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Poland railway blast was unprecedented act of sabotage, says Donald Tusk

Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, has described an explosion along a section of railway line used for deliveries to Ukraine as an “unprecedented act of sabotage” that could have led to disaster. It came as a statement from public prosecutors on Monday evening said an investigation had opened “regarding acts of sabotage of a terrorist nature […] committed on behalf of a foreign intelligence service against the Republic of Poland.” There were no casualties from the incident on the line from Warsaw to Lublin, but the consequences could have been catastrophic if the gap in the tracks had caused a train travelling at full speed to derail. “Unfortunately, there is no doubt that we are dealing with an act of sabotage. Fortunately, there was no tragedy, but the matter is nonetheless very serious,” Tusk said on Monday, after visiting the scene 60 miles (97km) from Warsaw, near the village of Mika. He described the attack as “an attempt to destabilise and destroy railway infrastructure, which could have led to a rail disaster”. Tusk said Polish authorities had already launched an investigation into the blast as well as another incident over the weekend that also appeared to involve rail sabotage. “Just like in previous cases of this kind, we will catch the perpetrators, regardless of who their backers are,” he said. The attack comes amid a campaign of sabotage in Poland and other European countries that has been attributed to Russian security services, seeking to sow chaos and discord in Europe over support for Ukraine’s war effort. In Poland, this has included fires and explosions at shopping malls and other sites. Often, the perpetrators are Ukrainians, Belarusians or Polish citizens who are recruited for one-time jobs over the messaging app Telegram. Police said someone had reported hearing an explosion late on Saturday evening but officers performed checks and did not find anything. The damaged section of track was spotted by the driver of a regional train early on Sunday morning, who managed to make an emergency stop before reaching it. Dariusz Grajda, deputy chief executive officer of Polish State Railways, told Polish television that one of the previous trains had reported an issue with the track, which meant the train that stopped had been briefed on the problem and was travelling slowly enough to stop in time. The second incident took place near the town of Puławy on Sunday evening, when a train carrying 475 passengers was forced to make an emergency stop after damage to overhead power lines, and a metal brace was found on the tracks. There were also claims of a metal device found on the tracks. No one was injured in the incident, which occurred about 19 miles (30km) from the site of the track explosion. “According to preliminary findings, windows in one of the carriages were broken … Police officers are conducting investigations at the scene,” the Lublin police department said in a statement. A meeting of the Polish government’s national security committee was called for Tuesday morning to discuss the rail incidents. It will be attended by military commanders, heads of security services and a representative of the Polish president. Poland’s defence minister, Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz, who usually chairs the committee, said the army would inspect the safety of the remaining 120km (75 miles) of track between the incident site and the border with Ukraine. Security services minister Tomasz Siemoniak said the probability of the acts being carried on orders of foreign intelligence services was “very high.” He later added: “We are dealing with the [intelligence] services of a foreign state, and not a gang of scrap metal thieves.” Poland’s interior minister, Marcin Kierwiński, said in a social media post that Poland was “facing acts of sabotage unprecedented in its most recent history.”

Foreign state services behind Polish rail sabotage, says minister – as it happened

As we are closing the blog now, here is a summary of what we know so far: Poland’s prime minister Donald Tusk condemned “an unprecedented act of sabotage aimed at the security of the Polish state and its citizens,” after two separate incidents were reported on a key railway line leading to Ukraine. At a lunchtime press conference, interior minister Marcin Kierwiński spoke of “two acts of sabotage this weekend,” one confirmed, and one “highly likely”, affecting the same rail line (14:04). No injuries were reported in either of the two incidents. Both incidents were reported on a critical railway line used for carrying aid deliveries for Ukraine, used by up to 115 trains a day. Poland’s security services minister Tomasz Siemoniak said the likelihood that the incidents were inspired by foreign intelligence services was deemed to be “very high” (14:12). He later told reporters that certain parts of the investigation need to remain confidential, as “we are dealing with the [intelligence] services of a foreign state, and not a gang of scrap metal thieves” (14:43). A meeting of the government’s national security committee is scheduled for Tuesday morning (16:12). In other news, EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius have warned that Russia could test Nato’s defences “during the next two or four years,” suggesting it could begin with an attack on a Baltic state (10:45). Ukraine and France have signed a letter of intent for a deal including up to 100 Rafale warplanes, drones and ground-to-air systems for Kyiv during a much-advertised meeting between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Emmanuel Macron in Paris (11:05, 11:28, 13:27, 13:34, 13:43). German chancellor Friedrich Merz has warned about “a deep rift” in Europe’s relations with the US, the growing threat from China and the rapidly progressing systemic challenges to the world order that required a united European response in a wide-ranging speech to an economic conference in Berlin (11:38). EU countries should give Ukraine grants or take out loans to fund its defence, if they cannot agree on using Russia’s frozen assets, according to an options paper drawn up by the European Commission (15:46). Germany’s finance minister is in Beijing today as tensions between China and Europe over supply of chips deepen (16:01). And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Letter: Martin Mansergh obituary

The Manserghs, an Anglo-Irish family, to which Martin Mansergh belonged, attached much importance to the family dog. It is said that they switched their allegiance from the British side to Irish Republicanism when their dog was shot by the Black and Tans in 1920, at their estate in Tipperary, which may well explain Martin’s loyalty to Fianna Fáil.

UN to vote on Gaza stabilisation force plan that references Palestinian state

The UN security council is to vote on Monday on a US-drafted resolution to set up an international stabilisation force (ISF) in Gaza that includes a late and highly tentative addition on a future Palestinian state, added under pressure from Arab states. A rival motion has meanwhile been tabled by Russia and China, setting up the possibility that both motions could be vetoed by one or more of the five permanent members of the security council. The stabilisation force comes from Trump’s 20-point plan for Gaza, which also calls for the disarmament of Hamas and demilitarisation of Gaza, as well as the reconstruction of the devastated territory and its placing under the authority of a technocratic Palestinian administration answering ultimately to a “board of peace” to be chaired by the US president. The new force, the draft says, would receive a two-year mandate under the resolution and help secure border areas, protect civilians, secure humanitarian aid corridors and work on the “permanent decommissioning of weapons from non-state armed groups”. The US text, backed in outline by the Gulf states, France and the UK, has been the subject of intense negotiations, including the insertion of a reference to the future formation of a Palestinian state at the insistence of Saudi Arabia. It says that so long as reforms have occurred and the rebuilding of Gaza is under way, then “the conditions may finally be in place for a credible pathway to Palestinian self-determination and statehood”. The Russian-Chinese rival text is probably closer to the true views of the Arab states on a two-state solution, but the Gulf countries know they have to work with the US text since Trump’s endorsement is necessary in order for Israel to accept the stabilisation force. Trump wants Arab or Muslim forces to supply troops for the force, which means its mandate and the prospect of a Palestinian state must be acceptable to them. However, it appears the US has held out against a Saudi call for the stabilisation force to be answerable to the UN, as opposed to a Trump-chaired “board of peace” as outlined under his 20-point plan. Saudi sources said it was remarkable that Trump was backing a motion to the UN endorsing the concept of a Palestinian state. The Trump administration has largely ignored the UN or used its veto throughout the Gaza conflict. The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, faced with a backlash from within his own government over the clause, said at his weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that he did not need encouragement from anyone to express his opposition to a Palestinian state but that the clause was necessary since “no country was eager to join the multinational force in the Gaza Strip”. On Saturday, the far-right ministers Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich had called on Netanyahu to denounce the idea of a Palestinian state. Smotrich said the prime minister had “chosen silence and diplomatic disgrace” while Ben-Gvir threatened to leave his coalition. Though both ministers were primarily rallying their own supporters before a looming election, a far-right walkout could bring down Netanyahu’s rightwing government well before the country goes to the polls, which must be by October 2026. The Israeli defence minister, Israel Katz, and the foreign minister, Gideon Saar, also posted statements on X denouncing a Palestinian state on Sunday, without mentioning Netanyahu. “Israel will not agree to the establishment of a Palestinian terror state in the heart of the Land of Israel,” Saar wrote. Netanyahu has long opposed a Palestinian state, saying in recent months that its creation would reward Hamas and endanger Israel’s security. Speaking to his cabinet, Netanyahu said on Sunday that Israel’s opposition to a Palestinian state had “not changed one bit”. Pressure for progress towards Palestinian statehood increased during the war in Gaza. In September, the UK, Australia and Canada formally recognised a Palestinian state in Gaza and the West Bank, where settler violence against Palestinians has surged and Israeli politicians have raised threats of annexation. The US draft says that as the stabilisation force establishes control and stability in Gaza, the Israeli military will withdraw. The standards and milestones that must be met for this withdrawal to occur would depend on agreement between the US, Israel, the stabilisation force and other parties. The US, as reported by the Guardian, is however planning for the division of Gaza into a “green zone” under Israeli and international military control, where reconstruction would start, and a “red zone” to be left in ruins. A joint statement of support for the US stabilisation force proposal has been issued by nine countries including Qatar, Egypt, Pakistan, Jordan, Turkey, Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, the key countries from which troops are likely to be drawn, though unease about the Trump plan remains among Muslim countries. UAE and Jordan have both said they cannot supply troops while Israel has vetoed Turkey joining the force on the basis that Turkey is too close ideologically to Hamas. The respective roles of the ISF – an external force – and a vetted Palestinian civilian police force is critical since the motion charges the ISF and not the police force with the delicate political task of overseeing the dismantling of Hamas weapons, the precondition for an Israeli withdrawal from Gaza. There are fears in Israel that the US may now compromise on its demand for Hamas to be entirely disarmed, given the massive challenges of convincing or forcing the militant Islamist organisation to give up all its weapons.

Incredible story of Irish labourer buried alive in coffin for 61 days told in new documentary

They were known as burial artists – people who had themselves buried alive in macabre feats of endurance – and Mick Meaney resolved to be the best there ever was. It was 1968 and the Irish labourer had barely a pound to his name but he believed that if he stayed underground in a coffin longer than anyone else the world would remember his name. On 21 February that year wellwishers and TV crews followed his coffin, 6ft 3in long, 2ft 6in wide and lined with foam, in procession through the streets of Kilburn, the heart of Ireland’s emigrant community in London, and watched as Meaney was lowered into a pit in a builder’s yard. Soil entombed the coffin, save for a pipe for air and through which food and liquid could be lowered. Meaney’s target, to beat the world record and claim fame and fortune, was 61 days. The remarkable stunt, and its poignant aftermath, is told in a documentary to be aired on the Irish-language TV station TG4 on 26 November. Titled Beo Faoin bhFód (Buried Alive), the film has already been screened at festivals. Directed by Daire Collins, it combines interviews with Meaney’s family and friends with archival footage of an event that made global headlines. “My father was a proud Tipperary man,” his daughter Mary Meaney says in the documentary. “He was another Irishman, they are now called the forgotten Irish, they were over there working with a pick and shovel and sending the money back to their families. Times were poor back then.” Meaney, strong and powerfully built, had wanted to become a champion boxer but injury ended that dream and he ended up digging tunnels in London. When an accident briefly trapped him beneath rubble he remained composed, and another ambition possessed him: to claim the record for the longest time spent buried alive. The craze started in California in the 1920s – the US bred other unusual endurance contests such as the longest time spent atop a pole, or hula hooping, or dancing – and in the 1960s the unofficial record was credited to a Texan named Bill White. Styling himself “the living corpse”, White made a career of being buried to promote car dealerships and other businesses and had endured a 55-day stint underground. To set a new record Meaney, aged 33, teamed up with Michael ‘Butty’ Sugrue, a circus performer turned publican and impresario in London’s Irish community. Sugrue staged a wake at a pub, the Admiral Nelson, during which Meaney was enclosed in the coffin. A truck ferried the coffin to a yard owned by a contractor, Mick Keane, who allotted part of the site to the stunt. A trapdoor that opened to a cavity beneath the coffin, which was slightly larger than a regular coffin, served as a toilet. “I had a great night’s sleep last night,” Meaney, speaking from a telephone rigged inside his casket, told a TV news anchor on his second day. He established a routine: wake at 7am, do exercises compatible with the confinement, rub ointment on his body, eat, read books and newspapers and talk to people on the phone. The line connected to a phone at the Admiral Nelson, where Sugrue charged patrons for every call. Celebrities such as the boxer Henry Cooper conversed with the buried man but interest waned as weeks passed – war in Vietnam and Martin Luther King’s assassination dominated attention. Still, Sugrue mustered dancers, musicians and journalists for what was styled Meaney’s “resurrection”, after 61 days, on 22 April. The coffin was dug up and ferried atop a truck, past cheering crowds, back to the pub. When the lid was removed Meaney, with sunglasses to shield his eyes, and a beard, grinned. “I’d like to go for a hundred days more,” he told the press. “I’m delighted to be the champion of the world.” Fortune never came – it was alleged that Sugrue swindled his star. A mooted world tour and sponsorship deal with Gillette never materialised. “In all walks of life there are people who just use you like a vampire,” said Mary Meaney, who was three when her father returned to Ireland. “He came back without as much as the price of a bottle of milk in his pocket.” Fame proved fleeting. No Guinness Book of Records representative recorded Meaney’s feat and a rival burial artist named Tim Hayes, who spent less time underground in a regular-sized coffin, disputed his champion credentials. Later in 1968, a former nun named Emma Smith had herself buried beneath a fairground in Skegness for 101 days. Meaney got a job with Cork county council and died in 2003. “He could live an ordinary life, working class, ordinary, but he craved this extraordinary life,” said Mary Meaney. “Breaking the world record made him feel, ‘I’m somebody’.”

‘There is so much corruption’: hundreds of thousands protest in Manila over missing flood funds

From a skyscraper in downtown Manila, a sea of white spreads out below, covering the vast green lawns of Rizal Park and expanding down arterial roads and sidestreets. It is formed of more than half a million people, clad in matching white T-shirts, the slogan “transparency for a better democracy” emblazoned on their chests. An estimated 650,000 of them have flooded the centre of Manila to protest, amid fury over a spiralling corruption scandal in which billions of dollars in flood mitigation funds have evaporated. Organised by the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC), a powerful sect in the Philippines, the three-day rally has shut down schools, roads and offices. Many of those protesting have camped out all night on the park’s lawns, sleeping in tents or beneath tarpaulins and umbrellas. Families have journeyed from across the country to set up camp, some equipped with portable stoves and rice cookers, others pushing elderly family members in wheelchairs, many of them bearing placards saying “expose the deeds”. “We are Filipino … that’s why we’re here. We have decided to unite as one people to try to make our government better, because there is so much corruption. Our money is being taken but the projects are never completed,” says Edward, 20, who has come from Batangas, a province about two hours away. “There are so many floods. And when the floods come, there are so many issues.” The focus of the fury is on company owners, government officials and parliament members accused of pocketing billions in funds for substandard or nonexistent flood protection projects. Since the scandal began, the country’s economic planning minister has said up to 70% of public funds allotted for flood control may have been lost to corruption; some senators have estimated 50%. Government investigators have discovered more than 400 “ghost” flood protection projects that were reported to have been completed but turned out to be nonexistent. The absence of those protections is felt keenly in the Philippines, where hundreds of people have died in typhoon-related flooding over the past month. More than 20 typhoons have hit the country’s territory this year, and extreme weather increasingly derails daily life. As the rally formed on Sunday, authorities and families were still searching for those missing from Typhoon Kalmaegi, which ripped through the country in early November, killing at least 269. The 100 or so still missing are likely to also have been killed. Days after Kalgaemi blew through, Typhoon Fung-wong arrived, causing more devastating floods, displacing 1.4 million people and killing another 28. In Quezon City, thousands more people rallied at the People Power monument, in a protest led by progressive groups and retired generals. “Those in power no longer act in accordance with the welfare of the people and according to the wishes of the people,” Rey Valeros, the secretary general of the United People’s Initiative, the group behind the protest, told local media. “They no longer listen to the cries of the majority and they conduct their own investigations into what is happening. No one is punished and no one is held accountable.” The president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, has attempted to quell public outrage, saying this week that officials involved in the scandal would be arrested and charged by end of year. “They’ll be jailed – there’s no merry Christmas for them,” he said. But the hundreds of thousands gathered in Rizal Park could spell trouble for Marcos. The rally has been organised and endorsed by the INC, a Philippine megachurch that commands a membership of close to 3 million. Many of those attending cite their obligations to the sect, as well as their concern over corruption, as a reason for attending. “Our leader announced a rally. It’s our nature as the church to unite in the activity that our leader establishes,” says Leonard, a student who has travelled with his family from south-western Luzon to attend the protest. The INC is highly authoritarian and its members vote in a bloc, giving them considerable electoral influence. The sect’s leadership has endorsed the winning presidents of the last five elections, including the 2022 victor, Marcos, and his running mate, Sara Duterte. In the years since their election, however, Marcos and Duterte have turned from allies to feuding political rivals, and the INC has thrown its weight behind the latter. On Sunday, the INC spokesperson Edwil Zabala said the sect was not looking to topple the government. “We are not fighting the government. It is not our aim to bring down the government as an institution,” he said, criticising what he called efforts to portray the rally as an attempt to destabilise the administration. Addressing the crowds on Sunday, the religious leader Bienvenido Santiago Jr said: “We do not agree with a coup d’état, with a snap election … We do not want the fall of the government as an institution. What we want is the fall of corruption.”

Far-right group with links to neo-Nazi leader offers online military training

In the underworld of accelerationist neo-Nazis, where talk of attacks against western governments are commonplace, the spread of illegal weapons manuals and tradecraft on drone warfare are proliferating. Experts say, in some cases, that classes are being taught online with the input of leadership from proscribed terrorist groups with links to Russian intelligence. Authorities have been warning, on both sides of the Atlantic, about the accessibility of drone technologies and military veterans on the far right with the knowhow to use them, presenting a grave national security threat. “Offering military-style training materials, including drone tradecraft, to the extreme right indicates that this is for prepping purposes,” said Joshua Fisher-Birch, a terrorism analyst with close to a decade of experience tracking militant movements. “[To] improve the capacity of extremist networks to commit violence, or to encourage acts of violence specifically.” Fisher-Birch says a well-connected and dangerous network called the Observations Group has emerged with a following among internationalist neo-Nazis and bills itself as a “paramilitary project to prepare people for modern warfare”. Part of its operations, so far, is promoting militant course materials through its closed chat groups. On its open Telegram channel, however, the group is already bragging about its online “military course” which it says covers “basic command training, and for those with no military experience, the course will cover the basics of preparing a soldier”, and can be purchased using a cryptocurrency wallet it uses for fundraising. Observations Group continues: “You will receive the latest information on drones [...] Nato and [war] doctrines, techniques for engaging in war on both sides of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict [...] the integration of modern communications technologies and military concepts of future armies.” The leader of the network told the Guardian that “I myself am in Russia” but that his “units are autonomous and located in different countries”. Its posts are in English and Russian, making clear it is not an American-based group, but says it is allied with an accused Kremlin spy and leader of the Base – an internationally designated neo-Nazi terrorist group, originating in the US. “Good news: Norman Spear (leader of the paramilitary group ‘The Base’ and a former FBI analyst) is participating in the development of the first course as a military strategist,” it said in a post, referring to Rinaldo Nazzaro and one of the aliases he uses to mask his legal name. Over the summer, former members of his group criticized Nazzaro for being an agent of Russian intelligence services – a charge he repeatedly denies – while the Ukrainian cell of the Base claimed responsibility for the July assassination of an intelligence officer in Kyiv. Fisher-Birch explained how, “given Nazzaro’s likely connection to the Russian intelligence services or similar entities, it further indicates that the [Observations Group] project is potentially similarly connected”. Nazzaro, reached on Telegram, did not deny his connections to the group. “The Base has its own organic European network,” he said. “But we’re always open to collaboration with like-minded groups that recognize strength in unity.” The Base, recently named to the European Union’s terrorist list, has been aggressively expanding on the continent in lockstep with an uptick in Russian sabotage operations, which have relied heavily on the online recruitment of operatives – often through Telegram. Initially, Observations Group planned its course to be an in-person training camp in Czechia, but changed it to an online seminar where it is “already live”. The group declared new partnerships with an unnamed American extremist group and “in the future, our project will be able to officially conduct exercises and training sessions in the USA”. “This situation,” Fisher-Birch said, “certainly benefits the Russian government.” Lucas Webber, a senior threat intelligence analyst at Tech Against Terrorism, says the group and its connections to a real-world actor like the Base show it is part of an “urgent danger” on the far right. “Extremist groups that learn from foreign war zones pose a dangerous contagion threat, channeling battlefield experience into domestic or transnational contexts,” he said, pointing out the use of cryptocurrency is another alarm bell. “Relying on cryptocurrency for fees and circulating combat manuals masks the group’s financial operations and strategic plans, making detection and disruption more difficult for law enforcement.” Multiple national security sources previously told the Guardian the FBI has major concerns about terrorist organizations eyeing the use of easily purchasable, first-person view drones for domestic attacks in the US. From Mexican drug cartels to Islamic State – drones are being incorporated into paramilitary strategies all over the world. Evidence has already emerged that military-trained neo-Nazis in the US, with relevant drone skillsets, have begun advising others within the movement. A writer and alleged former marine has a popular Substack among extremists and claims to be a former member of the now-defunct Atomwaffen Division – another hyper-violent, proscribed terrorist group aligned with the Base and connected to murders in the US. “I am a drone operator, one of the first in the infantry,” wrote the anonymous writer. “The future is cheap, 3D-printed drones with a [high-explosive] round zip tied to it.” Webber believes accelerationists on the far right, who view acts of terrorism as a means of setting off a domino effect taking down world governments, are already implementing drones into potential operations. “Preventing the shift from virtual coordination to tangible violence requires both monitoring of illicit financial flows and a commitment to taking down key digital channels that facilitate recruitment and training,” he said. “Failure to intervene could allow these battlefield-inspired tactics to spread further, potentially leading to high-impact attacks against civilian or governmental targets.”