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Tourists on pastry quest overrun scenic spot in Italian mountains

Hundreds of people overwhelmed a mountain hut in the Italian Dolomites, not for the panoramic views but in search of a creamy pastry, reigniting the debate about social-media-driven tourism. The visitors ventured en masse to the Friedrich August refuge – perched at 2,300 metres (7,500ft) above sea level, between Col Rodella and Passo Sella in Val di Fassa – some reportedly waking up at dawn or camping overnight, just to ensure they could buy a freshly baked krapfen, a traditional German pastry similar to a doughnut, before they ran out. They had been enticed by food bloggers who in videos had promoted the pastries, which cost up to €4 (£3.40) each, while eating them against the backdrop of the Dolomites, causing massive queues along the narrow path leading towards the premises. The queues, rather than deterring the crowds, only brought in more people after images of the scenes were widely shared online. “We only came for this,” one visitor told Rai News, while another said they were attracted by a post about krapfen on Instagram that was accompanied by “heavenly music”. A person who works at the refuge but who wanted to remain anonymous said it had been making the pastries for 30 years without any fuss, and blamed influencers for creating a “chaotic” situation. “We don’t like it,” they said. Neither do the associations representing Italian mountain towns. The issue is not krapfen, they said, but the algorithms ruining the mountain environment by funnelling crowds into beauty spots. “The mountains are not a playground,” said Marco Bussone, the president of Uncem, the national union of mountain communities, in remarks to the online news outlet Fanpage. Francesco Abbruscato, the president of the Veneto branch of the Italian Alpine Club, told Vita.it that image-driven tourism was eroding the true spirit of the mountains. “The main problem is those who visit the mountains without knowing or respecting them,” he said. “Until five or six years ago we did not witness overtourism in precise points or at certain moments in the Dolomites. Now there are iconic places where it is no longer possible to appreciate the beauty as we’re surrounded by dozens of people who take selfies and are only there for that.” Similar scenes played out in Roccaraso, a town in the mountains of Abruzzo, in January 2025 when day trippers descended on the resort in their droves after a TikTok star promoted videos of herself on its ski slopes.

US-led drills to end six days early, South Korea says, amid Trump push for Kim Jong-un talks

South Korea’s military has confirmed that joint military drills with the US will be cut short, days after Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon to scale back the exercises. In a statement on Wednesday, South Korea’s joint chiefs of staff said at the request of the US side, the Ulchi Freedom Shield (UFS) exercise – which began on Monday would end on Friday, six days earlier than originally planned. Separately, joint field training exercises, live outdoor drills held alongside the simulated command exercise, would also be “partially reduced”, though the two militaries were still working out the details, the statement said. A Pentagon official later confirmed the US ⁠military was “substantially” reducing joint ⁠exercises with South ⁠Korea. Trump said on Sunday he was “not happy” with US participation in the exercise, citing his “very good relationship” with the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-un, and describing the drills as costly and “hostile” toward Pyongyang. South Korea’s foreign minister, Cho Hyun, told a parliamentary hearing on Wednesday that Seoul had been caught off guard by Trump’s directive. “Our government officials, of course, and the US government officials hadn’t known about it in advance”, Cho said, when asked whether Seoul had been informed. Ahead of Wednesday’s announcement, South Korean broadcasters KBS and MBC and the newspaper Kyunghyang reported, citing unnamed military sources, that the exercise’s second stage, a simulated counterattack against North Korea that Pyongyang has always denounced most sharply, would be scrapped entirely and bring the exercise to an early end. Days before the exercise began, Lt Gen Scott Winter, deputy commander of the United Nations Command, the multinational body that oversees the armistice and contributes personnel to the exercise, described this year’s UFS exercise as “bigger and better than ever”. The US military presence in South Korea dates back to the Korean war, which ended in an armistice rather than a formal peace treaty in 1953, meaning the two Koreas remain technically at war. US troops have been stationed in South Korea ever since, and the country now hosts Camp Humphreys, the largest American military base outside the US. The two militaries train and operate together closely, including through large-scale annual exercises such as this week’s. Previous cuts and cancellations to joint exercises, including in 1992, 1994 and after Trump’s first summit with Kim in 2018, were all decided before the drills began, rather than after they were already under way. Separately, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday that Trump was pushing aides to arrange a meeting with Kim as early as the northern hemisphere autumn, citing unnamed US officials. The paper said Trump had privately discussed an in-person meeting to take place during his next trip to Asia, which could be in November when he is expected to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Shenzhen, China. Earlier, a social media post from Trump showing an image of Kim surrounded by military officials, speaking into a telephone, captioned “Hey Donald, we cool … right?”. Trump also told reporters Kim had “responded” to his overtures for talks, though he declined to give details. Trump met Kim three times during his first term, including a brief crossing into North Korean territory at the demilitarised zone in 2019. Speculation about a renewed summit has grown since Trump shared an old photograph of the pair together on Truth Social last weekend. Cheong Seong-chang, the vice-president of the Seoul-based Sejong Institute thinktank, said Trump could go further if talks with Kim resumed, potentially suspending the joint exercises altogether or reducing US troop numbers without consulting Seoul. South Korea’s presidential office said this week it would continue to coordinate with Washington on the exercises as president Lee Jae Myung separately renewed calls for greater military independence.

Ukraine war briefing: Would-be parcel bomber convicted in German court

A German court has convicted a Ukrainian man over a plot to send parcel bombs in Europe at the behest of Russian ⁠intelligence. Three Ukrainians were involved in sending two packages with GPS trackers and spare auto parts from Germany to Ukraine in an operation initiated by a Russian state entity, ⁠the court in Stuttgart said. The shipments were designed to identify opportunities for future sabotage. A 30-year-old was sentenced to one ⁠year and three months in prison for acting as an agent for the purposes of sabotage, but has already served his time in pre-trial custody. The two other defendants were acquitted ‌due to a lack of evidence that ‌they were knowingly involved in a plot to commit attacks. The three have been referred to as Vladyslav T, Daniil B and Yevhen B, with their full names withheld under German privacy rules. The Russian embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment. European ‌governments have accused Moscow of a “hybrid war” against countries supporting Ukraine’s defence. In 2024, parcels shipped from Lithuania blew up in Germany, Poland and Britain. This month in Germany, officials found a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig/Halle airport. In the UK, a group of men were convicted in 2025 over an arson attack ordered by Russia’s terrorist Wagner group on a London warehouse linked to Ukraine. Several other cases have been before European courts. Mikhail Fedorov, the sacked former defence minister of Ukraine, has called the country to hold elections, Dan Sabbagh writes. Fedorov said Ukraine had to “restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war”. Ukraine is in a state of martial law with elections forbidden by its constitution – however Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in 2025 that he was willing to hold elections if parliament permits it and international allies would assist. Donald Trump’s criticisms of Zelenskyy as “a dictator without elections” petered out after Zelenskyy challenged the US to help him hold them by organising a ceasefire with Russia, which has not eventuated. Estonia is investigating whether Russia was involved in an arson ⁠attack on a building housing a defence contractor, said the prime minister, Kristen Michal. The building used by Milrem Robotics, a maker of unmanned military weapons systems ⁠deployed in Ukraine and elsewhere, was targeted late on Friday. “The ⁠suspects have been identified. One of the lines of investigation is a possible ‌act of sabotage ‌and the involvement of Russia,” said Michal. The Russian embassy in Tallinn did not immediately reply to a request for comment. Ukrainian forces launched what appeared to be one of their biggest drone attacks on Russia since Moscow’s invasion over four years ago. Russia claimed at least 791 Ukrainian drones were launched into several regions, as well as illegally annexed Crimea and the Black and the Azov seas. More than 600 Ukrainian drones flew towards Moscow, said the mayor, Sergei Sobyanin. Again, a Wildberries warehouse was hit, the company said, claiming the damage was insignificant. A Russian rocket attack killed 10 people in Pechenigya village in the Kharkiv region of north-east Ukraine. Another 18 were wounded, said Oleg Synegubov, the regional governor. Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on social media that the strike hit a busy intersection, “a location with a post office and stores, surrounded only by residential buildings”. Andy Burnham, the British prime minister, said the UK would continue to stand by Ukraine after Russia levelled threats at London for supplying the Ukrainian military with drones that hit Russian soil. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) said it had been informed that a drone exploded at a bus stop used by staff of the Russian-held Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant on Tuesday. Moscow-installed authorities at the illegally occupied Ukrainian-owned plant blamed Ukraine for a drone strike that killed a “nuclear specialist” and wounded 17 others. The IAEA said its chief, Rafael Grossi, called on military commanders to stop “unacceptable actions … [that pose] great risks to nuclear safety”. Both sides regularly accuse the other of carrying out strikes around the site, which Russia has militarised since seizing it in 2022. Meanwhile a ⁠power station in ⁠central Ukraine ⁠halted operations on Tuesday after ⁠it suffered significant damage from a ⁠Russian strike, power ‌firm ‌DTEK said.

Ukraine’s dismissed defence minister calls for wartime presidential election

Ukraine’s recently dismissed former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov has called for a wartime presidential election in the most direct political challenge to Volodymyr Zelenskyy since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. The politician, whose abrupt sacking last month triggered a wave of protests, said that Ukraine had to “restore a full democratic process even amid a prolonged war” in a video address released online late on Tuesday evening. “Democracy cannot be held hostage by Russia. We are fighting precisely because we want to remain a free European state,” Fedorov said in his nine-minute speech. Though he did not mention Zelenskyy by name, Fedorov implied the current president presided over a poorly functioning state that was struggling to tackle corruption despite the national emergency. “People cannot endlessly live in a state where they do not understand why certain decisions are made. Why some reforms move forward while others are blocked,” Fedorov said, arguing that Ukraine could fight a war and hold a national poll. “It is particularly dangerous when society develops the feeling that the main criterion for an appointment is not professionalism, results or the ability to transform the country, but personal loyalty to the system,” he said. Elections have been suspended in Ukraine since martial law was imposed at the start of the full-scale invasion by Russia. Zelenskyy’s five-year term ended in May 2024 but there has been little desire in Ukraine to hold a contest while war continues. The US president, Donald Trump, has previously demanded that Ukraine hold an election, though his once-fraught relationship with Zelenskyy has gradually improved over the past year as Kyiv has shown it can hold its own on the battlefield. Fedorov, 35, was Ukraine’s digital minister from 2019 until January, fronting the country’s wartime adoption of drones, before briefly serving in what was considered to be a successful stint as defence minister until July. But he was suddenly dropped by Zelenskyy in a government reshuffle after a falling out with military commander Gen Oleksandr Syrskyi. Street protests followed, leading to the sacking of Syrskyi, but there was no sign Fedorov would be reinstated. On Tuesday Zelenskyy formally nominated Yevhen Khmara, the acting defence minister, to take the post permanently. Khmara’s nomination has to be confirmed by Ukraine’s parliament, and a vote is expected to take place on Wednesday. Artem Bronzhukov, a Ukrainian political analyst, questioned whether it would be practical to hold elections given that Russian bombing was continuing. “Today there is no clear understanding of how to ensure people’s safety in the context of a full-scale war,” he said. There was, he added, “a fairly deep-rooted view within Ukrainian society” that elections are necessary but only after the hot phase of the war ends – and that the country remained “a warring democracy – confirmed precisely by the protests taking place after Fedorov’s resignation from the government”. Protests had been taking place nightly in a square below the presidential office in the heart of Kyiv, but the numbers attending had been dwindling. However, the campaign was relaunched in a special rally on Sunday night that attracted about 2,000 people with regular chants of “Fedorov, Fedorov, Fedorov …” Polling conducted at the turn of the month reported the ex-minister would come third in the first round of a presidential election with 13.1%, behind Zelenskyy on 22.3% and the former head of the armed forces, who is now Ukraine’s ambassador to the UK, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, on 21.4%. The same polling, conducted by the Socis Centre for Social Research, also concluded that Zelenskyy would then be defeated in the run-off election by both Fedorov and Zaluzhnyi. Ukraine uses a two-stage voting system. If Ukraine were to hold an election, it would have to contend with the fact that millions have been exiled and displaced since the start of the war, and that more than 1 million are serving in the armed forces, many on the frontline. About a fifth of the country’s territory is also under Russian occupation.

Needless suffering of unsheared sheep | Brief letters

Your article (Milk, wine, salad: how your food will be affected by the summer of heat, 14 August) downplays the effect on sheep of not being sheared. Imagine being out in the open all day in your heavy winter coat. But the UK government has refused temporary visas for New Zealand shearers to augment our undermanned teams of UK shearers. It is not just a case of the sheep being “uncomfortable”, but a serious matter of animal welfare, including diseases such as flystrike. Catherine Mowat London • As of April 2026, Clacton had 10,442 Pip claimants. Runcorn (MP Sarah Pochin) and Boston and Skegness (MP Richard Tice) both have similar numbers. I hope that voters in those seats know about Reform UK’s proposals on benefits (Reform accused of targeting the most vulnerable with £50bn benefit cut, 16 August). Adam Moliver Cheltenham • I appreciate the humour in Helen Ryan’s suggestion that Nigel Farage would qualify for consideration as “invertebrate of the year” (Letters, 16 August), but I must point out that this comparison is a gross insult to slugs, worms, cockroaches etc. Phil Coughlin Houghton-le-Spring, Tyne and Wear • As Richard Tice encourages us to enjoy English sparkling wine instead of trying to mitigate the climate crisis (Report, 17 August), could this be Reform UK’s Marie Antoinette moment, considering the deaths, droughts, fires and water shortages affecting so many? Deirdre Burrell Mortimer, Berkshire • I can’t see “apranxiety” catching on – too ugly and too many syllables (Letters, 17 August). I’d suggest “climate fear” – blunter and shorter. Alec Murdoch Edinburgh • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Death and alleged torture of man in detention sparks protests in Syria

Syrians have protested over the death of a man who was arrested and allegedly beaten by security forces, sparking widespread anger at a practice thought to have ended with the fall of Bashar al-Assad. A crowd gathered in the city of Aleppo, demanding accountability for the security forces who are alleged to have carried out the torture, with participants holding signs and slogans such as: “Do not repeat the same oppression that we revolted against.” Protests were also planned to take place in front of Syria’s parliament in Damascus on Tuesday, as well. Mohammad Ghamira, a 29-year-old father of two and former volunteer in the White Helmets, had visited a police station in the coastal province of Latakia last week after an accusation of theft. Ghamira emerged from the station in a critical condition, and died in hospital on Sunday from “complications from cerebral and gastrointestinal haemorrhaging” that “resulted from a beating he sustained after being detained”, said Raed al-Saleh, the former head of the White Helmets and current Syrian minister of emergency and disaster management. A picture of Ghamira pre-detention, smiling and healthy, next to another picture of him unconscious in a hospital bed with bruises on his body, went viral, sparking outrage in Syria. Ghamira’s parents told the police station chief prior to their son’s detention that he had haemophilia, a disease which makes it hard to stop bleeding once started, and asked them not to beat him. Even with the warning, Ghamira was beaten while in custody, Issam Ghamira, the man’s uncle, told Syrian state media. The Syrian interior ministry promised accountability for Ghamira, forming a committee to investigate his death and detaining seven members of the interior ministry for questioning. The interior minister, Anas Khattab, vowed a “fair punishment” after the conclusion of the investigation. “I confirm that any violation or abuse by the elements of the ministry of interior will be dealt with firmly within the laws and procedures followed and any violator will receive his fair punishment,” Khattab said in a post on X. The interior minister spokesperson Nour al-Din al-Baba acknowledged issues in the ministry, but promised that justice would be served. Al-Baba said that the investigative committee met with family members on Tuesday and informed them of the progress of the investigation. Despite the promises of accountability, Syrians were incensed by the allegations of torture, enraged that the practice continued even after the 14-year revolution aimed at stopping such brutality. Al-Assad’s regime used mass detention and torture on a systematic scale to control its population, accelerating its brutality when protests broke out against the government in 2011. The current government, made up mostly of former members of the Islamist rebel group Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), overthrew al-Assad in a lightning offensive in December 2024. It promised an end to the atrocities committed under the police state that al-Assad oversaw, dismantling the dense network of security agencies that oversaw the country. However, rights groups have alleged that torture continues to be used in Syrian detention centres, and that the policy of abuse is being rebuilt. Syrians for Truth and Justice documented 14 cases of individuals being tortured or dying in custody from June 2025 to June 2026, and said that “the change in political authority has not yet been accompanied by the effective dismantling of the structures and practices that enable torture”. STJ collected testimonies that showed severe beatings, electric shocks, humiliation, threats, deprivation of basic necessities by Syrian security forces across different agencies, often seemingly motivated by sectarian discrimination. The rights group pointed to a lack of oversight and accountability for militias and members of the security forces as an explanation for the persistence of torture in Syria, rather than a centralised policy of torture originating from security agencies themselves. It contrasted this with al-Assad’s regime, where torture was not due to gaps in law, but state policy itself. The report echoed the findings of the UN independent commission of inquiry in March, which documented torture and abuse in 30 official and makeshift detention facilities across Syria in 2025. Civil society groups called for protests and demanded accountability, pointing to the sacrifices of those who died under torture fighting for freedom in Syria. “So many sacrificed dearly for freedom and dignity, to close the dark chapter of their country’s history and to end these practices forever,” said Diab Serieh of the Association of Detainees and the Missing in Sednaya Prison. “Justice for [Ghamira], and for all those forcibly disappeared and under torture in detention, remains an unwavering demand that we will never abandon.”

Belgian firefighters push to encircle ‘largest wildfire in a century’ – as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. Firefighters were locked in a potentially decisive push Tuesday to encircle Belgium’s largest wildfire in a century, despite rainclouds hampering air support operations over the High Fens nature reserve (16:27, 16:39, 17:01). But their air operations had to be suspended due to worsening weather conditions and fog, local media reported (17:29). In other news, 10 people were killed in overnight Russian strikes on Ukraine, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Kyiv will “definitely respond” with its own strikes (9:38, 10:02, 10:43, 13:01). Overnight, Ukraine launched over 600 drones at Moscow and surrounding areas (9:38). Separately, Moscow has threatened the UK with “consequences” after reports that British drones have been used to strike targets on Russia’s mainland for the first time (9:43, 15:00, 15:42), prompting UK prime minister Andy Burnham to pledge his policy on supporting Ukraine will not change (13:25). Belgium’s foreign minister Maxime Prévot was rushed to a bomb shelter in Kyiv after an air alert in the Ukrainian capital, and held his talks with his Ukrainian counterpart there (15:13). Germany opened a new centre for drone security warning about “the shadow war of the 21st century” (11:15). Separately, Several earthquakes, three of which were of magnitude 4.0 or higher, were reported in Granada, Spain, leaving three people injured and causing local damage to buildings (11:07, 11:48, 12:08, 13:51). The tremors come after the city was hit with a 5.0 earthquake on Saturday, prompting further concerns from local residents. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Lesley Urbach obituary

My friend Lesley Urbach, who has died suddenly aged 69, was passionate about human rights, and about education against racism and prejudice. In 2016 she helped to set up Generation 2 Generation, a pioneering Holocaust charity established to empower second and third generation Holocaust survivor descendants to present and preserve their family histories. As co-founder, associate director and trustee of G2G she shaped the organisation, not only mentoring speakers but delivering powerful presentations to schools and community groups, reaching tens of thousands of young people in the years since its inception. Lesley’s character and beliefs were shaped by the trauma experienced by her parents’ families. Born in Willesden, north-west London, she was one of four children born to Eva (nee Wohl) and Arnold Urbach, who had arrived separately in Britain in 1938 and 1939 respectively. Eva and her younger sister escaped Nazi Germany via the Kindertransport. Eva got a job in an east London factory making military uniforms, and on her first day she met and subsequently married Arnold, a fellow Jewish refugee from Germany, who served in the British army and later worked as an interpreter during war crimes trials. Though Eva’s parents had attempted to flee to South America, they were murdered in Auschwitz along with more than one million others. They had sent their possessions on ahead in three trunks, which were eventually redirected back to the Urbachs when the war was over in 1947. Lesley and her elder brother Peter donated one of the trunks to the Imperial War Museum, where it is now part of the Holocaust Exhibition. Lesley went to the Jewish Free school (now JFS) in north London, and studied history at University College London. She and I met in 1979, not long after graduation, at the University of London Library at Senate House, where we were both working as library assistants. We bonded over a Doris Lessing novel I was reading at the time and soon became friends. She was funny, warm and gregarious, and culturally voracious. She loved the theatre, and very much enjoyed music, especially jazz. Lesley worked as an adviser for the National Careers Service for 25 years, first in Bristol and then in London, and after early retirement in about 2012 studied for an MA in Jewish history and culture at Southampton University. In 2015 she co-founded the Remembering Eleanor Rathbone Group, to promote awareness of Rathbone’s work as a campaigner for the rights of women and refugees. Through the JUMP programme, a befriending project for unaccompanied asylum-seeking children and young people managed by the Jewish Council for Racial Equality (now HIAS+JCORE), she befriended a young woman who came to Britain as a domestic slave, and between 2015 and 2020 she helped support Syrian refugees in Barnet. She was an active member of both the Beit Klal Yisrael community and the Finchley Progressive Synagogue, and worked for it to gain Synagogue of Sanctuary status earlier this year, of which she was extremely proud. A generous and inspiring godmother to many of her friends’ children, Lesley was colourful, exacting and charismatic, and a loyal, supportive friend. Her family’s story as well as many other accounts by survivors can be found on Generation 2 Generation’s website. She is survived by Peter.