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Trump rejects Iran’s seven-day peace deal to reopen strait of Hormuz

Donald Trump has said he has rejected an Iranian proposal to reopen the strait of Hormuz within a week and resume nuclear talks in return for the lifting of the US naval blockade of Iranian ports. “They made a proposal but I reject it,” the US president told reporters at the White House. The president was earlier said to be privately sceptical Iran would meet his demands to dismantle its nuclear programme, according to unnamed US officials cited by the Wall Street Journal. Trump has told aides he expects to resume bombing Iran after the November midterms in the US, the newspaper reported. Meanwhile, on Friday evening, he published a post on his Truth Social platform with a graphic showing a map with the strait of Hormuz renamed as the “Trump Strait”. During a three-hour meeting at the UN general assembly in New York earlier this week, Iran had proposed reopening the strait, which would relieve pressure on global energy markets, and restart talks on its nuclear programme within seven days. In return, as well as lifting its naval blockade, Iran wants the US to permit the release of some of Iran’s frozen assets, restore the waiver that lifted sanctions on Iran’s oil exports and observe a “ceasefire on all fronts”. That would involve the US president convincing Israel to end its attacks on Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, a tall order, and allowing the strait to reopen largely on Iran’s terms, with the new route predominantly going through Iranian waters. Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, on Sunday said “our conditions are clear and any move toward reopening the strait of Hormuz is contingent upon these conditions being fulfilled”. “We will not back down from them,” Araghchi said, state broadcaster IRIB reported. “We have never closed the door to diplomacy or negotiations, but at the same time, we have never backed down from our rights.” Reports of the rejection came as Iranian state media reported on Saturday morning that the Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, was on his way back to Tehran from New York. After a meeting with UN secretary general, António Guterres, Pezeshkian said: “Iran has not walked away from the negotiating table, but given past experiences, it no longer trusts the United States.” Araghchi said on Sunday that the Iranians “saw the first reaction from the US president, but so far, nothing has been conveyed to us by the mediators”. “We are waiting for the mediators to convey the definitive positions to us, and we will make a decision based on them,” the foreign minister added. Earlier, a US official had ⁠said discussions with Iran through mediators were “positive and constructive” and, on Friday, Araghchi, had detailed the proposal to reporters outside the UN security council. He said the seven-day timeline to open the strait and resume talks could start as soon as the US accepts Iran’s proposal. The initial steps would take about four to five days to complete, the strait would be opened on the sixth day and talks on the nuclear programme would start on the seventh day, he said. This would include a protocol to allow UN nuclear inspectors back in to look at Iran’s damaged sites and the stockpile of highly enriched uranium. The US naval blockade is putting intense pressure on the Iranian economy, while the seven-month-old conflict in the region has disrupted oil flows through one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes and is increasing the cost of living around the globe. Pezeshkian, in an interview with the CBS show Face the Nation, said Tehran was ready for talks on its nuclear programme and other issues, but would not accept “bullying or coercion”. “Iran is not seeking war, but will defend itself against pressure, threats and attacks,” Pezeshkian said, adding that it had already agreed that “we’re not supposed to develop nuclear weapons”. Previous attempts at diplomacy have failed ‌to end the war, which began on 28 February with US and Israeli attacks. Since then the conflict has alternated between pauses and renewed strikes, killing thousands while degrading Iran’s conventional forces and damaging its already ailing economy. Iran and its allies have retaliated by extending the conflict throughout the region. Iran has struck US allies in the Gulf with drones and missiles while its Houthi allies in Yemen have targeted Saudi interests. Iranian-aligned militias in Iraq were blamed for a pipeline attack that temporarily took more Saudi oil off the market. The violence in Yemen has prompted a new humanitarian crisis, the UN children’s agency said on Friday, reporting a rise in acute malnutrition among children. Trump has previously said he was in no rush to reach a deal, even as high oil prices fuel inflation. On the Iranian side, there are questions as to whether the hardliners who dominate the security forces would accept compromises championed by moderates such as Pezeshkian. Diplomatic efforts surrounding the UN general assembly underscored the global stakes in the conflict. Marina Dunbar contributed. With Reuters and AP

Poland is racing ahead with military spending – but will it help or damage its economic growth story?

A short distance north from Warsaw along the Vistula river, camouflaged missile launchers roll through the quiet village of Czosnów. As recently as two years ago, their destination – a hi-tech weapons facility opened this month – had been a cornfield. Now, as Poland drives up defence investment at one of the fastest rates in the developed world, this rural spot has been transformed amid Europe’s response to Russian aggression and US disengagement. “Everyone has had to move twice as fast to meet the Polish needs,” says Jim Price, the managing director of MBDA Polska, the local subsidiary of the European multinational arms group. Based in the UK, the former Royal Marine says Poland is shifting from importing its weapons to manufacturing them at home. “When it became clear there is a need to defend Nato’s eastern flank, in the event of a war itself, they needed to be able to do things in the blink of an eye. So we decided to invest in-the country to create a facility. We had to build up our Polish subsidiary – and that means Polish jobs.” Poland’s defence budget has grown at a blistering pace. Since Vladimir Putin ordered Russian troops into Ukraine almost five years ago, spending as a share of Polish gross domestic product (GDP) has more than doubled from 2.2% to 4.8% this year. In cash terms, this equates to $53bn (£39.8bn), the fourth-highest in the EU after Germany, France and Italy. Attention in Warsaw is clearly focused on the risk of an imminent Russian test of Nato resolve. However, there is also another motive: growing the economy. Inside the soundproofed, airlock-style doors enclosing his office in Warsaw, Marcin Bosacki, Poland’s deputy foreign minister, says Russian aggression is heavily influencing the Polish government’s plans for economic development and cooperation with EU and Nato allies. “[It] is clearly benefiting Polish security; Polish defence, and the Polish economy as well,” he says. Strengthening economic ties in the pursuit of military readiness would discourage Putin (“a traditional Russian imperialist”) from attacking Nato, Bosacki adds. “The only thing which Putin understands is solidarity and power. And so the more we are united and strong, the less likely the outcome of more aggressive Russian provocations against Nato member states is.” Hope remains for a diplomatic solution. This month, Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner held talks in Moscow with Putin and in Kyiv with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Next month, further negotiations are scheduled in Abu Dhabi. However, diplomatic sources believe Russia is unlikely to cede ground – rendering Nato’s demonstrations of military readiness critical. History shows defence and economics are closely intertwined. Statisticians first devised GDP as a metric in response to the 1930s Great Depression and needs of wartime planning to gauge the capacity of an economy. Poland has been through an economic miracle since the Solidarność (solidarity) movement that arose from the Gdańsk shipyard strikes paved the way for its transition from communism almost four decades ago. Living standards have shot up from 40% of the EU average in the mid-1990s to 81% last year. Joining the EU in 2004 and securing catch-up funds from Brussels – which was spent on new roads, railways, and other productivity-enhancing infrastructure – also helped. Annual output surpassed $1tn (£755bn) last year, with Poland among the fastest-growing EU countries at an annualised rate of 3.9% in the second quarter despite the global headwinds caused by the Iran war. However, Poland’s defence boom is not cost-free. Nor has economic development helped it avoid political polarisation. The rising military budget is among the reasons why Poland is predicted to run the biggest fiscal deficit in the EU next year, at 7.1% of GDP. Last week, Moody’s downgraded the country’s long-term sovereign credit rating to the lowest level since 2002, amid an apparent lack of willingness to rebuild fiscal buffers. Leszek Kąsek, a Warsaw-based economist at ING Bank, said: “This path is not sustainable. You should ask people if Poland can maintain its growth story and whether politicians will be ready to adjust?” Wedged between larger neighbours it has been subjugated twice within living memory, Poles are uneasy about national security. But despite its economic turnaround under EU membership, and as it secures billions of euros in defence funds from Brussels, support for Eurosceptic politics remains. In the run-up to the general election next year, the defence of the country, support for Ukraine and EU relations will be highly politically charged. Outside the foreign ministry in Warsaw, protesters wave placards in a “Poles for peace” nationalist rally, organised by rightwing politicians opposed to the EU and its support for Ukraine. Inside the building’s marble halls, where the Polish flag appears to be positioned next to those of Nato and the EU at almost every opportunity, Bosacki says divisions over the benefits to Poland of membership to both institutions has emerged for the first time. This year, Poland’s president, Karol Nawrocki, who has backing from the rightwing Peace and Justice party, attempted to block the Polish prime minister Donald Tusk’s liberal, pro-EU government from accessing €44bn (£38bn) of defence investment loans approved under the bloc’s security action for Europe (Safe) programme. “I think our right is so eager to regain power they will use anything,” Bosacki says. “Here for the first time, the opposition was [against doing] something which, in my opinion – and the opinion of the majority of Poles – is clearly benefiting Polish security, Polish defence and the Polish economy as well.” Through Safe, Warsaw secured the largest single disbursement in the loan programme. The government has pledged to channel almost 90% of it to domestic industry – led by Polska Grupa Zbrojeniowa (PGZ), the state-owned defence conglomerate. However, in the race to build up capacity, the tills are ringing for US-arms manufacturers supplying Patriot missiles, Abrams tanks and F-35 fighter jets. In March, the International Monetary Fund cautioned that the positive economic spillovers from EU defence investment would not necessarily flow for the governments taking out their chequebooks. However, Warsaw is doing defence deals with international partners, including the UK, to help develop its domestic manufacturing base at the same time as building military readiness. The British defence group Babcock is working with PGZ to help build a fleet of new frigates. Known as the Miecznik, or swordfish, programme, the company has a shipyard at Gdynia on the Baltic coast. The first ship was launched this summer by Tusk. “It’s a must for Poland, basically, to invest more. But they want to do it in a smart way,” says Andrzej Maciejewski, Babcock’s country director for Poland, who is based in Warsaw. “We’re addressing this ambition – that these great investments in defence will bring greater value for money and, in the longer run, these capabilities.” BAE Systems is partnering with the PGZ subsidiary Mesko, which makes ammunition and rockets, to build an artillery plant in Poland’s old southern industrial heartlands near Katowice. By 2028, Poland plans three new munition factories. During a visit to the Mesko facility in August, Tusk said figures for 2023 showed Poland was capable of producing only 5,000 rounds of 155mm ammunition – a Nato-standard artillery shells. “More is used in one day on the Russian-Ukrainian front,” he said. This year, Poland will have increased production to 30,000 rounds, with a goal of 200,000 a year in the next two years. This month, Luke Pollard, the UK minister for defence readiness, visited Czosnów for the opening of the MBDA facility. Pollard said it would help support jobs in both countries, including in Bristol, Stevenage and Bolton. Despite this, Britain is increasing defence investment at a slower pace. The government has committed to increase spending from 2.3% of GDP last year to 3%, but has not spelled out precisely how or when this will be achieved. In Poland, there are signs its investment spree is beginning to pay off for local contractors. Maciej Klemm, the co-founder of Advanced Protection Systems (APS), which builds counter-drone systems in Gdynia, has increased its headcount from about 150 staff to 200 this year. Amid growing Russian drone incursions into Polish airspace, APS is playing a role in the Warsaw’s $4bn San programme to build an “anti-drone wall” to protect the country’s eastern flank. “We are spending a lot of money as a nation, and we are almost a poster child for it,” Klemm says. Splitting his time between Poland and the UK, where he still lives with his family after graduating from the University of Bristol in the 2000s, Klemm also sums up Poland’s recent economic history. “I was moving to Britain at the time there was a big wave of Poles coming over here. Now after Brexit, that wave partly receded and went the other way. Now, companies like ourselves and others are showing we have technical talent; we can build on this, and grow companies in Poland.”

Eviction of 87-year-old puts Spain’s deepening housing crisis in the spotlight

Images of an octogenarian being evicted from the home she had lived in for seven decades on a stretcher, flanked by protesters and police officers, sparked indignation across Spain. Hours later, people began taking to the streets. In Madrid, an estimated 10,000 people turned up on Wednesday, wielding signs that read “Shame” and “Out with the vulture funds”, to protest against the eviction of Maricarmen Abascal. From the northern tip of Spain to the south, people poured into plazas calling for a nationwide reckoning over access to housing. The catalyst was the eviction of Abascal, now known across the country by her first name, Maricarmen. The 87-year-old woman with a disability said she had been forced to leave her home after she was unable to afford the 230% rent hike demanded by the investment fund that bought her apartment. “This eviction is the canary in the coalmine,” said political scientist Cristina Monge. “It’s become a symbol, seen as the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the issue of housing.” It was, as newspaper El País said in an editorial, a glimpse of a housing market that had become completely unmoored from the average income in Spain, as rents rose 80% in a decade, while the cost of homes had climbed by 63%. “The law was upheld, and the market worked. But it is the law of the jungle in a broken market, and it is a failure.” The investment fund linked to the eviction of Maricarmen did not reply to a request for comment from the Guardian. Saturday saw around 25,000 people, according to government figures, take to the streets of Madrid, rattling keys as they called for measures to curb rising housing costs and make evictions more difficult. Some brought tents and sleeping bags, announcing plans to set up a protest camp in Madrid’s central Sol plaza. The eviction had left many in Spain grappling with a sense of “powerlessness”, said Monge, given that the issue of housing had also been at the forefront of the Spanish Indignados movement, or 15-M, the years-long anti-austerity and anti-corruption protest movement that involved millions of Spaniards and reshaped the country’s politics. “Now, 15 years later, housing is still the number one concern of Spaniards. And there are still evictions every day, to the order of about 25,000 per year,” she said. “But the paradox is that the country’s government includes some of the same people who led the 15-M protests. And still, housing remains an enormous challenge.” As anger mounted this week, politicians laid the blame on each other for the eviction. Rights campaigners and researchers weighed in with potential solutions, citing the more than 3m homes believed to be sitting empty across the country or government figures that suggest social housing makes up just 2.5% of the total stock in Spain, compared to 14% in France and 34% in the Netherlands. The head of one of the country’s biggest labour unions called for investment funds to be “kicked out” of the housing market. “Homes are for living in, not for large corporations to do business,” said Unai Sordo of the Workers’ Commissions (CCOO) as he called for a tax system that would make “the business of hoarding homes unprofitable”. The UN’s special rapporteur on the right to housing, Koldo Casla, called on Spain to amend the laws governing its legal system, describing it as “impossible to understand” how the profitability of a real estate company had been prioritised over Maricarmen’s right to housing. The leftwing coalition Sumar, the junior partner in the government, said it would push the socialist-led government to greenlight the expropriation of Maricarmen’s former home as well as put forward a package of rent freezes. The widespread demand for change has cast a spotlight on the deep divisions that exist among Spain’s political parties when it comes to the issue of housing. These divisions were laid bare earlier this year when the conservative People’s party, the far-right Vox and the hardline Catalan pro-independence party Junts voted to end a moratorium on evictions that for six years had managed to shield some vulnerable tenants from eviction. On Wednesday, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, who is under fire for not doing more to ensure his government had carried through on its promises of making housing a priority, promised to swiftly introduce a raft of measures. “Maricarmen’s eviction is a social tragedy that we cannot accept,” he said. While his government had in 2023 managed to pass legislation that strengthened tenant protection and widened access to rent control, regions led by the People’s party had wielded their powers over housing to avoid implementing parts of the legislation. Among those who had ignored parts of the legislation was the rightwing leader of the Madrid region, Isabel Díaz Ayuso, who in recent weeks has faced questions over her administration’s decision to allegedly spend €6.3m (£5.4m) of public funds on a residential penthouse to use as a temporary office. The striking contrast between the allegations against Ayuso and the eviction of Maricarmen has repeatedly cropped up this week, from the decision to hold Wednesday’s protest in Madrid on a boulevard next to the penthouse, to the chants urging “Ayuso’s penthouse for Maricarmen”. The regional leader has so far sought to downplay the significance of Maricarmen’s eviction, describing it as “one out of the 25,500 that take place every year in Spain” and noting that it had been authorised by the country’s courts. While the story of Maricarmen had dominated headlines, turning the octogenarian into the poster woman for those bearing the brunt of Spain’s soaring real estate market, many pointed to her plight as a glimpse of a wider reality. “Maricarmen’s case is not an isolated incident; it is just one more example of the suffering endured by thousands of households in Spain,” Amnesty International Spain said in a statement. “Bold measures must be taken immediately. Institutions must go beyond simply expressing regret in the press, they must take action.”

Ukraine war briefing: German foreign minister urges Russia to abandon dangerous escalation in rare meeting

The foreign ministers of Russia and Germany met in New York on the sidelines of the ⁠UN general assembly, ⁠in the first such talks since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. But Russia’s top diplomat dismissed Germany’s calls to ease off its “dangerous path of escalation” toward Europe, instead accusing Germany of being Ukraine’s main sponsor and seeking to be a leading military power in Europe. “Does Berlin understand what this could lead to?” the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, asked in his speech at the gathering of world leaders on Saturday. “Didn’t they learn the lessons of world war two?” German foreign minister, Johann ‌Wadephul, used the talks to call on Russia “to abandon the dangerous path of escalation vis-a-vis Germany, Europe, and Nato”, according to a delegation source. Wadephul said incidents such as the attempted drone attack in Leipzig would not shake Germany’s resolve to support Ukraine, according to sources. Relations between Moscow and Berlin have been frozen since the Russian invasion, and tensions escalated further after the drone incident at Leipzig airport. In a sign of the continued frostiness, Lavrov told a press conference on Saturday “nothing new” came from the talks with his German counterpart. “I told him that frankly … you could just have called me and said: ‘read my statement’,” Lavrov said. “He simply reiterated his official public position condemning Russia … you can judge for yourself whether that counts as dialogue or not.” Still, the ministers discussed bilateral ties and the war in Ukraine, officials from ‌both sides said. Wadephul urged Lavrov to do “everything possible to reach an agreement on grain exports via the Black Sea”, a German ‌delegation source said. In a sign of the sensitivities around meeting the Russian foreign minister, Wadephul notified his European allies of the meeting afterwards in a message seen by Reuters. “I used this opportunity to reiterate our position on Russia’s war of aggression ⁠against Ukraine and to call for an immediate and complete ceasefire, most pressingly with a focus on grain exports, and the energy infrastructure,” he wrote. After the meeting Lavrov addressed world leaders at the assembly, where he defended Russia’s war in Ukraine and lobbed barbs at the west — including Germany – and criticised the militarisation of Japan. He made clear that Russia will veto any attempt by Germany and Japan for permanent seats on the UN security council. The two nations fought Russia, Britain and the US in the second world war. Writing on her personal Telegram channel, Maria Zakharova, a spokesperson for Russia’s foreign ministry, said that “tens of diplomats” had come to meet Lavrov to “shake his hand and thank Russia”. An overwhelming majority of general assembly member nations have repeatedly condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Wadephul noted in his own address to the assembly Saturday. “Russia’s war targets the lives of millions of innocent people, the existence of the Ukrainian state and culture and the European peace order,” he said, urging Russia to negotiating toward ending the fighting. The talks came amid an intensifying aerial war and as Donald Trump said he hoped the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, would “settle” with Russia’s Vladimir Putin. With frontline positions largely unchanged since last year, Russia has hammered Ukraine with cruise and ballistic missiles, powerful glide bombs and jet-powered drones in recent months, while Ukraine’s long-range drones have targeted Russian oil refineries and businesses. “It is essential that our partners not forget: Russia is escalating every single day,” Zelenskyy wrote on Saturday. “If the Russians have chosen to make their strikes even more brutal, the world must choose stronger responses to keep the war from spreading further.” Ukrainian officials said Russian attacks killed four people on Saturday, as Russian authorities said a Ukrainian drone attack killed three. Residents of Kyiv are preparing for power cuts, drone attacks and a bitter cold winter by stocking up on generators, food and “dry showers”, as the Ukrainian capital becomes a frontline city. And Russia has opened a new front in its campaign against Ukraine, hitting several datacentres and internet providers in Kyiv this week in an apparent attempt to weaken the digital backbone of the economy.

Greek authorities seek answers after six killed in Athens apartment block explosion

Greek authorities say they are trying to discover what caused a two-storey apartment block in the heart of ancient Athens to collapse “in a matter of seconds”, killing six people. Emergency teams found the victims, including four American tourists, on Saturday, more than 24 hours after the early morning explosion in the historic Plaka district. The fire service said the bodies of three women and three men had been found, but stopped short of identifying them. A Briton and his Greek wife, 77 and 78, who lived in a flat on the building’s upper floor, were among those killed, the Guardian was told. “The bodies have been taken to the morgue where postmortems will be conducted,” the city’s vice-mayor, Paris Charlaftis, said in a telephone interview from the blast scene. “Our focus now is on the explosion’s cause. What could have happened to bring the building down in a matter of seconds?” Rescuers had deployed thermal cameras and geophones, used to detect deep subsonic frequencies, in the hope of finding survivors. Earth-moving machines and specially trained search dogs were brought in to move and comb mounds of rubble through the night. Before the bodies were pulled from the ruins on Saturday, police put the missing at six, saying four were Americans staying in a short-term rental on the building’s first floor. Two brothers and their wives, all four were due to fly to the US on Friday, just hours after the explosion. “When they failed to turn up for the flight they had checked into only a day earlier, that gave us a further lead,” a source said. “It became clearer that they must have been there when the blast occurred.” The Briton, a talented artist, who lived with his wife on the second floor, was described by Charlaftis as being partially disabled. “He had kinetic issues, and it was thought likely they, too, were in the building [at the time of the blast].” Nestled around the foot of the fifth-century BC Acropolis, Plaka is especially popular with tourists. The picturesque district draws thousands of visitors daily, with many staying overnight in the hotels and short-term rentals in neoclassical houses and small apartment blocks along its alleyways and narrow streets. The mayor of Athens, Haris Doukas, who rushed to 15 Lysikratous, where the mid-20th-century building had once stood, was quick to describe the incident as an “unprecedented disaster”. At least three people were known to have been injured when the explosion occurred at 7.30am, shattering the windows of nearby buildings and scattering debris far and wide. A motorist driving down Lysikratous described how his car was lifted into the air by the sheer force of a blast that some in the neighbourhood likened to an earthquake, others to a bomb. Emergency workers could be seen hastily removing two women on stretchers from a building next door who had been wounded by flying debris. Speculation is rife that a gas leak triggered the collapse but officials said there were many “cogent theories” at play. Fears of the leak emanating from the first-floor short-term rental was among them. As part of efforts to address a burgeoning housing crisis, Greece’s centre-right government has sought to ban short-term rentals in Plaka – clamping down on permits and tightening regulations. On Saturday, as speculation mounted over the cause of the blast, criticism grew over the ability to “properly control” establishments that were often unregulated. “This awful incident will fuel further debate over who inspects short-term rentals that no one who lives in Plaka wants anyway,” said Giorgos Zafeiriou, an architect who heads the local residents’ committee. “Hotels have chambers that regulate them but who inspects and controls Airbnb and serviced apartments that often may not be up to par?” Civil protection crews and emergency disaster management teams have been ordered to remain on site until the cause of the explosion is found, officials said. “It was a huge explosion, so getting to the bottom of it must now be the priority,” added Zafeiriou. “Six people have lost their lives.”

US strikes on Ecuadorian fishing boats raise humanitarian concerns but Trump admin not wavering

While the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was being decorated in Quito by Ecuador’s president for “helping to promote peace in the region”, 10 Ecuadorian fishers whose boat had been blown up by US forces were adrift in the eastern Pacific. On 8 September, a day before Rubio arrived, a US patrol vessel intercepted the fishing boat Don Rufo in international waters near Ecuador. “The gringos were all armed as if they were going to war,” said the boat’s captain, Mero Calderón, 50. “I tried to show them our catch to prove that we were there working, but they wouldn’t listen,” he added. “They brought two huge bombs aboard, took us to their ship, handcuffed and blindfolded us, and blew our boat to pieces,” said Calderón, who along with five other fishers, was handed over to local authorities. But another 10 crew members were fishing farther out to sea in a smaller boat that was not equipped to make it back to shore. The Ecuadorian navy only rescued them on 10 September, when Rubio was already in Peru preparing to return to the US. US Southern Command posted an edited 14-second video of the operation and said “intelligence confirmed” that the vessel was being used by a gang as a “floating refuelling station” for speedboats allegedly carrying drugs – which the fishers deny. It was one of eight operations involving Ecuadorian boats in just more than two weeks – the latest on 16 September – to follow the same pattern. Unlike the nearly 70 US airstrikes in the Pacific and Caribbean that have killed 234 people since last year, crews were removed before the vessels were sunk. Also, rather than unilateral US attacks, the new wave of operations has the open support of Ecuador’s far-right president, Daniel Noboa, who is calling them “joint operations”. Donald Trump has compared the drug trafficking operations to the campaign against the Islamic state. “Like ISIS, they should be killed, exiled or detained as enemy combatants without the possibility of release, which is what we’re doing,” Trump said on Tuesday. Some analysts see the shift as an indication that the US’s military strategy against drug trafficking in Latin America has entered a new phase. “Noboa has offered Ecuador as a ‘laboratory’ for the implementation of this new phase,” said Will Freeman, a fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations. Although Ecuador does not produce cocaine like neighbouring Colombia and Peru, over the past decade it has become a major trafficking hub because of its access to the Pacific, including the area where the attacks on boats have been taking place. Noboa has responded with a controversial “iron-fist” approach to the gangs, issuing repeated states of emergency and expanding the role of the armed forces. This crackdown however has done little to reduce violence, and instead has eroded human rights. The most notable example of human rights abuse came last year in the case of the “Guayaquil Four”, the forced disappearance of four Afro-Ecuadorian boys between the age of 11 and 15. All four boys were found dead, there bodies charred and dismembered. Despite pushback from voters, Noboa signed an agreement with the White House authorising joint operations and granting US military personnel involved in counter-narcotics operations immunity from criminal prosecution. The operations have also extended to land, with US troops taking part in raids last Thursday. “Noboa is interested in the optics of a very lethal crackdown and in making Ecuador a place where the Trump administration can refine those methods and show them off,” said Freeman, who has also reported on the boat attacks in Ecuador for the New Yorker magazine. Trump has pressured Latin American presidents to join an anti-drug cartel coalition he created called Shield of the Americas. With Peru and Colombia recently joining, the group now includes all but the few countries still governed by the left, such as Mexico and Brazil – where a far-right senator is a serious contender in October’s election. So far, the coalition’s primary goal appears to have been increasing joint operations against alleged drug traffickers. Adam Isacson, director for defence oversight at the Washington Office on Latin America, expects joint operations to expand across the region. Isacson stressed that though more people are being turned over to local authorities instead of killed, the US is “still doing the bad old stuff”. On 19 September, four people were killed in the Caribbean. As with the other airstrikes, the US has not disclosed their identities or any of the alleged evidence linking them to criminal activity. During his trip to Ecuador, Rubio said the decision on what approach to take was “a strike-by-strike or operation-by-operation determination” that depended on the threat and location of the boat, but that the US would “still blow up ships if need be”. Human rights organisations have described the airstrikes as extrajudicial killings, and a special rapporteur for the UN human rights council has concluded that there are “reasonable grounds to believe” that they constitute “crimes against humanity”. Despite Trump’s claims, available data show they have had no impact on the volume of cocaine entering the country. Journalists and human rights groups have managed to identify some of the victims, who in many cases were innocent or, when suspected of involvement in criminal activity, poor people at the bottom of trafficking networks. In Ecuador, the local NGO Permanent Committee for the Defence of Human Rights estimates that more than 220 fishers have been subjected to “violent boardings, arbitrary detentions, enforced disappearances, torture and the destruction of vessels” in this year’s US operations. None of the fishers remains in custody and, while some are still facing prosecution, many have already been acquitted for lack of evidence. “Fishers are losing their livelihoods when the US destroys the boats. Besides, if the US says the vessels were being used to refuel drug boats, why destroy the evidence?” said the committee’s lawyer, Fernando Bastías. A US Southern Command spokesperson said it conducts operations “in compliance with US and international law” and that leaving boats “intact could permit their reuse by criminal networks”. Although the US and Ecuador have celebrated the recent operations on social media, three cases from earlier this year remain unclaimed. The first was on 20 January, when the fishing vessel Fiorella disappeared with eight crew members on board; days earlier, some of them had told relatives they were being monitored by drones and by a vessel on which they said they had seen a US flag. Human rights organisations and journalists identified two more cases with similar patterns in late March, although the fishers survived. The Washington Post reported that the three cases were part of a covert CIA programme, and the agency declined to comment. A US Southern Command spokesperson said it had no knowledge of, nor were its forces “involved in the incidents described in reports involving the Fiorella”. Both the husband and brother of María Mero, 43, were aboard the Fiorella: Gabriel Aladino Mero Delgado, 44, and Jefferson Ariel Mero Cueva, 25. “Where did they take them? Do they have them in the US, in a prison somewhere? We don’t want any trouble; we just want them to send them back to us,” she told the Guardian. The families say they have spent months trying to get answers from the Ecuadorian government, so far without success. “They were fishers, not criminals. Let the great president come here to my house and see whether I have luxuries, anything that would show I’m a drug trafficker. No, because all of us here are poor, and we just want our loved ones back,” added Mero.

Pope Leo celebrates open-air mass before 700,000 people in Paris

Hundreds of thousands of people lined the Avenue des Champs-Élysées in ⁠Paris on Saturday to attend an open-air mass with Pope Leo, on the second day of his visit to France. The Vatican estimated 700,000 people turned out for the outdoor mass with the 71-year-old American pope – about 100,000 more than the number of people who had registered to attend. It took place at the Place de la Concorde, the site of bloody executions by guillotine during the French Revolution – when Louis XVI’s staunchly Catholic rule was overthrown – and now the centre of the secular republic. The choice of the site, a symbol of the French republic to many, was criticised by supporters of France’s strict legislation separating church and state in public life. But cheers rang out in the crowd as the pope thanked ‌God in his homily for the chance to ‌visit France on a whirlwind four-day, three-city tour to promote Catholicism and its teachings. It is the first official papal visit to France in 18 years. Pope Leo asked those in the crowd not to keep their faith to themselves. “Let it overflow, so that those you meet may be refreshed and their thirst satisfied,” he said. “From this beautiful city of Paris, I pray fervently that the living water of the Holy Spirit may flow throughout France.” He told Catholics that only their faith, and not material things, can provide true happiness. “Only God can fill the emptiness within us,” he said. The security zone for the event – the biggest of the papal tour – stretched about 1.4 miles (2.2km), shutting down road traffic in central Paris from the Place de la Concorde to the Arc de Triomphe and beyond. Chanting “Leo, Leo” and “Long live the pope”, crowds of people waved French and Vatican flags as the pontiff rode slowly down the grand boulevard of the Champs-Élysées aboard a popemobile – a specially designed, partly open vehicle used during public appearances. He stopped frequently along the way as babies were lifted out of the crowd and brought to him to receive a papal caress on their heads. The city centre was sealed off for the service, with helicopters circling overhead and snipers positioned on rooftops. About 14,500 police officers, gendarmes, military personnel and firefighters were deployed to the event, which was attended by 2,400 priests and deacons, and about 100 bishops. Marie-Élisabeth, a 44-year-old nun from Burgundy, told a reporter for France 24: “This event is a way for us to say loud and proud that Christians are here.” Speaking to reporters from Agence France-Presse, Sylvie Leclerc, a 51-year-old teacher, also said she and her fellow Christians want to share their fervour for their faith. “You don’t hear much from us Catholics, but now we’re going to make some noise!” she said. “But to proclaim love, peace, joy.”

Broken promises, confiscated land: the hyperscale AI datacentre being built in a tiny Indian village

When the government officials arrived in Tarluvada last year, they came with abundant promises. Google, one of the world’s richest and most powerful tech companies, would soon be bringing a “golden opportunity” to this tiny village in south India: a $15bn AI datacentre. The project, being built in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, is set to be Google’s largest “hyperscale” AI datacentre outside the US and would, officials said, make the village of Tarluvada into a world-famous tech hub. Jobs, usually scarce in this impoverished community, would become bountiful, real estate prices would soar and compensation for any land would be generous. Few in the village – which sits on a dusty unpaved road and is surrounded by farms and forest – had even heard of AI or knew what a datacentre was. Yet it did not take long for local jubilation over Google’s arrival to turn to suspicion. Just as protests have erupted globally over AI datacentres – from California and Texas to Scotland and Australia – communities in Andhra Pradesh, too have been gathering in opposition to the project, fearing that the people will end up bearing a crippling environmental and economic cost. “We have learned that America does not want the problems of datacentres and so now Google is bringing them here,” said Tarluvada’s village head, BRB Naidu, who admitted he was torn about whether the datacentre would bring prosperity or ruin to their community. “Many in the village are very worried. But the government has refused to answer our questions.” Pointing up to the nearby hillside – where bulldozers recently stripped the land bare of trees to ready it for Google’s mega AI campus – Naidu adds: “The work just continues every day.” The state government, which is allied with Indian prime minister Narendra Modi’s party, have been accused of trying to obfuscate the true scale of the vast AI hub being built in Andhra Pradesh, to push the project through at lightening speed and avoid more stringent environmental scrutiny. Google has partnered with the Adani Group, one of India’s largest and most politically powerful conglomerates with a reputation for getting approvals through quickly, to build the project. Publicly it was announced as a 1GW project – already a larger energy requirement than most AI datacentres. In its response to the Guardian, Google referred to it only as an unspecific “gigawatt scale AI hub”, that was “comparable to other projects”. But state environmental clearances reveal that permission has been granted for it to be more than double that size – 2.51GW; the power equivalent of two large nuclear reactors at full output. Over a year, it amounts to upwards of 30% of the current energy consumption of the whole of Andhra Pradesh, a state home to more than 55 million people. Activists fear that meeting the datacentre’s vast energy demands will lead to seismic environmental consequences for the region, including driving up fossil fuel emissions. While Google has pledged to help generate “new, clean energy” to power its AI hub, currently 75% of the country’s electricity grid is run on coal. The state government argues AI datacentres will be essential to India’s growth and long-term digital competitiveness. According to the government of India’s Economic Survey 2025–26, India generated nearly 20% of the world’s data but hosts only about 3% of global datacentres. But locals and activists say that building one of the world’s largest AI datacentres in a region of India already struggling with issues over extreme heat, water, land, forests, power shortages and environmental regulation comes at a heavy cost. Google’s project will in fact encompass three separate datacentres around the state capital of Vizakhapatnam. One other site nearby to Taluvada is a few metres from reserve forest, a drinking water reservoir and a wildlife sanctuary home to endangered species such as leopards. Despite the AI datacentre’s expansive footprint, the state government issued environmental clearances to Google in just nine days, with no public consultation. Three petitions challenging the state’s quick approval of the project have now been filed to India’s National Green Tribunal (NGT), the country’s top environmental court. The petitions allege that government’s assessment of the risks to the environment and water supplies were “grossly inadequate, scientifically unrealistic, and misleading”. A public litigation has also been filed in the Andhra Pradesh high court. “This datacentre will be unprecedented in scale but there was no public hearing and no substantial evaluation of the ecological damage or the economic cost for local communities,” said VS Krishna, an activist with Human Rights Forum, the organisation which filed the NGT cases. Krishna alleged that their campaign to protest against the datacentre had been met with a deliberate silencing, including videos and social media pages being taken down. The government did not respond to this allegation. “We just have to look at the protests happening across the world to understand how environmentally catastrophic this will be,” Krishna added. In Tarluvada, temperatures regularly soar to about 45C during the summer and there are concerns the datacentres – documented emitters of heat – could make this even worse. The mass deforestation required for the project – more than 100 acres, could drive up temperatures even more. In response to the Guardian, Google said the project would have “no expected impact” on the local community. The strain on water supplies in this already water-stressed area has also been a cause of concern. In similarly water-stressed cities in the US, datacentres have been accused of exacerbating drought while polluting the water supply. Google said this project would use air-cooling instead of water, and would therefore have no impact on local drinking water supplies. Venkat Surynarayana, 40, a farmer in Tarluvada, said that when officials had initially come to measure land for the datacentre “they never mentioned anything about risks of pollution or water or heat, they didn’t even tell us what the project was. “We are sick with worry since we learned about the problems a datacentre can bring. This area can not afford to be any hotter. What if this makes our land dry and worthless? What will happen to my crops and my livelihood?” Surynarayana claimed attempts to get answers from the local administration had been met with police threats and protesters such as himself had been routinely detained. “When we raised our voices, they ignore us and then they shut us down,” he said. “But if this is not stopped, it could be the end of Tarluvada.” For the state government of Andhra Pradesh, the deal struck with Google to build this vast datacentre on its turf is a source of enormous pride, part of a wider policy to make the state into India’s most advanced and affluent tech hub. “Artificial intelligence is becoming foundational infrastructure for the global economy,” said Sribharat Mathukumilli, a local MP with the ruling state government, who rejected the environmental concerns. The subsidies and incentives they offered to Google, from decades-long tax breaks and discounted land to access to cheap electricity and water, are estimated to amount to 220bn rupees ($2.2bn) over 20 years. “Our objective is not simply to host a datacentre, but to create an AI and digital ecosystem,” said Mathukumilli. Late last year, the state granted permission for another 1GW AI datacentre, to be built by Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries. Google insisted the design choices of its AI datacentre have been tailored to local conditions and that it had “engaged deeply” with local communities, claiming it would generate thousands of jobs around Vizakhapatnam. But swathes of villagers in Tarluvada allege they were forced to give up land for the project against their will, and say they have not been given all they were promised in return. “No one will tell us the truth about this project,” said T Applaraju, 40, who was one of the 520 local families in Tarluvada who recently had land taken back that the government had allocated to him 20 years ago. He claims he was given no notice that his land was to be taken until April this year, when security guards working for the Adani Group erected fences and blocked locals from entering the plots they had farmed for years. “They took land that we thought belonged to us, it’s a big shock,” he said. “Why are Google building this here and not in America?” The state government claims no lands were forcibly taken and that it gave “generous compensation” to those who were eligible. The Adani group says that all necessary legal approvals were given. But many of the 47 farmers from the impoverished Dalit community who were compensated for their land are also unhappy. One farmer, P Venkat Rao, alleged he was pressured by the government into giving up his only acre of land against his will. He received $40,000 in compensation, but said the government’s promise to give them a replacement piece of land and one job per family had not materialised. Without land to farm, Rao described the compensation as “worthless”. “I am a farmer, without my land I am nothing,” he added. “They have taken my livelihood and broken their promises.”