Read the daily news to learn English

Can hybrid village stores answer rural Germany’s ‘cry for help’ and fend off far right?

Once upon a time, every German village had its own Tante Emma laden (Aunt Emma shop), a family-run hub of community life where local people bought their groceries at affordable prices and shot the breeze with their neighbours. But in recent years the loose network of small businesses throughout Europe’s biggest economy has come under huge pressure from staffing shortages, competition from supermarket chains and rising inflation, which the Iran war has again sent surging. Concerned that the creeping death of the stores is also fuelling the rural disaffection that has driven many voters to political extremes, governments in several regions have stepped in with some 21st-century innovation. In Rhineland-Palatinate, where the far-right Alternative für Deutschland came third with nearly 20% in a state election in March – a record in a west German region – officials are seeking to root out the wellsprings of the party’s appeal in rural areas. Under a pilot programme known as hybrid village stores, existing businesses are being retrofitted so villagers over the age of 18 can shop out of hours autonomously: letting themselves in with an electronic fob or card, shopping and paying on their own. Because they are available to customers at all hours with lower labour costs, the shops make more money and are able to stay afloat. Irmtraut Ehtechame, 68, is the manager of the Dorfladen village shop that went hybrid in December in Seibersbach, a tidy community of 1,200 residents in the verdant Hunsrück hills. She said a range of factors beyond her control had previously threatened her business’s future. “I had written a cry for help that our shop wasn’t going to make it because we kept slipping into the red, between energy price hikes from the Ukraine war and the minimum wage increase [which rose to €13.90 an hour this year],” she said. “Last year and the year before it was really touch and go with the shop and so we decided to try something new.” Ehtechame, with her husband and business partner, Hamid, offers a full selection of staples from a major supplier, paired with specialty items including locally produced sausages, mustards and cheeses and crisp white wines from the nearby Moselle region. “We want customers to be able to buy everything on their list because if they go elsewhere for one or two products then they’ll buy the rest there,” she said. The nearest big supermarket is about 10km away. “Some say the food tastes better when they buy it here.” Over kaffee und kuchen (coffee and cake) on the shop’s sunny terrace off the village square, Ehtechame admitted that even with six security cameras on the premises, the shift to allowing villagers to come and go as they please in her shop was initially a leap of faith. But it ended up paying off, with no thefts or vandalism reported during the unstaffed hours. Frank Wilhelm, 66, a retired auto mechanic, said it did not take much for him and his fellow shoppers to get used to the new system. “It’s quite easy,” he said as he demonstrated how his plastic customer card gains him entry to the store he has frequented for more than three decades. “I love the freedom of being able to shop really early, before everyone is up, and if I’ve forgotten something at night or friends drop by, I can pop in to pick up some drinks and snacks.” But the best part for him is knowing that an anchor of community life will endure. “I still prefer to shop here when it’s staffed and see the ladies,” he said, nodding to Ehtechame and her team of cashiers. Wilhelm and a group of friends who call themselves the “robust retirees” regularly deliver supplies from the shop to their elderly neighbours, such as a case of bottled water or a sack of potting soil too heavy for them to carry. “And we meet here at the shop once a week after planting flowers or cleaning up the village square flower beds, to keep the centre looking pretty. Then we drink a coffee and have a bite here on the terrace of the shop and watch people come and go.” Volker Bulitta, 69, who received Ehtechame’s “cry for help”, leads an advisory programme sponsored by the Rhineland-Palatinate government aimed at shoring up rural businesses. It has spearheaded the hybrid village shops in the region. He said stores like Seibersbach’s would not survive without state aid in areas too remote for online deliveries. But the dividends paid are well worth the one-off investment to revamp the shops, usually costing between €30,000 and €50,000. Bulitta, whose background is in management consulting, said the idea was never to make the stores fully automated. “Then you wouldn’t have this character of the meeting place any more,” he said. Rhineland-Palatinate has backed four hybrid village stores since early 2025 with Bulitta’s guidance, with 40 more to come pending approval from the new conservative-led state government, after initial reports found a rise in customer satisfaction and a boost in profits of up to 20%. Several states including Bavaria, Baden-Württemberg and Lower Saxony have tried similar schemes, as big retail chains roll out various models of autonomous shopping in other regions. “The good news is that the hybrid systems are getting cheaper – we assume that in two or three years they’ll cost maybe 20% less,” Bulitta said. The state currently assumes 90% of the transformation costs, which he also sees as a step toward banishing the spectre of “dead villages” – a fear the AfD often stokes. Cashier Tanja Behr, 55, said she had been “very sceptical” about the change at the store where she had worked for 16 years: “What sets us apart is actually talking to customers and listening to them. I had this feeling that we’d lose that personal touch with customers.” By concentrating staffing during peak shopping hours, however, Behr said the new system allowed her to catch up with her regular patrons with a minimal – and she said, welcome – reduction in her working time. “The customers are delighted about it every single day. And that’s just naturally a joy for me to hear,” she said. “And we cashiers wanted to cut back our hours a bit so it all worked out well.” About 57% of German residents – 47 million people – live in rural areas, according to the publicly funded Thünen institute. The regions are often marked by a lack of access to high-speed internet and sufficient public transportation among other key services, compounding a sense of isolation and abandonment. Daniel Posch, a researcher at Berlin’s Bertelsmann Foundation thinktank, has been looking at how effective regional policy can counter political polarisation and weaken support for the far right. Saving village stores can help restore community stability shaken by rapid change, he said. “I’m not sure if it immediately can win back voters, but it can make some space where everyday interactions recreate this kind of infrastructure for democracy. Denser local networks contribute to a more nuanced, less polarised and less radicalised electorate.”

‘Every health facility said they were full’: fear that spread of Ebola in DRC is gathering pace

The warnings from aid groups and healthcare workers in the Democratic Republic of Congo have been stark, their calls for coordinated international action impassioned. As the country reels from the return of Ebola virus, there is growing concern that its fragile healthcare system will struggle to cope with an outbreak that experts say goes well beyond the number of confirmed cases. “The speed at which this Ebola outbreak is spreading is deeply worrying,” said Rose Tchwenko, the DRC country director at the NGO Mercy Corps, on Thursday. “The risk of wider spread is real, and more regional and global support is urgently needed.” Hama Amado, a field coordinator in the city of Bunia for the Alima aid group, warned that the virus was gaining momentum and spreading in many areas. “Everyone must mobilise,” he told Associated Press on the same day. “We are still far from saying that the situation is under control.” It has been a week since the DRC reported its 17th outbreak of Ebola, a viral disease with a mortality rate of between about 25% and 90% that spreads through body fluids or contaminated materials and causes organ damage, blood vessel impairment and sometimes severe internal and external bleeding. Nearly 750 suspected cases and 177 suspected deaths have been recorded since the first known victim died in Bunia, the capital of Ituri province in the country’s north-west, on 24 April. Mourners touched him during a funeral in the nearby town of Mongbwalu, and the virus spread from there. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities have quickly become overwhelmed. Trish Newport, an emergency programme manager at Médecins Sans Frontières, said a team had identified suspected cases over the weekend at Bunia’s Salama hospital but found no available isolation ward in the area. “Every health facility they called said: ‘We’re full of suspect cases. We don’t have any space,’” she said on social media. “This gives you a vision of how crazy it is right now.” *** Several factors are impeding the aid response, including the strain of the virus, for which there is no approved treatment or vaccine, the remote and conflict-scarred location of the outbreak, and local funeral customs at odds with strict disease-control practice. All this is set against the backdrop of big shortfalls in aid budgets, driven in large part by the Trump administration’s decision to slash foreign aid. According to a study by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) earlier this year, more than half of health facilities surveyed in North and South Kivu provinces – where cases have also been reported – suffered physical damage or destruction and nearly half had reported significant staff departures since January 2025 due to conflict and insecurity. Two incidents this week laid bare some of the aggravating factors. On Tuesday, at least 17 people were killed in an attack by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a militant group operating in eastern DRC and parts of Uganda, on several villages near the town of Mambasa in Ituri. “We are facing a double war: one of weapons and another of the disease outbreak,” said Zawadi Jeanne, a woman from the town who lost her brother and uncle in an ADF attack a month ago. On Thursday, a crowd set fire to a treatment centre in Rwampara, near Bunia, after authorities refused to give them the dead body of a victim they wanted to bury themselves. The process of burying the bodies, which can be highly contagious, is handled by authorities for containment of the disease, but some families prefer traditional burials, which involve washing and touching the body and have in previous outbreaks been proven to be key drivers of the disease’s spread. The incident highlighted the struggle that authorities in the DRC can face in enforcing safe burials. Batakura Zamundu Mugeni, a local customary chief who was present at the scene in Rwampara, told Agence France-Presse that authorities were working with health officials to track down any patients who might have fled, as well as contact cases. He blamed the unrest on “young people who do not grasp the reality of the disease”. On Friday the province banned funeral wakes and said burials must now be conducted only by specialised teams. It also prohibited the transport of dead bodies by non-medical vehicles and limited public gatherings to a maximum of 50 people. Instructions to avoid physical contact more generally are hampered by a strong culture of expressing affection through touch. “We live in a society where shaking hands is on the menu every day,” said Jackson Lubula, who lives in Bunia. “With this disease, anything is possible. A small mistake can cost you dearly, so I decided to wash my hands with soap every time after each greeting.” Reports from across the affected areas add to the impression that the virus has been spreading unnoticed. A rapid needs assessment carried out by ActionAid in the Bunia, Nizi and Nyankunde areas found that nearly a third of schools had registered at least one suspected Ebola case or close contact. People in Rwampara said the disease struck suddenly, and that early symptoms were mistaken for illnesses such as malaria. Botwine Swanze, who lost her son, told a reporter for Associated Press: “He told me his heart was hurting. Then he started crying because of the pain. Then he started bleeding and vomiting a lot.” *** Dr Núria Carrera Graño, a clinician with ICRC who has provided services in two previous Ebola outbreaks, described the situation in the DRC as a humanitarian, political and security crisis resulting from cumulative and unfortunate events. She said responders should use lessons from the past outbreaks on the importance of international cooperation and coordination. “We don’t have time to lose,” she said. To control the outbreak, the DRC government is working with medics who have experience in handling the disease. Dr Richard Kojan, an intensive care clinician with Alima who has provided services in several Ebola outbreaks, said there were many similarities between that outbreak and this one, including late discovery, insufficient resources for responding, and the lack of a vaccine at the outset. “The outbreak is out of control,” he said from Kinshasa, the DRC’s capital, earlier this week before a trip to Ituri to support colleagues on the ground. In the absence of a vaccine and approved treatment for the Bundibugyo strain of the virus, Kojan said, medics were working to optimise the standard of intensive care for patients and put in place surveillance and contact tracing for suspected cases. “If they are admitted to the treatment centre early, the viral load will be low in their samples, and then with optimised care, they will have a high probability of surviving,” he said. The Alima team is also deploying a portable treatment unit called Cube, a transparent plastic structure that allows interaction between patients and their relatives and medics without the need to wear personal protective equipment. Kojan came up with the concept after his experience with Ebola in the 2014-16 outbreak. As the virus spreads, increasing numbers of people in Bunia are discovering that they have friends and relatives who have fallen vicim, fuelling their anxiety. “The mere thought of the name ‘Ebola’ scares me,” said Jeanne, who has a nephew in a health facility in Rwampara. But she remains optimistic. “God is the one who knows what’s ahead,” she said. “I tell myself that the disease will spread but not to an alarming level. We can just hope for the best.”

Ukraine war briefing: Putin promises revenge after blaming Kyiv for Luhansk attack he says killed six

Russian President Vladimir Putin has blamed Ukraine for what he described as a deadly drone attack on a student dorm in Luhansk, a Russian-controlled region in eastern Ukraine, and has vowed to retaliate. Ukraine’s military denied the Russian accusations and said it had struck an elite drone command unit in the area. The Russian president said in a statement, carried by state TV on Friday, that he had ordered his military to prepare options to retaliate for the attack in Starobilsk that killed six people and wounded dozens, with 15 people still unaccounted for. He said Kyiv’s military must have known what it was targeting. At a UN security council emergency meeting called by Russia, Melnyk Andrii, the Ukrainian ambassador to the UN, rejeced his Russian counterparts’ accusations of war crimes, calling them a “pure propaganda show”. He added that the operations on Friday “exclusively targeted the Russian war machine” with strikes neutralising an oil refinery, “which was fuelling occupation forces, ammunition depots, air defence assets, and also command centres.” The Czech president, Petr Pavel, has urged Nato to “show its teeth” in response to Russia’s repeated testing of the alliance’s resolve on its eastern flank, suggesting a range of options including switching off its internet, cutting off its banks from global financial systems and shooting down jets that violate allied airspace. Speaking to the Guardian in Prague, Pavel called for “decisive enough, potentially even asymmetric” responses to counter Moscow’s provocative behaviour against the alliance or risk the Kremlin intensifying its actions. The UN’s nuclear watchdog said on Friday that Ukrainian authorities had advised that a fire had broken out at the Dniprovska 750-kilovolt electrical substation due to military activity, causing a nuclear power station to be partially disconnected from off-site power. The International Atomic Energy Agency said firefighters were tackling the fire but an operating nuclear power plant was partially disconnected from its off site power supplies at the request of the grid operator. Falling debris from drones has triggered a fire at an oil terminal in Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, injuring two people and damaging several technical and administrative buildings, officials said early on Saturday. The injured men had been in the street when the drones attacked the port and were being treated in hospital. Ukrainian forces on Friday also attacked a Russian oil refinery in Yaroslavl, about 700km from the border. The Ukrainian Defence Ministry said on X on Friday that Ukraine hit 11 Russian oil facilities this month as of 21 May, including Kirishi, one of Russia’s largest refineries. Hundreds of Ukrainians have marched through Kyiv to demand that the government veto a bill they say could prematurely declare missing soldiers dead. The protest in Ukraine’s capital on Friday targeted Bill No. 13646 which addresses the legal status of missing persons. More than 90,000 people are listed as missing in Ukraine’s registry. US troop numbers in Europe are expected to drop from 80,000 after a review reflecting wider commitments, US secretary of state Marco Rubio said on Friday. In Helsingborg, Sweden for a Nato foreign ministers meeting, Rubio said it was “well understood in the alliance that the United States’ troop presence in Europe is going to be adjusted … you know, we have obligations in the Indo-Pacific, we have obligations in the Middle East, we have obligations in the western hemisphere”. Last week, the Pentagon said it would halt the rotation of 4,000 more into Poland, only for Trump to apparently reverse that on Thursday night on social media, in a hasty announcement that appeared to catch the Pentagon by surprise. A bipartisan group of US senators is pushing back on delays by the Department of Defense in sending about $600m in security aid to Ukraine and other allies in eastern Europe. They sent a letter to defense secretary Pete Hegseth on Friday that calls for the funding to be disbursed. Friction has grown between Congress and the Trump administration in recent weeks as lawmakers push for updates on what has happened to $400m in Ukraine aid and $200m more for defense programs in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that was allocated by Congress last year.

Qatar sends mediators to Tehran in sign talks to reopen strait of Hormuz are reaching climax

Qatar has rushed a team of mediators to Tehran in a sign that talks to open the strait of Hormuz, in return for the lifting of US sanctions and asset freezes, are reaching a climax. The aim would be to sign a memorandum of understanding on the strait that would lead to 30 days of talks on Iran’s nuclear programme – so deferring discussion of the US demand that Iran hand over its stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Until now, Qatar, often seen as the most skilled mediator in the Middle East, has not been directly acting as a go-between in the US-Iran conflict, leaving the task initially to Oman and more recently to Pakistan. The head of the Pakistan army, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was also expected in Tehran, but Iran was playing down reports of a breakthrough. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said that while there had been “a little progress”, the US would not accept Iran being given a power to impose tolls on commercial shipping through the strait of Hormuz. He said Pakistan remained the main interlocutor for the US. The latest diplomatic moves came amid US media reports that the US is weighing new military strikes on Iran, although both Axios and CBS said that a final decision had not been been made. The reports emerged hours after Trump said he would not travel to attend his son’s wedding this weekend due to “circumstances pertaining to government” and his “love for the United States of America.” Iran has set up a Persian Gulf Strait Authority (PGSA) that would impose tolls, as well as direct shipping on to specific waterways, but the US insists tolls cannot be an option. Anwar Gargash, a senior diplomatic adviser to the United Arab Emirates, warned Iran might be over-negotiating, saying they “have a tendency to overestimate their cards”. Pakistan’s interior minister, Mohsen Naqvi, met the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, for the second time in two days on Friday morning. It is thought Pakistan might try to bring in China as a guarantor of any deal. Pakistan’s prime minister, Shehbaz Sharif, is due in Beijing on Saturday. Iran has emphasised that it is seeking to postpone all talks on its nuclear programme and focus instead on a permanent cessation of hostilities, which it hopes will include a phased lifting of US sanctions, the unfreezing of frozen Iranian assets, compensation for US-Israeli war damage, and commitments not to resort to force in future. The future management of the strait of Hormuz is a key point of dispute, with Pakistan floating plans for joint control under UN auspices. Five Gulf states have written a letter to the International Maritime Authority, a global shipping watchdog, urging merchant and commercial ships not to engage with the PGSA. Thesignatories are Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The list does not include Oman, but Oman, which under the proposal would be the authority on the south side of the strait, is wary of Tehran’s proposal. In their letter, the five states warn: “Iran’s purported route should be seen for what it is, an attempt to control traffic through the strait by forcing vessels to use a route within its territorial waters, which can be exploited for monetary gain through the imposition of toll fees. “Any understanding or recognition of Iran’s proposed route and PGSA as an alternative would set a dangerous precedent.” At a Nato foreign ministers meeting in Sweden, Rubio said: “Iran is trying to create a tolling system. They’re trying to convince Oman … to join them in a tolling system in an international waterway. There is not a country in the world that should accept that.” He again expressed his disappointment at Europe’s refusal to do more to keep the strait open. Meanwhile, analysts argue that much of what US administration officials say about the status of the talks has to be filtered through Washington’s need to massage the global price of oil down. Esmail Baghaei, spokesperson for the Iranian ministry of foreign affairs, told state media: “At this stage, the focus of the negotiations is on ending the war on all fronts, including Lebanon, and the claims made in the media about nuclear issues, including the issue of enriched material or the enrichment debate, are merely media speculation and lack credibility.” Baghaei was referring to speculation that has arisen after Trump’s statements on Thursday when he spoke about Iran’s stockpile of highly enriched uranium. He said: “We will get it. We don’t need it, we don’t want it. We will probably even destroy it after we get it, but we will not let them get it.” Russia has offered to receive the stockpile, but Iran says it will downblend the stockpile inside Iran itself.

Czech president urges Nato to ‘show its teeth’ over Russia’s provocations

The Czech president, Petr Pavel, has urged Nato to “show its teeth” in response to Russia’s repeated testing of the alliance’s resolve on its eastern flank, suggesting a range of options including switching off its internet, cutting off its banks from global financial systems and shooting down jets that violate allied airspace. Speaking to the Guardian in Prague, Pavel called for “decisive enough, potentially even asymmetric” responses to counter Moscow’s provocative behaviour against the alliance or risk the Kremlin intensifying its actions. A retired general and former chair of the Nato military committee, the 64-year-old’s defence background is rare among European leaders. His years of experience talking to Moscow on the suspended Nato-Russia council have made him an influential voice on the future of the alliance and the threats it faces. He expressed frustration with “a lack of determination to keep pushing from the United States on Russia”, although he steered clear of direct criticism of Donald Trump despite the US president continuing to cast doubt on the future of Washington’s commitments to the alliance. Pavel has previously told Czech media: “Trump has done more to undermine the credibility of Nato over the last few weeks than Vladimir Putin has managed to do in many years.” He waved away questions about this comment, saying he did not think “any direct criticism of the United States will help at this point”. He focused instead on the need to push Nato members to take a firm line on Russia. After its illegal annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014, he said Moscow had learned how Nato operated and “developed a behaviour style to almost meet the threshold for Article 5, but always keeping it slightly below that level.” Article 5 of the Nato treaty states that an armed attack against one member is considered an attack against all members. Pavel said Russian military leaders laughed at times at the alliance’s decision-making paralysis. “When I asked them why do they do these provocative actions in the air, close encounters or overflights over battleships in the Black Sea or the Baltic Sea, their answer was ‘because we can’. That’s exactly the kind of behaviour we allowed,” he said. A Nato jet fighter shot down a drone over Estonia this week, and similar incidents have disrupted everyday life in Latvia and Lithuania. In most cases, the drones are believed to be Ukrainian units targeting Russia that were jammed and redirected towards Nato territory by electronic warfare. Russia also accuses the Baltic states of working with Ukraine to launch drone attacks from their territories, an allegation they strongly deny. “After the annexation of Crimea, we discussed many times the potential continuation of aggression, but my biggest fear was not an open military aggression against a Nato country, but rather a provocation below the Article 5 threshold,” he said. If some European leaders “always prefer a diplomatic solution, even though Russians show no willingness for such”, Nato risks being divided and unable to act, he said. “Russia, unfortunately, does not understand nice language. They mostly understand the language of power, ideally accompanied with action … if violations of Nato airspace continue, we would have to come to a decision to shoot down either an unmanned or manned aircraft.” Pavel said the alliance should also consider “asymmetric” measures “that are not killing people, but are sensitive enough to make Russia understand this is not the way they should go”. “For example, switching off the internet or satellites – you saw what [difference] Starlink made on the battlefield – or cutting Russian banks from the financial system.” Echoing recent warnings from Poland’s prime minister, Donald Tusk, Pavel said that “if we do not react to the violations we face today, then Russia would probably step up”. “Within their doctrine, they have the provision ‘escalate to de-escalate’ … I think whatever we will allow, they will try further and further,” he said. The EU talked for years about the Russian shadow fleet, but when it finally acted “suddenly all the fleet was redirected to other regions”, he said. Pavel insisted Ukraine needed “more pressure and determination from the United States. The US negotiators, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, should probably be tougher on Russia and tie sanctions relief to a potential peace settlement, he said. He was also critical of Europe’s failure to define its policy towards Russia and what a potential post-war security arrangement might look like. “Instead, we mostly wait for what comes from Washington,” he said. “And even the US might be happier with Europe being more active. “If we do not come up with our own proposals, then we look weak or disoriented.” Pavel believed the best moment to push Russia more would have been last year when it was struggling economically and militarily, but the US-Israeli war on Iran has helped Moscow by increasing its oil revenues. Russia remains in a difficult position, however, and Europe and the US should make “a final push” on sanctions to force it to a negotiating table. “If you want to get rid of sanctions, which they want; if you want to start a debate about European security, which you indicated a number of times, we are ready for it. But the condition is clear – ceasefire and negotiation on peace in Ukraine,” he said. Domestically, Pavel is locked in a bitter constitutional dispute with the populist Czech prime minister, Andrej Babiš, whom he defeated in the presidential race in 2023, over who should represent the country at the upcoming Nato summit in Ankara. The latest clash follows a series of disagreements with the government, including over his refusal to appoint a controversial coalition politician as a minister, which brought thousands of Czechs out on to the streets to voice their support for Pavel in February. But despite critics accusing him of acting as an opposition figure before a possible re-election campaign in 2028, Pavel insists the disagreement is “a matter of principle” on the president’s role and that he would be prepared to go to the constitutional court if needed. “I believe there is still room for compromise, which I offered to the prime minister,” he said, proposing he attend informal debates at the summit while leaving it to the government to take part in discussions on defence spending. An avid biker and rock music fan, he joked at a public meeting last month that if he were excluded from the meeting, he could go to a ZZ Top concert in Pardubice instead. But he would gladly miss it to attend the summit, he said.

‘Kind of humiliating’: trans community responds to EHRC’s new code of practice

Stephen Whittle was visiting the Chelsea flower show as a birthday treat with his wife on Thursday afternoon. At around the same time, the updated code of practice from the Equality and Human Rights Commission was published. It confirmed, among myriad updates, that single-sex spaces such as toilets and changing rooms must be used on the basis of biological sex, and that transgender people may not access those that accord with their lived gender. Among the floral displays, 70-year-old Whittle did not stray from habit. “Of course I used the male facilities, as I have done for the last 50 years. Can you imagine what the guy on security would have said if I’d gone to the ladies?” Whittle, who spearheaded the campaign for gender recognition across the UK in the 1990s, has witnessed the significant advances, both legal and social, in the intervening years, and on Friday his focus was “trying to calm people down and say: ‘Stay cool; we’ll get through this’”. For many in the trans and wider LGBTQ+ community, as well as those running businesses and services, there has been a sense of limbo since the supreme court ruling on biological sex in April 2025, as they looked to the equalities watchdog to provide practical guidance on how to implement the judgment. For gender-critical groups who have campaigned specifically for the exclusion of trans women from women-only services, yesterday’s updated code was welcomed as a consolidation of last year’s court victory. But for others it prompted more questions, and for some, the guidance confirmed their worst fears. “Just watching the evening news was kind of humiliating,” says Blake, a data analyst based near Liverpool. “Having this frame of ‘where are people going to pee?’ It’s such a reduction of the problems we have in our lives, like access to healthcare, and also a real day-to-day struggle.” While still examining the 340-page code on Friday morning, Katie Russell, the chief executive and co-founder of Support After Rape and Sexual Violence Leeds, says neither it nor the court ruling have been “super-clear” on how to remain trans inclusive. But since April last year, her service has taken bespoke legal advice and consulted with service users, and is making changes to governing documents. “In practical terms, we understand we have lost the right to call ourselves women-only, and we’re gradually changing our language to make it clear we are still women-centred but for us that includes trans women. We want to operate within the law but continue to model our intersectional feminist values,” she said. Russell emphasises that trans women and non-binary clients make up a tiny percentage of the 1,700 individuals SARSVL supported last year, mainly through one-to-one work in person, online or through the helpline. “For us that’s absolutely a proportionate means of achieving a legitimate aim – because where else would they have to go?” Many businesses contacted by the Guardian said they wanted more time to examine the detail of the updates. But the cosmetics brand Lush, which has been consistently pro-inclusion, said the guidance was “a significant setback for human rights in the UK”. The brand’s campaign lead, Andrew Butler, said: “It puts frontline service providers, retail workers and many others in the position of policing people’s gender based on perception, with their organisations’ liability on the line for their judgment. The guidance is a mess because the legislation is a mess. Government needs to legislate to fix equalities law and include trans voices to do so equitably.” Kate Nicholls, the chair of UKHospitality – and representing a sector that has expressed concern about the logistics of toilet provision and its capacity to remain trans inclusive – was cautiously optimistic. “The shift to make clear that gender-neutral toilets and facilities are acceptable is a particularly positive step,” she said. Alice, an anaesthetist working in England, says she has been coordinating with similarly affected colleagues since April last year, to ensure that the hospital she works in has gender-neutral facilities “at strategic intervals”. “But the building I work in is very old and limited in what facilities it can offer,” she said. Alice, who also needs to change clothes at work, can find herself at some distance from a toilet she is allowed to use and facing the choice of leaving her patient for an extended period, which she would never do, or dehydrating herself. Like many transgender individuals the Guardian has interviewed in recent years, Alice is making plans to move out of the UK. “It’s been made abundantly clear that I’m not welcome. I love my job and my family have a happy life here, but I will not be a second-class citizen in my own country.”

Belinda Pyke obituary

My aunt Belinda Pyke, who has died aged 73, spent her life seeking to improve the lives of others. From her early trade union activities to her role as a senior official in the European Commission, and as an inexhaustible human rights campaigner, she poured the same passion, professionalism and commitment into everything she did. In Brussels she worked in the cabinets of Stanley Clinton-Davis, European commissioner for transport (1985-89), Bruce Millan (regional policy, 1989-95), and Neil Kinnock, who was responsible for transport until 1999 then vice-president of the commission until 2004. For Kinnock she was lead cabinet staff member. Belinda then worked as director for equality in the directorate-general of employment, before being appointed director for migration and borders in 2011. Born in Wirral, Belinda was the youngest of the three children of Audrey (nee Smith), a teacher, and Jim Pyke, a bookmaker. After Upton Hall convent school, Belinda studied international relations at the University of Sussex (1973), then did a diploma in sociology at Warwick University (1975). Her first job was at the British Council in Edinburgh, administrating study awards for postgraduates from developing countries; she left there in 1980 to join the Merchant Navy and Airline Officers’ Association (later Numast) as a research officer. It was thanks to her work on shipping policy that she was asked to join the cabinet of Clinton-Davis. Belinda also chaired the Brussels Labour party for 14 years and campaigned for the right of overseas Britons to vote in national elections. In retirement from her final post as director for migration and mobility in 2017, she worked with the association of former EU staff, AIACE-UK, for which she was a regional convener and co-editor of its journal. For more than three decades Belinda spent summers with her American cousins, searching for sand dollars – flat sea urchins – on the beaches in Maine and enjoying a few glasses of wine. She also travelled widely and adventurously. She bicycled for the leprosy charity Lepra in Malawi (2007) and India (2006 and 2016), and in Palestine for Medical Aid for Palestinians (2016 and 2023). In 2019, she became an ecumenical accompanier (EA) in Palestine, a programme run by the World Council of Churches, where volunteers do three months’ service monitoring and witnessing interactions between Israeli settlers and Palestinians. In Leamington Spa, where she lived from retirement, Belinda co-chaired Justice for Palestine and co-organised vigils, meetings and discussions. It was at one of these events that she collapsed with a brain haemorrhage. Belinda was also actively supportive of Amnesty International, the United Nations Association, and a small recycling charity called Action 21. Her brother Geoff died in 2017. She is survived by her brother Bill and two nephews, Tim and me.

US concerned Russian campaign against Baltics could ‘spark into something bigger’, says Rubio – as it happened

Donald Trump is disappointed that Nato allies refused to become more actively involved in attacking Iran, the US secretary of state has said, setting up what could become a fraught summit of the alliance in July. Marco Rubio, meeting with foreign ministers of the military alliance, emphasised that he expected the rift would be discussed at the July meeting in Ankara, making the summit “one of the more important” in Nato’s 77-year history. Nato allies and defence officials expressed bewilderment on Friday at US president Donald Trump’s announcement that he would send 5,000 troops to Poland just weeks after ordering the same number of forces pulled out of Europe. Earlier this month, the Trump administration said it was reducing levels in Europe by about 5,000 troops, and US officials confirmed about 4,000 service members were no longer rotating into Poland from Germany . The dispatch to Germany of US personnel trained to fire long-range missiles was also halted, AP reported. A Romanian F-16 Nato jet shot down a drone over Estonia on Tuesday in what appears to be the latest case of Russian electronic jamming diverting long-range Ukrainian drones into the alliance’s territory. A local resident told the Estonian public broadcaster, ERR, that he had seen two fighter jets – part of a Nato force policing the skies over the Baltic states – flying in the area before a loud bang that brought the drone down. Diplomatic efforts to end Russia’s war in Ukraine should be reinvigorated, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday after talks with leaders of Britain, France and Germany. Zelenskyy added in his evening address that he expects proposals from the United States on new formats of diplomacy, stressing that the frontline situation was favourable to Ukraine. Nordic and Baltic foreign ministers in a joint statement said they firmly rejected what they called “Russia’s blatant disinformation campaign and false allegations, supported by Belarus, regarding airspace violations in the Nordic and Baltic region”. Russia’s ambassador to the United Nations said on Tuesday (Europe Live, Tuesday) Moscow had information that Ukraine planned to launch military drones from Latvia and other Baltic states, warning membership in Nato would not protect those countries from retaliation. That’s all for the Europe Live blog for today. Thanks for following along. You can read our lead story from the day’s events here: