Russia launches ‘massive attack’ on Kyiv and surrounding region – Europe live
The death toll from the overnight Russian attack on Kyiv has gone up to 15, Kyiv authorities said. 39 people were injured.
Without action wildfires in Europe will increase 39% even in best-case climate scenario, study finds
Wildfires are projected to burn 39% more of Europe by the end of the century even in the best-case scenario for stopping the planet from heating, a study has found, unless action is taken to manage them better. The increase in hot, dry and windy weather that leads to small fires turning into raging infernos is to engulf more of Europe as carbon pollution pushes temperatures higher. In the worst-case scenario the researchers modelled, which would see global heating reach 3.6C above preindustrial levels, the burnt area would almost triple. Improvements in fire management could moderate those increases by more than 70%, the study found, but not eradicate them entirely. “Investments into fire management could help to a certain limit, but if we go on a path of high emissions … we still see strong increases in burnt area,” said Maik Billing, an ecosystem researcher at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and lead author of the study. “Fire management cannot replace climate mitigation.” The research comes as wildfires continue to ravage Europe, with large blazes hitting northern European countries such as the UK, Belgium and Germany after weeks in which France, Spain, Italy, Croatia and Greece battled monster infernos. Across the EU, this fire season is set to become the third-worst on record, behind 2025 and 2022, according to data published by the European Forest Fire Information Service on Thursday. More than 600,000 hectares have burned so far, with records broken for this time of year in Belgium, France and Slovakia. The researchers, who compared the projected annual burnt area in 2070-2100 with modelled results for the period 2000-2030, found the increase in fire weather was the biggest driver of change. In the optimistic scenario, in which global heating is capped at 1.8C, a little above the current level of 1.4C, some regions showed moderate increases in fire weather while others experienced little change. In the pessimistic scenario, however, with 3.6C of heating by the end of the century, the researchers found consistent worsening of fire weather across “virtually all of Europe”. Scientists expect current policies to result in about 2.6C of global heating by the end of the century. Using a second model, the researchers found that continued improvements in fighting fires could temper the effects of worsening fire weather, reducing burnt area by 92% in the cooler scenario compared with fixing firefighting efforts at today’s levels. The researchers used the Human Development Index as a proxy for firefighting ability, but acknowledged the rise of mega-fires made it hard to extrapolate from past experience. Improvements in fire suppression since the 1980s have reduced the number of fires and the area burnt in southern Europe, a study found earlier this month, but the enthusiastic suppression of fires, even small ones, has paradoxically increased the residual fuel load. This has allowed fires to develop to extreme levels when conditions are favourable, resulting in fewer, but more ferocious, fires. Such monster fires hit France and Spain in late July this year, forcing one-third of a million people from their homes as blazes raged with a force firefighters were unable to extinguish. Víctor Resco de Dios, a forestry engineer at the University of Lleida, who was not involved in the study, said the fire season was often accompanied by an “unproductive blame game” – isolating only one of the two key factors whose interaction results in wildfires – and that the study was a reminder to move beyond scapegoating. “The problem of wildfires wouldn’t be worsening if we were heading towards an ice age – instead of global warming,” he said. ”And it would have been largely mitigated if our landscapes were like they were a century ago, with a much smaller forest area.” • The Guardian’s climate forum 2026 – On Tuesday 20 October, join Damian Carrington, and our panel of experts – including Prof Andy Haines, Katie White MP, Asad Rehman, Shruti Suresh Gareth Thomas and Amy Fairman – for a hopeful and solutions-focused evening. Book tickets here or at guardian.live
More than 1,000 birds found dead in three mass mortality events amid ‘significant’ H5 escalation in Australia
The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, has declared a “significant escalation” in H5 bird flu in the state after the detection of three mass mortality events involving more than 1,000 greater crested terns. Malinauskas said the cause of the deaths was presumed to be H5 bird flu. State authorities were also investigating a suspected case in a little penguin found on Kangaroo Island, with the premier telling the state parliament the development was of “particular concern”. Separately, the Tasmanian government said it was investigating 28 little penguin deaths on King Island with testing under way to determine whether the birds died of H5 bird flu. Malinauskas said aerial surveillance on Wednesday detected the three mass mortality events in South Australia, all on offshore islands where H5 bird flu had been detected in recent weeks. He said more than 1,000 dead crested terns were found across Troubridge Island off the Yorke Peninsula and the Pages Islands – known as North Page and South Page – off Kangaroo Island. The deaths would represent the biggest detected mass casualty events from suspected H5 bird flu since the deadly strain arrived on the Australian mainland in June. Greater crested terns, a common Australian seabird, have been the most affected local species so far. The Pages Islands are a known breeding site for a colony of endangered Australian sea lions and long-nosed fur seals are known to visit the islands. Troubridge Island conservation park is an important breeding area for birds and home to a large colony of little penguins, as well as black cormorants and many crested terns. Malinauskas said the state’s aerial patrols, involving helicopters, planes and drones with support from field crews, were not limited to coastal sea birds. He said crews also looked for mammals, such as Australian sea lions or long-nosed fur seals, which might be affected by H5 bird flu. “Fortunately, so far, no mass mortality event … involving mammals has yet been detected or reported,” he said. He said there remained no detections in poultry or livestock. At a later media conference, the government said new cases in greater crested terns had also been detected in Flagstaff Hill, McLaren Vale, North Haven in the Adelaide area, Lucky Bay on the Eyre peninsula and Tanunda in the Barossa region. South Australia’s first confirmed case in a raven had also been detected at Port MacDonnell on the Limestone coast. Georgie Cornish, the executive director of biosecurity at the Department of Primary Industries and Regions, said the detection in the Barossa illustrates the “movement [of H5 bird flu] from [the] coast inwards”. Malinauskas said the state would continue to take “every practical and appropriate action available” to protect South Australia’s wildlife, industries and communities. He told the parliament that broad-scale vaccination of wild birds was “neither practical nor appropriate”, but said the state was considering “targeted vaccination of selected captive and managed populations of our most threatened native birds, where it is safe, feasible and likely to provide a conservation benefit”. The SA government said on Thursday it had been working with Zoos SA and Cleland wildlife park to prepare to vaccinate priority captive native species, with the vaccination of captive little penguins, orange-bellied parrots, red-tailed black cockatoos, cape barren geese and pelicans under consideration. The state government was also investigating potential opportunities to vaccinate high-priority at-risk mammals such as Australian sea lions at Seal Bay on Kangaroo Island. While there are no registered vaccines for treating H5 bird flu in mammals, the United States has undertaken experimental trials on a small number of seals. Late on Thursday, the New South Wales government also confirmed H5 bird flu in seven birds found at Narooma and Merimbula on the state’s south coast. Six of the birds were greater crested terns and one was a giant petrel. The state government said it was “progressing plans to vaccinate priority captive native species”, including regent honeyeaters and little penguins. In Tasmania, the state government said aerial surveillance on Wednesday spotted 28 dead little penguins and three dead crested terns at the Port of Grassy on King Island. The Department of Natural Resources and Environment said samples had been collected and sent for laboratory testing for H5 bird flu, with results expected “during the week”. “Tasmanians care deeply about our wildlife, and particularly our penguins, so we understand that reports like these may be distressing for the community,” a spokesperson said. They said staff planned to collect the dead birds on Thursday to reduce the risk of transmission.
Kyiv comes under heavy Russian missile attack, killing at least 13
A heavy Russian bombardment has killed at least 13 people in Ukraine’s capital and its surrounding region overnight, authorities have said. A missile attack on Kyiv struck residential areas and warehouses, said the mayor, Vitali Klitschko. The attack damaged residential buildings, a medical facility and an educational institution. Thirteen people were killed and 33 injured, he said. A children’s hospital was struck in the Solomianskyi district to the west of the heart of the capital, with windows blown out and cars burned. At least two residential buildings were also reported hit in the area. Explosions could be heard from the city centre at about midnight on Wednesday, earlier than the normal timing of Russian missile strikes, and there was a further wave of attacks early on Thursday morning. Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched dozens of ballistic, cruise and hypersonic missiles and 168 drones in the overnight attack. It said Kinzhal and Zircon hypersonic missiles were used, as well as Iskander and North Korean KN-23 ballistic missiles and Shahed drones. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, urged a global response to the attacks. “While Moscow is investing in ballistic missiles and escalation, such strikes do not always receive the response they should from the world. And as long as Ukraine does not have enough anti-ballistic defence, Russia will not consider peace seriously,” Zelenskyy said on social media. An attack in Brovary district of the broader Kyiv region killed one man and wounded another, said the regional governor, Tymur Tkachenko. “One industrial facility has been damaged. All relevant services are on site, working to extinguish the fire,” he said. Ukraine’s air force had warned of Russian Kalibr cruise missiles passing over the regional village of Kaharlyk and heading towards the capital. Poland’s military command said it had mobilised aircraft and activated air defences aimed at protecting Polish airspace, particularly in areas bordering Ukraine. Romania’s defence ministry said radar systems detected aerial targets near the Ukrainian border overnight, prompting the scrambling of two Spanish fighter jets deployed on Nato missions and a Romanian air force helicopter. The ministry said a drone entered Romanian airspace near Galati before crashing in an unpopulated area in Tulcea county. Russia also reported a large Ukrainian drone attack. Moscow’s mayor, Sergei Sobyanin, said 250 drones had flown toward the Moscow region between Wednesday night and Thursday morning, with most destroyed at a significant distance from the capital itself. On Wednesday a Russian drone hit a minibus in Kherson, killing four people, said Ukrainian prosecutors, while at Zhytomyr in central Ukraine a Banderol drone-missile hit the police headquarters, killing two officers and wounding at least 20 others, the police service said. While Kyiv has faced near-nightly attacks, Ukraine has also escalated its retaliatory strikes on Russia in recent months, partly to put pressure on Moscow to come to the negotiating table after nearly four and a half years of war. In Russia’s border regions of Belgorod and Bryansk two people were killed when drones hit cars, Russian officials said on Friday last week. Thursday’s latest attack on Kyiv came as Zelenskyy grappled with renewed scandal extending into the upper reaches of his administration. Ukraine’s president fired by decree one of his senior aides, Iryna Mudra, after reports in Ukrainian media that her house was being searched by officials investigating an alleged money-laundering scheme. The Nabu anti-corruption agency said it was investigating a criminal conspiracy that involved “the participation of high-ranking officials from the office of the president” and several others. It is an extension of a high-level corruption scandal that has been running for months with government officials and wealthy influential figures variously being investigated, dismissed from office, arrested or fleeing the country. In Russia, Vladimir Putin’s regime has continued to face Ukrainian long-range strikes that, as well as burning the warehouses of the online retailer Wildberries, have caused petrol shortages after oil refineries and depots were blown up. With cars forming long queues at petrol stations, their operators are capping the number of litres sold per customer. Moscow confirmed on Wednesday that Russia was having to import refined petroleum products to try to stabilise supply. The Reuters news agency used industry contacts and market data to establish that a tanker from India had recently arrived and unloaded, while supplies were also being sourced from east Asia. It is a remarkable reversal of flow given that India has been one of the keenest buyers of Russian oil – sales of which can occur only through illicit channels such as Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of tankers, or officially at a capped price that is held down by international sanctions.
Thursday briefing: The million young people the UK is leaving behind
Good morning. Thousands of young people will be arriving at school in the next few hours to collect their GCSE results. Many will continue to sixth form, others will be heading to apprenticeships, and some will spend the next few years relentlessly pitching their CVs to AI bots. An estimated one million young people in the UK aged 16 to 24 are not in education, employment or training of any kind. These “Neets”, as they’re known, have preoccupied policymakers since the early 1990s. But their number is now higher than ever, an indication of economic inactivity, low growth and rising welfare costs that worry civil servants in Whitehall. Alan Milburn, formerly health secretary under Tony Blair’s government, is now conducting a high-profile review of Neets. His final report is expected later this year. The Neet issue exemplifies how an increasingly unhappy, isolated generation of young people are becoming detached from social institutions and losing faith in their own futures. For today’s First Edition, I spoke to psychologist Marc Mon-Williams who leads a study following the lives and development of 13,500 children in Bradford, about what’s going wrong for Britain’s youth. That’s after the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Richard Tice should apologise to firefighters for his comments this week urging British people to “enjoy” this summer’s extreme heat, according to the Labour party chair. West Sussex | A father who died alongside a woman and teenage girl off the coast of Shoreham-by-Sea was a Palestinian refugee, the Palestinian embassy has confirmed. Energy | Household energy bills across Great Britain are expected to climb to a three-year high this winter, with the Middle East war wiping out Andy Burnham’s tax cut on electricity bills. Ukraine | A heavy Russian bombardment killed at least six people and wounded dozens in Ukraine’s capital and its surrounding region overnight, authorities said on Thursday. Gaza| The Israeli military admitted on Wednesday its troops had opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six family members in Gaza in 2024, saying it had ordered a criminal investigation into the killing. In depth: A generation falling through the cracks First, a brief note on language: nobody ever calls themselves a “Neet”. In May, Milburn published his interim report, which found that the UK has the second-highest rate of Neets in Europe, after Romania. An accompanying paper, Inside the Mind of a Young Neet, featured snippets from conversations with more than 400 young people who were out of work and education. Its authors heard from a 22-year-old who was competing in archery contests, a gardening fanatic who had taught themselves how to make raised beds, and an aspiring linguist who could read Latin and crochet flower baskets. These are skilled young people with huge potential and meaningful lives. The problem lies in a system that is failing them. Broadly, there are two explanations for why so many young people today aren’t in work or education. The first is the labour market. Businesses have argued that rising national insurance contributions are deterring firms from hiring young workers, while others have speculated that AI is destroying entry-level jobs. The second, more troubling explanation, is the striking number of young people who are unwell or have poor mental health. The proportion of 18 to 24-year-olds with a long-term, limiting health condition has increased by 42% since 2019, while the number of 20 to 24-year-olds prescribed antidepressants increased by almost a third between 2015 and 2021. Britain now has the highest rate of anxiety and depressive disorders among 15 to 24-year-olds in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. “We often talk about the relationship between the labour market and poor health as being ‘bi-directional’,” Mon-Williams explains. People who are out of work are more likely to feel anxious or depressed, he says, while past experiences of anxiety or depression can become a barrier to entering the workforce. “Both come into play, which is why it’s so complex.” What emerges from these figures is a picture of generational misery. As Mon-Williams puts it: “I really think we need to take a step back, take a good hard look at ourselves as a country, and ask : what on earth have we allowed to happen?” *** Why are young people so unhappy? There’s a tendency (particularly among ageing right-wing commentators who depend on young people paying taxes that fund the NHS and state pensions) to blame these rates of ill-health on a culture of over-diagnosis among self-indulgent “snowflakes”. The Born in Bradford study refutes this myth. Mon-Williams and other researchers have access to the health records of 13,500 young people born in 2007, from pregnancy through to the present day, as well as data about their mental health. Many participants suffering from mental ill health struggle to get any support. “The evidence shows that there’s a genuine mental health epidemic among that generation,” he says. “These are warning signs. Pity the country that doesn’t take them seriously.” Nor are Neets work-shy, or choosing to live off benefits rather than find a job. Most want to be in work or education. About 314,000 of them are not receiving any benefits at all, and have effectively disappeared from the system. As Milburn put it in his interim report, caricatures of a generation uninterested in employment or using mental health as an excuse “are myths. Sometimes cruel ones.” Researchers have identified multiple reasons for growing rates of mental ill-health among young people, including financial precarity, housing insecurity, drastic cuts to youth clubs and youth workers, rising social media use and broken sleep (while compiling his interim report, a group of teenagers told Milburn they went to bed between midnight and three each night because they were scrolling on their phones). The disciplinary, top-button-obsessed culture of many academy schools can also contribute to these problems by excluding children with complex needs or neurodivergence, making it more likely they become a Neet later. “When you exclude a child, you’re consigning them to the probability of having a rubbish life,” Mon-Williams tells me. *** Has the pandemic made this worse? The pandemic aggravated an ongoing mental health crisis, cutting many young people off from school and severing their friendships and social bonds. In his Born in Bradford data, Mon-Williams found a striking increase in the number of children who were absent from school after Covid. “Pre-pandemic, in Bradford, we had 3,000 children who were persistently absent,” he says. “Post-pandemic, that went up to 30,000. That’s a hugely worrying statistic.” Many young people missed out on opportunities to learn both academically and socially. “I lost the social aspect of connecting with people … maintaining eye contact, hand gestures and all sorts,” one young person told the Inside the Mind of a Neet researchers. For some, patterns cultivated in lockdown – long nights spent online, disrupted sleep patterns, minimal social contact and eroded routines – morphed into a semi-permanent stasis. *** What needs to change? Milburn’s interim findings acknowledges that there needs to be a “system reset”. There’s also been a lot of chatter in Westminster about “hard hats” and vocational training, which is an improvement on the status quo (Britain has far fewer young people on vocational courses than Germany or the Netherlands). Mon-Williams argues that we should be thinking about preventing someone from becoming a Neet right from the start of their life. That would mean ensuring that pregnant mothers have enough support, that families can access Sure-Start centres, that young people arrive at school ready to learn, and that teenagers leave with a clear plan, a sense of confidence and direction, and some work experience on their CV. “I’m glad that we’re starting to wake up,” he said. “It breaks my heart, this stuff. But as a society, we could change it.” What else we’ve been enjoying Who is Natalie Harp? David Smith gave a fascinating insight into the “human printer” who has become one of Trump’s closest aides. Hettie Alexander Hurst’s piece on how flag culture wars have come to Iceland offers a window on how one progressive government has endeavoured to resolve them. Libby I enjoyed Jim Waterson’s piece in the Financial Times (£) about his years-long investigation into the weird world of tax-dodging American Candy shops. Hettie I’m a big fan of Scottish photographer Wendy McMurdo and these latest images from a new exhibition of how tech is changing play do not disappoint. Libby I’ve been feeling increasingly cross at reports of dinosaur skeletons selling to the highest private bidder. Science Weekly asks why fossils have become big business and what it means for research. Libby Sport Cricket | Josh Tongue (5-46) and Ollie Robinson (5-51) dismissed Pakistan for 171 and Joe Root and Jordan Cox added an unbeaten 64 to put England only 59 runs behind. Football | Richard Masters has sought to reassure fans that the Premier League remains “everything that it should be” after the Folarin Balogun red-card scandal called the integrity of disciplinary decisions into question. Tennis | Teenage ace Rafael Jódar loses narrowly in fourth round of the Cincinnati Open yet the buzz around him will only get louder. The front pages “Working in Starmer’s No 10 was unbearable, says ex-chief of staff”, is the Guardian’s splash today. The top story in the Times is “Vaccine for skin cancer helps fight off disease” and similarly for the i Paper which says “New skin vaccine can stop disease and offers hope for era of personalised jabs”. The FT’s take is “Moderna shares double after success for custom-made skin cancer vaccine”. Metro leads on “Refugee family who drowned in seaside tragedy”, while the Mirror writes “Day trip tragedy”. The Mail has “Ministers forced to tell asylum seekers: Don’t rape women”, and the Express says “Don’t rape or beat up women when in Britain”. Lastly, the Telegraph leads on “Harry’s coming home”, a report also carried by the Sun, which says “Harry & Meg coming home”. The Latest Will Andy Burnham get rough sleepers off streets by Christmas? The prime minister has announced a £442m plan to get rough sleepers off the streets by Christmas. It solidifies tackling homelessness as a central policy for Andy Burnham’s government, and gives voters a measure by which to judge his success – although without a concrete target for ministers to hit. Nosheen Iqbal speaks to social policy editor Patrick Butler. Cartoon of the day | Nicola Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad The Outdoor Access Trust for Scotland is a vital environmental charity promoting and preserving sustainable public access to the great outdoors. With essential funding limited, volunteers are at the heart of their work, rolling up their sleeves in some of the country’s most breathtaking spots of natural beauty to build and repair footpaths, infrastructure and habitats. Writer Mike MacEacheran recently joined them on one of their regular events and found a “joyful shared experience” that proves as good for the soul as it does the natural world. 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. Martin Belam’s Thursday news quiz Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
Oxfam ‘can’t guarantee future’ of charity shops as it also reviews warehouse business
Oxfam is reviewing the operations of its three warehouses in Batley, Bicester and Milton Keynes and says it “cannot give guarantees” on the future of its high street shops in a “difficult economic climate”. The charity said it had no plans to close warehouses or shops but insiders fear that Batley, which houses Oxfam’s main textile recycling centre, will shut as part of a cost-cutting drive because the West Yorkshire site’s lease is up for renewal. All three warehouses together employ about 90 people. A source said Oxfam was considering closing up to 100 of its 500-plus UK outlets as sales at some were no longer viable. “Donations have dropped off,” the insider said, adding that the charity’s shops were also facing competition from online sellers of secondhand goods such as Vinted. “Oxfam is always more expensive, and that’s starting to have an effect,” the source said. Oxfam Activities is the charity’s arm that aims to raise money through its trade in new items for sale in shops, its textile recycling plant in Batley and the provision of stewards for festivals. However, it made losses of more than £2m in the year to March 2025 and in the prior year. Sales fell by 7% in the year to March 2025, driven by a slump in income from recycling. This division of the business does not include direct income from the stores. Lorna Fallon, chief supporter officer of Oxfam GB, said: “In [the last financial year], Oxfam GB’s shops, warehouses and online retail teams generated a £6.3m (net) contribution to our humanitarian work, as well as raising dedicated funds through emergency appeals to support crises in Venezuela, the Middle East and Ukraine. “As is standard practice, we keep all parts of our retail operations under review via regular meetings. While we cannot give guarantees in this difficult economic climate, we are confident in and positive about our current retail performance and do not have plans to close our shops or warehouses at this time.” Fallon said Oxfam had launched a new online rental service recently and had brought fulfilment of online orders back in-house, as well as opening a second superstore, in Manchester. “Next month our shops, warehouses and digital hubs will be leading Second Hand September, our annual campaign to tackle fashion’s environmental damage while raising funds for our global work on poverty and climate change,” she said. The review of Oxfam’s operations comes after job cuts and store closures at charities including the British Heart Foundation (BHF) and Cancer Research. The BHF closed 150 shops and cut jobs earlier this summer. It blamed rising costs and the shift to online shopping had made about a quarter of its high street locations commercially unsustainable. Cancer Research announced in October it would be closing 90 shops across the UK. Charities selling secondhand clothing have also faced increased competition for customers and donations from online sellers such as eBay and Vinted, while the price of “rag” – damaged or unwanted clothing and home textiles for recycling, which was once a key source of income – has fallen in recent years.
Trump threatens Iran’s trade partners, as military strikes make way for economic pressure
Donald Trump has announced a new campaign to isolate Iran’s economy, threatening “tremendous economic consequences” on any country that helps or does business with Tehran, a move that could set up a fresh confrontation with China if implemented. “Today, I am announcing the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country!” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “Any country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will itself face tremendous economic consequences.” His announcement however contained no detail on what actions would be taken or which countries could be affected, and comes as the war nears its six-month mark, with the president facing pressure over the cost of the conflict as the US midterm elections approach. Last month the US president paused attacks on Iran, after a fortnight of nightly strikes that had failed to bring officials in Tehran back to the negotiating table and reports that the war has run down US stockpiles of key munitions. Pentagon advisers reportedly told Trump last month that the US had nearly exhausted its list of targets in Iran and the military campaign had reached the limits of its effectiveness. The White House has signalled in recent weeks a shift in strategy to tightening pressure on Iran economically. US treasury secretary Scott Bessent said last week the US would begin ramping up efforts to isolating Iran economically. The US treasury has for months been carrying out an effort, called Operation Economic Fury, aiming to cut off Iran’s funding with targeted sanctions, while a naval blockade in the strait of Hormuz has sought to block Iranian ports from exporting oil vital to keeping the country’s economy afloat. Iran’s economy already faces a punishing array of US and western sanctions that have ground down the economy over years and curtailed its ability to sell oil. But experts say the country’s leaders have learned to adapt to the measures, including by exporting oil through a sophisticated network of shadow tankers. In his announcement on Wednesday, Trump listed several activities that he said needed to stop immediately, including “oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies”. The wording of the president’s announcement suggested that he could be threatening secondary sanctions on countries that buy Iranian oil, but experts say such a move could lead to direct confrontation with China – Iran’s biggest trading partner – at a time when the US is trying to establish a new trading relationship with Beijing. “Whatever new economic measures the US can use will need to be directed at Iran’s trading partners,” said Gregory Brew, a senior analyst at theEurasia Group, adding that it will be “hard for the US to direct such actions at China, the country that matters most to Iran’s economic future.” Chinese leader Xi Jinping is also expected to visit the US next month, further complicating any efforts to target Beijing’s imports of Iranian oil. Mohammad Mokhber, an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, said on Tuesday that military pressure and sanctions would not break Iran’s resolve. He added that Iran remained open to dialogue with the US, but would not confuse negotiations with surrender, according to the semi-official Fars news agency. On Tuesday, the United Arab Emirates, announced it would suspend all trade activities, commercial exchanges and financial transactions with Iran, after it said it had detected two missiles launched from the country. Tehran dismissed the reports as baseless. Prior to the war, the UAE was one of Iran’s biggest trade partners, providing more than 30% of its imports. Earlier on Wednesday, Trump also claimed that vessels from Gulf countries allied with the US were continuing to move through the strait of Hormuz, despite the Iranian threat to shipping in the waterway. The president said the US military was aiding ships in the strait, saying “right now, a lot of boats are coming through.” Axios reported that US forces were facilitating the transit of 15 to 20 ships in and out of the Hormuz each night in recent weeks – carrying “roughly half the prewar volume” of daily oil shipments – while also continuing to blockade Iranian exports. Those volumes were disputed by some, with ship tracking data from Kpler showing transits remained low. Referring to the Axios report, Danny Citrinowicz, the former head of the Iran branch of Israeli military intelligence, said it was an important operational development, but questioned how long the US government would be able to sustain such an operation. “More importantly, this will not force Iran to surrender or fundamentally change its negotiating position,” said Citrinowicz.
The boy behind the Baby Shark phenomenon: I used to hum it without even realising
“I just remember having fun dancing and playing on what felt like a huge set,” Geonroung Park says, recalling the day 10 years ago when he was filmed, aged seven, doing the hand movements to a children’s song about a family of sharks. That footage became Baby Shark Dance, now the most-watched video in YouTube’s history. It has racked up more than 17.2bn views and has held the platform’s global no 1 spot for 69 consecutive months. Despite becoming one of the most recognisable faces online, growing up as “the Baby Shark kid” was, Park says, mostly ordinary. Friends at school knew about the video and thought it was “cool”, but otherwise treated him much like everyone else. He remembers the song staying stuck in his head for a while after filming wrapped, catching himself humming it “without even realising it”. He found fame in a song, yet almost nobody has actually heard Park sing. The vocals belonged to another child performer. Now 17, Park is keen to change that. “Ten years ago, I was dancing next to Baby Shark,” he tells the Guardian. “Now, I want to share my own voice and the stories I’ve written myself.” Park makes his debut on Thursday as K-pop singer Baby Shark Boy, releasing his first single, Wave, featuring Joohoney of Monsta X, the same K-pop group whose members once performed the Baby Shark choreography during its viral peak. Wave opens with the familiar Baby Shark melody before shifting into an electropop sound, a structure Park says mirrors his own journey. “To me, Baby Shark Dance feels like the first wave that started 10 years ago”, he says. “That small wave grew into something much bigger than I ever could have imagined, and I feel like I’ve grown along with it. “I also thought there was something fun and meaningful about the idea of the little boy who once danced to the song growing up and now sharing a new song in his own voice,” he says. Baby Shark ‘isn’t a past I want to leave behind’ The clip he featured in simmered for about a year before exploding in 2017 via the #BabySharkChallenge in Indonesia. It then got a further push from a run of other K-pop stars, including Blackpink, Twice and Girls’ Generation, performing the choreography on television. By 2019 it had reached number 32 on the Billboard Hot 100 and no 6 on the UK singles chart, and had even become the walk-up song for a Major League Baseball team, the Washington Nationals, on their way to winning that year’s World Series. The song itself is much older than the video. Baby Shark is widely believed to date back to North American summer camps in the 1970s, a singalong chant with hand motions that existed long before Park was born. The company behind the video, then known as SmartStudy, uploaded an animated version in November 2015, then the choreography-led clip in June the following year, turning the folk tune into a catchy singalong with a K-pop-style beat. South Korea’s supreme court settled the question of ownership in August 2025, ruling against a children’s songwriter who had claimed the song copied his own arrangement, and finding his version had not been altered enough from the original chant to qualify for its own copyright protection. The Pinkfong Company, the South Korean children’s entertainment company that built Baby Shark into a global franchise of TV shows, films and merchandise, describes Park’s single as a real-life growth story, rather than a conventional idol launch. Park himself says it feels “more like a new beginning than a one-off project”. Park briefly reappeared last year in short-form video marking the song’s 10th anniversary, which drew more than 24m views, a sign the character never really left public memory. The teenager is keen to be known for more than a childhood clip and to “gradually find my own style as an artist” but is happy with the opportunity it has given him. “To me, being the Baby Shark boy isn’t a past I want to leave behind,” he says.