Kuwait’s army says it is intercepting drone attacks from Iran, while Bahrain says warning sirens of an air raid are also sounding there. Both countries host American forces and have been targeted in Iran’s retaliatory strikes on US allies in the region.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy has dismissed Ukraine’s popular defence minister, despite pleas from foreign partners and civil society for him to keep his job, as part of wide-ranging government reshuffle. In a post on Telegram Mykhailo Fedorov announced that he was leaving his position, saying it had been a “great honour” to serve the Ukrainian people. He was widely credited with transforming the defence ministry and reducing corruption. His six months in office coincided with a dramatic improvement in Ukraine’s position on the battlefield. Kyiv has repeatedly hit Russian oil refineries with long-range drones, embarrassing Vladimir Putin and creating nationwide fuel shortages. In his farewell message Fedorov, 35, listed his achievements. They included disabling Starlink for Russian troops and procuring more drones, used to destroy “enemy logistics” and to isolate occupied Crimea. He said he had “radically improved” the procurement system, saving the state budget “billions of dollars”. On the day of his departure the minister revealed Ukraine’s military had successfully tested a ballistic missile. “We fundamentally revised the technical requirements and achieved maximum accuracy. We reduced the cost by 30%. Ukraine will enter a new league,” he said. It is unclear if Fedorov will get another cabinet post. On Wednesday Ukraine’s parliament accepted the resignation of prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko after Zelenskyy said his government needed a reset. Her replacement is likely to be Serhiy Koretskyi, the head of the energy company Naftogaz. Fedorov’s removal has outraged his supporters, and comes amid rumours of a feud with Ukraine’s commander in chief Col Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi . Friends of Ukraine, including the former US ambassador in Moscow, Michael McFaul, this week urged Zelenskyy to keep Fedorov in his post. Serhii Sternenko, an aide to the sacked minister, wrote bitterly: “It is a pity our country today is significantly further from victory. Real reforms have not even been allowed to begin, although we have still managed to bring about a great deal of change.” He complained of “deliberate delays” and “bureaucratic obstacles”. The opposition politician Iryna Gerashchenko condemned the move. Speaking in Ukraine’s parliament before the news was confirmed, she asked: “How is it that Zelenskyy’s only sensible appointment, Minister Fedorov, is in limbo today?” Online commentators were scathing. Within minutes of the announcement, thousands posted messages backing Fedorov. One wrote, bluntly: “I don’t understand this decision.” Another added: “A minister who gave hope to millions and showed what can happen when you are interested in the victory of your country.” The deputy director of the Politika thinktank, Artem Bronzhukov, described the rapid turnover of defence ministers in Ukraine as “abnormal” in a country fighting a large-scale war against an enemy such as Russia. He said Fedorov had visibly improved the situation on the frontline and beyond in “three or four months”. “The results are noticeable in middle strikes, where Ukraine has turned the Crimean peninsula into a virtual island. Against this background, there is a credit of trust in Mykhailo Fedorov. He is supported by our western partners, he is supported by the progressive part of society,” Bronzhukov told Radio NV.
Two political figures who previously held powerful government roles in Malta were accused of plotting to kill the journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia during court testimony on Wednesday. The allegations, against a former economy minister and a former chief of staff to the prime minister, were made during a chaotic day at the courts of justice in Valletta, where the businessman Yorgen Fenech is on trial for ordering the assassination of Caruana Galizia in 2017. The jury heard from brothers George and Alfred Degiorgio, underworld figures who confessed to planting the car bomb that killed the journalist and are serving 40-year sentences. The two men named the former economy minister Chris Cardona and Keith Schembri, who as the then chief of staff to the prime minister was Malta’s most powerful unelected government official, as “involved” in the murder. They also named an associate of Cardona, the lawyer David Gatt. First to give evidence was Alfred Degiorgio, who was brought from prison to testify. He told the court: “Before I testify, I want to say that Chris Cardona, David Gatt and Keith Schembri are involved in the murder”. Degiorgio did not elaborate further. He claimed he could not testify as he was contesting his sentence in the European court of human rights. Over the course of the morning, he was questioned by lawyers for the defence and for the prosecution. Each time, he responded saying: “I will not answer”. The judge, Edwina Grima, ordered Alfred Degiorgio’s arrest for contempt of court and arraigned him to return for a hearing on the matter within 48 hours. George Degiorgio testified in the afternoon, and the jury heard a series of detailed allegations. He claimed: “The murder started in 2015,” and later added “In 2015, it was Chris Cardona who gave me the orders.” Recalling the alleged earlier plot, he said: “I was at home. David Gatt called me and said he wanted to have a word. I went to the potato shed and we met there. He told me ‘Come with me, Cardona wants to speak to you’ … Cardona was at a bar, seated at a Red Bull table. We had a drink and he told me ‘I want you guys to kill Daphne’. I asked him who Daphne was, and he told me David [Gatt] would explain. “I told him it would cost €150,000 …” “I asked him [Cardona] who was involved and he said ‘me, Keith, the commissioner and someone else’. He said he didn’t know the other person.” George claimed Cardona wanted the journalist killed “because she’ll break our party”. Cardona and Schembri were members of the administration of the prime minister, Joseph Muscat, who as head of the Labour party, ended a long period of Nationalist party rule in 2013. By 2015, Caruana Galizia had published a number of investigations into Muscat’s administration. George claimed that after about five days, he was again taken to meet Cardona, who handed him €50,000 in cash. He said the recruited associates started spying on the journalist’s home but stopped after a police patrol car drove past their vantage point. He said he complained, and a few days later Cardona came and told him “You can continue, police won’t be passing from there any more.” Degiorgio told the court he assumed Cardona has spoken to the police commissioner. He alleged the murder plot was then stopped at the request of Gatt. “We knew where we were going to kill her … then David Gatt came and told us to stop everything because an election was coming, some early election.” The only elections held that year were council and European parliament elections, in April 2015. Degiorgio said the plan was to stop Caruana Galizia in the road and shoot her. When the plot was called off, he alleged Gatt told him to “keep the money, I’ll sort it out.” During his testimony, George avoided talking about the 2017 killing, citing his own challenge at the European court of human rights. However, he claimed Cardona and Schembri were also behind the 2017 plot, alleging it was confirmed by Cardona himself. Exchanges became heated when George was challenged by the prosecution about why he had not, during his previous sworn testimonies, named the two men in connection with the later 2017 plot. He shouted at the prosecution lawyer before turning to the jurors to say: “Be careful.” Judge Grima intervened, finding him guilty of contempt of court and fining him €500. “Make it €1,000 instead of €500,” Degiorgio shouted in response. Cardona, Schembri and Gatt have previously denied any involvement in Caruana Galizia’s death. In a statement released on Tuesday, Caruana Galizia’s family said: “The defence appears to be inviting the jury to consider whether responsibility of Daphne’s assassination lies elsewhere; that the mastermind is not Yorgen Fenech but rather Keith Schembri or Chris Cardona. But allegations alone are not evidence. “No sufficient evidence has been presented in court showing that Keith Schembri or Chris Cardona paid for Daphne’s assassination.” Transcripts and translation by Amphora Media
Friedrich Merz has warned Donald Trump’s administration against interfering in German elections after the US state department announced a scheme to fund Maga-aligned causes in Europe. The German chancellor was responding to a new US initiative offering grants of up to $3m (£2.2m) for European charities, thinktanks and individuals. The funding will be for those seeking to “address national sovereignty, migration, censorship, and lawfare challenges in line with shared political philosophy, law, and our common western civilizational heritage”. Amid growing concerns that the US is seeking to directly influence European politics, Merz said he did not want the US to interfere in German state elections in September. “For our part, we do not interfere in American elections,” he told a press conference on Wednesday. “Conversely, I do not want the American government or institutions close to the government to interfere in German elections.” Former US officials say the grant scheme is part of a months-long effort by the state department to repurpose US government funds to support far-right groups and potentially political parties in Europe. The language around who might be eligible to receive the money is ambiguous, one former state department official said. The announcement of the grants specifies that “individuals” and “governmental institution” (sic) can apply, without further detail as to whom or what these categories might include. Previous reporting has suggested that the state department under Trump is interested in funding political parties in Europe, but that it could be hampered by US laws around foreign assistance. On Wednesday, Merz highlighted that it is illegal to finance political parties in Germany from abroad. The former state department official said: “There seems to be an effort by the state department to put the thumb on the scale of elections in Europe, giving an unfair advantage to rightwing parties with resources that they would ordinarily not get.” The initiative follows in the wake of high-profile attacks on traditional allies in western European countries by US figures including the vice-president, JD Vance, on issues including migration, abortion and online safety initiatives. State department officials have also been busy forging links with European social conservative groups as well as far-right parties. In December, a new US national security strategy claimed Europe faced “civilisational erasure” and – in an apparent reference to populist movements – hailed the growing influence of “patriotic European parties”. And last month, the UK government rejected claims made by a senior US state department official at a rightwing conference in London that British police were making thousands of “freedom of speech” arrests. The allegation was made by Sarah B Rogers, who has become the public face of the US state department’s hostility to European liberal democracies and has previously been a guest of groups such as Britain’s Prosperity Institute, a think tank which campaigns from an economically libertarian and socially conservative perspective. Earlier this year, Rogers pledged $500,000 in US funding to “promote digital freedom” during a visit to Ireland. The Guardian has asked the Prosperity Institute if it is likely to apply for one of the state department’s “Developing Civilizational Bonds, Democratic Resilience, and Rule of Law in Europe” grants. The awards are being administered by a branch of the state department called the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. Though originally set up under President Jimmy Carter as an instrument of US policy during the cold war to challenge both Soviet and rightwing authoritarian regimes, it has been repurposed under the Trump administration. Other groups in Europe that could stand to gain from the grants include Britain’s Free Speech Union, which has campaigned on issues that have become conservative causes célèbres, and organisations that have lost out on financial support as a result of Viktor Orbán’s loss of power in Hungary.
Donald Trump has taken the war with Iran into a new, murkier phase as the two sides move further and further from the vague memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on 17 June. And as during the opening phase of the conflict, the US leader’s objectives and methods are clouded in confusion, daily U-turns and boasts that within hours are revealed to be false. Washington’s short-term aim is clear enough – to regain control of the strait of Hormuz from Iran – and the president seems willing to extend the bombing campaign from beyond Iran’s southern shores to achieve this. But the resumed fighting is also likely to push oil prices towards $90 a barrel, potentially taking Trump closer to defeats at the US midterm elections that could bequeath him a final two years as a lame, if angry, duck. In a sign of the strategic chaos, Trump proposed – then almost immediately abandoned – a suggestion that the US could charge tolls for clearing the strait, leaving it unclear if Washington had any vision for the future of the waterway. Many workable alternatives are available, including models based on the strait of Malacca or the Bosphorus and Dardanelles model, both of which have been discussed by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). Iran and Oman – the two littoral states – are willing to engage on these, but so derelict is the Washington policymaking machinery that the US has no proposal of its own to offer. In briefings on Tuesday, the White House insisted that the 20% US toll first announced by Trump the day before was a serious plan, claiming the president had been considering the proposal for a long time. Hours later, however, the product of Trump’s extensive cogitations was jettisoned after the scale of the revolt from shipping firms, members of his own administration and the region became apparent. That ever such an idea was even proposed is deeply embarrassing, since so many European leaders (and US officials) were on record saying freedom of navigation was a cornerstone of the rules-based order and a pillar of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, had previously argued that tolls were not compatible with international law. Only last week the 40-strong IMO council – of which the US is an active member – passed a motion reaffirming “that passage through the strait should remain free of any tolls and charges”. Addressing the IMO council meeting in London, the US ambassador to the UK, Warren A Stephens, vowed: “The US will continue to champion freedom of navigation and the rule of law – the bedrock principles without which international trade cannot function. The United States will defend these principles vigorously, in every forum, including this one. The IMO must be a forum where the rule of law is upheld – not a venue where coercive powers can exploit procedural gaps to advance their strategic interests.” He added: “The United States is committed to this organisation and to the principles it represents. But we will also speak honestly about the threats to the rules-based maritime order. A free and open ocean is not guaranteed. It must be defended – through strong standards, strong partnerships and the willingness to call out those who seek to undermine it.” Trump tried to cover his ignominious tracks by claiming conversations with Gulf leaders showed they were now willing to make substantial investment in the US economy. But it seemed a tenuous cover story, even by his standards: the commitment to invest in the US looks entirely unbankable, as fictional as the $350bn recovery plan referenced in the US-Iran ceasefire agreement. With the toll off the agenda for now, none of Trump’s remaining options look good. His single greatest political weakness is that he is still having to use force to reopen the strait of Hormuz – a waterway that was accessible until the point he decided to take Benjamin Netanyahu’s advice, leave the negotiating table and attack Iran. After nearly five months of war, Trump is in a worse position than when he started. About 6,000 sailors are still trapped in the strait, which remains controlled by the government in Tehran, which has drawn strength from the Iranian public’s farewell to its assassinated supreme leader. The idea, laid out in the memorandum, that the two sides will agree on the future of Iran’s nuclear programme by 17 August looks entirely fanciful. Meanwhile, Iran appears to have plentiful supplies of weaponry and continues to pummel US bases in Kuwait, Jordan and Bahrain. The latest US administration estimate of the costs of the war, including damage to the bases, is put at $100bn. When the memorandum was signed a month ago, Trump effectively admitted the military option had not achieved its purpose. If the strait remained closed for much longer there was a serious risk of a global recession, he said, telling CNBC that he did not want to be “a president with a depression on his resume”. But now the advocates of war are back. Rob Malley, a former US nuclear negotiator, said: “On both sides, there are groups that believe they can bear the costs of escalating tensions and, more importantly, must prove this ability to the other side.” US hawks still believe Iran will crumble if the reinstated blockade of its ports makes it impossible to export oil. In Tehran, the chief negotiator Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf has been allowed to purge his biggest critics inside the parliament. But Ghalibaf is still under daily pressure to explain the purpose of negotiating with a counter party that treats solemn and binding agreements like passing street litter. What is worse, Trump’s team cannot articulate a strategy for the strait. Joe Biden’s national security adviser Philip Gordon pointed out: “If the United States did not want Iran to take control of the strait, it should not have agreed to a document stating that ‘the Islamic Republic of Iran will make the necessary arrangements for the safe passage of ships’ or that ‘no fees will be charged for 60 days only’. Iran’s attacks on shipping are outrageous, but so was the US failure to clarify what it expected in exchange for the massive financial relief the MoU promised.” In retrospect it would have made more sense for the US to leave Iran largely in control for 60 days, and insist Tehran get on with demining, rather than trying to speed the process of ships leaving the strait by opening up a new southern route close to the Oman coast. The debate about the strait is becoming a wider one about security in the Gulf. Writing in Le Monde, Sayyid Badr Albusaidi, the Oman foreign minister, argued that the whole premise of Washington’s Iran policy was flawed. “The combination of excessive local defence spending, the expansion of US bases in the Gulf and an over-the-horizon protective presence was developed and maintained at great cost but to very little real purpose. “The war has revealed that containment was a myth, a reality acknowledged now even by those who had previously been persuaded that more than 45 years of costly containment was a necessary evil. The gravest threats to the security of the Gulf come not from within the Gulf itself but from decisions and actions taken outside it, above all in Tel Aviv.”
Iran threatened to halt all energy exports from the Middle East after the US reimposed a blockade of its ports and ships, as the two countries traded strikes for a fifth day and Donald Trump threatened to attack a site linked to Iran’s nuclear programme while he weighed further expanding US strikes next week. The US blockade came into force early on Wednesday, and was followed by a 90-minute wave of strikes against Iran’s coastal defence systems and missile sites, according to the US military. Iranian authorities said the previous day of US strikes had killed at least seven troops, and wounded more than 300 people – the highest casualty count of any recent round of violence between the two countries. At least 30 civilians have been killed by US strikes in southern Iran in recent days, according to the Iranian government spokesperson Fatemeh Mohajerani. The strikes came as Trump suggested the US could widen attacks against Iran to force open the strait of Hormuz, with the US president warning that he would hit “Pickaxe Mountain” – a fortified underground facility linked to Iran’s disputed nuclear programme. “We’re going to take out Pickaxe Mountain. Tell the Iranians to be ready,” Trump said in an interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show. The facility was not hit in the last two wars. The US strikes and renewed blockade prompted Iran to shut the strait of Hormuz and carry out a wave of retaliatory airstrikes on countries hosting US bases in the region. “Regional energy exports are either shared by all or denied to all,” Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared in a statement on Wednesday. It added that the strait would remain closed until the “end of America’s evils”, further disrupting shipping in the waterway that before the war was a chokepoint for a fifth of the world’s oil and gas. Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Kazem Gharibabadi, said the renewed US blockade had “in a way, dismantled the Islamabad memorandum”, the interim deal that, among other things, was meant to keep the strait open and give space for negotiations towards a permanent peace. US aircraft fired missiles into an oil tanker’s smokestack in the strait of Hormuz on Wednesday, disabling the vessel, the US Central Command (Centcom) said. It later announced another wave of strikes, which it said were “targeting Iranian military capabilities used to threaten vessels freely transiting through the strait of Hormuz”. The flare-up in violence and disruption to shipping further drove up the price of oil, with the price of crude on Wednesday continuing to rise past the one-month high reached on Tuesday. Shipping companies were avoiding transiting the strait through a US military programme meant to keep commerce flowing, Reuters reported, after continued Iranian attacks prompted safety concerns. The US said Iran had attacked seven commercial ships in the strait last week, with almost a dozen crew members killed, missing or injured. Iran also launched airstrikes on Bahrain, Jordan and Kuwait, countries that host US forces. Jordan said it intercepted three ballistic missiles from Iran on Wednesday, while Kuwait said it was working to extinguish a fire caused by Iranian attacks. The US military said it targeted Iranian defence and missile sites on the Greater Tunb island in the strait of Hormuz, as well as the barracks for Iran’s mechanised brigade in Sistan and Balochistan province, Iranian state TV reported. Iran’s army vowed a “decisive response to this aggressive action by the American enemy”. The dispute over the strait threatened to pull the region back into a total war. “Next week it gets really bad for them because next week comes the power plants. Next week comes the bridges,” the US president said in a Fox News interview on Tuesday. “We’re going to knock out all their power plants. We’re going to knock out all their bridges unless they get to the table and negotiate.” Targeting civilian infrastructure without a clear military target could constitute a war crime. Axios, citing three sources, reported that Trump held a situation room meeting on Tuesday to discuss a massive offensive against Iran in order to force Tehran to reopen the strait. Trump said US negotiators had been in touch with their Iranian counterparts to tell them to make a deal, while saying the US would save energy targets for last but would ultimately hit them. Trump made similar comments in March, when he threatened to “obliterate” Iran’s power stations and fresh water plants if Tehran did not agree to peace terms “shortly”. Trump backtracked from a threat earlier this week that ships would have to pay a 20% fee to the US for “security” in the strait, replacing it with what he described as investment and trade deals with Gulf Arab states. The US president said he had decided to scrap the toll “based on highly productive conversations with Middle East leadership”, and touted “massive” investments, just five hours before the toll was due to come into effect. In Rome, Lebanon and Israel completed a new round of negotiations which was described as “positive” by the US. A US official said both sides had agreed to implement the “pilot zone” scheme, which would see Israeli troops withdraw from certain areas in south Lebanon and be replaced by the Lebanese army, which will be tasked with safeguarding the areas from Hezbollah. “Talks concluded after two days of productive and positive discussions,” a US official said in a statement. He added that the participants “agreed on the structure and guidelines for the pilot zone process, to be finalised and implemented in the coming days”. Israel occupies more than 600 sq km (230 sq miles) of land in south Lebanon, which it has labelled a “security zone” to protect residents of northern Israel. The Israeli military has destroyed dozens of villages in the areas it occupies, something Human Rights Watch said could amount to a war crime. The Lebanese delegation is seeking the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Lebanon, something unlikely to happen in the short term. Hezbollah, which is not a party to the talks, has made it clear that they view the dialogue process as illegitimate. With Agence France-Presse
Smoke from more than 100 active wildfires in northern Ontario have made Toronto’s air quality the current worst in the world and caused yellow, smoky air in cities across the north-east US. Environment Canada issued health warnings on Wednesday after the sky over country’s largest city turned a sickly yellow and was ranked the worst in the world according to IQAir, the Swiss technology company that racks global air quality. The city is also suffering a heatwave that shattered a three-decade record after reaching 37.3C in the downtown core, with runways at its main international airport hitting 55C. The wildfires burning across northwestern Ontario have prompted mandatory evacuations from a number of First Nations communities. Striking video footage of a train near the community of Armstrong, Ontario, highlighted the speed and ferocity of the fires. “This could potentially overtake us here … This has gotten a little scary,” says a crew member as a wall of flames whips across the windows. “We’re encased in flames now.” The railway company Canadian National confirmed the crew had been “safely evacuated” from the area. Other images showed families fleeing their homes by boat against the backdrop of massive plumes of smoke. “My family hometown, Collins Ontario, is GONE,” Nadya Kwandibens, a photographer, posted on social media. Residents of Namaygoosisagagun First Nation said they had only minutes warning before fleeing across Collins Lake in the northwest part of the province. “What we are witnessing right now is devastating,” said Sol Mamakwa, a member of the province’s New Democratic party. “An entire First Nation community has been erased because of this disaster. With wildfires closing highways and threatening communities across the north, we urge everyone to follow the guidance of emergency officials and remain prepared in case evacuations are necessary. “Collins has burned to the ground. This is a tragedy and we are grateful that everyone got out safely,” said Lise Vaugeois, the provincial representative for the region. “Fires are part of a natural cycle, but the extreme temperatures we are experiencing across the county and the growing severity of weather events are indicators of climate change.” CNN reported that air quality alerts due to spoke have been issued across large parts of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, and that thicker smoke is forecast to move over New York, Washington and other cities across the eastern seaboard later in the week.
… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today! Lithuanian (10:06) and Latvian (13:07) presidents warned that they were picking up intelligence that Russia could be looking to conduct targeted strikes or acts of sabotage against critical infrastructure on Nato’s eastern flank. Russia dismissed the warnings as “scare stories” (11:59), but separately warned that any foreign troops that could be deployed to Ukraine as part of a peace deal would be seen by it as “legitimate targets” (15:52). The exchange comes as the EU and Ukraine agreed on a new defence partnership, including a drone deal (12:52, 16:54), and EU ministers continued talks on the 21st package of sanctions against Russia (11:36). European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen received the inaugural Ukrainian Order of Europe in Kyiv, with Zelenskyy thanking her for support for Kyiv’s ambitions to join the EU (12:43). The Ukrainian president also appeared to endorse the head of the state energy company Naftogaz Sergii Koretsky to be Ukraine’s next prime minister, after Yulia Svyrydenko’s resignation earlier this week (16:25). Meanwhile, German chancellor Friedrich Merz defended his proposal for an associate EU membership for Ukraine, warning the bloc could lose its credibility if it didn’t move quickly enough to accept new members (14:46). Speaking at his annual summer press conference, Merz also defended his government’s track record on both domestic and foreign policy, playing down the prospect of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland winning in the upcoming regional elections (14:01). Merz also warned the US against using its proposed grant programmes to support far-right movements in Germany, saying “we do not interfere in American elections” (14:53). And, finally, Hungary’s former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó, a close Viktor Orbán associate who faced criticism over his ties with Moscow, has stepped down as an MP to take a senior executive role at the Chinese carmaker BYD (15:20), prompting mockery and criticism from the country’s new prime minister, Péter Magyar (16:08). 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.