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Ukraine war briefing: Russian developers used AI to build ‘kamikaze’ attack drone software, Anthropic says

A small team of likely freelance developers in Russia used AI chatbot Claude to develop software for an autonomous swarm of first-person-view “kamikaze” attack drones, including terminal guidance, target selection and coordination between multiple aircraft, according to Anthropic, the company that developed Claude. In a 154-page report describing how bad actors used its Claude AI system for state-sponsored surveillance and propaganda operations, Anthropic said the drone swarm was programmed to pick its own targets and crash into them to detonate, without a human making the final call. In their programming, the freelance team repeatedly picked a location in Ukraine’s Donetsk region as their target and used VPNs to circumvent Anthropic’s geographic blocks. Small drones have become a ‌central weapon in the war in Ukraine. Anthropic ‌also found that cybercriminals and state-backed hackers are increasingly using AI to orchestrate and execute large portions of cyber-attacks, including in attacks targeting officials in Ukraine. One hacking group allegedly ran phishing, hotel wifi hijacking and WhatsApp-takeover operations against targets in the Ukrainian government, military and diplomatic sectors, using AI at nearly every stage, Anthropic said. The group’s tradecraft was consistent with Russia-based threat actor Midnight Blizzard, which the US government has previously linked to Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service, Reuters reported. The Russian embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The group allegedly used AI to build a system that automatically detected when its malware was flagged by security defences and rewrote the code until it evaded detection. The Anthropic report comes as petrol stations in Kyiv have been hit by jet-powered drones in a wave of targeted Russian attacks as the bombardment of Ukraine’s capital enters a new phase of intensity. At least two people were killed and 12 injured in strikes on two petrol stations on Friday morning, according to the city’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko. The rush-hour strikes follow a similar attack on a petrol station on Thursday. All three strikes targeted petrol stations operated by Ukrnafta, a state-owned oil and natural gas extraction company. A list of 18 petrol stations in Kyiv expected to be hit by Russian drones started circulating on Telegram on Wednesday. The three struck so far were on the list. Russian president Vladimir Putin has blamed the west for the conflict in Ukraine because of what he said was its constant pressure on Moscow and its attempts to “drag” Ukraine into the Nato alliance. Speaking to reporters before the BRICS summit in India, Putin said “everything happening in Europe right now is basically ‌the result of system errors by … the western globalists in politics, security, and economics”. After a Russia-friendly president was forced to flee Ukraine in 2014, he said the West “immediately set the goal of dragging Ukraine into Nato. And this ‌ultimately turned out to be the main reason for today’s tragic events in Ukraine”. He said people in Europe understood what was going on, which explained why they were voting for far-right parties such as the AfD in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. A Russian official will attend a G20 energy meeting in Houston next week, a White House official said on Friday. Last month, the US welcomed ⁠Russian finance minister Anton Siluanov to a meeting of G20 countries in North Carolina, upsetting European officials because it was the first time Russia’s finance ⁠minister had attended the forum in person since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. The meeting comes as European Union efforts to become independent from Russian oil and gas are faltering, as it heads into winter with low gas stocks, its auditors said this month. The US House of Representatives is expected to take up a tough Russian sanctions package next week, although prospects of passage are uncertain despite the bill receiving overwhelming support in the Senate. The bill is designed to add pressure on Putin to negotiate an end to Russia’s war with Ukraine. However, several top Democratic lawmakers are worried the measure dramatically expands president Donald Trump’s tariff authority, and he would use that new power to go after US allies. Three people were killed in Russian ⁠strikes in southeastern Ukraine’s Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia ⁠regions and in Kharkiv in the northeast, according to the governors of those regions. Russia has for two weeks been carrying out almost constant attacks with faster jet-powered drones that have killed a number of ⁠Kyiv residents and disrupted daily life in Ukraine’s capital. Ukraine also carried out drone attacks on Russia, killing two people in the Tula region overnight and one on Friday in the Kursk region, local officials said.

NSW police seize 36 illegal ebikes on northern beaches that are now destined for the crusher

Dozens of high-powered and illegal ebikes have been seized by police on Sydney’s northern beaches just weeks after the force was granted new powers to destroy dangerous bikes. The operation was part of a coordinated push with the New South Wales government to ensure people only ride legal ebikes that have not been modified to reach high speeds. One of the ebikes seized on Friday belonged to a 14-year-old boy from Warriewood. Police said it was capable of reaching speeds of more than 90km/h. NSW police said they seized 36 “illegal ebikes”. The operation was launched on the northern beaches “following recent incidents of illegal, dangerous and reckless e-bike use”. Assistant commissioner David Driver said police would be launching more operations across the state in coming weeks. “Most ebike riders do the right thing and comply with the rules; however, police will enforce [the] new legislation if people ride non-compliant vehicles,” Driver said on Saturday. In late August, NSW police were given new powers to destroy ebikes capable of exceeding the legal speed limit. Owners of seized ebikes now have 14 days to let police know whether their bike was stolen and being used by someone else on Friday. After that two-week window, the bikes will be “crushed”, the government says. The legislation also allowed police to seize ebikes that do not cut power assistance at 25km/h, with non-compliant bikes to be removed from the streets. The government invested in a number of “dyno units” – portable speed-testing devices – to measure an ebike’s power output. The Transport for NSW secretary, Josh Murray, said one of the units was used on the northern beaches on Friday to inspect suspect ebikes. “We can put an ebike on a machine and test its power and speed very quickly,” Driver said. “When they did that yesterday, the bike showed that just by clicking the throttle it could go over 40km/h.” Ebikes have been hailed as a climate-friendly solution to city traffic congestion, transport emissions and even youth social media addiction, offering Australians a means to get more exercise and save money. But they have come with a cost. NSW recorded 226 injuries related to ebikes in 2024. In the first seven months of 2025, that had already to surged to 233 injuries plus four deaths. In NSW this year to date, 187 vehicle drivers, passengers and motorcyclists have died on the state’s roads. In 2025, the figure for the same period was 194. Murray said most people were legally using ebikes but a small group ignoring the rules endangered other road users. “We are serious about ebike safety and operations like this will continue by NSW police with support from Transport for NSW to ensure all road users are safe and complying with the state’s upgraded laws,” Murray said. “Ebikes must behave like bicycles, not motorcycles. If your bike can operate like a motorcycle under throttle or go more than 25km/h while being powered, it is not legal to ride in public. “Before you or your child jumps on an ebike, please make sure it’s road-legal, otherwise you risk losing the bike.”

‘The future scares me’: why unemployment has become biggest election issue for young New Zealand voters

Thirty minutes north of New Zealand’s capital, raucous laughter is tumbling out of a nondescript building in Naenae – an economically deprived suburb in Lower Hutt – into the car park of a tiny shopping strip. Inside, 10 students aged between 15 and 24 are trying to better their chances of finding a job, with help from Youth Inspire, a not-for-profit that assists hundreds of young people each year into training, education or work. They have been working on CVs, learning to drive, and today are roleplaying challenging moments in a workplace. There is a lightness and camaraderie in the room that belies their day-to-day reality – one shaped by a desperate and lonely search for work that is not there. “It’s really heartbreaking and it breaks my confidence,” says Luta Matagi, 23, who has spent seven months looking for work. “I may not have degrees but I am a hard worker. We are all hard workers in here.” These students are a handful of the 180,000 young New Zealanders either unemployed or underemployed in the past quarter. Nearly four in 10 (37%) of 15-24-year-olds are in this group, categorised by government as the “underutilised” – the worst rate in 30 years, according to Stats NZ. As New Zealand prepares for its general election in November, unemployment is a key issue. For voters aged 18-34, unemployment ranks as the second most pressing concern, behind the cost of living, according to a recent Ipsos poll. Michael, 20, joined Youth Inspire to upskill, after finding “nothing out there” when it came to electrical apprenticeships. He is not alone. Apprenticeship numbers have slid 32% since 2022 to a 15-year low in 2025, government figures show. Michael says he has applied for at least 40 entry-level jobs in the past two years. He has not had a single interview. “It’s isolating searching for jobs alone,” he says. Matagi can’t count how many jobs she has applied for, “just to get rejected from all of them”. Young people routinely bear the brunt of an economic downturn, says Shamubeel Eaqub, chief economist at Simplicity, which provides fund management for New Zealand’s national saving scheme. “When there are only a few vacancies, then the people in the front of the queue are the ones who have got the most experience and the most to offer.” The effect can be scarring both for their career and their mental health, Eaqub says. “By the time the economy recovers, you’re going to be competing with the next cohort of young people who are now into the workforce.” The government has promised to grow the economy to increase jobs for young people. At the same time it is toughening jobseeker benefit criteria for some of that cohort. Matagi, like most of her peers, is on the jobseeker benefit. If she doesn’t find work soon, she will have to sell her car, which could further hinder her ability to get a job. She says the government is “so misguided” and not supporting young people enough. Its policy preventing 18-19 year olds whose parents earn a combined income of $65,529 (US$38,412) or more from accessing the benefit from November will place further strain on them and their families, she says. “It’s so sad to say, but the future scares me.” Zainab Ali, the organisation’s chief executive, sees the pressures on young people growing. “I used to notice pies and cans of [the drink] V being stolen from the shops near Youth Inspire, now what I am catching is bread, milk and eggs. They are the basics. That change tells you it is getting harder out there.” About 500 people are on the Youth Inspire waitlist. Ali says the hundreds that have already been through their doors are incredibly motivated. “They are struggling and still going,” she says. “And I would challenge anyone that thinks young people are lazy or not willing to work that we have the evidence to show that is not the case.” ‘Young people need to see some hope’ New Zealand’s economy has been battered by recession and stagnation that arrived in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic. Rising inflation piled pressure on businesses and drove households to rein in spending. Company liquidations rose 14% in the past year, and nearly 3,000 hospitality businesses ceased trading, credit bureau Centrix reported in September. There are, however, some flickers of improvement. Rating agency Moody’s said in September it expected 1.6% GDP growth in 2026. Ali says entry-level jobs have disappeared, retail shops are not hiring and the availability of full-time work is slim. “We used to count full-time work as the benchmark – that’s not the case now. Casual is most prevalent, but generally it is fixed-term or short-term work.” Labour’s spokesperson for finance and economy, Barbara Edmonds, says the national unemployment rate – currently at an 11-year high of 5.6% – is “a damning verdict” on incumbent prime minister Christopher Luxon’s economic management. “Our young people need to see some hope … they want to see that there are jobs available for them.” Edmonds says Labour would aim to turn around unemployment figures by backing trades and apprenticeships, guaranteeing graduate nurses a job, and introducing a “Future fund” – a policy to invest in innovative businesses and infrastructure to create jobs. But the National party’s minister for social development and employment, Louise Upston, blames high unemployment on the previous Labour government’s “reckless fiscal and economic management”. “It takes time to right the ship,” she says in a statement, adding her government is committed to growing the economy to boost job creation. Responding to criticism over her policy to limit access to benefits for 18-19 year-olds, Upston says young people should be in education, training or employment and “it’s a common-sense expectation that it’s their parents who will support them, not the taxpayer”, if they cannot do one of these things. As the mainstream parties vie for votes with promises of jobs and economic growth, young people may take more convincing. Recent polling shows support for Labour and National slipping away in favour of the minor parties, with younger women showing the highest support for left-leaning minor parties and younger men showing the highest support for minor rightwing and centrist parties. Voter turnout for younger, and poorer, people has historically been low but Ali says she is noticing “a huge trend” in the community of families who have never voted and are enrolling for the election because of concern for their children. “That gives me heart,” she says. Matagi and Michael say they will vote for the minor Green party. Matagi feels the party’s MPs “see our point of view”. Michael, meanwhile, believes “they look out for the underdog”. The pair feel this election could be the difference between a career-less future and a path to a new life. “There is not much hope,” Michael says, “unless we get a new government.”

Military aircraft reportedly blamed for UK air traffic control outage

The air traffic control outage that caused thousands of flights to be grounded across the UK earlier in the week was caused by a military aircraft entering “spurious” flight data into the system, according to a report. Hundreds of thousands of passengers were affected after more than 2,000 flights were cancelled on Tuesday when the system used by the National Air Traffic Services (Nats) shut down for four hours. According to the Financial Times, four people briefed on the incident claimed that the shutdown was caused by a flight plan submitted by a UK military aircraft, which caused a meltdown in air traffic control systems used by Nats which remained unfixed for several hours. The paper also reported that Nats operations officer Kathryn Leahy called the operations managers of numerous airports and airlines, and “tensions boiled over” after Leahy informed them their flight processing system did not have a dedicated backup due to Nats being in the midst of a “complete overhaul of its systems” and because the amount of data it keeps meant duplicating it would cost “vast amounts”. The crisis has put pressure on Martin Rolfe, the chief executive of Nats, who was summoned to a meeting by transport secretary Heidi Alexander on Wednesday. Alexander, who said she did “not believe the issue was unavoidable”, was understood to have given Rolfe a week to report on the causes of the shutdown, while also commissioning an independent review by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) into the incident. The outage is the most serious to affect British commercial airspace since August 2023, when a technical problem led to almost 1,600 flights being delayed. Nats came under fire after that episode, with the CAA setting out 34 recommendations to improve its systems to avoid similar incidents, all of which were said to have been fully implemented. Rolfe ruled out a cyber-attack, which was initially suspected, saying he “believes we’ve never seen an incident happen more than once, so this will be something different that we’ve never seen in 50 years of operation”. Numerous airlines have already called for Rolfe to resign or be fired over the outage. Ryanair’s chief executive, Michael O’Leary, accused Rolfe of “telling lies to save his own skin” and said his position was “untenable”. O’Leary added: “We don’t need more investigations, we don’t need more reports and we don’t need another parliamentary committee hearing where Martin Rolfe will promise change, will promise resilience and will promise an effective backup system.” The delays led to someaircraft full of passengers being stuck waiting for information for more than four hours, while flights due to arrive in the UK were diverted to different airports, with some forced to land in Germany. Despite the far-reaching effect of the outage, it was understood that passengers affected were unlikely to be able to claim compensation, as delays were due to “extraordinary circumstances”. The Ministry of Defence has said there was no wrongdoing on the part of the military. A spokesperson from the MoD said: “We do not believe there’s any indication of an error on the part of the military. This is subject to the live Nats investigation, so it’d be inappropriate for us to comment further while that’s ongoing.”

‘Absurd, hardline calls’: questions over Sweden’s post-Brexit migration policy

He arrived with nothing other than the clothes he wore that morning. Hours later he was banged up in a detention centre close to a Stockholm airport to await deportation. Charles, a former business director from Cambridge, who did not want his full name published, moved to Sweden in 2017 to be with his Swedish wife, Lily, and applied to remain after Brexit, before the deadline of December 2021. But the migration agency rejected his application, and he and his wife have been fighting with the Swedish authorities ever since. In a message passed on by Lily, he said he was the only Briton in the detention centre, where he described being hemmed in by three lines of fences separated by a “no man’s land”. “I arrived here with nothing apart from the clothes I had on,” Charles said. “We were told the meeting … with the border police was to discuss my case. They then said they thought I would abscond, which is why they were going to detain me.” Lily, a lawyer, questioned whether Sweden, considered a global leader in human rights and progressive politics, was now like Afghanistan. “They have hunted us for five years,” she said. Charles could be deported in the next week unless his latest legal challenge delivers a reprieve. He joins a list of 2,490 Britons – of an estimated 14,000 in Sweden – deported from the country between 2020 and 2025, as questions are mounting as to why Sweden appears to have taken such a hardline approach to the Brexit withdrawal agreement (WA) over migration. In total, Sweden is responsible for 33% of all British nationals deported from the EU between 2021 and 2025, compared with France, which accounted for 6% of all British deportees, Spain at 3% and Germany at 2%. France deported 450, Spain 250 and Germany 160, while Italy deported just 15 Britons in that period. Different countries collate data in different ways, but Eurostat data suggests the Netherlands is another outlier, with 2,270 Britons deported in the same period. Data shows 2,100 removal orders were also issued in Sweden, though it is not clear how many of these resulted in voluntary departures or progressed to deportations. People served with removal orders include Joyce Thomas, a 78-year-old widow who has been in Sweden for 22 years, and George Mason, a 74-year-old with dementia who has been in Sweden for 25 years, both of whose applications missed the deadline to apply to remain in Sweden post-Brexit. John Sellers, a 34-year-old Briton who has lived in Sweden since he was 10, was deported in January. The cases also raise the question of whether the WA delivers the political promise made by the Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier and others promising citizens should not be collateral damage of Brexit. “The level of protection afforded under EU law must not be watered down. Brexit should not alter the nature of people’s daily lives,” Barnier said in 2017. Nine years on, some have asked if Sweden’s approach has been infected by its apparent lurch to the right more broadly, serving deportations on children and even a 95-year-old Iraqi woman who had lived in Sweden for 20 years. “The number of absurd, hardline calls from the migration department just keeps piling up,” the Swedish author and journalist Martin Gelin wrote this week ahead of the general election on Sunday. British citizens who lived in the country before Brexit have unique protection under the WA, but activists have noted that they appear to be subject to the same treatment as other foreign nationals. “The question is, has national migration policy affected the way in which they apply the withdrawal agreement in edge cases? And has it affected the culture in Migrationsverket [the migration agency] and perhaps in the courts as they apply the withdrawal agreement?” asked James Savage, the editor of the Local, which recently revealed the pressure applied to Sweden by the European Commission. Family members acting on behalf of Mason turned to the general migration route for residency after the migration agency rejected the withdrawal agreement request for him to remain in the country. The judge’s ruling was clear: “The state’s interest in regulated immigration outweighs Horace [George] Mason’s interest in continuing to reside [in Sweden].” Since the surge in publicity surrounding deportations of British citizens in Sweden, all three opposition parties have pledged new laws to reopen the application process for Britons, and the incumbent government has said it would look at doing the same. Niels Paarup-Petersen, the migration spokesperson for the Centre party, has promised new laws if his party retains power. “Some of these cases are just stupid,” he told the Guardian. “They [the migration agency] should not be lenient, but the present decision-making leans towards deportation.” The Swedish migration agency insists it has only deported 458 British people in strict Brexit-related cases but activists – who have been trying to get granular detail on the remaining cases – say that data may not include Britons who upon rejection from the agency then applied to stay under different routes and ended up with deportation orders. The agency also says there is “no indication that Sweden has in any way interpreted the withdrawal agreement in an extreme manner or differently from other [EU] member states” and that it has “applied applicable law” with appeal processes. Savage notes that promises to change the law were made three years ago after other cases emerged. David Milstead, who runs the activist group Brits in Sweden, has welcomed promises of action but is concerned that politicians might provide a fix for future British applicants without giving a second chance to those already deported or who have left voluntarily. A spokesperson for the European Commission said: “Correct implementation of the withdrawal agreement is very important to us,” but added: “Reasonable grounds that may justify a late application for beneficiary status are not defined in the withdrawal agreement.” This means “host states have a certain margin of discretion in deciding what they accept as reasonable grounds”. In other words, Sweden has not breached the withdrawal agreement but rather is exercising allowable discretion. Catherine Barnard, a professor of EU law at Cambridge University, says the withdrawal agreement is “unique”, as no other member state has ever left the EU, and will take time to test. But decisions by migration authorities have to be proven to be “proportionate”. While Swedish courts have not referred their decision-making upwards to the European court of justice, Barnard says a case in the UK may provide precedent for EU citizens affected by the WA. In the case of “CG”, the European court of justice ruled that the UK breached the EU charter of fundamental rights in denying benefits to an EU citizen in Northern Ireland. “In a 2021 case … the court ruled that the charter would apply to those who had moved to another member state before Brexit and lived there,” Barnard said. “While the facts of the case were somewhat different, the principle should remain: the state’s interest in protecting its immigration must be balanced against the rights to family life of vulnerable individuals.” The Swedish migration authorities and police have been approached for comment on the detention of Charles.

‘World’s most profitable football business’: Abramovich’s frozen Chelsea cash earns £175m

Funds from Roman Abramovich’s sale of Chelsea FC have earned at least £175m in interest while locked in a UK bank account, new accounts show, leading one analyst to describe the company housing the frozen cash as “the most profitable football business in the world”. Accounts for Fordstam, the company through which the billionaire Russian oligarch owned Chelsea, show that the proceeds of the sale completed in May 2022 have risen from £2.3bn to nearly £2.5bn. Abramovich, who was hit with UK sanctions in 2022 over his ties to Vladimir Putin, has previously pledged to donate the money to victims of the war in Ukraine. However, the funds have yet to be released, amid an ongoing legal dispute with the British government about how the money should be used. The picture is further complicated by a separate criminal investigation by the Jersey authorities into the original source of the oil tycoon’s wealth. There is also uncertainty about whether £1.4bn in loans – part of a vast network of offshore companies that the oligarch used to fund Chelsea’s success – will be deducted from the final sum available for donation. In the meantime, the money, an initial £2.35bn, has been accruing interest rapidly, earning £114m in 2024 and nearly £63m the year before that. The total is likely to have risen significantly because another two years have elapsed since June 2024, the latest date covered by the accounts. Stefan Borson, a football finance expert who is head of sport at the law firm McCarthy Denning, said: “With the interest received, this now appears to be the most profitable football-related business in the world,” a tongue-in-cheek reference to the lack of profitability among high-spending football clubs. “It sheds no further insight as to what progress (or otherwise) has been made in distributing the proceeds of the sale.” The £2.5bn proceeds remain frozen in a Barclays bank account owing to a dispute with the UK government, which pledged to take legal action after Abramovich missed a March 2026 deadline to free up the funds. The government wants the money to be earmarked for Ukraine but, according to reports, Abramovich is prepared to defy ministers by giving it to a foundation with a more global outlook. A government spokesperson said: “We have been clear from the start that the proceeds of the sale of Chelsea FC must be used for humanitarian causes in Ukraine. Roman Abramovich has yet to fulfil the commitment made at the time of the sale. The government is taking further steps to ensure that promise is kept, including continuing preparations for potential legal action if necessary. “Our absolute priority remains ensuring the funds reach the most vulnerable in Ukraine who have endured over four years of relentless suffering.” It is also unclear whether the donation will be reduced by any demand from Abramovich that Fordstam repays £1.4bn in loans extended by his Camberley International Investment vehicle, based in Jersey. “It’s always been vague as to whether Abramovich was going to donate the whole sale proceeds to the Ukraine relief fund or just the profits,” said a football finance expert, Kieran Maguire. “The sum due to his offshore company is still in the accounts which suggests the latter.” The future of the loan is further complicated by two factors. As long as Abramovich is under sanctions, the money cannot legally be repaid to him without a licence from the Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation (OFSI), part of the Treasury. At the same time, prosecutors in Jersey are investigating whether the proceeds of the Chelsea sale amount to the proceeds of crime, as part of a corruption and money-laundering investigation. The inquiry is looking at the source of much of Abramovich’s wealth, including the sale of his oil and gas company Sibneft, which the Russian government acquired for $13bn in 2005. The Guardian approached lawyers for Roman Abramovich for comment.

UK sanctions on West Bank settlers are the right step | Letters

As a religious Jew, I am disappointed at the reaction of some of our communal leaders and bodies to the sanctions on trade with illegal Israeli settlements (UK accuses Israeli ‘terrorists’ of ethnic cleansing in West Bank with government backing, 8 September). Many Jews in the UK are horrified by the Israeli government’s actions, which include promises from some ministers of burying the idea of a Palestinian state, and turning a blind eye to unchecked settlement expansion and escalating settler violence. While much of the British media may choose to platform one view as being representative of the Jewish reaction to these sanctions, I would point to organisations such as Yachad and Na’amod, which provide an alternative anti‑occupation narrative. It is also frustrating that the opinion of the chief rabbi is upheld by news organisations as though he is the Jewish version of the pope: he isn’t. There are indeed rabbis in the UK who agree with these sanctions, or who have visited the West Bank and seen displays of injustice and violence with their own eyes, and understand that something must be done (Senior UK rabbis come out in support of sanctions on Israeli settlements, 9 September). There is a multiplicity of opinions on this nuanced subject that cannot be boiled down to a statement from one leader. I walk through the world visibly Jewish with a kippah on my head. I will also be attending synagogue over the High Holy Day period. During this period of increased antisemitism, my safety as a Jew and the urgent need for all countries to “call out” Israel are not mutually exclusive. Jewish people are held responsible for the actions of an Israeli government over which they have no control – that’s true. This, as the foreign secretary has stated, is antisemitism and should be tackled. However, above all, I believe that when we Jews see suffering we have an impetus to act, no matter how conflicting it feels: “If not now, when?” Jonathan Tebble Brighton • The government’s announcement of sanctions against settlements in the West Bank could have been better timed. Those of us in Israel who have worked for years to create a just and secure peace for two nations, and in six weeks’ time have a chance to remove a government that persists in settlement expansion and the denial of Palestinian rights, have just been kicked in the nuts. There is nothing more dangerous than an Israeli electorate who feel that the world is against them. The British government, along with other European countries that made similar declarations, may well have handed an election victory to the very forces they are committed to undermine and remove: the likes of Benjamin Netanyahu, Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich. It would have been more sensible to make the announcements after 27 October, possibly when the new government had been formed and was available for policy discussion with its international partners. Clear and sincere commitments to peace and security for both countries would be enormously more helpful than declaring sanctions against West Bank settlements before an Israeli election that is critical for the future of a liberal, democratic state of Israel. Robin Newell Kibbutz Sde Nehemia, Israel • A substantial minority of British Jews like myself agree with the UK government’s new use of the term ethnic cleansing to describe how armed settlers in the occupied territories evict Palestinians from their land, with passive and sometimes active support from Israeli institutions. While the UK’s trade ban on goods from the occupied West Bank and new language is unlikely to be a significant catalyst for change, the terminology is now at least accurate. Tolerating settler violence is longstanding Israeli policy, which I’ve seen with my own eyes. Twenty-two years ago I spent some months in a tiny farming village in the West Bank called Yanoun, where neighbouring armed settlers were severely harassing Palestinian villagers. Settlers killed livestock, contaminated wells, walked with guns through the hamlet, drove their cars up and down village roads, and beat villagers. I saw with dismay the indulgent favour of state forces towards these most renegade settlers: how regional police (settlers themselves) laughed contemptuously at villagers’ complaints; and how, when called upon for protection, the Israeli army arrived slowly or not at all, and did nothing. In the last year, I learned that Yanoun’s villagers have left their beautiful village for a second time, perhaps for good? This is how ethnic cleansing works. Dr Vivienne Jackson Walthamstow, 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.

Enjoy Łódź – but don’t omit its tragic past | Letter

I was shocked to read your travel article detailing the delights of Łódź without a single mention of the city’s past as the site of one of the largest ghettos during the second world war (A city break in Łódź, Poland’s capital of cinema and factories, 5 September). The article says: “I ask Anna how Łódź fared in the second world war. ‘It was not too badly damaged,’ she says. ‘Both the Germans and the Russians wanted the industry intact.’” I wonder how the surviving family members of the perhaps 200,000 people who died after being herded into the ghetto, often to work as slaves for the Nazi war effort, would feel about that. Łódź is indeed a wonderful city, and I have watched its transformation since I worked there in the late 1980s. Your article highlights the many great pleasures of the city today, as I too experienced on my most recent visit in July. But as so many have said in the past, if we ignore history, all too often we repeat it. Dr Richard Bradbury Exton, Devon • 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.