Two people were injured in two separate locations in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates after they were hit by debris from an intercepted airstrike, authorities posted on X on Monday. The first person, a Jordanian national, suffered a minor injury while the second person, an Egyptian national, suffered a moderate one, the Abu Dhabi media office said.
There is no immediate threat to energy supplies in the UK despite rocketing oil prices, a senior minister has said, as Keir Starmer tried to reassure people about the impact of the crisis in the Middle East. The impact of US-Israeli strikes in Iran, and retaliatory attacks from Tehran elsewhere in the region, was “clearly very concerning”, Steve Reed, the communities secretary said, saying much depended on how long hostilities continued. Starmer was due to visit a community centre in London later on Monday, where he was due to give comments aimed at providing reassurance, saying the most important issue for him was the cost of living. But in a series of broadcast interviews on Monday, with oil prices shooting past $100 a barrel, Reed accepted that there was not much the UK government could do to shape events, or the impact they had on the country. “We don’t yet know how long this conflict will go on for,” he told BBC One’s Breakfast programme. “It could be over in days. It could continue for longer. So I think the sensible and rational response from government is to monitor the situation and make sure we’re prepared.” Reed said: “It’s clearly very concerning what’s going on in the Middle East. There’s no point to him trying to pretend anything other than that is the case. But the government will be keeping a very close eye on the situation with oil prices. We’re monitoring that regularly. I don’t think that there is cause for undue alarm yet.” There were, he added, sufficient supplies remaining of oil and of gas. Government sources have dismissed as incorrect a report in Monday’s Times claiming the UK only has two days of gas supplies. In comments released by No 10 before his visit, Starmer said that as well as being worried about loved ones in the Middle East, Britons were “rightly worrying what this means for life at home – their bills, their jobs, their communities”. He went on: “I want to address those concerns head on. I will always be guided by what is best for the British public. And no matter the headwinds, supporting working people and their families with the cost of living is always top of my mind.” Starmer argued that because of existing government policies over previous month, such global shocks would “weigh less heavy on people’s lives”. Reed reiterated this point in his interviews, arguing in particular that another fossil fuel price shock, in the wake of the impact on gas prices of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, showed the need for a move towards renewable energy. “If the previous government had done what this government is doing, and had driven the switch to clean energy, so more wind, wave and solar power, power and more nuclear power, then we wouldn’t be at the mercy of people like the ayatollahs in Iran or Vladimir Putin in Russia,” he said. Reed added that while the government was closely watching the situation in the Middle East, which has effectively blocked the strait of Hormuz, through which large numbers of oil tankers usually pass, “there is no threat to supplies into the country at the moment”. He added: “The government, of course, all of us, are looking at what’s happening with the oil crisis. We have to keep that under review to make sure that we’re taking any action that might be, that might be required. But we don’t know how long the situation is going to go is going to go on for.”
Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been chosen as his successor, as the war enters its 10th day and fresh missile and drone strikes reverberate across the Middle East. After members of the clerical body responsible for selecting Iran’s highest authority announced the decision on Sunday, Iranian institutions and politicians, from the foreign ministry to lawmakers, issued statements expressing their allegiance. “We will obey the commander-in-chief until the last drop of our blood,” a statement from the defence council said. The move could lead to a further escalation of the war, given Donald Trump had already acknowledged that Mojtaba Khamenei was the most likely successor and made clear he considered him an “unacceptable” choice. The US president said earlier on Sunday that Iran’s next supreme leader was “not going to last long” if Tehran did not get his approval first. When asked about the appointment during an interview with the Times of Israel published late on Sunday, Trump was reported as saying: “We’ll see what happens.” In the same interview, Trump said a decision on when to end the war would be a “mutual” one, together with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump also asserted that Iran would have destroyed Israel if he and Netanyahu had not been around. “Iran was going to destroy Israel and everything else around it … We’ve worked together. We’ve destroyed a country that wanted to destroy Israel,” he was quoted as saying. The Israeli military said it had launched a wave of strikes on Monday targeting “regime infrastructure” in central Iran, the first such announcement since the appointment of the new supreme leader. The military also announced strikes on the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Iran and its proxies appeared to have launched attacks, too, with rocket and drone strikes targeting a US diplomatic facility near Baghdad’s international airport that were intercepted by the C-RAM defence system, said police sources. A drone strike targeted a US military base near Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan, security sources said, while Saudi authorities reported intercepting a drone east of its northern al-Jawf region. In Bahrain, the health ministry reported 32 people were wounded overnight by an Iranian drone attack on the island of Sitra. They include a 17-year-old girl who suffered severe head and eye injuries, and a two-month-old baby, according to the ministry. Iranian state media also showed a projectile said to have been launched at Israel bearing the slogan: “At your command, Sayyid Mojtaba,” using an Islamic honorific. The appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei was welcomed by Yemen’s Houthi rebels, who are backed by the Iranian regime. “We congratulate the Islamic Republic of Iran, its leadership and people, on the selection of Sayyid Mojtaba Khamenei as Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution at this important and pivotal juncture,” the group said in a statement on Telegram. Mojtaba Khamenei’s elevation marks the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution that Iran’s supreme leadership has passed from father to son. It is a development likely to ignite debate inside Iran about the emergence of a dynastic system in a state founded explicitly to overthrow hereditary rule after the shah. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who ruled for 37 years, was killed in a US-Israeli strike on Tehran on 28 February, on the first day of the war with Iran. Across Iran’s political and security establishment, officials moved swiftly to welcome the appointment of Mojtaba Khamenei as the country’s new supreme leader. Khamenei would lead the country under the current sensitive conditions, the top Iranian security official Ali Larijani said, calling for unity around the new leader. State media reported the leadership of Iran’s armed forces pledged allegiance to him, while the speaker of parliament hailed the decision and described following Khamenei as a “religious and national duty”. The Revolutionary Guards declared they stood ready to follow him, signalling broad backing from the country’s core institutions. Earlier in the day, in a post on X in Farsi, the Israeli military said it would continue pursuing every successor of Ali Khamenei and would pursue every person who sought to appoint a successor for him. For many analysts, Khamenei’s appointment is a symbolic move designed to make the regime still appear strong and determined not to bow to western pressure. The 56-year-old cleric has never held elected office nor formally occupied a senior position within Iran’s government. He has spent much of his life at the centre of power in Iran while remaining largely out of public view. Born in 1969 in the north-eastern city of Mashhad, Khamenei was raised within the political and clerical world that emerged after the 1979 revolution. As a young man he studied theology in the seminaries of Qom and reportedly took part in the final stages of the Iran-Iraq war. Unlike many figures in Iran’s leadership, Khamenei never pursued elected office or a prominent government role. Instead, he gradually became an influential presence inside his father’s office, where he was widely seen as part of a small circle managing political access to the supreme leader. Over the years he cultivated close relationships with conservative clerics and elements of the Revolutionary Guards, a connection analysts say strengthened his standing within the system. His name surfaced publicly during the disputed 2009 presidential election, when reformist figures accused him of playing a role in supporting the security crackdown that followed mass protests. But he has never discussed the issue of succession publicly. To his supporters, Khamenei represents continuity with the ideological line established by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and maintained by his father. To critics, his rise raises uncomfortable questions about the concentration of power – and the possibility of hereditary leadership in a state founded in revolt against monarchy. Oil prices surged more than 25% on Monday to their highest levels since mid-2022, as major Middle Eastern oil producers cut supply because they cannot safely send shipments through the strait of Hormuz to refiners worldwide. Traffic through the strait was largely closed after Iran attacked at least five ships, with a limited number of tankers transiting, choking off a key artery accounting for about 20% of global oil and LNG supply.
Good morning. War has broken out in the Middle East. As the Iran war broadens and spills out into neighbouring countries, media agencies have rightly focused on trying to understand how the conflict came about, where bombs have fallen, and how many have died, while many states globally fear spikes in energy prices and wonder how the war will impact their economies. What can easily get lost are the voices of the people directly affected. Iran is one of the world’s 20 largest countries by population. More than 60 languages are spoken there and its relatively young population – the average age is about 34 – is made up of many ethnic groups. It is not a monolithic society. Its population is spread across the world – and many more Iranians will find themselves displaced amid the ongoing attacks. For today’s newsletter I spoke to Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini, an Iranian-born NHS consultant anaesthetist and local councillor in Oxford, to hear how the US and Israeli assault on the country is being experienced and understood abroad. As you will see, the views in the Iranian diaspora, which is thought to number between two and four million people, are far from uniform. First, the headlines. Five big stories Iran | Mojtaba Khamenei, the second son of the late Iranian supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, has been chosen as his successor. UK politics | Keir Starmer sought to repair fractured relations with Donald Trump over the war with Iran on Sunday, as a Labour backlash gathered pace over Tony Blair’s assertion the UK should have supported the US’s initial airstrikes on Iran. Energy | Great Britain has only two days of fossil gas stored after a decline in energy reserves, as more tankers carrying liquefied natural gas are diverted from their course to Europe towards Asia because of the Iran war. Meanwhile, global oil prices surged past the $100 (£74) a barrel mark for the first time since 2022. Health | More than 400 lives may have been saved as a result of Martha’s rule, which lets NHS patients request a review of their care. Thousands of patients were either moved to intensive care, received drugs they needed or benefited from other changes as a direct result of over 10,000 calls to helplines. AI | ChatGPT is driving a rise in reports of organised ritual abuse and “witchcraft, spirit possession and spiritual abuse” against children – which is historically under-reported in the UK – as survivors of “satanic” sexual violence use the AI tool for therapy. In depth: ‘It feels like living in a parallel universe’ Dr Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini is a local councillor in Oxford who came to the UK from Iran aged 13, speaking no English. By the age of 18 she was studying medicine at university. She tells me the days since Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu launched the assault on Iran have felt like “living in a parallel universe”. “One where life carries on normally – looking after patients, talking to colleagues – while at the same time you open your phone and see the destruction of places that mean so much to you,” she says. *** ‘Everyone thinks this war is madness’ Djafari-Marbini’s father was a refugee who had been involved in the Iranian revolution at the end of the 1970s. “Later he and his friends were unwilling to stand by some of the regime’s actions,” she says. “He ended up serving five years in prison when I was little. We still have aunts, uncles, cousins and old friends in Iran. “My memories of the streets we grew up in are very vivid. Seeing those same streets being bombed now – so indiscriminately – is heartbreaking. These are sights I prayed I would never see.” An anaesthetic consultant at Oxford University Hospitals, she says her colleagues have been very supportive. “People from all backgrounds, faiths and political perspectives. From my experience, everyone I’ve spoken to thinks this war is madness.” YouGov survey data has shown that 49% of Britons are opposed to the attacks, compared to 28% who favour it and the 23% who put “don’t know”. Matthew Smith, YouGov’s head of data journalism, explains, “Attitudes differ significantly by party, with the majority of Reform UK voters (58%) and a plurality of Tories (49%) backing the strikes, but the majority of Labour and Lib Dem voters (63% and 64%) and Greens (70%) opposed.” “The World Health Organization (WHO) has confirmed attacks on health infrastructure in Iran,” and schools have also been hit, Djafari-Marbini says. “It’s horrific to think that the very people trying to keep others alive during war are being targeted. Even talking about it now makes me feel nauseous.” *** War seen from afar Much of the news reporting on Iran has focused on the polarised opinions felt towards its supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who was killed in the strikes. For some, Khamenei was revered: viewed as an unflinching leader, who refused to be threatened by the US and Israel. For others, he was despised: a brutal leader who led a repressive regime that subjugated women and killed possibly tens of thousands during widespread protests in January. And yet, it seems people on both sides show little enthusiasm for the way he was killed. “Iranian civil society activists – women’s rights activists, trade unionists, people who have spent time in prison – have spoken out against foreign intervention,” Djafari-Marbini says. “They oppose both the regime and the idea that a foreign power should determine Iran’s future.” In her view, Iranian voices are too often forced into a binary. “Either you support the regime or you support war. In reality, many of us reject both.” Protests have taken place around the world since the attacks. Shiite Muslims in India-controlled Kashmir demonstrated against the killing of Iran’s supreme leader, while anti-war protesters gathered across the US, including outside the White House and in New York’s Times Square. “I understand why some people who have suffered terribly under the regime might have felt a moment of satisfaction at the news of Khamenei’s death,” Djafari-Marbini says. “But that feeling quickly disappears when it comes alongside news that children have been killed in bombing raids.” *** Fear for civilians Human rights groups have warned that Iran’s internet blackout could worsen the human toll of war, as state media broadcasts limited or gave contradictory information about airstrikes, and orders to flee specific locations from the attacking countries remain invisible to most civilians. “Another thing that’s often overlooked is how diverse Iranian society is,” Djafari-Marbini says. “There are major class differences and many ethnic groups.” The children killed in the Shajareh Tayyebeh school bombing in Minab, she notes, came from very poor backgrounds. “Their experiences are very different from many people in diaspora communities who now live in the west.” Military investigators now believe it is likely that US forces were responsible for the strike. The strike killed up to 168 people, and in this visual guide the Guardian pieced together the incident and its aftermath using verified footage and images. *** A diaspora divided The concerns of Djafari-Marbini (pictured above) are shared by some Iranians abroad – but the reaction across the diaspora has been far from uniform. Before the US and Israel launched their attacks, the Guardian’s community team asked Iranians how they felt about the possibility of US military intervention. Some respondents said repression in recent years had convinced them outside help was necessary. A 28-year-old student from Tehran now living in the Netherlands said many felt they had run out of options. “No one likes a foreign country invading their homeland,” they said. “However, many of us believe other countries must intervene and help us fight this regime.” Others said they feared the consequences of a widening conflict. In north London, the Guardian’s Amelia Hill spoke to Iranian people in the area sometimes known as “Little Tehran”. One resident told her the celebrations that followed the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei left her uneasy. “Even though he was a terrible man, it felt barbaric to celebrate his death,” she said. For many abroad, the most immediate worry has been family. Guardian Australia’s community affairs reporter Adeshola Ore spoke to Ehsan Hakimi, who grew up in Tehran and now lives in Sydney, who said he had been watching footage of rubble in the neighbourhood where he once lived. “This is just 200 metres away from my home,” he said. “It is so hard to see your country bombarded in this scale.” Others report a very different mood among relatives inside Iran. Saeid Zand, in Melbourne, said his mother in Shiraz called him shouting: “He’s dead, he’s dead, he’s dead. They have been waiting for this for decades.” *** Fears about what comes next For Djafari-Marbini, the greatest worry is what happens if the conflict deepens. With the war widening, and millions set to be displaced, she won’t be the only one. “If it leads to civil war,” she says, “the west has already signalled it doesn’t particularly care about the country’s long-term stability.” Reports suggest the US has encouraged Kurds in Iran’s north to join the US-Israeli war effort. “What makes me so fearful,” she says, “is that I cannot see how this leads to a stable, democratic outcome.” What else we’ve been reading Our regular Flashback feature is always fun, but this week’s photo of Nick Mohammed, with accompanying anecdote, is particularly sweet: “I look half delighted and half terrified to ride a pony. I probably got to feed a guinea pig at some point, too.” Toby Moses, head of newsletters It sounds like Charlotte Edwardes had a “testy” time with Louis Theroux in this interview ahead of his latest documentary, in which he digs into the manosphere. Charlie Lindlar, newsletters team Simon Tisdall makes a strong case that Keir Starmer should be worrying less about the UK’s traditional rivals, and start waking up to the fact that Donald Trump is a real and present danger. Toby Emma Beddington has a lovely column on being an “oblivious idiot” going into motherhood … and why she wouldn’t have had it any other way. “If I’d known more, might I have hesitated? Maybe,” she writes, “but I’m happy with the trade-off for everything my sons have given me”. Charlie The attack on Iran, and the backlash is affecting the whole of the Middle East – but even Cyprus, which was hit by a drone last week, and its traditional tourist hotspots like Ayia Napa are suffering as a result of Iran’s retaliation. Toby Sport Football | League One Port Vale stunned Sunderland in the FA Cup fifth round, winning 1-0 to secure a place in the quarter-final thanks to a winner from Ben Waine, pictured above. Cricket | India retained the T20 World Cup, defeating New Zealand by 96 runs thanks to a quickfire 89 by Sanju Samson and Jasprit Bumrah’s four for 15. Formula One | George Russell won the Australian GP for Mercedes, with his teammate Kimi Antonelli coming in second. The front pages “Fears for global economy grow as Iran threatens oil facilities” is the Guardian splash. The Telegraph says “Defiant Iran turns to Khamenei’s son”, the Times has “Ayatollah’s son chosen in challenge to Trump” and “US and Israel intensify strikes on Iran” is top story at the FT. “Have you learned nothing, Mr Blair?” questions the Mirror, while the Mail splashes on “Starmer’s humbling phone call to Trump”. The i Paper has “Easter holidays at risk as fallout from Middle East war spreads” and the Sun leads on “Huntley: the final letter”. Today in Focus Who really took one of history’s most famous pictures? The photo of a Vietnamese girl running away from a napalm strike is one of the most famous in history. But who actually took it? Film-maker Bao Nguyen and war photographer Gary Knight talk Annie Kelly through their investigation. Cartoon of the day | Artist Name The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad In this week’s A new start after 60 column, Paula Cocozza meets Craig Munns who, at the sprightly age of 62, finally unearthed the career for him: paleontology. His work involves fewer dinosaurs than you might expect, however. “I’m more of an invertebrate sort of guy,” he says – think worms, insects, lobsters and other spineless creatures. “I don’t understand this retirement stuff,” he says. “It doesn’t make any sense to me. Why would I do that?” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
International drug crime poses a danger to social stability in Belgium, a senior judge has said, after his colleague warned the country was evolving into “a narco-state” where mafia groups were forming “a parallel force” in society. Bart Willocx, the president of the Antwerp court of appeal, said Belgium was vulnerable to criminality from drug smuggling through the city’s vast port, one of the main entry points into Europe for cocaine smugglers. “The amount of money that is involved – to influence people, to corrupt people and to bribe – it is so big that it is really a danger for the stability of our society,” he told the Guardian in an interview at his court. Last October the Antwerp court took the unusual step of publishing an open letter from an anonymous investigative judge, who warned that Belgium was evolving into a narco-state. Extensive mafia structures had taken hold, the anonymous judge wrote, “becoming a parallel force that challenges not only the police, but the judiciary”. Willocx said Belgium was working to avoid becoming a narco-state: “But it is an evolution and it is a pressure – it is a threat.” Speaking alongside him, Guido Vermeiren, prosecutor general for the Antwerp and Limburg regions, said he agreed with the anonymous judge. “We are becoming a state with a lot of corruption, with a lot of threats,” he said. More than 70% of cocaine entering Europe came through Antwerp and Rotterdam in 2024, according to Europol, although the agency said last year that criminals were making greater use of smaller ports. Belgium’s problem stems from surging amounts of the drug coming from South America, mostly Colombia: a record 121 tonnes of cocaine was seized in the country in 2023 – according to the EU drugs agency – fuelling violent crime. Seizures fell to 44 tonnes in 2024, which the agency suggested could result from better chemical concealment of the drug and criminals shifting operations to smaller ports. Organised drug gangs were thought to be behind a plot to kidnap a Belgian interior minister in 2022 and a spate of shootings in Brussels in 2025. The senior officials detailed the pervasive criminality, which has spawned violence, shootings, kidnappings, torture and money laundering. “We really have a problem and we should make more investments in staff and in other resources to cope with it,” Willocx said. In one instance, criminals paid more than €250,000 to a port worker to move a single container, Vermeiren said. Port employees who hesitate or refuse to help the gangs face threats and bombings. “They received letters, photos of their children. There were attacks at their homes with homemade explosives,” Vermeiren said. Children as young as 13 were paid small sums to break into the port and steal cocaine, the prosecutor said, adding that the gangs “are not interested in what happens with those people”. Vermeiren also described how gangs groomed young people, helped them find jobs in the port and then put pressure on them to do their bidding. He also described an incident in March 2024 when police foiled an attempt by four men armed with automatic weapons to steal more than 1,500 tonnes of impounded cocaine from a customs warehouse. Police and hospital employees had been bribed or intimidated into providing confidential information about public servants, such as home addresses of judges, Willocx said. Belgian judges were increasingly having to live in safe houses. Vermeiren said he knew of multiple people who were under permanent protection. The anonymous judge spent four months in a safe house. Willocx said it had been very hard for his colleague: “From one day to another, you have to leave your house, you have to leave your family and you are going to live somewhere where nobody knows where you are.” Meanwhile judges at the Antwerp court of appeal are still waiting for the installation of scanners to check bags at the entrance. Willocx said they had been waiting two years for the security equipment promised by government. Court officials felt nervous whenever defendants or convicted criminals arrived at the court with large bags, he said. Both men agreed it was possible for judges to conjure up a procedural error to avoid a conviction. “It could happen,” Willocx said. “There is too much pressure on prosecutors or judges. What you see is that if we go on like this, a number of judges will prefer not to work in criminal affairs because of safety reasons, because of the enormous pressure.” Vermeiren thought it possible that the scale of the threat may already be having an unconscious influence on judges. The anonymous letter was published as part of the Five to Twelve campaign launched by Antwerp courts and prosecutors to warn that the Belgian justice system was counting down to doomsday. The movement began with street protests by judges last May and has since evolved into a broader campaign to raise public awareness about what is described as a crisis in the justice system that threatens the rule of law. The judges have proposed 100 reforms, ranging from safer courts, to tackling endemic prison overcrowding, and more attractive salaries and pensions for clerks and judges. Vermeiren said the government – a five-party coalition led by Flemish Conservative Bart De Wever – “recognise the problem, but then it stops”. Judges say that the Belgian courts system is at breaking point after decades of underfunding. Doubts about adequate resources remain, despite a pledge from the justice ministry last November to spend an extra €1bn by 2029. Willocx said underfunding courts and prosecutors left the system vulnerable to calls for further reductions because it was deemed to be not working well, which he said was “a vicious circle”. The scale of organised drug trafficking was exposed when investigators in Belgium, France and the Netherlands cracked the encrypted Sky ECC messaging network used by hundreds of criminals to organise narcotics smuggling, plan money drop offs and order murders. Nearly five years after the first arrests, on 9 March 2021, Belgian authorities announced last month that 1,206 people had so far been convicted, mostly for drug crime, violence, corruption, violation of professional secrecy and weapons possession. Nearly 5,000 potential suspects have been identified. Cracking the network gave prosecutors real-time insight into a criminal organisation stretching from Dubai to South America. “It was even worse than we thought,” Vermeiren said.
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His island home is shrouded in mist, but his union jack woolly hat makes Hideya Yagi easy to spot as he greets the approaching boat. The 80-year-old, a former president of a construction company, is pleased to see the small group of passengers disembark, mainly because he is one of only seven registered residents at their destination, Kasasa island. Kasasa is known as the “Hawaii” of Japan’s inland sea because of its warm climate and beautiful coastline. Yagi and his wife, Mihoko, eke out a quiet life alongside just one other couple and an elderly woman. The other two residents are almost always absent. “You can stand on the quayside and just reel the fish in,” he says as he stands on the rudimentary quay and lets his mind wander towards the hobby that brought him to the island 25 years ago. “And you can eat what you catch straight away.” But its idyllic, secluded location is attractive for other reasons, too. It sits at a sensitive spot for national security, close to two key military bases. Iwakuni US Marine Corps airbase is 20km away and a Japanese Maritime Self-Defence force base is 50km to the north, in the city of Kure. When it emerged that wealthy Chinese developers had bought and then started to develop two plots of land, rumours that they could be used by Beijing for surveillance began to swirl, leading one councillor to claim that the island “could eventually become a Chinese island”. Critics have pointed out that the same laws apply to landowners regardless of their nationality but the debate has continued inside Japan regardless. In the space of a few months, the modest island – measuring less than one square kilometre – has become emblematic of the worsening ties between the two countries, as well as Japan’s fears about Beijing’s ambitions in the region. Foreign ownership of land in politically sensitive parts of Japan is on the rise. In the 12 months to the end of March last year, Chinese investors were behind nearly half of hundreds of land and real estate acquisitions near locations deemed important for national security, the public broadcaster NHK reported. All the purchases were legal and approved by Japanese regulators. Those residents who are worried now have a powerful ally in the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, who has vowed to tighten regulations on the sale of land and other assets. The conservative leader has tapped into wider public unease about record levels of immigration, which Japan needs in order to fill large gaps in its workforce but which has also helped foster the rise of minor far-right parties such as Sanseito. Tokyo’s relationship with Beijing has become increasingly shaky after Takaichi warned that her country’s forces could become militarily involved in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. Those remarks prompted a furious response from China including a ban on exports of “dual-use” items to major Japanese conglomerates that Beijing says supply Japan’s military. The restrictions were designed to curb Japan’s “remilitarisation” and nuclear ambitions, the Chinese commerce ministry said. The move was condemned by Japan as “completely unacceptable”. ‘I don’t care where our neighbours are from’ When two plots on the south-east coast of Kasasa were bought almost a decade ago, its residents expected that it would end up becoming a holiday home and jetty – but years went by without any sign of development. Then late last year, a mechanical digger and cement mixer arrived by boat and began clearing the plots. Steel telegraph poles and high-voltage distribution lines were erected, and visitors were spotted in the area. According to local campaign group the Kasasa Island Preservation Association, the owners were Chinese investors who had bought it via a Japanese real estate company that owns additional plots on Kasasa. Their purchase and activities were entirely legal but their intentions remained unclear. Documents seen by the Guardian list a wide range of possible plans, from tourism facilities to cruises and restaurants. Attempts to reach the investors in Shanghai, where they are based, were unsuccessful. Calls to the real estate company were unanswered. “I don’t care where our neighbours are from, but we still don’t know who these people are and what they want to do here,” says Yagi, who has not met the Chinese investors, whose plot lies at the other end of the island. “Hardly anyone lives here, so new arrivals could do what they like and we would never know,” adds Yagi, who quit his job in his 50s to move from nearby Hiroshima prefecture. In the warmer months, Kasasa bursts into life, its famously rich soil and natural water supply combine to produce watermelons, mikan oranges, blueberries and tomatoes. The crystal clear waters lapping against the shore offer rich pickings – sea bream, yellowtail and octopus – for even the most inexperienced anglers. Today, though, the cleaners who disembarked from the ferry take refuge from the cold in a fishermen’s hut, their plastic bags filled with beach debris. A solitary dog walks up and down an empty road facing the coast, pausing outside wooden homes that have fallen into disrepair, and making friends with the few visitors who pass by. Yagi spends his days fishing, the fruits of which cover the couple’s living room table, while Mihoko looks after their garden. Their nearest neighbours are away, their front door left unlocked. “I’m worried about what will happen to the island’s atmosphere,” says Mihoko, as she cuddles the couple’s dog, Kuro-chan. “We’re being kept in the dark. I just want to carry on with life as it is, with my husband fishing and me growing fruit and vegetables.” A ‘silent invasion’? Now, a push by residents, local politicians and campaigners to protect the island’s way of life has snowballed into a discussion about how to protect the country’s assets against what some conservative commentators have called a “silent invasion” by a Chinese property vanguard. Takashi Ishikawa, a conservative councillor in nearby Yamaguchi city, claimed that Kasasa “could eventually become a Chinese island”. He told the Sankei Shimbun newspaper: “It could even serve as a drone base. If islands in the Seto Inland Sea … are bought up collectively, it would be as if Japan were effectively being invaded.” Hideki Miyagawa, who last year helped launch the Kasasa Island Preservation Association, says: “Ideally, we want to buy the land back, protect the island’s environment and persuade people to move here to live.” Kasasa was home to 100 people before the second world war. The association, whose members recently repaired the island’s only Shinto shrine, plans to hold events to attract younger people to the island, where dozens of homes stand empty. “This has got nothing to do with discriminating against foreigners,” says Miyagawa. “We just want the government to protect the interests of residents and for new residents to follow the rules. It’s hard to do that when we don’t even know the investors’ intentions. How do we know that they won’t use the location for something like surveillance?” The backlash Kasasa is not the only location where local sentiment is turning against foreign investment in land and property – a right protected by law, but one that critics say needs more scrutiny. In some parts of Japan, residents are taking matters into their own hands. In December last year, a landowner in Fukuoka, western Japan, agreed to abandon plans to build apartments aimed at foreign buyers – mainly Chinese and Taiwanese – after protests by residents. In June last year, the authorities in Hokkaido prevented the construction of a villa in the town of Kutchan by a Chinese national, who had cut down an area of forest without permission. But fears that foreign investors are snapping up and developing Japanese land with little scrutiny are wide of the mark, according to some experts, who say existing laws are enough to prevent illegal activity, regardless of the property owner’s nationality. Restricting foreigners’ ability to acquire property won’t solve the problem,” says Hiroshi Matsuo, a professor at Keio University Law School. “There are effective legal measures in place to deal with illegal development, regardless of whether it’s by Japanese or foreign nationals. What we need is a mature approach to land use regulations, which currently allow unexpected developments to go ahead without the knowledge or consent of existing residents.” The fear that foreign landowners are free to turn their property into something akin to an independent country confuses land ownership with territorial sovereignty, and has been encouraged by inaccurate information spread online, according to Matsuo. “It’s right to want a society in which it’s normal for foreigners to integrate into local communities. They and Japanese people must all follow the same rules.” In China, some have used the controversy to provoke Japan’s rightwing in comments on the WeChat and RedNote social media platforms. One commenter described land purchases as a “good investment strategy: buy land in Japan, stir up Japanese nationalistic sentiment, and then sell it back to the Japanese at a high price.” Another implored their compatriots to take ownership of the entire island and “plant the Chinese flag after you buy it”. Another wondered: “Can we crowdfund to buy the whole of Japan?” As the island’s day visitors prepare to leave on the last boat back to the mainland, Yagi’s thoughts are again turning to fishing. “I would love people to come here to fish, eat and drink together and stay overnight,” he says. “I don’t care which country they’re from … I’d just like that to happen before I die.” Additional research by Lillian Yang This article was amended on 9 March 2026 to correct the area the island covers, to less than one square kilometre.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Kyiv’s drone experts will be on site in the Middle East “next week”, as he seeks US air defence missiles in exchange for drone expertise. Ukraine is facing a shortage of the expensive US PAC-3 air defence ammunition and Kyiv fears a longer Middle East war could disrupt supplies even further. When asked how exactly he wants to help the United States and its Gulf allies repel the drones, Zelensky said: “It is too early to say anything else at this stage”, adding: “I think that next week, when the experts are on site, they will look at the situation and help.” Zelenskyy said he and Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten discussed joint arms production during his visit to Kyiv on Sunday, and he stressed Ukraine’s unique experience in defending against Iranian-made drones used by Russia. “We would very much like this to be an opportunity for both sides,” Zelenskyy told a press conference after a meeting with Jetten. “It is important that we are producing weapons together with the Netherlands – and we will certainly continue and expand this joint work,” Zelenskyy said, adding they had discussed investments and possible production volumes in detail. The Netherlands are an important donor to the PURL program through which Europe buys US weapons for Ukraine, so far contributing $870m to it. Demand for Ukraine’s drone defence technology could lead to new defence partnerships for Kyiv, but equally could mean fewer drones for Ukraine itself in a stretched market, says Shaun Walker, the Guardian’s central and eastern Europe correspondent. Ukraine has significant experience battling the Shahed drones now being used by Iran to attack its Gulf neighbours, something that Volodymyr Zelenskyy has publicly said he is ready to share in return for help against Russia. “We are ready to help, and expect that our people will also receive the necessary support,” he said over the weekend. However, the attention of the White House is now elsewhere, perhaps drawing momentum away from peace talks with Moscow, and the attack on Iran seems to reinforce Vladimir Putin’s view of the world, in which stronger nations can target their weaker adversaries with impunity. Global weapons flows have grown by almost 10% in the past five years, with Europe more than tripling imports in the wake of the war in Ukraine, a report showed on Monday. The surge can be explained, in part at least, by the fact European countries are buying in weapons to supply to Ukraine and because they are seeking to boost their own military capabilities against a perceived threat from Russia, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) said. While imports of weapons to Europe are still not at the levels seen during the cold war, “Europe is now the largest recipient of arms [globally],” Mathew George, director of SIPRI’s Arms Transfers Programme, told AFP. Russia’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its air defence units had intercepted 234 drones over various parts of central and southern Russia over a nine-hour period, including six drones headed for Moscow. The ministry reported no damage or casualties during the period, extending from 2pm to 11pm.