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Philippines blocks GoreBox gaming app after school shooting kills three

Philippine authorities have temporarily blocked the online gaming app GoreBox days after a rare school shooting in the south-east Asian country killed three students and injured 20 others. Investigators said that of the two teenagers accused of opening fire on students at San Jose National high school in Tacloban city, one had regularly played the game, which allows players to use various weapons and depicts graphic violence. GoreBox is described on Google Play as allowing gamers to “engage in brutal combat with an extensive arsenal of weapons and explosives, and witness the raw effects of realistic rag-doll physics and an intense gore system that brings dismemberment to life”. Launched in 2023 by F2 Games, GoreBox has more than 10m downloads on Google Play and carries an R18+ rating by the International Age Rating Coalition owing to its depictions of extreme violence. The company did not immediately respond to questions from the Guardian. Scientific studies have repeatedly found there is no credible link between video games and real-life violence. A 2020 meta-analysis of several studies found the long-term impacts of violent games on youth aggression were “near zero”. The Philippines’ Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center (CICC) said it had issued a temporary ban against GoreBox as a precautionary measure pending investigation. “We cannot ignore possible online influences that may have contributed to this tragic incident,” the CICC undersecretary, Aboy Paraiso, said. Temporarily blocking the game will allow authorities to assess whether the platform played any role in the actions of the suspects, he added. “Beyond this temporary ban, we are reinforcing our monitoring efforts to identify online spaces that may pose risks to young users and to ensure that appropriate interventions are made immediately,” Paraiso said. “Our priority is the safety and wellbeing of Filipino children exposed to the internet.” Crimes involving the use of firearms are prevalent in the Philippines, partly because of the proliferation of unlicensed guns, but school shootings are relatively rare. Philippine police told local media that initial interviews indicated the grade 9 suspects, aged 14 and 15, may have been bullied and that the alleged attack was carried out as retribution. The pair are in police custody. The justice department said it was looking into the possibility the shooting was part of a trend of nihilistic violent extremism, characterised by the perpetration of extreme violence without a coherent and traditional ideological framework. The Philippines’ human rights commission said it was also “alarmed by other recent reports of violence in schools, including two separate stabbing incidents at Cavite National high school and Bethel Academy of General Trias in Cavite within the past week”. “These incidents underscore the urgent need to strengthen measures that prevent violence and protect learners,” the commission said in a statement. Associated Press contributed to this report

Europe heatwave live: UK issues rare red heat warning as record-breaking temperatures in France bring power outages

Patrick Butler, Richard Adams, Andrew Gregory, Amelia Hill, Steven Morris, Gwyn Topham and Matthew Weaver With temperatures in the UK approaching record levels for June, people are being advised to avoid exercise and unnecessary travel. So how do you even work in this heat? We look at how various sectors of the economy are coping with unprecedented temperatures, and how working practices will have to adapt to increasingly frequent heatwaves that are predicted to be longer and more intense owing to the global climate emergency. For example, school leaders say it is lucky the heatwave arrived after the summer GCSE and A-level exam season, just as May’s heatwave coincided with most schools being closed for half-term. “We’re dodging a few bullets, but I’m not sure how much longer we can keep dodging,” said Jo Rowley, a deputy headteacher in Stafford..

Bird flu confirmed in South Australia as infected petrel brings deadly H5N1 cases to three

Deadly H5 bird flu has been confirmed in two Australian states after a migratory seabird tested positive for the disease in South Australia. Western Australia also has another suspected positive case, in a southern giant petrel, found dead in the Quindalup region in the state’s south west. That would bring the number of cases to four. The South Australian premier, Peter Malinauskas, said a giant petrel had been found unwell on Knights Beach in Port Elliot on 14 June. The federal government confirmed the bird was euthanised. The WA agriculture minister, Jackie Jarvis, also confirmed a third suspected case in that state in a press conference on Wednesday afternoon. The state has been investigating reports from the public of dead and unwell birds after two migratory birds near Esperance tested positive last week for the deadly strain that has devastated wildlife populations globally. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Jarvis said test samples from the third case, a southern giant petrel also from the subantarctic region, had been sent to the CSIRO for confirmation. Speaking with the federal agriculture minister, Julie Collins, in Canberra, Malinauskas said authorities were alerted on 19 June to social media posts indicating the bird was in care with Wildlife Welfare Organisation SA. He said authorities “responded quickly” and the animal was tested for H5 bird flu, with a positive result confirmed by the CSIRO on Wednesday. Malinauskas said the government was in contact with volunteers who had come into contact with unwell birds and would prescribe the antiviral Tamiflu if necessary. “It’s very, very important now that we have received a positive result from South Australia, that people are very aware that they can report any signs of bird life that is unwell or dead,” he said. “They can do that through our hotline, which is again something I encourage people to call if in doubt.” ‘Beach washed and debilitated’ Justin Biddle, wildlife rescue centre manager for Wildlife Welfare Organisation, said the confirmed SA case had been brought into the organisation’s centre in Goolwa on 14 June, before the announcement of two bird flu cases in Western Australia. “We get a few giant petrels come in each year. This one was showing signs of being beach washed and debilitated,” he said. He said the bird was cared for at the centre until South Australia’s primary industries authority, Pirsa, were alerted by a social media post about petrels arriving at the centre. He said Pirsa had carried out an initial swab test which was negative, but had then called to say that test was inconclusive. “They called back and picked up the bird [on 23 June]. It was relatively fit and healthy and was putting on weight,” he said. Collins said there continued to be no evidence H5 bird flu had spread to poultry animals or to local wildlife. PNG suspension lifts The chief veterinary officer, Beth Cookson, said it was concerning to have a confirmed detection in another jurisdiction of the deadly bird flu strain that has devastated wildlife populations globally. She said genome testing on the brown skua, the first confirmed case, had isolated the likely source of its infection to the subantarctic territories “and in particular the Heard Island and McDonald Islands”. Scientists recently confirmed thousands of southern elephant seal pups on Heard Island and hundreds of adult king penguins in the subantarctic had died from the disease through 2025 and 2026. Collins said on Wednesday that a suspension imposed by Papua New Guinea on imports of Australian poultry products had been lifted. PNG had imposed the restriction on all poultry products on Monday. The Invasive Species Council said confirmation H5 bird flu had been detected in another state “highlights the growing threat facing Australian wildlife”. The organisation reiterated earlier calls from wildlife groups for an urgent $200m in funding for conservation measures to support the bird flu response by reducing other threats to species. “The concern now is not whether Australia is taking the threat seriously – it clearly is. The concern is how well our wildlife will cope when bird flu inevitably reaches more native bird and mammal populations,” policy director Carol Booth said.

Dettol apologises after ‘toxic men’ advert sparks backlash in China

The British hygiene brand Dettol has apologised after an advertisement released in China, which it said was intended to criticise “toxic men”, was widely condemned on social media as offensive to women. The five-minute advert for a multipurpose disinfectant, released across many online platforms at the end of May, features a man comparing his girlfriend with his former partner. Learning that his former girlfriend previously lived with someone else, the man likens their relationship to a “secondhand service”. He then tells his friends that he intends to find a “clean and untouched” woman for whom he can be the first sexual partner. “I may not be a virgin, but my future wife has to be,” he says, adding: “Luckily, I met her now, she’s clean and hasn’t been contaminated by other men.” The micro drama ends with his new girlfriend finding out about his statements, calling out his misogyny and breaking up with him. As she throws his socks into a washing machine, a voiceover says: “A toxic man is just like these germs – you need Dettol to eliminate them completely to feel at ease.” Dettol withdrew the advert on Sunday after widespread criticism from Chinese social media users, with many calling for a boycott of the brand, owned by the British multinational Reckitt. In a post apologising for the advert, Dettol said the promotion had intended to “challenge unequal gender attitudes and promote healthy, confident views on relationships and lifestyles”, but that edited clips circulating online had distorted the original message. Dettol said the promotion had been produced by a third-party agency, but that it took “responsibility for any negligence in creating and reviewing the content of the advert”. It said: “We are well aware that true protection also lies in safeguarding the dignity of every individual and their right to be treated equally.” The topic had more than 80m views on the Chinese social media platform Weibo as of Tuesday. “I will never use Dettol again,” one user on the site wrote.

Wednesday briefing: How can the UK protect its landscape in an increasingly hot world?

Our green and pleasant land is sizzling. This week, millions of us across the UK are baking in unprecedented heat. The Met Office has issued a rare red weather warning from 9am today in parts of southern Wales, and central and southern England. The temperature record for June of 35.6C is almost certain to be broken; Bristol is forecast to hit an alarming 39C tomorrow. In the heat, the country’s infrastructure is straining: millions of homes are overheating, rail operators have warned against all but essential travel, and hospital admissions are set to surge. The Climate Change Committee concluded last month the UK is built for a climate that no longer exists – and warned today on the country’s policies towards achieving net zero. But it is not just humans who are struggling. The UK’s landscapes and wildlife have been shaped by – and have adapted to – thousands of years of predictable, moderate weather patterns. Now, Britain’s temperate rainforests, chalk streams, moorlands and broadleaf forests are facing extremes. For today’s First Edition, I spoke with Craig Bennett, CEO of the Wildlife Trusts, about the pressure rising temperatures are placing on nature in the UK, and what we can all be doing to support wildlife during the heatwave. But first, the headlines. Five big stories UK news | Searing heat has swept the UK with schools, hospitals, transport networks and water companies struggling to cope with the extreme temperatures caused by climate breakdown. UK politics | Keir Starmer has met Andy Burnham for the first time since the Makerfield byelection in what sources said was a “frosty” meeting to thrash out a transition of power. US news | Marco Rubio is to meet Gulf allies in an attempt to reassure them that the US remains committed to their security and the 60-day ceasefire deal struck with Iran last week will not embolden Tehran. Europe news | Forty people have drowned while swimming in unsupervised areas across France in recent days, as people across the country sought respite from a record-breaking heatwave. UK politics | Nigel Farage has said his £5m gift from a crypto billionaire is “not any of your business” as it was given unconditionally to be spent on anything from Ferraris to gambling on horses. In depth: ‘If we think this is bad now, we ain’t seen nothing yet’ Last week, The Major oak – one of the UK’s most famous trees – was pronounced dead. The enormous, sprawling oak has stood in Sherwood forest in Nottinghamshire for between 800 and 1200 years, and is fabled to have sheltered Robin Hood and his outlaws. Its cause of death is complex, say experts: well-intentioned conservation efforts to help the tree likely contributed to its demise. But the RSPB, which managed the ancient tree, said that extreme heat and drought are also to blame. It’s a symbol of the challenges native species are facing nationwide. “If we think this is bad now, we ain’t seen nothing yet,” says Bennett, who represents a federation of 47 independent wildlife conservation across the country. A single mature oak tree can support more than 2,300 insect, fungi, bird and mammal species. But not when it is dead, and worrying preliminary research on Britain’s forests found evidence that many ancient woodlands are failing to regenerate. While the causes are still being studied, climate change is believed to be a major driver. Says Bennett: “Climate change is causing stress for all kinds of species. Most have not evolved in the conditions we are now experiencing.” Climate change is by no means the only threat to native biodiversity, but there are already clear signs of disruption to the seasonal patterns upon which wildlife relies. Nature needs predictable cycles: birds hatch their eggs in time for plentiful insects, small mammals rely on autumn fruit to get them through winter. If this does not happen, they do not survive. Met Office scientists are now predicting we’ll be seeing 45C by 2056. We are already seeing the consequences. When temperatures surpassed 40C for the first time in the UK in July 2022, there were reports of swifts falling from the sky in London. Dehydrated fox cubs, baby birds and hedgehogs were brought to the RSPCA, while many nature reserves “went silent” as insects and other species took shelter, which is only the most temporary of salves. The lack of water that year meant that many trees dropped their leaves during the summer instead of the autumn. *** Changing landscapes Wildfires have become more regular in recent years. British landscapes have been shaped by rain and mild temperatures, forming a mosaic of peat bogs, heathland, forests and farmland. Our climate has traditionally fed a lush, green land, and wildlife that lives among it. As hotter and drier conditions become more common, this is set to change. Without rain, formerly verdant landscapes turn brown and yellow – primed to burst into flames. 2025 was a record year for blazes, with the largest around Dava in the Scottish Highlands – later described as the country’s first ever megafire. Wildfires are devastating for flora and fauna, burning through habitat, destroying seed banks in the soil, and killing species that cannot escape. “It’s really hard for wildlife to recover after a blaze, particularly in areas that are seeing repeated fires”, says Bennett. “If you got a heatwave like the one we are having this week and it lasted two months, what would happen? The countryside would be tinder dry.” It hasn’t always been this way. Britain has lost 90% of its wetland habitats in the last 500 years. To protect against wildfires, far more energy needs to be put into keeping water within British landscapes by restoring and creating new wetlands, argues Bennett. The reintroduction of beavers in parts of the UK have already helped to do this keeping flooded areas wetter for longer. In turn, the habitat protects native species and can help recharge aquifers in water-stressed regions. But this needs to be done at a much greater scale. “The Westminster government is always very excited about creating new forests,” says Bennett. “But I want us to become obsessed with creating thousands of wetlands across the country and start getting politicians competing over how many they can create, not just trees they can plant.” *** Species introduction In the long term, some conservation groups believe that governments should consider more radical measures to enhance nature’s resilience: if a plant or animal species begins to struggle because their habitat becomes too dry or too hot, move it outside its historic range. The policy known as “assisted migration” is already in use in parts of the US and Canada: sensitive tree species are being planted higher up mountains to help them survive. Alongside this, some environmentalists support the introduction of non-native species that are better adapted to the climate of the future. Forestry England have put together a list of species that they believe are likely to do well in the future climate, which includes some natives like the sycamore and rowan, and non-native species like the Corsican pine. But this could fundamentally change the country’s landscapes over time if it was done at scale and risks the introduction of invasive species that cause further harm. “First and foremost, we should be doing everything we can to help our native species,” argues Bennett. “There are big debates in the conservation movement about whether we should begin introductions from Mediterranean climates. We might also need to consider helping species from southern England to move north, for example, and make habitats better connected to allow them to do that.” *** In it together Everyone can help wildlife in periods of extreme weather. Providing a source of water is absolutely essential, says Bennett, whether in the form of a garden pond or even in a bucket that birds and invertebrates can access. Trees and scrubland are important for shelter, providing areas that animals can use to hide from the heat until temperatures drop. “Having vegetation on buildings is helpful. People have a love-hate relationship with ivy, but it actually helps cool buildings. And of course, it’s a habitat for bugs that live in it and then birds that feed on them. Also, not cutting your lawn too short is helpful. It will probably be more resilient in hot weather if it’s longer, and that’s good for lots of species,” Bennett says. In prolonged heatwaves, some conservation groups suggest leaving food out for struggling animals to feed on. For example, slugs and snails are harder for creatures like hedgehogs to find in high temperatures. Whether it is this heatwave or the next, Bennett says, it is time for the UK to get serious about the impact of rising temperatures on nature: “We’re heading to a much hotter future where heatwaves like this will become the new normal. We need to start planning now. Nature can be one of our greatest allies.” What else we’ve been reading Megha Mohan visited houses in Kerala designed entirely around the needs of women’s bodies for this fascinating piece. Libby Leah Harper spent a week wearing different kinds of wigs to explore whether their glamorous rebranding is justified. Patrick Former footballer and Euros 2024 tournament director Phillip Lahm has written about how the Tartan Army’s joyous takeover of the World Cup makes the case for an expanded tournament. Libby World Cup 2026 On the pitch England 0-0 Ghana | England failed to seize the initiative in Group L as they were held to a draw by a Ghana side whose progress is also all but assured. Panama 0-1 Croatia | Luka Modric 200th cap for Croatia was a victorious one after Ante Budimir’s goal secured a 1-0 win over Panama, the solitary goal scored all day in Group L. And the rest | Cristiano Ronaldo scored twice as Portugal rediscovered their goal scoring touch with a 5-0 trouncing of Uzbekistan, and in Mexico, Colombia secured their passage from Group K with a well-deserved 1-0 win against DR Congo. Off the pitch Racism | Pundit and former Yugoslavia international Rade Bogdanovic has caused outrage after saying that “Black players lack the concentration to last more than 60 to 80 minutes” during Belgium’s game against Iran on Sunday. ‘Overruled’ | The Guardian’s Matt Hughes reports that Fifa leadership vetoed US officials who opposed dynamic pricing for World Cup tickets. “Fifa is understood to have ruled that the tournament was a once-in-a-generation opportunity to maximise revenues,” he writes. Take your pick | Tonight sees the start of the final round of group games, so here’s your reminder to try our Bracketology game and map out how you think the rest of the tournament will go. Today’s Fixtures Bosnia and Herzegovina v Qatar, 8pm on ITV Switzerland v Canada, 8pm on ITV Morocco v Haiti, 11pm on BBC Scotland v Brazil, 11pm on BBC Czechia v Mexico, 2am on BBC South Africa v South Korea, 2am on BBC Sport Cricket | Ben Stokes returned to the England set-up on Tuesday after talks with Brendon McCullum before training. McCullum said they are still “very aligned” ahead of a third Test against New Zealand. The front pages “Schools, rail and hospitals suffer as heat engulfs UK”, is the Guardian’s splash today, while the i Paper says “Britain set to break 50-year heat record”, Metro has “Killer heat warnings” and the Mirror goes with “Meltdown”. The FT leads with “Starmer risks clash with Burnham over defence investment blueprint”, the Times says “Starmer and Burnham at odds over defence plan” and the Telegraph’s take is “Burnham: I’ll boost cash for defence”. The headline in the Express is “Don’t let them get away with Brexit sell-out”. And on the World Cup, the Sun splashes “Ghana be alright”. Today in Focus: The Latest Europe battles record-breaking heat: is this the new normal? Europe is dealing with a debilitating heatwave, with schools closed, trains cancelled and France holding an emergency meeting after heat-related deaths. António Guterres, the UN chief, is urging the world to act on fossil fuels as the continent braces for record-breaking heat. Lucy Hough speaks to Europe environment correspondent Ajit Niranjan. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Among the modern dating landscape of myriad apps, turning to literature in your search for love may sound a distinctly dated concept. Inspired by newlyweds Dua Lipa and Callum Turner’s restaurant meet-cute (midway through the same novel, they started talking), other couples share how books brought them to the loves of their life, from book-club beginnings to intimate inscriptions. “An attractive male who likes books – what was there not to like?” says Lisa Oakley, of her classroom crush turned husband, Andy Poplar. Sam Fern and Clíodhna Conboye met at an under-attended Waterstones event. “He liked these books that were a huge thing to me,” says Clíodhna. For the next month they went to three book-based activities a week, and later set up a book club together. 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

Play puts spotlight on Kenya’s crisis of gender-based violence

There are audible gasps in the auditorium in Nairobi as a husband launches a volley of blows and slaps on his wife and pushes her to the floor. “I wish I could spare you this,” the wife tells the audience. “My husband beat me up as if we were in a bar fight. Except, in a bar someone fights back.” The scene comes from Free Me, an autobiographical play by Gathoni Kimuyu, a Kenyan theatre and TV producer who lived through an abusive marriage. The success of the production, which was first performed in November and returned this month for a rerun, reflects a public outcry over gender-based violence (GBV) in Kenya, where already high rates of femicide and abuse have risen further in recent years. This month, hundreds of women marched in Nairobi to protest against violence against women and to call on the government to declare GBV a national crisis. In January 2025, after a series of marches across the country in 2024 and the supporting online campaigns #StopKillingUs, #EndFemicideKe and #TotalShutDownKe, the government formed a technical working group to identify trends, hotspots and causes of GBV and femicide. It released a report citing a mix of factors behind GBV, including social and cultural factors such as patriarchal structures and gender inequality. The document made recommendations such as amending the law to define and codify femicide as a distinct offence from murder and for the president to declare GBV a national crisis. The government has yet to implement the recommendations, and GBV cases continue to make headlines. “When we look at the numbers in Kenya right now, cases of femicide, sexual abuse, physical abuse – any type of abuse against women – are very high,” said Kimuyu, who is also the producer and head of marketing for the play. “And the numbers just keep rising and rising.” She added: “One of the reasons why we’re restaging this show is because of how important it is to the conversations that we’re having now and for the change that we’re looking for as women and as a country.” Popularly known as Queen Gathoni, the 41-year-old writer-producer has worked on some of Kenya’s defining TV and theatre productions, including the children’s TV drama Machachari and the historical play series Too Early for Birds. *** Free Me covers her life from her teenage years living with her family in Nairobi’s eastern outskirts in the early 2000s to the present day. It tells her story in different stages of her life, played by different actors: the mischievous 16-year-old who is full of life; the 21-year-old who gets married and starts being abused; the 25-year-old who gives birth and leaves the marriage; and the 30-year-old who picks herself up and starts rebuilding. Mugambi Nthiga, the show’s director and co-writer, said: “This is a play about gender-based violence about someone who lived [through it], but it’s being staged in a reality where there’s more than one woman every day who is not so lucky [and] who doesn’t get to have the same kind of ending that this play does.” He added: “This is not just a story. This is someone’s true story. And it’s a story of someone who’s able to get out of it.” Renee Gichuki, who plays the Kimuyu character at the age of 16, said the play was timely because Kimuyu’s experience was not an isolated story and because GBV “has become a crisis”. “The person standing next to you has experienced it or knows someone who has experienced it,” she said. “We are educating and we are shedding light to both parties to know what can be done differently.” Tobit Tom, who plays the husband, said acting out the role “comes with a lot of heaviness” for him as a man, but he understood that men were the main perpetrators of GBV and he had to show that GBV “is happening and we have to talk about it and address it with seriousness”. Wambui Njeri, a 24-year-old businesswoman, said after watching the show that it humanised the victims and showed that the perpetrator could be anybody. “This makes it very clear that it’s your everyday woman, it’s your everyday man,” she said. Sitting next to her, her friend Patrick Muchiri, 40, a communications practitioner, said: “As men we really need to do better … Yes, we are the head of families and the head of societies. But that doesn’t translate to belittling or looking down or causing violence or harm.” *** In the show, Kimuyu’s character stays with her husband for two years despite the abuse. After she finally tells him she’s leaving him, his character draws derisive laughs from the audience when he says: “You are never going to find anyone who loves you like I love you.” The laughs turn to cheers when she replies: “Your love is exactly the kind of love I’m walking away from. For ever.” Kimuyu hopes the play encourages victims to speak out and not be ashamed, and reframes the conversation about women’s safety to stop blaming women and to hold abusers responsible. She said she chose to tell her own experience rather than create fiction to make people connect with the story more. “There’s nothing that resonates harder for people than a story about someone they know,” she said. “To see someone survive and actually be on this side makes people believe that it’s possible.”

North Korea’s ‘exponential’ nuclear program: why Kim Jong-un is racing to expand his arsenal

At a ruling Workers’ party meeting that concluded this week, Kim Jong-un declared that steadily expanding North Korea’s nuclear forces was the “most correct and unique way” to cope with an increasingly unstable world, citing what he described as growing threats from the US and its allies. The remarks were just the latest in a recent stream of commentary from North Korea’s leadership that has seen Kim pledge to equip warships with nuclear missiles, double weapons grade production and expand the country’s nuclear arsenal at “an exponential rate”. North Korea often makes exaggerated claims about the strength of their defence capabilities, but behind the heightened rhetoric, analysts say the question is no longer whether North Korea has nuclear weapons, but why it appears to need so many. “It is a force so large and so dispersed that no single strike could eliminate it, and [appears] increasingly difficult to dismantle through diplomacy,” says Peter Ward, a research fellow at the Sejong Institute in Seoul, who believes North Korea is using the spread of its arsenal to protect against intervention of the kind seen in Iran. “We don’t know where all of them are. We don’t know what they might do. And their threats are deliberately vague.” The recent US-led strikes on Iran reinforced a lesson North Korea has long since absorbed: states that stop short of a fully operational nuclear arsenal invite attack rather than deterrence. “A country that remains at the threshold level is drawing a big fat target on its back”, says Ward. Designed to survive a first strike, North Korea’s arsenal spans rail and road-mobile launchers, hardened underground facilities and an expanding submarine fleet. This year North Korea began test-firing nuclear-capable cruise missiles from a new 5,000-tonne destroyer, and on Wednesday Kim pledged that the country would build another two warships every year for the next five years. Analysts say Pyongyang believes it needs a much larger arsenal to match the scale and complexity of the forces aligned against it. “It faces the US nuclear umbrella, combined US-South Korean forces and trilateral cooperation with Japan,” said Hong Min, a senior research fellow at the state-funded Korea Institute for National Unification. “It goes beyond minimum deterrence.” Nuclear weapons are now also embedded in the country’s constitution. A revision earlier this year gave Kim constitutional command over nuclear forces and the power to delegate launch authority to a separate command, a move analysts interpret as a safeguard against a decapitation strike. Lee Ho Ryung, a senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for Defence Analyses (KIDA), says Pyongyang was seeking to cement the idea that denuclearisation no longer applied to North Korea and to build a level of capability that would force Washington to take it seriously. “Their point is that this is not something that can be reduced through negotiations right now”, she says. Officially, denuclearisation remains Seoul’s stated objective when it comes to dealing with the North. South Korea’s president, Lee Jae Myung, has made it a central plank of his government’s policy. In May, Donald Trump and Xi Jinping reaffirmed what the White House described as a “shared goal” of denuclearising North Korea. But when Xi travelled to Pyongyang, Chinese readouts made no mention of it. North Korea’s deepening military ties with Russia and its strengthened relationship with China have further insulated Pyongyang from the kind of external pressure that once made negotiations conceivable. The three states, despite their differences, share an interest in checking American power. KIDA’s Lee Ho Ryung says Washington and Seoul would continue to uphold denuclearisation as their formal objective, but in practice the focus was likely to shift towards arms control – limiting and gradually reducing the arsenal rather than eliminating it. “In the end,” she says, “there may be no other path.”

Ukraine war briefing: Crimea locks down as Putin acknowledges ‘huge stream’ of Ukrainian drones

Ukraine said its forces struck a railway bridge, a power plant and other infrastructure targets in Crimea. Ukraine’s special forces said their units, working with the resistance movement in Crimea, destroyed a rail bridge over the North Crimean canal near the village of Rozdolne. The military described the bridge as a key logistics route used to supply Russian forces in southern Ukraine and said drones began hitting the structure late Sunday to Monday, collapsing part of it. A second strike on Tuesday targeted railway repair equipment deployed at the bridge and its remaining sections. Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russian-installed governor of Sevastopol in Crimea, announced “enforced temporary measures” including the closure of public transport at 10pm, and of large shops and cafes at 8pm, with street lighting also dimmed. Petrol stations had a day earlier been banned from selling fuel to non-government users. Riding mopeds and motorbikes at night was banned last week – the noise said to hinder defences against drones, with an official claiming “children taking night-time rides” have been lured into the treachery by Kyiv. Ukraine’s defence ministry said drones struck an oil storage depot at the Kerch thermal power plant in eastern Crimea, an electrical substation in the west, and a liquefied natural gas distribution station in Simferopol, the peninsula’s second-biggest city. Parts of Crimea were without power on Tuesday, the area’s energy supplier said, seeking to blame “technical malfunctions”. Vladimir Putin made his first comments about Ukraine’s strikes disabling Russian strategic infrastructure. Ukrainian drones “coming in a huge stream” were meant to “destabilise” society, disrupting energy supplies and tourism, said the Russian president. He railed that “the entire west” was working for Kyiv. Putin ⁠called on the Russian government to take additional measures to offset the consequences from the strikes – continuing his approach of distancing himself from addressing the impact of his war at home. Russia’s deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, told Putin on Tuesday that officials were considering suspending diesel fuel exports to protect the country’s motorists, adding to ongoing bans on the export of jet fuel and gasoline, according to the Tass news agency. Novak said scheduled maintenance at refineries had been postponed. “We are using reserves that were not previously tapped, and are also encouraging increased supplies of additional volumes to the domestic market.” Restrictions on fuel sales have come in across several regions of Russia. Crimea’s ministry of sport on Tuesday cancelled all sporting events, competitions, and training sessions for children through 1 September. It described the measures as “aimed solely at ensuring the safety of our children, athletes, and anyone who is involved with sport”. On Monday, Sergei Aksyonov, the governor, said that for security reasons all summer camps in the region had stopped accepting children and new bookings until 1 September. Moscow is complaining that the US has failed to deliver on “understandings” reached between Putin and Donald Trump at a summit in Alaska last August. After Trump began trying last year to end the war in Ukraine, ⁠and blamed Zelenskyy for failing to reach a deal, the Kremlin repeatedly expressed gratitude for the US president’s efforts and spoke of “the spirit of Anchorage” – shorthand, analysts say, for Russia’s contention that ‌Trump agrees Ukraine should hand over the whole of its Donbas region in return for peace. On Tuesday, though, Sergei Lavrov suggested the Alaska summit may have been a US “ploy to ‌buy time to rearm the Kyiv regime”. The Russian foreign minister’s deputy, Sergei Ryabkov, accused the US of departing from the “fundamental understandings” reached in Alaska. Vladimir Putin said Russia would enter negotiations if they were based on the Anchorage discussions and the “Istanbul agreements” – also known as the “Istanbul communique”, a set of maximalist Russian demands for Ukraine’s capitulation that were put forward in Turkey in 2022, and which Kyiv never published or signed. Oleg Ignatov, an analyst at the International Crisis Group, said Russia wanted the US side to resume diplomacy to help Russia end the war on its own terms. “There’s no structured diplomatic process, there’s no deal on the table, there’s actually nothing,” Ignatov said. “The Russians are very disappointed about this, they really want the Americans to engage.” Russian strikes killed nine people across Ukraine on Tuesday. In Kryvyi Rig, Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town, “two men aged 25 and 34 and a 54-year-old woman were killed”, said the Dnipropetrovsk region’s governor, Oleksandr Ganzha. Separate Russian attacks on the region killed three others, while strikes on the southern regions of Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson killed one person each, regional authorities said. Volodymyr Zelenskyy will skip a high-level conference on the postwar reconstruction of Ukraine amid a deepening rift with Poland over his naming of a military unit after one that killed tens of thousands of Poles during the second world war, writes Jakub Krupa. The EU warned on Tuesday that only Russia, “the aggressor in Ukraine”, would benefit from worsening relations between the two neighbours.