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Labour offers too litte, too late for Afghan women and girls | Letter

Regarding your article (UK to open new refugee resettlement routes for Afghan women and Palestinians, 27 September), rather than focusing on whether or not Shabana Mahmood’s policy change will deter small boat arrivals (which it won’t), shouldn’t we be in uproar over her use of the language of “compassion” and “international obligations”? Considering Ed Miliband’s admission at the Labour conference that the party has not done enough to support the Palestinian people – and the abrupt closure of the Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy and Afghan Citizens Resettlement Scheme with almost no notice on 1 July 2025, again under Labour leadership – is this not a case of too little, too late? Mine and others’ research with Afghan women living in so-called “refugee hotels” throws Mahmood’s sudden concern for “vulnerable women and girls” into sharp focus. A significant proportion of Afghan women and girls who arrived in British hotels after the so-called fall of Kabul in August 2021 experienced violence, were isolated from essential support services and were evicted by the Home Office with guidance to seek permanent accommodation on Rightmove. In a time when the far right is increasingly weaponising the discourse of “protecting vulnerable women and girls” from what they consider to be violent male migrants, Mahmood should reflect carefully on Labour’s rediscovered sense of duty towards Afghan women, and the effect on Afghan women and girls caused by the government’s own policies. The government would do well to consider the research of academics such as Louise Ryan, Caroline Oliver and their team of Afghan peer researchers who use evidence-based approaches to understanding the experiences of migrants and refugees in the UK. Eleanor Luxton London • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Time to move the UN away from Donald Trump’s grasp | Brief letters

Nesrine Malik rightly questions the effectiveness of the current United Nations (War, power games and impunity. I watched the farce that is the UN general assembly: what a tragedy, what a mess, 1 October). Why has there been so little outcry about Donald Trump’s blocking of visas for Palestinians and Sudanese (or any other accredited members) to attend the UN in New York? Despite the cost and upheaval, it is time to call Trump’s bluff and relocate the UN, preferably to Switzerland. Joe Cocker Leominster, Herefordshire • Imagine my excitement to discover in your interview with Erasure (2 October) that Andy Bell’s partner is Stephen Moss! But which of the fabled Guardian doppelganger journalists could it be? Or, heaven forfend, might there be a third Stephen Moss? Pete Rosser Wakefield, West Yorkshire • If anxious to see off overstaying guests (Letters, 2 October), you might buy a set of mugs from the Cromwell Museum in Huntingdon, with the rather apt quotation: “You have been sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say ... In the name of God, go!” David Gordon Ely, Cambridgeshire • In East Marton, North Yorkshire, a cafe has a sign that says: “All of our customers give us pleasure – some by arriving, others by departing.” Bruce Moore Harrogate, North Yorkshire • If “pre-book in advance” (Letters, 1 October) is bleeding obvious, how about “hair cut while you wait”? Prof Gareth Williams Rockhampton, Gloucestershire • “Pre-ordered” is tautological, but “pre-loved” is just ridiculous. What’s wrong with “secondhand”? Hannah Hyam Batheaston, Somerset • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Russia strikes Kyiv bridge as German chancellor visits Ukraine in show of support

Russia has struck another major bridge in Kyiv as the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, arrived in the capital in a show of support for Ukraine. A Russian drone hit Kyiv’s key Northern Bridge over the Dnipro River, marking the fourth consecutive day that Russia has targeted bridges used by tens of thousands of residents commuting between the city’s two banks. Video footage showed cars driving across the bridge as the drone plunged into the roadway and exploded in a burst of fire. Two people were injured in the strike, said Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko. The attack came shortly after Merz arrived in the city on an unannounced visit intended to underline Germany’s backing of Ukraine, as the country enters one of the most precarious periods since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022. Germany has become Ukraine’s biggest provider of military aid since Merz entered office in May 2025, surpassing the US as American support has declined. Kyiv has come under near-constant attack from Russia’s new jet-powered drones in recent weeks, as an intensifying strike campaign increasingly disrupts everyday life in the capital and threatens to leave the city without power this winter. On his visit, Merz announced that Germany would fund the joint production of drones designed to intercept Russia’s jet-powered drones, adding that “significant technical breakthroughs” in recent weeks were speeding up production. “This will quickly and tangibly strengthen Ukraine’s air defence,” he said. “And this strengthening is urgently needed.” The German leader got a taste of the new reality of daily life in the Ukrainian capital. Air-raid sirens sounded repeatedly during his visit, including as Volodymyr Zelenskyy showed him the badly damaged National Academy of Sciences building, where a Russian drone strike killed two people last week. The Ukrainian president told Merz that people in Kyiv were suffering “terrible nights and days” from the relentless attacks, and called Ukraine’s Russian adversaries “absolute barbarians”. “We can see the entire pointlessness of this war at this place,” said Merz, adding as he arrived that Ukraine “needs all our support in the coming weeks”. “If Russia is not stopped, its war machine will sooner or later turn against us,” he said. Russia had already damaged Kyiv’s Northern Bridge and repeatedly struck its Southern Bridge. Although the crossings remain standing, repeated attacks and the threat of further strikes have prompted the city’s authorities to restrict or suspend traffic on five of the city’s six road bridges over the Dnipro, causing temporary closures and large traffic jams. If Moscow succeeds in seriously damaging Kyiv’s bridges, it could create a logistical nightmare for the city of 3 million people, whose crossings over the Dnipro were last destroyed on a large scale as Nazi German forces retreated in 1943. More than a third of residents live on the left bank while much of the city’s employment and infrastructure is concentrated on the right. The attacks form part of a broader Russian campaign against civilian and industrial infrastructure inside Ukraine. In recent weeks, strikes have hit logistics hubs, railway lines, datacentres, medical storage facilities and steel plants, alongside a sustained assault on the country’s energy system that is expected to intensify over the winter. “He [Putin] is counting on constant escalation. He wants this very much,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference alongside Merz. “This is an answer to everyone – to those who believe that all you have to do is simply ask Putin and he will end the war for real. It won’t happen, simply.” Russia’s foreign ministry on Saturday warned foreign nationals and diplomatic staff against remaining in or travelling to Ukraine. “Responsibility for any possible adverse consequences lies entirely with those who choose to disregard this warning,” the ministry said. A number of foreign ambassadors, including Germany’s, responded on social media that they intended to remain in Kyiv. “The EU delegation is staying,” the European Union ambassador, Katarína Mathernová, wrote on X on Sunday. “Threatening us will not stop Europe’s support for Ukraine. It only reminds us why that support matters.” In Moscow, some pro-war commenters noted with glee that the Russian strikes had continued despite Merz’s arrival. “Russia used to pause strikes on Kyiv during visits by European politicians. Not any more,” wrote Sergei Markov, a prominent pro-war commentator. The trip is Merz’s second to Ukraine since becoming chancellor. He has been among Kyiv’s most outspoken supporters in Europe and a leading voice warning about Russia’s hybrid campaign against other nations. Last month, Germany formally accused Moscow of being behind a suspected plot targeting Leipzig/Halle airport, a key logistics hub for western military aid to Ukraine. But Merz is also facing growing discontent at home over his support for Ukraine, as his approval ratings fall. Germany’s far left and far right are sceptical of support for Ukraine and want Berlin to scale back aid. The pressure has intensified as the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has made big electoral gains. Alice Weidel, the AfD’s co-leader, wrote in a social media post: “Merz is travelling to Ukraine on Germany’s national holiday and promising further billions in German taxpayer money that is missing from the pension and health insurance funds, while Germany is mired in its worst energy crisis.”

Knox Chitiyo obituary

My friend and former colleague Knox Chitiyo, who has died aged 65 of bowel cancer, was a Zimbabwean academic and later an important voice in Britain on his homeland and its future. He was regularly consulted by diplomats, business people, journalists, academics and activists. From 1992 to 2003 he was a senior lecturer in war studies and military history at the University of Zimbabwe, where he co-founded the Centre for Defence Studies, serving as its deputy director. He also taught on the joint command and staff course at Zimbabwe’s National Army Staff College and at the Gweru Military Academy, helping shape the strategic thinking of a generation of officers. As intellectual space in Zimbabwe tightened under Robert Mugabe, Knox moved to the UK in 2005. He joined the Royal United Services Institute, eventually becoming head of its Africa programme (2007-11), and developed an international reputation for his work on Zimbabwe, defence and security. In 2012 he became an associate fellow at Chatham House – a position he retained until his death. Knox was born in Salisbury (now Harare) in Southern Rhodesia, then part of the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, to Wynona (nee Chieza), a nurse, and McLeod Chitiyo, a pathologist. Growing up through the turbulent final decades of white minority rule in Southern Rhodesia, he attended a private, racially mixed secondary school, St George’s, which was run by Jesuits in Salisbury, an unusual experience that shaped his interest in race, identity and political change. After school he gained a general degree at the University of Zimbabwe, where he then built his academic career, completing a PhD and lecturing in history and war studies before simultaneously becoming deputy director of the university’s Centre for Defence Studies from 1995 and then leaving for Britain a decade later. Knox was particularly passionate about ensuring that Zimbabweans in the diaspora had a voice in policy debate in the UK. Beyond his role at Chatham House, he was president of the Britain Zimbabwe Society and served on the board of the Business Council for Africa, including as acting chair. He was also a fellow of the Brenthurst Foundation, an thinktank on African economics and politics, and became a trustee of the Mines Advisory Group, a charity devoted to finding and destroying landmines in places affected by conflict. He brought warmth, humour and humanity to serious subjects, and moved easily between academics, soldiers, diplomats and politicians without losing either his independence or his kindness. In his spare time he wrote poetry and short stories and played the saxophone, including, he once told me, at Ronnie Scott’s in London. Knox is survived by his wife, Nhamburiko, a midwife, whom he married in 2002, a son, Kyle, from his first marriage, to Nhmabu, which ended in divorce, and his sister Cathy.

Egyptian journalist faces terrorism charges after entire newsroom detained

An Egyptian journalist has been charged with joining a terrorist group, days after an entire newsroom was detained in what rights groups have said is a crackdown on press freedoms. Last week, authorities arrested six journalists from the independent fact-checking and investigative platform Matsadaash – literally meaning “don’t believe” – accusing them in a statement of being unlicensed and publishing false news on behalf of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. The outlet’s six journalists, Abdallah Qadri, Mohamed Ashraf, Mohamed Adel, Islam Barakat, Mohamed Mahmoud and Omar Helal, were arrested by security forces over the course of two days. On Sunday, Egyptian authorities charged Ashraf with joining a terrorist group and spreading false news, according to a statement by the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a NGO. The charges came after an interrogation that lasted from 10pm to 8am and focused exclusively on material published by Matsadaash, the rights group said. Ashraf was to be held for 15 days, pending investigation, while the whereabouts of the other five journalists were still unknown. Abdelrahman Mansour, the co-founder of the platform, denied having any association with the Muslim Brotherhood, a transnational movement that was designated a terrorist organisation by Egypt in 2013 after the former president Mohamed Morsi, a senior Brotherhood figure, was ousted in a coup. Mansour called the arrests “one of the gravest attacks on journalism in Egypt’s modern history”. “My colleagues were doing what journalists should do: asking difficult questions, uncovering facts, and reporting on issues that affect people’s lives. They deserve recognition for their work. Instead, their homes were raided, and all six were taken away,” he said. “The government must answer this question: why have you arrested six journalists? What have they done beyond doing their jobs?” The Guardian contacted the Egyptian State Information Service for a comment but did not receive a reply by the time of publishing. Dozens of journalists staged a sit-in outside the Egyptian Journalists Syndicate (EJS) in Cairo on Saturday, demanding the release of the Matsadaash staff. Members said they would keep the sit-in open ended until the journalists were released, and the EJS said it would convene an emergency meeting on Monday. The EJS had filed a request with the ministry of interior and public prosecutor for the release of the journalists, as well as for information on their whereabouts. More than 80 rights groups, including Human Rights Watch and the Committee to Protect Journalists, condemned the arrests as a violation of freedoms, and demanded the immediate release of the Matsadaash staff. The arrests came little over a week after the US government waived its human rights conditions on $320m (£242m) in military aid to Egypt, citing Cairo’s “helpful role” to US national security after the US-Iran war. The US gives about $1.3bn in aid to Egypt annually, but a portion is contingent upon the Egyptian government meeting certain human rights and democracy-related requirements. The US has withheld portions of aid several times since the 2013 coup owing to Egypt’s poor human rights record, but has largely kept funds flowing. This year, Washington waived the human rights requirement in total, as doing so was “essential for the US-Egypt relationship and US national security priorities”, according to a state department memo revealed by Reuters. While saying that he was unsure whether the arrests were linked to the recent waiver, Mansour said: “The use of the national security waiver on human rights conditions by the US by many years, a willingness by other states to look the other way on Egypt’s human rights record … certainly enables violations like this to occur more easily.” Cairo has for years faced criticism for its human rights abuses, with the rights monitor Freedom House saying Egyptian security forces “engage in human rights abuses and extrajudicial killing with impunity”. Since the Egyptian president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi took power in the coup that ousted Morsi, civil liberties have been curbed and domestic political opposition has been violently crushed. Egypt ranks 169th out of 180 countries on the Reporters Without Borders Press freedom index. Freedom of the press is tightly restricted in the country and independent platforms such as Matsadaash are rare. About 26 journalists are held in Egyptian prisons, according to the EJS.

More than 400 schools in France to be closed on Monday as more protests planned

More than 400 schools in France will be closed or partly closed on Monday as authorities brace for another week of student protests. Lessons will be totally or partly suspended in 400 to 500 schools because security conditions “have not been fulfilled”, the education minister, Édouard Geffray, said on Sunday. The minister said 24 schools had been burnt or ransacked and 78 education staff members injured. The number of school closures on Monday would be comparable to Friday’s but the government envisaged a “partial, progressive return to lessons”, said Geffray. Thousands of teenagers staged widespread demonstrations and erected barricades last week to protest against what they said was underfunding and neglect of the education system. Clashes with riot police left hundreds of people injured, led to more than 5,000 arrests, mostly of minors, and jolted President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist administration. There was a lull at the weekend, but protest organisers called for renewed demonstrations on Tuesday because the government had failed to produce “concrete measures”. Authorities say political agitators have infiltrated the protest, which started at a Paris school on 17 September and spread across the capital and the rest of France. “There are activists – particularly from the far left – who have infiltrated the high school student movement, hijacked it from the students themselves, and engaged in extreme violence,” said Geffray. “Clearly, this poses a risk to both our staff and our students.” The injured education staff members were deliberately targeted, “something we have never seen before”, said Geffray. The protests caught the government by surprise and confronted Macron with his worst crisis in months. Images of burning barricades and police using teargas, batons and other methods to disperse protests have dominated TV news. Student grievances include overcrowded classes of up to 40 children in crumbling buildings, poor teacher pay, staff absences and an unequal system in which social background determined success. Other factors are an opaque and difficult online system for university applications as well as the sweltering temperatures in classrooms during heatwaves. Protesters have accused the state of disengaging from secondary education and cited difficult conditions such as leaks, cockroaches, collapsed ceilings and decayed buildings. Others have complained about excessively long school days and a lack of teaching staff. The government said the grievances were legitimate but condemned what it called “urban violence”. On Sunday, police detained a 16-year-old in relation to an assault of a teacher in La Ciotat, a town on the southern coast between Marseille and Toulon. The teacher, 59, was doused with gasoline and struck during a protest on Friday. The government is also under pressure from trade unions that called a day of strikes last week to compel the new prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, to rethink budget cuts and consider a form of wealth tax on the super-rich. The CGT trade union exhorted workers to sustain the pressure with demonstrations this week.

French education minister says up to 500 schools will remain partially or fully closed on Monday after student protests – Europe live

We’ll draw our live coverage to a close for today. For the full story on the deals announced from the German chancellor’s surprise visit to Ukraine, you can read this report from my colleague in Kyiv. Friedrich Merz arrived in the Ukrainian capital this morning to pledge aid and defence deals to Zelenskyy; his arrival was marked soon after by the Russians striking a key bridge in the city His visit comes as there are near daily bombardments of the Ukrainian capital by the Kremlin, which has hit now both the Northern and Southern Bridges across the Dnipro River which commuters heavily rely on. Russia has also been hitting gas stations in residential neighbourhoods and government and academia sites. Germany has become Ukraine’s biggest provider of military aid since Merz entered office in May 2025, surpassing the US as American support has declined. On Sunday, Merz announced another $1.5bn in aid, over a billion of it going towards military aid including long-range strike weapons, drones and satellite tech to help Ukraine hit Russian launch pads. In France, the government is keeping up to 500 high schools closed tomorrow amid student protests which have “grown out of control”, say police. The French Education Minister said 78 teachers and education staff had been wounded in the protests late last week where there were outbursts of violence and masked protesters damaging property and setting fires in the street. On Sunday, police detained a 16-year-old over the assault of a 59-year-old teacher who had been doused with gasoline and assaulted on the sidelines of a school protest. But students and some human rights groups have also condemned “brutal” policing tactics from riot squads. Students have been protesting since mid-September about poor conditions in school including a shortage of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and dilapidated buildings. The protests, which began in Paris, have spread across the country with a national action day last Friday. Organisers have called for more protests on Tuesday.

Brazil goes to polls in decisive election for future of Latin America

Brazilians are going to the polls in the first round of a highly polarised and high-stakes presidential election that could change not only the direction of Latin America’s largest country but that of the entire region. The election on Sunday pits the leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who is seeking a fourth non-consecutive term, against the far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, an ally of Donald Trump and the son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, who is serving a 27-year sentence for attempting a coup after his failed 2022 re-election attempt. Brazil is one of the few Latin American countries that still has a leftwing government after a wave of rightwing and far-right electoral victories across the region and the US takeover of Venezuela after the capture of Nicolás Maduro. The 80-year-old Lula has positioned himself as one of the last regional leaders still willing to say no to Trump, and has recently accused the US president of trying to interfere in Brazil’s election in Bolsonaro’s favour. Like his father, who was Brazil’s president during Trump’s first term, Flávio Bolsonaro, 45, frequently praises the US president and has pledged to join the US-led anti-drug-cartel coalition that has killed dozens of people in airstrikes and carried out military operations across the region. Lula and Bolsonaro have alternated as frontrunners in the final stretch, making the outcome unpredictable. In recent days, both have focused on persuading undecided voters in hopes of reaching 50% plus one vote; if neither does, there will be a runoff on 25 October. Voting on Sunday morning in São Bernardo do Campo, the industrial city where his political career began nearly half a century ago, Lula said: “People will have to choose between strengthening democracy and barbarism.” The incumbent played down polls released on Saturday that showed the race was wide open – they suggested either candidate could finish ahead and force a runoff, or even win outright on Sunday. “The poll that matters will be carried out today,” he said. Flávio Bolsonaro, who voted in Rio de Janeiro’s north zone, urged supporters of other rightwing candidates to switch to him in a “protest vote”. “Our internal polls show people who would have voted for other candidates, who are also against Lula, already voting for Flávio Bolsonaro … I hope it’s enough to give us victory in the first round,” he said. Claudinei Ferreira Viana, 45, a workshop manager in Pinhais in Paraná state, is one of the senator’s supporters. “My first choice would be Jair Bolsonaro but, since he is under house arrest and there is no other rightwing candidate strong enough to take on the current president, I’m going with Flávio,” he said. At the beginning of the year, polls suggested Bolsonaro voters would have preferred a ticket led by the São Paulo governor, Tarcísio de Freitas, or the former first lady Michelle Bolsonaro. But the former president chose his eldest son. The campaign was also marked by a scandal in which the senator was caught on tape asking a banker accused of corruption for $26.8m (£20m) to fund a film about his father, as well as speculation that Bolsonaro might strip the country’s widely cherished patron saint of her status, but he has nevertheless remained highly competitive. For many analysts, that reflects a combination of a straightforward transfer of his father’s voter base – Jair Bolsonaro lost to Lula by less than two percentage points in 2022 – and an anti-Lula vote, with the president still facing high rejection rates despite strong social and economic indicators. The incumbent’s campaign has also been hit by corruption allegations – still under investigation – involving his son and a former aide, as well as a scandal involving supreme court justices, which, despite having no connection to Lula, is seen as fuelling an “anti-system” vote and by extension an anti-incumbent one. Brazilians will also elect 27 state governors, members of state legislatures, all 513 federal congress members and 54 of the country’s 81 senators in Sunday’s vote. AMC, 40, who asked to be identified only by her initials because she fears reprisals from the local conservative government where she works in the interior of Amazonas state, will vote for Lula on Sunday “because of the many programmes he created to support the most vulnerable groups”. “Jair Bolsonaro weakened protections for Indigenous peoples, and everything Lula has done over the past four years to strengthen those protections and protect the Amazon would be seriously threatened if his son came to power,” she said.