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Russia on the back foot with dynamics of war shifting in Ukraine’s favour, EU says – Europe live

Brussels correspondent Meanwhile, EU regulators have fined the Chinese shopping website Temu €200m (£173m) for failing to stop the sale of illegal and dangerous products. The European Commission imposed the penalty after a 19-month investigation that found consumers were very likely to encounter illegal or unsafe products including baby toys and electronics on the firm’s website. An unpublished mystery shopping exercise carried out for the commission found a “high percentage” of unsafe baby products and a “very high percentage” of dangerous chargers for sale on the platform, as well as unsafe clothes and jewellery. Consumer groups across Europe have previously reported baby toys with loose parts presenting choking hazards, dummy chains long enough that they could strangle a child, jewellery laced with dangerous metals including lead, clothes made with banned chemicals and chargers that posed risks of burns, electric shocks or fire. The commission also criticised Temu over inadequate controls on the design of its website. Recommender systems and influencers’ promotions by influencers “could amplify dissemination risks of illegal products” it said. The €200m fine is the second and highest-ever imposed under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which has applied to the world’s biggest tech companies since February 2024. It follows a €120m penalty issued to Elon Musk’s X last December for “deceptive” verification badges and lack of transparency over advertising. A senior EU official said the commission had found a particularly serious breach of the act related to an inadequate risk assessment on unsafe products that Temu carried out in 2024.

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

Here are some of the latest images from Beirut, where the Israeli military launched an attack in its first strike on the Lebanese capital since 6 May:

EU fines Temu for failing to stop sale of illegal and dangerous products

EU regulators have fined the Chinese shopping website Temu €200m (£173m) for failing to stop the sale of illegal and dangerous products. The European Commission imposed the penalty after a 19-month investigation that found consumers were very likely to encounter illegal or unsafe products including baby toys and electronics on the firm’s website. An unpublished mystery shopping exercise carried out for the commission found a “high percentage” of unsafe baby products and a “very high percentage” of dangerous chargers for sale on the platform, as well as unsafe clothes and jewellery. Consumer groups across Europe have previously reported baby toys with loose parts presenting choking hazards, dummy chains long enough that they could strangle a child, jewellery laced with dangerous metals including lead, clothes made with banned chemicals and chargers that posed risks of burns, electric shocks or fire. The commission also criticised Temu over inadequate controls on the design of its website. Recommender systems and promotions by influencers “could amplify dissemination risks of illegal products” it said. The €200m fine is the second and highest-ever imposed under the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which has applied to the world’s biggest tech companies since February 2024. It follows a €120m penalty issued to Elon Musk’s X last December for “deceptive” verification badges and lack of transparency over advertising. A senior EU official said the commission had found a particularly serious breach of the act related to an inadequate risk assessment on unsafe products that Temu carried out in 2024. The fine represents only a fraction of Temu’s fast-growing revenues. Its parent company, PDD Holdings, reported global revenues of $54bn (£40bn) in 2024, although this included income from another popular Chinese e-commerce site, Pinduoduo. Under the DSA a company can be fined up to 6% of global turnover. The senior EU official said the fine was proportionate and that other parts of the investigation into Temu, which could also lead to financial penalties, were continuing. The commission is also looking into the sale of illegal products, addictive design and whether independent researchers had access to Temu’s data. Temu has 130 million consumers in the EU, almost a third of the population. Once nicknamed the price butcher, it offers a vast range of very cheap products and has become a market leader in many countries. The DSA is intended to protect people from a wide range of online harms, ranging from disinformation and age-inappropriate content to dodgy products. The European Commission vice-president who leads on tech regulation, Henna Virkkunen, said: “Temu’s risk assessment underestimates concrete risks, lacks specificity, is not grounded in solid evidence, and is not comprehensive. It leaves regulators, users and the public in the dark about the true scale of potential harm posed by illegal products sold on Temu. “Now it is time for Temu to comply with the law.” Temu, which has the right to appeal against the fine, said it was “reviewing the decision carefully and considering all available options”. A spokesperson for the company said: “Temu respects the objectives of the Digital Services Act and the need for clear, consistent rules across the digital economy. However, we disagree with the European Commission’s decision and consider the fine to be disproportionate. “The decision relates to our first DSA assessment in 2024 and does not reflect the current state of our systems. Temu engaged constructively with the commission throughout the process and has since taken further steps to strengthen risk assessment, platform governance, and user protection.” Temu has until 28 August to submit an action plan to the commission setting out how it intends to remedy the situation.

Family accuse FCDO of lack of support over death of UK man in Grenada

The grieving family of a British man found dead in his home on the Caribbean island of Grenada have accused UK authorities of failing to support their fight for justice. The family of Andrew Frederick, 47, whose body was discovered on 4 January, are calling for an urgent review of the policies governing UK assistance to the loved ones of Britons killed abroad. A spokesperson for the family said they had been forced to launch their own public appeals for information, and commission an independent forensic pathologist and a private investigator, after they grew concerned about the direction of the police investigation in Grenada. The pathologist, approved by the Royal Grenada police force (RGPF), found that Frederick had been tortured and concluded that his death was a homicide, the family spokesperson said, adding that family members then referred the case to the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office. Despite being provided with a postmortem report establishing that Frederick had been tortured and killed, the FCDO refused to refer the case to its murder and manslaughter team, a specialist unit that supports families of British nationals who are victims of homicide abroad, the spokesperson said. The family said in a statement: “Acting on pure discretion and with no guidance to underpin its position, the FCDO chose to defer to the local police force’s classification of Andrew’s death as suspicious but not a homicide over the determination of the only medical professional who examined Andrew.” After the family referred their case to the Ealing Central and Acton MP, Dr Rupa Huq, she tabled a question in parliament in April, asking “on what legal basis” did the FCDO defer “to a foreign police force’s classification of the death of a British national abroad over the determination of an officially appointed pathologist and an official death certificate in circumstances where those findings would constitute grounds for a homicide investigation in England and Wales?” The FCDO undersecretary, Hamish Falconer, responded that he was aware of the family’s case and added that there was no “guidance on the specific circumstances”. The family said the delays and continuing gaps in support from UK authorities had taken an “immeasurable toll” on them, adding that they had received no information or any updates from the RGPF since mid January. They said: “We have been unable to grieve properly for Andrew because grief requires a degree of resolution or at least the belief that those with the power to act are acting. Instead, nearly five months have been spent driving a campaign for justice while carrying the weight of what was done to him. “This includes examining horrific pictures and the knowledge that the organisations that exist precisely to help families in these circumstances have, at every turn, forced us to fight for the most basic engagement. This is not what grief should look like. It is what institutional failure looks like.” Eve Henderson, who co-founded the Murdered Abroad charity in 2001, which is helping Frederick’s family, said she was baffled by the UK’s reluctance to offer the support of the murder and manslaughter team, despite the postmortem and death certificate categorising the case as a homicide. Murdered Abroad, created after Henderson’s husband was killed in 1997 while on holiday in France, was instrumental in the campaign for the establishment of the FCDO’s murder and manslaughter team in 2015. Henderson said: “On average, there are between 60 and 80 homicides of British nationals abroad every year, which, I believe, is about 10% of all homicides in England and Wales last year. When it happens to you … you just assume that you will be assisted by our police or the Foreign Office or the coroner. But most of the people the charity helps find themselves facing a maze of complications and frustrations, Henderson said. One of the challenges, she added, is that much of the support is discretionary and not backed up by law. “There’s no statutory right to whatever they’re offering in the guidance. So it falls down on, ‘we may be able to help’,” she said, adding that attempts to get the support written into law through parliament had failed. Bernie Kinsella, a UK retired chief superintendent of police, who worked on the high-profile case of the British student Joanna Parrish, 20, who was murdered in France in 1990, echoed Henderson’s concerns. Kinsella, who is an adviser to Murdered Abroad, said while he understood British police were limited because they had no jurisdiction in a foreign investigation, there had been a lack of meaningful progress in support for families since he first worked on an overseas homicide case 25 years ago. An FCDO spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British man who has died in Grenada and are in contact with the local authorities.” The Metropolitan police said they did not publicly comment on investigations being led by other forces. In Grenada, the director of public prosecution, Howard Pinnock, said Andrew Frederick’s file had been reviewed, adding: “My advice to the police was to refer the matter to the coroner for an inquest.” The RGPF was approached for comment.

Argentina’s ‘European’ self-image under renewed scrutiny after racist incidents in Brazil

A woman celebrating her 32nd birthday on a train journey in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais was horrified when a fellow passenger alerted her that an unknown man had been secretly filming her seven-year-old son. When confronted, the man – an Argentinian tourist – initially refused to show his phone. But after being pressed by other travellers, the man admitted he had sent the images to a WhatsApp contact. Police later revealed that under the photos, Eduardo Ignacio Murias, 63, an architect from the Argentinian province of Santiago del Estero, had written: “He’s Black but very cute. I could take him as a slave. I’m thinking of taking a slave, there are many here.” The child’s mother photographed the phone screen and passengers kept Murias inside the the train until it reached its destination, where he was arrested for “racial insult”, a crime under Brazilian law. The case has reignited debate in both countries about racism, national identity and Argentina’s longstanding pride in its European heritage. Murias was the third Argentinian to be arrested for racism in Brazil this year, at a time when record numbers of Argentinian tourists are travelling to the country. In April, José Luis Haile, 67, was arrested after allegedly directing racist insults at a food delivery worker at a supermarket in Rio. He is awaiting trial. In January, Agostina Páez, 29, was arrested in Rio after being filmed mimicking a monkey towards a waiter at a nightclub. Although later released, she was barred from leaving Brazil for two and a half months while the investigation continued. During that time, she claimed on social media that her rights were being violated and she was facing “persecution” – a narrative echoed by parts of the Argentinian media. The waiter is suing Páez for moral damages. “The claimant is a Black man who daily faces a society that insists on pushing him backwards simply because of the colour of his skin,” his lawyers wrote in the filing. “And yet, while carrying out his work, he was forced to hear words that diminished him and animalised him.” When Páez returned to Argentina in April, while still facing legal proceedings in Brazil, she was welcomed by the far-right senator Patricia Bullrich, a close ally of Argentina’s president, Javier Milei. Paéz’s father, Mariano Páez, was later filmed in a bar imitating a monkey to celebrate his daughter’s return. The political scientist and African-Argentinian activist Federico Pita said none of the recent cases came as a surprise given Argentina’s long history of racism. “Racism is inscribed within the very project of the Argentine nation. Argentina is constitutionally a supremacist country,” he said, citing article 25 of the constitution, which states: “The federal government shall promote European immigration.” Pita said Argentina continued to see itself as a “European” country while denying the existence of African-Argentinians and Indigenous peoples who, according to the 2022 census, make up about 1% and 3% of the population respectively. Activists and researchers, however, argue that those figures are likely to be underestimates. Experts believe the majority of the population has Indigenous ancestry, even if they do not identify as such. Pita said: “An Aymara descendant born in the north of Argentina is treated as Bolivian, a Mapuche born in Argentine Patagonia is treated as Chilean; and an African-descendant from Buenos Aires is treated as Uruguayan or Brazilian, because the only thing considered truly Argentine is whiteness.” In March, Argentina was the only Latin American country to vote against a UN resolution declaring the transatlantic slave trade “the gravest crime against humanity”. The US and Israel were the only other countries to oppose the measure. Although slavery was abolished in Argentina in 1853, the descendants of enslaved Africans – and their influence on the country’s culture, from tango to language and food – remain. Pita said comparisons between Argentina and Brazil were complex. While Black Brazilians make up a far larger share of the population, they also experience disproportionately high levels of poverty, police violence and social exclusion. “I don’t know what is more serious: a country like Argentina, which says its Black population does not exist, or Brazil, where a young Black man is killed every few minutes. They are equally grave,” he said. Cases of racism by Argentinians against Brazilians are not new – in 1920, players from Brazil’s national football team refused to play a friendly match after being depicted in an Argentinian newspaper as “monkeys”. To this day, fans imitating monkeys are caught in virtually every match involving clubs from the two countries. Although there is no evidence that such incidents are becoming more common, social media has helped put them in the spotlight. Meanwhile, thanks to the overvalued peso, more Argentinians are travelling to Brazil and account for a third of the 9.3 million foreign tourists in 2025. Pita said it was also important not to generalise about Argentinians. “Most of the Argentinian population not only never travel to Brazil, but most likely have never left the country,” he said. “But they do represent a deeper Argentina” that still struggles with racism.

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, according to police. The education minister, Julius Migos Ogamba, told reporters that 79 other students were injured, although 71 of them had 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 years old, and about 220 girls were sleeping in the dormitory at the time. 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. 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.” Masoud Mwinyi, an assistant to the deputy inspector general of Kenya’s police, told local media that officers were searching for pupils who may have escaped the fire but were still unaccounted for. “We are combing the area because out of that shock and fear and anxiety, many people went out and it was at night,” he said. Dozens of parents gathered at the school on Thursday morning, frantically searching for news of their children. 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.” • 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.

Israel’s defence minister says large-scale Palestinian migration from Gaza will go ahead

Israel’s defence minister has said he is committed to the ethnic cleansing of Gaza through large-scale migration of Palestinians as part of Israel’s long-term plans for the territory. Israel Katz said the government would implement a plan for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza “at the right time and in the right manner”, in a statement on Wednesday marking the targeted killing of Mohammed Odeh, Hamas’s most recent military commander. Pushing for mass departures violates Donald Trump’s ceasefire plan for Gaza, which Israel signed last year. The second point of the plan states: “Gaza will be redeveloped for the benefit of the people of Gaza, who have suffered more than enough.” Israel’s government has promoted the prospect of Gaza without Palestinians since Trump suggested early last year that hundreds of thousands of people should leave to “clean out” the strip for reconstruction. Last year Israel set up a bureau for “voluntary emigration” and eased travel restrictions for Palestinians who wanted to make a one-way journey out of the strip. The forced transfer of civilian populations is a war crime and a crime against humanity. Israeli officials, including Katz, use the term “voluntary migration” to describe their plans for large numbers of Palestinians to leave Gaza. Israel-based human rights organisations and lawyers have warned that the conditions Israel has imposed on Gaza mean no departure can be considered voluntary and the policy constitutes planning for ethnic cleansing. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel said last year: “Creating living conditions that do not allow for survival, freedom and dignity, and subjecting civilians to them until they say they want to leave is not a plan for ‘encouraging voluntary emigration’ but a plan for forced evacuation and expulsion.” Katz said the mass departure of Palestinians from Gaza would go hand in hand with the exclusion of Hamas from power. “We committed that Hamas will not rule Gaza civilly or militarily, and so it shall be, and also the voluntary emigration plan from Gaza will be implemented,” he said in a social media post. “Everything at the right timing and in the right manner.” A spokesperson for Katz did not respond to questions about whether Israel was still committed to the terms of Trump’s ceasefire. With an election due by the end of October, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s prime minister, and his political allies are also courting voters, said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst on Israel-Palestine at the International Crisis Group. “Because we are looking at an extension of the ceasefire and de-escalation of the situation in Iran and Lebanon, Israel – and Netanyahu specifically – will be looking for ways to show that they’re doing something on the security front, and that means exercising military power,” she said. “Unfortunately talking about ethnic cleansing in Gaza is not necessarily something that will hurt you in domestic politics. In fact it might even help you.”

Thursday briefing: With more revelations about Peter Mandelson, can Keir Starmer continue to brazen this out?

Good morning, and welcome to my last regular First Edition – for the time being. From Monday, I am moving to a stint writing our sister US briefing, First Thing, and I will also be part of our World Cup coverage. Plus, of course, I will still be setting the questions on the Thursday news quiz, which celebrates its 250th edition next week. Talking of questions, one that’s been occupying the nation for some time is this: does Keir Starmer regret ever hearing the name Peter Mandelson, let alone appointing him as ambassador to the US? Yesterday the Guardian exclusively published important new details about the concerns flagged by security officials when the disgraced peer and New Labour architect was granted security clearance against the advice of the government’s vetting agency. Sources have told the Guardian that the recommendation that Mandelson be denied security clearance, overruled by senior civil servants apparently without Starmer’s knowledge, related in part to concerns over his association with four specific individuals – from China, Russia, Israel and the UK. The vetting also flagged concerns about a £1m loan received by Mandelson to invest in an Israeli start-up. Mandelson’s shares in the company were declared in the House of Lords register of interests, but the loan was not. For today’s newsletter, I will take you through how we got here, what the new revelations tell us, and the questions that remain unanswered about whether the UK’s national security was compromised. Before that, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Tony Blair’s criticism of the Labour party fails to engage with inequality and the “extremes of austerity”, senior party figures have said. Middle East | The US has carried out new strikes inside Iran, targeting a military facility and downing Iranian attack drones, US officials said, prompting an apparent Iranian retaliatory attack on an American airbase in Kuwait. Extreme heat | Water safety experts have warned about the dangers of outdoor swimming after a number of drownings in recent days as people try to escape soaring temperatures in the UK. World news | The head of the WHO has called for an immediate ceasefire in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo to help tackle the Ebola outbreak there. UK news | Resident doctors in England will next month stage the 16th strike in their long-running jobs and pay dispute. In depth: ‘Mandelson appeared “naive” about how his relationships could be exploited’ You may remember Peter Mandelson from a long and colourful ministerial career. In 2024, he was appointed the UK’s ambassador to Washington – one of the UK’s most sensitive diplomatic postings – by Keir Starmer. That posting ended in disgrace last year after US files exposed the depth of his links to the sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. But a much wider picture has subsequently emerged. Last month, a Guardian investigation revealed Mandelson was granted security clearance despite the UK’s vetting agency (UKSV) recommending he be denied it. The Foreign Office permanent secretary when the decision was made was Olly Robbins. Robbins decided to grant Mandelson clearance – with, he has since said, mitigations to manage the risks. When the story broke, Robbins was sacked. Starmer called the failure to brief ministers “unforgivable”. Since then, a parliamentary battle has raged over what was in those files and whether they should be released in full to the public. *** What are the new revelations? Paul Lewis, Henry Dyer, and Pippa Crerar have doggedly continued to investigate. Yesterday’s exclusive revealed that the vetting agency’s 2025 summary file flagged concerns about Mandelson’s associations with senior figures in China, Russia, and Israel. It wasn’t just those associations. According to sources, vetting officials flagged a £1m loan Mandelson received from a businessman to invest in startup Moon Active, an Israeli company behind a lucrative and widely popular mobile phone game, Coin Master. This was a loan that didn’t appear in the House of Lords register of interests. According to the Guardian’s sources, the agency separately noted that Mandelson appeared “naive” about how historical relationships with other individuals could be exploited. National security vetting is not designed to identify wrongdoing, either by the subject or their associates. Nor does inclusion in a vetting document indicate misconduct. Instead, officials gather information that allows the government to assess risk. *** Who were the individuals identified in the vetting file? One of those identified was China’s finance minister, Lan Fo’an. While it is unclear how they met, UKSV said the two men spoke several times a year. Mandelson received sensitive Foreign Office briefings on China in January 2025 while his vetting was ongoing – the same month Lan was meeting the chancellor, Rachel Reeves. Lan greeted Starmer on the runway in Beijing during his January 2026 visit. Mandelson’s relationship with Oleg Deripaska, once known as “the king of aluminium” because of his vast holdings in the metal commodity and one of Russia’s wealthiest oligarchs, was also a concern. Mandelson’s links to him date back to the 2008 “yachtgate” scandal in Corfu which also featured former chancellor George Osborne; more recently, US Department of Justice files showed Mandelson sought Deripaska’s help in 2010 to secure a visa for Jeffrey Epstein. Deripaska is now sanctioned by the US, UK and EU. A third, previously unknown associate of Mandelson’s is Tamir Hayman, the former head of Israel’s military intelligence directorate. Hayman, who oversaw a vast surveillance and cyberwarfare apparatus between 2018 and 2021, now runs an influential security thinktank in Tel Aviv, the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS). UKSV noted the pair spoke bimonthly. An INSS spokesperson said Hayman had “no personal connection or familiarity whatsoever” with Mandelson. Before his appointment as ambassador, Mandelson had briefly taken part in an “external advisory framework” at the thinktank and “participated in several broad, multi-participant discussions”, they said, adding: “This limited interaction constitutes the entirety of any contact between them.” It is not known whether Mandelson disclosed his associations with Lan, Deripaska and Hayman in a separate Foreign Office conflict of interest form. The document has yet to be made public. The UKSV also noted that Mandelson had a very close relationship with a fourth individual, who is British, that could be compromising. *** Why is the Guardian publishing this? The decision to publish was taken after weighing the significant public interest in the story. In February, parliament used an arcane parliamentary procedure known as a humble address to try to compel the government to release all papers relating to Mandelson’s appointment. The motion charged the parliamentary intelligence and security committee (ISC) with assessing the most sensitive documents, and deciding whether any redactions on the grounds of national security or international relations were required before their release. But it was only after the Guardian’s initial investigation that what one source called “a flood of materials” was released to the ISC. Since then, there have been growing concerns that the government is still withholding key materials. Two weeks ago, the ISC went public with its concerns, saying the government was withholding vetting documents or applying redactions unrelated to national security or international relations. Responding to the concerns in a parliamentary debate, chief secretary to the prime minister, Darren Jones, defended the government’s right to make its own redactions, but denied a cover-up. One source said that the vetting summary, much of which the ISC believes should be released to the public, was due to be withheld by the government in its entirety. On Wednesday night, a government insider disputed that. A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said it was “committed to complying with the humble address in full”. The Foreign Office and representatives for Mandelson, Robbins, Lan and Deripaska have all been contacted for comment. *** What questions remain unanswered? This explainer sets out key issues raised by the vetting summary – among them whether it was right to give Mandelson security clearance, whether national security was compromised during his seven months in post, why the loan was undeclared, and why Robbins said Mandelson’s case was “borderline”. It also asks what the “mitigations” that Robbins told MPs had been put in place were – and whether there are any existing government documents that describe them. Now that concerns raised by the vetting file are public, parliament may seek a clearer understanding of how Robbins believed they had been dealt with. What else we’ve been reading I loved this photo essay by María Magdalena Arréllaga of the murals in Rio de Janeiro that honour the city’s Black cultural heritage. Patrick I treated Alan Davies playing Jonathan Creek in the 90s as surrogate Earthbound Doctor Who while the latter was off air. Davies is very candid about the trauma in his life in this interview by Sam Wollaston. Martin Amelia Gentleman has a sobering must-read interview with child star turned OnlyFans creator Piper Rockelle. Patrick Nat Guest absolutely skewers – see what I did there? – what she calls “the worst variety of social event”, the great British garden barbecue. Martin Hackney’s first Green mayor Zoë Garbett has spoken with Matthew Taylor about her plans for the borough. Patrick Sport Football | Crystal Palace celebrate after beating Rayo Vallecano in the Uefa Conference League final, securing the club’s first European trophy in their history. Tennis | Jakub Mensik said it was “insane” for players to compete in such hot conditions at Roland Garros, after collapsing on court due to cramps and being escorted back to the locker room in a wheelchair at the end of his five-set win. Rugby union | Former England captain, Jo Yapp, has been named the head coach for the first women’s British & Irish Lions tour of New Zealand in 2027. The front pages “Mandelson vetting warned of ties to key figures in China and Russia”, is the Guardian’s front page today, while the Telegraph leads with “Mandelson told Cabinet how to do their jobs”. The i Paper splashes “Call for welfare reforms to save young people from becoming ‘lost generation’” and the Mail says “Labour risking a ‘lost generation’ of jobless youth”. The FT runs with “Empty coffers at Trump’s Board of Peace leave Gaza rebuild in limbo”. On energy prices, the Times says “Ministers raise heat on PM over North Sea”, the Express states “Time to scrap Ed’s net zero ‘fantasy’” and Metro goes with “Heating bills up? Britain’s gone balmy!”. Lastly, the Mirror’s headline is “Be safe in water … or more will die”. Today in Focus Human rights lawyer Francesca Albanese on life under US sanctions The UN’s special rapporteur for Palestine, Francesca Albanese, talks about the impact of sanctions on her life, the situation in Gaza and the accusations of antisemitism she has faced over the last two years. Cartoon of the day | Nicola Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Along the banks of the River Allen in north-east England there lies a “case of nature responding to the pollution caused by humans”, according to Northumberland Wildlife Trust’s Geoff Dobbins, who is passionate about saving the rare habitat of Calaminarian grasslands – an ecosystem that thrives on the basis of soil contaminated by metals such as lead, which has been mined in the region for more than 1,000 years. Specialist flora such as the spring sandwort and pennycress serve a purpose in cleaning the soil by turning the metals it contains into complex organic compounds. Several projects are looking into how to strike a balance between cleaning up the affected rivers, while keeping the country’s grasslands – which make about 30% of the total in Europe – blooming. 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. Martin Belam’s Thursday news quiz Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply