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Extreme heat grips Europe as UK hits new June record, France shuts down nuclear reactors and deaths rise across continent – live

Switzerland registered its hottest ever June temperature on Thursday, with 38C measured in the northern city of Basel, breaking a previous record of 36.9C set eight decades ago, the Swiss weather service said. “Temperatures exceeded 37C for the first time in Switzerland during the month of June, breaking a record set in 1947,” MeteoSuisse said on X, adding that “a temperature of 38C was even recorded at the Basel weather station”.

Archbishop of Canterbury calls for end to Israeli occupation of Palestine

The archbishop of Canterbury has called for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestine after a pilgrimage in which she met Palestinians attacked by settlers and others detained without trial. Sarah Mullally, the head of the Church of England, and the Anglican archbishop of Jerusalem, Hosam Naoum, issued a joint letter on Thursday urging Anglicans around the world to press politicians “to take all necessary measures to establish a credible path towards ending the occupation”. “This must lead to a viable two-state solution enabling Israelis and Palestinians to live in peace, dignity and security. Jerusalem’s status should be determined through negotiation as a shared capital,” the letter read. The pair said they feared for “the long-term future of the indigenous Christian Palestinian presence in the Holy Land that stretches back to the time when our Lord walked this land”. They also said Gaza’s health system was in a state of “catastrophic collapse”. The letter was published after a five-day pastoral visit in which Mullally spoke of the “immense hardships” and “web of checkpoints” Palestinians’ faced in the West Bank, Gaza and East Jerusalem, and preached that Jesus had lived under foreign occupation. She also planted an olive tree with the family of Daoud Nassar, Palestinian Christians who have been fighting Israeli attempts to seize their land in the West Bank since 1991 and have faced repeated settler attacks. Mullally said that “when many Palestinian Christians are leaving, olive trees are a symbol of their deep roots in this land” and that the Nassars were an example of “Christian resistance to injustice”. Lambeth Palace said the visit had been intended to encourage Palestinian Christians at a time when “communities are being violently forced from their land, and illegal settlements are rapidly expanding across the West Bank”. Mullally and Naoum wrote in their letter that they had “met families who feel unmoored and traumatised by endless conflict” across Palestine and Israel. “In Israel, the simultaneous fighting of many conflicts at one time, and the deep-seated aftermath of the horrifying atrocities of 7 October, have created a state of intense sensitivity to potential danger that has transformed society and politics,” they wrote. “In the West Bank, unchecked settler violence, forced displacement, systemic discrimination and expanding checkpoints have left the Palestinian population impoverished, desperate and powerless to enact change. Annexation is already taking place in all but name. “Meanwhile, the profound suffering in Gaza continues. The international community must not look away; it bears a moral responsibility to relieve this agony and help rebuild Gaza’s society.” Mullally said the Middle East conflicts were “symptomatic of a deeper political and spiritual crisis – an abandonment of international law and an increasing recurrence of military force”. During her visit, she met Layan Nasir, 26, a Palestinian Anglican community worker freed after being jailed by the Israeli military, and the parents of Natalie Abu Dayeh, a Christian student who had been held without charge. In the Christian West Bank town of Birzeit, Mullally told worshippers at St Peter’s church she would use her role as archbishop to seek “the peace you desire and the freedom you deserve”. In her sermon she said: “In the Gospel of Matthew, Jesus is speaking to a community living in fear: his own people living in an occupied land and under foreign rule … I can only imagine how these words may sound to you today.” The Church of England’s annual assembly, the General Synod, will debate a motion to review investment policies in the region next month. The bishop of Chelmsford, Guli Francis-Dehqani, said the debate would be about “justice and human dignity for everyone”.

Perpetrators of LGBTQ+ conversion practices could face prison under new bill

Perpetrators of “conversion therapy” against LGBTQ+ people could face up to five years in prison under proposals hailed as a “historic and long overdue” milestone by campaigners. The government has published its draft conversion practices bill, which would ban abusive practices that aim to change someone’s sexual orientation or gender identity in England and Wales. People found guilty of such abuse could face an unlimited fine and up to five years in prison. Simon Blake, the CEO of Stonewall, said it was a “historic and long overdue step forward on the journey towards LGBTQ+ equality”. He said: “LGBTQ+ people are not broken or in need of ‘fixing’. At a time when we’re seeing increased hostility towards the LGBTQ+ community, this draft bill is crucial in creating a safer and more inclusive future.” It has been eight years since Theresa May first vowed to introduce anti-conversion practice legislation, but progress has been hampered by political dispute and U-turns. Boris Johnson’s government planned to scrap the ban entirely, before announcing it would go ahead with only sexual orientation – not gender identity – included. This caused a big backlash and forced the government to cancel its international LGBT conference. Opponents of the legislation say it could encroach on free speech and prayer, and prevent parents from discussing these issues openly with their children. The plans were delayed under successive prime ministers, but Labour said in its manifesto that it was committed to pushing ahead with a ban. The party said the criminal threshold under the new law would be “conduct that aims to change someone’s sexual orientation or transgender identity through abusive acts that seriously harm the victim”. It also vowed that the legislation would include safeguards to protect “legitimate healthcare and therapy […] open conversations and free speech”. Dr Hilary Cass, the author of the Cass review into gender identity services for children, said: “It is important healthcare professionals providing much needed holistic care to young people feel confident they are able to do their job without fear of litigation, and the minister has kept that important issue in mind at the same time as the need to protect vulnerable young people.” The bill will also create a new civil conversion practice protection orderto pre-emptively support victims at risk of abuse – similar to protection orders for forced marriage and female genital mutilation. Matthew Hyndman, a contestant on The Traitors earlier this year who is originally from Northern Ireland, said he had been told to “publicly repent” for being gay or leave his evangelical Christian community. “My vocation, my community, everything was so intertwined, particularly when you have a faith,” he said. “So for me to say no was to reject the belief of my entire community and walk away. I did, thankfully. I consider myself one of the lucky ones. “A ban sends a really clear signal. Anyone who is currently experiencing this, anyone who has, they’re hearing from the highest point that this is wrong and that it should not be happening to you. You’re not broken, you don’t need to be cured.” Galop, the anti-LGBT abuse charity, said it had identified 371 cases involving conversion practices between 2022 and 2025. Jasmine O’Connor, the co-CEO at Galop, said the charity “frequently witnesses the devastating impacts caused by conversion practices” and the ban was “urgently needed”. The government said existing laws that cover domestic violence, coercive control and communications offences do not adequately address the unique nature of abusive conversion practices. Olivia Bailey, the minister for equalities, said: “Legal loopholes have left LGBT+ people vulnerable to these harmful acts which is why we must legislate.”

Russia used Israeli firm’s tool to crack phone months after ties severed, report finds

Russian authorities used tools from the Israeli company Cellebrite to break into the phone of a political prisoner, months after the company said it cancelled its contracts with Russia, an investigation by the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab research unit has found. The case raises questions about how much control Cellebrite has over its own software, which allows users to easily break into phones and examine their contents. The tools are sold worldwide and widely used by police forces in the UK and the US. Andrei Pivovarov, the director of the organisation Open Russia, was arrested in May 2021 and released more than three years later as part of the high-profile exchange that also involved the US journalist Evan Gershkovich. While he was imprisoned, Russian authorities used forensic tools to break into his phone, extracting information about his contacts and his personal and professional life in what Pivovarov said was a “violation of his privacy” that put many of his colleagues at risk. “They tried to find my messages to other colleagues from my organisation and other politicians and may use these in criminal cases against them. After my arrest, several of my colleagues left Russia immediately,” he said. This information was used in building a criminal case against Pivovarov. Authorities were able to gather extensive information about his contacts, including the content of his messages on apps such as WhatsApp and Viber, according to documents provided to Pivovarov in the course of his prosecution. Some of his contacts were later targeted by Coldriver, a Russia-linked group – a link the Citizen Lab has said warrants further investigation. The Citizen Lab said a forensic investigation had found “with high confidence” that Cellebrite tools were used, and that this was confirmed by a document prepared by the Russian authorities and given to Pivovarov in the course of his criminal prosecution. Cellebrite claims it is “totally on the good side”, and has attempted to differentiate itself from other companies such as the NSO Group, whose signature spyware – known as Pegasus – is alleged to have been deployed by foreign governments against dissidents, journalists, diplomats and members of the clergy. NSO says that clients are obligated not to abuse its spyware. Pivovarov was hacked in May 2021, months after Cellebrite said it would stop selling its solutions and services to customers in Russia and Belarus. That announcement followed media pressure in Israel after a group of investigators, led by the human rights lawyer Eitay Mack, revealed that Cellebrite’s tools had been used against tens of thousands of people in Russia, including Alexei Navalny. Mack said that while Cellebrite announced it would stop sales, it never dismantled the tools it had already sold to Russia – even though some of its public documents suggest it has the ability to do so. “In contracts with American authorities, they, Cellebrite, keep the right to dismantle the equipment. But the fact is that their equipment is everywhere.” Mack said there were other instances in which Cellebrite’s tools appeared to be used even after the company said it had cancelled contracts, and that investigations he had done indicated the software could be used even with a dated licence. Pivovarov said the use of Cellebrite was a violation of his privacy, and enabled authorities to leverage his personal information against him. In an open letter to the company, he wrote: “The body of investigations that has been carried out demonstrates that the Russian Federation and other authoritarian states continue to operate your devices long after the formal termination of contracts. I submit that your company ought to end the practice of effectively shielding clients who abuse your technology.” Cellebrite has sold technologies to autocratic and repressive countries including Russia, Belarus, China, Jordan, Kenya, Myanmar and Serbia. It has terminated contracts in Serbia, Russia, Belarus, Bangladesh, Hong Kong and China. It has not terminated contracts with Kenya or Jordan, even though the Citizen Lab has found evidence of authorities in both countries using Cellebrite to surveil activists’ phones. “If Cellebrite wants to stop equipping political prosecutions, the path is clear: stop selling to autocrats, remotely disable their tech after credible reports of abuse, and end the era of plausible deniability by implementing cryptographically signed watermarks on all imaged devices,” said John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the Citizen Lab. Approached for comment, Cellebrite sent a mass email to a list of journalists and the Citizen Lab, saying: “It is impossible to respond to a report that is about us when Cellebrite was denied the opportunity to review it prior to publication. “Cellebrite technology is provided exclusively under licence and for legally authorised uses, there are no exceptions … Any use of legacy Cellebrite hardware in Russia after March 2021 is entirely unauthorised.” It said the hardware it had sold before March 2021 would be “incompatible with modern devices and would operate without our technical support”.

Crisis looms for Pope Leo as splinter sect seeks to ordain far-right bishops

A far-right Catholic sect’s plan to ordain its own bishops on the first day of July has placed it on a collision course with the Vatican – posing a possible crisis for Pope Leo a little over a year into his papacy, and straining the Roman Catholic church’s already fraught relationship with rightwing and traditionalist Catholics in the US and elsewhere. Founded in Switzerland in 1970 to oppose liberalizing reforms in the Catholic church, the Society of St Pius X (SSPX) has gained significant followings in the US, France, Argentina and other countries. The order, which has a large base of operations in Kansas, claims that more than half a million people worldwide attend its masses, though these numbers are difficult to verify. It counts nearly 1,500 priests, seminarians and other vocational members among its members. Pope Leo told journalists in Rome last week that he was “considering making another appeal to say: ‘Do not do this, let us try to live in communion within the church.’” But it was the SSPX’s “choice”, he said, whether to continue on a trajectory that threatens schism. “If they make that choice,” Leo added, “I am sorry, but we must move forward.” Under Catholic canon law, ordaining bishops without the Vatican’s authorization is grounds for immediate excommunication. So far, both sides in the game of brinkmanship are refusing to blink. The Guardian contacted the Holy See and the SSPX for comment but neither responded. The SSPX maintains that its planned ordinations of four new bishops – two French, one Swiss and one American – are made from practical necessity and “do not proceed from any desire to claim a power of jurisdiction or to establish a parallel authority within the Church”. The relationship has seen decades of standoffs, stalled negotiations and failed attempts at reconciliation. The first and last time that the SSPX ordained bishops, in 1988, the Holy See excommunicated those who participated, including the SSPX’s founder. In 2009, the conservative Pope Benedict agreed to lift those excommunications as a gesture of goodwill. He also granted greater permission for the use of the Latin mass, which traditionalist Catholics favor but has been largely replaced by vernacular liturgy. Benedict’s more liberal successor, Pope Francis, abolished a commission set up three decades earlier to negotiate with the SSPX, though he also made the unusual decision to recognize the order’s sacraments as valid for the purposes of marriage and confession. The SSPX exclusively practices the Latin mass. The order also advocates strict gender roles. Women are discouraged from wearing trousers, and often wear head coverings to church. Yet the sect’s contentions with the Vatican are more fundamental, Massimo Faggioli, a professor of theology at Trinity College Dublin, said, and difficult to resolve or accommodate. The SSPX rejects doctrines of reform, formulated during the 1962-1965 second Vatican council, that are core to the modern Catholic church. “It’s not something that you can solve by saying: ‘OK, you can celebrate mass in Latin,’” Faggioli said. The second Vatican council promoted unity between Christian churches, acknowledged a universal freedom of religion, argued that the teachings of other world religions could “reflect a ray of truth”, condemned antisemitism and disavowed the notion that Jews bore collective responsibility for the death of Jesus Christ. The SSPX believes that the council’s reforms were essentially heretical, Faggioli said, and has not given any sign that it will shift position. If the Vatican excommunicates the SSPX, he said, the big question is how conservative Catholics who are not in the order, but are sympathetic to some of its views, react to the schism. The mounting tension between the Vatican and the SSPX comes as rightwing Catholics have shown an increasing willingness to tussle with the Vatican over political and theological disagreements. Some Catholics in the US, where the most influential lay members tend to be both conservative and wealthy, have supported the Trump administration even as its stances on immigration and foreign policy clash with those of the Vatican. The founder of the SSPX, Marcel Lefebvre, was a French royalist who was fiercely opposed to communism, decolonization and secularism. Lefebvre was one of a small percentage of bishops who voted against key documents of the second Vatican council. He died in 1991. The sect has been dogged throughout its history by accusations of antisemitism and ties to the extreme right. The Nazi collaborator and convicted war criminal Paul Touvier was arrested at an SSPX priory in France in 1989. (The SSPX said it had taken him in as an act of charity.) In 2009, an SSPX bishop told the press that he believed that no more than 300,000 Jews were killed in the Holocaust. In 2013, the SSPX sparked outrage in Italy by officiating a funeral for a convicted Nazi war criminal, Erich Priebke, who had been denied burial by the Catholic diocese of Rome. The SSPX has said that it “completely rejects the false claim that it teaches or practices antisemitism, which is a racial hatred of the Jewish people because of their ethnicity, culture or religious beliefs”.

We would like to hear from people affected by the earthquakes in Venezuela

At least 32 people have been killed and 700 injured in two earthquakes that rocked northern Venezuela on Wednesday. The two back-to-back quakes struck at around 6pm local time. The first, which hit about 160km (100 miles) west of Caracas, had a magnitude of 7.2. The second of magnitude 7.5 struck just a minute later and is the most powerful tremor to hit the country since 1900. Venezuela’s interim president Delcy Rodríguez declared a state of emergency after the earthquakes collapsed buildings and led to the closure of the main airport. We would like to hear from people in Venezuela who have been affected by the earthquakes. How are you coping? What help are you receiving? Please note that while we’d like to hear from you, your security is most important. We recognise it may not always be safe or appropriate to record or share your experiences – so please think about this when considering whether to get in touch with the Guardian. If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.