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Middle East crisis live: Iran launches broad retaliatory attacks after US strikes over downed helicopter

If the US genuinely wants a deal it will have to engage with Iranian demands on sanctions relief, says Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of the Iran branch of Israeli military intelligence. Today’s exchange of strikes shows how easily both Iran and the US can slide towards another round of escalation, says Citrinowicz, who is now a nonresident fellow at the Atlantic Council. He adds that regardless of how much pressure is applied, Iran has shown it will not abandon its current position and reach a deal without “meaningful economic relief”. If Washington is unwilling to accept that reality, it should recognize the likely alternative: continued confrontations with Iran that could eventually spiral beyond anyone’s control and lead to military conflict under less favorable conditions. Even a limited military campaign designed to weaken Iran would not fundamentally alter Tehran’s negotiating position. It has not happened in the past, and there is little reason to believe it would happen now. Iran emerges from the latest exchange of blows convinced that it can absorb pressure and respond to attacks.”

Wednesday briefing: What to expect from a World Cup beset with controversy

The wait is over. Tomorrow evening, the World Cup begins at the Azteca stadium, Mexico City, where the co-hosts Mexico face South Africa. The game is the first of 104 matches to be played by 48 nations across Canada, Mexico and the US before the 19 July final. Millions will attend matches and billions more will watch the biggest single sport tournament on the planet. As so often seems to be the case, one man looms large over events: Donald Trump. Fifa has sought to develop a close relationship with the US president, awarding him a specially invented prize after he was overlooked for an actual award by the Nobel committee. Trump will probably present the World Cup trophy to the winning team. His administration’s unprecedented approach to the event has received little pushback from organisers. But the festival of football is not all about Trump. With an ever-growing contingent of stateside soccer fans, this summer could finally see the US’s growing interest in the beautiful game turn into a full throttle love affair. For today’s First Edition, I spoke with Alexander Abnos, senior sports editor for the Guardian US, about what to expect from the tournament, the challenges Trump poses, and his on-the-pitch predictions. First, the headlines. Five big stories UK news | Protests against immigration have erupted into violence in Northern Ireland after far-right activists called for demonstrations in response to a stabbing attack that was captured in a graphic video. Middle East | The US has launched strikes against Iran after Donald Trump blamed Tehran for downing a US army helicopter near the strait of Hormuz, imperilling a shaky ceasefire that was announced by the two countries in April. Europe | European confidence in an American “security guarantee” has hit a historic low, a survey suggests, with only one in 10 people across 15 countries seeing the US as an ally and majorities in all doubting it would come to their aid if they were attacked. UK politics | David Lammy’s planned changes to the criminal courts in England and Wales could have a “far-reaching” impact on race relations, a cross-party committee of MPs has concluded. Media | The BBC presenter Tony Livesey is to “step back” from his radio show after allegations were raised about his previous career as the editor-in-chief of David Sullivan’s Sport Newspapers. In depth: Will Trump be the greatest obstacle to a successful World Cup? Speculation is always rife ahead of any World Cup, about what could go wrong. For South Africa in 2010, violent crime, weak transport links and unfinished stadiums were causes for concern. Ahead of Brazil hosting in 2014, delays to critical infrastructure and civil unrest threatened to disrupt the tournament. For Russia in 2018, it was the spectre of hooliganism. Each time, tournaments went (mostly) to plan; whether this iteration can is far from certain. Despite the logistical challenges posed by the 2026 tournament – an expanded 48-strong lineup of nations competing in stadiums across three countries separated by thousands of miles – it’s Donald Trump who many see as its greatest obstacle. The president is unpopular at home, and the tournament presents him the opportunity to grab the world’s attention. “I certainly wouldn’t call it Trump’s World Cup,” says Alex, “although I think he’s going to try to make it Trump’s World Cup”.. There is intense uncertainty over whether tens of thousands of fans will be let into the US to support their teams due to the country’s strict – and at times punitive – immigration rules. Dozens of Scottish fans have faced last-minute revocations of US entry permits that could stop them from attending their team’s first World Cup finals since 1998. Iran’s allocation of fan tickets have reportedly been revoked just days before the start of the tournament. Players and officials are also being affected. A top Somalian referee has been denied entry to the US to officiate; Iraq’s star striker, Aymen Hussein, was held for almost seven hours of questioning when he arrived in Chicago; and the Iranian team is being forced to fly in and out of the US on match days after the Trump administration refused to allow them to spend a single night in the country despite all of their group stage games being held there. A further 15 Iranian officials and support staff have been refused visas. In a statement, the US government said: “We will not allow the Iranian team to abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretences.” *** Fifa’s golden goose Fifa, the World Cup organiser, has done all it can to placate Trump. In December, the organisation’s head, Gianni Infantino, said: “We want to see hope, we want to see unity, we want to see a future. This is what we want to see from a leader, and you definitely deserve the first Fifa peace prize.” This will also be the most lucrative tournament that football’s governing body has held. Recent projections estimate that it will make $13bn (£9.6bn) from this World Cup cycle, with almost $9bn generated this year alone. The US is the golden goose – and Fifa has had few qualms about working with controversial governments: Russia and Qatar hosted the last two tournaments. Last week, campaigners announced plans to deliver the “biggest complaint Fifa has ever received” to the body’s ethics committee. Onlookers will be bracing themselves throughout the tournament for further antics from the US president, who Alex says is unlikely to observe the competition quietly. “That’s Trump’s skill,” says Alex. “He just manages to find a way to insert himself into anything. You can’t get away from him. If the US does well, he’ll probably show up to a game. If they do badly, he’ll probably just ignore them. If anybody, any player speaks out about conditions in the US or ICE or his leadership, he’ll respond.” That’s before considering the fact that if Iran and the US make it out of the group stages, they could meet in the knockout stage. *** How is football viewed in the US? There is intense excitement in parts of the US, says Alex, who notes there is far more interest in the sport since it last hosted the tournament in 1994, when it was won by Brazil. “That World Cup was definitely more of an introduction to an unfamiliar sport for Americans,” Alex says. “Things have changed a ton. There was no soccer culture in 1994. Now, it is widespread. The Premier League is one of the most widely watched sports leagues in the nation.” Since mid-2022 – before the start of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar – the share of Americans who say they actively follow football has increased from 8% to 12%. It’s now the US’s fourth-most-popular spectator sport. Many World Cup match-going fans will come from diaspora communities across North America. More teams from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean will feature, including newcomers Curaçao, Cape Verde and Uzbekistan – and while some fans will struggle to make it to the tournament, stadiums will still be full of fans with ties to the countries playing. “One of the advantages of having the World Cup co-hosted in the US is that we have so many immigrant communities,” he says. “There is going to be a built-in fanbase for just about every nation. I am half-Iranian, and Iran’s team is playing two of their three group games in Los Angeles, which has the highest concentration of Iranian diaspora in the United States.” A key feature of any World Cup is the hordes of travelling fans supporting their team, including many who do not have tickets, and Alex believes they will probably be embraced by locals, despite mood music emanating from the White House. “Americans really enjoy people who are very enthusiastic about things. We’re enthusiastic people, and we appreciate it when other people are, too.” *** Getting in on the game And let’s not forget the small issue of the football itself. This World Cup is one of the most unpredictable yet: Spain, France, Argentina, England, Brazil and Portugal are all being touted as frontrunners. Alex reckons Spain will come out on top. Many Guardian sports writers predict Japan will have a big impact – and Ecuador are my underdog favourite. Ahead of the tournament, Alex sat down with New York mayor Zohran Mamdani to play the Guardian’s Bracketology game to predict the eventual winner. From Thursday night, dreams must give way to reality. Hundreds of millions of people will be absorbed by the games over the next six weeks as the greatest show on Earth begins. From here in London, I’m hoping it ends with England captain Harry Kane holding the trophy. What else we’ve been reading Mobo co-founder Kanya King died last week from colon cancer, at 57. In her Guardian obituary, Peter Mason eulogises a visionary who “never fulfilled the stereotype of the thrusting entrepreneur, and was known for her warm, humble approach”. Charlie Lindlar, newsletters team Do not miss the Guardian’s best albums of 2026 so far – the package comes complete with a Spotify playlist for you to enjoy. Patrick The New York Knicks had won 13 straight playoff games and were cruising to their first NBA title in almost 50 years … then Donald Trump ruined the vibe. Andrew Lawrence explores how the president’s heavily booed appearance at the finals now threatens to derail the Knicks’ run. Charlie Anita Chaudhuri has written an important deep dive on why Britain’s once-thriving food scene has started to struggle. Patrick “It may not be fashionable, it may not be cool, but who cares,” writes Polly Hudson in this column modestly suggesting: marriage, not that bad? Charlie Sport Football | Bukayo Saka continues to play through the pain of an achilles injury, according to the England manager, Thomas Tuchel, and must be managed carefully at the World Cup. Cricket | Ben Stokes is highly unlikely to be included in England’s squad for the second Test against New Zealand after the 35-year-old asked for space and time to consider his long-term future amid the fallout from a nightclub incident. Tennis | Serena Williams marked her comeback at Queen’s with a stellar victory alongside Victoria Mboko as they defeated the third seeds in the women’s doubles to reach the quarter-finals The front pages “Violence erupts in Belfast after protests over stabbing attack”, is the Guardian’s front page today. The knife attack and subsequent protests dominate other titles. The Times leads with "Refugee charged with ‘medieval’ knife attack” while the i Paper writes “Police plead for calm after knife attack as far-right push for protests across Britain”. The Telegraph says “‘Beheading’ suspect entered UK via asylum loophole”, and the Mail takes a similar line with “Sudanese knife attack suspect got asylum after taking back door to UK”. Elsewhere, the FT has “Boots owner’s talks on $10bn sale cast IPO plans in doubt”, Metro says “Historic day for victims terrified by train pests”, and the Mirror leads on a Somali World Cup referee barred from entering the US, with the headline “Refused entry”. Today in Focus: The Latest Can Badenoch’s culture war win back Reform supporters? Kemi Badenoch has vowed to reform the Equality Act in what is viewed as an attempt to win back support from Reform voters. The Conservative leader, who also served as equalities minister from 2020 to 2022, wants to scrap the public sector equality duty – a legal requirement that forces public institutions to actively consider how their decisions affect equality. Nosheen Iqbal speaks to community affairs correspondent Aamna Mohdin – watch the episode on YouTube here. Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Whether it’s accusations of witchcraft or rants from JD Vance, crazy cats ladies have always had a bad rep. But Lynea Lattanzio is pushing back against the stereotypes about cat-obsessed women. Lattanzio has cared for 44,000 cats in the past 33 years at her sanctuary in California, and even sold her Mercedes and two-carat diamond wedding ring to fund the operation. There’s a social science behind those who are cat-obsessed, going all the way back to ancient mythology where cats were sacred. In a study comparing moods between dog and cat owners, “cat people scored higher on general intelligence, abstraction and self-reliance”. As Lattanzio puts it: “When you take a cat that’s almost dead and you bring it back to full health and help get it adopted, that really warms your heart. It’s fulfilling.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

Only one in 10 Europeans now see US as an ally, survey suggests

European confidence in an American “security guarantee” has hit a historic low, a survey suggests, with only one in 10 people across 15 countries seeing the US as an ally and majorities in all doubting it would come to their aid if they were attacked. The survey, published on Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank before critical G7 and Nato summits in France and Turkey over the coming weeks, revealed “deep European distrust in the US”, the authors said. It also showed that, while many Europeans felt relations with Washington would improve once Donald Trump leaves office, they were increasingly ready in the meantime to protect themselves against US unreliability by bolstering Europe’s defence. The US president’s Middle East aggression, threats against Greenland, vows to withdraw troops from European bases and scepticism on the future of Nato had also prompted a growing European pragmatism, the report said. “Across the continent, there’s clear support for reducing dependence on Washington,” said Jana Kobzová, a co-author and ECFR senior policy fellow. “Europeans are increasingly open to higher defence spending and, crucially, show a striking degree of confidence that neighbouring countries would come to their aid in a crisis.” Paweł Zerka, Kobzová’s co-author and also an ECFR senior policy fellow, said clear public demand for greater self-reliance and the need to hedge against US defence guarantees had “created a window for Europe’s leaders to go further and faster” on security. The survey, based on polling carried out in May in Austria, Bulgaria, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK, showed an average of just 11% of respondents across all countries now viewed the US as an ally. That compared with 16% six months ago, and 22% in November 2024. The prevailing view was that the US was now a “necessary partner”, although 13% of the European public said they considered the US a rival and 12% a direct adversary. Majorities in every country were no longer confident the US would come to their aid in an attack. Except in Bulgaria, most people – including in countries with large far-right parties such as France, Italy, the Netherlands and Sweden – believed “at least some European countries” would help them in a similar scenario. Europeans were now on average 4% more likely to support higher national defence spending than last year, the survey found, with Italy the only country where a clear majority remained opposed. On average, 47% of respondents backed the ideal of collective EU borrowing for finance greater defence spending, with 35% opposed to it. Support was strongest in Portugal (59%), Denmark (56%), the Netherlands (55%) and Spain. In almost every country polled, most respondents said their country should reduce its strategic dependence on US military hardware, with “buy European” backers most numerous in Denmark (75%), the Netherlands (72%), Sweden (70%), Portugal (69%), France (66%), Switzerland (64%), the UK and Spain (both 62%). There was, however, markedly less support for the idea of cutting domestic public spending to pay for higher national defence budgets, with opposition strongest in Italy (63%), Austria (59%), Germany (56%), Spain (54%) and Denmark (52%). There was also little backing (29%) for replacing Nato with a new EU-only defence body, with the dominant view in almost every country except Bulgaria that US-European relations would “probably get better” once Trump leaves – a view held by 60% or more in France, Spain, Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden. Despite rising energy costs, 44% of Europeans said it would be a “rather bad” or “very bad” idea to resume importing oil and gas from Russia. Ukraine’s ambition to join the EU, however, continues to divide European opinion, with respondents in countries including Hungary, Bulgaria, Austria, Germany and even Estonia, one of Kyiv’s staunchest supporters, more likely to oppose admitting Ukraine “in the current context” than favour it.

Tears and catharsis as Kyiv premieres opera about Ukrainian children abducted by Russia

It was hard to imagine an opera with a subject more potentially traumatic – or cathartic – for the assembled audience. The occasion, in the grand and gilded spaces of the National Opera of Ukraine, in Kyiv, was the premiere of excerpts of Mothers of Kherson, an opera about the abduction of Ukrainian children by Russian occupiers – a continuing, raw story of real-life loss and agony. The opera was originally intended to be about the Maidan protests of 2013-14. But the American librettist George Brant, the author of the hit play Grounded, switched course in 2023 when the stories of abducted children hit the news. “Probably in the USA or in Great Britain, nobody knows about Maidan, but everybody cares about children, so this chosen topic has more common ground for everybody,” said Maxim Kolomiiets, the opera’s Ukrainian composer, speaking from Leipzig, where he is based. The performance in Kyiv on Thursday evening last week was not just a show but an act of cultural diplomacy. The dignitaries were out in force: in the stalls were the first lady, Olena Zelenska, the prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, and the culture minister, Tetyana Berezhna. But undoubtedly the most important members of the audience were a group of families from formerly occupied territories affected by the abductions: mothers with teenagers they had recovered from Crimea or elsewhere; families who were still trying to get their children back. Judging by the tears, the standing ovation and the flowers flung on to the stage, the highly charged performance – culminating in a chorus promising love, tenderness and protection, sung at full throttle by the cast and two large choirs – had proved cathartic. Many of the lost children of Ukraine were sent to summer camps in Russian-occupied Crimea after caregivers living under occupation were told that the young people would be safer out of the way of hostilities. Many families found themselves blocked by the Russian authorities from retrieving their children. After swathes of Ukraine were liberated in the autumn of 2022, parents and deported children frequently found themselves on opposite sides of the frontline. Family members, helped by the efforts of NGOs such as Save Ukraine, have faced danger to cover remarkable distances through Poland, Belarus and Russia to reach their loved ones. More direct routes were blocked by the combat zone. According to Bring Kids Back, an initiative launched in 2023 by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, more than 20,000 children are estimated to be the victims of deportation or forced transfer to Russia, which may include a change of name, being assigned Russian citizenship, being adopted into Russian families and being exposed to Russian militarised education. Maria Lvova-Belova, Russia’s children’s commissioner and a character in the opera, seen giving a press conference in the work, is the subject of an arrest warrant by the international criminal court for her role in these events, as is Vladimir Putin. The opera’s story begins as the inhabitants of the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson adjust to the shock of occupation. One elderly woman, Olena, sings an aria fantasising about dropping sunflower seeds into the pockets and backpack of a Russian soldier so that when he is killed on Ukrainian soil, sunflowers will grow out of his body. That scene is an adaptation of a real moment captured on film in southern Ukraine in the early days of the full-scale invasion, when an elderly woman challenged an occupier to leave and told him to fill his pockets with sunflower seeds. Two mothers, Kateryna and Olha, agree to let their daughters go to a Crimean summer camp. Months later, they manage to travel to the peninsula, which was illegally annexed by Russian in 2014, to try to retrieve their girls. In compressing the narrative into a relatively simple but still accurate story, the material takes on an almost mythical, archetypal quality. To create the libretto, Brant and the producer, Sasha Andrusyk, worked closely with Save Ukraine, whose founder, Mykola Kuleba, was in the audience. The opera was commissioned by Peter Gelb, the general manager of the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as an act of solidarity and support for Ukraine. Keri-Lynn Wilson, who has Ukrainian heritage and is a Ukrainian speaker, conducted the excerpts. She founded the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra soon after the full-scale invasion. The opera will be fully staged in Warsaw this autumn and there will be a New York premiere at the Metropolitan Opera in spring 2028. For Kyiv, the opera was translated into Ukrainian, full of harmonious internal rhymes, by the Kyiv-based writer Myroslav Laiuk. For its outings in Warsaw and New York, it will be sung in the original English. Gelb said: “We want this opera to have the broadest popular international appeal. We wanted to play in many, many different countries, and we felt that the English was more accessible language” Andrusyk interviewed abducted children and their parents – though only those who had had extensive psychological care following their traumatic experiences. The libretto was highly researched, she said. Kolomiiets said it was scrutinised for veracity and revised repeatedly. Andrusyk added that the characters were fictional “but only in the sense that they are different stories joined up, not in the sense that anything is actually made up”. Speaking before Thursday’s performance, she said she was a little anxious about the effect of the work on a Ukrainian audience. The difficult subject matter was about to meet the deeply emotive art form of opera and be heard by people whom the story directly affected. For many, the trauma is unresolved. Many abducted children have not been traced, some have been refused permission to leave by the Russian authorities, and some are unwilling to come home. Andrusyk referred to a scene in which the group of mothers “sing of their grief, and of how guilty they feel, and how they feel despised by fellow citizens … I was listening with the ears of people from Kherson, and for a second I hesitated”. She said: “It’s a difficult piece to perform for people in Ukraine, but I also think that this is the moment where art happens, where it really speaks to you, and you recognise your own experience.” Wilson referred to a scene in which abducted children, played by a Ukrainian children’s chorus, sing their thanks to “Mama Maria”, Lvova-Belova. “I mean, it’s so horrible,” she said. “But they’re very professional. It’s a role, and you sing it.” The musical language of the work is accessible and melodic, drawing on southern Ukrainian folk songs. Kolomiiets said: “I needed to keep in mind that I was writing the opera for the Metropolitan Opera, so it must be a contemporary opera. But I also needed to keep in mind that we are telling a story about women from Kherson. The guiding light for me was that the women from Kherson must hear their voices in this opera.”

Tehran launches retaliatory attacks on Bahrain and Kuwait – as it happened

This blog is now closing, but our live coverage of the crisis in the Middle East continues here. Here is how things stand at the moment. The US launched multiple waves of strikes on Iran in response to a military helicopter crash off the strait of Hormuz that Donald Trump said Iran had downed. The Associated Press reported that the Apache helicopter that crashed went down after colliding with an Iranian drone, but it was not clear whether the collision was intentional. US strikes were reported across Iran’s southern coast, on the strait of Hormuz. After more than three hours of military action, US central command (Centcom) said strikes were “completed”, adding that the US remained ready to defend against “unjustified Iranian aggression.” Soon after, Iran launched retaliatory attacks against the US, according to the countries state media, which said American bases in the region and the US fifth fleet in Bahrain were targeted with drones. Kuwait and Bahrain issued air raid alerts and reported that air defences were active in repelling attacks. Iran also claimed it had targeted a US base in Jordan with long range missiles. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said no attack would go “unanswered”, soon after the US launched strikes on Iran. Posting an image of the strait of Hormuz with the label, “Forever Persian Gulf”, Araghchi says that “despite its defeats on the battlefield, the U.S. opted to test our determination.” Five hours before the airstrikes, Trump had posted on social media that the US “must” respond to the helicopter crash, from which two crew members were rescued in stable condition. Before his social media post, however, Trump appeared to downplay the crash, telling the Wall Street Journal in a phone interview that it “wasn’t a big deal” and that “the pilot is fine.” Iranian state media reported that no air military operations have taken place in the strait of Hormuz over the past 24 hours, according to Reuters. Lebanon’s health ministry said 11 people were killed in Israeli airstrikes on the southern city of Tyre on Tuesday. The state-run National News Agency (NNA) had reported the first strike taking place not long before Israel’s military issued an evacuation warning for the entire city and surrounding areas ahead of strikes there.

Being a woman in China is getting harder. But in Chengdu, female-only spaces are flourishing

In a small, unassuming bookstore in south-west China, a discreet community of women dream of a more equal future. Here in Chengdu, 42-year-old Shen Shen runs one of the country’s leading feminist bookstores. “The world doesn’t lack bookstores for men,” she says, surrounded by piles of volumes by authors including Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir and Chizuko Ueno. But Shen Shen must tread carefully. Although “feminist” is not quite a dirty word in China, “gender antagonism” – behaviour or speech could be seen as stoking division between men and women – is. Being a woman in China is getting harder. The rising tide of a booming economy once lifted up people from all parts of society, revolutionising lives – women’s included. Now, an economic slowdown and Chinese leadership that promotes a return to traditional family values are testing female liberation Women today are more educated than ever before, yet less likely to be in the workforce. The female labour participation rate has fallen by more than 20% since 1990, as state-sponsored childcare has closed down and caring responsibilities for an ageing population have grown. At the same time, authorities have become increasingly alarmed by women who shun traditional gender roles – whether that is by refusing to get married or by speaking out against sexism. Feminist social media accounts are regularly shut down by China’s internet censors because of complaints they have incited “gender antagonism”. In a four-part series, the Guardian is analysing the changing status of women across Chinese society. The series examines how in different aspects of their lives they are responding to government restrictions and shifting social and economic conditions. Some are turning to overt activism to champion women’s rights, despite such behaviour being all but banned by the authorities. Others are resisting pressure to marry and have children, or forging careers outside traditional boundaries. In the face of an increasingly restrictive political atmosphere, Chinese women are charting their own paths, defying societal pressure to live according to a fixed, Communist party-approved blueprint. In Chengdu, a city far from the more stifling atmosphere of Beijing, a cautious feminist revival is unfolding. The city is known for its more relaxed social attitudes, and Shen Shen’s bookstore, Laishuxia, is one of a number of female-focused communities that are growing in popularity. “The bookstore I want to create is one that takes root,” Shen Shen says. Chengdu: China’s most feminist city? Shen Shen opened Laishuxia in August 2023. Her first encounter with the concept of feminism was in 2017 when the #MeToo movement ricocheted around the world – including to China, where women spoke out despite heavy censorship from the authorities. “That’s when I first discovered the word. But as a woman I feel we’ve been encountering the concrete realities of feminism since birth,” she says. As well as stocking books from a range of Chinese and international feminist authors, Shen Shen hosts small reading and discussion groups centred on themes such as dealing with menopause and whether or not artificial intelligence is biased against women. In China, hosting in-person gatherings can attract unwanted attention from the authorities. The Communist party is deeply suspicious about anything that could morph into something resembling a social movement. In China’s major metropolises of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, film festivals, talks and even board game groups have been shut down because of government pressure. But Shen Shen is careful to avoid any topics that could cause problems, and always notifies the police in advance of her events. Across town, Zhang Wenjia, 28, is walking the same tightrope. Last year Zhang and her partner opened a female-only bar called Rearview Mirror. Dimly lit with walls plastered with pictures of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Virginia Woolf, feathered dreamcatchers hanging from the ceiling, it is an oasis of calm. Zhang says she wanted to create a space for women to come when “they need to relax, unwind or have safe entertainment”. In mixed-gender bars, it’s hard for conversations to stay completely platonic, she says, whereas at Rearview Mirror “everyone’s purpose for interacting is much purer”. Zhang is gay but was put off by the hook-up culture she encountered at some lesbian gatherings, and wanted to make a space that welcomed both gay and straight women. Opening a business that caters only for women doesn’t violate any Chinese laws, but it does offend some men. One called the police soon after the bar opened. Zhang and her partner told the officers that as female proprietors, they worried about being harassed by male customers. “It’s for our own safety, and to avoid making trouble for the police,” Zhang said. The police accepted her explanation but left with a warning: “Don’t be doing that lesbian stuff.” Rearview Mirror is one of several female-only bars to have opened in Chengdu in recent years. Other cities have large populations of urban, educated women who are interested in their own empowerment, but Chengdu has seen a bigger flourishing of this trend than anywhere else. That is partly thanks to its distance from Beijing and Shanghai. As the ancient Chinese proverb goes, “the mountains are high, and the emperor is far away” – meaning the further one gets from the capital, the more free spirited people tend to be. He Jiayu and Bai Yuanjie are the co-founders of GiCD (short for “Girls in Chengdu”), a social network for hundreds of women across the city which they launched in April 2024. It started out as casual meet-ups but has evolved into a packed weekly schedule of rock climbing, film screenings, craft workshops and other social activities. Bai says that she wanted a group like GiCD so she could have a space free of sexual harassment or even the prospect of being approached for a date. “I think every woman understands what I mean,” she says. Like Zhang at Rearview mirror, He and Bai try to keep their project focused on the practical benefits of women-only spaces, rather than dwelling on political ideas. Both are keen to stress they don’t promote anything that could be interpreted as “gender antagonism”. In the 2010s, small groups of women took to the streets to protest against domestic violence and sexual harassment. They were detained, harassed and surveilled. In contrast, today’s independent women focus on the positive aspects of womanhood, rather than the negative aspects of patriarchy. It is a subtle shift but one that allows them to live their lives with relative openness, within the limits of a government that insists on “positive energy” and censors social criticism. Li Maizi, one of China’s most well-known feminist activists, left China in 2023. She says that in the past decade “the political environment has become much more restrictive”. “Rights-based organising can quickly attract government scrutiny,” Li says. “Many feminists have adapted their strategies. Instead of direct confrontation, some create women-centred spaces … that focus on solidarity, support, and empowerment. “I see this less as a retreat from feminism and more as a strategic adaptation to a tighter political environment.” For Shen Shen, there is no contradiction between avoiding politics and a belief in gender equality. “I feel that feminism, more than anything, teaches women how to respond to all crises and challenges with wisdom.” Additional research by Lillian Yang and Yu-chen Li

Ukraine war briefing: Moscow car bomb kills Russian ammunition chief – reports

A car bomb in the Moscow region killed a general in charge of heavy ammunition supplies for the Russian army, reports said. The car exploded in Balashikha, killing its driver. He was named in reports as Damir Davydov, head of the Russian defence ministry’s missile and artillery wing. A second car bomb was discovered and blown up by authorities in south-west Moscow, reports said. Throughout the war several audacious assassinations have taken place of senior figures involved in Moscow’s war effort, with Ukrainian security services either claiming responsibility or being blamed by Russian authorities. Disruptions to fuel supplies have triggered panic-buying in Russia’s Krasnodar region, the governor said, as Ukrainian strikes on energy infrastructure continued to hit fuel deliveries across several southern regions and Russian-held Crimea. On Tuesday, emergency services said they had finally extinguished an oil depot fire in the town of Ust-Labinsk in Krasnodar after a Ukrainian drone attack on Saturday. “Against the backdrop of a difficult situation in neighbouring regions, many people decided to stock up on gasoline, which caused artificial panic buying,” said the governor, Veniamin Kondratyev. A Ukrainian drone attack started a fire in a fuel tank, the governor of Russia’s southern Rostov region said early on Wednesday. Yuri Slyusar said the drone attack took place in the region’s Millerovsky district, just over the Ukrainian border. He said there was no early indication of casualties. In Russia’s Dagestan region, explosions shook the town of Kizilyurt as a gas pipeline blew up. Kizilyurt’s mayor’s office said the fire was believed to have engulfed a gas distribution station, Interfax reported. The city of Novokuibyshevsk in Russia’s Samara region was under drone attack in the early hours of Wednesday, said the regional governor, Vyacheslav Fedorishchev. Russian state oil company Rosneft runs the Novokuibyshevsk oil refinery in the area. Fedorishchev said air space in Samara was closed. The EU hopes to ban Russian soldiers from entering member states as part of further sanctions that also target banks, crypto firms and the Kremlin’s oil revenues, Jennifer Rankin writes from Brussels. The commission wants to maintain a price cap on Russian oil at $44 until January 2027; add 30 “shadow fleet” oil tankers to its blacklist, in addition to 632 already under restrictions; and extend sanctions against cryptocurrency firms, banks and oil traders helping Russia. The latest sanctions proposals extend for the first time to Russian fish imports, with a potential ban on cod and restrictions on trade in other species. The EU also intends to ban the import of Russian metals, ores and car parts worth €60m (£52m) as part of continuing attempt to restrict economic ties. EU export restrictions are proposed for metals and alloys used in the aerospace and defence industries, including drone equipment and launch systems. Missing from the sanctions list were EU alumina exports, which have come under the spotlight since investigative journalists revealed details of how the raw material is shipped from the Russian-owned Aughinish plant in County Limerick, Ireland, to Siberia where it is smelted into aluminium to supply Russian factories. Von der Leyen also confirmed the decision to move ahead with Ukraine’s negotiations to join the EU. The bloc is expected to open the first set of negotiating chapters – on the rule of law and democratic standards – in accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova next week. Ukraine is “making extraordinary progress” on reforms to allow it to join the EU and that “it’s high time for us also now to deliver”, said von der Leyen. Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Nordic and Baltic leaders in Estonia on Tuesday, a visit that comes after Ukrainian drones were diverted into their countries by Russian electronic warfare in recent months. Zelenskyy promised to help with low-cost defences against drones. “We did this in the Middle East, and it worked,” he said. Bulgaria will no longer provide arms to Ukraine, and Moscow and Kyiv should sit down at the negotiating table to end the war, said Dimitar Stoyanov, the newly appointed Bulgarian defence minister, in reported comments. It comes after the pro-Russian former Bulgarian president, Rumen Radev, was sworn in as prime minister following elections. There were no plans for a telephone call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, adding that American negotiators Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner continued to maintain contacts with both Russia and Ukraine. Peskov suggested the EU was not ready to act as a mediator in any Ukraine peace process. “First of all, starting mediation efforts by putting forward certain conditions to Russia is likely illogical and wrong. And, of course, this is unacceptable to us,” Peskov said.

Passenger on train to London given first sentence for harassment under new law

A train passenger has become the first person to be sentenced under a new harassment law after a prosecution brought by the British Transport Police (BTP). David Stroud, 44, grabbed a woman’s hair and asked her “can I kiss you?” on a rail journey to London on 3 April, two days after the new legislation came into force banning harassment motivated by a person’s sex. The new offence, under section 4B of the Public Order Act 1986, covers intentional harassment directed at someone because of their sex, including where perpetrators target women and girls in public places, including streets, parks and public transport. Stroud, who admitted he had harassed the woman because of her gender, was “constantly leaning on to the woman” and got closer, telling her “you’re magical” and grabbing her hair which the victim “perceived to be sexual”, Highbury Corner magistrates court previously heard. He was arrested at London Bridge station after the incident on a train from Hastings, East Sussex, and while under caution he said: “It’s just banter, we had banter together, do you know what I mean?” Stroud, from Dartford in Kent, was on bail after admitting to a separate 22-month stalking campaign when he harassed the victim on a train. He was given a community order on Tuesday. Det Supt Sam Painter of the BTP told the Press Association: “We recognise that this offending, in terms of the scale and the nature of it, has been going on for too long.” As of Monday, 26 men had been arrested for the offence across BTP’s network since it came into effect on 1 April. Offenders can face up to two years behind bars under the new law, which Painter said “recognises the seriousness of the offending” and the impact it has on women and girls. Olivia Rose, the Crown Prosecution Service’s lead on stalking and deputy chief crown prosecutor, said the new offence “bridges the gap between where conduct is serious but perhaps doesn’t quite meet the threshold for sexual assault. “This deals with that, because otherwise we would find that there would be cases that might fall within that gap.” Stroud had previously pleaded guilty to a separate stalking campaign, the court heard. He stalked his ex-partner’s adult daughter, going to her home regularly and sending her unwanted gifts and over 200 emails. He was sentenced for both offences together and received a 12-month community order and was told to complete 15 days of rehabilitation activity. The former technician at a water company was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work and be fitted with an alcohol abstinence monitoring tag for 90 days. Judge Jackson also made a five-year restraining order against him for the stalking victim and ordered the defendant to pay £85 court costs and a £114 surcharge. Speaking to reporters outside court, Stroud said: “The law changes and it is what it is. I was just unlucky that I was the first person at the time.” He said the victim impact statement made him appear like “a monster”. “I wasn’t a monster. We had an amicable chat about her iridescent hair.” He added: “I realised that I’d overstepped the line. And I walked away of my own accord because I thought, right, now it’s time to go.” Amelia Whitworth, head of policy, campaigns and youth at charity Plan International UK, said: “We spent years tirelessly campaigning alongside dedicated youth activists for this law. The first conviction is an encouraging early sign that it is being implemented and helping to provide some justice for survivors. “This will go some way to help those affected to feel confident coming forward and able to access support.”