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Australian passenger disruption as airlines delay or cancel flights after Iran’s attack on US base in Qatar

The Albanese government and airlines are warning passengers in Australia of flight delays and disruptions after Iran’s strike on a US base in Qatar resulted in several countries closing their airspace. In a post to X on Tuesday morning, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said there had been “disruptions to flights with temporary airspace closures in the region”. “Closure of airspace around transit hubs may impact flights globally, causing delays and cancellations,” she said. “Australians travelling should seek updates from their airlines and follow SmartTraveller.” Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email In a statement, Qantas said it had rerouted two flights – one bound for the UK and one headed to Europe – with the latter en route back to Australia. “Due to airspace closures and congestion through the Middle East resulting in air traffic restrictions, QF9 (Perth-London) has been diverted to Singapore and QF33 (Perth-Paris) is returning to Perth,” the statement said. “We continue to monitor airspace availability closely and will alter our schedule as required. We thank our customers for their patience and understanding.” Virgin Australia was warning passengers it had diverted flights VA1 and VA15, operated by Qatar Airways for Virgin Australia, after Qatar’s airspace temporarily closed. Qatar’s Civil Aviation Authority has reopened the country’s airspace, however, with the agency posting to X that things would return to “normal” after taking “necessary measures in coordination with relevant authorities”, according to a translation. “The Authority commends the great cooperation shown by all partners and the efforts of all state entities to ensure the safety and security of aviation in Qatari airspace.” But some passengers were electing to disembark flights rather than continue their travel plans, including at Melbourne airport, according to the ABC. The airport warned passengers on Tuesday morning there may be delays or disruptions to service “if you’re due to travel through the Middle East today”. “Please check with your airline for any updates to your flight departure time,” the airline posted on X.

Canada and EU sign defence pact amid strained US relations and global instability

Canada has signed a wide-ranging defence pact with the EU, as Donald Trump and global instability prompt traditional US allies to deepen their alliances. Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, on Monday joined European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and head of the European Council, António Costa, in Brussels, where they signed a security and defence partnership, pledged more support for Ukraine, as well as joint work on issues from the climate crisis to artificial intelligence. At a cordial press conference, Carney described Canada as “the most European of the non-European countries” that “looks first to the European Union to build a better world”. Costa spoke in kind: “The European Union and Canada are among the closest allies in the transatlantic space. We see the world through the same lens. We stand for the same values.” Not mentioned was another leader in the transatlantic space: Donald Trump, whose disrespect for old allies appears to have galvanised what was an already healthy EU-Canada relationship. The US president is expected at the two-day Nato summit in the Hague starting on Tuesday, when members of the transatlantic alliance are called to pledge to spend 5% of GDP on defence. Carney, a veteran central banker turned politician, won a stunning victory in April pledging that Canada would not become the 51st US state, a proposal often floated by Trump. He said he had a mandate “to diversify and strengthen our international partnerships” and find new means of cooperation and coordination. The summit took place, Carney told reporters: “in a hinge moment of history, a world that is more dangerous and divided, a time where the rules-based international global order is under threat”. The EU-Canada security and defence partnership opens the door to increased Canadian participation in the EU’s fledgling €150bn defence fund, known as Safe. Von der Leyen said the defence partnership meant working on joint capabilities, interoperability and joint procurement, referencing air defence. “The access of Canada to our joint procurement in the European Union, the door is open,” she said. The security pact is a Canadian version of the agreement the EU signed with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, last month. The bloc already had similar arrangements with six other countries including Norway and Japan, but this is the first with any country in the Americas. The defence pact includes joint work on cyber, maritime and space security, arms control and support for Ukraine. Countries that have a defence and security pact with the EU can take part in joint procurement of weapons funded by the €150bn (£128bn, $173bn) Safe programme, although must negotiate a further technical agreement. Von der Leyen pledged both sides would “swiftly launch talks” on Canadian access to the joint procurement scheme. Carney said the agreement with the EU would help Canada “deliver on our new capabilities more rapidly and more effectively”. Canada has been one of the laggards of the Nato alliance: in 2024 it spent just 1.37% of GDP on defence, well below the 2% set in 2014. The two sides have a €125bn trading relationship, underpinned by the Ceta pact signed in 2016 that abolished 98% of tariffs. The agreement, however, has yet to be ratified by national parliaments in 10 EU member states, including Belgium, France, Italy and Poland, meaning elements of the deal have yet to enter into force. In advance of the meeting, Carney and his wife, Diana Fox Carney, visited Schoonselhof military cemetery in Antwerp, where 348 Canadians are buried. On social media, Carney wrote: “brave young soldiers who ventured across the Atlantic to defend the freedom of Europe”. The Carneys were accompanied by Belgium’s prime minister, formerly a long-serving Antwerp mayor, Bart De Wever, where they were given a tour of the ceremony and laid wreaths on behalf of Belgium and Canada. The last post was played by one of De Wever’s sons, according to local paper Het Nieuwsblad.

Ukraine and UK to jointly produce long-range drones, Zelenskyy says

Ukraine and the UK are to deepen their defence cooperation by jointly producing long-range drones, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Monday after talks with Keir Starmer in Downing Street aimed at forcing Russia to “think about peace”. Zelenskyy said his main objective was “to save as many lives as possible” and to “stop Russian terror”. Writing on social media, he called for “maximum political and diplomatic coordination” and closer work on “joint defence projects and weapons production”. Speaking at the Chatham House thinktank, Ukraine’s president said both countries would begin co-producing “long-range drones” soon. He declined to give details, but the drones are likely to be used against strategic military targets inside Russia. “We will do it together. I’m happy about these strong relations between both of our countries,” he said, thanking the UK, “Keir” and previous governments for their support of Ukraine. Ukraine is the world’s leading producer of drones, which now dominate the battlefield. Earlier this month Ukraine’s SBU security agency carried out a spectacular covert drone attack on five Russian airbases, destroying about 20 Russian bomber aircraft. The prime minister and Zelenskyy chatted in the Downing Street garden with Ukrainian troops being trained in the UK. Earlier Ukraine’s president described Russia, Iran and North Korea as a “coalition of murderers”. He arrived in London hours after the Kremlin launched another big air raid on Kyiv. It involved 352 drones – half of them were Iranian-designed Shaheds – and North Korean ballistic missiles in what Zelenskyy called “a completely cynical strike”. At least 14 people were killed and five civilian apartment blocks badly damaged. “A large number of drones and missiles were shot down by our air defenders – but not all,” Zelenskyy posted on social media. “Everyone in countries neighbouring Russia, Iran and North Korea should be thinking carefully about whether they could protect lives if this coalition of murderers persists and continues spreading their terror.” Zelenskyy has supported Donald Trump’s missile strikes on Iran’s nuclear facilities and has accused Tehran of complicity in Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fourth year. Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons arsenal in the 1990s in exchange for US, British and Russian security guarantees. These failed, however, to prevent Vladimir Putin’s 2022 attack. Zelenskyy’s latest trip to the UK was to discuss how to compel Russia to stop its war, Ukrainian officials said. His previous visit in March followed a disastrous meeting in the Oval Office in which Trump accused him of “gambling with world war three” and the US vice-president, JD Vance, berated him for supposed ingratitude. Monday’s discussions encompassed sanctions and the Trump administration, which has so far refused to punish Russia and has practically ended US weapons deliveries to Kyiv. Ukraine has been attempting to keep Washington onside diplomatically, despite its apparent pivot to Moscow. “We will be negotiating new and powerful steps to increase pressure on Russia for this war and to put an end to the strikes,” Zelenskyy said of his London trip. As well as talks with Starmer, he met King Charles at Windsor Castle. Zelenskyy will travel to this week’s two-day Nato summit in The Hague and is scheduled to meet the alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte. It is unclear if he will have a face-to-face meeting with Trump, who is expected to arrive on Tuesday and push for greater defence spending from Nato member states. Since Trump’s return to the White House in January, Russia has dramatically stepped up its aerial attacks on Ukraine. It has refused Zelenskyy’s offer of a 30-day ceasefire and continues to target civilians. Monday’s strikes hit a residential area, hospitals and sports infrastructure. The most severe damage was in Shevchenkivskyi district, where a section of a five-storey apartment building collapsed. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said six people had been killed in the district. Ten others, including a pregnant woman, were rescued from a nearby high-rise that also sustained heavy damage. Oleksii Pozychaniuk, 29, who lives in the building next to the one struck, said he heard the whistle of a rocket approaching and “froze in terror” before feeling the impact. “Windows blew out, glass was flying everywhere,” he told the Associated Press. “We barely made it downstairs with my child. Everything here was on fire.”

U2 guitarist The Edge becomes Irish citizen – after 62 years in the country

After decades of finely balanced procrastination, the U2 guitarist The Edge has officially become Irish. The 63-year-old British subject was conferred with Irish citizenship on Monday, 62 years after moving to Ireland in a step he said was “long overdue”. U2 may be a symbol of Ireland, and The Edge’s woolly caps may verge on national treasure status, but David Howell Evans had not been a citizen until now. “I’m a little tardy with the paperwork,” he told reporters after a conferring ceremony in Killarney, County Kerry. “I’ve been living in Ireland now since I was one year old. But the time is right. And I couldn’t be more proud of my country for all that it represents and all that it is doing.” Evans was born in England to Welsh parents but has considered himself Irish – and Ireland his home – since he was a toddler. He formed U2 in 1976 with three Dublin classmates – Paul Hewson, better known as Bono, Larry Mullen Jr and Adam Clayton – and went on to record Sunday Bloody Sunday and other songs that became Irish anthems. Evans, however, never got around to applying for citizenship. “Honestly, there were many moments in the past when I could have done it with just the form to be filled out but I’m happy it’s now, it feels more significant,” he said. Wearing an Irish tricolour clip, Evans swore an oath of loyalty and fidelity to the Irish state with hundreds of other newly created citizens in the Gleneagle arena – one of several back-to-back ceremonies that will confer citizenship on 7,500 people on Monday and Tuesday. He said the ceremony had been very moving and especially significant for him because of Ireland’s support for multilateral organisations, such as the international criminal court and the UN, and for “speaking truth to power”. “I have always felt Irish, Ireland will always be home to me and I’m so grateful for that,” he said. Ireland was showing real leadership in the world, he said. “It couldn’t come at a better moment for me so I am just so happy to be at this point, to be in even deeper connection with my homeland.” Critics of U2 say the band’s tax arrangements, which route some income not generated in Ireland overseas, undermine its commitment to the country. The 7,500 applicants at the Kerry ceremonies come from more than 143 countries, with the biggest number from India with 1,888, followed by Brazil with 817, the UK 516, the Philippines 480, Romania 470, and Poland 396. They include shop assistants, meat plant workers and financiers. The minister for justice, home affairs and migration, Jim O’Callaghan, said the ceremonies were milestones that would connect the new citizens to their adopted homeland. He said: “It is a great privilege to become a citizen of this country and obviously with it comes responsibilities and duties, and I think everyone who is taking on citizenship will be aware of that.” His comments came amid a growing backlash against immigration in the US and Europe, including Ireland and Northern Ireland. Thousands of protesters attended a rally in central Dublin on Sunday, some holding banners saying “Ireland is full”, others with caps saying “Make Ireland Great Again”.

‘It’s non-stop’: residents of Ramat Aviv describe life amid Iranian bomb strikes

A day after Iranian missiles struck, workers were still clearing rubble from the charred remains of an apartment block in Ramat Aviv, a quiet suburb in north-west Tel Aviv. Bystanders stopped and stared at the destruction, some posing for selfies in front of the impact site, other flipping through a diary belonging to one of the building’s residents, which had been thrown on the pavement. “This feels like one long day, it’s non-stop,” said Liat, the CFO of an entertainment firm in Tel Aviv, as she surveyed the destruction. “You have to go to the shelter three or four times in a day. We want to go back to regular life, to have fun again.” The neighbourhood in Tel Aviv was one of 10 sites hit across Israel on Sunday, in the most intense Iranian barrage yet, which left 23 people injured. It came just a few hours after the US military attacked three nuclear sites in Iran, which it said “devastated” Iran’s nuclear capabilities. A day after the strike, Israelis were wondering how long the war with Iran would last, as Israeli officials issued contradictory statements. Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, said on Sunday night: “Once we achieve the goals, we will not continue beyond what is necessary. But we won’t end it prematurely either. “We will not be drawn into a war of attrition. But nor will we end this action, this historic operation, before we achieve all its goals.” Fighting started on 13 June after Israel launched hundreds of airstrikes on Iran in what it said was a military operation designed to prevent the country from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran quickly responded with a barrage of missiles and drones, kicking off a steadily escalating war now in its second week. Previously, the Israeli military said its goals were to cripple Iran’s nuclear and ballistic missile programme, as well as stop what they said was an Iranian plan to destroy Israel. On Monday, it seemed unclear if Israel’s goals had expanded, with Donald Trump floating the idea of regime change in a social media post and Israeli strikes on internal security forces’ headquarters in Tehran. In Israeli media, senior defence officials were cited arguing that Israel should seize the opportunity and forge a rigid deal with Iran while it was on the back foot. To Liat, the prospect of a prolonged war was daunting. Iran, unlike Hamas or Yeman’s Houthi rebels, she said, was a proper state with proper missiles. Israel is still fighting in Gaza, where nearly 60,000 people have been killed in its military campaign over the last 20 months – a war launched after the Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October 2023, which killed 1,200. Liat said: “This war has to end. It’s been almost a week and a half and its enough. When the Houthis would strike us, we would stay in bed, it wasn’t scary. But buildings are collapsing, you think: ‘It could be me.’” Iranian strikes have killed 24 people in Israel and wounded hundreds more. Israeli strikes have killed at least 430 and wounded more than 3,500 in Iran. Thousands have been displaced across Iran, particularly from the nation’s capital, Tehran, which has experienced heavy bombing over the last 10 days. On Monday, the effects of Sunday’s strikes in Israel were still plain to see, with broken glass littering the promenade of a nearby mall. Many businesses across the country were closed as the Israeli home front limited large gatherings so as to ensure adequate space in bomb shelters distributed across the country. Life seemed to continue with some sort of normality. Across the street from the blast site, people sipped coffee at a cafe, stickers still affixed to the newly installed windowpanes. People jogged on the streets of Tel Aviv as the Israeli military announced it had just completed a series of strikes in western Iran. Despite Iran launching missiles at Israel that morning, there were no injuries from that salvo. The war with Iran has widespread support in Israel, even among the country’s opposition, with Yair Lapid, Israel’s opposition leader, praising Israel’s strikes as “justified and necessary”. There have been very few protests against the war within Israel, particularly as the home office’s restrictions prohibited gatherings. Gil, a 32-year-old tech worker who lives near the strike site in Ramat Aviv, said: “I think there is a broad understanding that it’s absolutely necessary, I don’t think any civilian is in any position to say when and how the war should end – we just don’t have the data.”

Rights groups warn Gaza Humanitarian Foundation it may be liable for international law violations

Fifteen international human rights organisations have called on the Israel- and US-backed Gaza food delivery group, Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF), and other private groups running humanitarian aid delivery in Gaza to cease their operations or face legal consequences. In a letter sent on Monday to GHF and the affiliated Safe Reach Solutions and UG Solutions, the rights advocates warned that private contractors operating in Gaza in collaboration with the Israeli government risk “aiding and abetting or otherwise being complicit in crimes under international law, including war crimes, crimes against humanity, or genocide”. They also noted that the contractors may be liable under US law and in other jurisdictions. The letter marks the latest warning against GHF, which has been mired in controversy since replacing most UN-run relief operations in Gaza. Major aid groups have boycotted it and accused it of violating the principles of neutrality and independence that are bedrocks of humanitarian work. GHF did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The rollout of GHF operations over the last three weeks – after a two-month blockade on most aid entering Gaza that has pushed the territory’s 2.1 million residents to the verge of famine – has been deadly. Scores of Palestinians seeking food aid have been killed by Israeli forces in chaotic scenes surrounding four privately run distribution hubs a UN official has described as “death traps”. “GHF’s militarized model, coupled with its close collaboration with Israeli authorities, undermines the core humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence,” the letter sent on Monday warned. “We urge all parties involved – State actors, corporate entities, donors and individuals – to immediately suspend any action or support that facilitates the forcible displacement of civilians, contributes to starvation or other grave breaches of international law, or undermines the core principles of international humanitarian law.” Earlier this month, the US-based Center for Constitutional Rights had warned in a separate letter to Johnnie Moore, the evangelical leader and Trump adviser appointed to run the foundation after its former head resigned, that he and other GHF representatives may face civil litigation or criminal prosecution. “Hundreds of Palestinians have been killed in the weeks since GHF began its dehumanizing, militarized ‘distribution hubs’ in coordination with Israeli forces,” said Katherine Gallagher, a senior staff attorney at CCR, which also signed on to the most recent letter. “If it continues its deadly, militarized operations, legal consequences will follow, whether in the United States or beyond.” Raji Sourani, director of the Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, another signatory, said it was “immoral and inhuman when those committing the genocide take responsibility to feed those whom they have starved”. “They are using the GHF to humiliate, degrade and kill daily tens of starving people,” he added, referring to Israel. Last week, the US senator Elizabeth Warren questioned the Trump administration’s proposal to redirect $500m from USAID, which the administration has gutted, to GHF, which is registered in the US and Switzerland. “The questions surrounding GHF – its funding sources and connection to the Trump Administration, its use of private contractors, its ability to serve and be seen as a neutral entity, its abandonment by its founders, and its basic competence in providing aid – must be answered before the State Department commits any funding to the organization,” Warren wrote. Human rights and humanitarian groups across the world have denounced the replacement of independent, long-established humanitarian relief operations by private, militarized groups and called for UN-operated relief efforts to be allowed in the strip again. “This is not how you avert famine,” James Elder, Unicef’s global spokesperson, wrote in the Guardian. “There is no need to reinvent the wheel. We delivered aid at scale during the ceasefire, and we can do it again. We just need to be allowed to do our jobs.”