Some more detail on the 11th night of US attacks on Iran: Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency reported that explosions rocked Bushehr, East Azerbaijan, Hamadan, Hormozgan, Khuzestan and Sistan and Baluchistan provinces.
Medium and long-range strikes against Russia will continue under Mykhailo Drapatyi, Ukraine’s new top military commander, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday, as he replaced Oleksandr Syrskyi in the job after a huge political row accompanied by street protests. “The operations of the Ukrainian defence forces are ongoing and must continue steadily,” said the Ukrainian president. “Ukraine’s plan for long-range sanctions and our programme of middle-range strikes will be carried out with absolute precision.” Luke Harding writes that news of Drapatyi’s appointment came in a late-night TV address by Zelenskyy. The president offered a “prominent position” to Mykhailo Fedorov – the defence minister he sacked last week in a shock move that brought out protesters who have given a deadline of Friday for Fedorov to be reinstated. Fedorov welcomed Drapatyi’s appointment as a “breath of fresh air” bringing “new hope to the struggle of free people for freedom and justice”. Zelenskyy paid tribute to Syrskyi, crediting him with leading the defence of Kyiv and launching a counter-invasion of Russia’s Kursk province. Drapatyi, his replacement, is well regarded within Ukraine’s army and liked by the public, Harding writes. He is viewed as an ally of Fedorov, a tech-savvy moderniser. A major general, Drapatyi is commander of Ukraine’s joint forces group and has been fighting Russia since its covert attempt in 2014 to take over the eastern Donbas region. He is famed for driving an infantry fighting vehicle over a barricade set up by pro-Russian militants in Mariupol. The Kremlin lamented the Ukrainian attacks on warehouses of Wildberries – an Amazon-like chain that Kyiv says supplies drone parts and other technologies for the Russian war effort. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “The situation is indeed difficult because of the losses suffered both by the company itself and by representatives of small and medium-sized businesses.” Russian authorities are taking fuel away from Siberia and giving it to Moscow – Russia’s wealthiest and most populous region, where Vladimir Putin most fears losing the support of the Russian elite. The success of Ukrainian drone attacks on oil refineries, storage and shipping has caused fuel crises of varying degrees across Russia. Traders told Reuters that to replace lost production, gasoline produced in the Urals and Siberia, as well as imported supplies from Belarus, has been redirected to the Moscow region. One of the traders said the Achinsk refinery in Siberia’s Krasnoyarsk region has been supplying Moscow with fuel. Civilian injuries and deaths increased by more than a third in Ukraine in the first half of the year, the UN human rights office said. It documented 1,396 deaths and 7,978 injuries in the first six months of 2026, representing a 37% increase from the same period last year and a near doubling versus 2024. Long-range ballistic missiles and drones, and short-range drones and glide bombs drove the escalation. A Russian guided-bomb attack on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia killed at least three people on Tuesday and injured more than a dozen, regional officials said. Two of the dead were in their 60s and the other was 49. Seven floors of a nine-storey apartment block were engulfed by flames after the attack, the regional military administration said.
A humanitarian worker is being monitored at a specialist hospital in London after potential exposure to the Ebola virus. The UK resident was medically evacuated from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) where the worker had been treating patients with the disease, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) said. UKHSA said the person was evacuated as a “highly precautionary measure”, adding: “The individual is not currently displaying any symptoms and remains well, but as a precautionary measure they have been evacuated on a flight chartered solely for the evacuation. “They are now being assessed and monitored in isolation by infectious disease specialists at a London hospital.” The agency said the incubation period of Ebola ranges from two to 21 days and the individual will be closely monitored and is required to isolate throughout this period. There are no confirmed cases of Ebola in the UK and the risk to the general public remains low. Richard Pebody, the director of epidemic and emerging infections at the UKHSA, said: “This individual has been transferred out of an abundance of caution and we’re pleased they remain well.” Last month, a patient suspected of having the Ebola virus at a Glasgow hospital tested negative. Precautionary measures were taken after the patient was admitted to the Queen Elizabeth University hospital. An outbreak of the disease in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda in May was declared a public health emergency of international concern by the World Health Organization (WHO). The virus is transmitted to people from wild animals and then spreads in the human population through direct contact with the blood, secretions, organs or other bodily fluids of infected people and with contaminated surfaces and materials such as bedding or clothing. According to WHO, symptoms can include fever, fatigue, malaise, muscle, pain, headache and sore throat. These are followed by vomiting, diarrhoea, abdominal pain, rash, and symptoms of impaired kidney and liver functions.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has fired Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi and offered a “prominent position” to the defence minister he sacked last week in a move that sparked nationwide protests. In a late-night TV address, Zelenskyy said he was appointing Mykhailo Drapatyi, a popular and innovative general, as the new head of Ukraine’s armed forces. Drapatyi would oversee a reorganisation of the army’s command structure, Ukraine’s president said. Zelenskyy said he was bringing Mykhailo Fedorov back into government after his removal as defence minister prompted thousands of people to demonstrate in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, in one of the biggest political crises since Russia’s 2022 invasion. Ukraine’s president paid tribute to Syrskyi and credited him with leading the defence of Kyiv and launching a counter-invasion of Russia’s Kursk province in summer 2024, in which foreign tanks rolled on to Russian territory for the first time since the second world war. “We have come a long way. The defence of Ukraine continues. And every soldier deserves to be treated with respect,” Zelenskyy said, adding that he was grateful to Syrskyi and to “every one of our soldiers” fighting on the frontline. Zelenskyy will be hoping that his radical reshuffle of the army’s leadership will assuage protesters who have taken to the streets demanding Syrskyi’s removal. They had given a deadline of Friday for Fedorov to be reinstated and promised “indefinite protests” if their request was ignored. Fedorov welcomed Drapatyi’s appointment. “This brings a breath of fresh air and new hope to the struggle of free people for freedom and justice. It is a voice for change that could not be ignored,” he said. He added: “The high expectations of the Ukrainian people must be met with a clear vision for ending the war for independence, a strong team and decisive actions aimed at saving the lives of our soldiers, automating the frontline, delivering asymmetric strikes and crippling the Russian economy.” Drapatyi, the new commander-in-chief, is well-regarded within Ukraine’s army and is liked by the public. He is viewed as an ally of Fedorov, whose attempts to reform the military and force it to adopt modern technology and data led to a bitter clash with the old-school Syrskyi. A major general, Drapatyi is commander of Ukraine’s joint forces group. He has been fighting Russia since its covert attempt in 2014 to take over the eastern Donbas region. He became famous nationally when he drove an infantry fighting vehicle over a barricade set up by pro-Russian militants in the city of Mariupol. The Ukrainian media outlet Babel described Drapatyi as one of Ukraine’s most capable battlefield commanders. It said his new job would be fundamentally about reforming a large institution rather than commanding troops in combat. Zelenskyy said he and Drapatyi agreed that Ukraine’s long-range drone attacks on targets in Russia such as oil refineries would continue. “Our programme of precision strikes will be implemented with absolute precision,” he said, promising a smooth and coordinated handover following Syrskyi’s departure. He also said the new commander-in-chief would be tasked with updating the country’s defence strategy and reforming its structure. Another pressing issue is mobilisation, at a time when after nearly five years of full-scale war few Ukrainians are ready to volunteer. It is unclear what Fedorov’s new role will be, amid reports that he was insisting on being given his old job back as defence minister. This has now been filled by Yevhen Khmara, a former special operations commander. Zelenskyy said he met Fedorov on Tuesday. “I offered Mykhailo a prominent position within the government that would enable him to unify the technological sector of our state and ensure its development,” he said, without giving further details. Zelenskyy added: “Our shared wish is one – victory over the enemy and conditions at the front and in pressure on Russia that would force Russia toward peace.” He said “a significant path has been travelled, the defence of Ukraine continues, and every warrior deserves dignified treatment”.
It is the explosion just before he was nearly sucked out of the aircraft that Ljubisa Karović remembers. The thunderous noise of the window shattering that roused him from slumber in 11F, his window seat on the early morning Ryanair flight from Greece to Germany. Eleven days and 11 nights later, it remains the prelude “to the chaos, the catastrophe” that keeps him awake at night. “The explosion is what I remember,” says the Serbian entrepreneur in an interview with the Guardian. His head supported by a neck brace, his eyes staring into the middle distance, he adds: “It’s the noise before the chaos, the noise that is always there when I close my eyes to sleep.” Pain still haunts Ljubisa Karović, too, and it is easy to understand why. The burns and bruises livid on his right arm, ascending to his armpit and chest, are testimony to a fact that few will forget: that the 61-year-old was sucked out of an aircraft window – dislodged mid-flight in circumstances still under investigation – and survived. “I am lucky,” he says with some understatement as he swats a fly on the porch of the unassuming villa he has rented in Katerini, the booming coastal resort outside Thessaloniki. “I don’t remember much and my head and neck still hurt but I am still alive. It could have been the seatbelt, the fact that I was still strapped in. But maybe it is fate. I believe in God and I thank him every day.” Barely 100 hours have elapsed since Karović was discharged from hospital. The shock, he says, was overwhelming but the fact that he can tell the tale at all is nothing short of a miracle. His Greek lawyer, Vasilis Tsiaras, describes the wiry father of two as “being alive by mistake”. “Ljubisa dipped in and out of death,” he says. “When the cabin lost pressure he was hurled out of the window from his chest up and immediately lost consciousness. He was on that plane heading to Germany to celebrate his brother’s birthday. Instead, at 15,000ft he ended up with his head and right arm outside the aircraft as it moved at a speed of more than 600km/h. Imagine that! He looked at death, that other world, and came back.” Passengers on flight FR1879, including Karović’s wife, Svetlana, seated in 14C, three rows behind her husband, still have vivid recollections of the moment the window smashed, the oxygen masks coming down, the commotion that ensued as bottles and other objects flew through the air and fellow passengers grabbing Ljubisa, desperately trying to hold him in place. “I rushed over too. None of the cabin crew helped. It was the passengers,” she says. “One man, I think he was an Albanian, was incredible. He did all he could to bring him in and then tried to block the window, first with a bag that was immediately sucked out and then with a suitcase, which worked. We are eternally grateful to him.” The unbearable moments of seeing her husband “half in and out of the plane” are thought to have lasted between one-and-a-half and two minutes. “They tell me I fainted twice and again inside the plane and that my face was briefly swollen and deformed because of the pressure, the rush of air,” says the softly spoken Karović. “My wife reminds me about that.” Ryanair has defended the performance of its staff saying cabin crew did a “phenomenal job”. Tsiaras, the lawyer, takes issue with this. While Karović’s son, Danjell, who booked the flight, has been contacted by the company, neither Ljubisa nor Svetlana have been called or received any assistance or support, he says. “We have no complaint with the pilot, who followed the safety protocols and dealt with the situation very well,” adds Tsiaras referring to the rapid descent they are forced to make in the event of a plane losing cabin pressure. “My client fainted two or three times, once outside the aircraft when he was partially sucked out of the window, and twice inside when, again, he lost consciousness. At no point did the cabin crew offer to help.” Ryanair disputed that claim, saying that during the process of depressurisation and rapid decent to lower altitude, all passengers and cabin crew are required to fasten seatbelts and put on oxygen masks. “As soon as the aircraft descended to a safe altitude our cabin crew attended to and assisted Mr Karović, moving him to alternate seats (beside his wife) and arranged for a doctor onboard to sit with them until the aircraft landed safely back in Thessaloniki. They also arranged to have medical assistance standing by on landing in Thessaloniki,” the airline said in a statement to the Guardian. Citing witness testimony, Tsiaras claimed the cabin crew personnel were paralysed by fear, perhaps brought on by the belief that with the dramatic loss in altitude the aircraft was about to crash. “Everyone has agreed that the crew was in a state of shock, afraid that the plane was about to crash. It was the other passengers who rallied and gave Ljubisa water,” he says. The owner of an aluminium factory based in Serbia that for years has exported goods far and wide, Karović, long a frequent flyer, recoils at the thought of travelling by plane again. Doctors have warned that recovery will be slow, ordering him to wear the neck brace for at least six weeks when they will determine if surgery is necessary. “There are images that come back, the noise of the explosion, the chaos, but I want to recover,” he says. “And, yes, there should be compensation too. Not only emails that have focused on rebooking the flight.” Asked if there is a message he wants to convey, he allows himself to break into a smile. “Always make sure to wear your seatbelt. I don’t want anyone to suffer what happened to me.” • This article was amended on 21 July 2026. An earlier version incorrectly said Ljubisa Karović is the only man to have been sucked out of an aircraft window and survived. In 1990, a British Airways pilot, Timothy Lancaster, also survived after being blasted halfway through a cockpit windscreen that blew out over Oxfordshire.
Yemen’s Iranian-aligned Houthis have warned shipping companies that their tankers risk being attacked if they use Saudi Arabian ports, as the militia moved quickly to enforce a blockade announced the previous day. The Houthi warning for the Red Sea, coming on top of Iran’s threat to shipping on the other side of the Arabian peninsular in the Gulf, could affect the substantial Saudi oil exports that have so far been unscathed by the months-long conflict and deepen the rapidly escalating crisis in the region. Underlining how seriously the Houthi threat is being taken, two oil tankers that had loaded Saudi crude this week for China and India made U-turns on Tuesday away from Houthi-controlled coast at the mouth of the Red Sea and headed towards the Suez canal. The Houthis claimed six ships had changed course. Donald Trump on Tuesday said the US would “just have to take care of business” if the Houthis followed through on their threats. “You know, we’ve done that with the Houthis before, and we haven’t heard from them in a while since we did what we did originally,” he said at White House meeting with the Lebanese president, Joseph Aoun. The Houthi threat came as diplomats sought to salvage the collapsed interim deal between Iran and the US even as both countries continued to launch attacks in a 10th day of renewed fighting, including a visit to Pakistan by the Iranian interior minister, Eskandar Momeni, an important mediator in the conflict. Sources suggested that behind the scenes there were indications that both sides might be seeking a way out of the latest round of intensive strikes. The news site Axios suggested that the Trump administration was weighing whether to escalate the conflict further or to seek a 10-day ceasefire to create the space for a new round of talks. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Washington remained open to negotiating with Iran but that “it has to be real”. The Houthis control northern Yemen, including territory along the Bab el-Mandeb, the strait at the southern end of the Red Sea. While the Houthis have not formally announced the closure of the waterway, as some had feared might happen, the militia group’s threat to vessels using Saudi ports has raised serious questions over the safety of navigating a channel used by 7% of global maritime traffic. Shipping companies were told in an email from the Houthis on Monday that they should not load or discharge cargo at Saudi Arabian ports and such activity may result in being targeted “in any location” within its reach. “We strongly recommend that your company exercise due diligence and the utmost care in all its dealings,” the email said, which was sent to multiple companies shortly after the Houthis said Monday they were imposing a naval blockade on Saudi Arabia. The significance of the move was underlined by Allison Minor, a Middle East expert at the Atlantic Council thinktank. “The Houthis have not yet clarified which ships they will target, but their intent to blockade Saudi ports implies that any ship visiting Saudi ports and carrying Saudi oil would be in the crosshairs,” she said. “The oil currently transiting the strait from the north is going primarily to Asian markets. During their earlier Red Sea campaign, the Houthis cut deals with Russia and China to permit their ships to pass – but the Houthis may be less willing to cut deals with Chinese ships carrying Saudi oil.” Between 2023 and 2025, the Houthis had used small boats, drones and missiles to attack more than 100 commercial ships and render “the waters of the 20-mile-wide strait too risky for most shippers,” she added. While the Houthis have their own agenda relating to their long-term hostilities with Riyadh, which has at times seen them target Saudi energy facilities with long range attacks, Iran has also been trying to drag Yemen into a wider conflict aimed at throttling global energy supplies. It has previously pressed the Houthis to close the Bab el-Mandeb if the US continued to attack Iranian power infrastructure and Tehran has made clear it sees threats to maritime traffic around the Bab el-Mandeb as a counterweight to US efforts to block Iran in the strait of Hormuz, demonstrating Iran’s continued room for manoeuvre a week and a half into renewed full-scale hostilities. With 25% of oil and gas shipments passing through the strait of Hormuz and Bab el-Mandeb combined, any significant restrictions on traffic would have a major global economic impact. Heavy strikes have meanwhile continued on both sides of the conflict. US military’s central command said on Tuesday it had targeted “Iranian military command centres, maritime capabilities, missile and drone launch sites and air defence systems”. Iranian state media reported that explosions were heard in the provinces of Fars, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kerman, and Sistan and Baluchestan. Tehran also attacked US allies throughout the Middle East. Jordan’s military said Iran had targeted it with five drones and three missiles, all of which were shot down. The Kuwaiti government said Iran had struck desalination and power plants for a fourth straight day on Monday night. Authorities said the attacks sparked fires and caused damage. The US state department has also issued a warning to Americans that “Iran and groups supportive of Iran may target other US interests overseas or at locations associated with the United States and Americans throughout the world.”
Taru had come to the protest prepared this time. In one hand was an anti-government poster and in the other was a bicycle helmet. “We need to have protection in case Delhi police beat us up again,” said the 25-year-old, who stood among her friends. “We are not scared of them and we won’t run away, no matter what they do. We’ll stay here till they listen.” On Tuesday, central Delhi still thronged with thousands of protesters, as an unprecedented expression of dissent against the powerful ruling Narendra Modi government showed no sign of abating. Just 24 hours earlier, more than 50,000 people took to the streets in protest, swathes of them in their late teens and early 20s, mobilised by a new youth-led political movement that calls itself the Cockroach Janta party (CJP). Their rallying call was the resignation of the education minister and for reform of a corrupt and broken education system. But what began peacefully on Monday – people fanning each other in the gruelling humidity, sharing snacks and chanting slogans – turned into scenes of brutality by the afternoon. Delhi police denied the protesters the right to march on parliament and kettled the expanding crowd into a restricted area. The internet was shut down and barricades were erected across the capital. The came the police batons and the teargas. Police said they were responding to agitation but organisers and witnesses claimed the police carried out unprovoked attacks, including against women and children in the crowd. About 60 suffered injuries and at least one protester is on a ventilator in hospital intensive care. “The day was so wholesome to start with, there was so much love,” said Taru. “But after 3pm the police started attacking us. They were bashing us like anything. I saw them come up and hit people on the head as they were sitting down on the pavement doing nothing. And then as we were running, they opened up teargas on us.” Taru described the response by Delhi police – which are under central government control – as a “big mistake. Now we are more agitated than ever.” On Tuesday, the heavy hand of the Delhi police did little to keep supporters away from the historical site of Jantar Mantar in Delhi, which has become the focal point of the CJP protests over the past month. The crowds were thick and lively as they shouted slogans against the Modi government with abandon, calling for both the education minister and the prime minister to resign. Some had travelled hundreds of miles to be there and said they intended to camp out until the government responded to the demands of the country’s millions of young people. “The government needs to understand: we are not going anywhere,” said Ranjit Verma, 23. India’s main opposition Congress party had also seized upon the mood, calling for Modi to resign “for destroying the future of India’s youth” as it held its own protest in Delhi on Tuesday. While the CJP movement has primarily focused on accountability for devastating leaks of exam papers and calling for the resignation of the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, the overriding feeling in the aftermath of Monday’s protest was that this was now so much bigger than one issue. For some, this was the moment India’s youth – totalling more than 600 million – had found its political voice. “The solidarity on the streets yesterday filled my heart,” said Kuhoo Kaushik, 26, a content creator from Delhi. “How the government responded was really sad, police beating up 14-year-olds is horrible. But personally, I feel like it’s really awoken something in me. “That’s why I’ve come back today: we won’t be moved until the government listens to us. It’s become about so much more than education – but one step at a time”’ Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, CJP founder Abhijeet Dipke vowed that the protests would continue, though did not state what the next steps for the movement would be to capitalise on their momentum. Standing by the stage at the protest site, Ratna Singh, a CJP spokesperson, said the movement was very aware of ways in which the Modi government had successfully cracked down on previous movements and figures of dissent during its 12 years in power. “Anyone who has tried to speak up against this government has faced terrorism charges or tax raids or jail and there is so much fear,” she said. “But I am very proud at how many people have showed up and come out on the streets. The police showed us no mercy – but no matter what barbaric treatment they give us, we will not be silenced.” While a senior government minister met two CJP spokespeople on Monday to discuss their demands, Singh said the government had not responded to them on Tuesday and the “prime minister has remained silent about what happened”. It was not only young people who returned to the protest site on Tuesday. Shobha Varma, 80, was attending with her granddaughter. “Our education system has been failing young people for years,” she said. “But when I look out at everyone here, I really feel hope.”
And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. Hungary’s opposition Fidesz party, led by the former prime minister Viktor Orbán, said that prosecutors raided its servers to look at party’s “entire communications system and databases” (14:08). Prosecutors told the Guardian the searches were part of a broader investigation into the National Culture Fund (15:11), but declined to offer more details (16:14). Hungary’s prime minister Péter Magyar responded to raids by saying that “we await the information on what case they are investigating and what was seized” (14:08). The search was condemned by French far-right leader and leading presidential candidate Marine Le Pen (14:56). In other news, Italian police clashed with demonstrators in the northern city of Bologna on Monday night, ANSA news agency reported, during a protest over a man’s death after officers tried to arrest him (10:37). A strike on a ship in the Black Sea carrying propane to the Ukrainian port of Reni wounded three seafarers and forced the crew’s evacuation, Romania’s president Nicușor Dan said (10:17). The United Nations said that civilian casualties in the war sparked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine rose 37 percent in the first half of this year (11:28). 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.