It’s nice of Bónus bosses to offer their employees a chance to go out and experience the eclipse. For all we know, there isn’t usually that much interest in supermarket shopping during the phenomenon – with Waitrose chief even complaining about it in 1999, the last time we had a solar eclipse in the UK…
At least 44 people have died after an overcrowded ferry capsized on Lake Kariba in Zimbabwe, police said. The boat had a capacity of 90 people, but was carrying 114 adult passengers, five crew members and an unknown number of children, Zimbabwe’s civil protection unit (CPU) said earlier on Wednesday, citing ticket sales. A crew member told the national broadcaster ZBC that there were 153 people onboard when the ferry overturned on Tuesday after it hit large waves. A passenger told ZBC that the boat began taking on water about 30 minutes after it left the lakeshore town of Kariba, heading for islands and fishing camps. A specialised underwater team was flown to the area, the CPU said, as search and rescue continued on Wednesday. At the time, the CPU said the death toll was 15, with 27 known to be missing. Zimbabwe’s police updated the death toll on Wednesday afternoon in posts on X twice in the space of 32 minutes. In the first post, it said the death toll was 38, adding: “The bodies have been retrieved from the lake.” Then it said that 44 people were now known to have died. A video shared by ZBC on Tuesday showed several people appearing to be sitting on the upturned ferry, while at least four speedboats came to their aid and a helicopter circled overhead. Maxwell Kanhema Page, who describes himself as a media practitioner and originally posted the video shared by ZBC, reshared a video on his Facebook page filmed from the shore, in which he had noted that the lake was “angry”. He said: “A few moments later I get over 200 calls about [the ferry] sinking. A sad day indeed.” Lake Kariba is the world’s largest human-made lake by volume, stretching about 150 miles along Zimbabwe’s northern border with Zambia. It was created in the 1950s during British colonial rule, when the Zambezi River was dammed, displacing about 57,000 people. The Kariba dam supplies at least a third of both countries’ electricity. It is not uncommon for boats to overturn on the lake. In 2014, 26 people, 24 of them children, drowned in Zambia’s part of the lake, when the boat meant to transport them to independence day celebrations capsized. On the Zimbabwean side, five drowned in a 2021 incident and three were feared dead in an October 2023 capsizing. The month before, a police boat overturned although no one died. Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
The German government has approved a draft law aimed at lifting many of the restraints on its spy agencies imposed during the postwar period as the country reels from two attacks in a month that have exposed serious security gaps. The controversial changes, which must still pass parliament, largely comply with a wishlist pulled together by the foreign and domestic intelligence services, which have long complained Germany lags behind its allies and enemies. “We are turning our intelligence services into genuine secret services,” the interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, told Bild newspaper, which called it a security “revolution” and “historic”. He said: “It is high time we positioned ourselves to be competitive and on an equal footing with our partner services around the world. This requires operational capabilities and active powers to tackle modern state terrorism and extremist groups more effectively.” A deadly car ramming in late July at Berlin’s huge annual Pride parade by a German-born Islamist known to the authorities was followed by the discovery last week of a drone laden with explosives near a Ukrainian cargo plane at Leipzig airport, a key defence transport hub. Friedrich Merz’s unpopular centre-right, centre-left coalition government is under pressure to demonstrate it can modernise to keep its citizens safe, while preserving rights and principles laid out in Germany’s Basic Law. The intelligence services reform plans have been in the offing for months and were repeatedly fine-tuned before being presented to the cabinet on Wednesday. The federal foreign intelligence service (BND), which turned 70 this year and is run by a former ambassador to Ukraine, Martin Jäger, will gain new powers to confront emerging threats from state actors such as Russia and China with fewer impediments, and with the help of AI. German authorities say the threat level has soared since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 as agents linked to Moscow have allegedly carried out repeated sabotage, spying and hacker attacks against critical infrastructure and military equipment manufacturers. Jäger said Germany must be able to show adversaries “that we’re in a position to do similar things so the other side also feels the pain”. The BND has until now overwhelmingly had a defensive position, making it largely a repository for information with few operational powers. According to the draft law’s more than 700-page text, German spies will have permission to manipulate or delete data known as “hack-back” cyber-attacks. Other options include, altering instructions on how to build weapons or rendering arms harmless during production. Digital payments to low-level “disposable” agents, employed on a one-off basis by foreign governments, could be blocked to thwart attacks. The use of force by intelligence personnel abroad will remain forbidden – keeping it far out of the league of the CIA, the Mossad in Israel or the DGSE in France. But agents will be able to carry weapons for self-defence more often without explicit permission. The law, which the government hopes will be in place by 1 January 2027, would loosen rules around data protection, widely mocked as exaggerated and self-defeating. The BND and the domestic security watchdog, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), will be unshackled to collect, store and analyse more information for longer with the help of AI. It will also be easier to gain permission for online searches and home surveillance against criminal suspects. Germany will also beef up oversight of the BND and the BfV by an independent board, in addition to powers already granted to parliament’s intelligence control committee. Although reforms were widely seen as necessary and overdue, some politicians warned of overreach. The federal commissioner for data protection, Louisa Specht-Riemenschneider, said her office would be stripped of oversight powers over the BND and criticised the expanded access to CCTV footage in public spaces in Germany and abroad. Konstantin von Notz, the opposition Green party’s spokesperson on intelligence oversight, called the changes “urgently needed” and said he backed “stronger powers” for the BND. But he said the draft law “overshoots the mark”. He was particularly critical of the powers granted to the BfV, which he said were “difficult to reconcile” with the principle of separation between the powers of the intelligence services and the police – a lesson drawn from the darkest chapters of German history. The legislation could face court challenges mounted by its critics. Faced with rising geopolitical uncertainty and doubts about the role of the US as guarantor of the country’s security, Germany is also in a major rearmament drive. Merz took office last year pledging to turn Germany’s armed forces, or Bundeswehr, into “Europe’s strongest conventional army”.
The number of children involved in crashes on e-scooters has soared in recent years, with some as young as nine involved in collisions, research has found. Researchers carried out a review of injuries among the under-16s at three specialist paediatric trauma centres – Alder Hey in Liverpool, and Sheffield and Royal Manchester children’s hospitals – between January 2019 and December 2024. They found the average age of those involved in e-scooter collisions was 12, and almost 65% of those injured were male. The most common injuries were to the limbs, followed by head and facial injuries. Fewer than 2% of patients had been wearing a helmet. Half of the children injured were between 10 and 13 years old, with the youngest only nine. The three hospitals had recorded a total of 477 e-scooter injuries, with a significant increase in numbers since 2019. More than 80% of the injuries were sustained on private e-scooters, which can only be ridden legally on private land. The majority of the accidents had happened on public land, roads and parks. Up to 1.2 million people in England are believed to privately own e-scooters, which are available to buy from many high street retailers. “Clearly, reporting these accidents is important to influence and change policy,” the researchers told the Emergency Medicine journal, adding: “There must also be an onus on retailers to clearly advise customers of the law, and policymakers to regulate private e-scooters, such as with speed limiters, or mandate helmet use.” Rented e-scooter are legal to ride on public roads. The rider must be 16 years old or older and hold at least a provisional driving licence. Rental scooters are typically speed limited to 15mph, and companies must have appropriate insurance. In June, a 15-year-old boy, who cannot be named because of his age, was sentenced to a youth referral order and a driving ban, after earlier pleading guilty to causing the death of his friend Jacob Calland, 14, who was a passenger on the back of his e-scooter when it collided with a car in Wythenshawe, Manchester. After her son’s death, Carly Calland launched Jacob’s Journey, a campaign that aims to raise awareness about dangerous e-scooter use and the legalities around riding them. “No words will ever be able to describe the pain caused by Jacob’s death,” she told the court in a statement as his friend was sentenced. “My heart has been smashed into a thousand pieces and there is nothing that can be done to fix it. My life is a living nightmare.” DC Steve Pennington from Greater Manchester Police’s serious collision investigation unit said: “E-scooters are not harmless toys and they can lead to horrific consequences when used by inexperienced riders and without the due care required. I would urge parents to check what their children are using and to ensure they are educated about the risks of using them on the road.” A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “These are concerning findings, and our thoughts are with anyone who has been injured on our roads. It is illegal for private e-scooters to be used on roads, pavements or in other public spaces, including by under-16s, and we’re bringing forward new laws to make their use safe and legal, including consulting on requirements like helmets.”
The whole world is getting hotter as carbon pollution from fossil fuel burning traps ever more heat, but Europe is heating up twice as fast as other continents. The consequences are increasingly deadly, with tens of thousands of heatwave deaths so far this summer. Why is Europe most affected by global heating? Land requires less heat than the vast and deep oceans to warm up, so all continents are warming more quickly than the seas. But Europe is particularly vulnerable for four reasons: changed weather patterns, its closeness to the Arctic, less snow and less air pollution. As a result, Europe is now 2.5C hotter than before the mass burning of fossil fuels, almost double the global average 1.4C rise. Temperatures in Europe have risen by 0.56C a decade since the mid-1990s, compared with 0.42C in North America, 0.36C in Africa and 0.27C in South America. How have Europe’s weather patterns changed? Shifts in how the atmosphere circulates over Europe have led to more frequent and more intense summer heatwaves. This includes the worst ever heatwave, in June 2026, in which a vast area of hot air was trapped under a stationary “heat dome”. Scientists are still investigating the role of global heating in causing changes in atmospheric circulation, but a link seems increasingly likely. Dr Samantha Burgess, from the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service, said: “We see statistically significant changes in surface pressure patterns and other measures of circulation when we look at trends over the last 40 or more years, and on this timescale they are more likely associated with climate change than natural variability.” The association may be the result of a changing jet stream, a fast high-level wind that has a powerful influence on Europe’s weather and is itself affected by rising temperatures. Why is the Arctic important? The Arctic is the fastest warming region on the planet, despite having no land. This is because the white polar ice cap, which normally reflects the vast majority of sunlight back into space, is melting away fast. As a result, the darker ocean exposed by the melting absorbs much more heat, which then melts more ice, forming a vicious circle. With a significant proportion of Europe relatively close to the Arctic, temperatures are therefore rising faster. What about snow cover? Most of Europe had snowfall in winter in the past. Like the Arctic sea ice, this snow reflected sunlight and kept the continent cooler. But the climate crisis is shrinking snow-covered areas. In March 2025, Europe’s blanket of snow was about 1.3m km2 below the 1991-2020 average, a 31% drop. That lost area is roughly the area of France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland and Austria combined. It was the third lowest snow cover since records began in 1983. Why does reduced air pollution affect temperatures? Air pollution kills millions of people globally every year and so Europe’s record of cutting toxic air levels in recent decades is unequivocally a good thing. However, cleaner air is also unmasking the impact of the rise in carbon dioxide pollution in the atmosphere. Air pollution particles can reflect the sun’s rays, directly or by seeding the formation of clouds, meaning the heat does not reach the ground. Fewer particles means less reflection and more heat that is trapped by greenhouse gases. Lower pollution might even be connected to the increase in blocking weather patterns. How important is each of the four factors above? The short answer is that scientists don’t yet know, but they aim to have an estimate next year. Burgess said: “What we can say is that the importance of each factor must vary with season, with proximity to the Arctic important in autumn and winter, and circulation changes since the late 1970s of greater statistical significance in summer.” The drop in air pollution is most marked in winter because of declining coal heating in homes, and snow cover is a winter issue. Winter warming in Europe in recent decades has been strongest in the north, while summer warming has been strongest in the south-east. What are the consequences? The rapid heating is leading to ever more deaths and more intense wildfires and droughts. Storms, intense rainfall and floods are also being supercharged by the extra heat in the climate system. All deeply affect lives and livelihoods across the continent and will continue to worsen until emissions reach net zero. Rapid cuts in CO2 pollution and the rollout of measures to protect citizens are urgently needed. The UN climate chief, Simon Stiell, said in late July: “The awful costs of this climate crisis – both human and economic – are now reaching national emergency levels. What needs to be done is clear: leave coal, oil and gas behind faster, scale up renewables, and protect people.” The Guardian’s climate forum 2026: On Tuesday 20 October, join Damian Carrington and our panel of experts, including Professor 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 • This article was amended on 12 August 2026. An earlier version said the snow blanket covering Europe in March 2025 was 1.3m km2; this should have said 1.3m km2 below the 1991-2020 average.
Good morning. On his family holiday last week, the prime minister, Andy Burnham, was reported to be taking daily calls from Ministry of Justice officials about his government’s early release scheme. A furious public outcry has gathered pace since it emerged that the plan – brought in by his predecessor, Keir Starmer, to alleviate overcrowding in prisons across England and Wales – might include two of the killers of PC Andrew Harper and other serious sexual offenders, including grooming gang perpetrators. After several weeks of “system says no” briefings, which Harper’s mother Debbie Adlam has described as “a rollercoaster … really draining”, yesterday Burnham endeavoured to put a pin in it until September. Announcing that he had tasked the justice secretary, Alex Norris, with fast-tracking measures to free up prison space, the prime minister insisted he was “increasingly confident” that the early release scheme can be adapted to exclude the constable’s killers. He had previously intervened to exempt grooming gang members, rapists and those convicted of “serious” child sexual offences. Norris will report to parliament early next month, and Burnham is no doubt keen that this week’s nationwide listening tour is not derailed by constant questions about early release. But the scrutiny is unlikely to recede with opposition parties calling for a U-turn and probation officers yesterday voting decisively in favour of strike action over excessive workloads – a problem they expect to get worse when the scheme starts in the autumn. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to criminal justice consultant and former repeat offender Gethin Jones, and former prison governor John Podmore, about the story missing from the early release row, and what a radical solution to the ongoing prison capacity crisis might look like. First, this morning’s headlines. Five big stories UK news | Repeated debilitating heatwaves this summer are likely to have cost the UK economy more than £4bn in lost economic output by the end of July, new analysis shows. Meta | Courts in England and Wales have joined a number of restaurants, theatres and pubs in banning the controversial Meta glasses, which can record video footage while being worn. Middle East | Firefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing. UK politics | Reform’s deputy leader Richard Tice has been accused of using “nasty tactics” in an attempt to intimidate journalists and deflect attention from his own financial affairs after issuing a legal threat to the Guardian. US news | Democrats called on Tuesday for a congressional briefing over a stunning charade in which Donald Trump was secretly spirited to a different plane than the one the public and press believed he was travelling on. In depth: ‘We should be locking up people we’re afraid of, not people we’re mad at’ Gethin Jones recalls watching a documentary about HMP Strangeways, the crumbling Victorian prison in Manchester that became synonymous with over-crowding and brutal conditions. The Strangeways riot of 1990 was a watershed moment in British penal history, leading to long-awaited public scrutiny and reform. While the echoes of those days are all too apparent, what he recalls most clearly was the then-governor describing prison as “society’s dustbin”. At that point, Jones was already set in his own 20-year cycle of drug misuse and offending: after a childhood in care, he received his first custodial sentence at the age of 14, and was introduced to heroin and crack cocaine in prison. He’s now a passionate advocate for the type of “human to human” intervention that eventually unlocked his own offending cycle – working with men in secure environments. “Politicians keep saying we lock people up to keep communities safe,” he says. “But the reality is that when you lock somebody up, if you do nothing with them while they’re in prison, and nothing to support them when they get out, they’re even more disadvantaged and more likely to reoffend, which is now making our communities unsafe.” The current row over early release is focused on a small percentage of offenders, he argues, while most of those in prison are low risk, high need. “They are people with poor mental health, substance misuse, no opportunities: all of these areas that our society doesn’t know how to manage, then they fall into the justice system and then they go into the dustbin, which is prison.” *** Why are our prisons at capacity? According to the most recent Ministry of Justice data, there are 86,536 men and women in prison custody in England and Wales, one of the highest per capita prison populations in western Europe. It’s a population that has doubled in recent decades – from about 44,000 in 1993 – for a number of interlocking reasons. The hefty courts backlog and wider system gridlock brought about by the pandemic has seen the remand population balloon to more than 15,000, almost 18% of the total in custody. Recalls – the term for people returned to prison after breaching the conditions of their release – have likewise increased by a staggering amount. There were 51,419 licence recalls in England and Wales in year ending March 2026, compared with 40,259 the previous year. Many experts see this as a direct consequence of previous early release schemes: without proper planning, the policy creates a revolving door. Others blame the risk aversion of an over-burdened probation service. Jones is working with a young man who is about to be released from prison for the second time, having been recalled a mere six days after a drug relapse meant he failed to report to his probation hostel in time. “He’s just about to get out now, and there’s still not the support in place. It will be an absolute miracle if he doesn’t get recalled again.” Added to this mix is the fact that judges are imposing ever-longer prison sentences – from an average of 16 months for an indictable offence to 1993 to 22.2 months in 2024. When he was asked to review sentencing by Keir Starmer, former Conservative justice secretary David Gauke attributed it to a “bidding war” between political parties since the 1990s over which can show themselves tougher on crime. And overseeing all of this is another revolving door: that of the entrance to the Ministry of Justice. In the past 10 years, there have been 10 justice secretaries and 13 prison ministers. *** What is the cost of early release? Regardless of sentence inflation, and unhappily for politicians, the public believe prisons are failing to punish prisoners for their offences and not preparing them adequately for a life beyond crime. What is unclear is how aware they are of the administrative sleight of hand whereby successive governments have driven up sentence lengths through legislation, then sought to undo the effect through early release schemes. Richard Garside, director of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, has written powerfully about the impact on individual victims: “What should not survive indefinitely is the current arrangement, in which parliament promises punishment that cannot be delivered, and the gap is closed administratively, out of sight, until a letter lands on a victim’s doormat.” In a Facebook post on Tuesday, the prime minister acknowledged “the anguish of [PC Andrew Harper’s] family and, more broadly, of all those victims and their families who may see those who caused them such harm not serve their full sentence”. But the operational impact is significant. Prison Service leaders are described as “terrified of another exemption” to early release as they cope with severe over-crowding, and must now navigate the haphazard system of sentence discounts and days added in order to determine who is eligible. Previous schemes resulted in some prisoners being released in error, while probation managers found their caseloads distended overnight. *** What could Andy Burnham do differently? In the same Facebook post, Burnham said these exemptions could be mitigated by expanding prison places in three ways: removing foreign offenders more quickly; tackling “the long-running injustice of IPP sentences”, which have kept many minor offenders locked up for decades; and re-purposing some women’s prisons for male offenders. Our home affairs editor Rajeev Syal assesses their viability here. John Podmore, former governor of Belmarsh, Brixton and Swaleside prisons, has argued consistently that prisons not only fail to rehabilitate, but in too many cases actively institutionalise despair. The longer-term solution to the present crisis is not, he tells me, to build more prison places – despite Burnham’s colleagues pushing this line yesterday. Podmore has always made a clear distinction between those who threaten the public – probably fewer than 30,000 of the current population, by his informed estimate – and the rest: “We should be locking up people we’re afraid of, not people who we’re mad at.” The government is pressing ahead with its aim to build 14,000 more prison places by 2031, mainly secure category B and C facilities – but a good proportion of the prisoner population is within 12 months of release. “We don’t need those levels of security,” Podmore says. “We need more open prisons in urban areas, more approved premises, more bail hostels.” Female prisoners – the vast majority of whom are nonviolent offenders – are in particular need of more creative facilities like Hope Street in Southampton, which offers a community alternative to prison for women so their children can remain with them. For Podmore, Burnham’s devolution agenda offers a gateway to radical prison reform: a centrally run federal estate for those who require long-term high security; and oversight of prisons for lesser offenders – who have been thoroughly risk assessed – passed to local mayors. After all, as Gethin Jones has already explained, lack of resettlement support is one of the biggest hurdles facing newly released prisoners. Aren’t local authorities better placed to bring them into existing housing, education and mental health networks? Might a truly local prison have a board of governors, like a school, making its management answerable to that community? When Podmore took over HMP Brixton in 2003, it was languishing at the bottom of performance league tables, with angry headlines demanding its closure. He opened the doors, inviting in local community charities and religious groups. “And the response was, ‘What can we do?’ That’s where you change the public perception.” What else we’ve been enjoying I spent half my holiday sharing a cottage with a wasp nest, and was glad to read in the latest instalment of Invertebrate of the Year that my policy of non-engagement was the correct one, definitively settling an argument with my other half. Libby Josh Halliday’s piece about Matilda Davis, a mother who took her own life after she was “pushed to breaking point” by a care system that fails the parents of so many disabled children, was a moving profile of a remarkable woman. Hettie The forecast cloud cover over Glasgow suggests that solar eclipse viewing won’t be that fruitful, but I was still happy to watch our snappy public service video about how to watch it safely. Libby Anthony Bourdain was the world’s first real food influencer who taught us all to avoid brunch like the plague. Zoe Williams spoke to chefs about whether they still admire his hedonistic vibe. Hettie ICYMI, you must make time to read this brilliant and disturbing essay from Katherine Rundell about how AI stands between children and their potential for thinking. I finished it feeling angry – but also, hopeful. Hettie Sport European Athletics Championships | Britain’s Romell Glave won a stunning gold in the men’s 100m at the European championships, with his teammate Jeremiah Azu picking up silver. Football | England defender Djed Spence nears Tottenham Hotspurs exit, with the club allowing him to join Inter in a move expected to cost around £25.6m. Fifa | Gianni Infantino’s opponents are working together to produce a new framework for running world football to replace what they regard as a system of patronage that Fifa has adopted since he replaced Sepp Blatter as president 10 years ago. The front pages “Burnham plan to keep PC’s killers in jail could backfire, warn unions”, is the Guardian’s front page today. The Telegraph says “Police unite to fight early release”, the Express has “Andy U-turns on early release plan”, and the Times writes “Extra safeguards needed for early release, say police”. The FT has “European car industry wary as China tightens grip on component suppliers”, the i Paper has “Summer 2026 will be UK’s hottest since records began”, and the Mail writes “Burnham” Middle-class areas must take more migrants”. Lastly, Metro leads on “The Black Wednesday shopping scramble!”. Today in Focus Could Clacton bin off Nigel Farage? Nigel Farage has taken a high risk gamble by resigning and forcing a byelection in his constituency. Nosheen Iqbal heads to Clacton to find out how voters feel. Cartoon of the day | Nicola Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Caspian tigers were last sighted in Kazakhstan more than 70 years ago. Earlier this month, a female Amur tiger, a breed whose DNA is virtually identical to Caspians, was released into a nature reserve in Kazakhstan as part of a pioneering repopulation programme. “Umit,” which translates to “hope” in Kazakh, was transported to the reserve from the far east of Russia, and soon, she will be joined by more big cats. “There is a lot of work ahead on monitoring tigers and forming a stable population, but today the first and very important step has been taken,” said Kazakhstan’s environment minister. 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. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply
Firefighters and residents of south Lebanon have accused the Israeli military of lighting wildfires in the region, as forested areas burned down in blazes sparked by Israeli bombing. Environmental groups said the fires in recent weeks were part of a longstanding Israeli practice of targeting Lebanon’s natural environment. On Tuesday, the Israeli military dropped flares in a wooded area outside Khiam, in south Lebanon, sparking blazes. When firefighters attempted to extinguish the flames, a drone struck close by, forcing them to withdraw, the head of the civil defence in the Nabatieh region, Hussein Fakih, said. “Most of our missions are now related to fires. There are enormous areas of woodland that have burned, I don’t have the exact figures, but in the areas close to the [frontline], around 30-40% of the land has been affected by fires,” he said. The Israeli military has caused fires across south Lebanon, in particular in olive groves and agricultural land, in the nearly two-months since the 17 June ceasefire that mostly ended fighting between Hezbollah and Israel, according to videos and testimony from first responders. The military was asked for comment on each of the wildfire incidents, but did not respond. “They started doing this right after the ceasefire, and there have been incendiary bombs every day,” said Fakih. “Small drones come out and drop incendiary materials, [white] phosphorus shells are fired at the woodlands, in addition to illumination flares that they drop during the daytime so the vegetation catches fire.” Firefighters and residents of other areas in south Lebanon describe similar blazes being started by Israeli munitions and drones in dry scrub and woodlands. On Friday, Israeli munitions created large wildfires in two heavily forested areas: in Kfarchouba, close to the border, and between Jezzine and the western Bekaa valley. The civil defence station chief in the area, Samir Hardan, said a fire was started near Kfarchouba on Friday afternoon after a drone dropped a munition in woodlands. After battling blazes overnight and extinguishing them on Saturday, a second drone started another fire on Sunday, Hardan said. Firefighters, who are required to coordinate their movements with the Lebanese army, which relays their request to a “deconfliction” group that includes the Israeli military, were given permission to fight the fires at only two spots, and not other areas where fires were raging. According to environmental groups, the fires are part of a pattern of Israeli attacks against Lebanon’s environment, which threaten the country’s woodlands and the biodiversity they support, experts said. “These are long-established woodlands, dominated by productive stone pine alongside oak. They perform critical functions. The wider area is also an important passage and resting ground for migratory birds,” said Hisham Younes, the founder of the Lebanese conservation organisation Green Southerners. Younes called the Israeli attacks an “ecocide”, saying they were part of the military’s pattern of assaults on south Lebanon’s environment to degrade its ecosystem with munitions, fire and chemicals. Younes said: “It is not about any single fire or attack, but a pattern of destruction that progressively erodes the ability of ecosystems to function, regenerate and sustain life. When those cascading effects also undermine livelihoods and people’s ability to return to and remain on their land, environmental destruction becomes inseparable from the wider transformation of the territory itself.” Since fighting started on 8 October 2023, when Hezbollah launched rockets at Israel in solidarity with the Hamas-led attack a day earlier, Israel has repeatedly targeted Lebanon’s woodlands. The Israeli military has said in the past that Hezbollah used these forested areas as cover for its fighters and its tunnels. Ecologists and rights groups have said that fires and other forms of widespread environmental destruction would have wider effects on civilian populations. Israeli troops used trebuchets – medieval catapults – to fling flaming debris over its border wall with Lebanon in the summer of 2024, while the Lebanese army published photos of Israeli drones that carried hoses used to douse forests in flammable materials. Health and environmental experts raised the alarm in February when Israeli planes dropped herbicides linked to cancer on farms in south Lebanon. Besides the environmental and health consequences of these fires, residents of south Lebanon have mourned the loss of the green spaces in the villages where they grew up. On 1 August, displaced residents of the border village of Yaroun found their olive and fruit groves, as well as their homes, had been set ablaze by occupying Israeli troops. People living in the nearby Christian towns of Rmeich and Aïn Ebel, among the few villages near the border not emptied out by the Israeli military, sent pictures of the fires. “They had already bulldozed the whole village. Then they set fire to the trees. What remained in this particular area were the olive trees – large groves, with very old olive trees. They started there, then the fire spread along the outskirts of the village,” said Hafez Ghasham, the mayor of Yaroun. People in Yaroun had already watched in previous months as all but 20 of the 900 houses in the village were bulldozed by the Israeli military, pooling resources to buy expensive satellite imagery of the village during their displacement. “Many of these trees, most of them, in fact, were inherited from our grandparents and parents. They have enormous sentimental value. The trees were also an important source of income for the people of the village,” Ghasham said. “They are trying to make the land uninhabitable. They are erasing our entire history, our entire culture, all our memories. Maybe the idea is that after some time, it will look as though nobody had ever lived here.”