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New Ukraine army chief vows to step up counteroffensive as EU bids to finalise fresh Russia sanctions – Europe live

Meahwhile, Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed US ambassador to Nato Matthew Whitaker and Commander of Nato Security Assistance & Training for Ukraine, Curtis Buzzard to Kyiv. “We had a good talk – first and foremost on how to protect Ukrainian skies with more Patriot interceptor supplies through PURL. This is a critical priority now, as massive Russian attacks continue unabated.” He said they also “discussed the US-Ukraine bilateral defence partnership: building on president Trump’s decision in Ankara to licence Ukraine to produce Patriots, and the Drone Deal, which our teams are now working through.” “This has real potential, and we hope to get it finalised soon,” he said.

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Austria opens police station at Hitler birthplace to deter neo-Nazi tourists

Austria has opened a police station in the birthplace of Adolf Hitler in an attempt to “neutralise” its toxic legacy, after years of debate over how to stop neo-Nazis visiting it as a pilgrimage site. Hitler was born on 20 April 1889 in a rented flat of the building in the town centre of Braunau am Inn and spent the first weeks of his life there. Now it will be the workplace of a police unit specialised in tackling narcotics trafficking, with the building’s new occupants meant to put off Nazi displays which are illegal under Austrian law. Given the community’s proximity to the German border, it is on a key drugs running route, according to district police commander Stefan Haslberger. The conversion, whose estimated cost reached €20m, followed an intense public discussion about how to deter today’s fascists from using the site as a shrine. News agency APA reported that even construction rubble from the remodelling had been disposed of in a secret location to avoid it becoming a gathering place for Hitler devotees. At the opening ceremony, Austrian interior minister, Gerhard Karner, called it a “new chapter” in which the building would be a “place of democracy, the rule of law, security”. At the same time, he said, “memory will not disappear”. In recent years skinheads laid roses and wreaths for the Nazi leader’s birthday before the elegant building’s ochre facade, while extremists and drunken revellers posed for pictures doing the straight-armed Hitler salute. Local people, fed up with such stunts, often call the former residence the “house of evil”. An expert commission tasked with determining a future for the building had recommended a “use for social or charitable, or for official or administrative purposes”. It said a museum on the site could continue to draw rightwing extremists, especially those whose “blood and soil” ideology particularly reveres birthplaces and gravesites. Demolition, on the other hand, would obfuscate an important chapter of local history. Polls showed a majority of Austrians preferred it to become a centre for promoting democracy. The building, parts of which stem from the 1600s, hosted an inn and brewery with flats on the upper floors, one of which was briefly occupied by the Hitler family. A decade ago, the Austrian government agreed to take over ownership from a private proprietor, who had previously rented it out to the interior ministry which used it as a care home for disabled people. It stood empty from 2011, with a small memorial stone outside taken from the former Mauthausen concentration camp whose inscription only hinted at its problematic past: “For peace, freedom and democracy. Never again fascism. The millions who died serve as a warning.” German news magazine Der Spiegel reported recently that hackers had replaced the building’s proper address on Google Maps with the street number 88 – neo-Nazis code for Heil Hitler based on the eighth letter of the alphabet. The government said it hopes the opening of the police station will foster the “neutralisation of the whole place” and repel Hitler admirers. Hitler’s private apartment as Nazi leader on Munich’s Prinzregentenplatz has served as a police station since the late 1940s while his official residence in Berlin’s Reichskanzlei was destroyed by bombing during the second world war. Germany under Hitler annexed Austria in 1938, a fact that historians say led many in the country to long dismiss its shared responsibility for the Holocaust and other Nazi crimes. The far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), which was founded by former Nazis, won the most votes in an Austrian general election for the first time since the war in September 2024 but was unable to take power because mainstream parties refused to form a coalition with it. Since then, the FPÖ has seen its support in the polls continue to rise.

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​Andy Burnham’s ​domestic ​revolution ​could ​unobtrusively pull Britain ​closer to Europe

Europe’s leaders queued up this week to welcome Andy Burnham as Britain’s seventh prime minister since the Brexit vote – all expressing the hope that his tenure would continue the thaw in EU-UK relations initiated by his predecessor, Keir Starmer. Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission chief, said she was looking forward to strengthening cross-Channel ties, adding that a “very good” first discussion had confirmed a common commitment to “bringing the EU and UK closer and closer”. France’s Emmanuel Macron said he hoped for a deeper relationship that gave “new momentum to the partnership” between the EU and the UK. Germany’s Friedrich Merz said he, too, was looking forward to forging an even closer bond. But what, realistically and concretely, can Europe expect from the Liverpudlian dubbed the “King of the North”? How might his approach to the bloc differ from Starmer’s much-trumpeted (and as often maligned) “reset” in post-Brexit relations? We know practically nothing about what Burnham’s foreign policy might look like: his priorities, as Paul Taylor noted, are famously domestic. We do know his baseline instincts are pro-European: he argued against the “isolation” of Brexit in 2016. Last year, he said he hoped Britain might rejoin the EU during his lifetime. This year, campaigning for the byelection he had to fight and win in order to become PM, in a constituency estimated to have voted 65% leave, he carefully clarified his position. Brexit “has been damaging”, he said, but, he added, “I also believe the last thing we should do right now is rerun those arguments.” His aim was to “unify the country”, not divide it further, so he was “not proposing that the UK considers rejoining the EU”. But even if his headline focus is on the UK, Burnham knows Britain’s “economic stagnation, declining relative living standards and latent social discontent” are at least partly down to the huge Brexit hit to UK trade and investment, Taylor wrote. “Even without the compelling security and geopolitical reasons for rapprochement with the EU,” he argued, “closer engagement with Britain’s main export market would be a no-brainer to deliver healthier growth.” But how exactly, given the immovable red lines laid down in the Labour party’s last election manifesto – no single market, no customs union, no freedom of movement – might Burnham go about it? Starmer’s longed-for “reset” was all about security cooperation and easing Brexit trade barriers. Ironically, Burnham’s focus on industrialisation, regionalism and economic sovereignty could ultimately bring the UK closer to the EU. In a detailed analysis for the UK in a Changing Europe thinktank, Joël Reland argued that Burnham’s growth agenda, centred on domestic devolution rather than diplomacy, meant negotiations with the EU may drop down the list of UK priorities. But while the new prime minister may speak a lot less about trade access, his vision for building the UK’s “sovereign capabilities” – in fields such as AI, energy, digital infrastructure – closely mirrors the EU’s own “strategic autonomy” drive. Burnham’s desire to reduce UK reliance on foreign-owned datacentres and US-centric tech policy aligns well with Brussels’ tech sovereignty package, perhaps leading to pragmatic UK-EU cooperation in areas such as critical minerals and cloud storage. In short, argued Reland, Burnham may sound markedly less pro-European than his predecessor in 10 Downing St, “but he is formulating an economic and security agenda which could bring London into closer line with Brussels”. If this happens, UK-EU relations could see occasional leaders’ summits replaced, for example, with project-based re-engagement via platforms such as the EU’s committee of the Regions, and stronger support for the UK-EU joint parliamentary assembly. At the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank, senior policy fellow Anthony Dworkin likewise observed that Burnham was likely to ground foreign policy very much in local economic realities, in a way Starmer never did. In the short term, Dworkin argued, the new government’s focus will certainly be on completing the three EU-UK agreements that were due to signed at a UK-EU summit meeting on 22 July, but will now be held sometime in the autumn. As Jennifer Rankin explained, the two sides are due to sign deals on reducing paperwork and certification for fresh food; linking emissions trading systems; and an exchange scheme allowing 18- to 30-year-olds to study and work in the EU and UK. Longer term, the ECFR suggested, Burnham’s drive for regional regeneration – such as green manufacturing in the north – could connect directly to EU supply chain partnerships, structurally repositioning the UK alongside the EU in key sectors. Jill Rutter at the Institute for Government observed that Starmer had spent substantial political capital on warm rhetoric toward the EU, but his intended reset had delivered only modest economic returns due to Labour’s structural red lines. Burnham would face an early choice, Rutter said, over “how much personal effort he puts into pulling this reset over the line – and what price he is prepared to pay for that – as well as how much emphasis he puts on further rounds”. In short, Andy Burnham’s pragmatic domestic industrial goals naturally overlap with EU policy. Without shouting about it, by aligning the UK with the EU’s own priorities, he may just achieve a quieter, but far more effective UK-EU partnership. We’ll see. *** Call the Doctor Turns out if you spend nearly four decades writing European allsorts from Athens to Aarhus and Prague to Poitiers, eventually someone gives you a strange-looking hat. Last week, I was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of London for my reporting on Europe. Personally, to be honoured for doing a job you love (well, most of the time) was, of course, doubly gratifying. But 10 years after the UK voted to leave the EU, it was also, I like to think, a nod to history’s biggest ever experiment in cooperation over conflict. Europe is, most certainly, not perfect. But the fact so many of you subscribe to this newsletter, and read the rest of the Guardian’s expanded European coverage, shows how much you think it matters – and never ceases to fascinate, surprise and frustrate. Stick with it. To receive the complete version of This Is Europe in your inbox every Wednesday, please subscribe here.

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Nicaragua’s congress announces ‘work plan’ to suspend elections

Nicaragua’s congress, controlled by the country’s long-serving president, Daniel Ortega, has announced a “work plan” to implement the authoritarian leader’s order that the country should no longer hold elections. The UN and the US strongly condemned Sunday’s announcement by Ortega, who has been in power since 2007 and, after a controversial constitutional change last year, now governs alongside his wife, Rosario Murillo, as “co-president”. During the ceremony marking the 47th anniversary of the 1979 Sandinista revolution, in which he helped overthrow the brutal dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza García, Ortega said he would work with congress to pass new laws that would “build a wall” against the opposition. On Tuesday, the Ortega-controlled National Assembly issued a statement saying that, under the pretext of “ensuring peace, security, stability and the continuity of achievements in the fight against poverty”, it was “beginning the necessary analysis to draw up a work plan to implement the president’s directives”. Although the Ortega-Murillo regime has already overseen a profound erosion of democracy – marked by the violent suppression of protests, the imprisonment of thousands of people and the forced exile of nearly 1 million Nicaraguans – Sunday’s announcement marked a significant rhetorical escalation that is now being put into practice by congress. On Wednesday, the UN high commissioner for human rights, Volker Türk, called on the Nicaraguan authorities to “reopen civic space, and restore the rule of law. People of all political viewpoints must be allowed to vote and run for office, in line with the state’s international human rights obligations.” The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, who refers to the country’s government as the “Murillo-Ortega dictatorship”, said in a statement on Tuesday that “the Nicaraguan people have the right to choose their own leaders through democratic elections” and the US “calls on the international community to join forces” against the regime. Ortega’s uninterrupted period of almost 20 years in office is not his first spell in power. He led the junta that took office after the Sandinista revolution and, in 1984, was elected president, remaining in office until 1990. His current term, to which he was elected after he outlawed opposition parties and jailed all opposition presidential hopefuls before the 2021 election, had been due to end next November. However, last year’s constitutional changes extended the presidential term from five to six years. Despite the National Assembly’s announcement, it remains unclear whether the 2027 elections will be scrapped altogether or whether Ortega and Murillo will run unopposed.

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Six beluga whales finally leave embattled Canadian marine park

Six beluga whales have at last left Marineland, the embattled Canadian marine park in Niagara Falls that previously threatened to kill its own animals, and are arriving at US aquariums this week. While the whales’ journey into the US marks the end of their long and controversial saga of captivity in Canada, advocates say the new conditions, though superior to Marineland, could bring continued challenges. “There’s obviously some relief, but it’s hard for me to frankly endorse any of the facilities that these animals are going to,” said Phil Demers, who trained whales at Marineland from 2000 to 2012 before becoming an outspoken critic of the park. Demers is hopeful that US parks are subject to more stringent oversight of animal care in comparison with Canada. “I’m happy for the animals. I just know that the fight for their improved existence will probably last their entire lifetimes,” he said. Marineland operated from the early 1960s until 2024, when it in effect closed to visitors. The park had one of the largest captive whale populations in the world but had long been plagued by reports of poor conditions for the animals. Twenty whales – 19 belugas and one orca – have died at the park since 2019, according to documents compiled by the Canadian Press. Dwindling visitors, bad press and the passage of a 2019 federal law that banned the sale, captivity and breeding of dolphins and whales led to the park’s decline. The controversies soon developed into a feud between Marineland, the Canadian government and activists. The government blocked Marineland’s attempt to transfer its whales to a theme park in China over concerns the animals would be treated poorly. Marineland responded in October 2025 by threatening to euthanise its 30 belugas if the federal government did not support the park financially. Last month, Canada and Marineland reached a deal to rehome the belugas to a consortium of US aquariums in Georgia, Chicago, San Diego and San Antonio, along with the Oceanogràfic València aquarium in Spain. On Monday the whales were lifted out of their tanks in slings and taken to Toronto Pearson international airport, where they were put on planes. Sierra, Acadia, Osiris and Lillooet arrived at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, while Bertie Botts and Frankie were transported to SeaWorld in San Antonio, according to the Canadian Press. Twenty-four other whales and two dolphins remain at Marineland. Shedd aquarium said in a statement on 8 July that it planned to “rescue” up to 10 of Marineland’s whales. “Once the rescued whales arrive safely at Shedd, the belugas will have access to a diverse variety of nutritional seafood items to eat, healthy habitats, clean water and plenty of individualised care,” it said. SeaWorld San Antonio said: “Our commitment is clear. These whales need help and we are ready to help them.” Marineland told the Canadian Press on Monday that “above all else, the safe, healthy, and comfortable transfer of these whales to their new homes remains our unwavering priority”. The Canadian advocacy group Animal Justice said it remained concerned about the whales because of Marineland’s “lack of transparency” about their wellbeing. “Marineland has never been honest with the public about the health of these sensitive, highly intelligent animals, and that pattern of secrecy hasn’t changed now that a handful of whales are finally being moved out,” said the executive director, Camille Labchuk, in a statement. The group is calling on the US aquariums to guarantee that the whales will not be used for breeding or forced performances that are now banned under Canadian law.

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Opposition parties shut down Indian parliament in solidarity with ‘cockroach’ protests

India’s opposition parties have shut down parliament in a protest calling for the resignation of the education minister, in solidarity with the new youth-led “cockroach” movement. Opposition politicians, led by the Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi, gathered outside the parliament building in Delhi on Wednesday, many dressed in black and waving placards calling on Dharmendra Pradhan to quit. Inside the parliament chamber, proceedings were suspended after opposition figures demanded that Narendra Modi’s ruling government address the police violence against young people at a protest on Monday, and the scandals that have engulfed crucial exams. The previous day, Gandhi had been briefly detained by police after staging a sit-in outside Modi’s residence, accusing the prime minister of “destroying the future of India’s youth”. Gandhi’s sister, Priyanka, a senior Congress party strategist, was also briefly detained on Tuesday. Police confirmed they were later released. The opposition protests at parliament were in support of a new mass youth movement, known as the Cockroach Janata party (CJP), that began as a satirical online joke but has grown into a significant political challenge to the Modi government. On Monday, the CJP held one of the biggest anti-government protests in years. Dozens of people were injured after police used teargas and baton charges against the demonstrators. More than 1,000 people remained camped out at the CJP’s protest site in central Delhi on Wednesday despite the gruelling heat and humidity. Many of the protesters had travelled for miles to be there and vowed they would not move until the education minister had resigned and the Modi government listened to their demands. Food deliveries sent by supporters – some ordered from abroad – have continued to arrive, keeping the protesters well fed on biryani, pizza, rice and dal. Morale remained high as slogans and songs rang out across the site. “In the country where people had forgotten how to ask questions, in the country where criticising the government was considered treason – we have now awakened that country,” said CJP spokesman Ashutosh Ranka, to loud cheers from the crowd. The CJP’s demands for changes to the education system and the resignation of Pradhan arose after repeated scandals over testing, but it has grown into a larger movement giving voice to the frustration’s of India’s youth. It was estimated that more than 50,000 people had protested in Delhi on Monday, even though the police denied them permission to march on parliament. It began as a peaceful demonstration, but by late afternoon police began to clash with the protesters. Police said 60 civilians and 118 police personnel had been injured, and they accused protesters of instigating the clashes. But organisers condemned the “high-handedness” of the authorities and said hundreds of peaceful protesters had been injured by the police, including at least one woman now on a ventilator in intensive care from her injuries. Amnesty International have accused Delhi police of using police excessive force. India’s Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to hear a petition alleging police brutality against the protesters. Congress accused the Modi government of refusing to address the issues of the students and the alleged “brutality unleashed on students” in parliament. “The government doesn’t want to take any accountability, nor does it want to have a debate on it in parliament,” said Gandhi. Protests supporting the CJP movement were also held in Mumbai and Bengaluru, drawing hundreds of people. Modi has not commented directly on the protests, but the education minister, who had dismissed the CJP protesters as a “B-team of terrorists”, took a more conciliatory tone in his first comments since Monday’s protests. In a social media post, Pradhan said: “We owe them [students] answers, reforms and accountability. That is exactly what our government remains committed to delivering. He added: “The students of India deserve far better than being treated as props in a political campaign,” he said, referring to Gandhi’s protest. Several key opposition parties have come out in support of the students’ movement and condemned the police violence against Monday’s protest. Sandeep Dikshit, a senior leader of the Congress party, said: “What happened yesterday is our constitution got trampled upon. After that, no self-respecting politician or citizen can stand aside.”

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‘It’s truly hell here’: airstrikes, repression and water shortages become ‘new normal’ for Iranians

As US airstrikes hit port and inland cities in Iran, and Tehran strikes at the US’s Middle East allies, the escalating conflict has left many Iranians fearing that, amid war and a worsening human rights crisis, they remain trapped in a cycle of violence and repression with no way out. Bandar Abbas, on the strait of Hormuz and the headquarters of the Iranian navy, has been hit by strikes every night since the latest escalation began nearly two weeks ago. Soroush*, a writer based in the city who secretly publishes a newsletter documenting human rights violations in Iran, described a “new normal” for its residents. “We need to accept this could just be our new reality now and it’s worked because we are less afraid as each day goes on,” the 37-year-old said. “We are less afraid of the future because we are now forced to accept this is the new normal. There’s no one coming to save us from the bombs or the regime’s bullets. Our brains have tricked us into making peace with this new reality.” For those living near the port, loud explosions followed by prolonged power cuts have become the norm over the past week. Mehnaz*, 39, depends on the internet for her work and says she was already struggling with the government-imposed internet shutdown, which has severely affected her earnings. “We always had power cuts, but the hours have now extended and I fear I can’t rely on my online work any more. The war is far from the end and daily life is becoming harder under the bombs, power cuts and internet shutdowns. It’s truly hell here,” she said. Another port city reportedly struck by the US this week was Jask. State media claimed US strikes hit 100 civilian vessels and that an attack on the Bonji desalination plant left 20 villages without drinking water. Moein*, a resident of Jask, said that although the water supply had been restored, residents were in panic and scrambling to prepare for a long-running war. “That’s just it. The heat is rising and if we lack water supply due to these attacks, we will die of heat exhaustion and thirst. Supply is back now, but we are now making sure to prepare for future attacks and we have to save as much water as we can.” A strike in June on water facilities in the coastal city of Sirik also reportedly left thousands of residents rationing water and struggling with daily chores. Nik Kowsar, a US-based Iranian journalist and water issues analyst, said the war was having a severe impact on civilians – and such concerns did not equate to support for the country’s rulers. “Iranians can despise the regime and want the IRGC [Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps] dismantled while still being horrified by attacks that leave ordinary families without water, electricity, medicine or income,” he said. “Attacking desalination plants in Iran’s hot and dry south is particularly dangerous. When temperatures climb above 40C, losing access to drinking water can quickly become a matter of life and death. Bombing the infrastructure people rely on will not make Iranians embrace those carrying out the attacks. It may weaken the government, but ordinary people pay the immediate price, and the country is left with damage that could take years to repair,” adds Kowsar. Others who spoke to the Guardian highlighted Iran’s dire human rights situation, with at least 400 people reportedly executed since the beginning of this year, including teenagers, foreign nationals, protesters and former political prisoners. According to the Oslo-based group Iran Human Rights, hundreds more are believed to be facing capital punishment. “The US government will now take revenge for its personnel killed by the regime and the regime will in retaliation pick up more teenagers and hang them in revenge for the killing of [Ali] Khamenei,” Soroush said. “This is just the beginning of more Iranian lives being on the line either for the US or the regime. I am deeply saddened and feel helpless.” * Names have been changed