an AAFS company official has reportedly briefed leading Bosnian parliamentarians that the issue would be resolved if and when Landi took over as high representative. The US had threatened to reconsider its “role in the current international presence” if Landi was not given the job at Tuesday’s PIC meeting.

Trans youth athletes vow to keep playing after US supreme court sports ruling

Transgender youth athletes have vowed to keep playing sports and fighting for equal access to teams after the US supreme court ruled in favor of laws banning their participation. The court’s conservative supermajority on Tuesday upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho prohibiting trans girls from participating in women’s teams, finding the laws were constitutional. The ruling advances one of the central causes of anti-LGBTQ+ advocates, who have been pushing to curtail the rights of trans people across society, including in education, employment, healthcare and the military. The decision will support laws in 25 other states that also restrict trans youth participation in sports. But LGBTQ+ advocates say the immediate legal impact is narrow and does not create a national ban. More than 20 states have inclusive policies allowing trans students to play on teams that match their gender. “We’re not backing down,” said Nereyda Hernandez, a California trans rights advocate. She is the mother of AB Hernandez, who became one of the most well-known trans youth athletes in the US when Donald Trump began directly targeting her last year on social media. “I’ve always said, you’re not going to intimidate me or bully my kid out of sports.” “Sports have just meant the absolute world to me,” said AB, a 17-year-old track-and-field athlete from Jurupa Valley, a city east of Los Angeles. She recently graduated high school. “If I had been forced to join the boys’ team, it would just be so uncomfortable for all of us. They’re failing to see on my girls’ team, everyone is super happy and super nice and no one cares. We’re just high school girls trying to have fun and play a sport we all love.” In 2020, Idaho became the first state to adopt a law categorically banning trans women and girls from women’s sports teams. In Little v Hecox, Lindsay Hecox, a trans college student blocked from track, challenged Idaho’s law. The second case, West Virginia v BPJ, stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 15-year-old trans girl and track athlete. “Politicians in my state passed a law banning me – the only transgender student athlete in the state – from playing on the team that reflects who I really am,” Becky said in a recent speech. The case, she said, is “just one part of a plan to push transgender people like me out of the public life entirely”. ‘We need to stay strong’ States such as California have long permitted trans youth to play on teams that match their gender with little controversy until the last six years, when the subject became a national political debate. Lina Haaga, a 15-year-old track athlete in Pasadena, California, has become a vocal proponent for the rights of trans girls like herself after she was subjected to attacks in rightwing media. She said she would not let the supreme court decision or backlash stop her from pursuing extracurriculars that have become vital to her. “Sports have meant a lot in terms of finding community, finding friends, making connections,” said Lina, who transitioned at age four and has also played basketball, tennis, water polo and lacrosse. “The story of the inclusion of trans people in sports isn’t just limited to athletics. It’s a domino effect, and if we relent this battle, we risk giving up the rights of trans people in other areas … We need to stay strong and continue fighting.” Lina said she would pursue athletics in the fall: “It’s really special to have a dedicated team outside of academics … It’s scary to think that could be taken away from me, but I love the joy of competing and sometimes winning and sometimes losing and crying over the losses or celebrating the victories.” The hate and vitriol she faced, including after winning a race against her sister in the spring, has taken a toll, she said. “There were times I considered quitting. It’s really daunting to have nameless, faceless adults on the internet commenting horrible things, not just about the fairness of my participation, but about my appearance, my identity, my character,” she said. “But at times when I was really struggling, I always reminded myself there’s a joy and beauty about sports and benefits every kid should be able to access.” Her mother, Catalina Haaga, said it seemed the national political debate was ignoring the real-world impact on youth who are targeted, like her daughter. The team embraced Lina when she won. Even as anti-trans advocates argued the victory was unfair, she noted: “We’re prioritizing competition over inclusion, tolerance, belonging. We need to zoom out as a nation and ask, what is the greater value at stake? In our home, the answer is belonging is more important than a trophy.” Ripple effects Anti-trans groups argue the bans are necessary to protect women’s sports and fairness, while LGBTQ+ rights advocates argue there is no credible evidence that inclusive sports policies have endangered cis girls. There are very few out trans youth athletes. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) president in 2024 said there were fewer than 10 trans athletes in college sports and lawmakers have struggled over the years to identify out K-12 trans youth sports players in their states. But advocates note there are more than 110,000 trans youth ages 13 to 17 living in states with sports bans, who are impacted by exclusionary policies. Lily Norcross, a 17-year-old track athlete from California’s Central Coast, said she would continue pursuing sports in her final year of high school, though feared the ripple effects of the ruling. Anytime the Trump administration pursues anti-trans policies, “we see a noticeable uptick in hate crimes,” she said. “It’s a very real possibility that threats made to me become increasingly more violent to the point where I no longer feel safe to participate.” Her father, Trevor Norcross, added: “It’s devastating as a parent to hear your child have to talk that way and deal with these issues. That’s the goal of the other side. This has never had anything to do with sports or fairness or bathrooms. The agenda is eradication of transgender people.” Still, Lily added: “I will not back down from this fight. I know I’m in a horrible position, but there are so many people out there in Nebraska, Idaho, Texas or Florida who are in so much worse positions than me.” Lily also questioned how bans will be enforced across the country: “Will there be video surveillance in locker rooms?” Advocates note that bans can encourage invasive sex-testing procedures, which can lead to scrutiny and privacy violations of all girls, including cis girls accused of being trans based on their appearances and stereotypes. The New York Civil Liberties Union, a civil rights group, said in a statement the ruling does not impact existing civil rights protections for trans youth in New York, but would “embolden more transphobic policies in an attempt to erase trans kids and their existence from daily life”. The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, said she would continue to fight against discriminatory policies. Other elected Democrats – including the state attorney general in Washington state; the lieutenant governor of Virginia; congressmembers Ed Markey, of Massachusetts and Pramila Jayapal, of Washington; and Minnesota governor, Tim Walz – all criticized the ruling and reiterated their commitments to support trans youth and adults. Abigail Jones, a trans athlete and recent high school graduate from Riverside, California, said after the ruling that she hoped people would keep standing up to anti-trans bigotry. “For trans people, sports can be extremely important and even life-saving for some. It does usually grant people subject to a lot of discrimination and hatred a team and community and friendships and bonding.”

‘Tonnes of rubble’: 58,000 buildings estimated destroyed in Venezuela earthquakes

More than 58,000 buildings may have been damaged and destroyed by the twin earthquakes that hit Venezuela last week, according to a preliminary analysis of satellite data that suggests the scale of the destruction could dwarf official estimates. Last Wednesday’s back-to-back quakes – which measured magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 – killed at least 1,943 people, injured more than 10,571, and left tens of thousands missing amid the rubble. The UN migration agency has said that up to 6.8 million people could be affected by the disasters, and would require shelter, water, sanitation, healthcare and essential relief items. As hopes of finding survivors dwindle, efforts are under way to determine the true extent of the damage. On Monday, Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly, said that 855 buildings had been damaged, including 189 “total collapses”. But initial assessment of satellite data published by US space agency Nasa raises the prospect of far more serious and widespread damage. After analysing high-resolution radar imagery gathered the day after the quakes by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellites, researchers at Oregon State University have concluded that “approximately 58,870 buildings were likely damaged or destroyed across the affected region”. They added: “This is a preliminary, rapid assessment. It reflects abrupt surface change consistent with damage.” Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has sounded the alarm over potential disease outbreaks as Venezuela’s stressed and damaged health facilities struggle to cope with the aftermath of the quakes. “The health services are under extreme pressure now, with facilities operating beyond the capacity,” spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told a press conference in Geneva. He added that there was “an increased risk” of outbreaks of measles and diphtheria due to low levels of pre-quake vaccination, as well as of yellow fever, malaria, dengue, chikungunya and Zika. The WHO said its preliminary findings had found gaps in obstetric care in the hard-hit port city of La Guaira because maternity care workers were still missing after the quakes. It also noted “chaotic service delivery and patient flow, marked by overcrowding [and] growing surgical backlogs”, and said there were problems adequately registering casualties and tracking missing people. The government has militarised La Guaira and imposed a permit requirement to enter the disaster zone. The US military has repaired and reopened the city’s port, where at least one a warehouse has been turned into a makeshift morgue for hundreds of unidentified cadavers in body bags. According to Gianluca Rampolla, the UN coordinator in Venezuela, a total of 27 countries have mobilised nearly 40 search and rescue teams. They include more than 2,000 troops and personnel, along with more than 160 dogs. Rampolla said the UN would provide 10,000 body bags, although it hopes the final toll will be lower. The wait for news – good or bad – is fuelling growing public anger over the authorities’ failure to prepare for the disaster and to react more quickly once the quakes hit. Daniela Mangiafico has had no news of her 80-year-old grandmother Josefa Báez Verdejo since the building where they lived in the Tanaguarenas area of La Guaira collapsed last Wednesday. Also missing or trapped are Mangiafico’s three chihuahuas and her five cats. “My entire life is gone: everything, my grandmother and my pets; all of them are my family,” she said on Sunday. “What happened is that help arrived late. It’s taking too long and, obviously, how can you ask people who are trapped there to wait?” Two days later, Mangiafico said a voice that could be her grandmother’s had been heard. The family are still hoping that she may have managed to shelter in a space behind her bed. “They have completely forgotten us in Tanaguarenas,” Mangiafico’s sister, Jennifer, said in a video posted on Tuesday morning. “Rescuers have arrived, but not the kind we need. We need machinery because we can no longer do anything by hand. There’s tonnes and tonnes of rubble that we cannot lift with our hands.” Nicolás Serrato, a volunteer rescuer from southern Venezuela, said the devastation he had seen in and around La Guaira was staggering. “Very few buildings are unaffected,” he said. “The vast majority of homes, from small houses to three-storey buildings and huge apartment blocks, are all badly damaged. And those still standing have serious structural problems.” Serrato said that the estimate of 50,000 damaged buildings tallied pretty well with what he had seen. “It’s truly brutal,” he said. “All those people who survived are now searching for their families. There is a very deep emergency, and it is extremely important to help now because this is very difficult.” Agence France-Presse and Reuters contribute to this report

Pope Leo pleads with ultra-conservative sect not to ordain own bishops

Pope Leo has made a last-ditch attempt to persuade a rebel group of ultra-conservative Catholics to abandon plans to ordain its own bishops without Vatican approval, calling the “schismatic act” a “sin of extreme gravity”. The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), founded in the Swiss village of Ecône in 1970 to oppose liberalising reforms in the Catholic church, plans to ordain four new bishops at its seminary there on Wednesday. The order, which has gained a significant following in the US, where it has a large operations base in Kansas, as well as in France, Argentina and other countries, has nearly 1,500 priests, seminarians and other vocational members. The ceremony on 1 July risks further straining the church’s fraught relationship with rightwing and traditionalist Catholics and could be the first significant crisis for the pontiff, who since his election in May last year has prioritised unity within the Catholic church. The society rejects key reforms that emerged from the Second Vatican Council – a landmark Vatican gathering of cardinals, patriarchs, bishops, theological experts and others between 1962 and 1965 – including allowing mass to be celebrated in local languages. Until then it had been said only in Latin. The SSPX has accused the modern church of being rife with heresies and errors, saying that the ordinations originate from practical necessity and “do not proceed from any desire to claim a power of jurisdiction or to establish a parallel authority within the church”. However, church law stipulates that such ordinations constitute an act that could provoke a schism – an intentional rupture of the church’s unity – and could lead to the automatic excommunication of the newly ordained bishops and the bishop who carries out the consecrations. “I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!,” Leo wrote in a letter addressed to Rev Davide Pagliarani, the superior general of the SSPX. “I urge you to consider carefully the spiritual good of the faithful, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit and, in some cases, even valid reception of the sacraments, which they love and seek for their sanctification.” Leo added: “I pray for you, because to tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity.” In response, Marc-André Mabillard, media manager for the society, told AP that SSPX was changing “absolutely nothing” in its plans, expressing “great sadness to not be understood by our leader”. Mabillard added: “We don’t fear it. It pains us immensely, but we believe that the good we seek is greater than the pain that will be inflicted upon us.” Leo had previously appealed to SSPX not to go ahead with the ordinations, and last week told journalists that if the society made the “choice” to continue on the trajectory of schism, then “I’m sorry, but we must move forward”. Christopher White, author of Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy, and a senior fellow at Georgetown University in Washington DC, said: “The fact that he’s made it clear that there will be consequences, namely excommunication, attests to the gravity of the situation – and that he’s not willing to turn a blind eye to rogue, schismatic behaviour simply for the sake of preserving a false unity.” In 1988, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the late founder of SSPX, and four bishops he had ordained without permission from then-Pope John Paul II, were excommunicated, including a British bishop, Richard Williamson. In 2009, the conservative Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications. Shortly before, Williamson caused uproar by denying the Holocaust. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Six feared dead after ‘bizarre’ sinking of charter boat off Canadian coast

Search teams in Canada have launched a recovery effort for six people believed to have drowned in a “bizarre” sinking of a fishing charter off the coast of Vancouver. Police and rescue crews praised a couple who were passing in their yacht for making a critical mayday call and saving stranded passengers by pulling them onboard their craft. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) said its underwater team was preparing to search for the vessel. It is believed to have been carrying 10 people before it took on water and disappeared into the depths of the Georgia strait close to where fresh river water meets the ocean, creating hazardous survival conditions. Two survivors, a man, 33, and a woman, 28, were in a critical condition. Another man, 26, and woman, 33, were discharged from hospital. Little is known of what unfolded on the boat, which departed from the community of Steveston and sank around midday on Sunday. Officials said none of the passengers were wearing lifejackets and there was no mayday call from the charter. Stephen Adam, an operations manager with Royal Canadian Marine Search and Rescue, said the incident was “bizarre” because the boat had sunk so quickly and had not issued a distress call. He said he did not “have any details of the type of vessel it was, why it went out, where it came from”. When rescue teams arrived the boat had sunk. Given the speed with which it disappeared and the lack of a distress call, the RCMP’s major crimes unit is leading the investigation to determine if there was a collision or any criminal behaviour. Maj Gregory Clarke of the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre said people could survive for as long as 10 hours when wearing a flotation device, but the “pretty unforgivable” cold waters and strong currents meant survival rates were “cut very short”. He added: “[There] was no indication of any distress when whatever happened, happened.” Crews scanned the suspected area for hours. One air force plane flew in a grid pattern over the search area for about seven hours. Dorothy Stauffer and Brian Angus were sailing in the area on Sunday when they spotted people in the water. Stauffer, who received emergency training while working as a flight attendant, told CBC News the group had appeared weak and hypothermic. One had no clothes on from the waist up, Stauffer said. The people in the water seemed confused as she tried to coax them to swim to the dinghy and grab on to its side or tow rope. It took some survivors nearly 20 minutes to make their way to the small boat. Stauffer and Angus initially saw five people in the water, but quickly lost sight of one who disappeared beneath the surface. The couple were able to rescue three people and search teams retrieved a fourth. “We lost sight of the other two, we decided to just go for the three that were closer together, that’s the decision – a hard one – we had to make,” Angus, a retired pilot, told CBC. “The question you have in any incident as a pilot … or a boater is: could we have done anything different? And we don’t believe we could have.”

‘They will attack me if I stay’: immigrants in South Africa flee for safety amid violence and anti-foreigner protests

South Africa was holding its breath on Tuesday as mass anti-immigration protests were held across the country. They come after a weeks-long campaign against foreigners that has seen at least four killed and tens of thousands fleeing for safety. In the coastal city of Durban, where violence had been expected, the streets were unusually quiet and shops were shuttered as tension hung thick in the air. Several thousand protesters in Zulu attire marched through the city centre, brandishing sticks and clubs and calling out “Abahambe!” (“They must go!” in isiZulu, the most widely spoken language in the country), a phrase that has become the movement’s rallying cry. Campaign groups behind the protests have given undocumented immigrants an arbitrary “deadline” of 30 June to leave the country, with many fearing the marches could descend into violence. In the days leading up to the deadline, thousands of people have fled their homes in fear, sleeping rough on pavements, in open fields and in makeshift camps, in the hope of being repatriated to their home countries. Several African governments have organised buses or planes to bring their citizens home, with police saying more than 25,000 have been repatriated so far. In the city of Pietermaritzburg, 50 miles from Durban, where a 29-year-old Malawian national was killed by a mob after a protest on 19 June, hundreds of families camped for days outside an abandoned building. On the eve of the 30 June protests, as authorities raced to send home as many as possible, a queue snaked through the overgrown garden. Weary mothers and children sat around campfires while people lifted their tightly packed belongings into buses headed for South Africa’s northern border. Jackson Makungwa stood in the line beside two small bags: everything he could carry from 10 years spent building a life in South Africa. The 29-year-old from Malawi had once seen South Africa as a “country of hope” and had lived there legally, but said he had been unable to renew his work permit for the past two years. “It’s not like I want to be illegally in the country, but the system doesn’t allow me to be here legally,” he sighed. For weeks, Makungwa resisted his mother’s growing pleas for him to leave. That changed after a friend from Malawi was attacked by seven men. “They said the deadline is the 30th, so they will attack me if I stay,” Makungwa said. On his phone, he showed a photo of his son, born to a South African mother. He hadn’t managed to secure travel documents for the baby in time. “I was forced to leave him behind. He turns two months old today.” Down the road, in a makeshift camp set up by families from Zimbabwe, Lydia Mpingashato had just been informed of her dismissal from her job as a cleaner. Children ran around as women cooked on open fires. Many – including people with legal documentation – said they had been evicted by landlords who feared retaliation for renting to immigrants. On 27 June, Mpingashato was threatened while waiting for a shared taxi in the township where she had lived for 17 years. “He said he would burn my house and kill my family,” she said. “Now I have no plan; I’m just going home to be safe.” Her 17-year-old son had been forced to leave the only home he had ever known, as well as many South African friends, she said. “When he saw the camp, he told me: ‘Actually, they never loved us.’” Many in South Africa blame immigrants from elsewhere on the continent for the country’s high unemployment rate and crime levels. “Xenophobia and Afrophobia … emerge where economic insecurity, high unemployment, inequality, weak governance and poor migration management intersect,” says Philile Ntuli from the South African Human Rights Commission. The country, which is home to about 2.4 million foreigners (documented and undocumented) according to 2022 census data, has a long history of anti-immigrant violence. Xenophobic riots in 2008 killed 62 people and displaced more than 150,000. Another wave of attacks in 2015 left at least five people dead. In response to the latest tensions, the government has sought to ease public anger by intensifying its crackdown on undocumented immigration. Police say more than 50,000 undocumented migrants have been arrested since January. On Monday night, President Cyril Ramaphosa met some of the protest leaders and warned against “vigilantism”. As marches began across the country, a heavy security deployment was visible as authorities prepared for possible unrest. In Durban, helicopters circled overhead while police and private security watched from armoured vehicles. Organisers urged protesters to remain peaceful and avoid looting, but some marchers made thinly veiled threats about what would happen after the “deadline”. As the crowd moved past dilapidated apartment blocks, some protesters pointed at families watching from windows, calling out for them to leave the country and making throat-slitting gestures. “I can smell the foreigners,” said a man carrying a shield. “We have been talking nicely. Tomorrow, we’re not going to talk. We take action,” said Nkosi Ndlovu, a 48-year-old pastor who accused immigrants of selling drugs to local young people, including his sister-in-law. On the outskirts of the march, 40-year-old Mfundo Zulu said immigrants were taking jobs from South Africans by accepting lower wages. “Those are our kids, our youth are dead,” she said, pointing towards a nearby homeless camp. Since thousands of people had fled the country in recent weeks, she said, many jobs had suddenly become available. “Life will be better now,” her friend added. “We don’t hate them, but they overstayed.” For Mukandjwa Shomri of the Southern Africa Refugee Organisations Forum, South Africa’s government “is not doing enough” to hold perpetrators of xenophobic violence accountable. “When you try to open a case with the police, they will first ask for your papers,” he said. “We are being attacked in the streets, in the community and administratively. “The hope many of us had as refugees when we came to this country – that South Africa is upholding human rights, a country affirmed internationally as a democratic state, is no longer there,” he said. Speaking on the phone from a safe house, Leon feared what would happen after the 30 June cutoff. The asylum seeker from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, who has been in South Africa since 2014, went into hiding after his shop was attacked on 19 June. He asked to be identified only by his first name. “Even the police are telling us openly that we are tired of you, you must leave our country,” he said, his voice trembling. Harassment had already been commonplace for years, “but now they got the opportunity to do it openly”, he said. “After 30 June, it will be even worse.” Some days, Leon regretted seeking refuge in South Africa, a country where he thought he would find peace. “Now, we’re just living like somebody who is already dead,” he said. “We are ready for anything.”

US-Iran talks over $6bn Iranian assets to restart

Talks at an indirect level between US and Iranian officials over unfreezing at least $6bn Iranian assets will recommence on Wednesday in Doha, Iran has said. The two sides are yet to have their first face-to-face meeting since signing a deal to extend the ceasefire and reopen the strait of Hormuz. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Qatar on Tuesday for talks covering regional issues including the Iran ceasefire and Lebanon, but Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesman, Majed Al-Ansari, stressed these were with Qatari mediators. “They are not here for their negotiations with the Iranians,” he said. The US team is seeking details of a plan for Iran to charge tolls in the strait of Hormuz, and how the plan relates to proposals for consultation being tabled by Oman that would introduce fees for navigational services. The lack of renewed direct contact between the US and Iran on how to implement the memorandum of understanding signed on 17 June reflects tensions over Iran’s determination to maintain control over commercial oil tanker traffic through the strait of Hormuz, as well as Iran’s opposition to the proposed Lebanon ceasefire negotiated by Israel, the US and the Lebanese government last week. Talks between Iran and the US have not even started on Iran’s nuclear programme even though only 60 days from 17 June had been set aside to complete the complex talks. In theory those talks can be extended beyond the 6o-day deadline, but the slow progress is starting to alarm some diplomats. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, speaking at a press conference in Tehran, warned European powers such as France and the UK not to seek to become involved in de-mining the strait of Hormuz. “Iran is better aware of its responsibilities than any other party and is capable of fulfilling them, and there is no need for the intervention of others. Interventions that, even if made with good intentions, will in practice only complicate the situation,” he said. Western powers object to Iran’s plan to impose tolls for commercial shipping passing through the strait, but may be more open to discussing Oman’s plan for voluntary contributions or fees charged for specific services. The UN’s International Maritime Organisation was holding informal discussions with Iran about Tehran ’s objections to the IMO opening a sea route through the strait close to Oman in conjunction with the US and Oman. At one point last week the IMO thought it had the agreement of the Iranian foreign ministry to the route, but Iran then attacked two ships, possibly fearing its control of the strait was being eroded. The IMO secretary General Arsenio Dominguez then suspended the route to hold talks with Iran. According to data from Kpler, a maritime tracking firm, 40 ships transited the waterway on Monday, up from 24 the previous day and 39 on Saturday. Hundreds of vessels have been stranded since the war between the US and Iran broke out on 28 February, leaving as many as 10,000 seafarers stranded. Not all ships have their transponders on, making an accurate count hard, but Iran may regard this level of traffic as so far below normal levels as to keep the pressure on the price of oil. It is committed to using its best endeavours to lift the blockade in the strait within 30 days Giving a relatively optimistic account of the state of relations with the US, only days after the two sides exchanged fire arising from a dispute over the control of the strait, Baghaei said: “From the beginning when we entered this diplomatic process, no one imagined a smooth and unchallenged process. Keep in mind that this diplomatic process began after two wars in less than a year […] we expected to face challenges in the implementation phase.”

Italian MEP suggests government wants to ‘hide truth’ about Albania migrant centre

An Italian MEP has questioned whether the Italian government is trying to “hide the truth” about conditions at an offshore migrant detention centre in Albania after a delegation she was part of said they were prevented from conducting a full inspection. Cristina Guarda, from Italy’s Greens and Left Alliance (AVS), said staff at the Italian-run facility in Gjadër had refused to give MEPs from the Greens/EFA group key information, such as how many people were being held at the centre, and that they had not been allowed to access their cells. Guarda said that testimony gathered from those they were able to speak to depicted a daily existence defined by “limbo and alienation”. Citing an official register of “critical events”, she said there had been six attempts by people held at the centre to kill themselves since mid-May, as well as other acts of self-harm. “Whether they want to hide the truth about the conditions of life inside the detention centre, something is not clear,” said Guarda, who also described “sweltering” heat at the facility. Rome’s prefect office, which has overall responsibility for Italy’s offshore migrant processing centres in Albania, did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the Guardian. Neither did Medihospes, the Italian cooperative that manages the facilities. Italy opened two centres in Albania – in Gjadër and Shëngjin – in 2024 as part of a controversial pact aimed at processing the asylum applications of adult men intercepted at sea by Italian government vessels and detaining refused asylum seekers pending their deportation. The five-year deal, which is costing Italy an estimated €130-140m (£112-120m) a year, has faced numerous legal challenges. Citing European law, Italian judges have rejected many transfers on the grounds that migrants’ countries of origin were unsafe to be repatriated to if their asylum requests were rejected. Several people are believed to have arrived at the facilities since the European parliament adopted a plan this month enabling the creation of offshore “return hubs” – centres outside the EU where undocumented people can be held for unspecified periods while waiting to be sent back to their home country. Although there are no official figures, the facility in Gjadër, which is primarily used to detain people before expulsion, hosts an estimated 70-80 people. Between them, the facilities in Albania are designed to accommodate roughly 1,000 people, with the original agreement allowing a cap of 3,000 at any one time. Guarda said the use of psychotropic drugs was “a constant” and that people filled their time by sleeping because “essentially they have nothing to do”. “One person said he was living his days in pursuit of his freedom,” she added. “This situation is alienating – it amplifies difficulties of a psychiatric nature and must be taken seriously.” The scheme, which falls under Italian jurisdiction, has often been touted as a model to follow by other EU states seeking to manage irregular immigration. Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has on several occasions expressed her determination to make the initiative work, despite her government so far failing to achieve its original goal of sending 36,000 people a year to the centres. In April, a group of senators from her Brothers of Italy party visited Gjadër and described a “modern, efficient facility in excellent condition and designed to ensure proper reception, safety and compliance with standards”. Tineke Strik, a Dutch MEP who was among the European parliament delegation, said in a statement that the visit was “very disappointing and disgraceful”. She added: “The staff really created a lot of obstacles for us. We didn’t get any data, they didn’t answer any questions, and we were not allowed to really go into the cells, and see what the situation is like. “For the people we did manage to speak to here, it’s clear they have problems asking for asylum, and many of them don’t see any way out of a failed system.” Cecilia Strada, a politician with Italy’s centre-left Democratic party, called on the Italian government and European Commission to explain why the MEPs faced obstacles. “They keep telling us that human rights are and will be guaranteed in centres located in third countries,” she said. “But European parliament representatives, who have the authority to enter, were ultimately unable to genuinely verify respect for those rights.” In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counselor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org