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Zelenskyy says EU unblocking of €90bn loan for Ukraine is ‘the right signal’ as Hungary drops opposition – Europe live

… and so on that note, it’s a wrap for today! The European Union is in the process of formally approving a €90bn loan for Ukraine after the restart of the Druzhba pipeline and reports that Hungary has dropped its longstanding veto (15:16), finally clearing the way for the funds to be disbursed (13:14, 15:45). The formal written procedure for voting on the loan is due to be completed by Thursday afternoon, just as EU leaders are expected to meet in Cyprus (13:28). The process should be a mere formality at this stage (17:21). The Hungarian oil giant MOL reported earlier that its Ukrainian counterpart started receiving crude oil form Belarus around midday, with first deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia expected tomorrow (10:03, 10:40, 12:27). Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico warned Ukraine against any attempts to disrupt the flow of Russian oil once the money is approved (12:02). Meanwhile, Russia has confirmed plans to suspend the shipment of Kazakh oil to Germany from 1 May, citing “technical reasons” (14:38, 15:09, The EU will cut electricity taxes and provide consumers with fresh incentives to ditch fuel-burning cars and boilers, the European Commission has announced, as the energy crisis from the Iran war speeds a shift to a clean economy. British holidaymakers face new rules when taking their pet into the EU involving paperwork costing up to £200 (16:15). 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.

EU agrees to unblock €90bn loan for Ukraine after Hungary lifts veto

EU member states have reached agreement on unblocking an urgently needed €90bn (£78bn) loan for Kyiv and a new package of sanctions against Moscow after Ukraine resumed pumping Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, prompting Budapest to lift its veto. Cyprus, which holds the bloc’s rotating presidency, said member states’ ambassadors had agreed to launch “written procedures” for the final approval of the loan and the sanctions package, with formal sign-off on both due by Thursday afternoon. The EU agreed in December on the loan, vital to keep Ukraine afloat this year and next, but Hungary’s outgoing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, backed by Slovakia, vetoed it in March because of a dispute with Kyiv over a damaged oil pipeline. Orbán, who lost to a centre-right challenger, Péter Magyar, in elections on 12 April, accused Ukraine of deliberately delaying repairs to the Druzhba pipeline which carries oil to Hungary and Slovakia, both of which are heavily dependent on Russian oil. Kyiv said the pipeline, which has a capacity of 1.2m to 1.4m barrels a day and became one of the most politically-charged pieces of infrastructure in Europe, had been badly damaged by Russian drone strikes and was being repaired as fast as possible. Hungary’s MOL oil firm said early on Wednesday afternoon it had been told by Druzhba’s Ukrainian operator that crude oil was arriving via the pipeline from Belarus and was “expected in Hungary and Slovakia by tomorrow at the latest”. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, welcomed the news as “the right signal under the current circumstances”, adding that both “support for Ukraine and pressure on Russia” were needed for Moscow to end its war. Zelenskyy said Ukraine was fulfilling its obligations in its relations with the EU, including on the Druzhba pipeline, and it was now important that the European support package “becomes operational swiftly”. The row over the loan, which aims to cover two-thirds of Ukraine’s financing needs in 2026 and 2027, also delayed new sanctions against Moscow that the EU had hoped to adopt for the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of February 2022. Orbán’s heavy election defeat after 16 years in power had fuelled EU hopes that the funds would be unlocked, but officials had expressed concerns that the bloc may have had to wait until Magyar takes office in May before it could be approved. Orbán had the power to block the loan even though he – like the similarly Moscow-friendly governments of Slovakia and the Czech Republic – secured exemptions meaning none of the three countries will contribute to the joint borrowing. The EU will provide Ukraine with two interest-free loans of €45bn each in 2026 and 2027, with €28bn reserved for military spending and €17bn for general budget needs each year. The money will be borrowed on capital markets backed by the EU budget. Economists have said Ukraine could start to run low on money by June without the EU loan. The bloc’s economic commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, said on Tuesday the first disbursement was likely to be made at the end of May or in early June. Ukraine is not expected to pay the money back from its own funds, with the capital only due when Russia starts paying reparations once the war is over – potentially using the estimated €210bn of its central banks assets frozen in the EU. The scheme was designed last year as a way of making use of the frozen Russian funds to help Ukraine without actually confiscating the cash, a move that Belgium and several other EU member states had rejected as legally hazardous. According to a draft, the EU’s 20th sanctions package against Moscow includes further maritime and energy restrictions aimed at limiting Russia’s ability to export oil, as well as a financial sector crackdown and trade and industrial bans. More than 40 additional ships are to be added to the 600-strong list of vessels banned from EU ports and a comprehensive ban is to be introduced on maritime services such as insurance, brokering and technical management linked to Russian oil transport. About 120 individuals and entities including 20 Russian regional banks have been added to the sanctions list, with travel and transaction bans and asset freezes intended to complicate domestic and cross-border settlement for Russian businesses. Crypto platforms and digital assets will also be targeted, as will third-country banks that facilitate trade in restricted military goods, and about €930m of goods, specific metals, chemicals, and critical minerals, have been added to import and export bans. Separately, the German government said the German subsidiary of Russia’s state-owned oil company Rosneft had told it the flow of oil from Kazakhstan through the Druzhba pipeline to a refinery in eastern Germany would be halted from 1 May. The PCK refinery near the Polish border, one of Germany’s largest, supplies much of the Berlin region with fuel, but the government’s spokesperson in Berlin, Stefan Kornelius, said that change would “not significantly restrict refinery operations”.

Middle East crisis live: Iran says it has seized two ships in strait of Hormuz after Trump extends ceasefire

US president Donald Trump has not set a timeline for the extension of a ceasefire with Iran, a source briefed on the matter said on Wednesday. Trump unilaterally announced an extension of the two-week ceasefire with Iran on Tuesday amid frantic efforts to bring the two sides back to the negotiating table. Hours after announcing that he “expected to be bombing”, the US president said he would extend the ceasefire until Iranian negotiators submitted a proposal for peace.

How Ireland’s war-driven fuel blockades revealed the true cost of Europe’s oil addiction

A surge in demand for electric vehicles across Europe may be evidence of what George Monbiot greeted as the silver lining of the Iran war. Sales of electric cars in continental Europe rose by 51% in March. The International Energy Agency has called the disruption in the strait of Hormuz the “biggest energy crisis in history”, but it appears, on one level, to be accelerating Europe’s green revolution. Yet, even if car-owners are rushing to the EV showrooms, some European governments, facing a groundswell of anger over soaring petrol and gas prices, are at risk of sending the clean energy transition into reverse. You can’t envy leaders balancing the tension between fuel-related cost pressures, a global economy threatened with tanking and climate goals. But a panicked response could prolong the collective suffering, experts say. Ireland was rocked by fuel protests earlier this month as truckers and farmers brought the country to a standstill. Protesters in convoy, claiming to be in severe financial distress, used their vehicles to blockade ports, fuel depots and Ireland’s only refinery. Their anger at pump-price hikes though, was not directed at Donald Trump or even profiteering energy companies, but rather at fuel taxes. As the action escalated – and came perilously close to hobbling critical infrastructure such as water treatment plants – there was a palpable sense of bafflement in the rattled political class. Had they studied previous fuel-driven, grassroots, semi-leaderless, rural mobilisations elsewhere in Europe (think of France’s Gilets Jaunes or the 2024 German and Italian tractor protests), ministers might have seen this coming. It was, nevertheless, an unusually destabilising moment for Ireland. After a tense six-day stand-off, the government gave in. It cut excise duties on diesel and petrol along with offering handouts to hauliers and agricultural contractors. Most significantly, it delayed a planned increase in the carbon tax, which is levied on all polluting fuels, by six months. Hannah Daly, a professor of sustainable energy at University College Cork, told me that the carbon tax, a pillar of global and EU climate policy, had become “a lightning rod” – and not just among households unfairly penalised by it, such as renters who lack the right to replace their gas or oil-fired heating with solar panels or heat pumps. The €505m rescue package was an expensive remedy for Ireland’s failure to plan for a clean energy future. It was, in effect, a “ransom” to the fossil fuel system, as Daly put it. Subsidising demand makes fuel cheaper, perpetuating the very thing that keeps people locked in addiction to imported oil, and at the mercy of future geopolitical shocks. “[The rescue package] has artificially shielded motorists and others who are dependent on fuel, from an international fuel crisis. But it is temporary relief, at huge expense, that everybody is paying for,” said Daly. *** Lessons for Europe Similar frustration over fuel prices is now felt across much of Europe, and energy experts worry that bigger economies like Germany and Poland will opt to roll out blanket fuel subsidies rather than targeted income supports for vulnerable groups. Campaigners are dismayed at Germany’s reluctance, even in this crisis, to dampen petrol demand via autobahn speed limits, as Ajit Niranjan reported. On Wednesday, the European Commission outlined plans to bring relief from the energy shock to households, with tax cuts aimed at favouring electricity over oil and gas. Brussels also said it would set targets to electrify all road transport. “That could be done; there are huge strides in battery technology that make it a no-brainer for any new car, van or bus,” Daly said. Despite the news about EV registrations surging, 96% of the EU transport fleet runs on petrol or diesel. In Norway, by contrast, EVs account for 32% of all passenger cars. Ireland has an exceptionally high reliance on road transport but, Daly said, only one electrified heavy goods vehicle had been registered in Ireland by April of this year. One of the ironies of the latest crisis is that Europe’s climate policies and geopolitical pressures are now aligned. The EU’s green deal means even in the most fossil fuel-dependent economies, such as Ireland’s, people now have real and affordable alternatives, although too many barriers remain. “It’s too late to say I told you so,” said Daly, “but if we had gone faster we wouldn’t be facing this pain.” Spain and Denmark by contrast, made generous investments in domestic renewables earlier, and are reaping the clean energy rewards in lower and more stable electricity prices. Ireland’s fuel blockades opened a Pandora’s box of unhelpful culture-war, climate-sceptic narratives. But Daly thinks the protests may also have marked a turning point on the road to cleaner, greener energy use. There was widespread public sympathy for the protests, yet the tactics deployed demonstrated the alarming price of fossil fuel vulnerability better than any climate protest could. Nordic countries, such as Sweden, dramatically reduced their exposure to energy shocks after the 1973 oil crisis. They implemented bold solutions, from home insulation to extensive public transport, that had lasting benefits. The latest fossil fuel crisis could turn out to be Europe’s last, Daly said. “But only if the right lessons are learned.” To receive the complete version of This Is Europe in your inbox every Wednesday, please subscribe here.

‘A well-known secret’: inside Toronto’s violent tow truck wars

When Cameron moved his family to a suburb north of Toronto last year, neighbours told him it one of the safest streets in the area. The roads were lined with cream-brick houses and manicured lawns. In summer, kids played between driveways; in winter, they dug tunnels through snowbanks. But any hope of a peaceful life on Allison Ann Way was shattered when a house across the street was shot at four times in five months. The most recent attack came in early February, as Cameron was leaving for work. Moments after his children had headed out for school, gunfire tore into the neighbour’s garage and a dark SUV sped off. “Whoever was doing this was trying to send us a message, and they did,” Cameron said, peering out from his garage. “This street is now empty, like a ghost town.” Police say that the daylight shooting was the latest in a string of violent incidents linked to Toronto’s towing industry, a sector which has long been dogged by allegations of links to organised crime and aggressive turf wars. This year alone, nearly two dozen vehicles have been set ablaze in attacks on tow truck repair sites. Last June, Toronto police investigating a towing network known as “The Union” laid more than 100 charges, including drug trafficking, extortion and 52 counts of conspiracy to commit murder. In the municipality of Peel, north-west of Toronto, investigators seized more than $4m in assets, including bulletproof vests, 586 rounds of ammunition and 18 tow trucks. A recent police corruption probe, Project South, has raised allegations of collusion between officers and organised crime figures linked to towing networks and drug trafficking. Investigators allege that serving officers leaked sensitive information to hitmen, and even assisted a plot to kill a corrections officer at a maximum-security jail. The investigation also offered an explanation for the shooting on Allison Ann Way: court records show that a civilian charged in the probe, Elwyn Satanowsky, is accused of arranging shootings on the street and discharging a firearm recklessly. Lead investigators have said that Satanowsky, who had ties to the towing industry, had obtained information from police officers to facilitate crimes. Sonya Shikhman, Satanowsky’s lawyer, declined to comment when asked about the charges her client faces, or his affiliation to the towing sector. On 6 March, a judge denied Satanowsky bail. None of the charges have been tested in court. Police said the house targeted in the Allison Ann Way attack was linked to Alexander Vinogradsky, a towing boss and alleged crime boss, who was shot dead in a North Toronto shopping plaza in 2024. Vinogradsky himself had been accused of ordering targeted assassinations of rivals. The flurry of allegations have renewed scrutiny of the rules governing accident towing, which experts say make the business particularly appealing to organised crime: what begins as a race to crash scenes has evolved into a sprawling pipeline of inflated repair contracts, insurance claims and extortion, which fuels violence that stretches far beyond the roadside. In much of the greater Toronto area, accident towing still operates on a “first on scene” basis; first access can generate thousands of dollars, fuelling fierce competition as rival organisations monitor emergency calls and dispatch “chasers” to collisions. Sometimes the race to an crash scene can cause secondary crashes, and fights at collision scenes are common. Doug Murray, a veteran tow operator, said a single call can be worth upwards of $10,000 once storage, repair work and insurance claims are secured. “The more money involved, the more aggressive the competition becomes,” he said. That aggression has taken the form of arson, assault and murder allegations. Investigators also allege that unscrupulous towers have defrauded insurers by staging crashes in partnership with complicit auto-body shops. According to the insurer Aviva, the number of staged crashes in Canada rose by nearly 400% in 2025 compared with the previous year. The initial tow is often the start of a chain of fees and kickbacks. An unwitting driver, still shaken from a crash, can be directed toward repair shops, car rental agencies, injury lawyers and even physiotherapists. Each recommendation can generate a lucrative referral fee for the operator, Murray said. Ultimately, motorists absorb the costs through inflated insurance premiums. Another company owner said that criminal groups operated with coordinated radio networks and ruthless internal hierarchies, outmatching legitimate providers. “As long as ‘first on scene’ remains the system, the violence will persist,” said Murray. Efforts to curb the violence have focused on reforming how towing jobs are assigned. On Ontario’s major controlled-access highways, however, business operates differently. Under new legislation, the province contracts accredited providers dispatched through a vetted system, limiting competition at collision points. Industry experts say that although these reforms have quelled the clashes on highways, the flare-ups have condensed to urban areas, where collision towing remains less regulated. Gary Vandenheuvel, head of the Professional Towing and Recovery Association of Ontario, said the highway model demonstrates how tighter oversight can help reduce criminal infiltration. “The current system clearly isn’t working. We need to make it safer for towers and members of the public,” he said. Vandenheuvel described the majority of the city’s towers as legitimate, saying the violence was driven by a small number of “bad actors”. Yvon Dandurand, a criminologist who specializes in international organised crime, said the dynamics observed in the greater Toronto area are “far from unique”, pointing to similar patterns in Melbourne, Johannesburg and Cape Town, where towing operators have been engulfed in shooting and intimidation campaigns. In the United States, cities including Detroit, Miami and New York have seen comparable turf wars. In a 2021 case, three former New York City police officers pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from towers and using a database to lead businesses to crash victims. But in Toronto, the consequences are not evenly distributed. Police and community advocates warn that young people are being ensnared into these networks. Among those arrested in Project South were two individuals under 18, while on 24 March a 21-year-old was arrested in connection with a separate turf war after nearly 10 months on the run following a mass shooting at a pub. All 10 suspects were aged between 15 and 22. For towing gangs, the roles of enforcers and “chasers” are often filled by teenagers serving at the lowest rung of the hierarchy. Marcell Wilson, a former gang member and founder of the One by One Movement, an organisation which works directly to support young people affected by street violence, said young people are treated as expendable labour within organised crime groups – and that Project South reflected a broader “well-known secret”. In a statement to the Guardian, a spokesperson for the Toronto police service said: “It’s always a concern for police when young people become involved in criminal activity. “Organized crime groups often target young people because they are more vulnerable to manipulation, may be seeking money or belonging, and are sometimes perceived by offenders as less likely to attract the same level of scrutiny or consequences as adults.” Wilson said the links between corruption, organised crime and youth violence have long been visible. “Guns are not manufactured in the projects,” he said. “Follow the chain – how does it get there?”

Gaza’s yellow line creeps forward as Israeli forces expand zone of control

Israeli forces have been moving an agreed truce line in Gaza westwards over the six months since the ceasefire, expanding their zone of control and making the state of limbo ever more dangerous for Palestinians. The “yellow line” agreed in the US-brokered ceasefire in October was supposed to be temporary pending further Israeli withdrawals, but the partially observed truce has stalled after its first phase amid disagreements over the disarming of Hamas, and continued Israeli bombardment of Gaza. Since then, the yellow line has crept forward in several places, expanding the army-controlled area well beyond the 53% of Gaza territory implied in the original ceasefire maps. According to the research agency Forensic Architecture, by December Israel had taken 58% of the strip and continued to edge forwards. The line is marked in some places by yellow concrete blocks, many of which were moved in December and January as the army took more territory, particularly in urban areas. All over Gaza, residents awoke to find the line had moved overnight and they were suddenly in a free-fire zone. “The yellow line has advanced several times,” said Faiq al-Sakani, 37, in al-Tuffah. He said the line moved 100 metres in January, reaching al-Sanafour roundabout near the Salah al-Din road, the main route running north-south through the strip. “During these advances, displaced people who had been staying near Salah al-Din Street were targeted,” he said. In recent days, he added, there had been a significant uptick in demolitions, excavations and new buildings by the army, along with constant heavy gunfire in the area. The army has also extended a chain of earth berms – raised areas of land – along the line, dominating neighbourhoods and giving tank gunners and snipers a line of sight over large tracts of ruined Palestinian cities. More than 10 miles of berms have been erected already, according to Haaretz, mostly in the north, but bulldozers have started putting up new earthworks in Gaza City and Khan Younis. Adding to the growing sense of permanence around the yellow line, the military has been building an expanding array of fortified outposts. Seven new concrete forts have been built in recent months, bringing the total across the strip to 32. All of the new construction has been along the yellow line. As these physical markers have moved westwards, so too has an unmarked zone in which any Palestinian person or vehicle is considered a threat and a legitimate target. Aid organisations working in Gaza said they were told by Israeli liaison officers that the edge of this zone was the “orange line” and they had to coordinate their operations with the military if they crossed it. But the orange line existed only on maps. It was never marked and its distance from the yellow line appears to vary from 200 to 500 metres, according to the Israeli army unit deployed there. When the yellow line moves, many Palestinians find that rather than them crossing the orange line, the orange line has crossed them. The UN reported in March that it had been informed that the orange line had moved forward and 10 UN facilities were now on the wrong side of it, including emergency shelters for displaced people. Ahmad Ibsais, a Palestinian-American legal scholar and commentator, argued that the real motive lurking behind the yellow line and all associated security arrangements was to drive out the Palestinian population. Writing on the website of Al-Shabaka, a thinktank, Ibsais described it as “a method of annexation deliberately designed to evade legal consequences”. The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have defended their actions along the yellow line by arguing that their soldiers have the right to protect themselves from perceived imminent threats in a tense environment. “The IDF is working to visually mark the yellow line, in accordance with terrain conditions and the continuously updated operational assessment,” an Israeli military spokesperson said. “As part of these efforts, the IDF informs the local population in Gaza of the line’s location and works to mark it on the ground in order to reduce friction and prevent misunderstandings. “The area adjacent to the yellow line is a sensitive and dangerous operational environment. Signs are posted in the area indicating that it is forbidden to approach it. It should be emphasised that the IDF does not operate against civilians and does not target civilians solely due to their proximity to the line.” The claim that civilians have been killed when they were perceived as a threat to Israeli positions along the line has been rejected as a legal defence by the UN human rights commissioner, Volker Türk, who said this month: “Targeting civilians not taking direct part in hostilities is a war crime, regardless of their proximity to deployment lines.” Of the more than 700 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire over the six months of the ceasefire, 269 were shot near the yellow line, according to UN data. Of these, more than 100 were children. Duaa Taima, 29, who lives in an abandoned UN clinic in Jabaliya refugee camp 200 metres from the yellow line, said: “We live under continuous threat even after the ceasefire. There is continual random gunfire from the Israeli army and I hide with my children behind the cracked walls, searching for any kind of protection.” When the ceasefire was initially declared, the demarcation line near Jabaliya and the neighbouring town of Beit Lahiya seemed distant, but Taima said in December it was much closer. “That day was extremely difficult,” she said. “A large truck carrying the yellow concrete blocks arrived, accompanied by a crane to lift them, while Israeli military vehicles advanced, and heavy and direct gunfire began towards us.” More recently, three connected berms have been erected along the yellow line by Beit Lahiya, forming a high barrier visible from miles around. All along the yellow line, residents reported being afraid to leave their homes, under the constant watch of surveillance drones and the unpredictability of the Israeli security zone. Rafiq Mustafa, 60, had thought his family home in Beit Lahiya was a safe distance from the yellow line until the yellow concrete markers appeared 200 metres away. “We would know the blocks were being moved by the sound of tank and bulldozer engines, accompanied by heavy and random gunfire,” Mustafa said. “We stayed inside the house, unable even to go up to the roof.” He said: “Approaching the yellow line has become extremely dangerous. Anyone who gets near it, or even looks in its direction, is pursued by quadcopter drones, shot at, or arrested and interrogated by [Israeli-backed] militia groups. “We only go out if it’s absolutely necessity now, and when we do, we go with extreme caution. We are afraid for ourselves and for our children. They no longer play in the streets.”

World food systems ‘pushed to the brink’ by extreme heat, UN warns

Extreme heat is threatening the world’s food systems, with farmers unable to work outside, livestock experiencing stress and crop yields falling, putting the livelihoods of more than a billion people in peril, the UN has warned. Experts said food supply in some areas was being “pushed to the brink” by increasingly common and severe heatwaves, on land and at sea, in a major report written jointly by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO). Farmers could find it impossible to work safely for as many as 250 days of the year – more than two-thirds of the time – in already hot regions including much of India and south Asia, tropical sub-Saharan Africa and swathes of Central and South America. Livestock are already experiencing an increase in mortality rates, as heat stress begins for common species at about 25C. Extreme heat reduces yields from dairy cows and cuts the fat and protein content of milk. Pigs and chickens are unable to sweat and, as temperatures rise, face digestive tract breakdowns, organ failure and cardiovascular shock. Yields begin to decline at temperatures above 30C for most agricultural crops, with damage including weakened cell walls and the production of toxins. The yields of maize in some areas have declined by about 10%. Wheat has fallen by nearly as much, and is projected to decline further as temperatures rise to more than 1.5C above preindustrial levels. Ocean heatwaves are also killing fish, as heat reduces the level of dissolved oxygen in the water, leading to mass decline in populations. Much more could be done to warn farmers, as heatwaves are often predictable, according to the report published on Wednesday. Weather forecasts and mobile phone communications could be used to alert farmers when extreme weather is expected. Richard Waite, the director of agriculture initiatives at the World Resources Institute thinktank, who was not involved in the report, said it was crucial to start adapting to rising temperatures now, by giving farmers the tools, knowhow and early warnings to help them anticipate and protect against extreme weather. “Without adaptation, extreme heat will cut crop and livestock yields, forcing more land into agriculture to maintain food production. That would drive even higher emissions from land use change, which in turn would make climate impacts on agriculture even worse,” he said. “What’s needed is the opposite: scaling solutions that help farmers maintain and sustainably increase productivity, even in a changing climate, so we can break that vicious cycle rather than reinforce it.” Morgan Ody, a small-scale farmer and the general coordinator of La Via Campesina, a global organisation of food and land workers and small farmers, said the lives of working people were increasingly at risk. “Farmers, agricultural workers and small-scale fisherfolk – especially women and elderly people among them – whose livelihoods depend on daily work in fields, rivers and oceans, are highly vulnerable to extreme heat, which also threatens their health and lives. These extreme weather events are driven in large part by industrial monocultures and livestock systems that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases,” she said. Ody called for compensation for such workers for the losses they experience from extreme weather, debt relief and public investment in adaptive measures, as well as rules on worker safety that would limit how long workers in fields and on boats could be exposed to high temperatures and force employers to provide shade, rest and water. In the longer term, she called for the replacement of intensive farming with more nature-friendly methods. Modern industrialised food systems rely on a narrow range of staple crops, and highly specialised systems that are dependent on inputs such as fertiliser. That makes them highly vulnerable and less able to cope with shocks, such as extreme heat, according to Molly Anderson, professor of food studies at Middlebury College in Vermont and expert with the IPES-Food thinktank, who was not involved with the report. Anderson called for the development of a more diverse food system, better equipped to withstand shocks, and a reversal of trends in intensive agriculture that have robbed farms of trees, shade and mixtures of crops and livestock. She said: “The risk of simultaneous crop failures from extreme heat could ripple through food prices, supply chains and economies. Adaptation has limits – the only durable response is to tackle fossil fuels, accelerate the shift to renewable energy, and invest massively in adaptation.” Tim Lang, emeritus professor of food policy at the University of London, said though the worst effects would be felt in already hot countries, temperate regions and developed countries could not ignore the impacts. “The acceleration of climate uncertainties poses dire challenges for food growers worldwide,” he said. “The British Isles are not immune to the effects. Places we’ve got food from will dry up. Land use here will be changed. Water dependencies are exposed. Crops that started off well will fail to thrive. Productivity will be disrupted. Regular patterns of growing and consuming will be forced to change. Anyone who thinks climate change won’t affect us should think again.”

Gibraltar’s monkeys eat mud ‘to avoid upset stomachs from tourist junk food’

Troops of monkeys living on the Rock of Gibraltar have learned to eat soil in what scientists believe is an effort to settle their stomachs after all the junk food they receive – and sometimes steal – from crowds of tourists. Researchers spotted the intentional mud eating, known as geophagy, while observing groups of Barbary macaques in the territory. Monkeys that had the most contact with tourists ate the most soil and consumption peaked in the holiday season, they found. About 230 macaques live on Gibraltar in eight distinct groups, and while local authorities provide them with daily helpings of fruit, vegetables and seeds, tourists routinely feed them snacks ranging from bags of chips and chocolate bars to M&M’s and ice-creams. The observations don’t prove why the monkeys eat soil, but scientists suspect it has a protective effect on the digestive system. The only macaques on the rock that were not seen eating soil belonged to a group that is isolated from visitors and tourists. Dr Sylvain Lemoine, a primate behavioural ecologist at the University of Cambridge, said the monkeys may be eating the soil to rebalance their gut microbiomes, the populations of microbes that live in the digestive tract, which become disturbed by the fatty, salty and sugary snacks the monkeys binge on. “We think that eating this junk food disrupts the composition of the microbiome and we know that bacteria and minerals in soil can help recompose the microbiome and alleviate the negative effects,” Lemoine said. “We think there’s a protective effect of the soil.” Observations between summer 2022 and spring 2024 found that nearly a fifth of all food consumed by the macaques was junk food from tourists. Macaques that lived around the top of the rock, which is particularly popular with tourists, were more than twice as likely to eat junk food than others. They also consumed the most soil. Lemoine said the monkeys were fed junk food by locals as well as visiting tourists, who have offered salted peanuts, chocolate bars, crisps, dried pasta, bread, Coca-Cola, orange juice, M&M’s, ice-cream and more. “There’s a lot of ice-cream. They love Magnums and Cornettos. What they don’t like very much is sorbet.” In total, the researchers recorded 44 monkeys eating dirt on 46 occasions. In three instances, the macaques ate soil shortly after being fed ice-cream, biscuits or bread. When visitor numbers fell in the winter, the monkeys were 40% less likely to eat tourist food and more than 30% less likely to eat soil. Writing in Scientific Reports, the researchers describe how the monkeys appear to learn the habit from others, with macaques favouring different types of soil depending on their troop. Most monkeys search out the terra rossa, or red clay, found across Gibraltar, but the Ape’s Den troop, which occupies the lower western slopes, favours tar-clogged soil from potholes in asphalt roads. Humans around the world eat soil, particularly pregnant women in parts of Africa, Asia and South America, where it is consumed to help with nausea or to provide critical minerals. But the researchers saw no rise in soil-eating among pregnant or lactating monkeys, suggesting the behaviour is not driven by a need to supplement their diets. Instead, Lemoine said the macaques seemed to eat the soil to “buffer their digestive system” against high-energy, low-fibre snacks and junk foods that are known to cause stomach upsets in some primates. Tourists are told not to touch or feed the monkeys on Gibraltar, but the rule is not well enforced. While the junk food may be harmful to the macaques, so might the soil, as much of it is found close to busy roads on the rock. “There are a lot of vehicles passing every day, and most are not electric yet,” Lemoine said. “We want to analyse the soil. We’re very interested in seeing the levels of pollutants.” Dr Paula Pebsworth, a primatologist at the University of Texas at San Antonio, said geophagy served multiple purposes linked to detoxification and mineral supplementation. In her own work on chacma baboons in South Africa, monkeys consumed substantial amounts of soil, likely in response to plant toxins. “The idea that soil consumption may help monkeys cope with tourist provisioning is also plausible and has been documented at [Japan’s] Arashiyama Monkey Park. However, while geophagy may serve as a coping mechanism, a more effective management approach is to reduce or eliminate the provisioning of human foods,” she said.