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Secret systems used by Israel in mass killings of Gaza civilians revealed in new film

Testimony from 24 Israeli military insiders on the secret systems used in the war on Gaza has been revealed in a new documentary film about the mass killing of Palestinian civilians. NAZA, a film from the Oscar-winning Israeli directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor, was shown at the Venice international film festival on Thursday as the only documentary competing for its prestigious Golden Lion award. The film’s title comes from an Israeli military acronym used euphemistically to refer to civilians expected to be killed in a military attack. Produced by the Guardian, it features extensive testimony from Israeli intelligence officers and soldiers involved in the surveillance and remote killing of Palestinian civilians. Interviews were filmed at night on rooftops in Tel Aviv, on the condition of anonymity because of the risks involved in speaking publicly about Israel’s war activities. The appearance and voices of participants in the film were digitally altered to disguise their identities. The interviewees detail the secret methods used by the Israeli military in Gaza, including AI-based systems built to identify large numbers of potential low-ranking Hamas targets, who were then bombed in their homes at night, in the knowledge attacks would also kill their families. The Israeli military hacked into phones to identify the location of such targets, and covertly listened into conversations with their wives and children moments before they were all killed. The film also features first-person accounts about the destruction of neighbourhoods where the Israeli military estimated that up to 25% of residents were still sheltering in their homes, the systematic burning of civilian homes, and the killing of civilians at a food distribution site. “We just told these officers: ‘Please describe to us what you did. How do these systems work? Sketch it out for us.’ Sometimes, in just asking the questions, you get the answers,” Abraham said at a press conference in Venice on Thursday. “Some of them did not express remorse and some did. Some spoke out of indifference, some out of pride.” Several interviewees worked in a secret intelligence unit that reports directly to the office of Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu; one said their mission was to “thwart peace”. “We made this film out of a sense of obligation to use our position as Israeli film-makers and journalists to examine the systems behind the mass killing of Palestinian civilians for which our country is responsible,” Abraham and Szor said in their directors’ statement. The directors stressed the film’s focus was not on “sporadic war crimes committed by rogue soldiers”. “It is on the orders themselves, the policies, the accepted practices, the language and logic that make those practices possible, and the people who operate within them,” they said. “The system and its cogs.” The documentary was co-produced by James Wilson and executive produced by Jonathan Glazer, the same team behind the Oscar-winning film The Zone of Interest. NAZA builds on revelations first published by the Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, the Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and the Guardian between 2023 and 2025. It was filmed and produced under tight security because of the risk to confidential journalistic sources, and its contents have remained a closely guarded secret before Thursday’s premiere. Paul Lewis, the Guardian’s head of investigations and an executive producer on the film, described NAZA as the culmination of “years of painstaking work to uncover and verify the systems used by Israeli military intelligence in Gaza”. Abraham said making the documentary had given space to explore the collective impact of that work. “In this film we’re talking to 24 people. We are looking at systems of mass killing. There is something about cinema that allows you to explore structures and systems and how you put things together.” Before the premiere, Alberto Barbera, the Venice film festival’s artistic director, told journalists NAZA would be “truly groundbreaking”, calling it “a politically disruptive and cinematically extremely interesting work”. “It’s not just any collection of interviews,” Italy’s Cinecittà News quoted Barbera as saying. “It took them three years to convince these Israeli intelligence and military officials to share the work they did when the invasion of Gaza began, and I assure you, their testimonies are shocking.” Israeli attacks in Gaza since 2023 have killed more than 73,000 Palestinians, the majority of them civilians, and injured more than 174,000 others, together representing more than 10% of Gaza’s prewar population. Israeli restrictions on food shipments created a man-made famine last summer, and the Israeli military razed or damaged more than three-quarters of homes, so surviving Palestinians are now crowded into tent camps with little access to clean water or sanitation. Israel launched its war after the 7 October 2023 Hamas-led attacks on Israel, when more than 1,200 people were killed and 251 taken to Gaza by militants. The majority of the dead and hostages were civilians. Abraham and Szor were two of the four co-directors of No Other Land, which won the Oscar for best documentary in 2025. Drawing a connection between the two films, the directors said: “In the film No Other Land, we spent five years, together with [Palestinian co-directors] Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal, documenting the army destroying Palestinian homes in order to paint a larger picture of a system of occupation and ethnic supremacy aimed at the removal of Palestinians from the West Bank. “In NAZA, we are similarly connecting the dots of a system, gathering the testimonies of two dozen intelligence officers and soldiers and depicting the military systems used to perpetrate what a UN commission and the world’s leading human rights groups have described as a genocide.”

Russia’s actions have strengthened European case for boosting defence spending, says Nato chief – Europe live

The European Central Bank has raised interest rates for the second time this year, as widely expected, at it tries to bring inflation under control. The decision was supported by a stronger-than-expected economy that suggests businesses can weather the higher borrowing costs, AP noted. The central bank for the 21 EU member countries that use the euro currency raised its benchmark rate by a quarter percentage point to 2.50% at a meeting held in Berlin, away from the bank’s Frankfurt headquarters, it said. More on that on our business live blog:

Malta warned of corruption crisis after ‘utter disbelief’ over Daphne Caruana Galizia verdict

Malta is vulnerable to “repeated instances of high-level corruption” unless it strengthens the rule of law and protections for journalists, the Labour peer Shami Chakrabarti said at the opening of an inquiry into judicial failures following the death of Daphne Caruana Galizia. Chakrabarti, a member of the House of Lords and former director of the human rights group Liberty, has been named special rapporteur for a Council of Europe investigation into the fallout from the assassination of the anti-corruption journalist, who died in a car bombing in October 2017. Malta is in turmoil after the acquittal of a wealthy and politically influential businessman, Yorgen Fenech, of any involvement in Caruana Galizia’s murder. Fenech denies paying a middleman €150,000 to have her killed. At the inquiry’s first hearing, on Wednesday, Chakrabarti said the verdict had “staggered many throughout Maltese society and beyond. “It’s now almost nine years since the assassination that struck at the very heart of Maltese public life but a mastermind has not yet been held accountable,” she added. The first witnesses on Wednesday were the journalist’s eldest son, Matthew Caruana Galizia, and her sister Corinne Vella, who questioned the verdict, which dismissed both charges against Fenech by an 8-1 majority. Matthew Caruana Galizia told members of the council’s committee on legal affairs and human rights: “The Maltese public have seen all of the evidence against the accused, and the vast majority were convinced of his complicity in the murder. And this is why there is this atmosphere of utter disbelief at how the jury could have reached such a decision.” Malta’s state prosecutor is understood to be preparing an appeal, with the aim of securing a retrial. The Council of Europe, founded in 1949 after the second world war, created the European convention on human rights. It is led by an assembly drawn from members of the parliaments of its 46 member states. During the hearing, representatives expressed shock and concern about the verdict, calling for the European parliament and the European Commission to intervene. Iulian Bulai, a Romanian centre-right politician, suggested the EU could withhold funds from Malta. The procedure, known as the rule of law conditionality mechanism, was first used in 2022, against Hungary. “If there is such huge problem in matter of rule of law and a function of the Maltese institutions, the EU should apply a similar procedure on increasing pressure for reform,” said Bulai. He said the procedure had “functioned in other cases … So why shouldn’t it function in Malta’s case?” Malta, the EU’s smallest member state, with a population of 600,000, is a net recipient of EU money. Analysis suggests that since joining the block 22 years ago, the island has received €2.4bn more in subsidies than it has paid in. Chakrabarti said she would look at why Malta had failed to implement many of the recommendations from a public inquiry held after the murder. “The targeted assassination of a journalist in the middle of investigating high-level corruption sent a chill down the spine of everyone who cares about democratic values,” she said. “Many claim that the legal and policy changes needed to protect journalists to combat corruption and ensure the independent functioning of justice have not been carried out. “I’m extremely concerned by the apparent absence of reforms in critical areas which make Malta vulnerable to repeated instances of high-level corruption and limit the press freedom which should hold it in check.” The public inquiry found although there had been no evidence that the Maltese state had a direct role in the murder, the state bore responsibility for creating a climate of impunity. It recommended Italian-style anti-mafia laws, and making the hindrance of police investigations and abuse of office a crime for public officials. These measures have yet to be implemented. Chakrabarti compared the Caruana Galizia case to miscarriages of justice in the UK, where officials had been involved in coverups, citing the mismanagement of Grenfell Tower, the Post Office scandal and the Hillsborough football stadium disaster. She said her inquiry, titled Justice delayed: the unfinished implementation of the Daphne Caruana Galizia case, was likely to conclude in a year. Vella said fear that serious crimes could go unpunished had increased since the verdict. “Before the verdict was given, we lived in a country where a journalist was killed, but there was a chance of ending impunity. That disappeared as soon as the verdict was out.” She said journalists who had continued to investigate corruption allegations involving former members of Malta’s government “felt uneasy walking to their own cars following that verdict”.

Fascism on the rise in the UK, Anglican bishop says

Fascism is on the rise in the UK, a Church of England bishop has warned, condemning the “twisted theology” of the self-described “Christian patriots” who demonstrated at ports on the south coast last weekend. The masked, black-clad, anti-migrant agitators – led by Daniel “Danny Tommo” Thomas, a former bodyguard of the far-right influencer Tommy Robinson – were heard chanting: “Christ is King.” Arun Arora, the bishop of Kirkstall in Leeds, said the incidents in Dover and Portsmouth were part of an increasingly worrying and disturbing rise in attempts “to tear the social fabric of our country” this year. Arora said the disorder that followed the “evil” killing of Henry Nowak in Southampton earlier this year, the subsequent racist firebombings in Belfast, anti-migration protests in Thetford, Norfolk, and a recent incident in Lancashire – in which the BBC reported that a six-year-old boy had a racial slur scrawled on his forehead – were “the first steps on the journey to open fascist nationalism that takes pride in conflict, hostility and division”. Arora added: “The biggest threat to England’s fabric today is to be found in the tidal wave of nationalism that threatens to destroy the foundations of community, to devastate social cohesion and threaten any sense of unity within this United Kingdom. “What we have seen on our streets in Southampton, in Belfast, in Thetford, in Portsmouth, in Dover is the playing out of a new machtpolitik – the ideology that argues that might is right – that threatens not only those of us who are likely to be targeted or attacked but threatens our way of life as a country. “This goes beyond the racism that many of us grew up with in the 1970s. Rather it is a return to the 1930s, where those dressed in blackshirts gathered on the streets under the banner of fascism.” Arora said the church had to challenge the “sinful idolatory” and “twisted theology” of so-called Christian nationalists, saying they were using the cross of Christ as a fashion accessory, with no understanding of Jesus’s message of love. He added: “We need to be consistent and unequivocal in our theology that there is no national flag that sits atop the cross …. Fascism is on the rise.” Arora made the speech at a Lambeth Palace event this week, hosted with his co-lead bishop for racial justice, Rosemarie Mallett, and the archbishops of Canterbury and York, to celebrate the the contribution of the C of E’s diverse clergy, ordinands and lay ministers. Asked about how people from ethnic minority backgrounds in the UK were feeling increasingly threatened and the misuse of Christian symbols, the archbishop of Canterbury, Sarah Mullally, said: “I think we’re all becoming aware that we have created a society where people feel that it is acceptable to intimidate others. “I think there is an increasing responsibility on Christian leaders to speak up and not be silent, because silence itself encourages a society in which people think it’s alright to intimidate in this way.” The event came five years after the publication of From Lament to Action, a landmark report to address institutional racism in the church. Referring to a recent incident in which a vicar, Rev Canon Dr Richard Frith, was surrounded by anti-immigration protesters inside Doncaster Minster after claims church bells drowned out their rally, Mallett told the Lambeth Palace event that “conflict is being brought directly into our sacred spaces”. She added: “In the same week that hundreds of masked vigilantes marched on Dover and Portsmouth, and a vicar has been surrounded by anti-immigration protesters at Doncaster Minster, it is clear racial justice is more needed than ever. “Fear of the stranger is being performed as a public spectacle. The church can tell the truth about history, protect the dignity of radicalised people, and offer a theological vision of belonging that lives out Jesus’s call to welcome the stranger.”

Houthis seize key Yemeni port of Mocha in drive to take control of Red Sea coast

Yemen’s Houthi rebels are making a concerted drive to take full control of the country’s Red Sea coast, claiming control of the key port of Mocha, in the most serious wave of fighting with the Saudi-backed government in years. Seizure of the coast would be a strategic disaster for Saudi Arabia and the US, taking Iran and its proxies closer to full control of two chokepoints for western shipping on opposite sides of the Arabian peninsula: the Bab al-Mandeb at the southern end of the Red Sea and the strait of Hormuz in the Gulf. Observers have said a reduction in hostilities – the most intense since the UN-sponsored ceasefire of April 2022 put an end to major military exchanges – now seems unlikely in what is seen as an attempt by the Houthis to open a second front in the Iran-US war, alongside the battle for control of Hormuz. The Royal United Services Institute (Rusi), a London-based defence and security thinktank, said the situation in Yemen was spiralling out of control, adding that the UN-recognised Yemeni government was opening new fronts against the Houthis in the hope it could put more pressure on the rebels than they could withstand. The fighting has also raised questions about whether Saudi Arabia, which on Thursday launched as many as 40 airstrikes on Houthi targets, will activate the Mecca defence agreement and ask its co-signatories, Pakistan and Turkey, to send forces. The pact is designed to be defensive in nature and believed unlikely to apply to Saudi military activities in Yemen. By taking control of more of the Red Sea coast south of the port of Hodeidah, the Houthis’ aim is to put pressure on Saudi Arabia and the US to agree a deal that lifts the US blockade on Iranian oil tankers in the Gulf. Donald Trump on Wednesday acknowledged he did not expect the war with Iran to end before the US midterm elections at the start of November. The latest phase in the escalation began when Houthis attacked energy installations and southern cities in Saudi Arabia using drones and ballistic missiles. In response, the kingdom’s military forces launched at least 15 strikes between 3 and 7 September. The conflict data monitor Acled estimated there were 276 fatalities over the five-day period alone. The fighting has continued, with the Houthis claiming control of Mocha in Taiz province, as well as the inland city of Hays and the Khalid ibn al-Walid camp, the largest military base in the region. One Houthi-linked estimate suggested rebel forces had gained control of more than 2,320 sq miles (6,000 sq km) of land. The commander of the Yemeni government forces, Maj Gen Tareq Saleh, admitted he had organised a strategic retreat south of Mocha in order to regroup in a secure location. “The armed forces in the western coast paid a heavy price – martyrs and wounded – over the past days as they confronted the Houthi attack planned by Iran, and supported by it,” he said. Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, continues to take advantage of its air superiority to attack Houthi positions, though government sources acknowledged the rebels’ ground advances along the coast and their missile strikes on the strategic Red Sea islands of Zuqar and Hanish. The clashes have ranged across Yemen, including Ad Dali, al-Bayda, Marib, Shabwah, al-Jawf, Hodeidah, and Taiz. In the initial days of the renewed conflict the Houthis found themselves being forced back in some areas as battles on multiple fronts overstretched their resources and fighter numbers. The Houthis will be hoping political divisions inside the Yemeni government, reflected in a lack of an integrated military, will slowly give them the upper hand. The United Arab Emirates, previously a powerful player in southern Yemen where it backed the separatist forces of the Southern Transitional Council, withdrew its financial and military support at the turn of the year. The southern forces have refused to fight outside their own region. “A reduction in hostilities anytime soon seems unlikely, as both sides continue to escalate with the goal of inflicting enough damage to the other side to force a compromise,” said Sherwan Hindreen Ali, a Yemen analyst for Acled. “In terms of military capability, both sides are more equal compared to the immediate period prior to the 2022 ceasefire when the Houthis had the upper hand.” He added: “Fighting will remain focused on the fronts of the Red Sea coast in Hodeidah and Taiz, where both the Houthis and the Saudi Arabia-Yemen government have a vested interest in claiming the whole territory to deprive the other side of effective control of the strait of Bab al-Mandab.” The fighting has contributed to the price of oil rising above $100 a barrel after weeks when it was trading closer to $80. The escalantion to this week’s all-out violence has been a slow process. It began after a senior Houthi delegation from the group, which has long been in a complex alliance with Iran, flew to Tehran for the funeral of the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei in July, returning in an Iranian plane that the Saudis refused to land in rebel-controlled Sana’a. The Saudis instead bombed the runway, leading the Houthis to announce a Red Sea naval blockade of Saudi Arabia in what the Yemeni rebels described as a blockade for a blockade. The 20 July announcement of the blockade was followed by a strike on Saudi Arabia’s Jazan refinery on 25 July and on a tanker off Yanbu on 24 August. Saudi Arabia has become reliant on the Red Sea route for trade after Iran throttled shipping through the strait of Hormuz following US-Israeli attacks.

Tell us your experience of seeing the Bayeux tapestry at the British Museum

The British Museum’s Bayeux tapestry exhibit opened on Thursday 10 September, and has already broken the British Museum’s record for the number of tickets sold in one day. Have you seen the Bayeux tapestry at the British Museum? How far did you travel to see it? Tell us all about your experience below. If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.

Thursday briefing: 68 facts about the Bayeux tapestry as it goes on display

Good morning. If you live in the UK, you have probably heard about the Bayeux tapestry exhibition, which opens today, and you probably haven’t got a ticket. The digital queue was nine-hours long when they first went on sale in July, and the exhibition has already broken the British Museum’s record for the number of tickets sold in a single day. Some lucky individuals, including King Charles and aspiring overlord Peter Thiel, have been treated to early previews of the medieval tapestry. Guests staying at One Aldwych, a hotel where rooms go for £1,000 a night, can partake in the “Bayeux experience” with a themed cocktail (mead spritzer, anyone?), a full English breakfast and preferential access to tickets. In a break from our regular programming, this morning’s newsletter brings you 68 facts about the Bayeux tapestry for anyone who hasn’t been able to see the real thing. That’s one fact for each of its 68 metres (bonus fact: it’s 68.3m long). If that’s not your vibe, just be glad I didn’t manage to find 1066 facts. First, here are the headlines. Five big stories Reform | The Met police will investigate allegations that Reform UK broke electoral law relating to overseas donations as part of a wider inquiry. UK- Israel | Prominent British rabbis have backed Ed Miliband’s sanctions on Israeli settlements, warning that the time for inaction on settler violence must come to an end. Technology | Just a day after three Anthropic researchers warned that artificial intelligence could kill off humanity within the decade, US politicians have begun lashing out about the risks of the burgeoning technology. UK news | Protesters who gathered outside a Portsmouth hotel mistook Pakistan’s under-19 cricket team for asylum seekers. US news | Donald Trump pledged to pay every adult citizen in the US $5,000 if Republicans retain the House and Senate in the midterm elections, during a marathon speech at the Republican midterm convention in Dallas. In depth: From nudity, a save from the Nazis and its restoration, a buffet of Bayeux facts 1. First of all, as the exhibition’s curator Michael Lewis points out in his book, the Bayeux tapestry isn’t really a tapestry. It’s “more accurately described as an embroidery”, Lewis writes. (Nobody actually calls it an embroidery, though, so we’ll stick with tapestry). 2. The embroidery tapestry tells the story of the events that culminated in the Battle of Hastings in 1066, when William the Conquerer defeated King Harold. 3. It was supposedly commissioned by Bishop Odo, William the Conquerer’s half-brother, for his newly built cathedral in Bayeux in 1077. He was prone to “self-aggrandisement” (in Lewis’s words), which is why he gave himself a starring role in the tapestry. 4. But it wasn’t made in Bayeux. Researchers think it was probably made in England, near Canterbury. 5. It’s embroidered on linen, with 10 colours of woollen thread likely dyed with woad, madder and indigo. 6. Its nine panels were embroidered separately, and then stitched together to form a continuous picture. 7. It features 623 men, 190 horses, 35 dogs, 37 buildings (including Mont-Saint-Michel) and 41 ships. 8. It may have had a single master designer who plotted its narrative, but … 9. The embroidery was almost certainly stitched by multiple women (William of Poitiers cited English women as skilled embroiderers). 10. It’s unclear how long it took them – one estimate reckons the stitching took between two and four years. 11. Yet, only three women actually feature in the tapestry. None of them are having a good time: one is weeping at her husband’s deathbed, another is fleeing a burning building and a third is being assaulted by a priest. 12. This third figure is Ælfgyva (meaning elf-gift), the only named woman in the tapestry. Scholars think that she could be Emma of Normandy, who was accused of having an affair with the Bishop of Winchester. 13. The tapestry conveniently doesn’t mention Edgar Ætheling, who had a stronger hereditary claim to the English throne in 1066 than either William or Harold. 14. The borders tell their own stories. They’re filled with fantastical beasts, creating what the Guardian’s art critic Jonathan Jones described as a “marginal world of monsters and myths”. 15. The upper border features one of the first depictions of Haley’s Comet. 16. The tapestry also shows a figure with the name Harold, depicting the famous (and probably apocryphal) moment he was struck in the eye by an arrow. Most scholars think Harold was actually hacked to death. 17. It was possibly designed to be interpreted by a live storyteller in front of an audience, much like an epic poem. 18. It’s damaged at the end, and incomplete. Nobody knows what scene would have finished the tapestry (some think it could have been a depiction of William’s coronation at Westminster Abbey in 1066). 19. It survived at least three fires in Bayeux Cathedral. 20. The first recorded reference to the tapestry was in the 1476 inventory of Bayeux cathedral, which described a “very long and narrow hanging of linen, embroidered with figures and inscriptions representing the Conquest of England.” 21. The tapestry hasn’t always been well looked after. For centuries it was rolled out for cathedral visitors. One visiting English antiquary observed in the early 1800s that it was “much rubbed at the beginning, torn towards the end.” 22. In 1792, during the French Revolution, the tapestry was nearly used to cover a wagon (it was saved at the last minute by an official who swapped it for a piece of canvas). 23. In 1794, an proposal was briefly floated to cut the tapestry into strips to decorate a festival float. 24. A 19th-century British artist secretly snipped off two fragments that ended up in a London museum (these were eventually returned to Bayeux). 25. In 1803, Napoleon had the tapestry temporarily moved from Bayeux to Paris, where it hung on display at the Louvre, to rally support for his planned invasion of Britain. 26. The first full photographic copy of the tapestry was made for the South Kensington Museum in 1872 (now the V&A museum). 27. A group of women in Staffordshire created the largest Bayeux reproduction in 1885, which is displayed in Reading Museum. It took them 18 months. 28. They removed 93 penises from their reproduction, 88 belonging to horses and five to men. 29. The Nazis saw the tapestry as a propaganda tool, and wanted to establish that Normans were actually the descendants of Viking settlers. 30. They appointed a professor of Viking archaeology as the leader of “Special Assignment Bayeaux” to study it. 31. Heinrich Himmler tasked two SS officers in 1944 to seize the Bayeaux tapestry from the basement of the Louvre, where it was being stored. 32. A group of local resistance fighters tipped off by code breakers at Bletchley Park managed to intercept the officers and protect the tapestry. 33. Since 1983, the tapestry has been displayed at the Bayeux museum, in a 17th-century seminary near Bayeux’s medieval town centre. 34. When the tapestry arrived at the Bayeux museum in the 1980s, photos show that it appeared to have been folded and hoisted up a stairwell. 35. It’s incredibly fragile, and liable to fray. A 2020 study found the tapestry had “24,204 stains, 16,445 wrinkles, 9,646 gaps in the cloth or the embroidery” and “30 non-stabilised tears.” 36. The first request for the Bayeux tapestry to be loaned to Britain was in 1953, for Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation. The French refused. 37. Another request was made in 1966, to mark the 900th anniversary of the Battle of Hastings. The French refused, again. 38. In 2013, a committee was formed to advise on how the tapestry could be redisplayed. It raised the prospect of a loan to the UK (“I did sort of bang on about it,” Lewis, a committee member, later recalled, “until I was a bit like a broken record”). 39. The Bayeux museum was scheduled to be closed for refurbishment, creating an opportunity for the tapestry to travel on loan. 40. In January 2018, Emmanuel Macron announced at a summit with Theresa May that the French had agreed to loan the tapestry. Although France had “found the best experts of the world to explain in perfect detail” why the loan “was impossible”, Macron said that the French government had “decided” otherwise. 41. Many people insist it should never have been moved. Arts journalist Didier Rykner started a petition against the loan that gained more than 70,000 signatures. 42. The late David Hockney agreed, described the loan as “madness,” and said “some things are too precious to take a risk with.” 43. And two expert reports in 2021 and 2022 advised Macron against the transportation of the tapestry. 44. The loan specified the tapestry had to be stored lying flat, and couldn’t be subject to tremors any greater than two millimetres per second during its transportation. 45. A team of conservators and experts, including a German vibration technology scientist, were involved with its relocation. They designed a meticulous solution for transporting the tapestry involving a “paravent”, a hinged folding screen on wheels. 46. The paravent was designed so it could be closed into a rectangular block with the tapestry inside, effectively folded 28 times. 47. It took ninety people in blue latex gloves seven hours working to extract the tapestry from its case and transfer it to the paravent. 48. It then had to be stored in a specially manufactured crate for shipping. The art logistics firm Hizikia built two nesting crates, with an outer aluminium crate designed to reduce the impact of movement. 49. The firm also provided a customised reinforced truck to dampen vibrations. 50. Experts carried out two dry runs, one with a replica tapestry transported across the channel that made its way to an art warehouse in south London. 51. Data from these dry-runs showed that French roads are smoother than British roads. 52. The tapestry has been insured by the Treasury’s indemnity scheme for £800m, which is more than twice the value of the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction (Salvator Mundi, a painting of Jesus attributed to Leonardo da Vinci). 53. Two threads were reportedly broken when the tapestry arrived in London. 54. At the British Museum, it will be housed in a custom-made case, believed to be the longest ever constructed, and will be exposed to a limited number of light hours per day. 55. When the lights are switched on, they’ll be dimmed to 50 lux, the international museum standard for sensitive materials. 56. Andy Burnham, Emmanuel Macron and King Charles viewed the tapestry last Wednesday. 57. It will be displayed at the British Museum until July 2027, before it returns to a newly built museum in Normandy that will open later next year. 58. Nicholas Cullinan, director of the British Museum, has said he hopes the Bayeux loan could revive the prospect for a loan of the Parthenon marbles. 59. The tapestry has inspired numerous copycats, including the Bloody Sunday Tapestry created by the artist Darren Cullen in 2013. 60. There’s also a Game of Thrones Tapestry at the Ulster Museum in Belfast. 61. The Sun newspaper commissioned a “Bye-EU” tapestry in 2018 to commemorate the Brexit vote, which depicted Boris Johnson in chain mail and Theresa May surrounded by the decapitated corpses of Brussels bureaucrats. 62. A helmet from Sutton Hoo, and the Lewis chess pieces, were both loaned to Normandy museums as part of the Bayeux loan. 63. My favourite bit of any trip to the British Museum is the gift shop (eds: does this count as a fact?), where you can now buy a replica Norman helmet and bottle of Bayeux mead with your Tutankhamun pencil tin. 64. Speaking of Bayeux tat, Nigel Farage sported a Bayeux-themed tie during the 2014 Rochester byelection, a reminder of “the last time we were invaded and taken over”. 65. Radio 4 has devoted a special day of broadcasts to mark the arrival of the tapestry. 66. And the museum’s videos about the tapestry’s arrival are narrated by the Traitors presenter Claudia Winkleman. 67. Philippe Bélavel, Macron’s former culture adviser, has said “such a loan will only happen once and never again.” 68. The next wave of public tickets for the tapestry, which cost £33, will go on sale on 21 October at 10am. Best of luck getting yours. What else we’ve been enjoying I loved Micha Frazer-Carroll’s brilliant newsletter exploring how and why generations of Black athletes have become style icons. Sign up to receive the Long Wave in your inbox here. Michael Segalov, newsletters team J Oliver Conroy’s long piece on what happened to Turning Point USA in the year after the killing of Charlie Kirk is a compelling, frightening read on the future of the American right. Charlie Lindlar, newsletters team Among all the tributes, I found these reflections on Gloria Steinem’s legacy from a host of contemporary feminist writers to be a particularly powerful homage. Michael Resident sex expert Alix Fox hosted this riveting reader Q&A yesterday, fielding your queries on making time for intimacy in parenthood, the rise of audio erotica, and why trendy sex toys are apparently shaped like fruit now. Charlie I watched the trailer for Andrew Garfield’s new film The Uprising while at the cinema last weekend (the Odyssey; quite long?), and Peter Bradhsaw’s cutting review confirmed my initial instinct to steer well clear. Michael Sport Cricket | England lead Pakistan by 23 runs at Edgbaston, after 14 wickets tumbled on the opening day of the third Test. Tennis | Elena Rybakina will become the No 1 woman in the world for the first time after orchestrating a supreme recovery to reach the semi-finals of the US Open with a 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 win over the Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen. Cycling | Matthew Brennan claimed a fifth stage victory on Wednesday as the young British rider edged a bunch sprint in Seville to win the 17th stage. The front pages “Police launch inquiry into alleged overseas donations to Reform UK”, is the Guardian’s front page today. The Times says “Farage faces Met inquiry over Reform donations”, the i Paper also has “Police set to interview Farage over Reform UK donations”, and the Mirror writes “Farage faces cop quiz on donors”. The FT has “US spy chief to take stronger role in stalled Ukraine talks”, the Mail writes “Burnham: National security can’t come at the expense of social security”, and the Express leads with “The King has spoken with Harry since return”. The Telegraph splashes “Labour’s new tax assault on hospitality”, and on air traffic chaos, Metro has “Ready for departure?” Today in Focus: The Latest Why is Trump silent on UK sanctions against Israeli West Bank settlements? The foreign secretary, Ed Miliband, is facing a backlash over the government’s sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank after the chief rabbi, Ephraim Mirvis, said the safety of British Jews could be at risk. Miliband has rejected the warnings, emphasising that ministers can confront the actions of Benjamin Netanyahu’s government while also fighting antisemitism. US president Donald Trump, however, has failed to comment on the UK government’s action. Lucy Hough speaks to diplomatic editor Patrick Wintour. Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad For decades, Robert Ashton contended with paruresis: a condition that meant, if in the presence of others, his shy bladder left him unable to urinate. Turns out, all that was needed to alleviate this affliction was a trip to an Essex naturist club. Stripping down helped Robert let go of his inhibitions and alleviated a lifetime of anxieties – he’s been free-flowing ever since. 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. 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North Korea has built new uranium facility to expand nuclear arsenal, UN agency says

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) has voiced “serious concern” over evidence that North Korea has built a facility capable of enriching weapons-grade uranium to bolster its nuclear arsenal. The new building, located at the the country’s main Yongbyon nuclear facility, can house up to 28 centrifuge cascades – machinery commonly used to enrich uranium – according to a report by the nuclear watchdog released this week. The regime has also expanded operations at an enrichment site in Kangson, near the capital Pyongyang, according to the report, which was based on analysis of satellite imagery and open-source material, including photographs published by the country’s state media. The IAEA, whose inspectors were expelled from North Korea in 2009, identified the Yongbyon building as the site’s second uranium ‌enrichment facility after comparing satellite images taken during its construction with media photographs of a visit in early June by the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un. During his visit, Kim claimed the North’s capacity to produce weapons-grade nuclear material had more than doubled over the past five years, according to state media, promising “vast future plans to exponentially strengthen the country’s nuclear forces”. Citing a 2025 analysis by the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies in the US, South Korea’s Chosun Daily said the potential 28 cascades comprising 4,592 centrifuges at the Yongbyon facility could yield about 85 kg of weapons-grade highly enriched uranium a year – enough to build three or four additional warheads. In a statement released this week, the IAEA’s director general, Rafael Grossi, said: “The ongoing operation of enrichment facilities at Kangson and Yongbyon and the reported further expansion of [North Korea’s] production of weapons-grade nuclear material is a cause for serious concern.” “The continuation and further development” of North Korea’s nuclear programme are “clear violations of relevant UN security council resolutions and are deeply regrettable”, he added. South Korea’s defence minister, Ahn Gyu-back, said in August that the North possessed between 80 and 120 nuclear warheads – a much higher number than the 57 cited by Donald Trump the same month. The South Korean figure was based on estimates by private research organisations, Ahn told lawmakers, adding that the country’s military could not confirm the numbers. North Korea has made rapid progress in its ballistic missile and nuclear programmes in recent years, as it demands international recognition as a legitimate nuclear state. North Korea has conducted multiple long-range missile tests since 2017, the year it last tested a nuclear weapon. In a report submitted to the UN security council in 2020, international experts said the North had “probably developed nuclear devices to fit into the warheads of its ballistic missiles”.