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Record bear sightings in Japan cause alarm as hibernation ends

Rested but famished bears emerging from hibernation in Japan are already coming into contact with humans, with the pace of sightings outstripping that seen in 2025, a record year for bear attacks. According to media reports, the animals have been spotted with surprising frequency in urban areas in the country’s north-east, with authorities urging caution among people planning to spend the coming Golden Week public holidays in the countryside. In 2026 there has already been one possible fatal mauling after the body of a woman was found last week in the prefecture (county) of Iwate, soon after a police officer was injured in a bear attack nearby. With winter just over, police have been called to populated areas following sightings near apartment buildings, a warehouse and a railway station. In Aomori, a prefecture on the northern tip of Japan’s main island, local authorities on 1 April issued a special warning about the presence of Asiatic black bears after five were spotted in the space of 10 days. Two north-eastern prefectures, Iwate and Fukushima, have issued similar alerts, according to the Asahi Shimbun. The sightings have raised fears of another year of anxiety among residents of north-east Japan and Hokkaido, the country’s northernmost main island. In the 12 months from April last year, Japan saw a record 238 bear attacks, including 13 deaths. Most of the incidents occurred in the six prefectures that make up the Tohoku region of north-east Japan. Earlier this month, a dozen police officers in a Fukushima prefecture town pursued a bear in a neighbourhood where residents said the animals had never been a concern. The bear, weighing 100-120kg, was involved in a long standoff with police before being shot dead beneath an elevated expressway by a licensed hunter. “I never imagined a bear would show up here,” a local woman told the Asahi. “Where on earth did it come from?” Residents and local authorities are hoping this year could bring relief, with experts forecasting better crops of beechnuts – a staple of the animals’s diet. Last year’s harvest was poor, forcing bears to venture into populated areas to find food. Since poor crops appear to occur in two-year cycles – a phenomenon some scientists have attributed to the climate crisis and intense summer heat – a plentiful supply this year could mean fewer hungry bears roaming towns and villages. But Shinsuke Koike, a professor of ecology at Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology, struck a note of caution, given that the recent sightings came during the spring, when bears that have just emerged from hibernation usually eat leaves and wild plants in the mountains. “Bears that previously ventured into human settlements may have learned that food can be found in places close to people,” Koike told the Mainichi Shimbun. He added that previous encounters with people – after which the animals returned safely to their natural habitat – may mean they no longer see humans as a potential threat.

Pro-Palestine activists face trial for attack on Israeli arms factory in Germany

Five pro-Palestinian activists are due to appear in court over an attack on an Israeli arms company in Germany, in proceedings their families say could become a “show trial”. The Berlin-based activists, who are British, Irish, German and Spanish citizens, have been held in pre-trial detention in separate prisons since 8 September. They are alleged to have broken into Elbit Systems, in the city of Ulm in Baden-Württemberg, in the early hours of 8 September, causing hundreds of thousands of euros of damage before calling the police to arrest them. The Ulm 5 have been charged with trespass, destruction of property and participation in a criminal organisation under section 129 of the German criminal code. The trial is due to start on Monday. The section 129 charge means authorities consider the accused a threat to society, allowing them to deny bail. Families of the defendants say they have been locked up for up to 23 hours a day and had access to visits, books, phone calls and mail restricted. If found guilty, they face up to five years in prison. Speaking on behalf of all the defendants, Benjamin Düsberg, a lawyer for Daniel Tatlow-Devally, 32, from Dublin, said he believed the German state was trying to make an example of the five, none of whom has a previous conviction. The attack on the weapons factory was an action in “defence of others” in trying to obstruct the movement of arms to Israel, he said. Düsberg, one of eight defence lawyers, said: “We intend to use the proceedings to essentially turn the tables. We want to show that it’s not our clients who should be on the hook, but rather the Elbit bosses, who continued delivering weapons even during the genocide.” Elbit Systems is the most important land-based weapons supplier to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). It has been approached for comment on the trial. Referring to section 32 of the German criminal code, Düsberg said: “Our central argument will be that the actions of our clients there – namely the destruction of laboratory equipment and office equipment – were justified under the grounds of emergency assistance.” Under this clause, an otherwise unlawful act can be justified if there is no other way to avert imminent harm or attack, he said. Germany is the second biggest supplier of arms to Israel, after the US. The defence team will argue that as soon as the international court of justice ruled in 2024 that the claim of genocide against Palestinians in Gaza was “plausible”, Berlin should have stopped all deliveries. Israel rejected the ICJ accusation as “outrageous and false”. According to prosecutors, the group broke in and destroyed office and technical equipment with axes, detonated smoke bombs and defaced with graffiti the exterior of the building. The five posted a video of their break-in online. They alerted police and waited in the grounds of the weapons factory for the authorities to detain them. The damage allegedly caused was estimated at €200,000 (£173,000) to €1m. Mimi Tatlow-Golden, the mother of Tatlow-Devally, a philosophy graduate, said she feared the case had a political dimension and the five would “face a show trial” as the German state sought to send a message about the potential penalties of such actions. She said: “The friends carried out only property damage, at a specific location and with the aim to end a genocide. They did not hide their identities and presented themselves for arrest. They represent no harm to the public. Using section 129 to keep them in detention … before the trial can in my view only be viewed as serving a political purpose.” Matthias Schuster, another of the defence lawyers, said: “Our clients are not dangerous but [authorities] believe they should be seen as such to justify the strict custody conditions in which they have been held.” Nicky Robertson, the mother of Zo Hailu, 25, who is being held in a prison in Bühl, Baden-Württemberg, said the “extreme treatment” the group had received felt “like a disproportionate response for property damage”. Hailu, also a British citizen, was strip-searched on arriving at the prison and forced to wear an adult nappy, Robertson said. “These are people who love the environment and children, who are caring, creative, sporty, decent team players. They’re not a danger to society. Quite the opposite,” she added. Rosie Tricks, whose 25-year-old sibling, Crow Tricks, another British citizen, is being held at the maximum-security Stuttgart-Stammheim prison, said visits had been restricted to two hours a month. “It’s lovely to see them but knowing Crow as a sociable, bubbly, fun person, the light of our family, it’s really hard to see them in this position,” said Rosie of Crow. “Their health has definitely suffered. They look OK but inside there’s a lot of anxiety and worry.” The other defendants are Vi Kovarbasic, a 29-year-old German, and Leandra Rollo, a 40-year-old Spanish citizen from Argentina. The five have continued to be denied bail, even after the six-month limit of pre-trial detention passed. A spokesperson for the Stuttgart-Stammheim court said: “The code of criminal procedure allows, under certain conditions, for the extension of pre-trial detention.” In a special detention review last month, Stuttgart’s higher regional court “examined these conditions … and ordered the continuation of pre-trial detention for all defendants”, basing its decision “on the existence of a risk of flight, which would not be sufficiently mitigated even by the posting of bail”. The court spokesperson added: “Due to its size, its state-of-the-art security and media technology, the new courtroom building is particularly well suited to the requirements of state security trials (such as that of the Ulm 5), especially given the anticipated high level of public interest.” The trial is expected to run until the end of July.

Deadly Israeli attacks worsen Gaza’s water shortage crisis

Israeli forces in Gaza killed a water engineer and two drivers who transported water to displaced families over four days in mid-April, exacerbating severe shortages of clean water that are fuelling the spread of preventable disease. Israeli limits on the shipment of soap, washing powder and other hygiene products into Gaza have also forced prices up, adding to the challenge of keeping clean and avoiding infection in overcrowded shelters and tent encampments. Over more than two and a half years of war, Israeli attacks have destroyed most of Gaza’s civilian infrastructure, including networks that provided clean water and removed and treated sewage. They have also repeatedly killed Palestinian civilians trying to maintain or restore them. ‘‘Since the beginning of the war, we have lost about 19 workers from water facilities who were carrying out repair and distribution work,” said Omar Shatat, the deputy director of Gaza’s coastal municipalities water utility. “Targeting has become part of the operational reality.’’ The most recent attack was a strike on al-Zein well in northern Gaza last Monday, when water engineers were working inside. The attack killed one, injured four and caused extensive structural damage to “a critical water source serving the surrounding population”, according to an incident report seen by the Guardian. The document warned that the disruption to water supplies would affect thousands of people. Four days earlier, Israeli forces shot dead two drivers working for Unicef, the UN agency for children, at the main water collection point for northern Gaza. Two others were injured in the attack, which Unicef said threatened the humanitarian networks bringing clean water to hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza. The UN has recognised access to clean water as a basic right, setting a standard of 50 to 100 litres daily per person except in emergency situations. Across Gaza, the average daily supply is only 7 litres of drinking water and 16 litres of domestic water, Unicef said, and many people do not have access to even the minimum 6 litres a day of clean drinking water. The price of soap and other cleaning supplies has doubled over the last month. Scarcity and high demand have created a “major crisis”, said Anwar al-Maghribi, who has a shop at a market in Deir al-Balah. “A 7kg pack of laundry detergent has risen from 50 shekels to 100 shekels or more, and other cleaning products have also seen similar increases,” he said. Laureline Lasserre, Médecins Sans Frontières’ emergency humanitarian affairs manager for Gaza, said people were getting sick because they could not access clean water and basic sanitation. “No clean water, no soap, overcrowded living conditions; this is the root cause of a huge proportion of what we treat every day,” she said. Many Palestinians have to choose between drinking, cooking and washing on a daily basis, she said. Women report infections because they are unable to wash even when they are menstruating and after giving birth, and babies repeatedly get sick because there is no clean water for formula. Wounds become infested with larvae because people cannot wash them. MSF doctors have also reported psychological problems including suicidal ideation caused by extreme water shortages, Lasserre added. “The Israeli authorities have destroyed water infrastructure and are blocking humanitarians from providing alternatives. They are causing the water crisis and preventing the solution.” Omar Saada, 38, a displaced father of four in Khan Younis, said one water truck served more than 50 families in his area. That is not enough to meet the allowance of 20 litres per person, so each morning is a race to fill the family’s containers. “We wake up as early as 6am to be able to collect water from the trucks. Before, it was available from early morning until after noon, but now it is usually just for two hours,” he said. The family have cut back on bathing and washing clothes, giving his children skin infections, and the water does not always feel safe to drink. “It sometimes causes intestinal infections and stomach pain due to contamination, but we are forced to drink it because it is the only water available.” Water trucks only come once a week to the area of al-Qarara, where Nesma Rashwan, a 31-year-old mother of five, is living in a tent. She too says the water smells and tastes unsafe, but the family has no other options. “For about a year now, we have not had clean drinking water that truly quenches thirst,” she said. “I bought fresh drinking water once when my son was sick, but I cannot afford it regularly; a gallon costs five shekels. So we make do with what is available.” She struggles to find water to wash dishes and clothes, and sends her children to bathe in the sea, pouring just a minimal amount of the stored fresh water over them when they return. The impact of damage to water pipes and desalination plants has been compounded by Israeli restrictions on bringing fuel, spare parts and basic equipment into Gaza. Shatat said: “We have been forced to improvise by recycling and assembling parts from destroyed facilities to create a single functioning unit, what I describe as ‘assembling fragments’. “For example, we collect usable spare parts from multiple destroyed wells to operate one functional well, or combine parts from several damaged pumping stations to build one working station.” Earlier this month, shrapnel from an Israeli airstrike damaged the power line to the Deir al-Balah desalination plant, which provides water for up to 400,000 people. The lack of spare parts delayed repairs for a week, and during that time it could only run at 20% capacity on backup generators. Saada said water deliveries to his area stopped during that period. The impact of water shortages is compounded by the lack of sewage treatment facilities, and as temperatures rise over the summer the risks to human health from both are likely to increase unless large amounts of equipment are allowed into Gaza. Shatat said: “The greatest tragedy is in the camps, where approximately 1.1 million people live without sewage networks, relying instead on absorption pits that frequently overflow, creating a severe health and environmental disaster.” In school buildings now used as shelters, septic tanks regularly overflow, creating sewage leaks into classrooms that spread between rooms. There is no cement for repairs, while the fleet of trucks that once emptied septic tanks was decimated in the war, and no new trucks have been allowed in. Gaza needs 100, but only 15 remain and they are worn out from intense use, Shatat said. Israel denies there are any restrictions on equipment or fuel needed to run water and sanitation systems in Gaza, and said it provided clean water through three pipelines and allowed passage of water from Egypt in a fourth. A spokesperson for Cogat, the Israeli body that oversees aid in Palestine, said these pipelines contributed to an estimated supply in Gaza of 70,000 cubic metres a day, or approximately 30 litres a person. “There are four active water pipes [supplying] the Gaza Strip. There are operational desalination plants and there are dozens of water wells that receive regular fuel [to power pumps],” they said. Asked about the shooting of truck drivers near a humanitarian supply point, the Israel Defense Forces said troops who opened fire had “perceived a threat”, without providing further details. Asked about the water engineer killed at al-Zein well, the IDF declined to comment.

Ukraine war briefing: Kim Jong-un strengthens military ties with Russia and hails soldiers who fought in Kursk

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has hailed the troops from his country who fought alongside Russia in Kursk a year ago, state media KCNA said on Monday. Kim made his remarks after a Russian delegation arrived in Pyongyang to attend the opening ceremony of a memorial complex honouring those killed helping Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. In 2024 Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into the Kursk region, capturing more than 1,000 sq km (386 sq miles) of Russian land, but were ultimately pushed back. During discussions in Pyongyang, Russia and North Korea agreed to “long-term” military cooperation. Moscow’s defence minister Andrey Belousov said “We agreed with the DPRK defence ministry to place our military cooperation on a stable, long-term footing,” The agreement will cover 2027-2031, he said. North Korea has sent thousands of troops – as well as missiles and munitions – to support Russia’s war in Ukraine. In return, analysts say North Korea is receiving financial aid, military technology, food and energy from Russia. Kim said his government “would continue to fully support Russia’s policies of defending its sovereignty, territorial integrity and security interests”, KCNA reported. Kim has steadily moved to elevate the North Korean troops who fought for Russia in the Kursk region into symbols of sacrifice and loyalty, using state ceremonies and memorial projects to publicly honour their role. “The souls of the fallen will live forever with the great honour they defended,” Kim said in a handwritten message at the memorial on Sunday, according to state media. Meanwhile, strikes across Ukraine, Russian-occupied territory and Russia over the past day killed at least 16 people, authorities said. Russian drone and missile strikes on the city of Dnipro killed at least nine, regional head Oleksandr Hanzha said. One man was killed in a Ukrainian drone strike on the port city of Sevastopol, in Russian-occupied Crimea, Moscow-installed authorities said. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of “nuclear terrorism” as he marked the 40th anniversary of the Chornobyl reactor disaster on Sunday. Zelensky said Russia was “again bringing the world to the brink of a man-made disaster”. He said Russian drones regularly pass over Chornobyl and one had hit its protective shell last year. Rafael Grossi, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), echoed Zelenskyy’s concerns over Chornobyl during a visit to Kyiv, saying repairs to the plant’s damaged outer protective shell must begin immediately. IAEA assessments show the damage sustained after a strike last year has already compromised a key safety function of the structure, he said. He warned years of inaction could heighten danger to the original sarcophagus beneath it. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said repairs would require at least 500 million euros ($586m). Ukrainian forces struck an oil refinery in Yaroslavl, deep inside Russian territory, Ukraine’s General Staff said on Sunday. The strikes sparked fires at the facility, which processes 15m tons of oil a year and produces gasoline, diesel and jet fuel for the Russian military. Russia did not immediately comment. Ukraine has developed its own long-range drones, which can reach targets 1,500km (900 miles) inside Russia. A Ukrainian drone attack also hit a fertiliser plant in Russia’s Vologda region, local governor Georgy Filimonov said on Sunday. Filimonov said a high-pressure sulphuric acid pipeline was damaged at a complex operated by Apatit, a subsidiary of PhosAgro, one of the world’s largest producers of phosphate-based fertilisers. The leak has been contained and there were no releases of hazardous chemicals, he said, adding that five people were injured. Donald Trump said on Sunday he has had “good conversations” with Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy as he aims to settle the Ukraine war. “We’re working on the Russia situation, Russia and Ukraine, and hopefully we’re going to get it,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News. Ukrainian peace talks have stalled since the US and Israel launched attacks on Iran on 28 February.

Lebanon health ministry says Israeli strikes kill 14 in deadliest day since ceasefire began

Lebanon’s health ministry said Israeli strikes on the country’s south killed 14 people on Sunday, the deadliest day since a ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah came into force over a week ago. The health ministry said the dead on Sunday included two women and two children, adding that 37 other people were wounded. Israel said one of its soldiers was also killed. The US-mediated ceasefire – which started on 16 April and has been extended to mid-May – has brought a significant reduction in hostilities between Israel and Hezbollah, though both sides have continued to fire at each other, trading blame over breaches. “Hezbollah’s violations are, in practice, dismantling the ceasefire,” Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu told a cabinet meeting on Sunday, adding “we act vigorously according to the rules we agreed upon with the United States, and also, by the way, with Lebanon.” Hezbollah said it would not cease its attacks on Israeli troops inside Lebanon and on towns in northern Israel as long as Israel continued its “ceasefire violations”. The Iran-backed group added in a statement that it would not wait for diplomacy that has “proven ineffective” or rely on Lebanese authorities that had “failed to protect the country.” Israeli troops are operating inside what they have labelled a “yellow line”, which demarcates a ribbon of Lebanese territory around 10km deep along the length of the border, where residents have been warned not to return. The Israeli military repeated the warning on Sunday, telling residents to leave seven towns beyond the “buffer zone” it occupied before the ceasefire. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said Hezbollah was violating the ceasefire and that Israel would act against it, telling people to head north and west away from the towns. The towns are north of the Litani River and the zone in southern Lebanon occupied by Israeli troops. The military said that it struck Hezbollah fighters, rocket launchers and a weapons depot. Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency (NNA) reported Israeli strikes in multiple locations in the south on Sunday, both in areas where Israel issued an evacuation warning and elsewhere. Earlier on Sunday, Hezbollah said it had attacked Israeli troops inside Lebanon as well as the rescue force that came to evacuate them. The Israeli military said one soldier was killed and six more were wounded. The Israeli military said it had intercepted three drones before they crossed into Israeli territory on Sunday, after sirens sounded in northern Israel. Hezbollah drew Lebanon into the Middle East war on 2 March by firing rockets at Israel to avenge the death of Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei in US-Israeli strikes. More than 2,500 people have been killed in Israeli strikes since then. The toll includes 277 women, 177 children and 100 medics, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The ministry does not otherwise distinguish between militants and civilians, and Hezbollah has not announced a total toll of its fighters. The group has buried dozens of fighters in group funerals in recent days. Hezbollah attacks have killed two civilians in Israel while 16 Israeli soldiers have died in Lebanon since 2 March, Israel says. Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

No headway in Middle East peace efforts as US and Iran refuse to yield

Hopes of a breakthrough in negotiations between Iran and the US faded further on Sunday, amid a deepening sense of deadlock in the nearly two-month-long conflict despite intense regional diplomatic activity. Washington and Tehran appear unwilling to moderate rhetoric or make concessions, and there are no negotiations scheduled that might bring the war to a definitive end. On Sunday, Abbas Araghchi, Iran’s foreign minister, returned to Pakistan for a second consecutive day of talks with mediators after a brief trip to Oman for discussions there. Araghchi described his Pakistan trip on Saturday as “very fruitful” but signalled scepticism over Washington’s intentions. “Have yet to see if the US is truly serious about diplomacy,” he said on X. Araghchi was also due to meet the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, as part of a trip that begins on Monday. Russia and Iran, both subject to tough western sanctions, have become increasingly close in recent years. On Saturday, Donald Trump announced that he had cancelled a visit to Pakistan by his envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The two men were to take part in a second round of talks with Iran that had been tentatively scheduled for this weekend. Speaking in Florida, before being rushed out of the White House Correspondents’ Association dinner in Washington after a gunman fired shots at his security detail, Trump said the visit involved too much travel and expense for what he considered an inadequate Iranian offer. The cancellation came after Iran said it would not be attending any direct talks while the US blockaded all shipping to or from the Islamic Republic. Trump later claimed that Tehran had offered a new proposal for agreement within minutes of his decision. “They gave us a paper that should have been better and – interestingly – immediately when I cancelled it, within 10 minutes, we got a new paper that was much better,” he told reporters, without elaborating. Pakistani officials have sought to rebuild momentum in the negotiations, briefing media that progress towards a possible “bridging agreement” to allow discussions to restart was being made. A round of talks in Islamabad earlier this month – in which a US delegation led by the vice-president, JD Vance, met Iranian delegates led by Iran’s parliamentary speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf – ended without any apparent progress towards a deal. The 21-hour session earlier exposed wide gaps on the future of the strait of Hormuz, Iran’s nuclear programme and Tehran’s longstanding support for militant movements around the Middle East. The talks collapsed after Iran would not agree to US demands to end nuclear enrichment and hand over its 440kg of highly enriched uranium. Last week, Trump announced an indefinite extension of his earlier two-week ceasefire with Iran and repeated his demand that Iran allow shipping free passage in the strait of Hormuz, which in normal times carries around a fifth of the world’s oil and liquid natural gas supplies. The closure of the strategic waterway through the Gulf has sent oil prices soaring around the world, threatening a global economic downturn. In an attempt to exert economic pressure, Trump ordered the US fleet assembled off its shores to blockade Iran, which is heavily dependent on the sale of oil to stave off total economic collapse. Analysts say Iranian leaders are aware the US president faces pressure himself from US voters unhappy at rising fuel prices, and may be forced into concessions earlier than Tehran. Midterm elections are due in the US in November. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), whose grip on decision-making in Tehran, experts believe has been reinforced during the conflict, said it had no intention of lifting its blockade. Iran wants to raise a toll on passage through the strait, forcing each passing tanker to pay $2m. This could lead to higher prices for years to come. The IRGC wrote on its official Telegram channel: “Controlling the strait of Hormuz and maintaining the shadow of its deterrent effects over America and the White House’s supporters in the region is the definitive strategy of Islamic Iran.” Iran’s military warned in a statement carried by state media that continued US “blockading, banditry and piracy” would lead to retaliation. Trump has ordered the military to “shoot and kill” Iranian vessels that could be placing mines. Though the US has sunk almost all of Iran’s conventional navy, small fast boats used by the IRGC still pose a significant threat. Last week three ships were fired on by Iranian forces. Analysts said Iran had held the upper hand since the abortive first round of talks in Islamabad. “Both the US and Iran put lists of respectively 15 and 10 maximalist demands on the table that transgressed known red lines of their interlocutors,” Hamidreza Azizi and Erwin van Veen wrote last week for the Dutch Clingendael Institute of International Relations. “But neither the military situation nor the military outlook at the time supported the idea that major concessions were on offer compared [with] prewar positions. If anything, the strategic stalemate that led to the ceasefire favoured Iran because the US cannot reopen the strait of Hormuz without a large-scale and risky ground operation.” Writing on Truth Social before the Washington dinner shooting, Trump said there was “tremendous infighting and confusion” within Iran’s leadership. “Nobody knows who is in charge, including them,” he posted. “Also, we have all the cards, they have none! If they want to talk, all they have to do is call!!!” Analysts say that though there are deep divisions among Iranian leaders and factions, all are committed to presenting a unified front to the US. Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said last week there were “no hardliners or moderates” in Tehran and that the country stood united behind its supreme leader. A further challenge is to maintain the fragile ceasefire in Lebanon, which Tehran sees as essential to its participation in any talks. Israel struck southern Lebanon on Saturday, killing at least six people it said were Hezbollah militants, and several rockets and drones were launched at Israel from Lebanon. Fourteen people were killed and 37 wounded in strikes in the country’s south on Sunday, according to Lebanon’s health ministry. The conflict is one of the widest in geographic extent in the Middle East since the second world war, with violent attacks from Azerbaijan to Oman and even in the Indian Ocean. At least 3,375 people have been killed in Iran by joint US-Israeli strikes, according to local medical authorities. About 2,500 people have been killed in Lebanon, where Israel launched a relentless offensive after Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel in retaliation for the Israeli strike in Tehran which killed Iran’s supreme leader, Ali Khamenei, and launched the war. More than a dozen people have been killed in Gulf Arab states and 23 in Israel by Iran’s retaliatory attacks, including those launched by its proxies. Fifteen Israeli soldiers in Lebanon, 13 US service members in the region and six UN peacekeepers in southern Lebanon have been killed.

Final steps taken before audacious plan to tow whale stranded in Germany to North Sea

Final preparations are reportedly under way for a millionaire funded plan to tow a sickly humpback whale into the North Sea. The 12-tonne whale, nicknamed Timmy, has been stranded on the Baltic Sea coastline for almost a month. A barge resembling a giant steel aquarium will attempt to transport Timmy 400km (248 miles) towards the North Sea, and then hopefully back to the Atlantic Ocean from where it is believed to have arrived. The mission known as Operation Cushion is scheduled to start on Tuesday. Rescue workers said the animal was positioned in the right direction in the water on Sunday. “[It] is interesting, it turned 90 degrees – and in the right direction. It seems to be preparing itself mentally and emotionally for departure,” the state’s environment minister, Till Backhaus, told Bild. The newspaper, along with local media outlets, has been running a live blog on the whale’s progress as well as a live stream from where it has been lying in shallow waters for several weeks. First spotted in the Baltic Sea last month, after it had possibly been chasing shoals of herring, it has now been lying in the mud off the island of Poel in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, for more than three weeks. The water contains far too little salt to sustain it. After experts, including leading marine biologists, said the whale was dying and a rescue operation was only going to stress the animal and would certainly not help it, a private initiative was launched, funded by two prominent millionaires, leaving local politicians in the shade. The initiative plans to lift the 30-metre long whale with air cushions, stretching a net beneath it to suspend it in a pontoon structure. The pontoon would then be towed into deeper waters by a tugboat. The whale’s plight has attracted hundreds of onlookers, including tourists from across Europe, who have travelled to Poel to watch the spectacle. Many are camping nearby in cars or caravans. Several people describing themselves as supporters have swum through the cold sea to within metres of the whale, in order to be close to it, before being hoisted out by water police. The rescue effort has involved the local fire brigade spraying the whale with water to keep it hydrated, and latterly, individuals who repeatedly pour buckets of water over its back. Hundreds of kilograms of zinc ointment have been reportedly applied to its back, using cloths to help treat the wounds on its blistered skin. Critics however, say the team that has effectively tasked itself with the latest rescue operation has little experience and accuse it of trying to politically manipulate the situation. Burkard Baschek, the director of the Oceanographic Museum in Stralsund, who was until recently the state government’s chief adviser on the whale until the decision was made that it should be left to die in peace, said he believes the rescue effort will be in vain. “A rescue attempt … is no longer worthwhile,” he told Die Zeit. “This has also been confirmed to us repeatedly by international colleagues.” Baschek said a report compiled by his colleagues still stood. It states that the whale’s lethargic behaviour clearly indicates serious health problems. A fishing net caught in its mouth is thought to be still there and impossible to remove. Its skin is covered in blister-like blemishes. If whales have been repeatedly stranded, as this one had been, Baschek said, the prognosis was “very poor”. Continuing to try to save it was wrong, he said, calling it “pure animal cruelty”. Backhaus, the environment minister, who says the whale has grown close to his heart, having previously said there was no hope for it, said he backs the new initiative’s attempts to try to save it. He denies claims he is supporting the initiative because the state faces what is expected to be a hotly contested election between his Social Democrats and the far-right AfD party in September and images of a dead whale in the bay could go down very badly for his party. Backhaus has been placed under extra police protection after receiving threats from members of the public who accused him and his team of giving up on the whale too soon. He told Die Zeit: “I won’t be blackmailed.” The same critics accused the museum’s scientists of wanting the whale dead so that it could secure its skeleton for its museum and “make millions”. The museum denies this. Baschek called in the police after receiving threats, including social media posts saying: “May the seagulls peck you to pieces” and “may you suffer just like the whale”. During an investigation into the team behind the latest attempts to rescue the whale, Die Zeit said it had uncovered a group of people representing far-right interests, esoteric methodology and conspiracy theories as well as holding links to the Querdenker anti-coronavirus lockdown movement. The group has claimed that together they can create an aura that reaches the whale and help to save it. They have flown in from as far afield as Peru and Hawaii to support the effort. A vet joining from Hawaii wrote on Instagram, before landing in Germany: “a big big fat F@CK YOU” to the scientists involved in the original efforts. “It’s as if the conspiracy theorists of the coronavirus pandemic have now taken over the role of the public health department in the [efforts to save the whale] in the Bay of Poel,” Die Zeit wrote. Financing the group are two extremely wealthy individuals: Karin Walter-Mommert, an equestrian expert, and Walter Gunz, a former co-founder of a German electronics retailer chain. The pair have expressed the desire to save the whale whatever the cost. Backhaus said the two had also assumed full legal responsibility for the rescue operation. “They have also made it clear that they claim extensive freedom of decision-making in this matter,” he said.

Orbán associates rush to move wealth out of Hungary after election defeat

Along the banks of the Danube, news that the Viktor Orbán era had come to an end set off an hours-long party. The joy echoed across Hungary as people traded hugs and high-fives. For some, however, the landslide loss set off a frantic scramble. Private jets allegedly laden with the spoils of those whose wealth swelled during Orbán’s 16 years in power have steadily been taking off from Vienna, while other individuals are racing to invest their assets abroad, sources have told the Guardian. Meanwhile, high-level figures close to Orbán have been looking into US visa options, hoping to find work at Maga-linked institutions. It is a glimpse of the upheaval that has gripped Hungary as it prepares to turn the page on Orbán’s rule. Since he took power in 2010, a small circle of associates aligned with the leader and his Fidesz party have amassed vast fortunes, partly due to their expanding control over the country’s economy and EU-funded contracts for public infrastructure. Since the election, the Guardian has learned of three members of this inner circle who have begun moving their assets abroad. The wealth is being moved to countries in the Middle East – Saudi Arabia, Oman and the UAE – while others have their sights set on Australia and Singapore, two Fidesz sources said. Péter Magyar, whose opposition Tisza party won a landslide victory this month, has sounded the alarm, accusing those connected to Fidesz of racing to shield their wealth from accountability before his government takes power in early May. “Orbán-linked oligarchs are transferring tens of billions of forints to the United Arab Emirates, the United States, Uruguay and other distant countries,” Magyar alleged on social media on Saturday. He called on the chief prosecutor, the police chief and the head of the tax office to “detain the criminals” and “not to allow them to flee” to countries where extradition would be unlikely. Magyar said those expected to leave the country included the family of Lőrinc Mészáros, one of Orbán’s closest friends, whose trajectory from gas fitter to Hungary’s richest man was fuelled in part by public procurement contracts. Mészáros’s company did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “I have also been informed that several oligarch families have already left the country,” Magyar added. “According to reports, several influential oligarch families have already withdrawn their children from school and are arranging trusted security personnel for their departure.” The race to move wealth abroad was first reported by independent journalists in Hungary, including the investigative outlet Vsquare, which said key figures connected to Orbán aimed to safeguard their assets before Magyar’s government could potentially freeze, seize or nationalise them, and the news site 444.hu, which in March claimed key figures were already transferring assets to Dubai. Their efforts could be stymied by the many bureaucrats and law enforcement officials who have partial knowledge of all that took place during Orbán’s time in power, Vsquare noted, “setting the stage for what could be a years-long efforts to recover allegedly stolen public wealth and arrest those who committed financial crimes”. Since the election, Magyar has repeatedly said his government will work to crack down on the corruption and cronyism that, in his view, characterised Fidesz’s years in power. “Our country has no time to waste. Hungary is in trouble in every respect. It has been plundered, looted, betrayed, indebted and ruined,” Magyar told reporters the day after the election. “We became the most impoverished and the most corrupt country in the EU.” The incoming leader has repeatedly alleged that potentially incriminating documents are being destroyed during Orbán’s last weeks in power. “We are receiving increasing reports of large-scale document destruction from various ministries, affiliated institutions, and companies close to Fidesz,” he wrote on social media earlier this month. The outgoing foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, whose ministry was among those accused of shredding confidential documents, described the accusations as “nonsense” and “outrageous” in a statement to the Hungarian online news outlet Telex. The ministry said it had “only discarded the previously printed, redundant paper versions of documents that had been stored electronically”. The foreign ministry and the office of Orbán, who has long rejected allegations of corruption and wrongdoing, did not respond to requests for comment from the Guardian. The election result has sparked questions as to what comes next for Orbán, the strongman leader whose efforts to turn Hungary into, in his words, a “petri dish for illiberalism” have inspired Donald Trump’s administration and the global far right. On Saturday, Orbán said on social media that he would not take his seat in parliament but that he aimed to stay on as Fidesz’s leader in order to lead a process of “renewal”. The EU’s longest-serving leader is expected to head to the United States around the same time as the Fifa World Cup kicks off and will probably spend several weeks there, a Fidesz-linked source told the Guardian. The source said the trip had been planned long before the 12 April election. Where Orbán will travel to exactly is unknown, though his eldest daughter and son-in-law moved to New York last summer. The son-in-law, István Tiborcz, burst into public view in 2018 when the EU’s anti-fraud office, Olaf, said a two-year investigation into contracts to supply Hungarian towns with EU-funded street lamps had found “not only serious irregularities in most of the projects, but also a conflict of interest”. While Olaf does not publish its reports or reveal who is named in them, the Guardian understands that the irregularities related to contracts signed when Tiborcz was an owner of the company concerned. A representative for Tiborcz referred the Guardian to a July interview in which Tiborcz described the EU inquiry as politically motivated. The matter was also investigated by Hungarian prosecutors, led by an Orbán loyalist, who found no breach of law. Other high-level figures connected to Fidesz are applying for US work visas, hoping to use their expertise in institutions linked to the Republican party, a US government source in Washington and a source inside Fidesz said. “The connection is already there,” said the US source, adding that years of lobbying by Orbán and Fidesz had allowed Hungarian officials to cultivate an extensive network within the Maga movement. These connections were laid bare in the lead-up to the election when the US vice-president, JD Vance, turned up in Budapest to bolster Orbán’s lagging campaign. Days after the election, one of Hungary’s most prominent investigative journalists, Szabolcs Panyi, said sources had told him the US had long been seen as a plan B for many who were connected to Orbán, despite the questions that continue to swirl over Orbán and his government’s connections to Moscow. “As long as the Trump administration is in power, even the United States could become a safe haven for the top echelons of the Orbán regime,” Panyi said.