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Needless suffering of unsheared sheep | Brief letters

Your article (Milk, wine, salad: how your food will be affected by the summer of heat, 14 August) downplays the effect on sheep of not being sheared. Imagine being out in the open all day in your heavy winter coat. But the UK government has refused temporary visas for New Zealand shearers to augment our undermanned teams of UK shearers. It is not just a case of the sheep being “uncomfortable”, but a serious matter of animal welfare, including diseases such as flystrike. Catherine Mowat London • As of April 2026, Clacton had 10,442 Pip claimants. Runcorn (MP Sarah Pochin) and Boston and Skegness (MP Richard Tice) both have similar numbers. I hope that voters in those seats know about Reform UK’s proposals on benefits (Reform accused of targeting the most vulnerable with £50bn benefit cut, 16 August). Adam Moliver Cheltenham • I appreciate the humour in Helen Ryan’s suggestion that Nigel Farage would qualify for consideration as “invertebrate of the year” (Letters, 16 August), but I must point out that this comparison is a gross insult to slugs, worms, cockroaches etc. Phil Coughlin Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear • As Richard Tice encourages us to enjoy English sparkling wine instead of trying to mitigate the climate crisis (Report, 17 August), could this be Reform UK’s Marie Antoinette moment, considering the deaths, droughts, fires and water shortages affecting so many? Deirdre Burrell Mortimer, Berkshire • I can’t see “apranxiety” catching on – too ugly and too many syllables (Letters, 17 August). I’d suggest “climate fear” – blunter and shorter. Alec Murdoch Edinburgh • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Death and alleged torture of man in detention sparks protests in Syria

Syrians have protested over the death of a man who was arrested and allegedly beaten by security forces, sparking widespread anger at a practice thought to have ended with the fall of Bashar al-Assad. A crowd gathered in the city of Aleppo, demanding accountability for the security forces who are alleged to have carried out the torture, with participants holding signs and slogans such as: “Do not repeat the same oppression that we revolted against.” Protests were also planned to take place in front of Syria’s parliament in Damascus on Tuesday, as well. Mohammad Ghamira, a 29-year-old father of two and former volunteer in the White Helmets, had visited a police station in the coastal province of Latakia last week after an accusation of theft. Ghamira emerged from the station in a critical condition, and died in hospital on Sunday from “complications from cerebral and gastrointestinal haemorrhaging” that “resulted from a beating he sustained after being detained”, said Raed al-Saleh, the former head of the White Helmets and current Syrian minister of emergency and disaster management. A picture of Ghamira pre-detention, smiling and healthy, next to another picture of him unconscious in a hospital bed with bruises on his body, went viral, sparking outrage in Syria. Ghamira’s parents told the police station chief prior to their son’s detention that he had haemophilia, a disease which makes it hard to stop bleeding once started, and asked them not to beat him. Even with the warning, Ghamira was beaten while in custody, Issam Ghamira, the man’s uncle, told Syrian state media. The Syrian interior ministry promised accountability for Ghamira, forming a committee to investigate his death and detaining seven members of the interior ministry for questioning. The interior minister, Anas Khattab, vowed a “fair punishment” after the conclusion of the investigation. “I confirm that any violation or abuse by the elements of the ministry of interior will be dealt with firmly within the laws and procedures followed and any violator will receive his fair punishment,” Khattab said in a post on X. The interior minister spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba acknowledged issues in the ministry, but promised that justice would be served. Al-Baba said that the investigative committee met with family members on Tuesday and informed them of the progress of the investigation. Despite the promises of accountability, Syrians were incensed by the allegations of torture, enraged that the practice continued even after the 14-year revolution aimed at stopping such brutality. Al-Assad’s regime used mass detention and torture on a systematic scale to control its population, accelerating its brutality when protests broke out against the government in 2011. The current government, made up mostly of former members of the Islamist rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), overthrew al-Assad in a lightning offensive in December 2024. It promised an end to the atrocities committed under the police state that al-Assad oversaw, dismantling the dense network of security agencies that oversaw the country. However, rights groups have alleged that torture continues to be used in Syrian detention centres, and that the policy of abuse is being rebuilt. Syrians for Truth and Justice documented 14 cases of individuals being tortured or dying in custody from June 2025 to June 2026, and said that “the change in political authority has not yet been accompanied by the effective dismantling of the structures and practices that enable torture”. STJ collected testimonies that showed severe beatings, electric shocks, humiliation, threats, deprivation of basic necessities by Syrian security forces across different agencies, often seemingly motivated by sectarian discrimination. The rights group pointed to a lack of oversight and accountability for militias and members of the security forces as an explanation for the persistence of torture in Syria, rather than a centralised policy of torture originating from security agencies themselves. It contrasted this with al-Assad’s regime, where torture was not due to gaps in law, but state policy itself. The report echoed the findings of the UN independent commission of inquiry in March, which documented torture and abuse in 30 official and makeshift detention facilities across Syria in 2025. Civil society groups called for protests and demanded accountability, pointing to the sacrifices of those who died under torture fighting for freedom in Syria. “So many sacrificed dearly for freedom and dignity, to close the dark chapter of their country’s history and to end these practices forever,” said Diab Serieh of the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison. “Justice for [Ghamira], and for all those forcibly disappeared and under torture in detention, remains an unwavering demand that we will never abandon.”

Belgian firefighters push to encircle ‘largest wildfire in a century’ – as it happened

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.