Read the daily news to learn English

Middle East crisis live: Iran says Trump’s threats to ‘blow up’ Oman ‘dangerous and bullying’

Lebanon’s health ministry said an Israeli strike south of Beirut on Thursday killed a woman and two children, after Israel’s army said it “precisely struck” the capital without identifying the target. “The Israeli enemy strike on the town of Choueifat led to a final toll of three martyrs including a woman and her baby daughter, and a child of Syrian nationality, in addition to wounding 15 people including three children and five women,” the health ministry said in a statement.

Netanyahu orders Israeli army to seize ‘70% of Gaza Strip’, violating ceasefire deal

Benjamin Netanyahu has said he has given orders to the Israeli army to seize control of 70% of the Gaza Strip in a move that threatens to torpedo an already fragile ceasefire and create catastrophic humanitarian conditions in the already devastated territory. Under the US-brokered ceasefire in October, the Israeli army withdrew to a demarcation line which gave Israel direct control of 53% of the occupied territory. Since then, Israeli forces have steadily advanced their positions westward into the Hamas-controlled half of the strip, and declared an ever-expanded no man’s land west of that, within which they claim the right to decide who can enter and open fire on anyone perceived as a threat. In recent days, Israeli-backed armed militias have taken a leading role in emptying the territory along the ceasefire line, telling residents to vacate their homes or shelters. Throughout the eight months of the ceasefire, Israeli forces have continued to open fire on Palestinians within range of the “yellow line” splitting the strip, and carry out airstrikes deeper inside western Gaza, killing more than 900 Palestinians since the truce began. Speaking at a conference in an occupied West Bank settlement, Netanyahu, who is struggling for his political survival before elections in the next few months, spelled out the extent of Israel’s territorial goals. The Israeli prime minister said: “We are currently squeezing Hamas. We now control 60% of the territory in the strip. You know, we were at 50, we moved to 60. My directive is to move to … 70%.” The defence minister, Israel Katz, said on Wednesday that the government’s ultimate aim was for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza by what he called “voluntary migration” but what human rights activists describe as a long-term plan for ethnic cleansing by making living conditions inside Gaza intolerable. The expansion of Israeli military control would be a direct violation of the October ceasefire, the UN security council resolution that endorsed it, and Donald Trump’s 20-point peace plan, which laid out a temporary “yellow line” splitting Gaza into Israeli- and Hamas-run halves pending further peace negotiations. The Trump plan also said: “No one will be forced to leave Gaza, and those who wish to leave will be free to do so and free to return. We will encourage people to stay and offer them the opportunity to build a better Gaza.” Muhammad Shehada, a visiting fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said: “Netanyahu is now declaring the whole Trump deal, the framework for Gaza, to be null and void. That’s what it means in a nutshell. There’s no other way to spell it out.” Israeli forces have systematically destroyed the remaining buildings in their zone, so its expansion to 70% of Gaza would mean that the 2.2 million Palestinians who have survived the war would be crammed into less than a third of their original territory, which was already overcrowded. “The conditions there are already appalling. It is the single most overcrowded place on the face of the planet,” Shehada said. “Every square metre has another displaced family, another makeshift tent, or some sort of improvised shelter on it. So it would be a death sentence for a lot of people who physically have no place to go.” An Israeli army spokesperson referred a request for comment on Netanyahu’s 70% threat “to the political echelon”. Israeli forces have been steadily expanding their area of control over the course of the ceasefire. A UN briefing on Sunday for the heads of humanitarian agencies working in Gaza recorded some of the most recent encroachment. In the northern district of Jabalia, for example, the UN presentation, which has been seen by the Guardian, said: “Tanks advancement [were] reported on a daily basis – drones targeting any movement close [to] the yellow line.” Israeli tanks were also reported advancing east of the southern city of Khan Younis. The UN briefing refers to an Israeli-backed anti-Hamas militia run by a Gaza warlord, Ashraf al-Mansi, saying it had advanced westwards from the yellow line around Jabalia last week. Such militias have been increasingly active along the yellow line, apparently functioning as shock troops for the Israeli army, carrying out attacks on Hamas but also telling Palestinian residents near the yellow line to leave their homes. Wael Nayef Abu al-Ajeen, a 26-year-old who lives to the east of Deir al-Balah in southern Gaza, said his family had been forced out by militiamen earlier this month. “It was at around 1pm when armed men affiliated with the militias entered our area. They went to the homes of the Abu al-Ajeen family there and informed them that they had until 10pm to evacuate all the houses in the area,” Ajeen said. “They instructed them to take whatever furniture and belongings they could carry and to empty the houses as much as possible. They also told them not to return until they were contacted and informed that it was permitted. “As a result, everyone panicked, and people gradually began leaving and moving their furniture and whatever belongings they could carry until the area was almost completely emptied.” Nasser Khdour, a researcher at monitoring group the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project said: “We have seen that the militias are not only attacking Hamas, but also they are contributing to pushing the residents who are living close to their line, further to the west. “We have seen killing, arresting and kidnapping of civilians living in these areas, and recently, there’s an increase also in the militias’ patrolling activities.” A UN security council resolution passed in November, delegated the monitoring of the ceasefire to a Trump-appointed Board of Peace, which named a Bulgarian UN veteran diplomat, Nickolay Mladenov, as “high representative in Gaza”. Mladenov was widely criticised for his report to the security council last week, which assigned primary blame for the failings of the ceasefire on Hamas, accusing it of refusing to disarm, without holding Israel accountable for its violations. Hamas has signalled it is ready to discuss disarmament once Israel has fulfilled its obligations under the first phase of the ceasefire, in particular by ceasing the bombardment of Gaza and withdrawing to the original yellow line. Gershon Baskin, an Israeli analyst who has taken part in several Israeli-Palestinian backchannel negotiations, said he believed the original ceasefire plan had collapsed. He said: “My understanding is that the negotiations with Hamas are over. The Americans gave Hamas the offer on a plan for disarmament, which took into account all the things that Hamas demanded already two months ago, but Hamas didn’t respond” Baskin said he believed the US would now switch to a fallback plan aimed at carrying out reconstruction work in the Israeli-run “green” zone, and only allowing Palestinians to move there from the Hamas-run “yellow” zone, who had been vetted for links to Hamas or other radical groups. Baskin said: “At the end of the day, the only people remaining in the yellow zone, according to the Americans, are Hamas and other armed groups. And then Israel will be free to deal with them as they want. This is the thinking, this is the planning, and this is what I see happening in the coming weeks and months.”

Nearly 500 seriously injured in e-scooter collisions in Great Britain last year

Nearly 500 people were seriously injured in collisions involving e-scooters in Great Britain last year, government statistics have shown. The Department for Transport (DfT) said there had been an estimated 1,484 casualties in crashes involving electric scooters, compared with 1,390 in 2024. It said: “Our best estimate, after adjusting for changes in reporting by police, is that there were 485 seriously injured and 989 slightly injured in collisions involving e-scooters. This compares to 428 and 956 respectively in 2024.” The statistics also showed that 10 people, all of whom were e-scooter riders, were killed in collisions compared with six in 2024. The DfT said provisional figures for all types of road casualties in 2025 indicated a “broad continuation of recent trends”, with both the overall number of casualties and fatalities declining over the past decade. There were an estimated 1,556 fatalities in reported road collisions in Great Britain in 2025, representing a decline of 3% compared with 2024. Last year, 29,911 people were seriously injured or killed, representing an increase of 4% compared with 2024 – with 127,870 casualties of all severities. Rod Dennis, the RAC’s senior policy officer, said: “Once again, this data shows that precious little progress has been made in reducing harm caused on our roads – and firmly underlines why the government’s road safety strategy is so critical. “Frighteningly, on average four people still lose their lives on the roads every single day. If this number of people lost their lives on any other form of transport, serious questions would be being asked.” In January, the Department for Transport announced a road safety strategy setting a target of reducing the number of people killed or seriously injured on British roads by 65%, and 70% for children under 16, by 2035. In 2025, 77% of fatalities were male and 61% of casualties of all severities were male. Twenty-three per cent of fatalities and 28% of casualties involved people aged 17 to 29; and 24% of fatalities and 8% of casualties involved those aged 70 and over. Under current legislation, the use of private e-scooters is illegal in any public space, including roads and pavements – rental e-scooters can be used, but only as part of the government’s national rental e-scooter trials. A government spokesperson said: “We know the law needs updating to make sure e-scooters are safe for everyone on the road and will be consulting on e-scooter regulations in the next year. “Our new road safety strategy, the first in over a decade, will save lives by tackling the root causes of deaths on our roads. “We have set an ambitious target to reduce deaths and serious injuries by 65% by 2035 and have consulted on multiple new measures, including a lower drink‑drive limit and a minimum learning period.”

Abortion, regret and the right to decide | Letters

Well done to Roe McDermott for saying what is rarely said – that abortion doesn’t lead to inevitable regret (Abortion trauma is a myth. Irish women don’t need laws to make them ‘reflect’ on their choices, 26 May). My own experience of one, many years ago, was that it was in fact a very straightforward decision – I didn’t want to become a mother, so I didn’t. End of. What was maybe most confusing about it was that I somehow felt that I should feel more hesitant and conflicted than I actually did, that I wasn’t a “proper woman” because I wasn’t more upset about it all. Many years later, having a cancerous tumour removed from my colon felt very much the same: something was growing inside me that I really didn’t want there, that would cause major impacts on my life if not removed, and it was a great relief when it was gone. The main difference, of course, was stigma. With cancer you get sympathy and casseroles; with a termination you have to be cautious who you even tell. Imagine phoning your work and saying you won’t be in for the next couple of days because you’re recovering from an abortion and need to rest. You just wouldn’t; you’d plead flu instead. Am I asking for this letter to be published anonymously? No. It’s time we let go of this false shame. Sylvia Rose Totnes, Devon • I wholeheartedly agree with the message of Roe McDermott’s article. However, I would like to add some further nuance. I agree with fighting for abortion rights; I did it – and still do it – myself (both before and after my own experience of abortion). But I am sad that it is so necessary. We only ever talk about abortion in a moral or ethical framing, something to be debated in a courtroom. I do not regret my decision to have an abortion. But it was painful, heart-wrenching and represents a loss that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. This experience was made harder by the fact that I felt I shouldn’t or couldn’t talk about it, for fear of it being used as fodder for anti-abortion groups or dismissed as “not real” by others. My grief felt like it wasn’t allowed, because it didn’t fit neatly into a legalistic narrative. To be clear, I am firmly pro-choice and extend my gratitude to all the activists who have fought – and will continue to fight – for the right for women to choose. I am against the three-day waiting period, for the reasons given in McDermott’s article. But I want people with experience of abortions to know that how they feel is OK: it’s OK if you felt no attachment; it’s OK if you felt ambivalent; it’s OK if you (like me) cried at a makeshift grave on the darkest days. It’s OK if you’re somewhere in between. As Amanda Palmer put it in her song Voicemail for Jill: “You don’t need to offer the right explanation / You don’t need to beg for redemption or ask for forgiveness / And you don’t need a courtroom inside of your head / Where you’re acting as judge and accused and defendant and witness.” Name and address supplied • Having had three abortions myself, I think it’s more complex than Roe McDermott suggests. Women choose an abortion and may never regret that they aborted, but may also be traumatised by the pregnancy loss. Being pregnant, even for a few weeks, changes your body, flush with hormones and deep instincts. To deny that is a disservice to women. Somehow we must fend off the anti-abortion crowd, while acknowledging the humanity of the loss. After my first abortion I felt like an alien – stressed, fearful, changed and in hiding. How much better I would have felt if support groups for abortion women were as normalised as alcohol or PTSD support groups, without the social judgment. Hell, it would have helped if I’d been able to tell my friends. Eventually I had a child, and now I viscerally understand motherhood. I’d made sense of my abortion trauma and put it behind me. But life likes its little jokes. I tried for a second child, only to return to abortion for chromosome abnormalities. Flooding back came the same sadness, engorged on my new mother’s body and brain, and also the same 100% certainty that my choice was correct. I didn’t need three days to think. I had been thoughtful and I was certain. Imagine the outcry if men had a mandated wait of three days to get erectile dysfunction medications or vasectomy. And if you’re experiencing post-abortion trauma which sent you into the anti-abortion ranks, please do work to heal your own psyche, but get your hands off my body. Name and address supplied • 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.

Simon Fisher obituary

My friend Simon Fisher, who has died aged 77, was the founder in 1992 of Responding to Conflict, a pioneering initiative to train people from around the globe in conflict transformation – the idea of building constructive change out of the energy created by conflict. Initially conceived in Bristol and then run from Woodbrooke College in Birmingham, the project attracted participants from across the world to study, work together and learn from each other’s experience of conflict and reconciliation, creating a network of people who were trained to work for non-violent change in the places in which they lived. Simon was born in Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to Brigadier Richard Fisher, who served in the Royal Artillery, and his wife, Suzanne (nee Allen), a homemaker. The family moved back to the UK when he was two, and he went to Winchester college (1967-70) before gaining a degree in politics with modern languages at Bristol University. There he met Jane Binney, a fellow student, whom he married in 1971. Shortly afterwards they moved to Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where Simon taught at St David’s school in Bonda. On their return to the UK in 1973 Simon did teacher training at Oxford University and in 1974 began teaching modern languages (later changing to social studies and humanities) at Hartcliffe school in Bristol. In 1979 he built on this experience, becoming field officer at the World Studies Project, an initiative set up by the Schools Council to look at ways of introducing a consideration of wider global issues into teaching in English schools. Four years later, with four young children, he and Jane moved to Botswana (living in a village with no running water or electricity) to work for Quaker Peace & Service for Southern Africa, a campaigning arm of UK Quakers supporting people within South Africa who were trying to bring about an end to apartheid. Later they spent four years (1987-91) in Zaire (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo), where Simon was country representative for Oxfam, responsible for health, agriculture and income generation initiatives as well as for recruiting local staff to replace expats. Fuelled by those experiences, on his return to the UK in 1992 Simon founded Responding to Conflict, which he ran for 12 years. He travelled extensively to support people working for change, particularly in Africa, South Asia and the former Soviet Union, offering training, strategic planning skills and support when invited. From 2004 he and Jane focused primarily on Zimbabwe, where Simon worked alongside NGOs, police bodies, MPs and local chiefs on conflict analysis and strategic planning. He also worked from 2004 to 2018 with the Centre for Peace Studies in Cambodia, teaching for them and serving as a board member, and taught at the Oxford Brookes Centre for Development and Humanitarian Practice (2003-26), including at the end of his life from his hospital bed. He wrote three books: Spirited Living (2013), and two volumes of Working With Conflict (2023). I met Simon and Jane in 1979 through Quakers, and our families developed a deep friendship as we took part in peace initiatives in Bristol and spent time together. He was a wonderful mixture of fun and seriousness; insightful, wise and compassionate. He loved to sing in choirs as well as more informally with his family. He is survived by Jane, their children, Naomi, Jonah, Abigail and Susannah, seven grandchildren and his siblings, Robin, Jonathan and Judith.

EU to discuss potential restrictions on Chinese imports amid fears of overreliance

EU commissioners will meet on Friday for crunch talks aimed at imposing new restrictions on imports from China amid growing concern that Beijing is fuelling conditions for US-style rust belt towns in Europe. The surge in imports of everything from electric cars to key components in machines, medical devices and foodstuffs has been dubbed China Shock 2.0, potentially mirroring the experience in the US 25 years ago when Beijing joined the World Trade Organization. Commissioners representing each member state have been asked to bring examples of Chinese activities in all 27 portfolios, spanning trade to agriculture, defence, health and digital initiatives to the talks. Sources said no decisions would be taken on Friday but the talks would help “align” the commission’s thinking and address overproduction in China, which is leading imports into the EU to be sometimes up to 40% cheaper than local products. It will also feed into the next leaders’ summit on 18 June when China will be one of the handful of items on the agenda. Ignacio García Bercero, a senior fellow at the Brussels thinktank Bruegel and a former official at the European Commission’s trade department, said the EU needed to formulate “a clearer strategy about how to deal with China”. He said quotas and tariff rate quotas could be introduced on Chinese goods, as they were safeguards that were much faster to implement than tariffs and could focus on areas that China is targeting, such as hybrid cars and chemical components. “I think that sometimes there’s a little bit of a tendency to sound very tough, but then not to act tough, and I don’t think that is a clever way to handle things.” He said while showing it was prepared to act, the EU must also engage with China. “The US has an engagement with China, Canada has an engagement with China. Everyone is having an engagement with China. I think in my view … we need to find a way to make sure that we are properly respected by China when we have that engagement.” Earlier this month industry leaders told the Guardian of fears that EU factories would cannibalise themselves through their reliance on Chinese components, an issue which rarely makes the headlines. Longer term, the EU could also look to a slew of laws: its never-used anti-coercion instrument; legislation such as the cybersecurity act 2.0 that could stop procurement of certain Chinese products and the industrial accelerator act commonly known as the “made in EU” law. Grzegorz Stec, the head of the Brussels office of the Mercator Institute for China Studies (Merics), said China has not set out to destroy European business but it is potentially the consequence of its steely focus of the survival of its own industries now, and into a post-AI world future. He said it would be very difficult to see China, now in the grip of its 15th five year economic and social plan, change its course. “China is not deliberately trying to dismantle Europe’s economy, but that is the result of the economic model Beijing is doubling down on. “For China, this is a strategic imperative, so it makes it hard for Europe to make Beijing change its behaviour.” He said the “EU does have strong cards” – it is a very important market for China with consumers that buy higher value chain products China needs to continue exporting like EVs. But he added that “this access to the EU is existential” and China will fight back hard to maintain it. “If the EU threatens to limit that access, China will most likely retaliate. The EU should be ready for that.”

Russia on the back foot with dynamics of war shifting in Ukraine’s favour, EU says – as it happened

… and on that note, it’s a wrap for today! EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said that “Russia is on the back foot” as “the dynamics of the war are shifting in Ukraine’s favour,” as she called for Europe to keep pressure on Moscow (14:23). Her comments come as Ukraine has agreed a major defence deal with Sweden including plans to buy up to 20 Gripen fighter jets (10:41, 11:35, 13:12, 13:22, 13:32), with Zelenskyy insisting that at this stage “diplomacy cannot stop Russia” as he pleaded for more air defence missiles from the US (13:38). In other news, Hungary’s new prime minister Péter Magyar has suggested that his government is nearing a political deal with the European Commission on an agreed programme of post-Orbán reforms that would unblock billions of euros in EU funds ahead of his meeting with Ursula von der Leyen tomorrow (12:16, 12:21, 12:26). Meanwhile, Bulgaria’s new prime minister Rumen Radev also visited Brussels, holding key talks with Nato’s Mark Rutte (13:58) and EU’s von der Leyen (16:00, 16:10). And over in Latvia, the parliament has approved a new government, led by centre-right opposition lawmaker Andris Kulbergs (16:28), two weeks after the previous administration collapsed over internal disputes over the government’s handling of Ukrainian drones that strayed into Latvian territory from Russia. 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.

Dormitory fire at Kenyan girls’ school kills at least 16 students

A fire has ripped through a dormitory at a girls’ school in Kenya’s Rift valley, killing at least 16 students. The fire broke out just after midnight at Utumishi girls academy in Gilgil, Nakuru county, about 76 miles north-west of Nairobi, police said. The education minister, Julius Migos Ogamba, told reporters that 79 other students were injured, although 71 of them have already been discharged from hospital. Ogamba said: “Investigations are ongoing, but the ... cause of the fire is not yet identified.” Students at the school are between 15 and 18, and about 220 girls were sleeping in the dormitory when the fire started on the building’s second floor. Doors on that floor were initially locked and some girls died while jumping out of the windows, a first responder said. Multiple survivors told first responders that a student had lit a mattress with a match, the first responder told Reuters. They did not know what the student’s motive may have been. The tragedy is the latest fatal fire at a school in Kenya in recent years. In 2024, 21 boys were killed at a boarding school in central Kenya when a fire tore through their dormitory, while in 2017 nine girls died in a blaze at a school in Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi. In 2016, there were about 120 incidents of students setting fire to their sleeping quarters, many in protest at strict discipline and bad conditions. A 2022 report by the country’s auditor general found that most state secondary schools were not prepared to deal with fires. The Kenyan Red Cross said on X that the blaze in Gilgil was reported at about 3.30am on Thursday. “Several students have been evacuated and are receiving treatment in various hospitals,” it said. “A multi-agency response involving the county fire brigade, county disaster response teams, @PoliceKE and Kenya Red Cross remains ongoing.” Dozens of parents gathered at the school on Thursday morning, frantically searching for news of their children. Some injured students were carried out of the school by police officers, while others limped. Wambui Nderitu told the BBC her niece had survived the fire but broken her leg. She added: “Some of those at the top floor had to jump out, that’s why they are injured.” Kenya’s president, William Ruto, said his “heart and prayers” were with the girls’ families. “No words can truly ease the pain of losing young lives filled with promise, hope and dreams for the future,” he said in a social media post. “As a nation, we mourn with the parents, guardians, teachers and fellow students who are enduring this unimaginable tragedy. “Our immediate attention is focused on the rescue of those affected, the treatment of the injured, and support for their families, while investigations continue into the cause of the fire.” • This article was amended on 28 May 2026. An earlier version said Gilgil was north-east of Nairobi; in fact, it is north-west of the capital.