Read the daily news to learn English

Middle East crisis live: Lebanese officials says Israeli strikes on Tyre have killed at least eight people

Israeli attack on Tyre in Lebanon kills eight as evacuation ordered for Christian quarter

Israel has bombed the city of Tyre, killing eight and injuring at least 32 people, and struck dozens of other villages in south Lebanon as it issued forced evacuation orders for the historic Christian quarter of the ancient city for the first time. Israel struck the al-Masaken neighbourhood without warning on Tuesday morning, sending smoke plumes high above the city’s buildings and igniting fires. Further airstrikes were carried out across the city and a series of bombings hit Abbasieh, a village north of Tyre. Hezbollah claimed responsibility for attacks on Israeli soldiers in the Lebanese village of Maroun al-Ras. The Israeli army said it had killed a “terrorist” who had crossed the border from Lebanon into Israel and opened fire on Israeli soldiers – the first time in this round of fighting that a fighter from Lebanon had crossed the border. It was unclear if the gunman was affiliated with Hezbollah. Shortly after the bombings in Tyre, Israel issued a forced evacuation warning for Palestinian refugee camps in the city, as well as for the Christian quarter, claiming members of Hezbollah had infiltrated the area and could attack. Hundreds of people fled the Christian quarter after the forced evacuation announcement, with cars packed with mattresses and belongings jamming the narrow streets of the historic port neighbourhood. The Christian quarter had not been struck by Israel previously and had been considered a safe zone amid a city otherwise under bombardment. Many Shia Muslim residents of the city had moved there in hope of safety. Last week, the Lebanese army was deployed to the district as displaced people arrived, to show that Hezbollah had no armed presence in the area and to try to prevent Israeli attacks. Christian religious leaders from three different denominations in Tyre called on the international community and the Lebanese state to prevent Israel from attacking the neighbourhood. The leaders appealed to the global community to “take immediate and serious action to spare the old quarter of Tyre from destruction and human tragedies”. “The old city is not merely a residential area,” the clergy said. “It is the historical and human heart of Tyre, home to thousands of civilians, including families, children and the elderly.” They added that attacking the neighbourhood would constitute a humanitarian “catastrophe”. The city has also hosted thousands of people displaced from their villages in southern Lebanon as the Israeli army advanced northwards. The most recent strikes and evacuation orders have pushed many people into their second or even third displacement, and caused a renewed wave of displacement for the residents of Tyre’s Palestinian refugee camps, some of whom had returned from northern Lebanon after not finding shelter. Tyre is considered one of the world’s oldest cities and hosts many archaeological sites, including a Unesco world heritage site. Sunday’s attack damaged Roman ruins and other archaeological sites in Tyre, including at al-Bass, have been damaged by earlier Israeli strikes. “Some archaeological artefacts were damaged when rubble fell on them, as debris fell over a large area, impacting a large number of elements at the site – columns, capitals, column bases, mosaics,” Ali Badawi, a regional director of archaeological sites at Lebanon’s ministry of culture, told AFP. The ministry had placed enhanced protection blue-shield emblems on heritage sites in Tyre in March – signs that, under The Hague convention, afford archaeological sites protection during armed conflicts. Israel has also damaged the nearly 1000-year-old Beaufort castle, as well as blown up multiple historical buildings in different parts of southern Lebanon in recent months. The current round of fighting started on 2 March after Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in retaliation for the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the supreme leader of Iran, triggering an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon. Israeli strikes have killed at least 3,666 people in Lebanon while Hezbollah has killed at least 30 Israeli soldiers in southern Lebanon and three Israeli civilians. The Lebanese government and Israel are negotiating in Washington to reach an end to the conflict, though Hezbollah – the party fighting Israel – is not participating in the talks. Last week, Hezbollah rejected a ceasefire proposed by the Lebanese government and Israel. The war in Lebanon is one of the main obstacles preventing progress in the Iran-US ceasefire talks, as Iran has insisted that any ceasefire must be on all fronts, including Lebanon. Both the US and Israel have rejected Iranian attempts to link the two fronts, though the US president, Donald Trump, has reportedly grown frustrated with Israel’s war in Lebanon in recent weeks as it has spoiled talks with Iran.

Is the pope a Real Madrid fan? Leo’s admission upsets Barcelona faithful

To the delight of many, Pope Leo XIV kicked off the Barcelona leg of his week-long visit to Spain with a few words in Catalan, calling on the faithful who had gathered in the city’s cathedral on Tuesday “to build harmony and communion beyond all polarisation”. The pontiff’s familiar and commendable plea for people to set aside their differences may, however, have come a little late. Three days earlier, while chatting to journalists on the flight to Spain, Leo had made an awkward confession. Asked whether he supported Real Madrid or their Catalan rivals FC Barcelona, he had artfully sought to separate the job from the man. “That’s easy: the pope is for all teams, but Robert Prevost is for Real Madrid!” he said. Real Madrid, needless to say, were quick to upload the pontiff’s endorsement to social media, proclaiming: “The pope is a Real Madrid fan!” His decision to weigh in on the divisive issue was swiftly compounded – in the minds of Barça fans, at least – by his visit to Real’s Santiago Bernabéu Stadium on Monday. Before addressing a huge rally in the stadium that evening, he found time to inspect the club’s silverware and to accept a shirt with “Robert F Prevost” on the back from the club president, Florentino Pérez. For many non-Madrid fans – especially those in Spanish regions such as Catalonia that have strong identities and more than one official language – Real Madrid, who are known as Los Blancos because of their white kit, are viewed as another pillar of the central state. Perhaps inevitably, the statement of papal preference was never going to go unremarked. Tomás Roncero, a popular sports commentator for the widely read Spanish sports daily AS, said in a video: “The pope can’t be for Barça because it is a sinful club … in his heart he is of a pure and clean club like Madrid.” Neither the pope’s admission nor the giddiness it elicited from the Real Madrid camp went down well with Barcelona fans. “A figure as important as he is shouldn’t take sides,” Eduard Modroño, an office worker whose loyalties lie firmly in the Nou Camp, told the Associated Press. Speaking outside the basilica of the Sagrada Familia, whose soaring Jesus Christ tower the pope will inaugurate on Wednesday evening, Modroño suggested it may not be a coincidence that Leo supports Los Blancos. “He wears all white, doesn’t he? Enough said.” The Associated Press contributed to this report

EU plans to ban Russian soldiers from bloc in fresh sanctions on Moscow

The EU hopes to ban Russian soldiers from entering its territory as part of further sanctions against Moscow that also target banks, crypto firms and the Kremlin’s oil revenues. Announcing the proposals on Tuesday, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said: “We propose for the first time to ban from entry into the European Union anyone who has served in the Russian armed forces since the beginning of the war. So Europe stays off limit for anyone who has participated in the invasion of Ukraine, as simple as that.” The proposed visa ban on combatants is part of the EU’s latest tightening of sanctions against Russia, proposals that could be amended and must be agreed unanimously by 27 member states. “Our sanctions keep biting hard and cutting deep. They are weakening the economic foundations of Russia’s war effort,” von der Leyen said as she introduced the plans, the 21st set of measures since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The commission also wants to maintain a price cap on Russian oil at $44 until January 2027, which would prevent the Kremlin reaping gains from rising crude prices resulting from the closure of the strait of Hormuz. “We want to maintain the full intensity of our sanctions,” von der Leyen said. EU officials also want to add 30 “shadow fleet” vessels helping Russia evade western sanctions to its blacklist, in addition to 632 already under restrictions. In addition, Brussels wants to extend sanctions against cryptocurrency firms that are helping Russia cope with being shut out of western capital markets. It proposes placing sanctions on 20 banks, crypto firms and oil traders in third countries deemed to be helping Russia dodge sanctions. Estonia put a ban on Russian ex-combatants on the agenda earlier this year. Its foreign minister, Margus Tsahkna, told reporters in January that a visa ban was necessary for Europe’s security. “Putin will push these people to Europe,” he said, citing continuing hybrid attacks by Russian agencies in the EU. “Can you imagine these hundreds of thousands of ex-combatants, criminals coming here? I am sure they are not going to just work and pay all taxes. No, they are going to do many bad things.” Von de Leyen also confirmed the decision to move ahead with Ukraine’s negotiations to join the EU. The bloc is expected to open the first set of negotiating chapters – on the rule of law and democratic standards – in accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova next week. “This basically opens the door to the next phase of the accession process, the formal start of negotiations,” she said. The latest sanctions proposals extend for the first time to Russian fish imports, with a potential ban on cod and restrictions on trade in other species. The EU also intends to ban the import of Russian metals, ores and car parts worth €60m (£52m) as part of continuing attempt to restrict economic ties. EU export restrictions are proposed for metals and alloys used in the aerospace and defence industries, including drone equipment and launch systems. Missing from the sanctions list were EU alumina exports, which have come under the spotlight since investigative journalists revealed details of how the raw material needed to produce aluminium and refined in Ireland feeds into Russian supply chains. Alumina is shipped from the Russian-owned Aughinish plant in County Limerick to Siberia, where it is smelted into aluminium to supply Russian factories. An investigation by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and partners including the Guardian and the Irish Times revealed that alumina refined in Ireland fed into a Russian supply chain that appeared to conclude with arms firms making lethal weapons used in Ukraine. The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, was expected to raise the issue when she met the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, in Dublin on Tuesday, a few weeks before Ireland takes over the rotating presidency of the EU council. The revelations appear to contradict assurances from the Irish government in 2022 that the plant was “not in any way connected to a war machine”. It said in March: “The general principle of EU sanctions on Russia is that their imposition does not have a greater impact on a European member state than on Russia itself.” The Aughinish plant employs 900 people and supplies about 30% of the EU’s alumina, used in everything from medical devices to mobiles phones. EU officials say there are no alternatives to bauxite, the primary ore for aluminium, or alumina that are not controlled by Russian or Chinese firms.

Man shot during protest against proposed US Ebola quarantine facility in Kenya

A man has been shot in the head during a protest in a town in central Kenya against a proposed Ebola quarantine facility for US citizens. Photographs from the scene appeared to show a person lying motionless on the ground. Dozens of people had gathered near Laikipia airbase, the proposed site of the centre in Nanyuki, 120 miles from the capital, Nairobi, some wearing protective equipment and carrying a coffin with “Ebola” written on it. Several people were arrested and police used teargas to disperse the small crowds. Protesters have said they oppose the centre partly on the grounds that they do not want potential carriers of the highly contagious disease on Kenyan soil. There has been rising nationwide anger in recent weeks. Two people were killed during a protest in the town on Monday last week. The US government plans to send 30 medical personnel to staff the Nanyuki facility, which, if completed, will have 50 beds. After a petition by the Kenyan nonprofit Katiba Institute, a Nairobi court late last month temporarily blocked the establishment of the facility and the admission into the country of people exposed to Ebola. Last week, it barred the Kenyan government from proceeding with the plan before the case is resolved. The next hearing is due on 23 June. Kenya’s president, William Ruto, has vowed to press ahead, saying the country owes Washington for years of aid support. Health officials in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) are battling to contain an outbreak of the virus. The outbreak was declared on 15 May but the virus is thought to have been circulating undetected for weeks before then. The epidemic, which the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared a public health emergency of international concern, is caused by the rare Bundibugyo virus, which has no vaccine or approved treatment. As of 6 June, the DRC had reported a total of 515 confirmed cases, with 91 deaths, while Uganda had reported 19 confirmed cases, including two deaths, as well as one probable case who has died, according to WHO figures. There have been no known cases in Kenya. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

Alleged mastermind in murders of Dom Phillips and Bruno Pereira to stand trial

The alleged mastermind and financial backer of the murders of the British journalist Dom Phillips and the Brazilian activist Bruno Pereira in the Amazon four years ago will stand trial before a jury, a federal judge in the state of Amazonas has ruled. Judge Cristina Lazzari Souza found that, based on the charges brought by federal prosecutors, there were “sufficient indications of authorship” to try Ruben Dario da Silva Villar, known by his nickname “Colômbia”. According to the federal police investigation, Silva Villar led a transnational criminal network that exploited the Javari Valley Indigenous territory, one of Brazil’s largest Indigenous reserves, and targeted Pereira in retaliation for his efforts to combat illegal fishing in the region. Phillips, who reported for the Guardian from Brazil, and Pereira were ambushed and killed on 5 June 2022 near the Amazonian town of Atalaia do Norte while returning from a reporting trip to the edge of the Javari valley. Pereira, a former official at the Indigenous affairs agency Funai, had been working with the Indigenous organisation Univaja (the Union of Indigenous Peoples of the Javari Valley) to help local activists defend their territory against illegal fishing and mining gangs. Phillips was accompanying Pereira while reporting for a book on protecting the Amazon – which has since been completed and published by a group of his journalist friends. According to police, he was killed to eliminate a witness after seeing the activist’s murder. Police concluded Pereira’s work had caused significant losses to the criminal organisation led by Silva Villar, which allegedly bought illegally caught fish for resale in Peru and Colombia. Silva Villar is in prison on separate charges relating to the use of false documents, and his defence team had sought to have the case dismissed, arguing there was insufficient evidence linking him to the killings. However, in a ruling published on Sunday, the judge concluded that there was “evidence of the materiality of the crimes and sufficient indications of authorship”, agreeing with the prosecution’s charges of double-qualified homicide and concealment of corpses, while emphasising that the final decision rested with the jury. Prosecutors found that, in the days before, during and immediately after the murders, there were hundreds of phone calls between Silva Villar and the local men accused of carrying out the killings. According to the investigations, the alleged mastermind supplied the ammunition used in the killings and paid the initial legal fees of one of the gunmen. In her ruling, the judge found that, “although there is no indication that the defendant [Silva Villar] directly carried out the killings, the evidence points to a possible role as mastermind or participant”. The lead prosecutor, Guilherme Diego Rodrigues Leal, welcomed the ruling, saying: “The rigorous punishment of those responsible is not only a response to the gravity of the crime, but also a crucial educational milestone in preventing the repetition of violence in the Amazon.” The murders took place during the environmentally catastrophic 2019-23 regime of the far-right president Jair Bolsonaro, who was widely criticised for his sluggish response to Phillips and Pereira’s disappearances, calling their trip “an ill-advised adventure”. No date has been set for Silva Villar’s trial. Three local men accused of carrying out the murders and concealing the bodies are also in custody awaiting trial. Univaja published a statement saying it “receives the decision with respect”, adding that it “maintains its confidence in the competent institutions and hopes that the next steps will proceed with the seriousness, transparency and rigour required, in respect for the memory of Bruno and Dom, their families and society as a whole”.

Chilean lawmakers want ‘museum of truth’ to provide far-right take on Allende era

Far-right lawmakers in Chile have proposed the creation of a “museum of truth” to tell its own version of the years preceding Gen Augusto Pinochet’s bloody dictatorship – and emphasise the plight of what it calls the victims of Salvador Allende’s socialist government. According to the seven congresspeople from the far-right National Libertarian party who presented the bill, the museum would highlight the “outrage, hunger and humiliation” of Allende’s Popular Unity government. Allende was elected and took office in 1970, but his socialist government was beset by economic difficulties as inflation rose and supplies dwindled. He was overthrown by Pinochet’s CIA-backed coup d’état on 11 September 1973. The lawmakers claimed that their museum would “preserve the complete and true historical memory of the victims of supply shortages, political violence … [and] economic chaos” of the Allende period. The bill was presented by Johannes Kaiser, a former YouTuber who has erupted as a force on the extreme right of Chilean politics as the president of the National Libertarian party. In the first round of the presidential elections last year, Kaiser took 13.9% of the vote while eulogising the Pinochet dictatorship, under which thousands of Chileans were murdered, forcibly disappeared, tortured, imprisoned or forced into exile. Chile has lurched to the far right since José Antonio Kast, an ultraconservative Catholic father-of-nine, assumed the presidency in March, after a two-decade career railing against progressive values from the margins of frontline politics. The bill calls on Kast to create a museum, as well as compile testimonies and photography from the Allende years to elevate what the far-right claim are victims of his reforms. Kast has often publicly defended the legacy of the dictatorship, which continues to bitterly divide Chile. A 2023 survey found that 36% of Chileans approved of the Pinochet regime, which came to an end after losing a 1988 referendum, before democracy returned in 1990. A large and comprehensive national human rights and memory museum in the capital, Santiago, remembers the victims of the Pinochet regime. The text of the bill, which calls for the preservation of the “complete and true historical memory of its people, without ideological bias, without convenient omissions”, conveniently omits all mention of the CIA’s role in fomenting economic chaos in Chile and numerous attempts to bring down the Allende government at the height of cold war panic in Latin America. It will be submitted to a vote in the chamber of deputies in the coming days, and although it is non-binding, would result in a formal petition being made to Kast to initiate the creation of the museum.

KLM apologises after Paralympian denied onboard wheelchair on 11-hour flight

The Dutch airline KLM has offered “sincere apologies” to a Paralympic athlete who was denied access to an onboard wheelchair during a long-haul flight so she could go to the toilet. The cabin crew on the flight later called the police after the request from Hannah Babalola, 37, who is paraplegic and competes in track events, for the wheelchair, known as an aisle chair as it is narrow enough to be used inside a plane. They first handed her a written notice, headed: “Unacceptable conduct and final warning on behalf of the captain of this plane.” The incident happened on 26 May, when Babalola, who competes for Nigeria and lives in Chicago, was returning home from a wheelchair-racing event in South Africa. She had booked the KLM return flight from Chicago to Cape Town, via Amsterdam, as a wheelchair-using passenger. The outbound flight went smoothly, but as she began her return journey she was taken to the plane by wheelchair and asked by cabin crew, once she had boarded, if she would require an aisle chair during the flight. When she said she would – the flight to Amsterdam was almost 11 hours – the problems started. In a conversation with cabin crew and the captain that she asked permission to record, which was shown to the Guardian, a crew member can be heard saying they could not accept a passenger in need of an onboard chair as it was too dangerous to use during a flight in case of turbulence and that Babalola’s two options were to go to the toilet without using the wheelchair or to “offload” from the plane. “I needed to get home to Chicago to my family and to get to work and I couldn’t ‘offload’ from the flight,” Babalola said. Security was called by the cabin crew but declined to take any action against Babalola. When the flight landed in Amsterdam, the crew asked the police at the airport to be on standby, but they too declined to take action. Babalola transferred to a different connecting flight in Amsterdam to complete the journey to Chicago. She said: “I felt compelled to avoid eating or drinking for the duration of the flight because I feared needing to use the restroom and being unable to access it. I spent much of the flight trying to control my emotions and I found myself crying because of the way I had been treated. “This experience was humiliating, distressing, and degrading. The situation caused me significant physical discomfort and emotional distress. I believe that the manner in which I was treated raises serious concerns regarding discrimination and equal treatment. All passengers, regardless of disability or personal circumstances, deserve to be treated with dignity and respect.” Babalola made a formal complaint to KLM about her experience. A member of KLM’s customer service staff replied, stating: “It is very concerning to read about this experience, particularly the distress caused during boarding and throughout the flight. Your account describes a situation that must have felt deeply upsetting and unsettling, especially when travelling with an accessibility need and simply expecting appropriate assistance and respectful treatment.” They added: “A full review of the circumstances should now be carried out by the appropriate teams. This will typically include examining the reports submitted by the crew and any other relevant information available in relation to the flight. My sincere apologies are extended for the distress and upset this experience has caused.” The British Paralympian Anne Wafula Strike hit the headlines in 2017 when she was forced to wet herself on a train. The incident triggered a national debate about equal access to transport for people with disabilities. She said: “Nine years ago I was forced to wet myself on a train because there was no functioning accessible toilet. Almost a decade later, the experience of Hannah Babalola shows we still have a long way to go. It is upsetting that disabled people are having to fight the same battles over and over again just to access the rights that able-bodied passengers have.” A KLM spokesperson told the Guardian: “We regret that an incident occurred involving one of our passengers on the flight from Cape Town to Amsterdam on 26 May. Out of respect for the privacy of both the passenger and our crew, we find it inappropriate to discuss the details of the situation.”