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Ukraine confirms strikes on oil refinery in Russia’s Tatarstan – Europe live

AP is quoting Russian authorities who have issued an updated casualty count after the Ukrainian drone strike on the petroleum hub of Nizhnekamsk in Tatarstan. It is now said that it killed 13 people and wounded 75 others. At the same time Reuters has issued a newsflash the Uzbek consulate has said that seven of those killed were Uzbek citizens. The Ukrainian military said it hit an oil refinery in Nizhnekamsk, which is about 1,200 kilometers (750 miles) east of the Ukrainian border. The city has a population of about 240,000. Tatarstan’s head, Rustam Minnikhanov, has declared a day of mourning, and claimed a child was among those killed.

Monday briefing: How the new phase of confrontation at al-Aqsa signals a challenge to the status quo

Good morning. In late July, Itamar Ben-Gvir, West Bank settler and far-right extremist minister of security in Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, joined a group of more than 2,000 Jewish extremists to storm al-Aqsa mosque compound, Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site. The far-right group has been doing this for years. Ben-Gvir has made series of visits to the site over the last three years, eroding norms and inflaming tensions. Jordanian officials have recently warned that it could be at risk of an “imminent” Israeli takeover. With national elections scheduled in October, and many eyes still firmly on Gaza (this weekend, Netanyahu rejected a US-backed 15 point plan for peace), the Israeli government appears to be racing to expand Israeli settlements and accelerate ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem before its mandate expires. For this morning’s First Edition, I spoke to our senior international correspondent, Julian Borger, about the latest incursions, and how Israeli extremists are trying to create a new reality in Jerusalem. That’s after the weekend roundup. Weekend roundup UK politics | Sadiq Khan has called on the government to commit to revamped climate action and to reduce the UK’s reliance on oil and gas, as the UK endures a summer of drought, wildfires and heatwaves. US politics | The US Senate voted to confirm Todd Blanche as attorney general in a win for Donald Trump, who will now have his one-time personal attorney sitting atop the nation’s law enforcement apparatus. US-Israel war on Iran | Iran has issued tough new demands for reopening the strait of Hormuz, as a deal to open the strategic waterway remained out of reach on Saturday. Russia-Ukraine | Up to 50,000 North Korean soldiers will be deployed in Russia, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said. On Saturday, Turkey called for a “moratorium” on attacks by Russia and Ukraine in the Black Sea after a series of strikes on civilian ships there World news | The alleged leader of the Kinahan organised crime group was extradited from Dubai on Sunday and met by a huge security operation in Dublin, marking the end of a global game of cat and mouse with European, US and Gulf authorities. In depth: ‘To erect structures, even if they’re temporary, is a red rag to a bull’ The al-Haram al-Sharif site in Jerusalem’s old city, known to Jews as the Temple Mount, is one of the most contentious places on earth. It’s governed by a fragile agreement that gives Muslims exclusive rights to pray and worship there, while Jews pray at the Western Wall below. But Israel’s messianic right, which has gained a powerful foothold in Netanyahu’s coalition government, is fixated on the site as a symbol of its political project. Their vision of building a new Jewish temple on one of Islam’s holiest sites – once a fringe idea – has become increasingly widespread. Since 2023, Jewish religious extremists have made numerous visits to the 35-acre compound which is home to both al-Aqsa mosque and Dome of the Rock, the holiest sites for Muslims in Jerusalem and one of holiest sites for Muslims in the world. “At first, you had groups of perhaps 20 Jews, mostly settlers, who were escorted by the police to the far wall of the compound to pray discreetly,” Julian tells me. “If you were just a casual visitor, you wouldn’t necessarily see them”. Over the last two years, however, the groups have grown bigger and more audacious. On 23 July, they sang the national anthem, and prayed and performed rituals in the centre of the compound, while Israeli police – who report to Ben-Gvir, who was in attendance – set up tents to provide shade to the worshippers. “To erect structures, even if they’re temporary, is a red rag to a bull,” Julian says. “The longstanding fear is that Israelis would knock down the Dome of the Rock or the mosque, or rebuild a [Jewish] temple on the site. And these tents were part of a gradual attempt to push the boundaries.” Eight Arab nations swiftly issued a joint statement condemning “mass incursions by settlers led by extremist Israeli ministers”. Last Wednesday, the Jordanian authorities, who administer the site, held an emergency meeting of Arab and Islamic nations to discuss these risks, and afterwards, the Jordanian authorities condemned Israeli violations and warned that they constituted a “blatant provocation” to Muslims worldwide. “All they can do is issue strong statements, saying, ‘don’t do this’,” says Julian. The Waqf, the Jordanian-appointed foundation that manages the site, is “defenceless”, he explains. In the run-up to Ramadan this year, Waqf sources told the Guardian that five of its staff had been detained by the Shin Bet, Israel’s counterintelligence service. Meanwhile, Israeli police have begun actively recruiting extremist activists to serve in the Temple Mount Unit, the force responsible for policing the compound. According to Haaretz, the deputy commander of the police’s Temple Mount Unit published a callout to officers on social media and in WhatsApp groups associated with West Bank settlers. “Anyone who wants to take part in implementing sovereignty is welcome to contact me,” he wrote. *** Why is the site so significant? The site’s history is constantly enlisted in attempts to justify the present. Muslims know the raised compound in the south-east of Jerusalem as al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary), or simply al-Aqsa, after the mosque located at its southern edge. Next to the mosque, at the centre of the compound, is the Dome of the Rock, one of the oldest surviving Islamic places of worship. It’s on this site the prophet Muhammad is said to have ascended to heaven. At the base of the compound is the Western Wall, a section of retaining wall that survived the destruction of the second Jewish temple in 70CE. The Temple Mount is also the holiest site in Judaism, the site of two temples which were built and then destroyed by invaders in ancient times. Access to the site has been delicately managed for centuries. After the six-day war in 1967, when Israel captured East Jerusalem from Jordan, the Israeli government agreed that Jordan would continue to be the site’s custodian. Since then, the “status quo”, as it is known, has sought to prevent violent conflict by circumscribing the rights of Muslims and Jews to access the compound. While Jews are permitted to visit the site at specific times, they cannot pray there. Many Jews opt not to visit the site, out of fear of treading on holy ground while ritually impure. “The status quo represented a historic compromise. Jews got the Western Wall. Muslims got Haram al-Sharif,” Julian says. “But the site has always been a detonator, sitting right there in the centre of the old city, with strong religious beliefs crammed together in a small area.” *** How has this erupted in the past? It’s not uncommon in the region for holy sites to be carefully managed with intricate arrangements. Elsewhere in the Old City, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is divided up between six Christian denominations, with its keys held by two Muslim families. At the Cave of the Patriarchs in the occupied city of Hebron, a mosque and synagogue share one building. Past Israeli moves to challenge the status quo at al-Haram al-Sharif have been incendiary, sparking deadly violence. In 2000, then Israeli opposition leader and future prime minister Ariel Sharon made a visit to the site in an attempt to demonstrate Israeli sovereignty, sparking a chain of events that helped ignite the second intifada. More recently, Hamas gave the name “al-Aqsa flood” to its attack on Israel in October 2023 that killed 1,200 Israelis and triggered the war on Gaza, claiming it was provoked by Israeli violations at the Jerusalem mosque. *** What’s the end goal of these incursions? Some Jewish extremists have begun marching under the temple flag – a star of David overlaid with a picture of the (as yet nonexistent) third temple they hope to build. “You see these flags on the bulldozers that are flattening neighbourhoods in Gaza, and soldiers wearing patches with a picture of the third temple on them,” Julian says. The rise of the third temple movement comes at a time of surging attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank, with the scale of violence prompting urgent calls for intervention from the heart of the Israeli establishment. Earlier this year, dozens of Israelis, including two former prime ministers, former heads of its security services and former judges, signed a “final warning” threatening legal action against their government over its support for “Jewish terrorism” in the occupied West Bank. They argued the actions of the government had isolated Israel internationally and put its security at risk. “There’s a feeling that the far-right side of Netanyahu’s government is now creating unnecessary, long-term security problems for Israel,” Julian says. That extends to attempts to change the status quo at al-Aqsa. Netanyahu has publicly backed Jewish prayer at the site, claiming that changes pushed by Ben-Gvir were coordinated with him. “This isn’t the stuff of radicals any more,” Julian says. “It has government approval.” The week to come Wednesday | A partial solar eclipse will be visible across the whole of the UK, with the south-west of England getting the best of British views. Parts of Greenland, Iceland and Spain will experience a total eclipse. Thursday | Clacton-on-sea residents will vote in the byelection Nigel Farage triggered last month, with the Reform leader taking on 33 mostly novelty candidates. Results are expected early Friday. Thursday | The Office for National Statistics will publish UK GDP figures for the second quarter of 2026. What else we’ve been enjoying So many horror stories have emerged from ICE raids and arrests in the US. Alex Hannaford reports expertly on the ongoing nightmare for one young man snatched in upstate New York. Michael Young people – particularly those who came of age during the pandemic – have had a pretty raw deal. I enjoyed this piece on what “Neets” need, by William Davies (£). Hettie I was already looking forward to reading Symeon Brown’s new book, and this interview has confirmed it’ll be on my holiday reading list. Michael Sport Cycling | Demi Vollering won the final stage to seal her second Tour de France Femmes title but runner-up Kasia Niewiadoma reiterated her unhappiness with her rival team’s tactics on the penultimate stage. Football | London City Lionesses’ headline signing, Alexia Putellas, talks expectations, the lure of playing in England and the prospect of being kicked by her former teammates. Football | Fifa last night issued a thinly veiled attack on Uefa and other leading figures in European football in a statement which alleged there is a “concerted and ongoing effort by some to undermine Fifa and its president”. The front pages “Labour wants ‘deeper’ ties to EU under Burnham, says minister”, is the Guardian’s front page today. The Times writes “PM’s adviser ‘concerned’ over Labour wealth taxes”, Metro has “Andy wants a cancel culture” and the Mail says “Labour jail plan to spark 89,000 more crimes”. The Telegraph has “Chinese spy cameras found on Navy drones”, while the Express leads on “You must keep our Fenella’s killer in jail”. On the heatwave, the Mirror says “Days of danger”, and the i Paper’s headline is “Car washes and swimming pools could face water bans in UK’s next heatwave”. Today in Focus The Gen Z investors Are Gen Z the most financially savvy generation of them all? Economics correspondent, Richard Partington, charts the rise of investors like social media influencer James Beckett and those even younger, and explores why Gen Z are different from those who came before them when it comes to personal finance. Cartoon of the day | Tom Gauld The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad From paddleboarding the River Esk where you can experience tranquil wildlife and views of Whitby, to wild camping along the River Dart, a place which offers pristine moorland, oak-lined valleys and solitary swims in deep pools. There are many places to mess about on the river and find some peace and joy. For more solo adventures you can relax with some fly‑fishing along the River Dove, a place which blends tricky casts, and pastoral beauty, where wild brown trout rise in crystalline, fast‑flowing pools. Something more strenuous might be a hike to find the sources of the Severn and Wye, a journey which blends scorching moorland with the wildlife‑rich upper Wye valley. Or take it all in by canoe along the River Tay in Perthshire, and enjoy kingfisher spotting and the view of beaver lodges. Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

British widow, 78, told to leave Sweden under Brexit rules after living there for 21 years

A 78-year-old British widow who has lived in Sweden for 21 years is fighting deportation from the country after authorities told her a post-Brexit application to stay had been submitted too late. Her case is the latest of 2,500 British people ordered to leave the country after Brexit in what campaigners and the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) have said is an inexplicably hardline approach taken by the Swedish authorities. It comes two years after Sweden threatened to deport a British woman with dementia in a care home shortly before she died. Joyce Thomas, a retired nurse, was given just four weeks to leave Sweden in November, three years after her husband had died, causing huge distress. After being widowed, Thomas downsized with her dog to an apartment in Hammarö, which is close to her son and grandchildren, and to her husband’s grave. She said she sometimes felt overwhelmed by the distress of what was happening. “It is unbelievable at my age to be chucked out after being in a country for so long, when you’ve done absolutely nothing wrong,” Thomas said. “I have no criminal record, no driving penalties, nothing. And I have lived here on my own financial means. I just think nobody has actually looked into this thing. I mean, if it was their family or mother, they wouldn’t like them to be in this situation.” Holding back tears, she said: “I am not young, and the idea I would have to come back and forth to visit my son and grandchildren and to visit my husband’s grave here … it is just horrible when you sit and digest it all.” Her husband, Gwynne, died in 2023 of cancer. It was on a trip back from the UK in 2022, when they visited their second son in Brighton, that they first learned they should have made a formal application to stay in Sweden after Brexit. She said her husband had been meticulous at keeping up with news relevant to British people in Sweden and had taken responsibility for all the administration in their household. She was sure he would have made the Brexit application had he known about it. While late applications are permissible under the UK’s withdrawal agreement with the EU, Thomas’s submission was rejected in 2024 as she could not demonstrate “reasonable grounds” for applying late. A subsequent application to stay under national immigration laws was also rejected. With the help of lawyers who are working pro bono, she is now taking the case to a higher court. “When Gwynne died it was the worst thing. We were married for 55 years; he was my best friend and meant everything to me after all those years. But, you know, it [his death] was an end. This is just unbearable limbo. It is horrible. I am not young. I have already moved from a house to a flat – and to start moving again and looking for another place? I will be dead by the time I would be settled.” The former business secretary Peter Kyle, who is MP for Brighton, said the case was “deeply concerning”. He told the Guardian: “While immigration decisions in Sweden are a matter for the Swedish authorities, I have consistently believed that the rights of UK nationals who exercised free movement rights before Brexit should be treated fairly and with compassion.” He urged Sweden to review her case. “I hope the authorities will carefully consider all the circumstances of Mrs Thomas’s case, including her long residence in Sweden, her family connections, and the humanitarian factors involved.” The FCDO has also expressed concern, not just about Thomas but about the wider hardline approach taken by Sweden to British people living in the country since before Brexit. Data shows that Sweden has the highest number of Brexit-related deportations of Britons of all EU member states. According to Eurostat data, 2,500 British nationals have been ordered to leave the country since Brexit, one-third of the entire number of removal orders issued across the 27-member bloc since Brexit in 2021. An FCDO spokesperson said: “We regularly raise concerns regarding Sweden’s protection of citizens’ rights with both the Swedish authorities and the European Commission, which is responsible for monitoring the implementation and application of citizens’ rights matters in EU member states.” Article 18 of the EU-UK withdrawal agreement allows for late applications on “reasonable grounds”. But UK government sources said they believed Sweden was “taking a considerably stricter approach” than others. The result is that “in practice individuals are not likely to have their reasonable grounds accepted”. According to the most recent European Commission annual report on implementation of the WA, almost 4,000 applicants for post-Brexit residency status in Sweden were refused, out of 14,200 made. By contrast, Bulgaria, which has a similar number of applicants at around 16,000, refused just five people, and Belgium, which had 13,000 applicants, refused 605, according to the same report. According to FCDO analysis, Sweden’s refusal rate of 27.5% is three times higher than any other member state and considerably higher than the EU average of between 3% and 4%. A spokesperson for the Swedish immigration authority, Migrationsverket, said: “In exceptional circumstances, it is still possible to submit a late application. The applicant must explain in writing why they were unable to apply within the prescribed period. Simply stating that the person was unaware of the requirement to apply is not, in itself, considered a sufficient explanation.” The withdrawal agreement also calls for “proportionality” in any decisions to remove residency rights. “We think the proportionality is really hard to see here: that somebody’s life can be upended, simply because they missed a deadline to fill out a form that with no information communicated at all to them,” said Felix Andler, a doctor and friend of the Thomas family who is supporting her. If you know of a British person ordered to leave Sweden because of a late Brexit application, email lisa.ocarroll@theguardian.com

Movie paradise? How Malta became a magnet for big film shoots

What links the Caribbean, ancient Rome, Enid Blyton’s Land of Spells, the south of France and the Bay of Pentos from Game of Thrones? They are all places that have been portrayed in recent and forthcoming films by a sunny archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea, no bigger in size than Sheffield. Malta has over the last decade risen to become one of the most popular places in Europe for American and British film-makers to set their works in, taking a lead in what has been described as an “arms race” to lure big movie productions with tax incentives. The EU’s smallest country has hosted more than 30 film and TV productions each year in each of the last three years, including a record 36 in 2023 and 2025. They include Jurassic World Rebirthand Gladiator II, this spring’s Blyton adaptation The Magic Faraway Tree and the new Jason Statham action thriller Mutiny, out at the end of this month. On the screen, Malta has stood in for Greece (in the BBC’s recent Two Weeks in August), 1980s Sicily (Heidi Ewing’s forthcoming British feature The Travel Writer), rural southern France (Channel 5’s cosy crime drama The Madame Blanc Mysteries) and the Caribbean (Guy Ritchie’s forthcoming Layer Cake follow-up Viva la Madness). The island is even starting to represent itself: the third season of Netflix’s detective drama Enola Holmes decamps from Victorian London to the then British-occupied island, and principal photography is due to start next year for TV auteur Stephen Poliakoff’s The Order, set on the eve of the 1565 siege of Malta by Ottoman forces. “For such a small European country, Malta is really punching above its weight,” said Adrian Wootton, the chief executive of the British Film Commission. “It’s been very aggressive, in a positive way, about diversifying its industry.” The microstate’s history of hosting cinematic productions dates back to 1925’s silent maritime drama Sons of the Sea, and since the 1970s it has hosted two of the world’s largest water tanks designed to allow film-makers to shoot maritime scenes in a controllable environment. But in the past its film industry was essentially seasonal, said Johann Grech, Malta’s film commissioner. “Now, we have an industry that is working every day, all year round.” Its success is largely due to the broader global upheaval of how film-making is financed. Until the early 2000s, audiovisual productions in Europe were mostly funded by direct funding, such as film funds or selective grants. Over the last few decades, however, films are increasingly made possible by tax incentives, such as cash rebates that production companies are reimbursed after filming if they hire local crews or rent facilities. Such financial incentives now make up almost half of European fiction films’ budgets, and mean that “films and series no longer simply occupy locations, they are engineered around them”, as a recent report by the European Audiovisual Observatory noted. Malta, which introduced a cash rebate mechanism in 2005, has aggressively ratcheted up its offering over the last decade, to what the Napoleon and Gladiator II producer described as “probably the most generous cash rebate in the world”. All of the 36 major productions that filmed in Malta in 2025 qualified for a 40% cash rebate, which, unlike in some competing states, can also be applied to crew and equipment coming in from abroad if it can’t be sourced locally. At the Mediterrane film festival on the island in June, Grech announced his intention to further improve the rebate model, which runs out in 2028, and to find private investment to build an €80m (£70m) studio complex. “Every euro that we invest in the rebate, the industry generates back four,” he said in an interview. “The film industry is becoming an economic pillar for our country.” Some critics in Malta say the country’s rise as a filming location has come at the cost of neglecting local cinematic talent. Examples of Maltese films engaging audiences outside its borders are few and far between: Alex Camilleri’s 2021 film Luzzu, which contended for the grand jury prize at Sundance, is a rare exception. With local crews in demand from international production companies, Maltese directors often find themselves being outbid by Hollywood, said Teodor Reljić, a Malta-based screenwriter and former film critic. “There’s a bit of a parallel universe: people in servicing are thriving, but local film-makers can’t pay a DOP [director of photography] because they are expecting Jurassic World fees.” The Malta Film Commission is focused on courting international productions, while nurturing domestic film is left to the arts council, which operates on a smaller budget. Malta does not match funding for financial incentives to its homegrown film funding, which is something that countries such as Estonia have done. “Without incentives, smaller European countries would simply be excluded from the global production market,” said Edith Sepp, the head of the Estonian Film Institute. “They can be gamechangers.” “At the same time, we need to ensure our own films are seen, exported and remembered. Otherwise, we risk becoming a place to shoot the films, but our own stories struggle to find their funding.” There are also signs that Malta’s infrastructure is being tested to the limits as its cities, towns and villages regularly turn into film sets. Road closures and parking restrictions have become a bugbear for local people. “What are Valletta residents supposed to do – stay confined in their homes?”, one resident of Malta’s capital asked news outlet MaltaToday recently. Last month, equipment linked to a film being shot in Valletta knocked over and damaged a 100-year-old statue and a historic pedestal in St George’s Square, causing anger among Malta’s religious community. “There are signs of a pushback against overtourism, like in Barcelona or Venice,” said Reljić. “But in Malta we have online gambling, construction and tourism – for now, film-making is the least toxic of our big industries.”

Ukraine war briefing: North Korea sending 50,000 troops to Russia – Zelenskyy

Up to 50,000 North Korean soldiers will be deployed in Russia, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said, while calling on South Korea to provide support for Ukraine’s air defence. It is an increase from the estimated 30,000 announced by the Ukrainian president in July. Kyiv had found some North Korean missiles in Ukraine’s territory, he said. “It is absolutely clear that ⁠North Korea will continue to build its experience in modern warfare, receive licences from Russia, and receive all kinds of military tools from them.” This month, an official at Ukraine’s military intelligence told Reuters that a North Korean missile unit has begun deploying personnel and equipment to western Russia and the unit could be equipped with 120 ballistic ⁠missiles and six launchers for strikes against Ukraine. North Korea sent an estimated 14,000 soldiers to Russia’s Kursk region in 2024, helping Moscow fight an invasion by Ukrainian forces. Thousands have been wounded or killed. North Korea has supplied Russia with millions ‌of artillery and mortar rounds – sometimes of dangerously low quality, according to Russian milbloggers and troops – as well as ballistic missiles, long-range artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, according to Ukrainian and independent assessments. Zelenskyy continued that Ukraine “would very much like to receive support from South Korea in ‌an area where we have a shortage”, referring to air defence systems. “We are ready to work on the drone deal and other areas as well,” he said, adding that Ukrainian diplomats “are in contact” with Seoul to push potential deals. Ukraine is very short of high-end air defences and Russia has tried to exploit this by using more ballistic missiles, which are very hard to shoot down without interceptors like the US-owned Patriot. Seventy Atacms short-range ballistic missiles are part of a weapons package that Ukraine is poised to buy from Turkey, according to US congressional documents (pdf). The US would have to approve the resale of the American-origin weapons. The state department indicated to Congress it is prepared to give permission. Along with the M39 Atacms missiles, Turkey also plans to sell Kyiv 47,000 artillery rounds, 12 M270 multiple-launch rocket systems (MLRS) and more than 2,000 cluster bombs, according to the notice from the US state department. Russian missiles struck a high-rise apartment block in the Saltivskyi district of Kharkiv, killing two people and injuring 13, said regional head Oleh Syniehubov. Zelenskyy said eight people were wounded in Odesa, where strikes damaged the power grid, the port and residential buildings. He condemned an “absolutely brutal” strike targeting energy infrastructure near a shopping centre in Pavlohrad, Dnipropetrovsk region, that wounded nine people including four children. Russia said Ukrainian drones killed five people and injured two dozen others in the Belgorod region. Zelenskyy, in his evening address on Sunday, defended Ukraine’s replies to Russia’s attacks – including strikes on Russian oil refineries, air defence systems and radar stations – as “truly just responses”. “The Russian war will be increasingly felt at home, in Russia,” he said. The World Health Organization chief, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said a WHO warehouse stocking medical supplies in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro was destroyed in strikes on Friday. “I cannot say loudly enough: attacks on health care must stop. Otherwise, people are deprived of lifesaving healthcare,” Tedros posted. “Even wars have rules. One of those is that health must be protected!” Ukrainian drone strikes damaged commercial sites and a home in the Russian city of Novorossiysk, said the mayor, Andrey Kravchenko. A major fuel terminal is located at Novorossiysk that links Kazakhstan’s oilfields to markets around the world. It has previously been a target for Ukrainian strikes. Bulgaria summoned Ukraine’s ambassador after a drone entered Bulgarian airspace, the country’s public broadcaster BNT reported on Sunday. The drone exploded on Saturday close to an international gas pipeline shortly after crossing the border from Romania, the Bulgarians said. No casualties or damage were reported. Bulgaria’s defence ministry said the incident was likely accidental and involved a drone that appeared to be a Ukrainian type. Kyiv’s foreign ministry said Ukraine did not deliberately target Bulgaria and the two sides were in “close contact” about it. A “powerful explosion” believed to be from a combat drone was reported in the village of Crocmaz, in south-east Moldova near the border with Ukraine, local police said on Sunday. No one was injured by the impact, which caused a vegetation fire in the Stefan Voda district, police said, adding that “fragments of a combat drone were found at the scene” and would be examined by specialists. Police did not specify the origin of the drone. The UK defence secretary, Wes Streeting, has urged allies to boost Ukraine’s air defences ahead of a winter that Vladimir Putin will seek to use as a “weapon” against Kyiv. Writing in the Sunday Times, Streeting warned that while Putin was currently losing the war, “Ukrainians know what winter brings, and how it can change the picture”. Allies’ efforts to assist Ukraine “must include greater resources for air defence”. “My task – alongside my German counterpart Boris Pistorius, with whom I co-chair the Ukraine defence contact group – is to turn the goodwill of some 50 nations into concrete help.” Pope Leo on Sunday said innocent people were being ⁠killed and wounded in Ukraine and Russia, and called for an end to ⁠the conflict. “Tragic incidents ⁠are multiplying, causing an ever-growing number of civilian victims, including children,” the pontiff said before worshippers ⁠gathered for Sunday’s Angelus prayer. “I renew my heartfelt appeal for international humanitarian law to be ⁠respected and for attacks against civilian targets to cease on both sides.” More than ‌16,000 civilians have been killed, according to the UN, the overwhelming majority of them Ukrainian.

Netanyahu rejects US-led 15-point Gaza peace plan in rare public break with Trump

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has rejected a US-backed 15-point peace plan for Gaza in a rare public break with Donald Trump. In a statement on Sunday, Netanyahu said that he was confronting a “wave of rumours about Israeli weakness and Israeli withdrawals on all fronts” and rebuked US pressure to end wars in Gaza, Lebanon and Iran without Israel’s buy-in. On Gaza, he said: “Israel does not accept the 15-point document. The IDF will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is disarmed. And when I say the disarming of Hamas, it means heavy weaponry, lighter weaponry, all weaponry. And we are talking about genuine disarmament, not fictitious disarmament. Right now, we are talking with the Americans about this issue.” Trump’s Board of Peace in July proposed the 15-point plan, which mandated that Hamas disarm in exchange for providing a full Israeli military withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and an eventual transition of power to an independent Palestinian National Committee. Trump had said that the agreement would be implemented in stages, but Netanyahu on Sunday said that he wanted a full disarmament first in order to implement the deal. The Israeli leader’s main target in his remarks was the US. Israel has emerged as a key stumbling block in the Trump White House’s plans to broker peace in the region, in Israel’s conflicts in Gaza and Lebanon as well as in the war begun by joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran. And Netanyahu, who is facing tough elections in October and pressure from hardliners in his own government, appears ready to test his relationship with Trump in public in order to shore up his reputation as a defender of Israel at home. Israel had already signalled that it would reject the US-led plan. Soon after Trump announced it last month, Israel stepped up its bombing campaign in the Palestinian territory – strikes killed 18 people last Sunday. Netanyahu’s office had previously indicated it would not back the plan, saying: “The version that has been made public does not reflect Israel’s positions.” But Sunday’s rejection was far more forceful and direct, and appeared targeted at the Trump White House, as Trump and Netanyahu both face difficult elections. “Unlike all those who lecture us, we do what needs to be done for Israel’s security, and we can and know how to stand our ground, even against our best friends when necessary,” Netanyahu said. The head of Trump’s Board of Peace hit back on Sunday, saying the plan remained the “only way forward”. Nickolay Mladenov, the board’s high representative for Gaza, told Israeli television: “The option we are offering today is the only way forward that ensures this tragedy does not happen again.” Netanyahu’s rejection is a blow to Trump’s desire to be seen as a broker of peace in foreign conflicts. With US midterm elections due in November, the White House is desperate to negotiate a peace in Iran in order to reopen the strait of Hormuz and help bring down oil and petrol prices. But the conflicts in the Middle East are interconnected and parallel US efforts have continued to bring peace to Lebanon, where Israel has occupied land in what it says is a buffer zone against Hezbollah, and Gaza, where Gulf allies of the US have decried what they say is an ethnic cleansing campaign being carried out by Israel. Like US presidents before him, Trump has found that Netanyahu can be a difficult ally. Bill Clinton, after meeting Netanyahu for the first time in 1996, is reported to have said: “Who’s the fucking superpower here?” More recently, the Biden administration found that its concerns about the human toll in Gaza were ignored, but continued to publicly back Netanyahu and did not significantly suspend military aid to the country for fear of the political blowback that Netanyahu and his allies in the US could cause. In Trump, however, Netanyahu has found a far more unorthodox and unpredictable counterpart in the White House. Netanyahu is a natural ally for Trump, and he has attacked Democrats before the midterm elections for being weak on supporting Israel. Yet more broadly, support for Israel and its war in Gaza is eroding in the Democratic party, and the Republicans have a presidential frontrunner for 2028 in the vice-president, JD Vance, who is publicly sceptical of Israel and the war in Gaza. Trump will have to decide whether to increase pressure on Netanyahu, potentially alienating some pro-Israel allies, or to allow his efforts for a Gaza peace plan to stall, perhaps indefinitely. The answer will depend heavily on the US president’s own political instincts – are US voters hoping to see Trump emerge as a statesman capable of ending one of the world’s bloodiest recent wars in Gaza, or would a public clash with Netanyahu provoke a revolt among his base? With both countries entering tumultuous election cycles and a generational shift in support for Israel among US voters, the result could redraw the alliance between Israel and the US.

Netanyahu rejects Trump’s Gaza plan and vows no withdrawal until Hamas disarms – as it happened

We’re wrapping our live coverage of the Middle East crisis for today. Here are Sunday’s top developments: Israel has rebuffed Donald Trump’s Gaza plan. The country said it would not leave Gaza unless Hamas was “genuinely” disarmed. Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that they were discussing their concerns with the US. “They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand our ground on these matters,” Netanyahu said. Donald Trump said he’s “low keying it” with Iran as the Strait of Hormuz remains closed. Trump’s comments to Axios came after Iran said it would not agree to a deal until the US met its demands, which included never speaking insulting the country. “We are only semi-negotiating with them,” Trump also told Axios. Although Donald Trump has rebuffed claims that the US is running low on weapons crucial to its war on Iran, a leaked memo indicates that his military leadership is concerned by falling stockpiles. Per the Washington Post, deputy US defense secretary Steve Feinberg on Wednesday told defense industry leaders that they must “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities.” Meanwhile, Trump’s war on Iran continues to draw prominent criticism in the US. New York’s Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said Trump’s complaints about rising costs clash with his policies that has made daily life more expensive. “Donald Trump may be saying that oil companies are making too much money, but what Donald Trump is doing is starting a reckless war in Iran, having closed door meetings with oil companies before his election, saying, you know, you give me money, you give me campaign contributions, and I will do whatever you want,” Ocasio-Cortez said on ABC.