Read the daily news to learn English

Belgian firefighters push to encircle ‘largest wildfire in a century’ – Europe live

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. Firefighters were locked in a potentially decisive push Tuesday to encircle Belgium’s largest wildfire in a century, despite rainclouds hampering air support operations over the High Fens nature reserve (16:27, 16:39, 17:01). But their air operations had to be suspended due to worsening weather conditions and fog, local media reported (17:29). In other news, 10 people were killed in overnight Russian strikes on Ukraine, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Kyiv will “definitely respond” with its own strikes (9:38, 10:02, 10:43, 13:01). Overnight, Ukraine launched over 600 drones at Moscow and surrounding areas (9:38). Separately, Moscow has threatened the UK with “consequences” after reports that British drones have been used to strike targets on Russia’s mainland for the first time (9:43, 15:00, 15:42), prompting UK prime minister Andy Burnham to pledge his policy on supporting Ukraine will not change (13:25). Belgium’s foreign minister Maxime Prévot was rushed to a bomb shelter in Kyiv after an air alert in the Ukrainian capital, and held his talks with his Ukrainian counterpart there (15:13). Germany opened a new centre for drone security warning about “the shadow war of the 21st century” (11:15). Separately, Several earthquakes, three of which were of magnitude 4.0 or higher, were reported in Granada, Spain, leaving three people injured and causing local damage to buildings (11:07, 11:48, 12:08, 13:51). The tremors come after the city was hit with a 5.0 earthquake on Saturday, prompting further concerns from local residents. 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.

Lesley Urbach obituary

My friend Lesley Urbach, who has died suddenly aged 69, was passionate about human rights, and about education against racism and prejudice. In 2016 she helped to set up Generation 2 Generation, a pioneering Holocaust charity established to empower second and third generation Holocaust survivor descendants to present and preserve their family histories. As co-founder, associate director and trustee of G2G she shaped the organisation, not only mentoring speakers but delivering powerful presentations to schools and community groups, reaching tens of thousands of young people in the years since its inception. Lesley’s character and beliefs were shaped by the trauma experienced by her parents’ families. Born in Willesden, north-west London, she was one of four children born to Eva (nee Wohl) and Arnold Urbach, who had arrived separately in Britain in 1938 and 1939 respectively. Eva and her younger sister escaped Nazi Germany via the Kindertransport. Eva got a job in an east London factory making military uniforms, and on her first day she met and subsequently married Arnold, a fellow Jewish refugee from Germany, who served in the British army and later worked as an interpreter during war crimes trials. Though Eva’s parents had attempted to flee to South America, they were murdered in Auschwitz along with more than one million others. They had sent their possessions on ahead in three trunks, which were eventually redirected back to the Urbachs when the war was over in 1947. Lesley and her elder brother Peter donated one of the trunks to the Imperial War Museum, where it is now part of the Holocaust Exhibition. Lesley went to the Jewish Free school (now JFS) in north London, and studied history at University College London. She and I met in 1979, not long after graduation, at the University of London Library at Senate House, where we were both working as library assistants. We bonded over a Doris Lessing novel I was reading at the time and soon became friends. She was funny, warm and gregarious, and culturally voracious. She loved the theatre, and very much enjoyed music, especially jazz. Lesley worked as an adviser for the National Careers Service for 25 years, first in Bristol and then in London, and after early retirement in about 2012 studied for an MA in Jewish history and culture at Southampton University. In 2015 she co-founded the Remembering Eleanor Rathbone Group, to promote awareness of Rathbone’s work as a campaigner for the rights of women and refugees. Through the JUMP programme, a befriending project for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people managed by the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (now HIAS+JCORE), she befriended a young woman who came to Britain as a domestic slave, and between 2015 and 2020 she helped support Syrian refugees in Barnet. She was an active member of both the Beit Klal Yisrael community and the Finchley Progressive Synagogue, and worked for it to gain Synagogue of Sanctuary status earlier this year, of which she was extremely proud. A generous and inspiring godmother to many of her friends’ children, Lesley was colourful, exacting and charismatic, and a loyal, supportive friend. Her family’s story as well as many other accounts by survivors can be found on Generation 2 Generation’s website. She is survived by Peter.

Mechanical fault suspected in helicopter crash that killed British newlyweds in Greece

Greek police believe a mechanical fault may have caused a helicopter to crash moments before it was due to land on the island of Sifnos, killing a British couple on honeymoon and the pilot. Authorities were focusing on Tuesday on the “strange noise” the aircraft, a privately chartered Bell 206, is reported to have made before falling to the ground and exploding on impact. “We can confirm that two passengers, Marie Ebert and Alexander Cromie, died in the incident on Monday evening,” a police officer said. London-based Ebert and Cromie, aged 30 and 31 respectively, had selected Sifnos to spend their honeymoon after recently marrying. Officials in Syros, the Aegean’s administrative centre, identified the pilot as Giorgos Raikos, 53, saying he was a former air force officer and “extremely experienced”. One well-placed source said: “The focus of the inquiry is now on the helicopter and possible engine failure. What has happened is nothing short of a tragedy.” The deputy mayor of Sifnos, Manolis Fountolakis, told Greek TV: “People in the area have testified hearing the helicopter making a noise, a strange noise, probably a mechanical fault in the air and because the propeller was doing something strange.” CCTV footage is also being studied of the aircraft spiralling out of control as it approached the island’s helipad near the village of Exambela. A spokesperson for the asset management company Blackstone, where Cromie worked as a vice-president in private wealth solutions, said in a statement issued to the Press Association: “We are shocked by the tragic passing of three people including our colleague Alex Cromie and his wife, Marie Ebert, who were celebrating their honeymoon. “Alex was beloved by everyone who knew and worked with him at Blackstone, and our thoughts and prayers are with his loved ones.” According to his LinkedIn profile, Cromie had worked at Blackstone for four years, first as an associate in private wealth solutions before being made a vice-president last January. A spokesperson for the management consultants Bain & Company, where, according to her LinkedIn page, Ebert was a senior specialist, said: “We are shocked to read reports of a tragic accident in Greece regarding one of our colleagues and her husband. “Our thoughts and support are with the families involved at this very difficult time.” Further tests were expected to be conducted on all three bodies to determine the precise cause of death. The Greek transport ministry said the inquiry into the crash was being headed by the National Organisation for the Investigation of Air and Railway Accidents and Transport Safety. By Tuesday afternoon, Greece’s civil aviation authority had reportedly recalled all Bell 206 helicopters until further notice. Greece’s public broadcaster, ERT, quoted Antonis Zambelis, a local resident, as saying: “The helicopter crashed about 50 metres away from houses with people inside and about 50 metres from the landing spot next to the Panayia tis Vrysis monastery.” Thick plumes of smoke engulfed the crash site after the helicopter ignited in a fireball. Rescue workers who scrambled to douse the flames subsequently discovered the remains of all three victims. Greece’s ministry of infrastructure and transport was coordinating the inquiry on Tuesday as senior law enforcement officials converged on Sifnos. The island’s mayor, Maria Nadali, said: “We are shocked and are trying to manage, together with the right services, the consequences of this incident next to the helipad.” Hiring private helicopters has become ever more popular in Greece, with tourists increasingly chartering them to hop between islands in the Ionian and Aegean seas. Once considered remote, Sifnos is about 120 miles (195km) south-east of Athens and takes several hours to reach by ferry.

What is behind Russia’s ‘consequences’ threat over UK sending drones to Ukraine?

Russia’s embassy in London has accused the UK of “deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis, while hypocritically professing a desire for peace” after it emerged over the weekend that Britain was supplying attack drones to Kyiv. What has the UK done – and what was Russia’s response? Ministry of Defence sources indicated that a report in the Sunday Times, that two drones made by British companies had been used by Ukraine’s military to attack targets inside Russia, was true, although only one, Nyan, made by BAE Systems, was named. The Russian embassy, seeking to maximise the impact of its remarks, added in a widely reported statement on Telegram: “London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer”. Is the UK’s drone supply actually an escalation? Britain has been supplying weapons and providing financial support to Ukraine since before Russia’s full-scale invasion. It has committed to providing £3bn a year in military aid until the end of the decade and to joining the EU’s €90bn loan scheme, which bankrolls Kyiv’s military effort, though many of the details of UK support are kept secret. The £100,000 Nyan drone is a medium-sized, jet-powered delta wing drone capable of delivering relatively small attacks at distances greater than 150 miles. However, while it looks hi-tech, it is not a munition that appears to be militarily significant. Britain has in the past supplied £1m-plus Storm Shadow missiles with a similar operating range that were used by Ukraine to launch attacks into Russia, but stocks have run short. Meanwhile, Ukraine has developed and manufactures its own Flamingo cruise missiles and longer range drones that it uses to attack Russia daily. So, why is Russia talking this up? It is as good an opportunity as any for the Kremlin to make a political point. Western financial support is critical for Ukraine’s war effort and anything that might undermine public confidence in countries such as the UK is, from Moscow’s perspective, worth making, particularly in the summer when there is less domestic political news to crowd out the embassy’s remarks. Russia is also hurting economically from Ukraine’s sustained deep strike campaign that has targeted oil refineries and, more recently, ecommerce distribution warehouses on the outskirts of Moscow. Attacks are taking place on a near daily basis. It is the first time in the war that Ukraine has been able to hit targets in and around Moscow, more than 300 miles from its border, deploying a long-range capability that western leaders had refused to supply until Kyiv developed it for itself. It might be political, but are there signs of a wider escalation by Russia? Russia has been engaged in hostile behaviour towards the UK for years, including conducting two poisoning operations on British soil of defectors: Alexander Litvinenko in London in 2006, and Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury in 2018. Russian hackers routinely target the UK, and regularly mount online disinformation campaigns. However, as the war in Ukraine remains almost deadlocked, and as Kyiv strikes closer and closer to home, Russia has become more reckless across Europe. It has conducted arson attacks using incendiary devices hidden in DHL parcels, including in the UK; flown 20 drones into Poland, and conducted an aerial harassment campaign across the continent. Moscow was almost certainly behind an attempt to attack Ukrainian cargo planes at Leipzig airport in Germany earlier this month with a small quadcopter drone armed with plastic explosive. It appears willing to spread the Ukraine war into Europe, including the UK. What else could an under-pressure Russia do to Britain? John Foreman, a former UK defence attache to Moscow, said he thought Russia was likely to engage in “more of the same” given its track record of hostility to the UK. “Russia is ‘relentlessly targeting’ the UK’s critical infrastructure, democratic processes, supply chains and public trust. It has run sporadic campaigns of arson, sabotage, assassination and disinformation,” he said. “We know Russia is an aggressive, antagonistic and revisionist state. It has the intent to continue to target us unconventionally and will continue to do so.” An obvious concern is whether Russia’s brinkmanship spirals out of control; it will be for the UK and Nato to ensure that does not happen.

Philippine school shooter kills fellow student and himself in livestreamed attack

A student livestreamed himself shooting and killing another pupil in a classroom in the southern Philippines before taking his own ⁠life, the second school attack in the country in less than two months. The shooting took ⁠place at a school attached to Ateneo de Zamboanga University in the southern city of ⁠Zamboanga, a Catholic private institution in western Mindanao. Zamboanga city’s mayor, Khymer Adan Olaso, told the DZMM radio station that the ‌shooter “managed to enter carrying a high-powered firearm and a .45-calibre pistol”. The interior secretary, Victor Remulla, confirmed the ninth-grade suspect had livestreamed the attack on social media. The shooter’s Facebook account has since been disabled. In the video, which was circulated by local media, the barrel of a gun is seen moving down a hallway before it is pointed into a classroom and fired. Children in school uniforms are seen screaming and rushing for an exit. National police are now trying to “establish the motive behind the shooting, determine the ownership and source of the firearm used, and find out how it was brought inside the school campus”, the interior ministry said. Hours later, the Philippines’ customs department said it had ordered the “preventive suspension” of an agent who owned the guns “allegedly used by the student involved”. The customs deputy chief of staff, Noel Bendijo, told AFP that customs staff had acted on intelligence from their own officers in Zamboanga. “The information is that he was the father of [the alleged shooter] … As for the actual firearms used and how the kid was able to access them, all of those are still under investigation,” he said. “We’ve also spoken with the party involved. He understands but of course he’s also grieving because he also lost his child. That’s a nightmare for any parent.” Police when asked about the customs report said only that they were still investigating. The Philippine president, Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, said in an online post: “We grieve with the families and the entire [school] community over a tragedy that should never have happened. I have directed our law enforcement agencies to conduct a thorough investigation into this incident and to determine what more must be done to prevent another family, another school and another community from suffering the same grief.” In June at a public high school in Tacloban City, three students were killed and about 20 injured after two students opened fire on campus. In response, the government banned an online game, Gorebox, after it was discovered that at least one of the alleged shooters regularly played it, and reopened a senate inquiry on child safety in digital spaces. The department of education told a separate senate committee last month that more support was needed to prevent a “copycat phenomenon”, as more incidents of violence followed the shooting, including bomb threats, stabbing and the recovery of firearms and ammunition, local media reported. South-east Asia is grappling with violence among secondary school students, with a 14-year-old boy in Thailand allegedly shooting his grandparents and then killing more people at his school earlier this month before turning the gun on ⁠himself. Nine people died, including the shooter, teachers and a 12-year-old girl, and more than 30 were wounded. With Agence France-Presse

Moscow threat of ‘consequences’ will not alter UK support for Ukraine, says Burnham

Andy Burnham says the UK will continue to “support Ukraine 100%” after Russia threatened consequences after strikes by British-made drones. The Russian embassy to the UK said on Monday that Britain had been deliberately escalating the Ukraine conflict and the deeper its involvement, “the higher the price it will pay”. Burnham, asked during a visit to Wolverhampton on Tuesday for his response to Moscow’s threat, said: “This is the UK doing what it has long said it would do, which is to support Ukraine 100% against this illegal war led by Vladimir Putin. “We are providing support so that Ukraine can defend itself, and that’s been the British position all the way through this conflict by previous prime ministers. It remains the case with me. We are not fair-weather friends. We will be there in Ukraine’s hour of need, and that won’t change.” The use of the drones made by UK companies is part of Ukraine’s “deep strike” campaign. However, it is not the first time Ukraine has deployed British-made equipment in Russia, having long used Storm Shadow missiles. Kyiv has stepped up its attacks this year, with long-range missiles and swarms of drones increasingly targeting Russia’s military industries and energy facilities. It has also hit large depots of Russia’s largest online retailer, Wildberries, burning merchandise worth billions of pounds and bringing the war home to the Russian public more than four years into Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russia’s embassy to the UK said on Monday that the reports confirmed that “London is deliberately opting for an escalation of the Ukraine crisis”, accusing Britain of “seeking to contain Russia and inflict maximum damage on it by proxy”. “London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer,” it said. “The deeper its involvement in the conflict and the greater its support for Kyiv’s terrorist machinery, the higher the price it will pay.” A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: “Britain stands shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine and we are committed to providing the equipment Ukraine needs to defend itself against Putin’s illegal invasion. Russia should be in no doubt about the resolve of this government to stand against Russian aggression, in Ukraine and against the UK and our allies.” Ukraine’s strategy of long-range drone strikes is thought to be intended to cut Moscow’s revenue for the war and to make Russian civilians feel the impact of the invasion. Kyiv launched three times as many such strikes in July as it did in January, according to data from Acled, an independent conflict monitor. Repeatedly hitting deep into Russia has forced Moscow to stretch its air defences over a larger area. Russia’s defence ministry said on Saturday it had shot down 598 Ukrainian drones over 19 Russian regions as well as the Black Sea, the Azov Sea and the annexed Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Officials said on Monday that Ukrainian long-range attacks on Russia killed seven people overnight, while five civilians died in Ukraine after strikes by Moscow’s forces. Russian missile attacks on Tuesday killed ⁠10 ⁠people and injured eight ⁠in a village in ⁠Ukraine’s north-eastern Kharkiv ‌oblast, the ‌regional governor ‌said. The strike on the village of Pechenihy ‌damaged 10 private buildings, a cafe, a post office, a ⁠shop and at least seven cars, Oleh Syniehubov said ‌on Telegram. A rapid development of largely homegrown technologies, including the Flamingo cruise missile and the FP-1 long-range fixed-wing drone from Fire Point, have allowed Ukraine to bomb warehouses, oil refineries, ports and military facilities up to 1,500 miles (2,400km) from its border. Ukraine can now almost match the deep-strike capability Russia has had since the beginning of the war using large drones and cruise missiles, though it does not possess the high-speed ballistic missiles Moscow frequently uses. At the same time, both sides’ air defences are stretched to the point of near exhaustion, leading to an increase in civilian casualties and worries that the impact of the conflict beyond the immediate frontlines will only increase into the winter.

‘Our task is to laugh at these enemies’: the Ukrainian unit posting drone videos of Russian soldiers’ last moments

To many observers they will appear dehumanising and offensive. To many Ukrainians, however, they are a brutal reminder of the fate that awaits Russian soldiers who take part in Vladimir Putin’s invasion, as well as a potent propaganda weapon. Over the past year and a half, videos of kamikaze drones chasing Russian service personnel to their deaths have become a distinctive genre on social media. They are the brainchild of Robert Brovdi, the head of Ukraine’s unmanned systems forces and founder of “Magyar’s Birds”, named after his call sign. Brovdi’s 414th aviation strike brigade has pioneered the use of battlefield video, much of it recorded by first-person-view drones. The death videos are known as yoblyks, a portmanteau that combines the root of the Ukrainian for “fuck” with an affectionate diminutive form. The closest English translation is probably “fuckling”. Early each morning, a military editor known by his call sign Catman sifts through battlefield clips recorded the previous day, selecting some for a two-minute compilation and adding pulsing or mystical music. A longer online reel is titled “Yoblyks of the Week”. Defending his work, Catman said the videos played an important role in demoralising ordinary Russians and revealing the true cost of the Kremlin’s unprovoked war. “My goal is to show Russians that if they mobilise in Ukraine they will be killed, that it’s a one-way ticket and death is waiting for them,” he said. He acknowledged that the clips were deliberately arranged to mock the victims, who are sometimes seen throwing sticks at the drones to try to knock them off course, or falling over as they run. Though the moment of death is not shown, the last frame is a closeup of a soldier’s face. “We have a phrase: laughter kills fear. Our main task is to laugh at these enemies and to depict them as helpless. This boosts the morale of our forces,” he said. “It’s impossible for me to feel sorry for them. It’s war, after all, not a movie.” Typically, the Russian soldiers are killed while walking or travelling by motorbike to the frontline. Some are unaware they are at risk from drones, Catman said, and appear to have been tricked by their commanders. “Their training is short. A lot die just two weeks after enlisting,” he said. He described most of the soldiers as “banal donkey men” ordered to carry provisions or fuel to exposed Russian positions. Others drag communication cables. Since February, when Elon Musk shut down his satellite internet service Starlink in Russia, officers in the rear have struggled to contact frontline units. Another member of Magyar’s Birds said there was compelling evidence the Russians were routinely misled about dangers. “You can see from the videos a lot of them are not even hiding,” he said. “They use their radio sets. A large number are fooled by the lie that everything will be OK, that they are going to their positions and are totally safe.” The brigade has an archive of about 3,600 videos. Only two feature women, both wearing combat uniform and carrying assault rifles. “There is no difference for me. They are all enemies,” Catman said. The videos play an important part in verifying Russian losses, which are running at more than 30,000 soldiers a month killed or injured, according to Kyiv. Brovdi said he had no qualms about publishing material that many in the west might find distasteful and morally dubious. “God forbid they should ever experience pain. Because those of us in Ukraine who have experienced real physical pain from war would never agree with that perspective,” he said. In daily posts, Brovdi uses language that some might find gratuitous, for instance describing Russians as “worms” pecked by “birds”. He said: “When the war started, everything changed. There was a desire to humiliate the enemy as much as possible, not with typical words but exotic ones. It was only natural that military technical folklore and coinages such as ‘yoblyk’ found their way into my speech. They existed before AI.” The videos have sparked several trolling subgenres. Some Russian women post photos of themselves saying farewell to their husbands as they leave to take part in what Putin calls a “special military operation”. Ukrainians identify the men and subsequently reply with drone footage showing their deaths. According to Catman, the yoblyks have a wide audience, including inside Russia. “There is very little information there about soldiers who go missing. Some people search and take screenshots. Mothers or wives then post messages saying something bad has happened to their loved ones,” he said. Pro-war Russian bloggers post images on Telegram channels of Ukrainian soldiers dying in battle. Other videos show the killing of unarmed Ukrainian prisoners of war – a crime. The Russian internet includes AI-generated fakes that purport to show Ukrainian military personnel criticising their army leadership. Anatolii Loza, a Ukrainian volunteer who was captured and imprisoned by Russia and recently swapped, said he saw nothing wrong with yoblyks. “International law doesn’t apply to killing combatants on the field of battle,” he said. “The Russians come to shoot our soldiers and civilians. They are wearing uniform. They deserve their fate.” Loza’s wife, Olena, said attitudes inside Ukraine hardened after spring 2022, when Russian forces killed hundreds of civilians in the cities of Bucha and Mariupol, leaving their bodies on the streets. Of yoblyks, she said: “I don’t find these videos informative. I’m already furious with Russia.” At the HQ of Magyar’s Birds, Catman said black humour was essential during wartime. “It’s important for our own people to say we are not just surviving. We need to show we are flourishing and hitting back hard against the enemy.” Betrayal: Trump, Putin and the New Age of Conquest, by Luke Harding, is published on 27 August by Guardian Faber. To support the Guardian, order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.

‘Migration has been weaponised’: Italy’s security law criticised after death of Moroccan man in police restraint

If, before 19 July, few people in Italy beyond his family and friends knew who Abderrahim Fakir was, by the late afternoon of that day the final moments of his life were being watched across the country. Video footage widely shared online showed him being handcuffed and forcibly restrained by police on a street in Pilastro, a neighbourhood in the north-east of Bologna. Fakir, a 42-year-old small business owner born in Morocco but who had lived in Italy since he was a child, was pinned to the ground by two police officers as emergency health workers looked on. He repeatedly begged for help before his body stopped moving. Fakir was pronounced dead at the scene. The cause of death is still being established, although an initial postmortem indicated lung compression. Outrage over Fakir’s death spilled well beyond Pilastro, prompting protests in Bologna and Rome and fuelling a tense national debate over the far-right government’s approach to policing and immigration. It also put a wide-ranging security bill enacted by Giorgia Meloni’s ruling coalition under renewed scrutiny. Fakir’s is the first case in which a new legal shield giving public officials greater protection from prosecution if it can be demonstrated they acted in self-defence or within the line of duty, has been invoked. As a result, although prosecutors in Bologna are investigating the two officers and four healthcare workers in connection to an inquiry into involuntary manslaughter, they will not be formally registered as criminal suspects unless authorities determine the use of restraint was unjustified. The legal team for the two officers – who returned to work on Monday – strongly deny excessive force was used, maintaining they fully complied with official protocol. Lawyers for the healthcare workers, meanwhile, said they acted in strict accordance with emergency medical guidelines. Critics of the legal shield have condemned the measure as giving too much power to the police, making it harder to hold them accountable. Fabio Anselmo, the Fakir family lawyer, claimed it potentially risked “sabotaging” the investigation. “In this case, this is a rule that could effectively create impunity,” he said. In Pilastro, a working-class neighbourhood with a population of about 7,000, of whom 25% are immigrants, family and friends of Fakir are also worried that politics will tamper with justice. A banner tied to railings on the corner of Via Italo Svevo, the street where he died, reads: “Truth and justice for Fakir – the state kills.” Similar messages are scrawled on bus stops. Fakir lived in another area of Bologna but often returned to Pilastro to see his brother, Mohamed, and friends from his childhood, including fellow Moroccan national Mike El Canas. El Canas said Fakir was with a group of friends, who described him as being in good spirits, on the night before his death and stayed in Pilastro overnight. “He was a good person, so kind and full of life,” said El Canas. “He had plenty of friends among the Moroccan community, but also Italians.” It is unclear what happened in the hours before he died. Police said they responded to concerns from residents about a man behaving erratically and aggressively. They called the health services, telling staff he was “having a psychiatric episode”. Other videos filmed by residents before police intervened showed Fakir in a state of extreme agitation and confusion. It later emerged he had been referred for mental health treatment in June. In a letter published by La Repubblica, Barbara Spinelli, a lawyer who was assisting Fakir in renewing his residence permit, wrote that he feared being deported owing to the EU’s “return hubs” migration pact, despite her reassurances, and felt sorry about having to lay people off because of a slowdown in business. Speaking to the Guardian from Casablanca, where family members in Italy had travelled to be with relatives as they await the repatriation of his body for burial alongside his late mother, Fakir’s sister Khadija said he had confided in her about relationship difficulties, but was otherwise always thinking of others. Exacerbating the family’s grief is the way in which some far-right politicians and factions of Italy’s rightwing press dehumanised Fakir, seizing on drugs convictions in his youth and portraying him as just another immigrant causing trouble. “Abderrahim helped those in need and was friendly and joked with everyone. This was Abderrahim,” said Khadija. Khadija said she couldn’t bring herself to watch the videos but a witness told her Fakir was agitated and asking for help. “They could have calmed him down with something. Why did he have to end up in the hands of the police like that?” After setting up a crowdfunding page to help cover legal costs, she said her family was hit with a deluge of online comments accusing them of trying to make money. “I would pay €3m to have my brother back,” she said. “All we want is truth and justice from the Italian state. Whoever acted wrongfully must pay.” People living in Pilastro are familiar with being disparaged. The neighbourhood came under the political spotlight during a regional election campaign in early 2020 when Matteo Salvini, the leader of the far-right League and the current deputy prime minister, rang the bell of a Tunisian family’s home to ask them over the intercom if they were drug dealers. Salvini, who in the past has posed in police uniform, has defended the police over Fakir’s death. Pilastro has also felt the brunt of a measure in the security bill cracking down on peaceful dissent after 33 people racked up thousands of euros in fines between them during a protest earlier this year against the construction of a museum that would swallow up a significant portion of the area’s only park. One person was detained for a couple of days for climbing a tree. However, many are too afraid to speak out, even more so after Fakir’s death. “The police have the power, a uniform that protects them, and we are nobodies,” said El Canas. “But we must speak up, as otherwise, where will us ordinary citizens end up?” Anselmo said that while the majority of Italy’s police officers were good, there were those who “inevitably absorb the political climate in which they operate”. With Meloni striving to secure a second mandate in next year’s general election, while fending off a new far-right rival, Roberto Vannacci, the climate is only expected to become more divisive as she promotes her main political offerings – security and immigration, with the latter evident in her response to the mass migrant crossing from Morocco into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta. “The Fakir story illustrates how words and these kinds of bills actually play out on the ground,” said Cecilia Sottilotta, an associate politics professor at the Università per Stranieri in Perugia. “But these security measures have long been in the plans of Italy’s far right, who have always insisted that the police should have a free rein. Now, the big picture is very important. Migration has been weaponised. Again, this is not new, but we will see more of it with elections coming up.”