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Middle East braces for more violence as Iran claims US is planning to renew bombing campaign

Governments across the Middle East are bracing for an escalation of violence after Iran claimed it had received intelligence that the US was preparing for a renewed bombing campaign against the Islamic Republic. In a potential sign of growing tensions before the UN general assembly in New York this week, Donald Trump cut short a weekend visit to the Camp David presidential retreat on Sunday with no official explanation, and a new security alert was issued by the state department to all US citizens in the Middle East. Keeping his options open, Trump reportedly told a Fox News reporter “very big things are going to be happening in the not-so-distant future” and that the options he was considering were “wiping Iran out, letting them rot economically or making a deal”. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps warned that if an attack does take place, “all US bases and interests in the region will become targets of continuous, effective and painful attacks without any limitations or considerations”. Iran’s leaders also pledged some of the reprisals could extend as far as US naval forces in the Indian Ocean, and accused some Gulf leaders of “double-dealing” by allegedly giving a green light to the US attacks. The outburst of sabre-rattling appears to have been prompted by attacks on the Saudi capital, Riyadh, by Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels. The barrage on Saturday marked the first time the capital’s Aramco oil facilities had been subject to such a sustained attack since the Saudi-Houthi ceasefire broke down in June. Riyadh insisted it had intercepted the missiles, but local photographs show smoke pouring from the Aramco facility. The port of Yanbu, vital for Saudi oil exports, was also targeted. The US largely regards the Houthis as a proxy Iranian force and argues that the group’s attacks on Riyadh would not happen without Tehran’s approval, a claim Iran denies. Trump last week provoked profound questions about the level of US commitment to its Middle East allies when he spurned a call by the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, asking the US to come to Saudi’s direct military help. The Saudis wanted US aid after the Houthis suddenly captured strategic ports along Yemen’s west coast overlooking the Red Sea, giving the Houthis control of the Bab al-Mandab strait, the narrow waterway that takes commercial shipping through the Red Sea towards Asia. On the other side of the Arabian peninsular, the strait of Hormuz between Iran and Oman is already effectively closed to western traffic and the pressure on European energy supplies is growing by the day, leading states such as France to take emergency measures to prevent fuel shortages. In an attempt to keep the US out of its war with Saudi Arabia, the Houthis had given commitments to US officials that they would only target Saudi-related shipping in the Red Sea, a commitment that Trump appeared to regard as sufficient to ensure essential US interests would be protected and that the US need not become involved militarily. Pressure on the Pentagon budget and dwindling munitions supplies due to the Iran conflict have also made the US reluctant to broaden the theatre of war. Successive bombing campaigns have not dislodged the Houthis, whose lighting advance to the Red Sea coast took the Saudi-backed Yemeni forces by surprise. Trump appeared to disregard the wider security threat by telling Fox News: “The US is in constant contact with the Houthis and they have agreed not to go to war with the US.” The Houthi government said 318 ships passed through the strait from 10-18 September. France will summon Iran’s ambassador ⁠after Iranian ⁠authorities closed a French-language centre affiliated with its ‌embassy ‌in Tehran, the ‌foreign ministry said on Sunday. The Iranian judiciary accused the centre of conducting “illegal acts that violated diplomatic conventions”. The French foreign ministry said: “This new attack on the French cultural presence in Iran … is unjustifiable and unacceptable.” Trump is due to meet the six member states of the Gulf Cooperation Council when he attends the UN general assembly in New York, in a meeting that is likely to cover Iran, Yemen, Gaza and the future of the US security guarantee. Trump said he was also open to a meeting with Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, in New York, an encounter that would probably be rejected by the Iranians, who refuse to negotiate directly with the US, operating instead largely through mediators. Pezeshkian is one of many world leaders due to address a general assembly that is likely to be dominated, on the sidelines at least, by Trump’s Middle East crisis. In the first sign of a potential change of White House thinking about renewing US military action, the state department issued a security alert on Saturday to US citizens across the region warning that “the security environment remains complex with potential for unforeseen escalation. American citizens in the Middle East should exercise heightened vigilance.” Hizam al-Assad, a member of the Houthi political bureau, said the attacks on Riyadh are a response to “hundreds of airstrikes that Riyadh had carried out against the people of Yemen”. In a lengthy statement to parliament on Sunday, Mohammad Ghalibaf, Iran’s chief negotiator, insisted that Iran was not interested in waging a forever war with the US. But the new secretary of the supreme national security council, Mohsen Rezaei, a hardliner, told Al Jazeera that Iran’s seven preconditions for peace – which include the US lifting its blockade of Iran oil ports, the restoration of its frozen assets and the lifting of sanctions on Iranian oil exports – remained. Rezaei also expressed his anger with the Gulf states, saying they had been invited to a meeting in Salahah in Oman last week to approve the agreed Oman-Iran plan for a new authorised shipping route through the strait of Hormuz, but Saudi Arabia rejected attendance. He said: “We invited them to the Salahah meeting and they reciprocated with a secret meeting in Germany with US Central Command and Israel.” Despite the Houthi victories last week, forces allied to the UN-recognised government of Yemen claimed to be pushing back against the Houthis across the country with 75 Houthi soldiers killed on Saturday alone.

Friedrich Merz vows to stay in office after CDU ‘disaster’ in German state elections

Germany’s embattled chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has vowed to stay in office and fight for future-proofing economic changes despite heavy losses for his conservatives in two state elections, one to the far right and the other to a leftwing party. Preliminary results indicated Merz’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) tallied just over the 5% threshold to enter the state parliament in the coastal region of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, its worst-ever state score, which he called a “disaster”. The anti-immigration, Kremlin-friendly Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party extended a streak of strong showings by coming in first in the former communist region with nearly 38%, more than doubling its previous score. In the capital, Berlin, one of Germany’s 16 federal states, the far-left Die Linke looked on course to win with about 25% of the vote, ahead of the incumbent CDU by a five-point margin. The AfD made headway there too, with a clear double-digit result. The deeply unpopular Merz has been fighting for his political survival after a humiliating series of setbacks with voters this year. Speculation about his ability to hold on as chancellor reached fever pitch after Saxony-Anhalt state’s AfD chapter routed the CDU with a record 44% for the party in an election two weeks ago. The Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania result marked the third time the AfD has emerged as the strongest party in a region, although the party seemed likely to remain shut out of power in the state because of a “firewall” of non-cooperation agreed by the other main parties. In a rare speech on a state election night, Merz admitted the CDU had been bitterly deprived of “tailwinds from Berlin” in both of Sunday’s races. But he said he would remain chancellor and party chair and continue a reform drive on fronts including taxes, healthcare, pensions and reducing bureaucracy. Merz said the German economy was facing “profound upheaval”, while public discourse had become “harsher and more irreconcilable”. “Trust in our country’s institutions is waning and is being actively undermined by radical parties on both the left and the right,” he said. But he added: “Germany is capable of reform. I would even go so far as to say that these reforms are the antidote to the poison of authoritarianism, which is penetrating ever deeper into our society as the fascination with authoritarianism grows.” A jubilant AfD co-leader, Tino Chrupalla, mocked Merz before his speech, saying voters had given his own party a “very clear result” and called on the chancellor to resign. About 2.5 million people were eligible to vote in Berlin and nearly 1.3 million in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. The stinging blows from the latest elections had been expected to put pressure on Merz at a minimum to cede the CDU leadership, which would have in effect ruled out a run for re-election at the next national poll, due in 2029. Merz’s eroding support has created a sense of instability in Europe’s top economy, which is struggling with deindustrialisation, sluggish growth and soaring energy costs. If the AfD’s surge led Merz to abandon the chancellery prematurely, it would give the far right further momentum as France, Italy, Spain and Poland head into elections next year with nativist parties on the march. Germany has high constitutional hurdles to replacing a chancellor against their will and any appointed successor would need to demonstrate a ruling majority. A failure to do so could trigger a new election. The AfD is the biggest opposition force in parliament and is leading national opinion polls with about 30%. It has called for Germany to quit the euro, end support for Ukraine and carry out mass deportations of “irregular” migrants, while citing the “destruction” of the CDU as one of its central goals. The CDU’s debacle in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania – a small, relatively poor state – is particularly bitter for Merz as it was home to the constituency of his arch-rival, Angela Merkel. While she governed Germany for 16 years, Merz appears to be on the ropes after no more than 16 months. Merz took office in May 2025 at the helm of a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) promising to restore the German economy to strength and slash the AfD’s support. A failure to make decisive headway on either front has produced profound disappointment in his leadership, with only one in 10 Germans saying they are satisfied with his performance. An inability to connect with voters appears particularly marked in the former communist east, where the AfD is strongest. In Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, the Social Democratic party state premier, Manuela Schwesig, distanced herself during the campaign from a key pension change backed by her party in Merz’s coalition government. She was expected to hold on to power in a left-leaning coalition even if the AfD came out on top when all the votes were counted. Despite leading the polls for months, the far right failed to garner enough support to govern alone and the remaining parties have ruled out working with it. A confirmed win by Die Linke in Berlin, where the far-left party has called for expropriation of corporate landlords to fight rising housing costs, could see its candidate, Elif Eralp, become the capital’s first leader of Turkish origin.

Man, 82, dies after brawl with 76-year-old over sunlounger on Greek beach

Greek police are investigating the death of an 82-year-old man after a brawl over a sunlounger at a beach on the Athenian riviera. The man had arrived at the popular bathing spot of Vouliagmeni before 10am on Sunday hoping to secure a sunbed, but he soon began arguing with a fellow bather – described by authorities as a “76-year-old man unknown to him” – when it became clear loungers were in short supply. The row quickly degenerated into a scuffle as others reportedly joined in. The victim, who was with his wife, is believed to have suffered a cardiac arrest during the fight. “It seems that people who were with [the assailant] also participated,” ERT, the country’s state broadcaster, reported. “The 82-year-old was seriously injured, and needed to be transferred by ambulance to Asklepieion hospital in Voula. “Despite the efforts of doctors, at about 11am the elderly man succumbed to his wounds.” A postmortem was immediately ordered. Police arrested the 76-year-old and, initially, a 21-year-old woman who was with him. The beach resort’s manager was also detained for questioning. “The incident is under investigation,” said a source, describing the fight as unprecedented. “In Greece disagreement is expressed vocally, with a lot of screaming and shouting, not in fistfights like this – especially between two elderly men. I think that’s why it is so shocking.” Like other parts of Europe, Greece is undergoing a severe cost of living crisis that has heightened tensions and put strain on social relations. An increase in domestic violence and other disputes has been partly blamed on the pressures of everyday life. In recent years, there has been growing anger over private rental outfits hogging prime coastal areas with exorbitantly priced sunloungers in Greece, where the sea has an important place in national identity. Authorities said “all those” involved in the incident would appear before a magistrate.

European spy chiefs warn Moscow is planning more decisive action against Nato

European intelligence officials have raised the possibility of an imminent Russian test of Nato, with one saying a potential attack could come in a matter of “months, not years”. The warnings come after Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, told parliament that intelligence assessments suggested Russia might launch an attack with drones or missiles on Nato territory in the coming months, as part of efforts to prove that “article 5 is more theoretical than practical”. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, called Tusk’s warnings “sound and well-documented”, and on Friday summoned party leaders and 2027 presidential candidates for an emergency meeting in Paris, where they discussed – among other topics – intelligence of a growing threat from Russia. The escalation fears come as the UN general assembly convenes in New York later this week, and amid intensifying airstrikes on both sides of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Kyiv hit Moscow and other Russian regions with hundreds of drones and missiles in the early hours of Sunday, in one of its biggest air attacks of the war. In separate interviews with the Guardian over the past week, in different locations, three European intelligence leaders discussed their views of the potential threat from Moscow. Michal Koudelka, the head of the Czech Republic’s BIS security service, said that as well as increased drone activity, a small-scale invasion of Nato territory that bordered Russia could be part of the Kremlin’s plans. “It’s possible. It could involve a limited incursion, false-flag provocations, a massive influence campaign,” he said, in a rare interview at the agency’s headquarters in Prague. He said this scenario could play out in a matter of “months, not years” but added that “a lot of people are doing everything they can to make sure this doesn’t happen”. Officials in the three Baltic countries, which border Russian territory, have been more cautious about the prospect of an invasion or other serious escalation, citing Moscow’s stretched resources in Ukraine and warning that playing up the prospect of an attack might play into the Kremlin’s hands. “We don’t see indications of an imminent attack,” said Normunds Mežviets, the director general of the VDD, Latvia’s state security service, in an interview at the agency’s headquarters in Riga. He conceded there were signs that Moscow was making preparations for more decisive action in Europe, but said it was not clear whether the plans were simply part of a destabilisation strategy. “It’s still an open question if they have direct and concrete plans or if it’s just within the context of their overall attempts to spread fear and uncertainty in western society,” he said. Baltic politicians, who for many years criticised western Europe for being soft on Russia, now find themselves in the strange position of telling some western leaders to calm down in their public messaging, fearing that talk of an imminent invasion could prove damaging to their societies and economies. On Saturday, the secretary general of Estonia’s foreign ministry, Jonatan Vseviov, decried “panic on social media” in recent days about a possible attack. “If there is reason to fear an attack, rest assured: we will make that clear. Until then, keep calm, carry on and support Ukraine,” he wrote on X. Mežviets said that, overall, it was good that western Europe had woken up to the threat from Russia. “Before 2022, we constantly warned our western European partners about the threat from Russia, but most of the time our voices were not listened to. In 2022, the approach of our partners changed. They said it turns out the Balts and the Poles had been right,” he said. Neither Mežviets nor Koudelka would discuss what specific intelligence might have been obtained about Russia’s supposed planning for the coming months, nor would they comment on whether a surprise trip by the CIA director, John Ratcliffe, to Moscow last month – during which he stopped off in Riga – was partly to warn the Kremlin about the dangers of launching an attack on Nato. After that visit, the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, dismissed rumours of a Russian attack on Nato. “It has nothing to do with reality and nothing to do with the intentions of the Russian Federation,” he said. However, many in Europe will have the build up to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 in the back of their minds, when US officials repeatedly warned Russia was preparing to invade and the Kremlin repeatedly denied it. As the full-scale war that ensued approaches its fifth winter, US-led efforts to bring about peace in Ukraine show no signs of success, with Russia and Ukraine intensifying their drone and missile strikes on each other. Ukraine has destroyed much of Russia’s oil infrastructure, targeting refineries and other facilities over recent months. Moscow has frequently said the provision to Ukraine of weaponry, intelligence and military advisers makes western countries participants in the war and legitimate targets, but has so far avoided action that might provoke a coordinated response from Nato. Instead, it has launched what western agencies describe as a campaign of sabotage against targets in countries that are the loudest backers of Ukraine, and one-off incidents apparently meant to test boundaries, such as when more than a dozen drones, flying without ammunition, veered into Polish airspace a year ago. Koudelka said the current Russian tactic was “escalate to de-escalate”, with the Kremlin keen to push at weak points in western societies to tamp down their support for Ukraine’s war effort. “They believe if they escalate enough, then European countries will decide not to support Ukraine,” he said. In recent weeks the Trump administration has made another attempt to kickstart peace negotiations in Ukraine. As well as the Ratcliffe visit to Moscow, the US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner made another trip to Moscow, as well as a first-time trip to Kyiv. While Donald Trump has frequently claimed the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, is interested in a deal, there is scepticism in Europe that the Kremlin has any interest in good-faith negotiations. “I haven’t seen any signs that there is a serious consideration in Moscow about real negotiations,” said Thomas Nilsson, the head of Sweden’s military intelligence and security service, in an interview on the sidelines of a conference in Riga. “My assessment is that they are still thinking that they could achieve their strategic objectives, so they are just playing negotiation theatre,” he added. All three intelligence bosses said that whatever else happened, Russia’s campaign of sabotage in Europe is likely to intensify in the coming months. Nilsson described as a “gamechanger” the recent armed drone incident at Leipzig airport, which German authorities have attributed to Russian intelligence. “To have an armed UAV drone sent in to a busy airport in the middle of Europe … If you have attacks that could result in losses of life or losses of very critical infrastructure that have a huge implication for society, I think that is a gamechanger,” he said. Mežviets said Russia was moving from randomised targeting of sabotage and arson attacks intended to sow panic to specific targets linked to western backing for Ukraine. “We see them looking to attack railway infrastructure, Ukraine support infrastructure. Right now we see a move towards defence industry targets,” he said. “If you do this then the psy-op effect is reached anyway, so you get both things in one,” he added. Nilsson said there were several goals behind the recent intensification of Russian sabotage activity: to reduce support for Ukraine, to introduce splits in Nato and to alarm European populations. “I think Moscow would love Nato to have endless discussion about article 4 consultations, but coming up with no actions,” he said. Koudelka said another effect of the sabotage campaign is the stretch on resources of intelligence services, as doubts often linger even when incidents are caused by other factors. “Now every fire or every malfunction needs to be investigated by intelligence services as a potential terror attack, and that is a good result for them,” he said.

Our understanding of the slave trade is still evolving | Letters

William Pettigrew’s book, Britain’s Slave Traders: A Forgotten History, adds a further dimension and depth to our understanding of how entrenched and significant Britain’s involvement in the transatlantic slave trade was. The landmark University College London’s Legacies of British Slavery project previously documented the “compensation” payments to 46,000 persons who, at the time of its abolition in 1834, had a financial interest in slave ownership – the £20m paid out is generally reckoned to be worth around £17bn at 2019 prices, or 40% of total government expenditure in 1834 – a vast national debt that was only fully amortised in 2015. The earlier study thus highlighted the extensive involvement of sections of the British public in profiting from slavery, and the further financial benefit from “compensation”. The recent study tracks back into the prior history from the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade through the 18th century, and shows how its tentacles throughout that time reached out deep into the economy and society. The economic impact over this whole period should not be underestimated. As Pettigrew observes (Slavery was not a footnote to British history. It helped shape the nation, 14 September), the slave trade provided some of the seed funding for the Industrial Revolution. The flow of income back from the Caribbean sugar plantations provided capital surpluses to fund new industries, through an expanded banking system, not to mention personal wealth. Defending these assets in turn stimulated the growth of the British navy, and its eventual control of the seas. Until American independence in 1776, the colonists relying on enslaved people for their cotton and coffee plantations were British settlers, paying taxes to the British exchequer. In the 19th century, “compensation” payouts fed into investments in the new railways; into banking; and into the funding of stately homes and the arts. Taken together, it could therefore be reasonably argued it was the slave trade that made Britain the cradle of the Industrial Revolution. Chris Hendry Emeritus professor, City, University of London • William Pettigrew is right that slavery was not a footnote to British history. His account powerfully demonstrates how the slave trade was entangled with the state, finance, politics and culture. But there is a further question: what about class? Pettigrew speaks of “Britain” and says “we are all – in some way – connected to it”. Yet Britain was never a single social actor. The slave owner, merchant and investor had a fundamentally different relationship to slavery from the growing cotton-mill proletariat whose labour helped turn slave-grown cotton into commodities. The danger is that “we are all connected” obscures the asymmetry of accumulation between those who owned capital and accumulated wealth from the system, and those who possessed only their labour and received wages. The question is not simply how slavery shaped Britain, but how its wealth entered an expanding capitalist economy – and was distributed through profoundly unequal class relations. David Eaton Sunderland • The Guardian’s excellent presentation of the findings of the Register of British Slave Traders (What is the Register of British Slave Traders and whom does it identify?, 14 September) highlighted what has been long known. It is also timely if it persuades anyone to question the thinking that underlies the philosophy shared by most western leaders that “western democracy” shines out in a challenging world, representing the best of humanity. Historians know that this is based on contradictions. The world’s first known democracy, the dazzling civilisation of ancient Athens, was based both on slavery and on a thoroughly undemocratic empire, the Delian League. Slavery has been practised across history by all types of government from despotic monarchies to republics and democracies. Put this alongside the fact that the democratic rights we now enjoy had to be extracted, sometimes by force, from the ruling class, and we might have a more humble evaluation of the place of our civilisation in the world. As Gandhi famously said when asked what he thought of western civilisation, “It would be a good idea”. Dr Peter Purton Southall, London • As slavery was abolished, poor laws were enacted across England. A distinction began to be established between those deemed to be worthy of charity and those who were not. The workhouse consolidated the form and substance of these differences. Distinctions established then persist today in ideas about the undeserving and deserving poor, scroungers and strivers, immigrant and indigenous labour. Rod Earle Guildford, Surrey • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Ukraine targets Moscow with hundreds of drones on final day of Russian election

Ukraine has targeted Moscow and the surrounding region in a large-scale attack that involved hundreds of drones. The attack killed at least three people and damaged what Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said was one of Russia’s “key oil industry facilities” on the final day of the country’s parliamentary elections, authorities said on Sunday. Zelenskyy said that among the weapons used in the attack was the Pelican, initially thought to be a short-range ballistic missile, but which sources said later was a winged drone. The president did not offer any further details, prompting media reports in Ukraine that it was a ballistic missile, only for doubt to be cast on the weapon identification later in the day. Zelenskyy also said Ukraine had used its domestically produced Flamingo cruise missiles to strike Moscow. The long-range weapon has previously been used against targets deep inside Russia and has the range to reach the country’s capital. Ukrainian and Russian Telegram channels posted images of what they said was debris from a Flamingo missile found in the Moscow region, though the claims could not be independently verified. Ruslan Leviev, the head of the open-source investigation group Conflict Intelligence Team, said the debris probably came from a Flamingo missile. Moscow’s mayor, Sergey Sobyanin, said that more than 1,600 drones had been intercepted and shot down, 450 of which were aimed at Moscow, though these figures are often exaggerated, and Ukraine’s daily drone fire rate estimated a number in the low hundreds. Sobyanin accused Ukraine of attempting to interfere with a tightly controlled three-day election in Russia that is expected to tighten Vladimir Putin’s 26-year grip on power. “The unprecedented attack was clearly planned with the aim of disrupting the elections. The enemy did not succeed,” he said on Telegram. At least three people were killed, including a 44-year-old woman and an elderly man, in separate incidents. A fire triggered by a drone crashing into a 21-storey building also led to 400 people being evacuated, said Moscow’s regional governor, Andrey Vorobyov, without specifying the drone’s origin. Kyiv has stepped up its campaign of long-range drone strikes against Russia in recent months, particularly against energy infrastructure, a vital source of the Kremlin’s revenue to fund its war effort. Ukrainian strikes have knocked out a significant part of Russia’s oil-refining capacity, triggering oil product shortages, fuel price increases and long queues at filling stations in many regions across the country’s 11 time zones. A facility on the territory of the Moscow oil refinery had been damaged, Sobyanin said. No casualties were reported and emergency services were on the scene. The refinery had already been hit by Ukrainian strikes in recent months. The Pelican missile was initially thought to be the FP-7 made by Fire Point, Ukraine’s most successful long-range drone and missile maker. But several hours later, as the speculation persisted, other military sources said it was a long-range drone. The company is also developing the longer-range FP-9, which has a range of more than 500 miles, meaning it could be used to target Moscow in the future. A test flight is expected later this autumn. The latest strike comes after the US president, Donald Trump, said on Monday that Ukraine and Russia had agreed not to target each other’s energy facilities. It also comes after Russians began voting on Friday in the country’s first parliamentary elections since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Only parties that support Putin and the Kremlin’s military campaign have been registered to run. Moscow has also organised voting in occupied Ukraine. Few Russians doubt Putin’s United Russia party will coast to victory again, but the vote offers a gauge of public support for the war. With Agence France-Presse and Reuters

‘I have nothing in the UK at all’: British man torn from his Swedish wife and home

Doubled over a Heathrow baggage trolley, the former British business director is sobbing uncontrollably, exhausted emotionally and physically after being deported from Sweden. Hours earlier the 65-year-old had been marched on to a plane in Stockholm, separated from his home and his Swedish wife after a five-year battle to stay in the country after Brexit came to an end. An only child with no children and no property in the UK, Charles has in effect been made homeless. He was last in the UK in 2022 for one week, and before that not since 2017 when he emigrated. “I have nothing, nothing in the UK at all,” says Charles as he shows a text from the British consulate explaining where in Heathrow those suddenly left homeless can get help. “All I want is to return to my wife, my home and my friends in Sweden and to live a quiet, peaceful life,” adds Charles, who does not want to publicly share his full identity. His forced flight on Tuesday shows that deportations of British citizens who lived in Sweden before Brexit are continuing. Stockholm has already deported 458 British people after rejected residency applications, a higher proportion in terms of its population than any EU member state. The situation persists despite promises from opposition parties now on track to form a government that they will introduce urgent laws to give Britons a second chance to apply for residency. “I’ve done nothing wrong but feel I’ve been treated like a criminal,” Charles says. “Since arriving in Sweden nearly nine years ago, I’ve done everything I can to integrate myself into Swedish society. I’ve learned some basic Swedish, contributed to Swedish society and the Swedish economy, and for that, I’m being punished. Why are they doing this to good, honest, hard-working people like me and my wife?” Shortly after disembarking in London, he is sitting down in an airport cafe processing what has just happened. Pointing to a small holdall and a large reusable shopping bag, he says: “All I have is what my wife packed in my bag here with clothes and my little bag” – in which he has belongings handed back to him by the captain as he got off the plane. The bag includes a plastic envelope sealed and emblazoned with the words Kriminalvården, the Swedish Prison and Probation Service, containing meagre belongings. In it is a miniature tube of toothpaste, a toothbrush and earplugs given to him in the detention centre where he was locked up for two weeks. A bright yellow envelope was also handed to him by the captain before disembarking, which he opens for the first time. Inside is a police document saying he does not need to be “escorted”. Another says he is being deported over a failed residency application under the Aliens Act – his latest legal attempt to stay in Sweden after a pre-Brexit residency application, made on time, was rejected. Charles’s plight started just over two weeks ago when he and his wife received a text requesting that they come to their local police station to discuss their migration case. They thought it was to discuss their five-year battle to persuade authorities they were in the country lawfully before Brexit. But he was immediately detained and told he would be deported. “It was an incredible shock. I was distraught. This is not about leaving Sweden, this is about me being forced to leave my wife and my house. They are separating me from my wife,” he said. “They said we think that if we don’t detain you, you will abscond from Sweden because you are not cooperating. “For the last nine years, all we’ve done is cooperate with them.” He said he begged authorities not to detain him, telling them he would go of his own accord but they said no. He asked if he could drive back to Britain “so at least I could take some belongings with me because I have nothing in the UK, and they said: ‘No, the decision has been made.’” Before Brexit, British citizens could live, work, study or retire in any other member state. Under EU law deportation was reserved for exceptional cases of criminality such as terrorism. After Brexit, Britons and EU citizens who had exercised those free movement rights were told their rights to remain in their host country would be guaranteed in the legally binding withdrawal agreement. The campaign group British in Europe has raised concerns about the hardline treatment in Sweden for years but this summer it became an election issue after a series of controversial cases emerged, including a removal order issued to a 78-year-old British widow, Joyce Thomas, who had been in the country for 21 years. A 74-year-old British man with dementia in full-time care was also ordered to leave after 25 years while another British man, 34, in the country since he was 10 years old, was deported in January. The cases raised questions about whether Sweden’s hardline immigration position had infected decision-making relating to Britons there before Brexit, a cohort with special protection. Charles says the experience has been humiliating, particularly as he spent a career in public service helping prisoners and unemployed people to start up businesses. “When I first moved to Sweden, I thought it was a wonderful place to live. Clean air. We were very close to the sea. Forests, nature, the people that I met when I first moved there were all generally very nice people. That did change,” he said. “Only two friends know what’s happened in the last couple of weeks. And they’re disgusted by it. One of them said, ‘I’m ashamed, I’m ashamed of what we’ve done to you’.” Jane Golding, the chair of British in Europe, says “it is another case that raises the question of whether Swedish implementation is in line with the spirit of the withdrawal agreement,” referring to the legally binding treaty that Michel Barnier, then the EU’s chief negotiator on Britain’s exit from the EU, and Boris Johnson, the then prime minister, promised would protect EU citizens in the UK and British citizens in the EU. “This British man who has sufficient means and a home and a Swedish wife in Sweden now faces homelessness in the UK where he has nothing,” she says. “This wasn’t the intention of the EU and UK negotiators of the agreement who said that citizens should broadly be able to continue their lives as before,” she adds. She points out that, unlike the UK, there is no statutory body in any member state to oversee correct implementation of the withdrawal agreement. “Monitoring and support resources for UK citizens in the EU trying to enforce their rights are not commensurate with those in the UK, where there is a dedicated independent monitoring authority. Unfunded volunteers trying to help are overwhelmed,” says Golding.

Why China is pushing back on US warnings over rapid AI development

About two years ago, education entrepreneur Boris But had what he calls a “penny-drop moment” – that, like countless others in China, his company needed to embrace AI before it was made obsolete by it. His clients, well-off parents looking to send their children to study overseas, had begun arriving in his office reeling off information and opinions gleaned not from rival firms, but from chatbots. In response, he started developing his own AI study tool, concluding: “If you can’t beat them, join them.” The pace and quality of AI development in China is second only to the United States, with the two superpowers locked in an intensifying rivalry as the stakes rise with each new model’s capabilities. Analysts generally agree that frontier, or cutting-edge, US models are still some way ahead of their Chinese counterparts. But over the last few weeks the mood music from Silicon Valley has been decidedly sombre, as insider after insider has warned of the potential catastrophes that could result from “loss of control” of the most advanced AIs. And last Saturday Anthropic chief executive Dario Amodei pitched a “worldwide pacing of the frontier” – something he said would “require cooperation with China”. “China is definitely not receptive” to a slowdown on US firms’ terms, though, said Lian Jye Su from technology research group Omdia. For the government, AI is a “core sovereignty capability”, and Beijing will not want to jeopardise the progress made in closing the gap with US frontier models. “It sees these calls [for a slowdown] as a bid to lock in US advantage,” said Su. Amodei made this explicit, mentioning China specifically when arguing it was key “to keep democracies’ AI lead over autocracies as large as possible”. He advocated for measures including continued export controls to China on advanced chips and machinery – the existence of which some argue already amounts to a forced unilateral “pacing”. China’s foreign ministry responded to Amodei’s piece by saying “fearmongering, confrontation and vicious competition will only disrupt the process of global AI governance”. However, several analysts told the Guardian it would be a mistake to assume this suggested a rejection of the broader concerns raised by the essay. This week China released the third iteration of its AI safety governance framework – a document that functions as a “mapping of the AI risk landscape and roughly what one should do about it”, said Gabriel Wagner, a researcher at Concordia, a Beijing-based AI safety consultancy. Included in the updates are the risks posed by agents, the cybersecurity threats from frontier models and the issue of recursive self-improvement – an as-yet hypothetical scenario where AI becomes advanced enough to improve itself. “In many ways, I think there is more common ground than people might assume between what Amodei is saying and what the Chinese government is saying,” said Wagner. That contrasts with US president Donald Trump, who this week called fears AI could wipe out humanity a “hoax”. Trump is set to meet counterpart Xi Jinping in Washington next week, with AI expected to make the agenda, though analysts are sceptical a major breakthrough will happen. The ruling Communist party, finely attuned to risks to its political control, has been proactive in ensuring the new technology has developed within boundaries set by the state. Centralised authority over critical infrastructure and commercial activity means China is generally better placed than the United States “to address any AI disaster”, said Omdia’s Su. However, Chinese companies do less voluntary monitoring and evaluation work than US ones, said Leia Wang from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace (CEIP). Neither government seems prepared for a loss-of-control incident like those outlined over the last few weeks, she said. China’s regulation, though, is “iterative … they are quick to adapt and release new measures”, she added. China has had an algorithm registry since 2022, but warnings on agents released this year suggest a switch in focus “from controlling what AI says to controlling what it does”, per Concordia AI. Beijing also issued national regulations this year aimed at curbing emotional dependency on companion AIs. At the same time, AI is being actively encouraged across the economy to promote growth, enshrining this goal in its latest Five Year Plan. Local governments are offering funding and low rents to companies to help achieve this – entrepreneur But was recently invited to pitch his company, Hampshire Education, to a small city three hours from Shanghai set on establishing a reputation as a tech hub. Factories across the country’s huge manufacturing base are being encouraged to convert their processes into the AI era. “Safety and controllability are certainly major concerns, and they are actively discussed,” said a representative for Black Lake Technologies, an industrial agent platform that says it has worked with 40,000 factories globally. “But in manufacturing, these concerns tend to be much more concrete and operational … what companies care most about is whether the AI is reliable.” Daily life in China is already highly digitised, with traditionally less discourse around data privacy helping with widespread adoption. For example, digital health service A-fu, which features AI chatbot versions of prominent doctors trained on real clinical studies, recently hit 150 million users. “Most people treat AI as an already-useful everyday tool, not an abstract threat, so the practical attitude is to live with it,” said Ni Tao, founding editor of tech website yangtzeer.com. “There is real anxiety about jobs and misinformation, but it coexists with a strong belief that China must master AI rather than slow down.”