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Middle East crisis live: Lebanon hit by one of the heaviest days of Israeli bombing in weeks

Muslims around the world are observing Eid al-Adha, or the Festival of Sacrifice, the second major festival in Islam. In Lebanon, war and displacement have overshadowed celebrations, as Israeli attacks continue to inflict death and destruction on the beleaguered country. The Lebanese prime minister, Nawaf Salam, said Eid has come as Lebanon “is still enduring the most difficult circumstances, of war, destruction, and tragedies”. “Yet Eid remains an occasion to hold fast to hope and confidence in our ability to achieve our goal of building a strong and just state to raise Lebanon up,” he wrote on X.

BHP admits to stalled emissions reductions as WA premier says miners have ‘moral obligation’ to decarbonise

A senior BHP executive has admitted the Australian multinational’s push to reduce emissions has been delayed as the Western Australian premier, Roger Cook, said big miners had an “important moral obligation” to decarbonise. An exclusive investigation based on documents leaked to the Guardian and ABC revealed this week that the world’s biggest miner has hit the brakes on decarbonisation, something experts fear could put Australia’s national emissions reductions targets at risk. The leaked documents show it has scrapped an iron ore processing plant that would have prevented 1.7m tonnes of emissions each year, the equivalent of removing 350,000 cars, while pushing back vast renewables projects, buying new polluting diesel fleets and war-gaming options to push critical climate investments into the next two decades. It did so despite internal memos acknowledging that slow decarbonisation would have “reputational impacts” and that: “Urgent decarbonisation in line with BHP’s public commitments effectively underpins [WA iron ore’s] licence to operate, sustain and grow.” Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email On Wednesday, Tim Day, the head of BHP’s WA iron ore operations, acknowledged that its decarbonisation program had been delayed. He blamed significant obstacles to replacing the use of diesel – the biggest source of its emissions – due to what he said were slow advancements in electric trucking and rail technology. He was unable to give any firm timeline for replacing diesel trucks. “The timeframe will take what it takes to get the diesel replacement, but we see it, we’re testing now, we’ll keep going through it,” Day said, speaking at the Australian Financial Review’s mining summit. “But it is delayed … we actually, we thought we’d be off diesel a little quicker, but that is delayed.” Internal documents show BHP has considered options to start the transition as late as 2035 or 2040, despite acknowledging the delays could cause reputational damage and put its net zero by 2050 goal at risk. Also speaking at the AFR’s conference, Cook, the WA premier, said decarbonisation by big miners was an “important moral obligation”. “It’s an important part of mining companies maintaining their social licence to operate, so we would expect all mining companies, particularly big players, to play their part,” he said. The leaked documents have prompted concern about the effectiveness of the government’s key climate policy, the safeguard mechanism, which forced BHP to pay less than $9m for excess emissions last year, according to analysis provided to the Guardian. At the same time, it was given $622m in diesel tax concessions by the federal government, something critics say is creating an unnecessary incentive for it to keep using highly polluting diesel haulage. Cook would not be drawn on whether he thought the federal government should do anything to change the rebate. “Strictly speaking, the diesel fuel rebate is to subsidise, is to return an excise to the companies that don’t use the roads that the excise is actually designed to help support and fund,” he said. “But I’ll leave that up to others to debate. But I acknowledge and I accept that we want to, as governments, create the best environment to incentivise mining companies to continue to decarbonise their operations.” The company has reduced its global emissions by 36% – largely due to the use of renewables in Chile and the closure of an uncompetitive nickel mine – but internal documents show its current plan to hit net zero has a “low probability of success”. Analysts say it has done little to reduce emissions from its Australian operations.

Wednesday briefing: Can the UK adapt in time to a new normal of extreme heat?

The UK swelters once again. On Tuesday, temperatures surged to 35C, condemning millions of people to another sticky night in homes ill-prepared for such warm conditions. The heat is record-breaking: we are still in spring, yet temperatures are close to extremes we once never expected even in high summer. Yorkshire experienced its first ever “tropical night” in spring on Monday, when the evening temperature failed to fall below 20C. Health alerts remain in effect across large parts of the country due to the increased likelihood of deaths, particularly among vulnerable and elderly people. Yet, experts warn, this may just be the road to a new normal. For today’s First Edition, I have spoken with the Guardian’s environment editor, Damian Carrington, about how the country can adapt to heatwaves and improve resilience to extreme heat. But first, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Tony Blair has accused Keir Starmer, Andy Burnham and Wes Streeting of putting Labour’s future at risk by abandoning the centre ground, warning that the party’s “almost infinite capacity for self-delusion” means it is likely to lose the next election. UK news | One out of every five people arrested after their participation in the 2024 summer riots has since been reported to the police for domestic abuse, the Guardian can disclose. Middle East | The continuing US-Israel war on Iran has compounded other global disasters to drive record numbers of people into hunger at a time when funding to combat famine has fallen dramatically, the head of the UN World Food Programme has said. UK news | The court of appeal will review the non-custodial sentences given to three teenage boys for the rape of two girls, Keir Starmer has announced. US politics | Alabama cannot use a new Republican-friendly map in this year’s midterm elections because it intentionally discriminates against Black voters, a panel of three federal judges have ruled. In depth: ‘It shows how quickly climate change is impacting us’ Climate scientists often warn British audiences that they have already lived through the coolest years of their lives. It is a sobering thought: a nation of grandchildren that will probably not recognise the seasons of their elders’ youth. The UK’s mild, predictable weather patterns are fading in a rapidly warming world, replaced instead by extremes. Winter is increasingly wet, dominated by deluges that flood and waterlog the country. Summer is punctuated by heatwaves and drought which turn the lush, verdant landscape brown. This week’s heatwave is another reminder of what could await us in the coming decades. Late May, which typically sees average temperatures in the mid-to-high teens, has been historic: records have been shattered across England day and night. National infrastructure creaked in the scorching conditions, with offices, hospitals and homes overheating, train journeys cancelled, and some hospitals reporting a rise in admissions. Damian says the current extreme weather is an example of the speed at which rising temperatures are affecting the UK. “Carbon emissions produced by fossil fuel burning are trapping heat in the atmosphere and warming the planet. We’ve known that for a long time and this is what happens. It is nearly 15 degrees hotter than normal right now, which is really crazy,” he says. “We usually break temperature records by a tenth of a degree. But this one was broken by two [degrees]. To me, it shows how quickly climate change is impacting us.” *** The consequence of decades of emissions The current heatwave is not being driven by natural climate phenomena like El Niño, which will probably start to affect UK weather patterns in the autumn. While there are warnings of a so-called “Super El Niño” developing in the Pacific, which would probably cause extreme heat and weather around the world, this has not yet happened. Instead, the warm temperatures in the UK are the consequence of decades of greenhouse gas emissions, and will become increasingly common in future years. To adapt in the short term, Damian says that British society needs to reexamine its “mad dogs and Englishmen” approach to hot weather, and consider adopting customs that people use in warmer countries. Many British people do not recognise the danger that high temperatures can bring – especially for the most vulnerable. “In the UK, we typically have a very mild climate. It’s not renowned for its hot summers. It’s grey and rainy in people’s imaginations. So, when we get heat, people tend to rush out and go to the beach, go out for a drink. In places that are used to this kind of heat, people do not usually do that. They stay inside in the hottest parts of the day, they sit under trees and parasols,” he says. “We [reporters] are not killjoys. But I remember seeing a poll last year which said that about a third of people still do not think the heat we get is dangerous. People can get severely ill, so there’s definitely a cultural change that needs to happen.” *** Bad news for south facing homes, schools and prisons But short-term, sensible changes are not going to be enough to prepare the UK for a hotter world. Last week, a major report by the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which advises the government on rising temperatures, warned that Britain is built for a climate that no longer exists, calling for radical changes. UK homes will need air conditioning to survive the predicted temperature rises, which will probably surpass current conditions by several degrees. Heatwaves are expected to surpass 40C in all parts of the country by the middle of the century, with hot weather lasting longer, causing the vast majority of homes to overheat without intervention. “The heat that we are experiencing will get worse in the future. Measures like lining streets with trees are fantastic and can help, but unfortunately this is not going to be enough, particularly in homes in the south of England. We are going to need active cooling from air conditioning,” says Damian. “The CCC were particularly worried about schools, care homes, hospitals and prisons where people may not be able to go outside but might be vulnerable to high levels of heat. We have reported on people who live in south-facing flats which are unbearably hot in the summer. They have no way of dealing with the heat because they are facing into the sun.” *** Better approaches to heat inequality Adapting to rising temperatures is expensive – and the heat will probably most impact those who have the least resources to adapt. Ethnic minorities and people living in the most deprived areas of England have the highest risk of death due to extreme heat, with hundreds of excess deaths already recorded in heatwaves in the UK. The UK is going to need to get serious about public health initiatives that allow everyone to cool down during heatwaves, says Damian, including public cold rooms and mist dispensers that spray passersby with cold water. “Rolling out things like air conditioning across the country is expensive, so people on lower incomes may need help with that. Experts say you could think about cooling one room rather than the whole house. But there are bigger things that the government could do. For example, just like warm hubs were provided for people in the last energy crisis for people who were finding it too expensive to heat their homes, we could do the same thing with cooling,” he says. Now really is the time to act, says Damian. More heatwaves with hotter temperatures are expected in coming decades – and a failure to do enough could be deadly. “It is perfectly natural to enjoy warm, sunny weather, particularly when you’ve come through a rain-soaked dark winter like we have in the UK. But we are entering a new world. It’s a new level of heat that we’ve not really seen before. It can be very dangerous,” he says. What else we’ve been reading The phrase AI-generated time-travel vloggers filled me with horror, but in this piece by Priya Bharadia there is at least one historian trying to convince me my reaction is wrong and it is a good engaging thing. Martin Lucy Knight has written a very entertaining piece about former partners squabbling over furniture after a breakup. Patrick Paul Hanford visits a former power station in Berlin for a 30-hour art and music event which includes 500 beds, with attenders uniquely encouraged to “sleep, rest, eat, listen, watch” during proceedings. Martin Do not miss the latest film in the Guardian’s Against the Tide series about a 19-year-old’s search for work in Grimsby. Patrick The FA is hoping that switching young kids to playing 3x3 football, with no referee and no goalkeepers, will help develop key skills at a crucial development age. Martin Sport Tennis | French teenager Moïse Kouamé became the youngest man to win in Paris since 1991 while Daniil Medvedev lost in five sets and injured Cameron Norrie pulled out of his match. Football | Oliver Glasner has urged Crystal Palace to win the Conference League final so they can take up the Europa League place denied them this season after they fell foul of Uefa’s multi-club ownership rules. Cycling | Jonas Vingegaard underlined his dominance on uphill finishes at the Giro d’Italia, launching a solo attack on the climb to Carì to claim victory on stage 16. The front pages The Guardian’s splash today is “Russia relentlessly targeting UK infrastructure, spy chief warns”. The Telegraph leads on “Blair: Starmer has no plan for Britain”, the Daily Mail’s take is “Now Blair savages Labour’s lurch to the left” and the Times says “Lurch to left puts Britain at risk, Blair tells Labour”. On the same topic the i Paper says “‘Britain at risk of becoming irrelevant’ – Blair turns on Labour rivals”. Elsewhere, the FT says “BP unseats Manifold as chair after ‘serious concerns’ over his conduct”. The Express writes “Step up Keir to stop kids dying” and the Mirror leads on a case review of teenage rapists with the headline “The right decision”. Lastly, the Sun on calls to limit some water usage amid the heatwave says “Paddling fools!” Today in Focus Can dating reality shows ever be safe? A BBC Panorama investigation recently reported that two women alleged they were raped by their on-screen “husbands” during the filming of Married at First Sight UK. A third woman, who agreed to be identified, Shona Manderson, accused her on-screen husband of subjecting her to a non-consensual sex act. All the men deny the allegations. Guardian investigations correspondent, Sirin Kale, talks about the “pressures and expectations” of the show. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Scientists have created a wearable ultrasound patch, the “UPatch,” to monitor babies in the womb continuously. Prof Sheng Xu noted that current hospital devices only capture “a snapshot of what’s going on.” Although it is at present a proof-of-concept device, this new technology tracks fetal blood flow in real-time, even during movement. In one trial, it successfully identified severe growth restriction, “leading to caesarean delivery to prevent stillbirth.” Dr Antoniya Georgieva, a senior author of the study, believes the potential is “huge,” opening doors to understanding “what makes some babies survive and others not.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

Iceland’s foreign minister fears ‘Brexit moment’ in EU accession referendum

Iceland’s foreign minister has said she fears her country faces a “Brexit moment” in its looming EU referendum amid warnings over misinformation, foreign interference and AI. With just over three months to go until Iceland votes on whether or not to continue accession talks with the EU, developments are being closely watched by Washington, Moscow and Brussels. Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir accused individuals and groups from inside and outside the country of “fearmongering”, saying Iceland was being hit with misinformation and rhetoric taken “from the playbook of Nigel Farage and Reform”. She said the referendum was at risk of being a target for Russia and “actors who seek to influence our public debate in a negative way”. Foreign interference and the spread of misinformation could end up affecting the result, the minister warned. “I am fearing that we will face a Brexit moment,” she told the Guardian. “That would be, from my point of view, a rather dangerous path because … there were all kinds of lies put forward by the Brexiteers.” She cited disputed figures used by the leave campaign over how much money the UK sent to the EU. Þorgerður said Brexit “should be an example of how not to run a campaign” rather than something to be emulated. “Nothing of what they promised has actually been activated or realised,” she said. The Icelandic coalition government – formed of the left-leaning parties the Social Democratic Alliance and the People’s party, and Þorgerður’s centre-right pro-European Liberal Reform party – surprised many when it announced in March that it would hold the EU referendum on 29 August, having previously said it would do so no later than 2027. The move was in part motivated by threats from the US, a longtime close ally of Iceland, to forcibly acquire its closest neighbour, Greenland. Þorgerður said: “For us, from my point of view, the international order that underpinned our security and prosperity for decades is under serious pressure. The world has changed so decisively, I would say, so Greenland has of course affected, or had influence on, our decision.” Old alliances were being tested, she said, and trade used as a “political weapon”. “You do not treat a friend and an ally like Greenland and Denmark like the US did in the beginning of this year.” She insisted, however, that Iceland’s relationship with the US remained strong and that it was broadening its alliances. “Iceland being a member of the EU is not contradicting all the good relationship with the US. One thing does not exclude the other thing.” When they vote in the August referendum, Icelanders will be asked not whether or not they want to join the EU but whether they want their government to resume accession talks with the bloc. The country first applied for EU membership in 2009 and the following year the council agreed to open accession talks, but in 2013 the Icelandic government pulled out. If Icelanders vote yes, talks will resume, and if a deal is reached, the government will hold a second referendum on whether or not it should be accepted. Opinion polls show a tight contest. According to a recent survey conducted on behalf of the foreign ministry, 42% of Icelanders were in favour of reopening accession talks and 39% were opposed. Advocates of joining the EU see it as important for international security and an opportunity for better integration in Europe, while those against warn of the potential impact on fishing, agriculture and Iceland’s sovereignty. Fishing, which as well as being one of the country’s biggest exports is also deeply rooted in Icelandic culture and identity, is a particularly emotive area of debate. Þorgerður appealed to Icelandic voters to “make up their own minds” and be careful of their sources. Some political parties were spreading misinformation in the way critics believe Ukip did in the run-up to the UK Brexit referendum, she said. “It’s like they are having the playbook from Nigel Farage and Reform, and of course that is concerning,” she said. A spokesperson for Reform said: “Reform UK has no connection to Iceland.” They added: “We wish them well in staying outside of the EU.” Þorgerður’s comments come after the prime minister, Kristrún Frostadóttir, warned that foreign influence in the referendum would “not be tolerated, whether from the European Union, China, Russia or the United States”. The president, Halla Tómasdóttir, issued a warning about the dangers of AI, which she said “can instantly produce content that appears credible but is misleading, spread unverified information at breakneck speed, and influence our opinions and wellbeing in ways we are not always aware of”. Hafsteinn Einarsson, an associate professor at the University of Iceland who focuses on AI, said he did not think Iceland was equipped to clearly inform the public about the referendum. He has found that AI models often answer popular questions on the referendum in Icelandic using unreliable sources, while it is increasingly easy for people to mass-produce misinformation using AI. “This is what I am worried about: that people who are seeking information ask their AI model … about the referendum and issues related to the referendum and then they are presented with an answer and they might not even check the sources, because they trust AI, and then many of them just take this as fact,” Einarsson said.

‘Catnomics’: how Japan’s feline fixation has become an industry worth billions

Feline features stare out from the covers of umpteen novels, they have an officially designated day devoted to their mystique and popularity, and have outnumbered dogs as pets for a decade. The influence of cats is evident across every corner of Japanese society, with a recent report crediting them with generating an expected ¥3tn ($18.8bn) in value to the Japanese economy this year – a phenomenon dubbed “catnomics”. The power of the paw is especially evident in one retro neighbourhood of Tokyo, where on a recent afternoon North American, Australian and European visitors milled around the capital’s self-proclaimed “cat town”. They had been drawn to Yanaka Ginza, in the city’s north-east, by its historical association with cats, whose image adorns shopfronts and street signs, and where visitors can eat cat-shaped sweets and design personalised hanko seals on a similar theme. The crowds and the warm weather appeared to have kept Yanaka Ginza’s furry residents out of sight. Instead, visitors paused at souvenir shops to buy “lucky” black cat fridge magnets, postcards, chopsticks and crockery. “There have always been cats in Yanaka because there are lots of Buddhist temples here,” says Yumiko Yamashita, owner of several cats and of the Neco Action store. “In the old days they roamed around and even went into different houses, but they’re less visible these days. They prefer to stay indoors on a hot day like this.” The global boom in Japanese literature has turned the cat into a marketing juggernaut, more than a century after Natsume Sōseki wrote one of the country’s best-known novels, I Am a Cat, told from the point of view of a household cat. Cats figure prominently in the surrealist novels of Haruki Murakami, and in dozens of other works, notably Hiro Arikawa’s The Travelling Cat Chronicles and Takashi Hiraide’s The Guest Cat. Publishers have even exploited feline marketing power to create covers for books that have little or no connection to the animal. Clawing in the money In a nation of pet lovers – where domesticated dogs and cats outnumber children aged under 15, Japanese households kept 8.8 million cats in 2025, compared with 6.8 million dogs, according to a survey by the Japan Pet Food Association. The average cat-owning household, the survey said, spends almost ¥1.8m ($11,300) over the course of their moggy’s life. It is that level of devotion that makes cats big business. In his most recent report on “catnomics”, Katsuhiro Miyamoto, professor emeritus at Kansai University, estimates that animals will add just under ¥3tn ($18.8bn) in value to the Japanese economy in 2026. Combining estimates of consumer spending at cat cafes and on items such as photo books with sales and salaries among cat food manufacturers and related companies, Miyamoto noted that the estimate fell just short of beating the economic impact of the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka. He added, though, that cats were still generating “a comparable economic effect, demonstrating the significant contribution cats are making to the Japanese economy”. High-profile cat owners in Japan include the emperor and empress, and the prime minister, Sanae Takaichi, has expressed a preference for cats over dogs. Nature’s most Zen-like creatures Cats are believed to have been introduced into Japan during the Nara period (710-794) via Japanese envoys returning from Tang Dynasty China. Many were taken in by temples, where they protected religious scriptures from hungry rodents – a role that imbued them with a special, even mystic, status among their human counterparts. Cats are nature’s most Zen-like creatures, effortlessly achieving an aura of calm and detachment that mere mortals spend an entire lifetime trying, and failing, to attain. “Cats don’t live for the moment; they live in the moment,” the Japan-based author Stephen Mansfield said. “Dwelling neither in the past or future, their minds are likely a lot less cluttered than ours.” Dog lovers will disagree, but Japanese folklore casts cats as wholly benign beings, whose natural compassion can be a harbinger of good fortune – qualities encapsulated in the maneki neko – a statue of a cat, its paw raised in the expectation of “catching” any luck passing its way. The porcelain statues are thought to have been inspired by Gōtokuji temple in Kyoto where, as legend has it, a wealthy feudal lord was out hunting when he was caught in a fierce storm. After sheltering beneath a tree, he spotted a cat beckoning him from the steps of the dilapidated temple. As he approached the animal, a bolt of lightning struck the spot where he had been sheltering only seconds earlier. In a show of gratitude, the lord bought the temple and restored it to its former glory. These days the maneki neko are a common sight in shops and restaurants whose owners hoping for their Gōtokuji moment. Like their cousins on depopulated Aoshima, Japan’s cats can only thrive as long as there are enough humans to sustain them. With long-term population decline now a near inevitability, the country’s ageing demographics could soon see significantly fewer cats being kept as pets. But for the time being, Japan’s felines have every reason to feel like the cats that got the cream.

‘Makes no sense’: experts doubt pause in US arms sale to Taiwan is due to Iran war

The Trump administration’s war against Iran should have no impact on arms sales to Taiwan, experts have said, after a US official suggested a pause in the delivery of a key weapons package was due to the Gulf conflict. Analysts told the Guardian that a $14bn arms package left in limbo after Donald Trump’s meeting with Xi Jinping could take up to six years to process, and there was a “low likelihood” of any true connection between events in Iran and weapons delivery to Taiwan. Uncertainty over Washington’s support for the island democracy re-emerged after Trump suggested he could use arms sales to Taiwan as a “negotiating chip” in future talks with Beijing. Comments by Washington’s acting navy secretary, Hung Cao, at a congressional hearing on Thursday provoked further alarm in Taipei after he suggested that the weapons package awaiting Trump’s sign off for months had been paused. “Right now we’re doing a pause in order to make sure we have the munitions we need for Epic Fury [the Iran war],” he said. “We’re just making sure we have everything, then the foreign military sales will continue when the administration deems necessary.” The US has reportedly drained its missile stockpiles since launching its increasingly intractable war against Iran on 28 February. Cao’s justification for the pause “makes no sense”, according to Rupert Hammond-Chambers, president of the US-Taiwan Business Council and a senior adviser at strategic consultancy group Bower Group Asia. There is a “very very low likelihood” that there is any true connection between events in Iran and weapons delivery to Taiwan, Hammond-Chambers said, adding that the weapons deals that Trump is considering at the moment “don’t get delivered for anywhere from three to six years”. “If he sends those congressional notifications by the end of June, you’re talking about another six to 12 months before the contract is signed, and then the clock starts on delivery. So we’re really into the 2030s [by the time Taiwan’s weapons are delivered],” he said. Over the weekend, Reuters reported comments from an unnamed US official that the military had “more than enough munitions, ammo, and stockpiles to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond”, and that the pause in sales to Taiwan was “unrelated to the war with Iran”. China claims Taiwan as a breakaway province, despite never having ruled it, and strongly opposes Washington’s arms sales to the island democracy. US law dictates that Washington should supply Taiwan with defensive materials in order for the island to maintain a “sufficient self-defense capability”. Xi told Trump in Beijing this month that the Taiwan issue was “the most important issue in China-US relations,” according to a Chinese foreign ministry statement. Trump has said he made no commitments about Taiwan during the meeting with Xi, but his statements since have cast doubt over Washington’s support. Trump’s suggestion he could use Taiwan arms sales as a bargaining chip would violate Washington’s longstanding policy that it does not discuss the issue with Beijing. The US president’s comment last week that he may speak directly with Taiwan’s president, Lai Ching-te, was another break from decades of diplomatic protocol. No sitting US president has spoken to a Taiwanese president since 1979, when Washington shifted diplomatic recognition to Beijing, and it would enrage China if the call were to take place. On Monday, five lawmakers from Taiwan’s ruling Democratic Progressive party, joined by Peter Mattis, president of the Jamestown Foundation, a thinktank, held a press conference addressing Taiwan-US relations in the wake of the Xi-Trump summit. There, DPP legislator Ngalim Tiunn reiterated that “Taiwan’s communication channels with the US remain open and smooth”. Mattis said he also thought Cao’s comments were not accurate, saying there was “no way” in which arms packages to Taiwan that had already been decided and notified to the US Congress could be affected by the Iran conflict. “Whatever has been said is somebody misspeaking and not necessarily understanding the technical details of how US arms sales work,” he said. “I think these are separate issues and should be treated differently.” Hammond-Chambers said that if Trump approved the sales “in the next four to six weeks” then uncertainty about US support for Taipei “mostly goes away”. But if delays were to drag on into the autumn – when Trump is set to host Xi in Washington, before another two potential meetings at the Apec summit in China in November and the G20 summit in Miami in December – then it “puts Taiwan in a terrible position”. The White House and China’s Taiwan Affairs Office were approached for comment.

Seven heat-related deaths in France as May records set in several countries

Seven people have died in France in an extreme early summer heat event affecting a swathe of western Europe, with record high temperatures for May recorded for a second day in several countries. In France, which logged its hottest ever May day on Monday and again on Tuesday, the weather agency Météo France said the heatwave could last through the week and predicted temperatures could reach 39C in some areas. “What I can say today is that there have been seven deaths linked directly or indirectly to the heat,” the French government spokesperson Maud Bregeon told TF1 television, adding that five of the deaths had been by drowning. The UK also reported its hottest ever day for May, at 35C near London, breaking a record of 33.5C set on Monday, as a high-pressure system trapped warm air over western Europe. Models have already estimated that with the effects of climate breakdown, June heatwaves are now about 10 times more likely in Europe than they were in the preindustrial era, and the same trajectory is becoming evident for May. “This extension of the heatwave season is entirely characteristic of the effects of climate change,” Robert Vautard, a climate researcher, told Agence France-Presse. “Eventually, we will be seeing similar heat events in April and October.” In Spain, widespread highs of 36-38C in the Guadiana, Guadalquivir and Ebro valleys were expected to continue possibly until Friday, the state weather service Aemet said, adding that temperatures could reach 40C in some areas. In Italy’s Lazio region, which includes Rome, authorities have imposed restrictions on work in conditions “with prolonged exposure in the sun”, for example on farms, construction sites and in the delivery sector, between 12.30pm and 4pm. In France, the national heat index, which measures the average temperature across the country, reached 24.8C, according to provisional readings from Météo France, surpassing Monday’s 24.6C, which was also a record. Thirteen of France’s 96 administrative departments have been placed on an orange high temperature alert, the second highest level, requiring the population to “be vigilant and take precautions”. Another 29 were on a more moderate yellow warning. It was the first time the national heat warning system had been activated in May since it was introduced in 2004. “This is an unprecedented event with a one in 1,000 chance of happening at this time of year in the climate of 1979 to 2025,” Christophe Cassou, a climate scientist, told Le Monde. “It would have been virtually impossible in the preindustrial era.” The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, called a meeting of key ministers on Thursday to assess government preparations for heatwaves after more than 350 weather stations across France recorded new monthly highs on Monday. In Ireland, a record May temperature of 28.8C was recorded at two weather stations, Met Éireann data showed. More heat records could be broken this week, forecasters said, with temperatures exceeding norms by 12C or 13C, in what Météo France described as a “premature, remarkable and long” heat episode. The agency said the episode was caused by a heat dome, with hot air from Morocco trapped under an area of high pressure, and that Europe could expect such events to “occur more and more often, earlier and earlier, and to be more and more intense”. Two deaths in France on Sunday have been directly attributed to the heat: a woman competing in a Hyrox fitness competition in Lyon died of hyperthermia, and a 53-year-old man had a heart attack during a 10km running race in Paris. Sixteen people were hospitalised, including 10 in a critical condition, during another road race in the Paris suburb of Maisons-Alfort. Three teenagers were among those who drowned in swimming accidents over the weekend. High temperatures drove many people to the country’s beaches and rivers to cool off in the water, even though lifeguard supervision is not due to start in most areas until July. While parts of the UK are entering a heatwave – with temperatures exceeding 26C to 28C, depending on the location, for three consecutive days – in France, night-time temperatures must also stay above a certain level for a heatwave to be declared.

Middle East crisis: Iran’s foreign ministry says US broke ceasefire with overnight strikes – as it happened

Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israel is “intensifying” its military operations in Lebanon, with the IDF operating with “large forces on the ‌ground” in order to take control of “strategic areas”.Earlier, a military official confirmed to AFP that Israeli forces had begun operating beyond its so-called “yellow line”, which marks the 10km (six miles) area deep inside southern Lebanon which Israel is already occupying. A reminder that these expanded ground operations are all despite a ceasefire that has been in place since 17 April. Israel has continued to intensify its strikes on Lebanon, killing thousands of people while claiming it is acting to remove threats from Hezbollah. Meanwhile, the proposed peace agreement between Iran and the US seemed to remain on the table on Tuesday despite US bombings of Iranian targets – the first military action by Washington since the 8 April ceasefire. The Iranian foreign ministry denounced the US attack – aimed at missile launchers and efforts to lay fresh mines in the strait of Hormuz – as “an act of bad faith” and “a definitive violation of the ceasefire” and said it would not leave aggression unanswered. But it did not pull out of the talks that were continuing under the joint mediation of Pakistan and Qatar. Here’s our report. US Central Command denied reports that that US navy has “quietly” resumed so-called ‘Project Freedom’ in the strait of Hormuz. “US forces are not currently escorting commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz,” Centcom said in a statement shared on X.It comes after The Wall Street Journal (paywall) reported, citing US military officials, that the US navy “had quietly guided a Greek supertanker laden with two million barrels of crude oil as it crossed the waterway off the Omani coast”. Oil rose back above $100 a barrel on Tuesday, after the fresh US strikes on Iran dashed hopes of a breakthrough, with experts saying that whatever the outcome of peace talks, the global energy market may now be past the “point of no return”. Here’s our story.