Read the daily news to learn English

Pope Leo to address Europe’s role in world on final day of France visit – Europe live

Nordic correspondent Swedish coalition talks have been thrown into disarray this morning after the Social Democrat leader, Magdalena Andersson, abruptly announced that she was giving up on trying to form a government. In a last minute press conference, held hours before the parliament was due to reopen for the first time since the election earlier this month, Andersson said she was ending her exploratory mission to form a government, adding: “At the moment there is no possibility for me to form a government.” Her surprise announcement comes two weeks after her party, the Left, the Greens and the Centre party won a narrow majority in the general election over the governing right-leaning parties known as Tidö. Afterwards, the Moderates leader Ulf Kristersson stood down as prime minister but warned of difficult talks ahead and appeared to leave the door open to potential collaboration. But over the weekend, the Left party said they would be voting for the Moderates choice of speaker. Given the narrow balance of power, this would have resulted in the Social Democrats losing the vote for speaker, despite being the biggest party. “Now the Left party have chosen to collaborate with the Moderates as far as I know in the election for speaker,” said Andersson. “Given that in Sweden we have a very long tradition that the biggest party in the government that holds the speaker position, it is therefore reasonable now that this collaboration should also be tested to build a government.” She denied that she was trying to increase pressure on other parties. Asked whether she had given up on becoming prime minister, she was less direct: “At the moment I assess that there are not the conditions for it. Later how things develop under the coming weeks, is yet to be seen.” Given the left-leaning parties’ small majority and internal difficulties within the bloc, particularly between the Left and Centre parties, it was universally predicted that coalition talks would be anything but straight forward. And yet today’s announcement from Andersson was in many ways a surprise. She was widely expected to continue talks for another week. But given the tone, content and delivery of today’s message, this does not necessarily spell the end for Andersson’s hopes of forming a government. Whether she was calling the Left party’s bluff or forcing the right-leaning parties into what they have previously refused to do – work with the Left party – she is definitely shaking up coalition talks and making it clear which party she sees as to blame. Down the line though, the left-leaning coalition’s inability to show a united front could make the unity of the Tidö parties more appealing to some voters. If, when in the coming weeks parliament votes for a prime minister candidate, more than half say no, then the speaker must find a new candidate. If there are four failed votes there will automatically be a new election. In the meantime, today at 11am local time the new parliament will meet for the first time since the election and vote for a speaker and Swedish voters are accustomed to long-winded coalition talks. In 2022 it took 37 days to form a government and in 2018 it took 134 days.

Children forced to give up school for work as fighting upends daily life in Yemen

In the mornings, 13-year-old Muneer Farie went to school, and in the afternoons he helped his father feed the livestock. He took his studies seriously, dreaming of becoming the first teacher in his family of farmers. As fighting approached his village in al-Wazeyah district in Taiz, Yemen, two weeks ago, Muneer’s focus started to drift from his lessons. The classroom echoed with the distant sounds of explosions and gunfire. His home was suddenly on the frontline of renewed fighting between the Iran-aligned Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government. “We heard there was fighting in surrounding areas but we didn’t expect it would reach our village that fast,” Muneer said. “As soon as the sounds of clashes approached our village, we took our livestock and important belongings and fled home early in the morning.” He and his family fled south-west, moving to a camp set up for displaced people in al-Shimayateen, Taiz. They arrived penniless and lacking even the most basic supplies. Muneer and his family are some of the more than 130,000 people displaced by recent fighting in Yemen, which started in September when the Houthis launched a renewed military campaign and rapidly moved south-west, seizing control of towns along the Red Sea coast. The Houthis’ campaign interrupted years of relative calm that had prevailed over Yemen, with frontlines remaining broadly static since a UN-mediated ceasefire came into force in 2022. The Houthis are now battling government forces and a Saudi air campaign to seize strategic highlands and supply lines on the outskirts of Taiz. Civilians have been driven out of their homes by the fighting, fleeing airstrikes and missiles. Muneer and his brother, instead of studying, now sell socks and other cheap products in the markets outside his displacement camp. His classroom has been replaced by a small tent where he and his five siblings and parents crowd together in the humid night air. He joins the more than 3.2 million children whose studies were interrupted by Yemen’s civil war prior to this month’s escalation. “Studying is important, but not in a situation like this where we are struggling to get enough food, water and other necessities,” he said. “For now, I will keep working until the war ends.” His father, Ghaleb Farie, has been forced to ask his sons to work so that the family can scrape together enough to survive life in the displacement camp. Farie hopes the camp will be only a temporary home and that he can soon return to his village, but he is not optimistic as new displaced people arrive every day. “What I was told by neighbours who have been displaced for longer is that the first few months are difficult and I will adapt,” Farie said. Life has also grown harder for those who have remained in their homes. Abdulwasea Abdu, the principal of Musaab Ibn Umayr school in Taiz, tried to keep the doors of his school open for as long as possible to give children a sense of normality. But that normality was shattered two weeks ago when a missile fell nearby, exploding in sight of the students. “On the day the missile struck, we witnessed severe panic among them, with crying and screaming due to the explosions. Some children showed psychological trauma as a result of the intensity of the blasts,” Abdu said. The school was forced to close its doors, depriving the more than 600 pupils of their education. Abdu watches the battlefield developments closely, searching for a let-up that will let him resume classes, but so far the situation has been too chaotic. “The area faces fighting from multiple fronts – south, west and north – which makes it difficult to take any steps toward resuming classes at the moment,” Abdu said. He fears that many of the children out of school and displaced will be forced into child labour. The resumption of fighting has upended life for residents of south-west Yemen. Clashes severed the main road between the now Houthi-controlled port city of Mocha and government-controlled Taiz. The road is a vital artery for goods as it is one of the only in the area wide enough for large trucks and passenger buses. Interrupted commerce has increased the price of basic goods, compounding the crisis, particularly for displaced people. “It is civilians who bear the cost of military escalation, and it seems that we in Taiz are paying a particularly heavy price, as commodities no longer reach us easily,” said Essam Nabil, a 56-year-old carpenter in Taiz city. He added many people had begun giving up meat and resorting to cheaper foods. The fighting has disrupted other, more mundane facets of daily life. Asaad, an expatriate who works in Saudi Arabia and asked to be identified only by his first name, can no longer take a direct trip back from Yemen. “This reminds me of the early years of the war in Taiz, when the main roads were blocked and we had to travel through Aden before heading to Saudi Arabia,” Asaad said. “Now, we are repeating the same expensive and arduous journey.”

Monday briefing: Who profits from the illegal global gambling empire?

Good morning. Every year, British people bet billions on unregulated gambling sites. Given how ubiquitous legitimate betting shops are on UK high streets, and how inescapable ads for online casinos are on social media, sport and primetime TV, the scale of underground operations appears baffling. But the offshore online gambling market is one of the world’s most profitable – and least regulated – industries, estimated to be worth tens of billions. Opaque ownership, offshore licences and international inaction has made these often easily accessible and widely advertised digital casinos an attractive hunting ground for organised crime and corruption. Now, however, we’ve had a rare glimpse into the murky world in which they operate. A German hacker has released tens of thousands of previously confidential documents in what has been labelled the “Casino Secrets leak”, exposing the inner-working of thousands of unregulated gambling sites. In today’s First Edition, Guardian reporter and author of Jackpot: How Gambling Conquered Britain Rob Davies explains what this data could reveal, and why illegal gambling is running rampant in Britain. Before that, a roundup of this weekend’s biggest stories. Weekend roundup Labour | Going into his first party conference as prime minister, Andy Burnham revealed a set of new initiatives, from a new help-to-buy loan scheme for first-time buyers to a vision for universal free social care. UK news | Counter-terrorism police are investigating whether Iran is behind a suspected bomb plot after armed officers found explosives on three vans parked minutes from an RAF base used by the US military. Northern Ireland | Hundreds of protesters spent the day blocking the route of a hugely contentious parade after a court gave late-night clearance for the Orange Order to march on a historically significant road for the first time in nearly 30 years. US politics | Experts warned on Sunday that Donald Trump could use the hours and days after November’s midterm elections to disrupt the results after struggling to enforce a crackdown on voting. UK news | On Saturday, the stepson of Sir Ranulph Fiennes launched a crowdfunder to pay for “specialist legal advice” in an attempt to locate the explorer, who hasn’t been seen in public for more than two years. In depth: ‘The major concern is the exploitation of vulnerable people’ The gambling hidden market is seriously big business. Gaming Compliance International (GCI) estimates the global illicit gambling market saw bets made worth $5.9tn in 2025, having steadily increased in previous years. A 2024 report by the UK Betting and Gaming Council (which represents the interests of the industry) suggested £2.7bn was being staked annually on illegal, unregulated gambling sites in Britain. Without a licence from the Gambling Commission, it’s illegal for online gambling sites to offer their services in England, Scotland and Wales. “Despite its flaws, this regime has been developed over many years and is extremely stringent in certain aspects,” says Rob: imposing anti-money laundering and terrorist financing checks, setting of stake limits, enforcing responsible gambling rules which (in theory) protect vulnerable customers. Britain isn’t short of legal online betting sites and casinos. According to the most recent data, there are 25.7 million total active accounts on licensed gambling sites in the UK. Still, users are increasingly being enticed underground: from gambling addicts who have previously banned themselves from regulated sites looking to bypass their own self-exclusion to high rollers who prefer to operate without oversight. Some UK operators restrict or refuse bets from highly successful sports betters, and you cannot legally bet in the UK using cryptocurrency, prompting these users to seek alternative options. “The gambling industry would argue intrusive overregulation drives users to unlicensed sites,” says Rob. Licensed websites run affordability checks, ranging from background soft credit searches to requests for bank statements and digital payslips. There’s no need to venture on to the dark web to find an unregulated outfit. If a UK customer tries to visit a non-UK licensed casino, the website should display a message stating it’s unavailable. But “some sites simply don’t bother blocking access,” says Rob, “and users can easily bypass these blocks using a simple VPN.” Some users simply aren’t aware of the licensed/unlicensed distinction. For users, most platforms look virtually identical. Advertising further blurs these lines. While unlicensed operators can’t technically publish ads in the UK, sponsorship deals offer a loophole. Premier League football clubs frequently advertise unlicenced in Britain offshore gambling on their kits, while other clubs have their own commercial deals. These practices are currently legal, though there are moves to clamp down. (For more on the football front, this piece on Josimar is well worth reading). And plenty of these sites do have legit-looking credentials, licensed not in the UK, but offshore where there are looser regulations. Many are registered in the Caribbean nation of Curaçao, which has over 8,000 online casinos in its jurisdiction – that’s one for every 20 of its residents. *** ‘Under the bonnet’ of offshore gambling The Curaçao files were accessed by 31-year-old German hacker Lilith Wittmann. It “wasn’t hard to access” the data, she explained to me this weekend from Berlin. “It took me only six hours to find a vulnerability to then monitor The Curaçao Gaming Control Board for nine months in real time.” Specialist reporters like Rob are still combing through the files, but they include information about the owners of some of the world’s largest offshore casinos and details including the source of their wealth. “This data can take us under the bonnet and show us who is applying for the licences, and who may be profiting from illegal gambling.” Rob has previously reported on the Curaçao-based Santeda network, which “operates six or seven of the largest offshore casinos that people use in the UK.” Their data is in the leak – expect more stories to follow. Also exposed is the lacklustre nature of much oversight that does take place. Some casinos have submitted detailed balance sheets, but Rob says that “in one case I looked at, a bloke had just written ‘cryptocurrency investments’ on a piece of paper as his source of company funds.” “What’s already clear is that these are global networks, all gravitating to Curaçao, as a gateway to millions of wallets.” *** Respectability without scrutiny From a punter’s perspective, looking for a licence when you’ve already opted for an unregulated betting site is unlikely to be a priority. But, these licences are often vital for the casinos to function, Rob explains: banks, payment providers, game developers etc can “point to this fig leaf of respectability” to justify working with these sites and making them operational. “Curaçao has very cleverly marketed itself as a kind of international gambling hub,” says Rob. “It became the go-to because it had just enough respectability without any real scrutiny.” Still, in recent years even Curaçao has taken a slightly more rigorous approach, says Rob, with casinos venturing elsewhere, where rules are even lighter, such as US and Canadian First Nation jurisdictions like Kahnawake and Tobique and the Indian Ocean island of Anjouan. *** ‘Nobody will come after you’ There’s certainly a financial incentive for governments to crack down. The Office for Budget Responsibility estimates betting and gaming duties will raise £4bn in 2025/26. Above board operators aren’t just liable for corporation tax – they also pay HMRC a 40% levy called Remote Gaming Duty on stakes they profit from. Unlicensed casinos avoid such obligations. “From my reporting standpoint, the major concern is the exploitation of vulnerable people,” says Rob. He has reported on the gambling industry for years, covering “plenty” of poor behaviour by British licensed operators. “But you’re definitely safer with these companies,” he says. Unlicensed operators offer no safeguards, and in some cases, have simply refused to pay out winnings to players, who then have no legal recourse. Rob has interviewed many people who’ve lost significant amounts on unlicensed sites, who’d received “no intervention whatsoever when they were displaying obvious signs of problem gambling”. If a UK-licensed operator acted similarly, “they could face a multimillion pound fine or even a suspension of their licence.” There are ongoing efforts in the UK to wrest back control, with legislation expected soon to give the Gambling Commission greater powers to intervene. “Really it needs a coordinated international response,” says Rob, “but ultimately it will be very, very difficult to achieve anything substantial.” Casinos can virtually relocate faster than jurisdictions can be targeted. Shut down a website, and a replica can pop up within a few seconds with a slightly different domain name. “And there are always going to be countries where the governments don’t have the will or the capability to act, especially today with Belarus and Russia.” That’s not to say we shouldn’t try. “When it comes to drug or sex trafficking,” says Rob, “there’s an enormous coordinated global effort globally to crack down with very serious consequences for those involved. But with unregulated gambling – essentially a licence to print money, deeply connected to organised crime – nothing is being done. And nobody will try to come after you.” Whether that’s also true for the hacker, Lilith Wittmann, remains to be seen, as she waits to hear if legal proceedings might soon be mounted against her. She seems entirely unfazed at the prospect. “There was a legitimate public interest defence in accessing this data,” she tells me, “so we all know how much tax revenue is being lost and who is profiting.” Whether a German court will agree is another question. The week to come Tuesday | Andy Burnham will deliver his first party conference keynote speech as Labour leader and prime minister. Thursday | Nasa and SpaceX’s Crew-13 mission to the International Space Station is expected to launch from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida. Sunday | Brazil holds its legislative and presidential elections, which sees incumbent Lula face Flávio Bolsonaro, son of Jair. What else we’ve been enjoying Sandra Laville visited the Devon town of Great Torrington not to see the beautiful Unesco-protected nature reserve or nearby beaches, but to meet the scores of residents resisting plans for an AI datacentre to be constructed on the nearby plains. Charlie Lindlar, newsletters team I enjoyed the big idea this week on whether avoiding misery makes you happy. Turns out unhappiness-avoidance can rob you of the opportunity of experiencing more positive feelings. Katy Vans, newsletters team Did you see that viral video this week in which a multitasking “mom of the year” holds snacks and a kid while her husband sits idly at a baseball game? Well, the mum, Erika, has written this beautiful piece showing there was more to the incident than met the eye: “The camera showed what I was carrying in my hands. It couldn’t show what he was carrying that night.” Charlie Sport Nations League | Ireland beat Israel 3-0 amid an eerie atmosphere that saw the Irish players wear black armbands; Greece scored a shock 1-0 win over Germany; and Wales wilted in Copenhagen in a 2-0 defeat to Denmark. Cricket | Opener Tom Banton’s first international century paved the way for England to cap a turbulent summer of cricket with a series-clinching thrashing of Sri Lanka. Football | Chelsea beat London rivals Arsenal 1-0 at Stamford Bridge to move up to third in the Women’s Super League. The front pages The Guardian splashes on “Five men arrested after explosives found near RAF base used by US”. The Times leads with “Iran link investigated in ‘terror plot’ at RAF base”, the Mirror has “999 call foils ‘terror plot’” and “Farmer foils RAF bomb plot” is top story at the Sun. The Telegraph has “Iran link to RAF bomb plot” and the Daily Mail says “‘Iran bomb plot’ at RAF base foiled by farmer’s 999 call”. The Financial Times runs with “Burnham to fight election on tax rises for care reform” and The i Paper leads on “Tax rise talks at No10 to pay for new National Care Service”. Today in Focus Banished: the secret Trump deals sending migrants across the world Investigations correspondent Louisa Loveluck reports on the Trump administration’s secret deportation deals, sending thousands of migrants to ‘third countries’ across the world. Cartoon of the day | Edith Pritchett The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad From seaside cottages in Anglesey and Dorset to remote Highland bothies and mountain hideaways in Wales, these 15 great cottages for rent in the UK are perfect for an autumn escape. Pen Bonc in north Wales is as close to the sea as it is to the local fish and chip shop, while Pippin Cottage near Bude is set on a working orchard. Getting out in nature is a central theme with easy access to beaches, hiking trails, national parks and wildlife-rich landscapes. Many cottages offer hot tubs, outdoor baths and saunas. At Basecamp in the Lake District you can walk an alpaca! Other breaks come with sourdough workshops, wine tastings, yoga sessions and dark-sky photography. Enjoy the changing season, slow down and reconnect with nature. 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

‘The same struggles as 100 years ago’: exhibition highlights lives of Sami people in Sweden

From a detailed multi-perspectival drawing of reindeer to written accounts of belief systems and childbirth, Johan Turi’s work offers unparalleled insight into his life as a Sami person living in northern Sweden at the start of the 20th century. In the face of racist discrimination, land disputes and the spectre of encroaching industry, Turi wanted his 1910 book Muitalus sámiid birra (An Account of the Sami) to set the record straight about the lives of Europe’s only recognised Indigenous people. Turi is widely regarded as the first Sami author to write about Sami life in his own language, but until now his pioneering works had not been on display for almost 100 years. To mark the handover to the Swedish government this week of a long-awaited report by the Truth Commission for the Sami People on abuses committed by the state against the Sami, his writings, drawings, paintings and Duodji (traditional Sami handicraft) now form the centre of an exhibition at the Kin Museum of Contemporary Art in Kiruna, the area in which he used to live. The title of the exhibition, On the Ugly and the Beautiful, draws from a quote by Turi, who died in 1936, about his belief that everything, positive and negative, has a place to be shown. His work is on display alongside two contemporary artists, Outi Pieski and Johanna Minde. The museum’s director, Maria Lind, said An Account of the Sami, which was published in Sami and Danish before being translated into Swedish seven years later, is “about Sami life, small and big – external and inner life”. Turi was born in Guovdageainnu (Kautokeino), the Norwegian part of Sápmi, in 1854 but as the imposition of formal national borders began to have a bigger impact on the lives of the Sami, his family, who were reindeer herders, moved to Kiruna. “He had dreamed about writing a book about the Sami with the purpose of making the population in Sweden understand how difficult it was for the Sami because those were difficult years,” Lind said, citing the arrival of settlers, industry, including mining, and the railway. “He wanted the king to read his book because he felt if the king knew then things would change. Most likely the king did not read his book, but it became a success,” she added. The problems facing Sami people today are not dissimilar to those Turi would recognise. Industry – especially the search for rare earth minerals and wind energy – is an ever-increasing threat to reindeer herding and nature. Anti-Sami rhetoric is on the rise, including from political leaders, despite the seeming progress symbolised by the truth commission and its report, which will be presented on Wednesday. Similar commissions have also been held in Norway and Finland. But unlike in Turi’s time, there is now the escalating impact of the climate crisis, particularly visible in the Arctic and northern regions. As the report, which is intended to form the basis for reparation and reconciliation discussions, is handed over at Mid Sweden University in Staare, the Kin Museum will put on a special tour of the works, after which there will be a reading of testimonies at the culture house next door. Pieski, who lives on the Finnish side of Sápmi, said she grew up with Turi’s writings and drawings, in which she sees the paper as the land itself. “And then humans, animals, everything is grounded on that paper,” she said. “It’s not a western way of seeing a landscape as a beautiful view that you look at from a distance. But the actual place where you are, physically placed, and you are an active member of this network of land.” Her research and exploration with Eeva-Kristiina Nylander around the subject of the ládjogahpir, a traditional hat historically worn by Sami women, is also part of the exhibition. Their work has helped to bring it back into use. It has, said Pieski, become a “new symbol for decolonial feminism”. She said that in many ways Turi’s work started the current process of truth and reconciliation by writing about life and Sami culture from his point of view. “It’s very sad that we are kind of in the same spot still now, 100 years later,” she said. “And I know the same struggles are still existing that Johan Turi brought out with the fight for industrial land use and so on. “No nation can exist without their own spoken or written histories. Ignoring it is a very simple colonial tool [that does] not give existence to one nation that we are here.”

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy says Moscow terrorising Ukrainians as fresh strikes kill eight

As Russian drones struck Kyiv and other parts of Ukraine on Sunday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia was showing no signs of de-escalating the war despite assurances to the US that it would. In a statement on X, Zelenskyy accused Russia of terrorising Ukrainians with its latest attacks, which he said included setting on fire a market outside Kyiv, and striking kindergartens, schools, homes and communications facilities. “Anywhere in the world, this choice of targets would be called by one word – terrorism. Russia has no military objective whatsoever in doing this – it is purely an attempt to break people and inflict as much harm as possible on our society,” Zelenskyy said. “If Russia were truly preparing for any real steps toward de-escalation – as it claims, particularly to American negotiators – this wave of … terror would not be happening,” he said, calling on the US to fully implement the Lindsey Graham Act, which enables sweeping sanctions on Russia aimed at pressing it into ending the war. Zelenskyy’s comments came ahead of the conclusion of the UN general assembly in New York on Monday. On the weekend, the foreign ministers of Russia and Germany met in New York on the sidelines of the ⁠assembly to discuss the war but Russia’s top diplomat dismissed Germany’s calls to ease off its “dangerous path of escalation” towards Europe. Zelenskyy said on X that Ukraine was relying on “effective decisions” being made by other countries and stronger pressure from its partners in the G7 and G20, “so that Russia sees that manipulating diplomatic signals will not allow it to keep winning more and more time for war and terror”. New sanctions packages targeting financial networks, supply chains and companies and individuals helping produce Russian weapons “must take effect as early as October” Zelenskyy said also, to provide a stronger foundation for changing the situation and “pushing Russia toward real diplomacy”. Russian strikes killed eight people across Ukraine on Sunday, according to authorities while Zelenskyy said Russia had fired about 3,900 drones, aerial bombs and other missiles at Ukraine over the past week. Ukrainian prosecutors said a drone attack hit a market in Sofiiska Borshchahivka on the western outskirts of Kyiv, killing two and injuring about 10 people. Others died in strikes in different regions and Kyiv also came under attack, local officials said. In the capital, ⁠Mayor Vitali Klitschko said nine people were injured, including a child. Russia also hit the headquarters of Kyivstar – Ukraine’s largest mobile service provider – on Sunday, the company told local media. On Monday a ⁠guided Russian ⁠aerial bomb injured 22 people, including ⁠children, as it struck ⁠an apartment building in ‌Ukraine’s ‌second-biggest city of Kharkiv, mayor Ihor Terekhov said on Telegram. Moscow has recently waged a sustained bombardment of Ukrainian ⁠datacentres and communications infrastructure. Peter Beaumont and Artem Mazhulin have reported on the dire living conditions inside Oleshky, across the Dnipro River from the southern city of Kherson. Life in the city – once home to 24,000 people but now with only 2,000 remaining – has become “a hell on earth”, according to Ukrainians familiar with conditions there. South ⁠Korea has demanded an official ⁠explanation and apology from Ukraine, accusing Kyiv of disclosing the transfer of two North Korean prisoners of war to South Korea and then falsely denying that the two sides had agreed to keep the move ⁠confidential, according to a report from Reuters. “The presidential office expresses strong regret over Ukraine’s unilateral disclosure and its subsequent false announcement that there had not been a non-disclosure agreement,” Seong Ghi-hong, senior presidential secretary for public relations, said in a statement on Sunday. According to the statement, President Zelenskyy disclosed the transfer in his address to the UN general assembly. Ukraine’s embassy in Seoul did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Trump asked Xi Jinping if China would like to buy US weapons, American ambassador says

Donald Trump offered to sell weapons to China while hosting its leader, Xi Jinping, last week, the US ambassador to China said on Sunday. David Perdue told Fox News on Sunday: “President Trump continues to say, hey, we sell arms to other people around the world. He actually asked President Xi, would he like to buy some at one point.” The extraordinary claim came during an interview about US policy on Taiwan, which has been waiting for months for Trump to approve a new arms sales ⁠package worth $14bn, after a record multi-billion dollar deal was unveiled in December last year. Trump’s level of commitment to protecting Taiwan has previously been questioned. At a meeting with Xi in Beijing in May, ⁠Trump said he was keeping the $14bn Taiwan arms sales package in abeyance, describing it as a “very good negotiating chip” in dealings with China. Washington has long maintained a strategically ambiguous stance on whether it would defend Taiwan in the event of an invasion. But under the decades-old Taiwan Relations Act, it is required to provide Taipei with sufficient military equipment to defend itself. Beijing has repeatedly said it “resolutely opposes” Washington’s arms sales to the island democracy, which it regards as a breakaway province, despite never having ruled it, and has not renounced the use of force to take. During their Washington meeting last week, Xi urged Trump to oppose “Taiwan independence,” according to a readout from the official Chinese news agency Xinhua. After Purdue’s interview, the White House told the New York Times that the US had no plans to sell arms to China, while the state department said: “US law prohibits arms sales to China and there is no offer or plan to sell arms to China.” Before the interview, Taiwanese deputy foreign minister Chen Ming-chi spoke of the severe military threat China posed. “Taiwan faces a severe situation in the Taiwan strait. Even though China’s economy is declining, it continues investing more resources into building military capacity. Under ‌this context, the US very much understands our defence needs,” he told reporters in Taipei. Trump has not mentioned the sale ‌since last week’s summit, saying ‌only on Saturday that Xi understands his position on Taiwan. Perdue himself told CNBC on Friday that there had been no change in Taiwan policy by Trump, including on arms sales. With Reuters

Failure to protect free speech could cost Labour votes at next election, says Liberty

Free speech will be a big concern for voters at the next general election, with the government’s current approach on the issue perceived by many to be bad for Britain, polling suggests. Three in five people said a political party’s position on free speech would affect how they voted at a general election. The human rights organisation Liberty, which commissioned the polling from More in Common, claimed the results showed that Labour’s failure to protect free speech could cost it votes. A significant proportion of those polled felt certain policies and rhetoric by politicians had been detrimental for free speech. For example, two in five said arrests of people for holding signs in support of the banned group Palestine Action had had a negative effect on freedom of speech. That compared with one in five who said it was positive. Only about one in seven thought Andy Burnham cared more about protecting free speech than his predecessor, Keir Starmer. Akiko Hart, the director of Liberty, said: “The ability to express ourselves freely makes us all who we are, and free speech is of vital importance to the British public. These findings should serve as a stark wake-up call for the government, which has lost the public’s confidence on protecting this fundamental human right. “We’re fortunate to live in a nation shaped by many identities and perspectives, which means differences of opinion and sometimes uncomfortable views that could upset or offend others. This requires the government to adopt a consistent, non-partisan approach to safeguard everyone’s right to speak freely while protecting people from discrimination.” The polling, released ahead of a joint Liberty and More in Common panel event at the Labour party conference on Monday, also found that more than a third of people believe politicians calling for phrases to be banned at protests is bad for free speech, compared with just over a quarter who think it is positive. When asked about police getting greater powers to restrict protests or marches, a similar proportion – a third – believed it was good as thought it was bad. More than half of people polled said calling protests “hate marches” or “thuggery” had been bad. Starmer called for “tougher action” against people who used phrases such as “globalise the intifada” – intifada is an Arabic word that translates as uprising or “shaking off” – at pro-Palestinian demonstrations, and there have been arrests. The Crime and Policing Act, which received royal assent in April under Starmer, gave police increased powers to restrict protests, including requiring them to consider the “cumulative impact” of repeated demonstrations in the same area when imposing conditions. Many civil society groups were critical of the measure. Since Palestine Action became the first direct action protest group to be proscribed, in July last year, more than 3,600 people are believed to have been arrested for showing support for the organisation, most for holding placards saying “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”. Arrests have continued since Burnham entered office. The UK supreme court will hear an appeal against the ban in November, having decided it is arguable that proscription represents a disproportionate interference with articles 10 and 11 of the European convention on human rights, which protect the rights of freedom of speech and protest respectively. Both left and right have complained about so-called “cancel culture” in recent years, with each side portraying the other as the chief culprit. Hart said: “The prime minister must show urgent leadership on an issue that is dividing the country, and change course away from heavier restrictions and towards a principled defence of free speech.” A Home Office spokesperson said: “Freedom of speech and peaceful protest are fundamental rights that this government will always protect. But there is a clear difference between expressing a view and engaging in unlawful behaviour – such as inciting hatred and violence or supporting proscribed organisations. It is right that as a society and a government, we draw that line clearly.” The Labour party was also approached for comment. More in Common polled a nationally representative sample of 2,017 people in Great Britain between 11 and 15 September.

Formerly enslaved people in Guyana embraced collective action | Letter

Your report (British corporation continued trafficking of enslaved Africans to Guyana 40 years after abolition, 23 August) tells one important part of Guyana’s post-slavery history. There is another that deserves to be better known. In 1839, little more than a year after full emancipation in British Guiana, 83 formerly enslaved men and women pooled their savings to buy the 200-hectare (500-acre) Northbrook plantation. They renamed it Victoria. Other purchases by other groups followed, developing into what became known as the communal African village movement. These were not simply individual acts of property ownership. Many had kept their hard-earned savings buried for safekeeping; the first payment for Northbrook was reportedly carried to Georgetown in coins in a wheelbarrow. Formerly enslaved people went on to buy land collectively, establish villages and devise their own arrangements for managing roads, land and other shared resources. Victoria had established its own code of local government by 1845. Having worked in Guyana, I have always found this one of the most remarkable parts of its history. At almost the same moment that plantation interests were trying to perpetuate the old system, people emerging from slavery were demonstrating an extraordinary capacity for collective action, self-government and mutual endeavour. The history of emancipation is not only the history of what was done to formerly enslaved people, but of what they chose to build once they were free. Prof Kathryn A Monk Bristol