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‘Fine for others to pay more’: can Japan attract more overseas tourists while charging them extra?

Perched dramatically on a hilltop in western Japan, Himeji castle’s striking white-plastered, tiered roofs earned it the moniker “white heron castle”. The sweeping 17th-century complex is regarded as the finest existing samurai fortress, and attracts more than one and a half million visitors a year. But as Japan seeks to manage greater numbers of foreign tourists, Himeji is one of the attractions raising admission prices for non-residents. The World Heritage site increased its admission fee to 2,500 yen ($15.50) on 1 March, but left the price for those who live in Himeji city at 1,000 yen ($6.20). In the first month of the price rise, admissions dropped 17% - roughly in line with the management bureau’s expectations – and Kensuke Tsushi from the castle’s management bureau says “there were voices cautioning that it might damage the castle’s image”. However, ticket revenue more than doubled. “It’s often reported as ‘dual pricing’, but we see it as a flat 2,500 yen with a discount for city residents who show ID,” says Tsushi. Overseas visitors to Himeji grew to 547,000 last year, up from 387,000 in 2018. The castle’s 10-year management plan forecasts that this could reach 1.2 million annually, leading to increased wear and tear costs. Tsushi says the complaints about the system were coming from from Japanese visitors outside the city rather than foreign tourists. “What we hear from Japanese visitors is: it’s a national treasure, it receives national tax money, so why do only Himeji residents get the discount … we just explain our reasoning and try to get them to understand.” Japan has ambitious targets to further raise overseas visitor numbers and revenue, but they come amid growing concerns about overtourism. That includes congestion in places such as Tokyo and Kyoto, littering and anti-social behaviour, as well as increased maintenance costs for historic sites. One strategy being adopted is dual pricing. However, partly to avoid appearing discriminatory to overseas visitors, many sites implementing differentiated prices are opting to charge everyone who lives outside the locality more. Japan is also tripling the departure tax for all travellers to 3,000 yen ($18.55) this month, and visa fees are set for a fivefold jump to 15,000 yen ($93). ‘It feels quite segregating’ Kyoto has become the overtourism poster child, with local residents complaining of congestion and being unable to ride buses that are packed with overseas tourists. In response, the city is considering raising bus fares for non-residents, Japanese and foreign alike. The practice is long-established in regional Japan, including for ferries to remote islands. Yoko Fujihara is a resident of mountainous Nagano, where charging non-residents more for ski passes and onsen hot springs is common. “There are onsen I go to where non-residents have to pay 200 yen ($1.25) more. It makes sense as some local people don’t have baths at home and so go there every day – it’s fine for others to pay more when they visit,” says Fujihara. Elsewhere, the Agency for Cultural Affairs has decided to introduce higher admission prices for overseas tourists at state-run museums and art galleries. And nature-experience theme park Junglia Okinawa has priced its one-day ticket cheaper for those who live in Japan, at 6,930 yen ($43), versus 8,800 yen ($54.45) for everyone else. Lauren Kelly, a Briton based in Bangkok, has made multiple trips to Japan and plans more. She is not enamoured with the idea of dual pricing in a mature economy, even though it is practised in her adopted home. “It feels quite segregating,” says Kelly. “However, Thailand is a poorer country than Japan, so in a sense I think that would make it feel worse.” Japan overseas visitor numbers on the rise Growth in overseas visitors to Japan has been rapid: after topping 10 million for the first time in 2013, numbers reached more than 42 million last year. The government has raised its target to 60 million by the end of the decade. Spending by overseas visitors grew 16% in 2025 to a record 9.5tn yen ($59bn). The domestic tourist industry, which also logged an all-time high last year, has reached 26.8tn yen ($170bn). Much of that is earmarked for countermeasures to reduce littering and other anti-social behaviour that fuel complaints. The Japan Tourism Agency increasing its budget by more than 700% to 10bn yen ($62m) for initiatives including AI crowd-detection cameras, booking systems that cap visitor numbers, park-and-ride schemes and smart bins. There will also be increased efforts to ease congestion by encouraging tourists to go beyond the usual hotspots of Tokyo, Mount Fuji, Osaka and Kyoto, though there are challenges to getting tourists off the most beaten tracks. Two-tier pricing is already in wide use in Asia. Overseas visitors have been paying more for food and services for decades in China, Indonesia and Thailand among others. At some of the continent’s most iconic sites, such as India’s Taj Mahal and Cambodia’s Angkor Wat, overseas visitors pay significantly more than locals, who in some cases have the fees waived entirely. It is also a growing trend in Europe, where Paris’s Louvre hiked entry only for non-European Economic Area residents by 45% to €32 ($36.40) in January. Back in Nagano, Fujihara worries about the knock-on effect of higher prices making life harder for some Japanese, but she acknowledges the economic boost that foreign tourism delivers. “Of course, I want people to come and enjoy Japan,” she says.

Ukraine war briefing: Swedish defence maker Saab signs deal to deliver 16 fighter jets to Kyiv

Swedish defence equipment maker Saab has signed a contract to deliver ⁠16 Gripen E fighter aircraft to Ukraine in a deal worth about ⁠24.6bn Swedish crowns ($2.54bn). Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, writing on the Telegram messaging ⁠app, said the agreement reached with Swedish prime minister Ulf ‌Kristersson involved ‌the purchase of the 16 aircraft and included ‌technical support. Saab’s timetable differed from that outlined by Zelenskyy, who said deliveries would begin in 2027, while the Swedish defence equipment maker said deliveries were scheduled for 2029-2030. Ukraine’s top military commander said in an interview broadcast on Tuesday that his forces were preparing for a possible ⁠new Russian attack from the north, but any attempt to advance on Kyiv was unlikely. Oleksandr Syrskyi, interviewed on TSN Ukrainian television, also said ⁠an attack from ⁠neighbouring Belarus was unlikely after weeks of Ukrainian allegations that Moscow was trying to press its ally to play a greater role in the war. “The ⁠most likely scenario, and this is confirmed by several data sources, is possible offensive action in the north from the territory of Russia, from the ⁠Bryansk region,” Syrskyi said.“This is a realistic option, of course, and we are preparing for it.” Russian glide bombs killed two people and ⁠injured ⁠at least 15 in the south-eastern Ukrainian ⁠city of Zaporizhzhia on Tuesday, regional governor ⁠Ivan Fedorov said. Fedorov, writing on ‌the Telegram ‌messaging app, said ‌Russian forces had deployed seven bombs over a 90-minute period in the city, a frequent target ‌of Russian attacks. Denmark announced ⁠on Tuesday a new military donation package ⁠to Ukraine worth about 4.4bn ⁠crowns ($671.8m). “Around 1.3 billion ‌crowns is ‌allocated to ‘the Danish ‌model’, which makes it possible to finance the Ukrainian state’s procurement costs through its ‌own defence industry,” the government said in a statement. “In addition, more funds have been ⁠allocated for long-range artillery ammunition.” It is Denmark’s 30th military support package ‌to Ukraine Police on Tuesday were searching for the suspect behind a parcel bomb that seriously wounded a sanctioned multimillionaire of Ukrainian origin and two others in Monaco. Officers in Monaco and neighbouring France were hunting for a man in a black fisher’s hat who appeared in surveillance footage after leaving a package in a residential building near the border, authorities said. The device exploded at around 9pm (1900 GMT) on Monday, leaving a man and a woman seriously wounded and a 13-year-old with lighter injuries, according to the Monegasque authorities. Monaco public prosecutor Stephane Thibault said as of Tuesday the man had been stabilised, but the woman’s condition remained “life-threatening”. He said the blast was being investigated as “attempted murder” but was not being considered as a “terrorist” act. He declined to say who was the presumed target of the blast, but several sources have said it was Ukrainian-born businessman Vadym Yermolaiev, who is a permanent resident of Monaco and has acquired Cypriot nationality. Yermolaiev is a sanctioned multimillionaire with a reportedly long list of enemies in his homeland. Kyiv alleges the 58-year-old maintained an alcohol business in Russia-annexed Crimea – paying taxes to Moscow even after it invaded Ukraine in 2022. Kenya’s cabinet on Tuesday approved the country’s accession to two international anti-mercenary treaties, a move aimed at curbing the recruitment of citizens into foreign conflicts and combating human trafficking. Kenya is among several African countries whose citizens have reportedly been forcibly conscripted into the Russian army to fight in Ukraine after being lured with promises of jobs abroad. The foreign affairs ministry officially estimates that 291 Kenyans have been victims of Russia’s “irregular military recruitment”, including 19 dead and 32 missing.

US-Iran talks over $6bn Iranian assets to restart

Talks at an indirect level between US and Iranian officials over unfreezing at least $6bn Iranian assets will recommence on Wednesday in Doha, Iran has said. The two sides are yet to have their first face-to-face meeting since signing a deal to extend the ceasefire and reopen the strait of Hormuz. US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner were in Qatar on Tuesday for talks covering regional issues including the Iran ceasefire and Lebanon, but Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson, Majed Al-Ansari, stressed these were with Qatari mediators. “They are not here for their negotiations with the Iranians,” he said. The US team is seeking details of a plan for Iran to charge tolls in the strait of Hormuz, and how the plan relates to proposals for consultation being tabled by Oman that would introduce fees for navigational services. The lack of renewed direct contact between the US and Iran on how to implement the memorandum of understanding signed on 17 June reflects tensions over Iran’s determination to maintain control over commercial oil tanker traffic through the strait of Hormuz, as well as Iran’s opposition to the proposed Lebanon ceasefire negotiated by Israel, the US and the Lebanese government last week. Talks between Iran and the US have not even started on Iran’s nuclear programme even though only 60 days from 17 June had been set aside to complete the complex talks, and further negotiations appeared at risk after both sides traded fire in the strait of Hormuz over the weekend. In theory those talks can be extended beyond the 6o-day deadline, but the slow progress is starting to alarm some diplomats. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman, Esmail Baghaei, speaking at a press conference in Tehran, warned European powers such as France and the UK not to seek to become involved in de-mining the strait of Hormuz. “Iran is better aware of its responsibilities than any other party and is capable of fulfilling them, and there is no need for the intervention of others. Interventions that, even if made with good intentions, will in practice only complicate the situation,” he said. Western powers object to Iran’s plan to impose tolls for commercial shipping passing through the strait, but may be more open to discussing Oman’s plan for voluntary contributions or fees charged for specific services. Iran’s top negotiator, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said on state TV on Tuesday: “The sovereignty of the strait of Hormuz lies with Iran and Oman, and traffic in the strait is subject to arrangements determined by Iran”, adding that fee-free passage through the strait is only for 60 days, as per the memorandum of understanding. The UN’s International Maritime Organisation was holding informal discussions with Iran about Tehran ’s objections to the IMO opening a sea route through the strait close to Oman in conjunction with the US and Oman. At one point last week the IMO thought it had the agreement of the Iranian foreign ministry to the route, but Iran then attacked two ships, possibly fearing its control of the strait was being eroded. The IMO secretary General Arsenio Dominguez then suspended the route to hold talks with Iran. According to data from Kpler, a maritime tracking firm, 40 ships transited the waterway on Monday, up from 24 the previous day and 39 on Saturday. Hundreds of vessels have been stranded since the war between the US and Iran broke out on 28 February, leaving as many as 10,000 seafarers stranded. Not all ships have their transponders on, making an accurate count hard, but Iran may regard this level of traffic as so far below normal levels as to keep the pressure on the price of oil. It is committed to using its best endeavours to lift the blockade in the strait within 30 days Giving a relatively optimistic account of the state of relations with the US, only days after the two sides exchanged fire arising from a dispute over the control of the strait, Baghaei said: “From the beginning when we entered this diplomatic process, no one imagined a smooth and unchallenged process. Keep in mind that this diplomatic process began after two wars in less than a year […] we expected to face challenges in the implementation phase.”

US and European diplomats continue standoff over top Bosnia and Herzegovina post

Diplomats from the US and Europe have been unable to resolve their differences and agree on a new top international envoy in Bosnia and Herzegovina, in a standoff which has become a transatlantic test of wills over influence in the Balkans. A meeting in Sarajevo to select a new high representative, a post with far-reaching powers, ended without a compromise, in a spat that has undermined western cohesion in the region in the Trump era. All that was agreed on Tuesday was that the current high representative, the German politician Christian Schmidt, should end his tenure immediately, as the US has been demanding, and his American deputy take on the role for two weeks pending a decision on a successor. In a statement on Tuesday evening the Peace Implementation Council (PIC) steering board said it was “committed to reaching agreement on the selection of a new high representative as soon as possible, with the goal of completing the appointment no later than 14 July 2026”. In recent months, US policy has prioritised the pursuit of advantage for US firms, and in particular a company run by associates of Donald Trump, while European powers have so far refused to yield to US demands, despite threats from Washington to cut off funding and participation in the international presence in Bosnia if its wishes are not fulfilled. The Balkan country has consequently become a testing ground for Europe’s capacity to unite and stand up to US Maga foreign policy in its own back yard. The major power contest could have far-reaching implications for Bosnia itself, which has functioned as an international protectorate since a war that ended more than 30 years ago with a settlement which has stopped the bloodshed, but also stifled political and economic development. Ambassadors from the US, UK, France, Germany, Italy and the EU, as well as envoys from Canada, Japan and Turkey, met in the Bosnian capital to make a second attempt to agree on a new high representative, after the first try broke up amid acrimony in early June. In the run-up to that initial meeting, the Trump administration had rattled European capitals by insisting that the current high representative be removed after he defied US wishes. Under a compromise with Germany, Schmidt was persuaded to resign, but would stay in his post until Bosnian elections in October. In recent weeks, however, the Trump administration reneged on that understanding and demanded Schmidt’s immediate departure. Washington achieved that goal on Tuesday. Kurt Bassuener, co-founder of advocacy group the Democratization Policy Council, said: “This was involuntary. This was not Schmidt leaving of his own accord. This was the Americans kicking him out.” However, the US has so far not prevailed in its choice of Schmidt’s successor. Recently, American officials have been campaigning aggressively for a 76-year-old Italian diplomat, Antonio Zanardi Landi, to replace him, much to the bewilderment of most other PIC steering board members. Landi has no significant previous experience or apparent knowledge of Bosnia. He was once posted in Serbia, but he has not shown much interest in its southern neighbour until now. There has been no clear explanation from Washington for its abrupt manoeuvring, but European officials in Sarajevo suspect it is closely related to the new US priority in the region: to clear the way for a $1bn gas pipeline contract, the Southern Interconnection. This has been provisionally awarded to AAFS Infrastructure and Energy, a US-based company with minimal infrastructure experience, but strong personal connections to Donald Trump. Last month, the Trump administration announced a new policy for the Balkans, stating that henceforth US actions in the region would be guided by the need to pursue “direct return” for American companies, in place of what it called “open-ended institution building”. Jim O’Brien, a former US diplomat, writing on the European Council for Foreign Relations website, said the announcement “reflected what is already happening in the region under the second Trump administration”, as “politically connected Americans seek to earn money by weakening … international institutions”. “This behaviour undermines the peace that has held for 30 years,” O’Brien said. The pipeline deal was awarded without tender, prompting a warning from the EU that this could jeopardise Bosnia’s long-term European integration and generating a confrontation that has culminated in the row over Landi and the high representative’s job. Landi is serving as the Sovereign Military Order of Malta’s ambassador to the Vatican. Contacted by the Guardian, he said it would be “unwise for me to step into the heated debate”, but argued his “key points and focus” manifesto that has been circulated among PIC steering board members was “perfectly in line with the European positions”. The Landi manifesto, seen by the Guardian and first published by the Bosnian investigative journalism website Istraga, promises not to overturn the decrees of previous high representatives, to consult the PIC before taking substantial actions, and not to unilaterally close down the office of the high representative. London, Paris and Berlin have been unconvinced by the Landi campaign, and as of Monday were aligned behind a French candidate, René Troccaz, France’s Balkans envoy. However, the Europeans failed to present a united stance in the face of US pressure on capitals. According to sources in Sarajevo, Germany proposed a Danish diplomat, Peter Sørensen, a former EU envoy in Sarajevo, as a compromise candidate, while senior EU officials in Brussels agreed with Washington that Schmidt’s deputy, the US diplomat Louis Crishock, should take over temporarily as acting high representative, potentially leaving Washington in the stronger position if there is no agreement on Schmidt’s successor in the coming fortnight. The tussle among erstwhile allies has underlined how far Bosnia’s current realities are still defined by the 1992-95 war, which killed 100,000 people, mostly Muslim Bosniaks slaughtered by much better-armed Serb forces and, to a much lesser extent, Croats. The US-brokered Dayton peace deal in late 1995 stopped the bloodshed, but enshrined the dominant role of ethnic politics and the division of the country into two halves, a Bosniak-Croat Federation and a Serb-run entity, the Republika Srpska. The office of the high representative was established with substantial powers to oversee the Dayton agreement and help guide Bosnia towards greater ethnic integration. That latter mission has largely been a failure, with the country as divided as ever and the Republika Srpska under the sway of a Serb separatist, Milorad Dodik. Successive high representatives, all Europeans, have been reluctant to invoke their powers to shape the Bosnian political system, but Schmidt stepped in last year to annul Dodik’s separatist actions, leading to the Serb leader’s ousting last September. It momentarily seemed that the hardliner’s 28-year grip on power in Republika Srpska had been broken, but in the following months the Trump administration came to Dodik’s rescue, abruptly lifting sanctions imposed by the Biden administration on Dodik and his associates for corruption and “divisive ethno-nationalistic rhetoric”. In the months that followed, during which the US president’s son Donald Trump Jr visited Republika Srpska’s main city, Banja Luka, Dodik gave his approval to the Southern Interconnection pipeline. The remaining obstacles to the project going ahead were EU objections and the fact that about a third of the pipeline would be built on state property. Ownership of Bosnia’s lands, forests and other plentiful resources is one of the thorny issues that was supposed to be resolved after the war. Dodik insists that everything on Serb-controlled property should belong to the Republika Srpska, not the Bosnian state. One possible scenario, outlined by an official in Sarajevo, was that on taking office, Landi would issue a special law dividing state property between the Republika Srpska and the Federation, which would bring the pipeline a big step closer to reality. Landi’s manifesto did not mention state property, but an AAFS company official has reportedly briefed leading Bosnian parliamentarians that the issue would be resolved if and when Landi took over as high representative. The US had threatened to reconsider its “role in the current international presence” if Landi was not given the job at Tuesday’s PIC meeting.

Toddler rescued from rubble six days after devastating Venezuela earthquakes

A child has been rescued from the rubble in Venezuela, six days since the country was hit by devastating twin earthquakes. The boy, identified by the Reuters news agency as Klieber Moran, was rescued early on Tuesday, the only reported survivor on the sixth day of rescue efforts, according to Venezuelan authorities. Moran was pulled from the Los Corales Garden ⁠1 building in La Guaira state by rescuers from Jordan, ⁠Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, said in a message via Telegram. Venezuela was hit by ‌two earthquakes of ‌magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 less than a minute apart last ‌Wednesday, toppling buildings and trapping thousands of people beneath the rubble, according to authorities and rescue teams. Moran, described as three years old by Rodríguez, but as two years old by National Assembly president Jorge Rodríguez, was taken for medical treatment, ‌the message said. “We must hold on to the hope of continuing to find people alive beneath the rubble,” Jorge said in a televised address. “Early this morning, a two-year-old boy was rescued and is currently receiving care at a health centre in Caracas.” A shipment from the UN children’s agency, Unicef, carrying 47 ⁠metric tons of humanitarian supplies arrived in Venezuela on Tuesday, UN spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric said, adding the equipment would help support children and families in need. The shipment ‌includes emergency health kits for urgent medical care, including supplies for safe births, newborn care, disease prevention, and treatment, Dujarric added. The government puts the death toll at more than 1,900, with more than 10,000 people injured. Experts say that is a significant undercount as more bodies are hauled from the rubble every day and morgues struggle to handle the influx. Among the living, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding. UN agencies expressed concern about the health effects of thousands of displaced people sleeping for days in the open, or in crowded, unsanitary shelters. Nasa estimates that nearly 59,000 buildings have been damaged or destroyed by the earthquakes, which would put the number of people affected by the quakes in the hundreds of thousands. Unicef said on Tuesday that 680,000 children are in need of humanitarian assistance nationwide.

Trans youth athletes vow to keep playing after US supreme court ruling

Transgender youth athletes have vowed to keep playing sports and fighting for equal access to teams after the US supreme court ruled in favor of laws banning their participation. The court’s conservative supermajority on Tuesday upheld laws in West Virginia and Idaho prohibiting trans girls from participating in women’s teams, finding the laws were constitutional. The ruling advances one of the central causes of anti-LGBTQ+ advocates, who have been pushing to curtail the rights of trans people across society, including in education, employment, healthcare and the military. The decision will support laws in 25 other states that also restrict trans youth participation in sports. But LGBTQ+ advocates say the immediate legal impact is narrow and does not create a national ban. More than 20 states have inclusive policies allowing trans students to play on teams that match their gender. “We’re not backing down,” said Nereyda Hernandez, a California trans rights advocate. She is the mother of AB Hernandez, who became one of the most well-known trans youth athletes in the US when Donald Trump began directly targeting her last year on social media. “I’ve always said, you’re not going to intimidate me or bully my kid out of sports.” “Sports have just meant the absolute world to me,” said AB, a 17-year-old track-and-field athlete from Jurupa Valley, a city east of Los Angeles. She recently graduated high school. “If I had been forced to join the boys’ team, it would just be so uncomfortable for all of us. They’re failing to see on my girls’ team, everyone is super happy and super nice and no one cares. We’re just high school girls trying to have fun and play a sport we all love.” In 2020, Idaho became the first state to adopt a law categorically banning trans women and girls from women’s sports teams. In Little v Hecox, Lindsay Hecox, a trans college student blocked from track, challenged Idaho’s law. The second case, West Virginia v BPJ, stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Becky Pepper-Jackson, a 15-year-old trans girl and track athlete. “Politicians in my state passed a law banning me – the only transgender student athlete in the state – from playing on the team that reflects who I really am,” Becky said in a recent speech. The case, she said, is “just one part of a plan to push transgender people like me out of the public life entirely”. ‘We need to stay strong’ States such as California have long permitted trans youth to play on teams that match their gender with little controversy until the last six years, when the subject became a national political debate. Lina Haaga, a 15-year-old track athlete in Pasadena, California, has become a vocal proponent for the rights of trans girls like herself after she was subjected to attacks in rightwing media. She said she would not let the supreme court decision or backlash stop her from pursuing extracurriculars that have become vital to her. “Sports have meant a lot in terms of finding community, finding friends, making connections,” said Lina, who transitioned at age four and has also played basketball, tennis, water polo and lacrosse. “The story of the inclusion of trans people in sports isn’t just limited to athletics. It’s a domino effect, and if we relent this battle, we risk giving up the rights of trans people in other areas … We need to stay strong and continue fighting.” Lina said she would pursue athletics in the fall: “It’s really special to have a dedicated team outside of academics … It’s scary to think that could be taken away from me, but I love the joy of competing and sometimes winning and sometimes losing and crying over the losses or celebrating the victories.” The hate and vitriol she faced, including after winning a race against her sister in the spring, has taken a toll, she said. “There were times I considered quitting. It’s really daunting to have nameless, faceless adults on the internet commenting horrible things, not just about the fairness of my participation, but about my appearance, my identity, my character,” she said. “But at times when I was really struggling, I always reminded myself there’s a joy and beauty about sports and benefits every kid should be able to access.” Her mother, Catalina Haaga, said it seemed the national political debate was ignoring the real-world impact on youth who are targeted, like her daughter. The team embraced Lina when she won. Even as anti-trans advocates argued the victory was unfair, she noted: “We’re prioritizing competition over inclusion, tolerance, belonging. We need to zoom out as a nation and ask, what is the greater value at stake? In our home, the answer is belonging is more important than a trophy.” Ripple effects Anti-trans groups argue the bans are necessary to protect women’s sports and fairness, while LGBTQ+ rights advocates argue there is no credible evidence that inclusive sports policies have endangered cis girls. There are very few out trans youth athletes. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) president in 2024 said there were fewer than 10 trans athletes in college sports and lawmakers have struggled over the years to identify out K-12 trans youth sports players in their states. But advocates note there are more than 110,000 trans youth ages 13 to 17 living in states with sports bans, who are impacted by exclusionary policies. Lily Norcross, a 17-year-old track athlete from California’s Central Coast, said she would continue pursuing sports in her final year of high school, though feared the ripple effects of the ruling. Anytime the Trump administration pursues anti-trans policies, “we see a noticeable uptick in hate crimes,” she said. “It’s a very real possibility that threats made to me become increasingly more violent to the point where I no longer feel safe to participate.” Her father, Trevor Norcross, added: “It’s devastating as a parent to hear your child have to talk that way and deal with these issues. That’s the goal of the other side. This has never had anything to do with sports or fairness or bathrooms. The agenda is eradication of transgender people.” Still, Lily added: “I will not back down from this fight. I know I’m in a horrible position, but there are so many people out there in Nebraska, Idaho, Texas or Florida who are in so much worse positions than me.” Lily also questioned how bans will be enforced across the country: “Will there be video surveillance in locker rooms?” Advocates note that bans can encourage invasive sex-testing procedures, which can lead to scrutiny and privacy violations of all girls, including cis girls accused of being trans based on their appearances and stereotypes. The New York Civil Liberties Union, a civil rights group, said in a statement the ruling does not impact existing civil rights protections for trans youth in New York, but would “embolden more transphobic policies in an attempt to erase trans kids and their existence from daily life”. The state’s attorney general, Letitia James, said she would continue to fight against discriminatory policies. Other elected Democrats – including the state attorney general in Washington state; the lieutenant governor of Virginia; congressmembers Ed Markey, of Massachusetts and Pramila Jayapal, of Washington; and Minnesota governor, Tim Walz – all criticized the ruling and reiterated their commitments to support trans youth and adults. Abigail Jones, a trans athlete and recent high school graduate from Riverside, California, said after the ruling that she hoped people would keep standing up to anti-trans bigotry. “For trans people, sports can be extremely important and even life-saving for some. It does usually grant people subject to a lot of discrimination and hatred a team and community and friendships and bonding.”

‘Tonnes of rubble’: 58,000 buildings estimated destroyed in Venezuela earthquakes

More than 58,000 buildings may have been damaged and destroyed by the twin earthquakes that hit Venezuela last week, according to a preliminary analysis of satellite data that suggests the scale of the destruction could dwarf official estimates. Last Wednesday’s back-to-back quakes – which measured magnitude 7.2 and 7.5 – killed at least 1,943 people, injured more than 10,571, and left tens of thousands missing amid the rubble. The UN migration agency has said that up to 6.8 million people could be affected by the disasters, and would require shelter, water, sanitation, healthcare and essential relief items. As hopes of finding survivors dwindle, efforts are under way to determine the true extent of the damage. On Monday, Jorge Rodríguez, the president of the National Assembly, said that 855 buildings had been damaged, including 189 “total collapses”. But initial assessment of satellite data published by US space agency Nasa raises the prospect of far more serious and widespread damage. After analysing high-resolution radar imagery gathered the day after the quakes by the European Space Agency’s Sentinel-1 satellites, researchers at Oregon State University have concluded that “approximately 58,870 buildings were likely damaged or destroyed across the affected region”. They added: “This is a preliminary, rapid assessment. It reflects abrupt surface change consistent with damage.” Meanwhile, the World Health Organization has sounded the alarm over potential disease outbreaks as Venezuela’s stressed and damaged health facilities struggle to cope with the aftermath of the quakes. “The health services are under extreme pressure now, with facilities operating beyond the capacity,” spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told a press conference in Geneva. He added that there was “an increased risk” of outbreaks of measles and diphtheria due to low levels of pre-quake vaccination, as well as of yellow fever, malaria, dengue, chikungunya and Zika. The WHO said its preliminary findings had found gaps in obstetric care in the hard-hit port city of La Guaira because maternity care workers were still missing after the quakes. It also noted “chaotic service delivery and patient flow, marked by overcrowding [and] growing surgical backlogs”, and said there were problems adequately registering casualties and tracking missing people. The government has militarised La Guaira and imposed a permit requirement to enter the disaster zone. The US military has repaired and reopened the city’s port, where at least one a warehouse has been turned into a makeshift morgue for hundreds of unidentified cadavers in body bags. According to Gianluca Rampolla, the UN coordinator in Venezuela, a total of 27 countries have mobilised nearly 40 search and rescue teams. They include more than 2,000 troops and personnel, along with more than 160 dogs. Rampolla said the UN would provide 10,000 body bags, although it hopes the final toll will be lower. The wait for news – good or bad – is fuelling growing public anger over the authorities’ failure to prepare for the disaster and to react more quickly once the quakes hit. Daniela Mangiafico has had no news of her 80-year-old grandmother Josefa Báez Verdejo since the building where they lived in the Tanaguarenas area of La Guaira collapsed last Wednesday. Also missing or trapped are Mangiafico’s three chihuahuas and her five cats. “My entire life is gone: everything, my grandmother and my pets; all of them are my family,” she said on Sunday. “What happened is that help arrived late. It’s taking too long and, obviously, how can you ask people who are trapped there to wait?” Two days later, Mangiafico said a voice that could be her grandmother’s had been heard. The family are still hoping that she may have managed to shelter in a space behind her bed. “They have completely forgotten us in Tanaguarenas,” Mangiafico’s sister, Jennifer, said in a video posted on Tuesday morning. “Rescuers have arrived, but not the kind we need. We need machinery because we can no longer do anything by hand. There’s tonnes and tonnes of rubble that we cannot lift with our hands.” Nicolás Serrato, a volunteer rescuer from southern Venezuela, said the devastation he had seen in and around La Guaira was staggering. “Very few buildings are unaffected,” he said. “The vast majority of homes, from small houses to three-storey buildings and huge apartment blocks, are all badly damaged. And those still standing have serious structural problems.” Serrato said that the estimate of 50,000 damaged buildings tallied pretty well with what he had seen. “It’s truly brutal,” he said. “All those people who survived are now searching for their families. There is a very deep emergency, and it is extremely important to help now because this is very difficult.” Agence France-Presse and Reuters contribute to this report

Pope Leo pleads with ultra-conservative sect not to ordain own bishops

Pope Leo has made a last-ditch attempt to persuade a rebel group of ultra-conservative Catholics to abandon plans to ordain its own bishops without Vatican approval, calling the “schismatic act” a “sin of extreme gravity”. The Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), founded in the Swiss village of Ecône in 1970 to oppose liberalising reforms in the Catholic church, plans to ordain four new bishops at its seminary there on Wednesday. The order, which has gained a significant following in the US, where it has a large operations base in Kansas, as well as in France, Argentina and other countries, has nearly 1,500 priests, seminarians and other vocational members. The ceremony on 1 July risks further straining the church’s fraught relationship with rightwing and traditionalist Catholics and could be the first significant crisis for the pontiff, who since his election in May last year has prioritised unity within the Catholic church. The society rejects key reforms that emerged from the Second Vatican Council – a landmark Vatican gathering of cardinals, patriarchs, bishops, theological experts and others between 1962 and 1965 – including allowing mass to be celebrated in local languages. Until then it had been said only in Latin. The SSPX has accused the modern church of being rife with heresies and errors, saying that the ordinations originate from practical necessity and “do not proceed from any desire to claim a power of jurisdiction or to establish a parallel authority within the church”. However, church law stipulates that such ordinations constitute an act that could provoke a schism – an intentional rupture of the church’s unity – and could lead to the automatic excommunication of the newly ordained bishops and the bishop who carries out the consecrations. “I plead with you and ask you with all my heart: please turn back!,” Leo wrote in a letter addressed to Rev Davide Pagliarani, the superior general of the SSPX. “I urge you to consider carefully the spiritual good of the faithful, because the schismatic act you are about to undertake would deprive them of the licit and, in some cases, even valid reception of the sacraments, which they love and seek for their sanctification.” Leo added: “I pray for you, because to tear the seamless garment of Christ is a sin of extreme gravity.” In response, Marc-André Mabillard, media manager for the society, told AP that SSPX was changing “absolutely nothing” in its plans, expressing “great sadness to not be understood by our leader”. Mabillard added: “We don’t fear it. It pains us immensely, but we believe that the good we seek is greater than the pain that will be inflicted upon us.” Leo had previously appealed to SSPX not to go ahead with the ordinations, and last week told journalists that if the society made the “choice” to continue on the trajectory of schism, then “I’m sorry, but we must move forward”. Christopher White, author of Pope Leo XIV: Inside the Conclave and the Dawn of a New Papacy, and a senior fellow at Georgetown University in Washington DC, said: “The fact that he’s made it clear that there will be consequences, namely excommunication, attests to the gravity of the situation – and that he’s not willing to turn a blind eye to rogue, schismatic behaviour simply for the sake of preserving a false unity.” In 1988, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, the late founder of SSPX, and four bishops he had ordained without permission from then-Pope John Paul II, were excommunicated, including a British bishop, Richard Williamson. In 2009, the conservative Pope Benedict lifted the excommunications. Shortly before, Williamson caused uproar by denying the Holocaust. The Associated Press contributed to this report.