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Friday briefing: How Manchester City’s financial scandal could upend the whole football league

Good morning. It’s a sporting scandal of colossal proportions, with the juiciest details still to come. Manchester City’s ascent from mediocre to majestic changed the landscape of British football. Now, that pace looks set to be matched by a sudden, plummeting fall. The club has been found guilty of breaching football finance rules to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds, with ramifications poised to spill far beyond Manchester (the club denies the allegations, and says it will appeal). Foreign state ownership makes this an international relations issue, not just a sporting one. The prime minister has been dragged into the sleaze-fest, and the stream of stories shows no sign of slowing. Meanwhile, the Mancunian club has the chutzpah to sit at the top of the Premier League, much to the repulsion of my Manchester United-supporting boyfriend. With the help of Guardian football writer Jonathan Wilson, today’s First Edition delivers everything you need to know about the crisis engulfing the beautiful game, and believe me, this one’s not just for the footie fans. That’s after the headlines. Five big stories Ukraine | Wes Streeting urged the US to stand by Ukraine on his visit to the American capital and sought to cool tensions between the two countries in the wake of the Starlink row that is threatening to set back Kyiv’s war effort. UK news | Jeffrey Donaldson has been sentenced to 15 years for sexual offences against two women who were children when he abused them, completing what was described as a “catastrophic descent into disgrace”. Hacking | An Israeli advertising agency has been serving millions of online adverts that allow “zero-click” spyware to be used against targets, researchers at a Canadian university have said. UK news | A woman has alleged Russell Brand told her “it’s just fun” as he raped her in a hotel room at the 1999 Labour party conference, a court has heard. US news | Donald Trump has shelved a widely condemned plan to livestream the execution of a disabled man by firing squad. In depth: ‘There was a sense that the panel felt lied to by City’ To some (Manchester City fans, mostly), it was a sporting success story for the ages. After decades of underachievement, a middle-of-the-road club transformed into England’s best performing – and top title-winning – team. Others grumbled that City’s success was a sad indictment of the state of modern football. The club’s change in fortunes came shortly after they were bought by the Abu Dhabi United Group, a private equity group owned by the Gulf state’s vice president. Billionaires had already gutted the topflight of its heart, now governments with entire GDPs to burn had descended. Except, of course, the cash injection at Manchester City breached strict Premier League limits. Financial fair play rules, introduced by the league in 2013, aimed to keep a lid on spending so that clubs – financed by, say, a fossil-fuel rich state – couldn’t simply spend billions for immediate dominance. Only, that’s precisely what Manchester City did. According to an independent panel, they secretly boosted their income by a staggering £900m between 2009 and 2018. When he first flicked through the panel’s 40-page verdict summary, Wilson was surprised by the “incredibly strong language it used for a dry legal document”. The word “sham” is repeated eight times. “There was a clear sense that the panel felt systematically lied to by City,” says Wilson. The real spice is likely to come in the yet-to-be-published appendices to the verdict, which will probably contain names, companies and detailed figures. These recent revelations didn’t come out of nowhere. Back in November 2018, German newspaper Der Spiegel published a four-part series on Manchester City (“Bending the Rules to the Tune of Millions” was the first headline). The paper’s bombshell reporting was based on data released in The Football Leaks, a website containing millions of documents on allegedly murky financial transactions in the sport, made public by Portuguese whistleblower (and convicted hacker) Rui Pinto. UEFA conducted an investigation, and in 2020 found the club guilty, though the punishments (a two-year ban from European competitions and a €30m fine) were watered down on appeal. Meanwhile, Manchester City kept on winning. “There was wide recognition that Manchester City had gotten away with it by dragging out the process,” Wilson tells me – the commission said that the club “made concerted efforts to stop and frustrate” the investigation. “There was a sense then that football could not really handle situations like these,” Wilson says. Then, last month, the Premier League announcement came: Manchester City was guilty of 114 charges. It’s understood these offences correlate to information already in the public domain: that Manchester City inflated the value of sponsorship deals to channel extra cash into the club; that secret payments were made to senior club figures and player agents. These were a contravention of financial rules, and the club obstructed Premier League investigations. The club has maintained its innocence, and intends to appeal. *** A sizeable punishment? Even allowing time for Manchester City to appeal, a sanction decision is expected around Christmas. Fines, point-docking, transfer bans, suspension and expulsion are all being discussed, though Premier League rules dictate there’s no limit to the penalties that could be dished out. The sheer scale of the rule-breaking means there’s little precedent for comparison. Everton were docked six points for a £20 million rule breach. Apply the same metrics, and Manchester City would lose hundreds. Knocking that much off their tally in a single season is “functionally identical” to a much softer sentence, says Wilson. (Points reset every season, and last year, league-toppers Arsenal finished on just 85.) “It leads to the conclusion that expulsion from the Premier League might be the only logical outcome,” says Wilson. He’d also like them stripped of their titles, and to see an investigation launched immediately into the club’s finances from 2018 until now. Expulsion would be complicated. The complex structure of English football means if Manchester City did get booted out of the Premier League, there’s no guarantee the club would find a place in a lower league. And, even if it’s recommended by the panel, Premier League clubs would need to vote it through on a two-thirds majority. “That vote is unpredictable, as some club owners have business ties in Abu Dhabi or fear setting a precedent where clubs can vote out rivals,” says Wilson. *** How worried should Man City be? Off the pitch, there’s the prospect of civil litigation lingering too: Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United and Tottenham Hotspur each submitted formal legal notices before a September 2024 deadline, which reserves them the right to claim compensation for losses caused by City’s rule breaches. When Everton breached financial rules in the 2021/22 season Burnley successfully claimed close to £40m from the Merseyside club. The sums at stake in this instance could be eye-watering. Plus there’s the prospect of possible criminal proceedings. Tom Forster KC, a financial crime barrister, suggested that Manchester City “has a great deal to be worried about on this front”. Then there’s the political fallout, which is still taking shape. Andy Burnham was mayor of Greater Manchester through this period, a time during which Abu Dhabi made serious investments in the city. “That can be viewed either as benevolent community building or as a calculated investment, expecting returns and local influence,” says Wilson. Either way, it’s not ideal for the new prime minister. Plus, Burnham’s initial response to the judgment raised eyebrows, saying he’d be “really concerned” if the owners were forced to sell. “His skepticism of the charges sounded like comments from a fan on a message board rather than a measured politician,” says Wilson. Clarifications from Number 10 soon followed, and Burnham committed to publishing details of his dealings with Manchester City. Yesterday, he requested a “manual trawl” of records from his time as Greater Manchester Mayor, after two hospitality dinners with Manchester City’s chair were found to be absent from the combined authority’s digital register. *** What does this mean for English football? The ramifications for English football are clear. The Premier League faces a massive problem: the success of its top side is built on foul play. And not just between 2009 and 2018, Wilson reckons. “Even if we assume City complied cleanly after the leaks emerged, their success since remains predicated on that unfair advantage. That’s a lot of titles – and a lot of prize money – won under compromised conditions. As it stands, this is “hugely damaging” to the Premier League’s reputation and fan trust, Wilson says. Football is the UK’s most popular sport, and is worth billions to the economy. If faith is lost in the sport, that’s a real problem. On the other hand, football is just a ballgame without the drama, spectacle and narrative – to which this debacle adds plenty. Especially, Wilson says, “if the outcome demonstrates that the Premier League is willing to enforce its regulations against even its most dominant team.” But there’s a story much bigger than football here. Manchester City (and Saudi Arabia’s Newcastle United for that matter) aren’t the only British institutions quasi-owned by foreign governments. Qatar, Saudi and China own the bulk of Heathrow Airport; through state-owned EDF, France claims significant chunks of UK energy infrastructure. Royal Mail, meanwhile, is owned by a Czech billionaire; more than 70% of the English water industry is in foreign ownership. “This case illustrates the extent of foreign state influence over major British institutions,” says Wilson, “tracing back to New Labour policies that encouraged foreign state investment without sufficient safeguards against geopolitical manipulation.” But, if the Premier League holds course, its response could be just as symbolic. “In a broader societal landscape where massive wealth often overrides accountability, this would represent a major British institution taking a stand to enforce rule of law and regulatory compliance.” What else we’ve been enjoying I enjoyed Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett’s column on the return of Girls, and what it could look like now its protagonists are more women than girls them. Poppy Noor, newsletters team I don’t get a chance to dance these days. So I found Lyndsey Winship’s piece on which music is the best to get down to both absolutely fascinating and a potent reminder to get myself ‘out out’. Lucinda Everett, newsletters team If you’ve used the term “greedflation” you’re borrowing a term from Isabella Weber, who is quickly becoming one of the most sought-after economists of her generation. Our own Michael Segalov interviewed her, and the piece out this morning provides a rare bit of hope. Poppy Maya Yang’s report about a loophole that lets private firms catch protected sand tiger sharks in the US and sell them to foreign aquariums is a shocking but important read. Lucinda I thought Zoe Williams was superb on Sally Rooney’s courage and humanity. Poppy Sport Football | Brazilians Evanilson and Rayan scored as Bournemouth eased to a 3-0 win over Sturm Graz of Austria in their first-ever home European tie; Sunderland came from behind to beat Torreense 2-1; Crystal Palace and Celtic both defeated. Rugby league | Jack Bostock almost single-handedly stole the Rugby League World Cup opener, with three tries and a crucial assist in a 24-22 victory over New Zealand. Football | European football leaders are increasingly confident they will find a candidate to stand against Gianni Infantino in next year’s Fifa presidential election. Something for the weekend Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now Film NAZA (in cinemas now) | ★★★★☆ Under the cover of night, anonymous Israeli intelligence officers and personnel discuss the secret systems used in the war on Gaza, in a documentary produced by the Guardian. Read Peter Bradshaw’s full review. TV The Diplomat (Netflix) | ★★★★★ Keri Russell is still trying to stop a sea of berks who are one bad hair day away from starting a nuclear war – only this time, the cortisol levels and the sauciness have been ramped up even further. Read Sarah Dempster’s full review. Music Fontaines DC: Dopamine Chamber | ★★★★★ This is a beguiling, endlessly inventive and frequently astonishing fifth LP from a group at increasing ease with being the best band of their generation. Read Laura Snapes’s full review. Art and design Tarek Atoui’s Turbine Hall (Tate Modern, London) | ★★★★★ The Lebanese artist has turned trumpets, drums, cones and voices into an ingenious, interconnected sonic beast with funny, sad and mystical results. Prepare to feel the earth move! Read Jonathan Jones’s full review. The front pages The Guardian splashes on “Revealed: chancellor poised to raise taxes on banks in budget”. The Telegraph says “Healey plans tax raid on banks”, the Times runs “Hospitals to place trans women on male wards” and the i Paper headlines on “Energy bills set for double rise in the new year”. The Mail has “Dumb and dumber”, in reference to Labour’s education policy, and the Financial Times says “Merz stands by welfare reform overhaul as he vows to fight on”. Elsewhere, the Sun and the Mirror focus on the Russell Brand trial, running the same headline, based on witness testimony: “Brand made me take pic … then he raped me”. Brand denies all the charges and has pleaded not guilty. The Latest ‘I couldn’t breathe’: Russell Brand trial hears from first alleged victim Former comedian Russell Brand is on trial facing multiple charges of rape and sexual assault against six women, spanning a decade from 1999 to 2009. On Thursday the court heard evidence from a woman who alleged Russell Brand told her “it’s just fun” as he raped her at the 1999 Labour party conference. He denies all the allegations against him. Lucy Hough speaks to senior national news editor Aaron Sharp. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad They say everyone’s got a book in them … but most of us have no idea how to even begin putting pen to paper. Helpfully, in this piece Madeleine Aggeler asks the experts on how to get started – and keep going. From setting timelines to taking classes and writing even just a page at a time, it’s filled with great guidance, including this from novelist Christopher Moore on how to restart your abandoned opus: “Think about why it’s important to you to finish it. What would it mean for you to complete this project?” 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

Pope Leo lung cancer surgery: what kind of operation did he have and what happens next?

On Tuesday, surgeons in Rome removed the lower part of Pope Leo’s right lung, after a routine health check found a small growth that tests have since confirmed as lung cancer. The operation, called a lobectomy, is the standard treatment for lung cancer caught early, and for many patients it is the only treatment they will ever need. So what exactly did his doctors do, and what happens next? What was removed? The lungs are divided into five sections called lobes, three on the right and two on the left. Removing the whole lobe containing the tumour, rather than just the lump, gives surgeons the best chance of taking every cancer cell along with a healthy margin around it. People live full, active lives with four lobes, and the remaining lung adapts over time. Surgeons also remove nearby lymph nodes, the small glands that drain the lung, to check whether the cancer has begun to spread. If they are clear, surgery alone is often curative. The Vatican has not yet said what these tests showed. How did they diagnose so quickly? Most patients wait two to three weeks after surgery for their results. In this case, the Vatican said a diagnosis suspected from earlier scans was confirmed during the operation itself. A possible way this was done is using a technique called frozen section, in which a sample of the removed lung is sent to a pathologist while the patient is still asleep. The tissue is rapidly frozen, sliced and examined under a microscope, giving an answer within minutes. This helps surgeons decide how much lung to remove, sparing healthy tissue if a growth turns out not to be cancer. A fuller analysis follows in the days after. What kind of cancer is it? Lung cancers fall into two broad groups depending on how the cells look under the microscope: small cell and non-small cell. Non-small cell accounts for about 85% of cases, and adenocarcinoma, the type the pope has, is the most common of these. It tends to grow in the outer parts of the lung. This is the most common form of lung cancer in people who have never smoked, although total numbers are higher among smokers. How are these growths found? As with Pope Leo’s, many small lung cancers are spotted by chance, on a scan or X-ray done for another reason or during a routine health check. A detailed CT scan then shows the size and position of the nodule, and a PET scan looks for any sign of spread. When a small nodule looks very likely to be cancer, doctors have a choice to go straight to surgery rather than taking a biopsy first. How is the operation done? Lobectomies were once performed through a large cut between the ribs. Today, most are done by keyhole surgery, using a camera and a few small incisions, or with a robot that the surgeon controls from a nearby console. The Vatican said the pope’s operation used a video-assisted technique, the most common form of keyhole lung surgery. Keyhole methods, with or without a robot, generally mean less pain, smaller scars and a quicker recovery than open surgery. What happens next? After the operation, a tube called a chest drain is left in place to let air and fluid escape while the lung settles. Patients are helped out of bed the next day, because moving early lowers the risk of clots and chest infections. The pontiff is expected to spend about a week in hospital. The final pathology report will guide whether he needs any further treatment. Adenocarcinomas are now routinely tested for genetic changes that specific drugs can target, and some patients are offered immunotherapy or chemotherapy to reduce the chance of the cancer coming back. As for travel, guidance varies, but most patients are advised to wait two to three weeks before flying, provided the lung has fully healed. That leaves the pope with a narrow but realistic window for getting ready for his planned trip overseas in November.

Future of western security is at stake in Yemen civil war, says country’s former PM

The future of western security is being fought out in the mountains and hills surrounding the south-western Yemeni city of Taiz, the country’s former prime minster has said. Maeen Abdulmalik Saeed, now an adviser to Yemen’s president, said it would be catastrophic if the city fell to the Iran-backed Houthi rebels, since control of the strategic Bab al-Mandab strait in the Red Sea and the road to Aden – the site of the UN-recognised government – would be lost. Appealing for more western help, Saeed said he had no doubt that the Houthis intended to seize control of all of Yemen, and claimed their goal was “to help Iran to expand the chaos”. Saeed admitted the lack of coordination among government-backed troops, competition between Gulf states and a slowness to appreciate the implications of Yemen acquiring long-range drone technology had contributed to the pressure facing his government, and its chief backer Saudi Arabia. “We only have light weapons and Saudi Arabia did not plan at an early stage for this escalation, but it is never too late to regain our position,” he said. Saeed called on the west to think through the implications of allowing the Houthis to take control of Yemen, arguing the country would never be secure with Houthis on the land. Saeed is not only an adviser to the Yemeni president, Rashad al-Alimi, he was prime minister between 2018 and 2024 and a former negotiator with the Houthis. He said: “The battle around Taiz is not just a battle for Taiz, but a broader battle that involves the whole of the western world, and one of the most important maritime straits. The Houthis know controlling Taiz is controlling the straits and it’s the highlands before the straits and the coastal city of Mocha and the Gulf of Aden. If Taiz is lost, access to the strait will be lost. The rest of the country will come later. The Houthi plan is to control the whole of Yemen.” Taiz has become the new frontline in the war between the Houthis and Yemeni government forces after the Houthis launched a military campaign last month to take Yemen’s Red Sea coast, ending four years of relative calm in Yemen after a UN-brokered ceasefire froze the frontlines in 2022. He said existing intelligence showed the Houthis were already seeking to control parts of the south, including the former Soviet camp at al-Sabiha, in the Lahij governorate, and eventually Aden. “The Houthis bleed a lot,” he said, “they suffer a lot, but they always want quickly to use their gains or any collapse to gain more land.” With some Houthi leaders offering safe passage to armed groups to leave the city, he said for now the Houthis were allowing some fuel and commodities into the urban area of Taiz which houses more than 500,000 people, but in the meantime they were expanding their control of rural areas and smaller major cities. Saeed said: “In a matter of days there will be a full siege and they will try to enter the city. I know the Houthis. They will show some flexibility until they are ready to control. It will be much worse than the siege of 2015. It will be catastrophic.” He described Taiz as a modern democratic city untied to tribal culture, and predicted the Houthis would try to impose their Zaydi education, financial and tax systems very quickly, but the citizens would continue to resist. “The loss of Taiz would have a very significant symbolic impact on the idea of the modern state in Yemen and of resisting the Houthi project which relies on tribal networks and extremist religious education.” Saeed admitted Taiz only had light weapons and the government had not been prepared for the loss of the west coast, allowing the Houthis to attack Taiz from four different axes. “We have good troops,” he said, “but the problem is the coordination. We needed more communication between the National Shield Forces, National Resistance Forces and the Giants Brigades. It’s been a wake-up call inside the government and the army because not enough happened between the truce of 2022 and the restart of the fighting this year to reorganise the troops. The Houthi ideology solely is to fight.” He added: “I hope now that the knife has come to our neck, and the Houthis represent a critical threat, the priority would be to come together to defeat the Houthis, and then to discuss other demands and guarantees.” The exiled leader of the southern secessionist force, Aidarous al-Zubaidi, on Tuesday called for a mobilisation of southern troops against the Houthis, but coupled this with a demand for a referendum on secession within two years. He brought tens of thousands on to the streets in support on Wednesday, but his return would be a bitter pill for Riyadh to swallow. Saeed said it was not a coincidence that the Houthi attack along the Red Sea coast in September had come when Iran was under heavy pressure. “Its airplanes and airports cannot operate, 90% of the oil was coming out of Hormuz. That is why they attacked the Saudi east-to-west pipelines. The Houthis, by talking about a Saudi blockade, have found a reason to hit the Saudi oil installations, airports and they want to do it now because the only thing Iran can do is to keep expanding the consequences of the war for America.” He said Houthi military capability and negotiating power had been transformed over the last decade leading to its ability to target key sites in Saudi Arabia now. “In 2017, the Houthis had nothing but blind missiles to fire at us that missed their targets.” By 2020, he said intelligence existed that Iranian experts operating from the Houthi capital Sana’a were training Houthis and in December of that year, in a devastatingly effective attack, they fired ballistic missiles at Aden airport. The attack left 28 dead and 107 injured, including Saeed himself, newly installed as prime minister. The missile travelled 186 miles (299km). He explained: “We thought even then they did not have that many missiles, but since then the Iranians have expanded their manufacturing lines.” In January 2022, using missiles, the Houthis attacked Abu Dhabi oil tanker trucks more than 900 miles away. In October 2022, inside Yemen, they struck the Nushayma oil terminal and al-Dhabba port, severely damaging government finances. By the time the US attacked Yemen in March 2025, he said “it was clear the Houthis had dozens of targeted missiles, land sea missiles and drones. They had become a unified front with Iran, and developed their missile base.” He warned: “This is a new era of radical terrorism. It is not the old chaotic one of Isis and al-Qaida. It is semi-state actors and militias threatening powerful states with cheap technologies, and smuggled third-party components. The way Iran has invested in the Houthis could become a model for threatening navigation elsewhere. It is a new model of war, without traditional armies, needing different air defences. Gulf countries have to reshape and rethink their defences”.

French police accused over war-like injuries to teenagers in school protests

French lawyers and rights groups have said that several teenagers have suffered war-like injuries from police weapons used during school protests, and an unprecedented number of children have been held in police custody, some of whom reported being hit or racially insulted. France is in the fourth week of its biggest youth protest movement in decades, during which hundreds of high schools across the country have been blockaded as students demand the replacement of absent teachers and repairs to decrepit buildings. Police have opened internal investigations into 36 allegations of officer violence against demonstrators, including four children allegedly being “mutilated” by explosive weapons, and six sustaining “significant injuries”, as well as other complaints over physical blows, insults or alleged sexual assault, the interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, told the senate. Evan, a 15-year-old studying carpentry at a vocational high school, had a hand blown off in the explosion of a police stun grenade outside a school protest in Lens, northern France, on 5 October. His lawyer, Bertrand Wattez, said: “His injuries resemble war injuries.” Wattez said Evan had gone to school to attend class and discovered a protest under way. He said Evan had not taken part in violence and denied the Béthune state prosecutor’s assertion that the grenade had been picked up from the ground. When the grenade exploded, Evan lost his left hand, several fingers from his right hand and suffered injuries to other parts of his body. He remained in hospital “in a very difficult condition” and his family had filed a criminal complaint, Wattez said. Another boy, Eden, 14 – who had been near a school protest in Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône, north-west of Paris – suffered extensive facial injuries, including two fractures to his jaw, the loss of his bottom teeth and all his top teeth broken after he was allegedly hit by a shot from a grenade launcher. His lawyer, Elsa Marcel, said the shot from a grenade launcher was fired at close range, from a distance of 1.5 metres. “This is the equivalent of war weaponry,” she said. The family has filed a legal complaint for attempted murder. Eden’s parents said he had gone to school but found it blockaded and had wanted to go home. Video footage appeared to show him facing three riot police officers. One officer hit out in his direction with a truncheon and Eden kicked in the direction of the police before a grenade shot was fired. An officer has been suspended and placed under official investigation. This week, a police officer in the western city of Tours was charged with aggravated battery after Maël, a 16-year-old at a vocational high school, lost the use of his eye allegedly after a shot from a form of rubber-bullet launcher. The officer denies the charges. The family’s lawyer said Maël had not been involved in any violent confrontation with police but had simply been present at a school protest, and that the family felt a sense of “injustice”. For several years, France has faced scrutiny over police use of explosive weapons, particularly after serious injuries were reported during the 2018-2019 gilets jaunes (yellow vests) street demonstrations, including allegations that people had lost eyes and had their hands and feet mutilated. The current wave of protests has also led to lawyers raising concerns that an unprecedented number of children have been arrested and placed in police custody, with some lawyers reporting that teenagers said they were hit, humiliated or verbally abused during arrests. Since the school protests began in mid-September, a total of 6,773 under-18s have been taken into police custody after they were arrested, the justice ministry said. For more than 1,000 of those children, no charges were brought; 2,190 are facing legal action and almost 2,000 were handed an alternative to further legal action, such as a citizenship course, without their case being heard at trial and without a conviction. Lawyers said accusations against children included gathering with violent intent, violence against police and damage to property. Nathalie Tehio, a lawyer and the president of the French Human Rights League, said the fact that only a minority of children’s cases would end up before a judge raised concerns that arrests could be unfounded. She said: “There are a record number of arrests … Often, the legal dossiers are empty. In reality, this is more about stopping people from demonstrating. I think there is a sense of hitting hard to try to dissuade people and scare them.” Tehio said: “We have received accounts of racist comments made. Lawyers have told us that their clients say they have been humiliated or treated violently or pushed.” Romain Boulet, a co-president of France’s Association of Criminal Lawyers, said: “Criminal lawyers are worried and raising concerns about the potential misuse of police powers to dissuade citizens aged under 18 from demonstrating.” Mohamed Jaite, the president of the Paris branch of the leftwing union Syndicat des Avocats de France, has represented several teenagers stopped in Paris and its suburbs. “I have seen one youth limping in a police station,” he said. “Some have reported being humiliated or receiving racist and sexist insults.” Prisca Ancion, a lawyer from the leftwing lawyers’ group Collectif d’Action Judiciaire, which demonstrated this week in front of a high school in Saint-Denis, in the northern suburbs of Paris, said: “There have been racist insults during arrests, as well as homophobic, sexist comments or sexual touching. We encourage families to file complaints.” Another lawyer from the collective, Romane Bartoli, who assisted several teenagers after their arrest, said: “Youngsters told us they were slapped, kicked or punched.” One 16-year-old from a high school in a suburb north of Paris described being arrested 100 metres from his school on the day of a blockade in late September. He plans to study medicine at university and said he had intended to go to class before he saw there was a protest. Answering questions from the Guardian with his lawyer, he said he had been held in police custody for more than 12 hours, mostly with two others in a police cell with two mattresses. “It was hard psychologically because I felt I hadn’t done anything wrong,” he said. “I was hit with a truncheon and punched.” He said a police officer told him to “shut his mouth” and said: “It’s always you lot,” which he understood to be a racist insult. He was released after a state prosecutor instructed him to carry out a citizenship course as an alternative to facing legal action. The justice ministry and the interior ministry, which oversees policing, did not comment on allegations of insults or violence in police custody. In parliament, Nuñez denied any form of excessive policing or police repression. He suspended the use of stun grenades at school demonstrations. Audrey Bailleul, a magistrate and national representative of the Union Syndicale des Magistrats, said it was hard to have a clear view of events at this stage. She said: “There is nothing to show that there has voluntarily been a massive intention to not respect [legal] procedure.”

Jamaica says slavery reparations petition to be heard by UK privy council in March 2027

A high-level United Kingdom appeals court has set a date to hear Jamaica’s petition for legal advice on its claim for slavery reparations from the UK, the Jamaican government has said. Olivia Grange, Jamaica’s minister of culture, confirmed in a statement that a hearing had been provisionally set for the week of 8 March, 2027 by the London-based privy council, the final court of appeal for UK overseas territories and some Commonwealth countries. The statement added that the UK had until November this year to file its case. Last month, Grange led a Jamaican delegation to London to file the petition with King Charles, Jamaica’s head of state. It seeks guidance on three questions: whether the forced transport of Africans to Jamaica was lawful; whether it constituted a crime against humanity; and whether Britain is under an obligation to provide restitution for slavery and its enduring consequences. On 23 September, Grange announced in Jamaica’s parliament that King Charles had referred the matter to the privy council. Describing the referral as a “big deal”, she told parliament: “The king could have ignored us. The king could have delayed responding to us. The king could have made a decision not to refer the questions to the privy council, or he could make a decision to refer the questions.” Jamaica had activated a rarely used mechanism in the Judicial Committee Act 1833, which allows the monarch to refer questions of “legal or constitutional nature” to the privy council when they cannot be resolved through ordinary courts, according to the country’s legal counsels. The minister said that taking the matter to the international court of justice (ICJ) was not an option for Jamaica because the UK had placed specific reservations on the compulsory jurisdiction of the ICJ that prevent the court from adjudicating on disputes between the UK and the government of any other country which is or has been a member of the Commonwealth. Earlier this month, a spokesperson for Andy Burnham reiterated the government’s long‑held position that “the UK does not and will not pay reparations”.

Russia and Ukraine trade strikes as Trump ‘energy ceasefire’ collapses

The White House’s unilateral effort to negotiate an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine has collapsed as Moscow sent a record swarm of drones overnight to attack infrastructure in central Ukraine and Kyiv appeared to resume strikes on Russian oil refineries despite warnings from Donald Trump. Moscow accused Ukraine of launching a strike against a Russian oil refinery in the Ryazan region, its first since Trump abruptly declared an “energy ceasefire” that neither Russia nor Ukraine said they had agreed to. Trump has demanded that Volodymyr Zelenskyy stop attacking Russian oil refineries, claiming it is the cause of a global rise in the price of diesel fuel. An attack on two neutral ships in Romanian territorial waters at the mouth of the Danube River indicated that strikes against vulnerable commercial targets are set to expand. The Romanian president, Nicușor Dan, said two Russian drones violated Romanian airspace and struck two chemical tankers, setting the ships ablaze. Rescue crews were searching for at least seven missing sailors. “The situation in the Black Sea is serious,” he said. “Commercial ships are being attacked and sunk. Seafarers killed, injured and missing, very close to the shores of Romania and Bulgaria. This is unacceptable and it has to stop.” Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he would resume strikes on Russian oil refineries, after briefly halting them to demonstrate that Ukraine was ready for peace talks. “The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done,” he told the Financial Times. He also attacked a gap in US intelligence sharing as “dangerous”. Images from Ryazan showed flames at the refinery, which regional officials said had been targeted by 69 drones and four Flamingo cruise missiles. Moscow claimed debris from a drone struck by anti-aircraft fire had hit the refinery and sparked the fire. Ukraine also struck back at Russia’s military, hitting four Sukhoi Su-34 fighter/bomber jets and damaging two more, according to Zelenskyy. Ukraine’s military said it had used a Neptune cruise missile to strike an airfield in Russia’s southern Voronezh region. “These very warplanes were ready to launch new attacks on Ukraine and were loaded with aerial bombs,” Zelenskyy said, publishing a satellite photo of the damaged airfield. In Ukraine, more than 360 Russian drones targeted Kirovohrad, a central region that has been hit less hard than others closer to Russia, in attacks that killed three people and injured six. “The enemy deliberately hit critical infrastructure, transport enterprises, logistics ⁠facilities and residential homes,” the regional governor, Andriy Raikovych, said in a statement. Zelenskyy said Russia had attacked Ukraine with more than 850 Shahed drones at a time when the speed of Ukraine’s defensive capabilities was being “artificially restricted”, a reference to sudden limitations on Ukraine’s use of the Starlink and Starshield mobile internet terminals. “It is obvious that Russia deliberately chose to escalate its attacks after receiving sanctions relief and seeing attempts to pressure Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post on X, referring to a growing quarrel with the Trump administration. “Ukraine needs steady support, above all in defending our skies. We need HONESTY from our partners about this war: It is important that everyone in America stand not with the aggressor, but with our efforts to protect lives, end this war, and guarantee security,” he said. Later, the British defence secretary Wes Streeting told the BBC that he had been “reassured directly” by his US counterpart Pete Hegseth that access to the vital Starlink communications system had been restored. The defence secretary said it was not yet clear to the UK why the disruption occurred, but added: “This is not the first time we’ve seen a falling out between Washington and Kyiv.” Trump suddenly declared an “energy ceasefire” last week, writing on TruthSocial: “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” Despite Trump’s claims, however, Russia continued to launch heavy strikes on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, using hypersonic and ballistic missiles to target key Ukrainian power plants, leaving cities including Kyiv without power and water for hours. Ukraine said it would not strike Russian oil refineries in the interim in order to show that it was ready for negotiations. But the White House piled pressure on Zelenskyy to capitulate to Russia by threatening to cut programmes to deliver arms to Ukraine and to stop sharing US battlefield intelligence with Ukraine. The US appeared to make good on some threats. Ukraine said it had not received advance warning from Washington of Russian missile strikes for several days this week. And on Wednesday, Ukrainian soldiers complained that their access to Starshield programmes controlled by the US military had been restricted, scuppering drone missions on the frontlines. On Thursday, a group of US senators from both major parties sent a letter to the Pentagon demanding it investigate whether the satellite and intelligence services had been deliberately restricted, and whether the Trump administration was responsible. “We are particularly alarmed by incidents in which U.S. diplomatic, military and security personnel were unable to reach designated bunkers during Russian air raids, amid reported disruptions to intelligence-sharing and early-warning capabilities,” they wrote, according to the New York Times. The feud between Zelenskyy and Trump has spun out of control over the last week. Trump, who believes his support for Ukraine should come with a degree of control over the country’s leadership, has said Ukraine should “get a new president”. Zelenskyy, when asked on Thursday by Piers Morgan whether he felt betrayed, said yes. “It’s a pity that we are losing, we are losing a strong partner,” he said. Musk, the head of SpaceX, which produces the Starlink terminals used by Ukraine’s military, has emerged as a leading critic of Zelenskyy in the US. On Thursday, Musk denied throttling the Starlink systems and said they were controlled by the US government. But in a social media post commenting on a Zelenskyy statement that Ukraine would continue to fight until Russia’s defeat, he wrote: “And so the slaughter continues … Time for Zelensky to go.”

France drops opposition to UK being included in ‘Made in Europe’ legislation

France has dropped its opposition to the UK being included in the EU’s “Made in Europe” legislation as long as the British government aligns with the bloc’s position over tariffs on Chinese EVs. In a breakthrough for Andy Burnham, France on Thursday came round to backing Germany, which has always supported the UK’s calls to be designated European for the purposes of the Industrial Accelerator Act. The legislation, which is in its draft stage, is designed to protect domestic manufacturing from cheap Chinese competition. According to a joint Franco-German paper seen by the Guardian, the two countries are now proposing that for the car industry specifically the UK could be included in Made in Europe. “For the automotive sector, ‘Made in Europe’ should comprise the EU27 and an opt-in to further include European partners who were part of the EU single market as of 01/01/2020, subject to an agreement on full reciprocity – i.e. adopting the European preference scheme relevant to the automotive sector,” it says in a clear reference to the UK, which was still in the single market as an EU member in January 2020. It would also include Norway, which is in the single market but not a member of the EU. The paper added that the opt-in would come with conditions, including alignment on trade defence measures, which have included tariffs on Chinese EVs imposed by the EU in 2024 and any future trade barriers, such as the quota deal being finalised with China on its exports of hybrid cars. The paper says that “as well as relevant anti-circumvention measures”, these “opt-in” countries would have to accept “dynamic alignment on the EU’s conditions related to third countries’ investments and on relevant EU trade defence measures”. Liam Byrne, the chair of the UK’s business, innovation, science and trade committee, said he believed aligning with the EU on trade defence measures was a small price to pay to save British manufacturing. “Sometimes politics is the least worst choice – aligning with Europe on trade defence against an over-subsidised China is the way we deliver for all of us,” he said. “Tariffs on these would be a small price to pay for the protection of a European manufacturing industry which safeguards jobs across supply chains in the UK and makes us less prone to coercion from China in the future.” On Wednesday the head of Mercedes implored EU leaders to let the UK join the package. Locking the UK out of the EU’s flagship industrial Made in Europe legislation would amount to a “deliberate choice” by EU leaders to “hurt” the car industry across the bloc, the head of Mercedes-Benz said. The UK has been under pressure for weeks to align with the EU on tariffs on Chinese vehicles, but this week the business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he would not be coerced into aligning with the EU’s policy. However the government has been desperate to be included in the Made in Europe package, fearing billions of pounds of trade in the car industry could be lost if the UK was locked out of supply chains in the EU. Earlier on Thursday trade minister Anas Sarwar hinted that the UK was minded to align on tariffs. He told Politico the UK and the EU must “work together and act in lockstep” to tackle China’s dominance in the automotive sector. Bernd Lange, the chair of the European parliament’s influential international trade committee, told the Guardian the UK should “of course” be included in the Made in Europe legislation, calling France’s opposition “not rational”. A Downing Street spokesperson said it had yet to see the detail but saw the development as positive. “This is a Franco-German proposal and there is still a European process to run, but if confirmed, we welcome the objective to have UK included in the Industrial Accelerator Act and this would be good news for the British automotive industry and the jobs and investment it supports across the UK.”

Albania’s prime minister vows not to resign over student-led protests

Albania’s prime minister has said he will not resign as a protest movement, initially prompted by a proposal to build a Trump family-backed resort in the Balkan state, turned violent with clashes convulsing the capital for a third consecutive day. Speaking on Thursday after calls by students who this week assumed control of the anti-government demonstrations that have rattled Tirana since June, Edi Rama said: “Governments are changed through democratic elections. We had elections last year, not a revolution.” Rama’s comments to Reuters came hours before fresh clashes erupted outside the education ministry, where riot police responded to rock-throwing youths with teargas and water cannon. “My responsibility is to listen, address legitimate concerns and keep Albania moving forward,” he added. The alternative, he argued, would be tantamount “to a betrayal of the Albanians who gave me a strong mandate to complete negotiations on European Union membership … I will not allow violence to derail Albania’s European future.” Rama, who won a historic fourth term last year, has vowed to get what was once the continent’s most isolated Stalinist state into the 27-member bloc by 2030. The unrest – in contrast to the largely peaceful protests of recent months – marks the veteran leader’s biggest challenge yet. On Thursday, after a night of running street battles between demonstrators and riot police, residents awoke to see the facades of shops smashed and traffic signals destroyed, with government buildings and banks burned and ransacked. An estimated 89 people, including 61 police officers, were injured. The renewed violence has created an atmosphere of unpredictability amid predictions that public patience may finally be running out for the socialist government after 13 years in power. “Young Albanians are tired of all the corruption, tired of all the arrogance. They want to live in a better country and they are not afraid to use violence,” said Afrim Krasniqi, the director of the Albanian Institute for Political Studies in Tirana. “There is no prognosis. Nobody can say what will come next.” But Rama, who emerged from the protest movement himself – becoming the face of state violence when he dared to criticise Albania’s first-post-communist government 30 years ago – also doubled down. “Students are the future. They are the ones who look ahead, who want to go further and faster,” he said as he visited the fire-damaged premises of Tirana’s College of Europe on Thursday. “Today, this is the ruin left by hands that are not, and can never be, the hands of students. These are the hands that try to push Albania down every time Albania tries to rise.” While he was willing to talk with the younger generation about the rising costs of education – a central complaint that has also spurred the unrest – vandalism would not be tolerated, he said. For nearly five months, demonstrators have gathered daily outside Rama’s office, prompted by plans for a controversial tourism complex championed by the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The venture foresees construction along pristine coastline deemed a conservation zone of unique natural beauty, including the uninhabited island of Sazan. Labelled the “flamingo revolution” because of the risk posed by the development to wildlife and delicate ecosystems, the rallies have attracted crowds big and small. They, too, have demanded the prime minister resign. Despite the opposition, Rama has steadfastly refused to back down, defending the project as a “gift” that will boost the economy and provide badly needed jobs by transforming Albania into a high-end tourist destination. But Krasniqi said he believed the protest movement was at an inflection point – even if the demonstrations had also been inspired by similar student unrest sweeping Europe, particularly France. “I think this week we reached a turning point,” he said. “The government had more than four months to talk to people, who every day have been out on the street. It chose to belittle and dismiss them instead. And now students have joined in, and they appear to have the upper hand.” For the first time, Krasniqi said, he had heard young people saying they were prepared to be hurt or go to jail if that was the price “for ensuring democracy”. “Their demands are very different to the [flamingo] protesters. They want better education, better university buildings, a society that offers them hope. They also don’t believe Albania should be for sale.” At €4bn (€3.37bn), the Trump family-backed resort would be the biggest investment the nation has seen. Last week, addressing the controversy triggered by the project, Kushner admitted he and his investment firm, Affinity Partners, were “betting on a country that has never had a project of this scale”. “There are no guarantees,” he said. “We are taking that risk because we believe in Albania and we believe in Albanians. If successful, the project would represent approximately €4bn of investment and create significant jobs, economic activity and international visibility for Albania.” This week environmentalists, who first led the charge against the development, begged to differ. Months after the protests began, people still felt as exercised about a venture many believed would only benefit the elite, said Aleksandër Trajçe, who heads the country’s leading conservation group, the Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania. “Anger over the [Kushner] project has prepared the ground for the violence we are seeing, because day after day protesters have been faced with the arrogance of a government that has refused to listen to them, or give an inch.”