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Xi Jinping gets red carpet at Brics summit amid thaw in India-China relations

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has received a red-carpet welcome in India for a summit of Brics developing nations, as regional rivals Beijing and Delhi make a public display of thawing relations while quietly competing to lead at a time of shaky US global dominance. As Xi stepped off the plane, he was walked past an honour guard of Indian soldiers and traditional dancers in colourful dresses. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, had already been welcomed by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, who is hosting one of the group’s most closely watched gatherings since its inception. The summit marks Xi’s first visit to India in seven years and is seen as the biggest step towards reconciliation after a deadly 2020 military clash along the disputed Himalayan border, in which ‌20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed. Ties between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have been warming recently, with flights and high-level contacts gradually being restored. China was “willing” to work with India to properly manage differences and be “good neighbours and friends”, China’s foreign ministry said on Friday. Leaders and diplomats have been convening in India for the annual gathering of the Brics grouping, named after five of its earliest members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – that was conceived as a counterweight to western dominance. This summit comes as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, along with rising US-China tensions, test the bloc’s ability to find common ground. Since its inception in 2009, Brics has expanded as a forum for major emerging economies to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The group now rivals the US-dominated G7 forum of advanced economies, accounting for half of the global population. But its growth has also created new fractures and disunity – Iran was bombing Saudi Arabia and the UAE earlier this year, and Brics foreign ministers failed to agree on a joint statement when they met in Delhi in May. Reuters reported on Saturday that India’s summit would result in a generic joint declaration that would show unity by condemning unilateral war, but ⁠was unlikely to name any single country. Jiang Shixue, vice-president of the expert committee of the China thinktank Council for BRICs cooperation (China), said the 11 members “cannot speak with one voice on many issues”. “The only solution is to continuously strengthen political consensus,” he told the South China Morning Post. Beijing and Delhi have differing views on the role of the group. China has sought to expand Brics power as a counterweight to the US under Donald Trump’s leadership, which has launched global tariff and trade wars and retreated from multilateral institutions such as the UN, which afforded it international credibility. India has taken a more cautious approach, seeing Brics as a bridge between the west and the developing world. Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow for South Asia in the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House, said this week that Delhi had found it hard to maintain its policy of “strategic hedging” during such a disruptive US presidency. “India’s position can appear out of sync in a forum whose membership includes countries with more overtly anti-western agendas, including China, Russia and Iran. And two other Brics countries, South Africa and Brazil, have suffered high-profile diplomatic disputes with the US,” he wrote. “The challenge for Delhi is that it wishes to promote this worldview in a way that is non-western but not explicitly anti-western.” Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Sweden’s extremely close election could see far right enter government

Sweden goes to the polls on Sunday in an extremely close election that could see the far right enter government for the first time if the country’s rightwing parties can form a majority. Opinion polls show the centre-left opposition alliance ahead, with Magdalena ⁠Andersson of the Social Democrats the favourite to become prime minister again after four years in opposition, but her bloc’s lead has narrowed considerably in the final days of the campaign. In 2022, the current prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the centre-right Moderates, broke a longstanding taboo to make a deal with the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), so that his minority coalition could form a government. That agreement gave the SD outsized influence over government policy, especially on crime and immigration, and Kristersson has now gone further, promising ministerial posts for the SD if he is returned to power. The election comes days after Germany’s nativist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) seized first place in key state elections, and as Marine Le Pen leads the polls for next year’s presidential vote in France. Legal and civil rights experts have warned that such a result could further undermine Sweden’s long-held reputation as a global champion of human rights, which has significantly deteriorated under the current government. “What we have seen in the past four years is huge changes when it comes to policies on crime and immigration,” said John Stauffer, legal director at Civil Rights Defenders. “That is also the concern moving forward into the next mandate period: that this government will continue with a clear aim to further decrease the number of people coming to Sweden, the number of people who can get protection, and also that as many people as possible with migrant backgrounds leave Sweden – either by force or voluntarily.” SD’s manifesto includes pledges to introduce “anti-Swedish sentiment in legislation on incitement against ethnic groups”, revoke permanent resident permits and further cut immigration. One of its slogans is a promise to “make Sweden Sweden again”. Despite recent changes – including the deportation of teenagers, lowering the age of criminal responsibility and sending 14-year-olds to adult prisons – many voters and politicians continued to see Sweden as a “champion of human rights and a champion of the rules-based world order where human rights is an important part”, Stauffer said. “But it is quite clear that the Sweden Democrats do not have that ambition. They don’t see Sweden as an important player on these issues on human rights. So there will be less focus on this and Sweden contributing to developing the judicial framework around human rights.” He added: “It’s a fair guess that the negative trend will continue with SD in government, the view from abroad of Sweden will continue to deteriorate, less and less will be seen as a champion of human rights, but as any other country maybe. For some time Sweden has been seen as the exception.” In an attempt to win back voters, Andersson’s Social Democrats have also moved to the right on crime, immigration and integration, meaning that a win for the left was unlikely to mean a reform of current hardline policies, said Stauffer. “With a Social Democrats-led government, many of the things we see as problematic are not going to be rolled back. But maybe negative development will not continue in the same way,” he said. With polls so tight and record early voting expected, the performance of smaller parties could prove critical. The Liberals, who are tiny but part of the governing coalition and whose leader, Simona Mohamsson, has controversially cosied up to the SD’s leader, Jimmie Åkesson, in recent months, could be crucial for the right’s ability to form a coalition. And, on the left, turnout for the Centre party could also prove significant. The small leftwing party has made some headway in the polls, which it hopes could be sign of a surge. In Stockholm municipality, in particular, it is gaining ground on the Moderates and hopes to become the second biggest party. The SD had already won the immigration argument among mainstream Swedish political parties, said Bo Petersson, a political science professor at Malmö University, who argued that the election could become a test of whether the far-right party had any further appeal to Swedish voters. “The mainstream parties have taken the restrictive immigration politics and then there isn’t so much for SD to say ‘we are unique and stand for this’,” he said. “They have been a very clear part of the establishment.” Fredrik Furtenbach, a senior political correspondent for Sveriges Radio, (Sweden’s public broadcaster, said that if the rightwing parties won, the SD was likely to get several ministerial posts which would be a “big breakthrough for them”. If the rightwing coalition loses, he expects there to be a post-election debate within the centre-right parties about “whether they allowed the Sweden Democrats to get too close”. The biggest issues among voters are healthcare, law and order, immigration and Sweden’s economy. After heated television debates between leaders, the last of which was held on Friday night, election results are expected on Sunday night, but it could take weeks or even months of talks to form a government. The latest polls show an extremely tight race, with a Dagens Nyheter/Ipsos poll showing on Friday just 0.3 percentage points between the left and right blocs, which would leave Andersson’s left-leaning side with 175 seats and 174 for Kristersson’s right-leaning side.

Iran’s Houthi allies capture strategic island on vital oil shipping route

Yemen’s rampant Houthi forces have captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab strait, expanding their control of the narrow waterway, one of the world’s vital shipping routes. The Iran-aligned Houthis took control of the volcanic island after forces allied to the UN-backed, Aden-based government left in the latest of a dramatic series of reverses along Yemen’s west coast in recent days, including the loss of the port city of Mocha on Thursday. Saudi Arabia, which supports and bankrolls the official Yemen government, mounted air raids on Houthi positions in Mocha on Friday. The Bab al-Mandab strait links Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and Suez canal. Perim island, also known as Mayun, divides the waterway in two, close to its narrowest point. The United Arab Emirates, a former Saudi ally in the anti-Houthi coalition, had been building an airbase on the island before ending its active involvement in the conflict in January. Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab to export its crude since Iran has been targeting vessels in the strait of Hormuz. About 12% of the world’s goods are typically shipped through the strait. Saudi Arabia has now said it has shut down a crucial pipeline a day after it was attacked by drones, and Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels captured Perim. It said it had shut its East-West pipeline as “a precautionary measure”, blaming the attack on several drones that came from Iraq. In a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, the kingdom said it would not respond to the attack to give the Iraqi government “an opportunity to take the necessary measures”. The pipeline, also known as the Petroline, runs for 1,201km (746 miles) from the Abqaiq oilfield in the kingdom’s east near Bahrain and Qatar, to the port city Yanbu at the Red Sea. Built in the 1980s, it has played an important role in Saudi Arabia’s ability to export oil after the disruption of the strait of Hormuz during the Iran war. Full Houthi control of shipping in the Bab al-Mandab strait, alongside Iranian control of the strait of Hormuz, would strengthen the chokeholds of anti-western forces over global energy shipments. Oil prices have risen to more than $100 a barrel as the fighting in Yemen has escalated. Iran hailed the Houthi advances in an official statement on Friday, its first extended comment on the renewed fighting inside Yemen. Iran and the Houthis have been allied since the Houthis rose to power inside Yemen in 2014. In a statement the Houthis hailed the expulsion of “Saudi enemy” troops from six districts in the Taiz and Hodeidah regions, the capture of 4,500 sq miles, the targeting of “seven military divisions of the Saudi enemy’s forces” and the “killing, capture, and wounding” of hundreds of soldiers. It also claimed to have released hundreds of prisoners “held by the Saudi enemy’s mercenaries for years”. British diplomatic sources said they did not at present expect Donald Trump to sanction any US bombing of Houthi positions in Yemen, despite requests to do so from Saudi Arabia. The pace of the Houthi advance, and political divisions in the Yemen governorates not controlled by the Houthis, have left western capitals fearful that even the Yemen government capital, Aden, could fall to the Houthis. The UK effectively treated Yemen as a British protectorate until 1967. The Houthi offensive has cost more than 500 lives and displaced about 46,000 people, the UN migration agency said on Friday. The Houthi progress down the Red Sea coast from the port of Hodeidah also strengthens Iran’s hand in trying to reach an agreement with other Gulf states on future control of the strait of Hormuz, the central dispute between the US and Iran. Iran has reached an agreement on temporary approved routes with Oman, the country sharing the southern coast of the Hormuz strait. The proposed deal is supposed to be discussed at a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers in the Omani coastal city of Salalah on Monday. The deal, including a temporary approved route for shipping largely under Iranian control, would – if agreed by the GCC – put pressure on the US to lift its highly effective blockade of Iranian oil ports, which is severely damaging the Iranian economy. The US struck a surprise ceasefire deal with the Houthis in May 2025 after the cost of a bombing campaign escalated, and Houthis gave private assurances that they would not attack US shipping in the Red Sea. The Houthi leadership this week continued to give similar assurances to all shipping except Saudi Arabian oil tankers. On 14 August Saudi Arabia assembled a 14-country international maritime naval coalition to protect freedom of navigation in the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden. The coalition, including Bahrain, Pakistan, Somalia, Djibouti, Turkey and Egypt, has so far been invisible, though Riyadh would argue that such a coalition of the willing takes time to assemble. Recriminations are under way over the fall of Mocha, with the role of Maj Gen Tareq Saleh, the leader of the National Resistance Forces that retreated from the city, under scrutiny. He said the retreat was necessary to regroup his forces. On her Facebook page, the Yemeni 2011 Nobel peace prize winner, Tawakkol Karman, called on Yemen’s president, Rashad al-Alimi, to dismiss Saleh and to refer him for investigation and trial on charges of conspiracy and high treason. Amr al-Bidh, the foreign affairs representative of the separatist political organisation the Southern Transitional Council (STC), said he had warned western diplomats repeatedly of the need for a comprehensive national regional and international strategy to defeat the Houthis, adding occasional airstrikes were not enough. He accused the Saudis of strategic incompetence and of alienating the southern forces most needed to combat the Houthis. “The position is now very serious,” he said. “The Houthis’ presence in the strait means they will be able to control the waterways without needing to use sophisticated weapons that as a result they can now use elsewhere. The advance is also likely to give them a new income through control of ports along the west coast of the Red Sea.” The Houthis are already offering concessionary rates to draw traffic from ports controlled by the Yemeni government in the Gulf of Aden. The STC was the dominant political and military force in southern Yemen until this January, when Saudi Arabia bombed its troops, closed its political organisation down and detained as many as 20 of its leaders in Riyadh. A Saudi promise of a dialogue about the southern question made in January has never been kept, al-Bidh said, adding that Human Rights Watch warned in a March report that some pro-STC protests in Aden were being repressed with undue violence. “The betrayal of promises had left the southern population unwilling to leave their home territories to fight the Houthis in the north,” he said. “The Saudis for 10 years have been dependent on the people of the south to deter the Houthis, and the STC with as many as 80,000 troops at its disposal, has been the backbone of that force.” Saudi Arabia is facing a familiar dilemma: whether to reach a negotiated settlement with the Houthis on the future of Yemen or to try to push the highly stretched Houthi forces back. Although the Houthis operate independently of Tehran’s instructions, it is hugely to Iran’s advantage for them to be fighting Saudi Arabia, as the Saudis are more likely in turn to put pressure on Washington to relent over Iran. There is also concern in western capitals about the use of western weaponry by the Saudis in Yemen, and whether their activity complies with international humanitarian law, including whether the Saudi strikes can truly be seen as acts of self-defence.

Nearly 50,000 Yemeni civilians flee as Houthis advance along Red Sea coast

Nearly 50,000 people have fled a sudden advance by Houthi forces in western Yemen, with entire villages emptied and families trapped near frontline fighting with depleting food supplies, according to aid workers. Civilians in the Middle East’s poorest country have found themselves victims of a global struggle for control over one of the most important shipping routes in the world, which threatens to turn Yemen’s on-off conflict into a forever war. In a lightning advance this week, the Iran-backed Houthi militants have seized a string of towns along the Red Sea coast from forces aligned with the US- and Saudi-backed Yemeni government. Hundreds of people are reported to have been killed. Many fear a return to the full-scale civil war that killed 150,000 and brought many others to the brink of famine. The UN International Organization for Migration (IOM) said on Friday that 46,000 people had been displaced across the governates of Taiz and Hodeidah, where steep verdant mountain ridges give way to arid coastal plains. For many families, this was their second or even third time they had been forced out of their homes. A significant number of people were observed to be leaving the city with their belongings. Fighting has cut key roads, while phone lines are down in some areas. “The scale of displacement is increasing rapidly,” said Joe Lowry, IOM’s Middle East and north Africa spokesperson in Cairo. The most urgent needs were emergency shelters, cash assistance, food, drinking water, household items, healthcare and protection services. “Civilians are bearing the brunt of renewed frontline warfare, airstrikes, shelling, and large-scale displacement,” Lowry said. “Many of those fleeing have arrived with very few belongings after leaving suddenly, due to shelling and frontline advances.” Lowry said aid workers were having to constantly reassess access, and adapt movements, as the situation changed. “It’s a highly fluid and uncertain situation marked by rapid territorial changes, population movements and growing concern among communities about further escalation,” he said. The Houthi advance has come unexpectedly and fast, particularly the fall of the strategic port city of Mocha – widely regarded as the birthplace of the global coffee trade and the eponym for chocolate-flavoured coffee. Mohamed, 46, who left Mocha in the middle of the night, told Agence France-Presse there was an “apocalyptic” atmosphere in the city. Another man, Mujahid Tahami, who set off for the southern government-held city of Aden, said some families had fallen victim to “looting by gangs as they tried to flee”. Others reported that they had managed to flee in time, some on motorbikes, but other family members were not so lucky and were stuck. Yemen analysts have long criticised the US and its allies for taking a security-focused approach to the country that undervalues diplomacy and development. Washington launched a campaign of drone attacks against Sunni al-Qaida militants for much of the 21st century, but did not pay significant attention to the hardline Shia Houthi insurgency until its forces claimed the capital in 2014. By taking control of key areas this week, including islands off the coast, the anti-west Houthis hope to gain a direct presence near the Bab al-Mandab strait, a 20-mile stretch of water and vital trade and energy route that connects Asia with Europe. The strait’s name is roughly translated as “the gate of tears” or “the gate of grief”, and its strong currents and winds made the passage between the Arabian peninsula and Africa’s east coast hazardous for centuries. Modern-day cargo ships have no physical issue passing through. But if the Houthis were to close the natural chokepoint, the impact on the global economy could be disastrous. Ships would have to reroute around the southern tip of Africa, adding thousands of extra nautical miles. The fighting has already contributed to the price of oil rising above $100 a barrel after weeks when it was trading closer to $80. The fighting in Yemen, as well as Houthi missile strikes on Saudi Arabia, is the most significant violence in the country since the UN-brokered peace plan in 2022. The UN special envoy for Yemen, Hans Grundberg, told an emergency security council meeting on Thursday that the country faced “a new and more dangerous phase of war”. “This renewed war should alarm us all,” Grundberg said. “It effectively marks the end of the relative calm that Yemen has experienced for over four years since the UN-brokered truce. It not only threatens to plunge Yemen into a prolonged and expanding war, but also risks yet again dragging the country into the wider and unresolved regional confrontation, with global repercussions.” Instability in Yemen has been exploited by regional powers such as Saudi Arabia, Iran and the United Arab Emirates to fight proxy battles, and the failure to end the violence has led to the growth of powerful militias. The US-Israeli war on Iran has only heightened the tensions, with regional animosity at an all-time high. This has compounded one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. The most recent UN humanitarian report, released last month, warned that the country of 40 million was facing a deepening malnutrition crisis, with roughly half the population facing acute food insecurity nationwide. “Years of conflict, economic deterioration, displacement, climate-related shocks and regional tensions have steadily weakened livelihoods and household resilience,” the report warned. “At the same time, declining humanitarian funding and operational constraints are limiting the ability of aid organisations to provide assistance at the scale required.” On the Red Sea coast, those who escaped the latest wave of fighting had their lives, but were left in shock. “It’s a catastrophe, and the attacks are ongoing,” said Mohammed Khudairi, who fled the fighting to a displacement camp of wood-and-straw huts near the areas of Khokha. “We managed to leave, but others remain trapped there.”

Firewall compromised: has Friedrich Merz blown ‘democracy’s last shot’?

A cataclysm. A 9.0 earthquake. A five-alarm fire. A bitter rejection of Germany’s joyous reunification three decades ago, and a threat to the democratic postwar order. Sizing up the repercussions of last weekend’s win for the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party in the former communist state of Saxony-Anhalt, German commentators expressed a sense of doom, panic and helplessness in the political establishment. With nearly 44% of the vote, the AfD fell three seats short of an absolute majority. Its media savvy chief candidate, Ulrich Siegmund, is racing to find enough support from the other parties to prop up what would be the first rightwing extremist state government since the Nazi period. It is still anyone’s guess whether he will succeed, leaving a corrosive uncertainty at the heart of Europe’s top economic power. Hanging in the balance is the fate of Friedrich Merz’s centre-right government, once called “democracy’s last shot” to prevent an extremist takeover in Germany. The result in Saxony-Anhalt has put the conservative chancellor on the ropes, with further punishment for his Christian Democratic Union party (CDU) expected in two more state polls later this month. “This is the worst defeat for the CDU in years – decades – and something has changed, not just in Saxony-Anhalt but in all of Germany,” he said on Monday. Whether or not he survives politically until the next general election, due in 2029, will have dramatic repercussions for Germany and its European allies trying to beat back anti-democratic forces. Pivotal elections are due next year in countries including France, Spain, Italy and Poland. Merz’s many critics say the 70-year-old former BlackRock executive is the wrong man at such a consequential crossroads, calling him a ham-fisted and empathetically challenged leader who is erratic in his messaging. Only in office 16 months, the chancellor often seemed incapable of one of the basic tasks of leadership: making the case to voters that accepting bitter pills now could lead to a brighter future, said the political scientist Thomas Biebricher of Frankfurt’s Goethe University. “The prevailing impression at the moment is that, in terms of communication, he is unable to explain the many reforms – and the sacrifices they entail – to the public, and thereby win their acceptance,” Biebricher said, referring to planned cuts to the statutory pension and healthcare schemes. The former chancellor Angela Merkel, Merz’s longtime rival within the CDU, has criticised him publicly for his hardline rhetoric on migration and integration but said she took no pleasure in the debacle given the stakes. “This is a turning point – a real turning point – in the history of the federal republic of Germany,” said Merkel, who left office of her own accord in 2021 after 16 years in power. “As a CDU member it breaks my heart.” Speaking at a digital affairs conference on Tuesday, she advised Merz to rethink his messaging in a changing political ecosystem in which emotions counted more than facts. Merkel, 72, noted that the CDU had pointed to data during the Saxony-Anhalt campaign showing that joblessness had fallen and household wealth had risen in the small, relatively poor state. “And then [Siegmund] says: ‘That may be so, but that’s not how it feels.’” The AfD formed in 2013, during Merkel’s tenure, as a Eurosceptic outfit opposed to bailouts for debt-mired countries. It grew increasingly radical during the 2015-2016 refugee influx, when she left the borders open to more than a million asylum seekers fleeing war and hardship. Merz took office last year saying he would put the country back on track after the implosion of the previous government under Olaf Scholz. He promised a return to economic growth, a restoration of defence capabilities and urgent repairs to the creaking social welfare system. His recipe for confronting the far right – one of his key pledges – was competence in governing and solutions for Germans’ most urgent problems. Merz also promised a rejection of Merkel’s open-border policy in an attempt to rob the AfD of its signature issue. He had infamously accepted support from the far-right party for a tough draft law on migration just before the February 2025 general election, before back-pedalling in the face of protests. As “irregular” arrivals of migrants have fallen sharply since Merz took office, the AfD has successfully pivoted to a broader range of concerns about deindustrialisation, regional identity, affordability and crime to gain ground far beyond its eastern heartland. The AfD, widely seen as more radical than comparable European parties, had been relegated to permanent opposition in Germany by the “firewall” strategy of shunning by the mainstream parties. But this policy is now widely seen to have failed, allowing the AfD to snipe from the sidelines about the slow pace of any positive change. Biebricher said that for all Merz’s weaknesses, replacing him would not be a magic bullet for the mountain of challenges facing German security and prosperity. As well as the threat from Russia, he cited decrepit infrastructure, the demographic crunch on social welfare benefits, competition from China in once mighty industries such as car manufacturing, and geopolitical upheaval weighing on supply chains and energy imports. “None of that simply goes away the moment you have someone who communicates better,” Biebricher told public radio. Merz’s centre-right CDU-CSU bloc, divided between conservatives and moderates, is nevertheless known for its internal discipline in times of crisis – if only out of fear of even graver consequences from drastic changes. The situation is seen as so grim that it has triggered paralysis, with neither the popular North Rhine-Westphalia state premier, Hendrik Wüst, or Bavaria’s ambitious leader, Markus Söder, keen at this stage to snatch the poisoned chalice. “Merz has now reached a stage where the crisis – which he himself constantly exacerbates – is stabilising him,” said the veteran political journalist Bernd Ulrich of Die Zeit newspaper. “The CDU and the government (in coalition with the Social Democrats) as a whole are in such a dire state that, as far as anyone can tell, no one wants to take over his post.” Wüst, 51, leads a coalition with the Greens in Germany’s most populous state and faces a re-election battle next April. If he wins, the calls for Merz to make way for him may grow louder. Söder, who represents the bloc’s conservative wing, shares Merz’s view that it needs to echo the AfD’s harsh rhetoric on migration in order to win back support – a strategy political scientists have long disparaged as counterproductive. Yet the dangers of keeping a revolt at bay by betting on a status quo voters so clearly reject are apparent. Much will depend on how bad the news is from the regional elections in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania on 20 September. The AfD is polling well in both states, with clear momentum after Saxony-Anhalt, putting pressure on the CDU in particular. During a fiery clash with the AfD in parliament this week in which he laid out the threat it poses to German democracy, Merz was reflective about how to steer the country – and himself – out of the current straits. He quoted from a letter he received from the rector of a theological university arguing how many opportunities still lay ahead for Germany and advising him not to give in to despair. Merz said he intended to take this to heart and stay on as chancellor using a new roadmap: “Admit mistakes, forgive, get back on your feet, shape the future.”

Ukraine war briefing: Russian developers used AI to build ‘kamikaze’ attack drone software, Anthropic says

A small team of likely freelance developers in Russia used AI chatbot Claude to develop software for an autonomous swarm of first-person-view “kamikaze” attack drones, including terminal guidance, target selection and coordination between multiple aircraft, according to Anthropic, the company that developed Claude. In a 154-page report describing how bad actors used its Claude AI system for state-sponsored surveillance and propaganda operations, Anthropic said the drone swarm was programmed to pick its own targets and crash into them to detonate, without a human making the final call. In their programming, the freelance team repeatedly picked a location in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as their target and used VPNs to circumvent Anthropic’s geographic blocks. Small drones have become a ‌central weapon in the war in Ukraine. Anthropic ‌also found that cybercriminals and state-backed hackers are increasingly using AI to orchestrate and execute large portions of cyber-attacks, including in attacks targeting officials in Ukraine. One hacking group allegedly ran phishing, hotel wifi hijacking and WhatsApp-takeover operations against targets in the Ukrainian government, military and diplomatic sectors, using AI at nearly every stage, Anthropic said. The group’s tradecraft was consistent with Russia-based threat actor Midnight Blizzard, which the US government has previously linked to Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, Reuters reported. The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The group allegedly used AI to build a system that automatically detected when its malware was flagged by security defences and rewrote the code until it evaded detection. The Anthropic report comes as petrol stations in Kyiv have been hit by jet-powered drones in a wave of targeted Russian attacks as the bombardment of Ukraine’s capital enters a new phase of intensity. At least two people were killed and 12 injured in strikes on two petrol stations on Friday morning, according to the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko. The rush-hour strikes follow a similar attack on a petrol station on Thursday. All three strikes targeted petrol stations operated by Ukrnafta, a state-owned oil and natural gas extraction company. A list of 18 petrol stations in Kyiv expected to be hit by Russian drones started circulating on Telegram on Wednesday. The three struck so far were on the list. Russian president Vladimir Putin has blamed the west for the conflict in Ukraine because of what he said was its constant pressure on Moscow and its attempts to “drag” Ukraine into the Nato alliance. Speaking to reporters before the BRICS summit in India, Putin said “everything happening in Europe right now is basically ‌the result of system errors by … the western globalists in politics, security, and economics”. After a Russia-friendly president was forced to flee Ukraine in 2014, he said the West “immediately set the goal of dragging Ukraine into Nato. And this ‌ultimately turned out to be the main reason for today’s tragic events in Ukraine”. He said people in Europe understood what was going on, which explained why they were voting for far-right parties such as the AfD in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. A Russian official will attend a G20 energy meeting in Houston next week, a White House official said on Friday. Last month, the US welcomed ⁠Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov to a meeting of G20 countries in North Carolina, upsetting European officials because it was the first time Russia’s finance ⁠minister had attended the forum in person since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The meeting comes as European Union efforts to become independent from Russian oil and gas are faltering, as it heads into winter with low gas stocks, its auditors said this month. The US House of Representatives is expected to take up a tough Russian sanctions package next week, although prospects of passage are uncertain despite the bill receiving overwhelming support in the Senate. The bill is designed to add pressure on Putin to negotiate an end to Russia’s war with Ukraine. However, several top Democratic lawmakers are worried the measure dramatically expands president Donald Trump’s tariff authority, and he would use that new power to go after US allies. Three people were killed in Russian ⁠strikes in southeastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia ⁠regions and in Kharkiv in the northeast, according to the governors of those regions. Russia has for two weeks been carrying out almost constant attacks with faster jet-powered drones that have killed a number of ⁠Kyiv residents and disrupted daily life in Ukraine’s capital. Ukraine also carried out drone attacks on Russia, killing two people in the Tula region overnight and one on Friday in the Kursk region, local officials said.

NSW police seize 36 illegal ebikes on northern beaches that are now destined for the crusher

Dozens of high-powered and illegal ebikes have been seized by police on Sydney’s northern beaches just weeks after the force was granted new powers to destroy dangerous bikes. The operation was part of a coordinated push with the New South Wales government to ensure people only ride legal ebikes that have not been modified to reach high speeds. One of the ebikes seized on Friday belonged to a 14-year-old boy from Warriewood. Police said it was capable of reaching speeds of more than 90km/h. NSW police said they seized 36 “illegal ebikes”. The operation was launched on the northern beaches “following recent incidents of illegal, dangerous and reckless e-bike use”. Assistant commissioner David Driver said police would be launching more operations across the state in coming weeks. “Most ebike riders do the right thing and comply with the rules; however, police will enforce [the] new legislation if people ride non-compliant vehicles,” Driver said on Saturday. In late August, NSW police were given new powers to destroy ebikes capable of exceeding the legal speed limit. Owners of seized ebikes now have 14 days to let police know whether their bike was stolen and being used by someone else on Friday. After that two-week window, the bikes will be “crushed”, the government says. The legislation also allowed police to seize ebikes that do not cut power assistance at 25km/h, with non-compliant bikes to be removed from the streets. The government invested in a number of “dyno units” – portable speed-testing devices – to measure an ebike’s power output. The Transport for NSW secretary, Josh Murray, said one of the units was used on the northern beaches on Friday to inspect suspect ebikes. “We can put an ebike on a machine and test its power and speed very quickly,” Driver said. “When they did that yesterday, the bike showed that just by clicking the throttle it could go over 40km/h.” Ebikes have been hailed as a climate-friendly solution to city traffic congestion, transport emissions and even youth social media addiction, offering Australians a means to get more exercise and save money. But they have come with a cost. NSW recorded 226 injuries related to ebikes in 2024. In the first seven months of 2025, that had already to surged to 233 injuries plus four deaths. In NSW this year to date, 187 vehicle drivers, passengers and motorcyclists have died on the state’s roads. In 2025, the figure for the same period was 194. Murray said most people were legally using ebikes but a small group ignoring the rules endangered other road users. “We are serious about ebike safety and operations like this will continue by NSW police with support from Transport for NSW to ensure all road users are safe and complying with the state’s upgraded laws,” Murray said. “Ebikes must behave like bicycles, not motorcycles. If your bike can operate like a motorcycle under throttle or go more than 25km/h while being powered, it is not legal to ride in public. “Before you or your child jumps on an ebike, please make sure it’s road-legal, otherwise you risk losing the bike.”

‘The future scares me’: why unemployment has become biggest election issue for young New Zealand voters

Thirty minutes north of New Zealand’s capital, raucous laughter is tumbling out of a nondescript building in Naenae – an economically deprived suburb in Lower Hutt – into the car park of a tiny shopping strip. Inside, 10 students aged between 15 and 24 are trying to better their chances of finding a job, with help from Youth Inspire, a not-for-profit that assists hundreds of young people each year into training, education or work. They have been working on CVs, learning to drive, and today are roleplaying challenging moments in a workplace. There is a lightness and camaraderie in the room that belies their day-to-day reality – one shaped by a desperate and lonely search for work that is not there. “It’s really heartbreaking and it breaks my confidence,” says Luta Matagi, 23, who has spent seven months looking for work. “I may not have degrees but I am a hard worker. We are all hard workers in here.” These students are a handful of the 180,000 young New Zealanders either unemployed or underemployed in the past quarter. Nearly four in 10 (37%) of 15-24-year-olds are in this group, categorised by government as the “underutilised” – the worst rate in 30 years, according to Stats NZ. As New Zealand prepares for its general election in November, unemployment is a key issue. For voters aged 18-34, unemployment ranks as the second most pressing concern, behind the cost of living, according to a recent Ipsos poll. Michael, 20, joined Youth Inspire to upskill, after finding “nothing out there” when it came to electrical apprenticeships. He is not alone. Apprenticeship numbers have slid 32% since 2022 to a 15-year low in 2025, government figures show. Michael says he has applied for at least 40 entry-level jobs in the past two years. He has not had a single interview. “It’s isolating searching for jobs alone,” he says. Matagi can’t count how many jobs she has applied for, “just to get rejected from all of them”. Young people routinely bear the brunt of an economic downturn, says Shamubeel Eaqub, chief economist at Simplicity, which provides fund management for New Zealand’s national saving scheme. “When there are only a few vacancies, then the people in the front of the queue are the ones who have got the most experience and the most to offer.” The effect can be scarring both for their career and their mental health, Eaqub says. “By the time the economy recovers, you’re going to be competing with the next cohort of young people who are now into the workforce.” The government has promised to grow the economy to increase jobs for young people. At the same time it is toughening jobseeker benefit criteria for some of that cohort. Matagi, like most of her peers, is on the jobseeker benefit. If she doesn’t find work soon, she will have to sell her car, which could further hinder her ability to get a job. She says the government is “so misguided” and not supporting young people enough. Its policy preventing 18-19 year olds whose parents earn a combined income of $65,529 (US$38,412) or more from accessing the benefit from November will place further strain on them and their families, she says. “It’s so sad to say, but the future scares me.” Zainab Ali, the organisation’s chief executive, sees the pressures on young people growing. “I used to notice pies and cans of [the drink] V being stolen from the shops near Youth Inspire, now what I am catching is bread, milk and eggs. They are the basics. That change tells you it is getting harder out there.” About 500 people are on the Youth Inspire waitlist. Ali says the hundreds that have already been through their doors are incredibly motivated. “They are struggling and still going,” she says. “And I would challenge anyone that thinks young people are lazy or not willing to work that we have the evidence to show that is not the case.” ‘Young people need to see some hope’ New Zealand’s economy has been battered by recession and stagnation that arrived in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Rising inflation piled pressure on businesses and drove households to rein in spending. Company liquidations rose 14% in the past year, and nearly 3,000 hospitality businesses ceased trading, credit bureau Centrix reported in September. There are, however, some flickers of improvement. Rating agency Moody’s said in September it expected 1.6% GDP growth in 2026. Ali says entry-level jobs have disappeared, retail shops are not hiring and the availability of full-time work is slim. “We used to count full-time work as the benchmark – that’s not the case now. Casual is most prevalent, but generally it is fixed-term or short-term work.” Labour’s spokesperson for finance and economy, Barbara Edmonds, says the national unemployment rate – currently at an 11-year high of 5.6% – is “a damning verdict” on incumbent prime minister Christopher Luxon’s economic management. “Our young people need to see some hope … they want to see that there are jobs available for them.” Edmonds says Labour would aim to turn around unemployment figures by backing trades and apprenticeships, guaranteeing graduate nurses a job, and introducing a “Future fund” – a policy to invest in innovative businesses and infrastructure to create jobs. But the National party’s minister for social development and employment, Louise Upston, blames high unemployment on the previous Labour government’s “reckless fiscal and economic management”. “It takes time to right the ship,” she says in a statement, adding her government is committed to growing the economy to boost job creation. Responding to criticism over her policy to limit access to benefits for 18-19 year-olds, Upston says young people should be in education, training or employment and “it’s a common-sense expectation that it’s their parents who will support them, not the taxpayer”, if they cannot do one of these things. As the mainstream parties vie for votes with promises of jobs and economic growth, young people may take more convincing. Recent polling shows support for Labour and National slipping away in favour of the minor parties, with younger women showing the highest support for left-leaning minor parties and younger men showing the highest support for minor rightwing and centrist parties. Voter turnout for younger, and poorer, people has historically been low but Ali says she is noticing “a huge trend” in the community of families who have never voted and are enrolling for the election because of concern for their children. “That gives me heart,” she says. Matagi and Michael say they will vote for the minor Green party. Matagi feels the party’s MPs “see our point of view”. Michael, meanwhile, believes “they look out for the underdog”. The pair feel this election could be the difference between a career-less future and a path to a new life. “There is not much hope,” Michael says, “unless we get a new government.”