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US-Ukraine security deal waiting to be signed, says Zelenskyy – Europe live

Separately, Germany’s foreign minister Johann Wadephul denounced Russia’s “stubborn insistence on the crucial territorial issue” after talks between Russian, Ukrainian and US envoys in Abu Dhabi over the weekend, AFP reported. “What I am hearing and reading today, including from the negotiations in the United Arab Emirates, is only Russia’s stubborn insistence on the crucial territorial issue,” Wadephul said in Riga. “And if there is no flexibility here, I fear that the negotiations may still take a long time or may not be successful at this stage.”

Monday briefing: What we know about the death of Alex Pretti

“The party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” That line from George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four has been lodged in my mind all weekend as the Trump administration and senior US law enforcement officials described the events leading up to the fatal shooting of Alex Pretti in Minneapolis – the second American citizen shot dead in the city by federal immigration agents in less than three weeks – even as video footage and eyewitness testimony told a very different story to their preferred narrative. Today’s newsletter examines what we know about the shooting of Pretti, why Minneapolis has become a flashpoint, and how smartphone footage is undermining the official government line on the killing. Here are Monday’s top stories. Five big stories Labour | The Labour party faced the prospect of civil war on Sunday night after Keir Starmer and his allies blocked Andy Burnham’s return to parliament to stave off a potential leadership challenge. Immigration | Thousands of people have marched through an East Sussex market town to protest against UK government plans to house asylum seekers on a former military site. Iran | The son of Iran’s president has called for the internet restrictions in the country to be lifted. US Politics | Florida’s Maxwell Alejandro Frost, the first afro-Cuban to be elected to Congress, said that during the Sundance film festival he was assaulted by a man who said Donald Trump would deport him. UK Politics | An AI-generated British schoolgirl called ‘Amelia’, created to deter young people from extremism, has become a social media star after being subverted by the far right. In depth: A killing on camera and a test of credibility Pretti, a 37-year-old intensive care nurse who worked at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs hospital, was shot dead on Saturday during a protest against the administration’s immigration enforcement operation in the city. ICE agents are carrying out an aggressive crackdown that has brought protests, legal challenges and now mounting national outrage. His killing comes just weeks after Renee Nicole Macklin Good, another 37-year-old US citizen, was also shot dead by a federal immigration officer in Minneapolis. *** What do we know about the shooting? Multiple videos circulating online show Pretti filming federal agents on his phone during a protest near downtown Minneapolis. In the clearest footage – in what is a highly distressing video to watch – he appears to come to the aid of a legal observer who had been shoved to the ground by an officer. Moments later, Pretti is pepper-sprayed, tackled to the street and pinned down by several agents. At least five officers surround him as he lies on the ground. One appears to fire a shot at close range, followed by a volley of further shots. Pretti’s body then goes still. Two eyewitnesses – a woman who filmed the shooting from just feet away, and a physician who watched from a nearby apartment – later said in sworn testimony that Pretti was not brandishing a weapon at any point. The doctor also said federal officers initially prevented them from providing medical aid, and appeared to be counting bullet wounds rather than performing CPR. *** The official version Senior Trump administration figures offered a sharply different account from what the videos appear to show. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, said Pretti approached officers “with a 9mm semi-automatic handgun” and posed a lethal threat. Donald Trump described him as a “gunman”. A senior border patrol commander said the shooting prevented a potential “massacre” of law enforcement. Those claims were repeated even as video evidence showed Pretti holding a phone, not a gun, and eyewitness accounts directly contradicted the official narrative. A similar pattern followed the killing of Renee Good (pictured above) earlier this month. Noem said Good had used her car as a weapon – a claim disputed by local officials and eyewitnesses, and contradicted by video that appeared to show her vehicle turning away as an officer opened fire. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, insisted multiple ICE officers were hurt in the incident, when videos showed no such thing. JD Vance, the vice-president, described Good’s actions as “classic terrorism”. Good’s mother, Donna Ganger, said “Renee was one of the kindest people I’ve ever known … She was extremely compassionate. She’s taken care of people all her life.” The fatal shooting of Good by a federal officer took place less than a mile from where George Floyd was murdered by a Minneapolis police officer in 2020, reopening wounds in a city already used to protesting law enforcement violence. *** What has been the reaction? The backlash has been swift and wide-ranging. Politicians including California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, have called for Noem to resign. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accused administration officials of justifying Pretti’s death because he was in legal possession of a firearm – while celebrating Kyle Rittenhouse, who fatally shot two people during protests in Wisconsin in 2020. Rittenhouse became a cause célèbre for Republicans, and received a standing ovation at a Turning Point USA event where Charlie Kirk praised him as “a hero to millions”. Kirk was shot dead on 10 September last year. Prominent athletes and entertainers have also spoken out. NBA and NFL players condemned the killing, while actors including Natalie Portman and Olivia Wilde used red carpet appearances at the Sundance film festival to denounce what Portman called an “obscene” moment for the country. Saturday’s NBA game between the Minnesota Timberwolves and Golden State Warriors was postponed, with the league citing concerns for public safety. Minneapolis’s mayor, Jacob Frey, has said federal agencies should “get the fuck out of Minneapolis”, adding: “How many more Americans need to die before this operation ends?” And in perhaps the most surprising statement, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has joined other gun lobbying and advocacy groups in calling for a “full investigation” into the killing. *** Why Minneapolis – and why now? More than three decades ago, the chance filming of Rodney King being brutally beaten by Los Angeles police (pictured above) helped expose a gap between official accounts of policing and what cameras could reveal. Today, smartphones and livestreams have made that gap harder than ever to ignore. Garrett Graff, a journalist and historian, wrote last week of events in Minneapolis: “This is what fascism looks like – there is no bright line between democracy and autocracy. It’s a spectrum, and not all of the country will experience that switch at the same moment in the same way.” In Minneapolis, that switch has arrived not as a constitutional crisis, but as heavily armed federal agents on city streets, filmed in real time by the people they police. With Donald Trump repeatedly threatening to invoke the Insurrection Act and deploy troops domestically, and federal agents accused of blocking local investigators from accessing crime scenes, there is little sign that tensions in the city are easing. What is clear is that once again, Americans are being asked to choose between what they are told by Trump’s Maga Republicans – and what they can see with their own eyes. What else we’ve been reading If I hadn’t been writing about Minneapolis, I suspect First Edition would have been about Andy Burnham (pictured above). Peter Walker argues Keir Starmer had no good options – but blocking him is a big risk. Martin “Perhaps I was a con artist, but I wasn’t a dangerous one …” is how this riveting tale by a writer who spent six months as a telephone psychic starts. It tells a story of loneliness, and our great urge to be listened to, and given answers. Poppy Noor, newsletters team This interview with Ian Russell, whose daughter Molly took her life in part due to the devastating effects of social media, is engaging because of Russell’s ability to remain clear-headed amid devastating loss. Poppy “Get a dog! Preferably a rescue one” is one of my favourite reader answers to the question how can we learn from unrequited love?. “It is a terrible feeling, unrequited love,” however, it hit me right in the feels. Martin Stuart Heritage’s piece charting the 100 biggest moments from a century of TV has many gems, my favourite being the launch of the first quizshow, Spelling Bee, which pitted seemingly random groups against one another. Who’s your money on between Fleet Street and Rada? Poppy Sport Sport | Manchester United dented Arsenal’s title hopes with a 3-2 victory at the Emirates thanks to a goal from substitute Matheus Cunha (pictured above). Aston Villa kept the pressure on at the top by beating Newcastle at St James Park, while Nottingham Forest secured a valuable 3 points in their relegation battle at Brentford. Tennis | Madison Keys’s reign at the Australian Open came to a difficult end as the defending champion was crushed under the weight of her hefty unforced error count and a spotless performance from Jessica Pegula, the sixth seed. Cricket | England’s Joe Root lavished praise on Harry Brook and Brendon McCullum after the pair celebrated their first overseas one-day international victory while in charge. The front pages “Labour faces risk of party civil war after PM blocks Burnham’s return” is the Guardian top story. “Starmer triggers Labour civil war after blocking Burnham return” is the i paper splash, while the Times runs “Labour MPs revolt over blocking of Burnham” and the Sun says “Crash & Burnham”. The Telegraph leads on “Labour in revolt over Burnham ‘stitch-up’”, the Mirror has “Strong Starm tactics” and the Mail says “Lame duck Starmer has only hastened his demise”. The FT splashes on “Republicans break ranks as Trump faces rising backlash after shooting”. Today in Focus Why Germany is racing to rebuild its army Are the German people on board with the government’s massive militarisation programme? Kate Connolly reports. Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad David Warr, 61, had been afraid of deep water ever since a school swimming lesson, aged 11, when he got out of his depth and panicked. Last year, he started having lessons with Sally Minty-Gravett in the seas surrounding Jersey, where he lives. His confidence grew but when Minty-Gravett asked him to jump off a slipway into the deep, he froze. Encouraged by his teacher, Warr began to reflect on whether his fear could be rooted in the death of his mother just before the swimming pool incident. It was a breakthrough moment. He jumped off the slipway and has since learned that he doesn’t need to feel the ground to feel safe. “No matter how fearful you become, the loss of your mum at a young age – that’s the abyss. Nothing else is ever as traumatic,” says Warr. Now, sea swimming lets him see Jersey from a different perspective. The shoreline, he says, “is teeming with life”. 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

‘This is a fake election’: Polls close in Myanmar but voters have little doubt junta proxy will prevail

The polls have closed in Myanmar, but no one is waiting in suspense. After arresting political opponents, banning the most popular political party and using violence to crush dissent, the military’s proxy is on course to win by a landslide. “This is a fake election,” says a man who voted on Sunday in Mandalay, the second most populous city, his finger freshly dipped in purple ink. Like many, he voted only out of fear, worried that junta officials could retaliate if he stayed home. “They are heartless people. Right now, we don’t have a future, we don’t have freedom, we can’t speak freely,” he says. He spoke anonymously and moved on quickly, nervous that police and election officials were watching. Before hurrying away, he adds of the military: “They kill my brothers.” After seizing power in a coup five years ago, imprisoning Aung San Suu Kyi the then state counsellor and de facto leader, and ousting her government, security forces gunned down pro-democracy protesters in the streets and went door-to-door arresting people who opposed its rule. Many took up arms in response, triggering a war that has swept across the country, drawing in ethnic armed groups that have long fought with the military. The junta has torched homes, massacred villagers and launched airstrikes repeatedly on civilian infrastructure to suppress its opponents, according to UN experts and rights groups. Just a few hours drive away from central Mandalay, the fighting has continued to rage. Voting was cancelled in rural areas of Mandalay region because of the conflict, according to local media. In urban areas, voting proceeded under the watch of armed police. At sunrise, families, packed on motorbikes, arrived at polling stations and filed beneath blue gazebos to vote. Few believe the election will bring any change. The military will try to present a facade of democracy, says Kyaw Kyaw*, a Mandalay resident, adding: “They cannot change reality.” The same problems will persist for the people: repressive laws and continued fighting, he says. He does not expect either side to relent. It’s feared fighting could even worsen. The military has lost swathes of territory to opposition groups over recent years but, supported by China, it has begun to regain momentum on the battlefield and is ramping up airstrikes to take back ground. Mandalay city is peaceful, but the city’s proximity to conflict areas, and to the Mandalay PDF, one of the more powerful anti-junta groups formed after the coup, has led to disrupted trade routes and restrictions on the sale of various goods. Prices for basic items such as rice and cooking oil have tripled since the coup, estimates Kyaw Kyaw. The number of displaced people who have fled to the city to escape conflict has also soared, driving up housing costs, he added. Last year’s devastating earthquake, which destroyed buildings across Mandalay, has caused further strain. The once 12-storey Sky Villa condo is now just a vacant spot hidden behind blue sheets of metal. Along the road, cars that were dragged from its collapsed car park lie mangled and abandoned. The biggest sites, like Sky Villa, have been cleared, but other buildings remain cracked and damaged. “Definitely, some residential buildings in Mandalay are not safe to live in after the earthquake,” says Kyaw Kyaw. People in taller apartments are especially nervous, but even those in smaller wooden homes feel paranoid whenever they sense shaking. Almost everyone avoids talking about politics in public, nervous others could listen in and report them. “They could be everywhere in tea shops,” says another Mandalay resident, Thandar*, 35, of the security forces and their informants. Residents live in fear of being stopped by the authorities and having their phones searched for banned VPNs or social media posts that show support for the military’s opponents. There is no doubt the military’s proxy party, Union Solidarity and Development party, is set to win a landslide victory in the election. It fielded the most candidates and secured the majority of seats in previous rounds. Many expect junta chief Min Aung Hlaing will become president, though some have questioned if he will carve out a special role that allows him to retain both political power and continue being military commander in chief. He has defended the vote as free and fair, and said it has the support of the public. The UN, and western governments including the UK and Australia, as well as the EU’s top rights official have rejected the vote as lacking legitimacy. The regional bloc, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, did not send observers and will not endorse the poll. China, however, a key military ally, is backing the vote. Turnout in early rounds of the month-long election has been low, at 55%, compared with about 70% in previous elections – despite the military reportedly threatening residents of repercussions if they did not participate. In urban areas of Mandalay, local officials blasted out reminders about the election on loudspeakers, Thandar says. Once polling stations had opened on Sunday, they went door to door, including to her home, telling residents to go out and vote. Still many defied the orders, including Thandar. The vote was not fair, she says. “I don’t care for their threats.” * Names have been changed.

China’s top general under investigation for alleged violations amid corruption crackdown

China’s military leadership is in turmoil after its most senior general – a close ally of Xi Jinping – was placed under investigation for “suspected serious violations of discipline and law”. Zhang Youxia is the joint vice-chairperson of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the ruling body of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA). Second only to Xi in the military command structure, Zhang has long been seen as the Chinese president’s closest military ally. The defence ministry announced on Saturday that Zhang and Liu Zhenli, chief of staff of the CMC’s joint staff department, were under investigation. An editorial published in the army newspaper Liberation Army Daily on Sunday said that Zhang and Liu “seriously betrayed the trust and expectations” of the Communist party and the CMC, and “fostered political and corruption problems that undermined the party’s absolute leadership over the military and threatened the party’s ruling foundation”. The Wall Street Journal reported that Zhang was accused of leaking information about the country’s nuclear weapons programme to the US and accepting bribes for official acts, including the promotion of an officer to defence minister, citing people familiar with a high-level briefing on the allegations. The Guardian was unable to independently verify the reports. Zhang is also a member of the elite politburo of the ruling Communist party and is one of just a few leading officers with combat experience. Aged 75, Zhang was retained in the military leadership by Xi past the normal age of retirement, indicating a high level of trust in the general that he has now purged. The military was one of the main targets of a broad corruption crackdown ordered by Xi in 2012. That drive reached the upper echelons of the PLA in 2023 when the elite Rocket Force was targeted. The scalping of a figure as senior as Zhang in Xi’s anti-graft campaign raises questions about the stability of China’s military leadership at a moment when it is under scrutiny from western observers about its readiness and willingness to launch an assault on Taiwan, which could bring it into conflict with the US in the Indo-Pacific. Lyle Goldstein, director of the Asia programme at Defense Priorities, a foreign policy thinktank, said the purge “raises larger issues about political stability in a rising, nuclear superpower”. “It could be seen by many as reflecting poor judgment about some of [Xi’s] prior appointments,” Goldstein said. Of the seven men appointed to the CMC at the 20th party congress in 2022, only two remain untouched by anti-corruption investigations: Xi himself, and Zhang Shengmin, the CMC’s anti-graft officer. The co-vice chair of the CMC, He Weidong, was expelled from the party and PLA in October last year for corruption. Foreign diplomats and security analysts are watching developments closely, given Zhang’s closeness to Xi and the importance of the commission’s work in terms of command as well as the PLA’s ongoing military modernisation and posture. While China has not fought a war in decades, it is taking an increasingly muscular line in the disputed East China Sea and South China Sea, as well as over the self-ruled island of Taiwan, which is claimed by China. Beijing staged the largest military exercises to date around Taiwan late last year. The Singapore-based China security scholar James Char said the military’s daily operations could carry on as normal despite the purges. “China’s military modernisers will continue to push for the two goals Xi has set for the PLA – namely, 2035 to basically complete its modernisation and 2049 to become a world-class armed forces,” said Char, a scholar at the S Rajaratnam School of International Studies. Eight top generals were expelled from the Communist party on graft charges in October 2025, including He Weidong. Two former defence ministers were also purged from the ruling party in recent years for corruption. The crackdown is slowing procurement of advanced weaponry and hitting the revenues of some of China’s biggest defence firms. Born in Beijing, Zhang joined the army in 1968, rising through the ranks and joining the CMC in late 2012 as the PLA’s modernisation drive gathered pace. He fought in Vietnam in a brief but bloody border war in 1979 that China launched in punishment for Vietnam invading Cambodia the previous year and ousting the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge. Zhang was sent to the frontlines to fight the Vietnamese and was quickly promoted, according to state media. He also fought in another border clash with Vietnam in 1984 as the conflict rumbled on. “During the battle, whether attacking or defending, Zhang Youxia performed excellently,” the official China Youth Daily wrote in a 2017 piece entitled These Chinese generals have killed the enemy on the battlefield. Some China scholars have noted that Zhang emerged from the conflict an avowed moderniser in terms of military tactics, weapons and the need for a better trained force.

Ukraine war briefing: US security agreement ‘100% ready’ to be signed, Zelenskyy says

A US security agreement for Ukraine is “100% ready” to be signed, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said after two days of talks involving representatives from Ukraine, the US and Russia – indicating some progress was made. Further discussions are expected next weekend. Speaking to journalists in Vilnius during a visit to Lithuania on Sunday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is waiting for its partners to set a time and place for the signing of the security guarantees document, after which it would go to the US Congress and Ukrainian parliament for ratification. “For us, security guarantees are first and foremost guarantees of security from the United States. The document is 100% ready, and we are waiting for our partners to confirm the date and place when we will sign it,” Zelensky said. Ukraine sought more air defence support from allies on Sunday as hundreds of buildings in Kyiv were without heating in freezing temperatures for a second day after Russian strikes. More than 1,300 apartment buildings Kyiv were still without heating, mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on Sunday. Sub-zero temperatures and repeated airstrikes have slowed efforts by repair crews working to restore heating and electricity. Zelenskyy has also emphasised Ukraine’s push for European Union membership by 2027, calling it an “economic security guarantee.” He described the talks in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi as likely the first trilateral format in “quite a long while” that included not only diplomats but military representatives from all three sides. Zelenskyy acknowledged fundamental differences between Ukrainian and Russian positions, reaffirming territorial issues as a major sticking point. Polish president Karol Nawrocki called for unity among countries under threat from an “imperial Russia”, at a Vilnius event commemorating the 1863 uprising in Poland and Lithuania against Tsarist Russia, which Zelenskyy also took part in. “The message of these celebrations is that by looking to the past for what we have in common, it’s easier today to face the problems ahead of us. Especially in an era of the revival of imperial Russia,” Nawrocki’s office said on X. “Whether it’s tsarist Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or Vladimir Putin’s Russia, our countries [Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine], now independent, still face the same problem: the threat posed by the Russian Federation,” Nawrocki said in his speech. Zelensky, in his speech, said Europe should cherish its independence and remain alert. “It is too early for Europe to relax while Russia’s war machine is still running, and while dictators around Europe are not weakening,” he said. “They all look at Europe – at us – as prey.” European nations committed to a new clean energy pact, the Hamburg Declaration, aimed at boosting the region’s energy security. The deal, to be signed at a summit in the German port city on Monday, will bring an “unprecedented fleet” of offshore wind projects to the North Sea that will supply multiple nations, the UK Department for Energy Security said. It comes three years after North Sea countries pledged to build 300GW of offshore wind in that sea by 2050, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the “weaponisation” of European energy supplies. Drone debris has sparked fire at two enterprises in Russia’s Krasnodar region, authorities say. One person was injured in Slavyansk-on-Kuban after drone fragments fell on them, the regional emergencies centre said on Monday, while not specifying what enterprises were affected. The city hosts a private refinery, supplying fuel for both domestic use and export. Russia’s defence ministry said air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 34 in the Krasnodar region.

New Zealand landslide: six missing named as police confirm victims are unlikely to be found alive

The families and friends of six people buried in a landslide at a New Zealand holiday park last week have paid tribute to their loved ones, after they were named by officials, and police confirmed they were unlikely to be found alive. The victims include 15-year-old Pakūranga College students Sharon Maccanico and Max Furse-Kee, literacy coordinator Lisa Maclennan, 50, longtime friends Jacqualine Wheeler and Susan Knowles, both 71, and Swedish national Måns Loke Bernhardsson, 20. Police Supt Tim Anderson said the operation had been focused on saving the lives of those missing beneath the mountains of dirt and debris that crashed into a campsite in Mount Maunganui on Thursday, but the search had moved into a recovery phase. “Search teams have been working through the slip layer by layer, but tragically it is now apparent that we will not be able to bring them home alive,” Anderson said over the weekend. “We informed the families of this news this morning … They are going through something very few people could understand, and we ask that they be given space to grieve.” Human remains were uncovered on Friday and formal identification is now under way, police said. Recovery efforts resumed on Monday morning, after the site was deemed potentially unstable on Sunday. In a statement provided to police, the mother of 15-year-old Max Furse-Kee, Hannah Furse, said the lives of her family had changed “so suddenly and so completely” they would never be the same again. “My love for Max is impossible to explain, no words are big enough to describe this love or loss,” she wrote. “What I can say is from the moment I first looked at his beautiful blue eyes almost 16 years ago he had my whole heart, he was my sunshine.” Max was due to turn 16 this week. “Life without Max is impossible to imagine. In truth, all of this feels impossible to imagine. We are endlessly proud of who he is and that he is ours,” Furse said. Max had been holidaying with fellow-student Sharon Maccanicoa, originally from the southern Italian town Picarelli, who lived in Auckland, the NZ Herald reported. “His incredible friends and his girlfriend meant the world to him, and the love, happiness, and sense of belonging they gave him brought him so much joy,” Furse said. In a social media post, Morrinsville intermediate school announced “with great sadness” Lisa Maclennan – a literacy centre tutor – was one of the victims. “Our love and aroha go out to Lisa’s family; we ask that you respect their privacy at this very difficult time,” said Jenny Clark, on behalf of the school. Messages in response described Maclennan as “loved by many”, with a “heart of gold”, who contributed much to the young people in the community. Roughly 200 members of the Mount Maunganui community came together for a vigil on Sunday evening, with prime minister Christopher Luxon also in attendance. “There’s a solemnness, there’s a sadness, there’s a heaviness that’s here in the community,” he told the NZ Herald. “People are wanting to find a way through that.” The landslide was one of several across the country last week, alongside flooding, road closures and power outages, after a series of storms tore through the North Island. Two people – including one Chinese national – died in a separate landslide that crashed into a house in Papamoa, south of Tauranga, on Thursday. Another man was killed after being swept down a river near Warkworth, north of Auckland. On Monday, the mayor of Tauranga, Mahe Drysdale, announced there would be a full and independent investigation into the tragedy, following questions over why people were not evacuated after reports of slips near the campsite and neighbouring areas earlier on Thursday. “There are legitimate questions that need to be asked,” Drysdale told RNZ. “For the sake of the families and for our community, everyone wants to know that everything was done and that everyone is safe going forward.”

Iran president’s son urges authorities to restore internet after protests blackout

The son of Iran’s president has called for the internet restrictions in the country to be lifted, saying nothing will be solved by trying to postpone the moment when pictures and video circulate of the protests that were violently crushed by the regime. With a battle under way at the top of the regime about the political risks of continuing to block Iran from the internet, Yousef Pezeshkian, whose father, Masoud, was elected in the summer of 2024, said keeping the digital shutdown would create dissatisfaction and widen the gap between the people and the government. “This means those who were not and are not dissatisfied will be added to the list of the dissatisfied,” he wrote in a Telegram post. The release of videos showing the violence of the protests was “something we will have to face sooner or later”, Yousef Pezeshkian added. “Shutting down the internet will not solve anything, we will just postpone the issue.” The sporadic lifting of restrictions is leading to a slow and painful inquest into how many protesters, including children, have died. Authorities launched a violent crackdown under cover of the internet blackout, with rights groups documenting several thousand dead. The Norway-based NGO Iran Human Rights says the final figure could be as high as 25,000. Thousands more people are still being detained. Pictures of many of the dead children are appearing on internet sites inside Iran, while the director of Farabi eye hospital in Tehran, Dr Ghasem Fakhraei, said staff at the specialist ophthalmology centre had operated on more than 1,000 patients requiring emergency eye surgery since the protests. Hospital wards were overflowing, he said. Molavi Abdolhamid, a prominent Sunni cleric and outspoken Friday prayer leader in Zahedan, south-east Iran, referred to the violent killing of protesters during January as an “organised massacre”. Yousef Pezeshkian, a government adviser, said the risk of keeping Iran cut off from the internet was greater than that of a return to protests if connectivity were restored. He said security institutions must ensure security with the existence of the internet, which he called a necessity in life. Pezeshkian, echoing comments of his father, said the protests had turned violent only because of professionally trained groups affiliated with foreigners, but added: “In the meantime the security and law enforcement forces may have made mistakes and no one is going to defend wrongdoing and that has to be addressed.” Iranian journalists were openly reporting a dispute with government about whether it was safe to relax the internet, with the president and the communications minister, Sattar Hashemi, backing the move but the measure being opposed by Ali Larijani, the head of the supreme national security council. Tehran’s stock market on Sunday was in the red for the fourth day in a row, and the Iranian currency, the rial, continued to fall against the dollar, one of the causes of the protests. The Central Bank of Iran said a debt issuance had only been 15% subscribed, a development that will require further government spending cuts or result in a rise in inflation, the official rate of which was more than 42% last month. Although shops have opened, even newspapers close to the security services admit trading is low. Iran’s computer trade organisation said the internet shutdown was costing $20m (£15m) a day, with lorry drivers also reporting it was difficult to cross borders because of the lack of electronic documentation. One frustrated trader said they were being given 20 minutes of supervised access to the internet a day, enough to answer a small number of emails, but not enough to conduct business. With the limited lifting of the restrictions, it is now possible to see pressure being applied to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) narrative that the death toll is so high purely because of subversive activities of the Mossad, Israel’s foreign intelligence agency. Gholamhossein Karbaschi, a reformist former mayor of Tehran, said: “People are in shock and amazed … If the agents of Mossad and foreign countries are at work, how did they suddenly carry out these disasters throughout the country? Where did they come from?” He condemned the failure of the Pezeshkian administration to improve the economy. “The government in Iran is losing its original meaning. In no area can it be said the government is active, present and solving problems. All the other forces in the country are active and doing what they want except for the government. This government does not show any power in any area,” Karbaschi said. Some of the protesters contacted by the Guardian in Iran blamed Donald Trump for failing to provide the help he had promised. “He betrayed us,” said one. “Trump is more hateful to me than the supreme leader [Ayatollah Ali] Khamenei because the ideology of Khamenei and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is clear. Trump promised and kept saying he would shoot the person who shot you. Trump is the lowest of leaders the world has seen.” Another said: “Bodies are intact, but hearts and minds are shattered. For a moment you feel happy that you have finally managed to get access to the internet. Then instantly guilt hits – what are you happy about it? Why are you still breathing, you useless person?” They added: “We are honestly sorry for ourselves because first, God does not exist. Second, we have become so miserable that we are impatiently waiting for another country to attack our country, hoping it will save us. And even then, there is no guarantee that it will.”

Amsterdam prepares to ‘ban the fatbikes’ amid rise in serious accidents

On a busy lunchtime, thick-tyred electric bikes zoom through the leafy lanes of the Vondelpark in Amsterdam. But after a marked rise in accidents – particularly involving children – these vehicles the Dutch call “fatbikes” are to be banned in some parts of the Netherlands. “It’s nonsense!” said Henk Hendrik Wolthers, 69, from the saddle of his wide-tyred, electric Mate bike. “I drive a car, I ride a motorbike, I’ve had a moped and now I ride a fatbike. This is the quickest means of transport in the city and you should be able to use it.” An increasing number of road safety experts, doctors and politicians in the Netherlands disagree. Although motor assistance on e-bikes is limited to just over 15mph, many fatbike riders modify the factory settings to reach speeds of 25mph in this busy park. The safety organisation VeiligheidNL estimates that 5,000 fatbike riders are treated in A&E departments each year, on the basis of a recent sample of hospitals. “And we also see that especially these young people aged from 12 to 15 have the most accidents,” said the spokesperson Tom de Beus. Now Amsterdam’s head of transport, Melanie van der Horst, has said “unorthodox measures” are needed and has announced that she will ban these heavy electric bikes from city parks, starting in the Vondelpark. Like the city of Enschede, which is also drawing up a city centre ban, she is acting on a stream of requests “begging me to ban the fatbikes”. In the park, her plans stirred mixed reactions. While four in five fatbike riders who whizzed past said they were “too busy” to talk, 31-year-old Joost was sceptical. “It will be senseless,” he said. “Normal bicycles use the park, city vehicles use it. It’s all about having the appropriate speed.” But Muriel Winkel, 33, running with her dog, Joop, was enthusiastic. “They are all souped-up, which people don’t do with evil intentions, but they often ride carelessly, without watching out,” she said. “Sometimes, my dog really gets a fright.” Some point out that the tensions around electric bikes will soon reach other countries, especially with more political interest in stimulating active mobility. In this land of early adopters, 48% of bicycles sold in 2024 were electric and another 13% were fatbikes, according to figures from RAI Vereniging and BOVAG motoring associations. In Amsterdam, a third of journeys are made by cycling. The roadside assistance organisation ANWB said that the problem was not necessarily with the wide-tyred bike model – but the ease with which people could speed it up to use like a moped, “combined with risky behaviour”. Florrie de Pater, the chair of the Fietsersbond Amsterdam cycling association, said that the rise of illegal bikes, plus a lack of enforcement, was scaring old people and children off the roads. “Because of the dangers of those who are cycling fast, especially older people over 55 or 60 simply leave their bikes at home,” she said. “We also hear that parents no longer dare to let their children cycle to school.” The brain injury specialist Marcel Aries, a consultant at Maastricht University Medical Center, said more authorities needed to consider controversial bans, alongside the helmet requirement for children on electric bikes from 2027. “It is reasonable for governments and municipalities to consider measures that may be unpopular,” he said. “They are public health responses to increasingly congested streets and widening speed gaps between cars, cyclists and pedestrians.” His view is shared by Marlies Schijven, a professor of surgery at the Amsterdam University Medical Center, whose frustrated LinkedIn post on dangerous riders in 2024 has been viewed 2.9m times. “It is a good step, but a baby step, only in one Amsterdam park,” she said. “The problem is much larger. We still see pain, misery and death every day at our morning meeting in the hospital.” Wolthers, the fatbike owner, agreed that the problem was in letting children ride these powerful vehicles. “Children go through red, they don’t signal and they also can’t assess the traffic,” he said. “Hospitals have a chilling term for them: potential donors.”