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Iranian cruise missiles hit two UAE oil tankers in Hormuz as US strikes Iran for third night – Middle East crisis live

Dutch shipping firm Stolt Tankers said this morning that one of its tankers came under attack off Oman in the Arabian Sea. The shipping firm said Stolt Magnesium came under attack early this morning, around the time the UAE said two tankers were targeted by Iranian missiles while crossing the strait of Hormuz in Omani waters. Stolt Tankers said in a statement that all the mariners aboard its vessel were safe and accounted for after the attack, which sparked a fire in the ship’s engine room. The firm confirmed it was the same vessel referred to by the UK Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) centre, which earlier said it received a report of a tanker being hit by “an unknown projectile” 40 nautical miles northeast of Qalhat, Oman, last night.

Bangkok bar fire: death toll reaches 30 as police say negligence is ‘primary theory’

The Bangkok pub that became the scene of the city’s deadliest blaze in 17 years has said it will cooperate with an investigation into alleged negligence, as the death toll rose to 30. The local district office said on Tuesday that three more people had died after the devastating fire that broke out in the early hours of Monday. An initial assessment by disaster officials found an electrical short ‌circuit in an air conditioner located in the ‌ceiling had caused the fire. Authorities have confirmed the identities of 27 victims, with three yet to be identified. Most are believed to be Thai nationals. Of the injured, 24 are in a critical condition, 15 have moderate injuries, and 36 sustained minor injuries and have returned home. The national police chief, Kitrat Phanphet, told reporters on Monday: “At this time, police have established negligence as the primary theory guiding their investigation.” In a statement released on Monday evening on social media, the Rong Beer Na Ladprao pub offered its “deepest apologies for this tragic incident” and extended its condolences to the families of the deceased. The pub, located in the city’s north, also pledged its full support to the investigation and “transparent fact-finding process”, as officials have flagged inquiries into whether exits were accessible. Most of the victims were found trapped in windowless bathrooms near one of the rear exits, Kitrat said. That exit was not used, and people may have been blocked from reaching it by a table set up to sell candy, or because it was too dark to find the way out, Kitrat said. Access to another exit near the kitchen might also have been narrowed by shelving units and lockers, according to the police chief who visited the scene on Monday. There were signs that at least some of the exit doors might have been locked, he added. In a video shared by the office of the prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, during an inspection of the scene, the leader was told a door that was once an exit was bolted, with the proprietor afraid that customers would slip out without paying their bills. The door had a sign that said “staff only” and could open to the outside, but an official told Anutin customers would not have been aware. “If they had run this ⁠way, it would have been fine,” Anutin responded. Investigators were also assessing the ceiling above a performance stage, Kitrat said. Police will examine whether flammable materials were used in decorative elements and how electrical wiring was installed across the ceiling. Video posted on social media showed people fleeing as flames shot out of the single-storey building and black smoke billowed into the sky. Those who managed to escape through the front doors ran through the flames, sustaining life-altering injuries. The boyfriend of a 31-year-old woman who ran out of the building while on fire told the local outlet Khaosod that bystanders helped her extinguish the flames. When they were reunited, he said she told him: “I can’t take it any more. I’m in so much pain. Am I still beautiful?” The injured have been taken to 17 different hospitals across the city in order to coordinate the necessary specialised care and ICU treatment required for victims suffering from burn injuries and smoke inhalation. At Rajavithi hospital, a spokesperson said most of the 11 patients had sustained burn injuries, with four men and two women in a critical condition requiring close medical supervision. Many who survived unscathed only did so by luck, such as Kaewudon Pongpanee, 24, a pub employee who had been using a bathroom outside when the fire began. He saw people running away from the flames and began shouting for his brother but “the heat was unbearable, I couldn’t get back in”, he said. His younger brother Pongpaset Pongpanee, also a worker at the pub, was inside at the time. The brothers were migrant workers from neighbouring Laos. Pongpanee came to the police hospital morgue on Monday in order to identify the body of his brother. “I want to bring him home to my parents. My parents are waiting for their kids to come back together, but now one is gone,” he said. With Associated Press and Reuters.

Iranian flights to Yemen are violation of sovereignty, says Yemeni official

Iranian flights to and from Yemen are an unacceptable violation of the country’s sovereignty, the vice-president in Yemen’s Saudi-backed, UN-recognised government has said. Abdullah al-Alimi said in an interview that the planes contained equipment for the Houthi movement, which he said had transformed from merely a domestic threat into a regional and international threat to global security and the global economy. He was speaking after Yemeni government planes, supported by Saudi Arabia, bombed the Houthi-controlled Sana’a airport in protest at Iranian efforts to send a plane to the city containing a Houthi delegation returning from the funeral of the Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei. The plane containing the delegation eventually landed at another airport, in the Houthi-controlled Red Sea port of Hodeidah. The Houthis fired missiles at Saudi Arabia in response, breaking a four-year truce in the ⁠conflict between Saudi Arabia and ⁠the Iran-aligned group. An emergency session of the UN security council heard calls for both sides to de-escalate. The head of the Houthi national delegation said: “Defending oneself, the homeland and the people is a religious, national, moral and humanitarian duty, and a legitimate right affirmed by Islamic law and international law. The aggressor is the real wrongdoer.” Yemen has been in a state of intermittent civil war since 2015, when the Houthis seized control of Sana’a, the capital, forcing the UN-recognised government to withdraw to Aden in the south with Saudi support. Al-Alimi, a long-term major player in Yemen politics, has a critical role in the government. He said the Houthis were in a weaker position than they had been for many years. This was due to a number of factors including, in part, the weakening of Iran, their longstanding supporter. He said: “It is realistic that we can end their coup and restore the state and its institutions, contribute to the security and stability of the region and the world, secure the waterways and protect the global economy.” Al-Alimi said the Iranians were using the funeral as cover to bring equipment and experts to the Houthis. “We have tried repeatedly to negotiate with the Houthis, but that has achieved nothing,” he said. “However, there has been a strategic change in the impact of the Houthis. They are no longer an internal threat but have become a regional and international threat because of their threats to the waterways in the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab [strait]. Any understanding with the Houthis must be based on recognition of the need for the state to hold a monopoly over weapons and for the legitimate government to restore the institutions of the state.” He said the government would “continue to brandish the sword of peace until the very last moment”, but: “We are ready if the Houthis impose war.” Al-Alimi said Houthi targeting of oil export facilities had placed severe pressure on his government’s budget, including its ability to pay civil servants’ salaries. “Without Saudi support, the government would not have been able to meet its salary obligations,” he said. The threat to oil exports made it almost impossible to attract international investors, he said, and as a result his government “needs security”. Yemen has faced civil war and proxy warfare from outside powers for more than a decade. The Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015 against the Houthis, triggering ‌one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Violence flared again late last year after the Southern Transitional Council – a separatist movement backed by the United Arab Emirates – swept through territory in the south, splintering the Saudi-led coalition created to fight the Houthis. Al-Alimi claimed that after the STC’s failure to establish its own state, there was now, for the first time, a greater degree of cohesion within the presidential leadership council, Yemen’s executive authority. He stressed that many of those who had been part of the dissolved STC remained present within the various structures of the state, beginning with the presidential leadership council and extending through the government, the governorates and the different structures. He defended his government’s reliance on Saudi support as well as its relationship and coordination with Saudi Arabia, saying: “We share a 1,200km border with Saudi Arabia, deep historical and cultural ties, and a common destiny between the two countries. Saudi Arabia has stood by the Yemeni people in all humanitarian, economic, developmental and political fields.”

‘God is punishing the politicians’: anger at earthquake response grows in Venezuela

Public anger at what many perceive as the Venezuelan government’s botched response to twin earthquakes that killed nearly 4,500 people is growing, with one grieving mother caught on camera berating the son of former president Nicolás Maduro. Maduro’s politician son received a hostile reception while visiting a semi-destroyed social housing project named after his father’s late mentor Hugo Chávez. “I didn’t lose a kitchen! I lost a daughter!” the woman, named as Damely Yaneth Díaz, can be seen shouting at congressman Nicolás Maduro Guerra in scenes captured by the Norwegian broadcaster TV2 last week. “The lot of you should be arrested,” said Díaz, a resident of Catia La Mar, one of the worst-hit areas along Venezuela’s north coast. “This was recklessness and you must pay!” Bystanders cheered on the dissenter, urging the European journalists to continue filming the altercation after officials apparently tried to interrupt their work. Díaz’s comments, which went viral on social media, captured widespread rage at what many see as the government’s inept response to the 24 June quakes, which levelled scores of buildings in the northern state of La Guaira and caused major damage in the capital, Caracas. On Sunday, the government raised the official death toll to 4,490, but that number is expected to rise significantly, with many bodies still being pulled from the wreckage of large buildings. Venezuela’s US-backed acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, has dismissed criticism as the product of a nefarious media campaign cooked up in propaganda “laboratories”. Last week, Rodríguez, a close Maduro ally who took power in January after the US president, Donald Trump, ordered the abduction of her leader, insisted her administration and armed forces were working “tirelessly” to help victims. She sought to partially justify the slow response by arguing that many of La Guaira’s top officials had been killed. But Rodríguez has so far avoided high-profile interactions with the families of the deceased and missing who were on the frontline of the crisis, in seaside towns such as Caraballeda and Catia La Mar. On Friday, she visited a military base in the region to address some of the thousands of troops she says have been deployed, but did not mingle with members of the public. During her televised speech, Rodríguez told the soldiers that “wretched” critics of the government and armed forces “will be buried”, in comments that further angered families who have yet to recover the bodies of their loved ones. Amid the wreckage of La Guaira’s fallen buildings, there is outrage over how, in the crucial hours and days after the quakes, victims felt they were left to fend for themselves, digging trapped relatives out of the rubble with basic tools and their bare hands. Maduro’s 36-year-old son – whose father is being held in a New York prison on drug trafficking charges, which he denies – tried to calm the bereaved mother after she challenged him over her child’s death. Asked if he understood the woman’s fury at the government, the politician told TV2’s reporter: “Yes, I understand and I support [her]. I can’t imagine the pain she feels.” Questioned about suspicions that collapsed government housing estates had been shoddily built, Maduro Guerra pointed out that private developments had also collapsed. Asked if the government projects had been built properly, he replied: “I don’t know, I’m not an architect. I’m an economist.” Public indignation and the possibility of social unrest threatens to derail Trump’s efforts to control oil-rich Venezuela after January’s military intervention to seize Maduro turned the South American country into what many consider a US protectorate. The disaster has amplified longstanding opposition to a nominally socialist regime that many blame for leading Venezuela into years of economic and humanitarian crisis and dictatorship. There is palpable anger, even in traditionally pro-government working-class areas, where many died. But the White House has so far stood by Rodríguez’s unpopular administration, sending nearly 1,000 military personnel to reinforce the emergency response. On Saturday, the New York Times claimed the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, was now in effect running Venezuela from Washington, having become the country’s “de facto vice-roy”. Francisco González, a removal man hired to rescue belongings from apartments in a wrecked housing project called OPPE 25, was among those appalled by what he considers his government’s bungled response. As he loaded his truck with furniture and clothes, González claimed its actions contrasted with Hugo Chávez’s energetic response to the last major natural disaster to hit La Guaira, deadly landslides in 1999. “[Back then] the first person who was down here in his wellington boots getting stuck in was Chávez. He had his flaws, like every human does, but he loved the people,” González, 60, said of Chávez, who anointed Maduro as his successor before his premature death in 2013. “Not like these scoundrels we’ve got now.” “I think God is punishing the politicians,” González added of the earthquakes, as volunteer rescuers continued to dig for victims in nearby rubble.

Polish-Ukrainian solidarity over Russian threat undermined by bitter historical dispute

In the aftermath of Russia’s attack on Ukraine in February 2022, Polish-Ukrainian solidarity emerged as one of the most heartwarming subplots of the Kremlin’s brutal war. Millions of Poles, remembering their country’s own tragic history with Russia, mobilised to help Ukrainian refugees with food, shelter and support as they crossed the border in huge numbers to flee the conflict. Four years later, that outpouring of generosity and solidarity is a distant memory, as the two countries find themselves locked in a bitter dispute over history that has led to angry rhetoric, mutual mud-slinging and a threat from Poland to block Ukraine’s EU accession until it gets its historical house in order. The dispute revolves around the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), one branch of which was responsible for the massacre of about 100,000 Poles in 1943 in Volyn, western Ukraine, then a part of Poland called Volhynia. The episode has long been a sticking point between Warsaw and Kyiv, but the spark for the latest conflict came when the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, decided to name a military unit after “heroes of the UPA” despite Polish protests. In Ukraine, the UPA is mainly remembered for its fight against Soviet rule, while its involvement in the massacre of Poles and Jews is minimised, or portrayed as one episode in a catalogue of crimes by different forces during the bloody chaos of the second world war. Some Ukrainians also point to the historical context of discriminatory policies against their forebears by Polish authorities. However, there is little doubt the killings took place, and in Poland they have been called a genocide. “Praising genocide or turning a blind eye is an invitation to commit further genocide,” said Poland’s nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, in a speech marking the anniversary of the massacres on Saturday, close to the border with Ukraine. In June, Nawrocki stripped Zelenskyy of a Polish state award due to the dispute. This led to a spate of Ukrainian officials returning their own Polish decorations, and an angry response from Ukraine’s political elite. “No one will ever again dictate to Ukrainians which heroes to honour, which holidays to celebrate, or which history to study,” Kyrylo Budanov, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, wrote on X, as the government announced it was moving forward with a “pantheon” of Ukrainian national heroes, likely to include UPA figures. * * * Zelenskyy is an unlikely nationalist figurehead. He won office in 2019 as an “inclusive” figure who could unite Ukrainians, and he grew up in a Russian-speaking Jewish family from Ukraine’s south-eastern industrial belt, far removed from the nationalist heritage of western Ukraine. “Suddenly, a guy who knows perfectly well how damaging honouring the UPA is has started playing with this nationalism,” said Bartosz Cichocki, Poland’s ambassador to Ukraine from 2019 until 2023. Some suggest Zelenskyy has judged there will be clear domestic benefits from the move, at a time when society is consolidated in the fight against Russia and eager for national heroes. “He’s gaining domestic legitimacy but he’s losing something much bigger … I think they’ve been surprised by how strong our reaction has been,” Cichocki added. In Poland, Nawrocki has eagerly latched on to the scandal. As a historian, he has focused on Polish suffering and heroism in past roles, and last year he beat a liberal candidate to the presidency with anti-Ukrainian sentiment as part of his platform. Stripping Zelenskyy of the highest civilian honour bestowed by the Polish state was a surprising move, not least because the same award was given to – and never revoked from – the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini and the avowedly pro-Russian former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder. Yet it is clear that there is political capital in taking a hard line on Ukraine, and a recent poll commissioned by the Polish news outlet Onet suggested the scandal has boosted Nawrocki’s popularity, raising his trust ratings to an all-time high of 55%, up more than 8% from just a month previously. Yaroslav Hrytsak, a Ukrainian historian, said: “Poland has a memory warrior in power, who uses memory as an instrument for partisan fights in Poland.” Referring to Nawrocki and Zelenskyy, he added: “On the one side we have a president who cares too much about history and on the other side a president who cares too little about history.” Standing in stark political opposition to Nawrocki is Poland’s coalition government, led by Donald Tusk. Some of its members have tried to strike a more conciliatory tone on Ukraine, but have also been infuriated by the UPA announcement. With parliamentary elections due next year, they are acutely aware of the ramifications of seeming soft on Ukraine. Last weekend, Tusk announced the creation of a “wall of memory”, to be inscribed with the names of every known victim of the massacre, and suggested Ukraine had no place in the EU until it confronts its own history. “Reconciliation in Europe after the second world war was possible because of truth and the ability to speak honestly about the past,” said Tusk. “Those who want to join this community have to be ready for that truth.” * * * Such open breakdown in Polish-Ukrainian relations may be new, but discontent had been simmering on both sides for some time. Unity had prevailed because Ukraine knew it could not afford to alienate a key ally, while Poland understood that Ukraine’s fighting forces stood between it and an expansionist Russia. But incidents such as a blockade of Ukrainian trucks by Polish lorry drivers in late 2023 hinted at a more complicated relationship beneath the surface. For many Poles, there is resentment towards the more than 1 million Ukrainians who now live in Poland, stoked by nationalist politicians who ignore the fact that Ukrainians are net contributors to the Polish economy. For Ukrainians, there is a feeling that Poles look down on them and do not appreciate the sacrifices they are making to protect the rest of Europe from Russia. Many express anger at the humiliating treatment they receive at Polish border crossings – one of the only ways to leave Ukraine given the lack of flights into the country since 2022. Even after four years of war, there are often minimal facilities, aggressive border guards and long queues in the open air, where elderly people and young children are forced to wait for hours in heat, rain or snow. “Every time I am entering Poland I feel my whole body shaking with rage at the way they look at us, the way they treat us,” said Olha, a graphic designer from Kyiv who did not want her surname published. More widely, Jewish groups have also raised concerns over the years about Ukraine’s veneration of certain UPA figures whose followers were complicit in the Holocaust. In 2010, the US historian Timothy Snyder criticised the former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko for honouring Stepan Bandera, leader of one wing of the UPA. Snyder described Bandera’s political goal as “a one-party fascist dictatorship without national minorities”, yet streets in cities across Ukraine have been named after Bandera, and his quotes can be found on the walls of trendy Kyiv cafes. This is not evidence, as Kremlin propaganda has long suggested, that Ukrainian society is consumed by fascism. The broad acceptance of the UPA is part of a bigger process of national consolidation in Ukraine, which has seen many people embrace an array of Ukrainian figures from the past as the country comes together against the Russian threat. Hrytsak said: “Previously, Ukraine was very divided about the UPA, and approximately half of Ukrainians thought they were bandits or collaborators. Since the beginning of the war, there was an immediate consensus that they are freedom fighters.” Citing “ignorance and lack of sensitivity” in Ukraine over the more controversial legacies of the UPA, he added that many Ukrainians now see the nationalist movement solely through the lens of its fight against Soviet power, and were surprised and affronted at the strong Polish reaction. Karolina Romanowska, the head of the Polish-Ukrainian Reconciliation Association, whose grandfather was a survivor of Volhynia, made a film about the massacre in 2023, and has travelled to Ukraine on numerous occasions, sometimes organising workshops in the places where it happened. “Often, people were completely shocked by what they were hearing,” she said. “It was the first time they had ever heard about things that had happened in the places they lived.” She said the recent Ukrainian rhetoric had left her “sad and disappointed”. * * * Efforts to gather historians from the two countries to come to a common understanding now appear doomed, with politicians taking the lead in discussions and conciliatory voices going unheard. Over the weekend, at a ceremony in Volyn for the victims of the massacre, the top Polish diplomat in Ukraine also drew attention to “Ukrainian victims of Polish violence”, which drew fury in Poland and calls for him to resign. With an election in Poland next year, and possibly one in Ukraine soon if the military situation allows, many suggest there is little hope for de-escalation. Zelenskyy and Nawrocki spoke for an hour in an attempt to defuse the tension on the sidelines of the Nato summit in Turkey last week, but did not reach any agreement. Cichocki said the relationship was likely to recover to some extent – given that most Poles appreciate that Warsaw and Kyiv face a common enemy in Russia – but that in future it may lack warmth and genuine commitment. “It will be limited to mutual interest, where we will see that both Poles and Ukrainians benefit, he said. “There will be no more romance, no more naivety, and Poland will become very strict on Ukraine’s EU integration.” Hrytsak said any reckoning will take time, and blocking Ukraine’s path towards European integration would be counterproductive: “All national reconciliation that occurred in Europe happened after wars, not during them. Ukraine has to win the war and or at least survive, then we can start dealing with these complicated issues.” He added that, given the long and complex history between the two countries, it was “kind of a miracle” that they successfully managed the relationship for so long after the fall of communism. Many predicted then that a new conflict was inevitable, but a different path was taken. Now, the hard-won goodwill is evaporating rapidly. “The miracle has been shattered,” he said. ”Where it goes from here could be very dangerous.” Additional reporting by Jakub Krupa

Tuesday briefing: The law that Hillsborough built – and the bitter final battle to get it through

Good morning. We think we know this story, the one about the 97 who went to watch a football match on a sunny afternoon. Perhaps you remember, as I do, watching footage of the lethal crush at Sheffield Wednesday’s Hillsborough stadium, on the evening news in your childhood living room. Or maybe you read later how South Yorkshire police presented a series of false narratives that blamed Liverpool football club supporters, rather than take responsibility for their own catastrophic mismanagement of the FA Cup semi-final. Today, after a decade of campaigning, a new law criminalising public bodies and officials that lie to the British public, and supporting people fighting these authorities for the truth, is expected to complete it final stages in the Commons, pushed through by Keir Starmer as one of his final acts as prime minister. But why did a law championed by Labour since its time in opposition almost fail? I spoke to David Conn, who has been reporting on Hillsborough for 30 years, about the families’ final battle. First, the headlines. Five big stories UK news | British counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into the death of Ann Widdecombe in a shock development that has renewed the debate over the security of politicians. A 28-year-old man from Rotherham is being held in custody on suspicion of her murder. Middle East | The US has launched its third consecutive night of strikes on Iran hours after Donald Trump said Washington would reinstate a maritime blockade on the country and, in an apparently policy reversal, charge ships for safe passage. UK politics | Andy Burnham is to become Britain’s next prime minister after winning the backing of 349 Labour MPs, including all eligible members of Keir Starmer’s current cabinet, making it impossible for any rival to secure enough nominations to challenge him. Environment | Most of the UK media stories about the record-breaking heatwave that struck in June failed to mention the climate crisis, analysis has found. Even fewer pieces drew a link between the heatwave and government policies designed to tackle the climate crisis. US news | The US government has already paid back tens of billions of dollars in tariffs it collected before the supreme court ruled them illegal, according to budget figures released on Monday. In depth: ‘The Hillsborough families have always been underestimated – and now they’ve succeeded’ In 2016, the conclusions of the second inquest into the Hillsborough deaths at last fully vindicated the families. A jury found that those who died were unlawfully killed due to gross negligence manslaughter by match commander chief superintendent David Duckenfield and that no behaviour by Liverpool supporters contributed to the disaster. The 97th victim, Andrew Devine, died in 2021 of injuries sustained in the crush. (Later, Duckenfield was found not guilty of gross negligence manslaughter, one of a number of unsuccessful individual criminal prosecutions.) “Immediately after, the families adopted the Hillsborough law as their positive legacy from the ordeal they had suffered,” David explains. “They wanted a duty of candour for public officials and authorities to be introduced and equality of funding for legal representation for people fighting for justice like them.” At the first inquest, families received no public funding for legal representation, while senior police officers and other public bodies had state-funded legal teams. A law in this vein was first proposed as a private member’s bill by stalwart advocate of the cause Andy Burnham in 2017, when he was a Labour MP, but languished during the Tory administration. When Labour was elected in 2024, expectations were high: the Hillsborough law was a defining manifesto commitment and Keir Starmer was evidently intent on taking ownership of the reforms, which he announced at two party conferences and personally introduced in the Commons. But by last winter, progress was mired in a bitter and intractable row about how the new law would apply to the security services. The government pulled the bill midway into its passage through parliament, prompting fury from the Hillsborough families. “It was an extraordinary situation,” says David. “This has always been a Labour cause. They promised to introduce the law: Margaret Aspinal, whose 18-year-old son James died at Hillsborough, made a speech at conference to introduce Starmer. And yet somehow theywere arguing with the families and trying to carve out an exemption for the security services that had only recently been criticised in the Manchester Arena inquiry.” *** Taking on the security services The proposed law means those in public office have a positive duty to assist public inquiries with candour, and those who lie or evade will face prosecution. After concerted briefing from the security services, the government agreed to give security chiefs the final say over what evidence would be put forward to an inquiry. Campaigners were vehemently opposed, arguing this undermined the central purpose of the law by allowing some parts of the state to continue avoiding scrutiny. David raises the peculiar dissonance between Labour’s promise to introduce the Hillsborough law and action. “It was so odd that this bill had been drafted in 2017, yet when the Labour government came in the law was facing all this resistance.” But despite patronising briefings suggesting the families were “naive”, or ignorant of national security considerations, a concrete contemporary example bolstered their argument. “At the Manchester Arena inquiry, MI5 was found to have submitted an inaccurate account of intelligence it had relating to the perpetrator of the atrocity,” David says. “The inquiry chair found ultimately that the failure of MI5 to act swiftly on crucial intelligence was a ‘significant missed opportunity’ to take action that might have prevented the Manchester Arena attack in 2017. The Manchester Arena families are part of the coalition with the Hillsborough families , and the campaign has absolutely insisted that the security services had to be included in the law.” *** Burnham’s role and Starmer’s legacy With parliamentary business plans updated late last week to include the bill’s remaining Commons stages today, it is understood that the final sticking point – that any decisions on excluding evidence on the grounds of national security are for an inquiry chair to make- have been resolved to the families’ satisfaction. “This has finally been agreed in Starmer’s final week, it also clearly appears significant that Burnham, the Hillsborough families’ long-term supporter, is about to become prime minister.” Many of the profiles of the incoming prime minister churned out in recent weeks have highlighted the moment Burnham’s speech at the 20th-anniversary memorial service at Anfield in April 2009 was drowned out by chants of “justice for the 96”. “But I don’t think the reporting has fully taken into account how effective he was after that,” says David. Burnham’s subsequent call for the disclosure of all related documents led to the establishment of the Hillsborough Independent Panel. Its 2012 report exposed the extent of police efforts to falsely blame Liverpool supporters for the disaster, and ultimately led to the quashing of the first inquest’s verdict of accidental death in December of that year. David links this commitment to those campaigning without redress for decades to Burnham’s later work on the infected blood scandal, as well as supporting calls for an inquiry into the policing by the South Yorkshire force (them again) at Orgreave during the miners’ strike. Given the debate about whether Burnham is a good-vibes-only candidate, it’s worth registering that he brings a shovel when there’s spade work to be done. And that in his book Head North, Burnham describes how the “trigger” for making that public call for Hillsborough disclosure was reading a Guardian article at his kitchen table three days before the service, in which David reported families’ outrage that junior officers’ statements had been amended by their superiors to remove criticisms of the police. *** A victory for solidarity From his first meetings with the Hillsborough families back in the mid-90s, David has always been struck by their empathy for all those suffering injustice. That solidarity was very much in evidence in this final battle: “The Hillsborough Law Now campaign is a genuine coalition, with families bereaved by the Manchester Arena atrocity, Grenfell fire, Covid. It’s a really strong alliance, and they were never going to give in because they didn’t accept they were putting national security at risk. This law is about the authorities learning from mistakes”. David, whose diligent and passionate reporting over the decades many will be familiar with, asks us to take this moment “to understand the scale of this victory” – not least on behalf of those bereaved family members who have died in the intervening years. “These families have always been underestimated. If you think about where they were after 1989: they suffered not just losing their loved ones in the most terrible circumstances but this disgraceful, toxic narrative from South Yorkshire police and a judicial system that failed to establish the truth for decades. And now they have succeeded so completely as to make it illegal for public officials to ever be less than candid about how a disaster occurred.” What else we’ve been reading I was moved by this letter from a wheelchair user in Westminster about badly parked ebikes that block their way. For disabled people, they’re making some streets unlivable. Hettie This thoughtful piece from Australian oncologist Ranjana Srivastava examines why we shouldn’t shield youngsters from the realities of ageing and death. Libby The actor Sam Neill, who has died at 78, was best known for his roles in Jurassic Park and The Piano. In his final interview, he spoke to the Guardian about reacting to puppets on screen, and the clumsy behaviour of his costar, the T rex. Hettie World Cup France | The France midfielder Warren Zaïre-Emery says his team want to exact revenge on Spain and banish painful memories of their exit in the Euro 2024 semi-final, as the two sides meet again on Tuesday in search of a place in the World Cup final. Argentina | Nick Ames has written a deep dive into England opponent in the other semi-final tomorrow night. The defending champions, who have a dramatic path to the final four, have a suspect right flank and can be bullied – but watch out for their No 10, who is apparently quite good. Pubs | Meanwhile, Matthew Weaver meets England’s struggling pub owners preparing for a much-needed bumper night on Wednesday. “I think our sales will treble,” says one, “especially as we’ve got Argentina – there’s so much rivalry and it could be payback for the Hand of God.” Sport Cricket | India defeated England by 270 runs in the one-off Test, a famous victory that will go some way to making up for their failure to reach the semi-finals of the T20 World Cup this month. Football | Keir Starmer is expected to use his final week in office to push the Hillsborough law through its remaining stages in the Commons after months of delays. This bill aims to strengthen support for families seeking justice after major disasters and create new offences for officials who deliberately mislead the public or seek to block accountability. Tennis | The creation of a joint commercial venture between the tours of the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals and the Women’s Tennis Association has been put on hold indefinitely as the women’s game faces the prospect of making significant cuts to its operational budget. The front pages “Widdecombe death inquiry being treated as terror case”, is the Guardian’s front page today. The Times has “Widdecombe murder case taken over by terror police”, the Telegraph says “Police under fire over Widdecombe terror probe”, the Express’s headline is “Terror cops now leading Ann death probe” and the Mirror goes with “Terror probe”. Metro says “Ann murder now treated as terrorism”. The i Paper runs with “Farage declined taxpayer-funded security – calling offer ‘inadequate’”. Lastly, the FT has “Dubai’s DP World planning new east coast port to bypass Hormuz strait”. Today in Focus: The Latest Ann Widdecombe murder investigation taken over by counter-terror police Counter-terrorism police are now leading the investigation into the death of the former MP and Reform UK spokesperson Ann Widdecombe, in light of “new information and evidence”. A 28-year-old white British man from Rotherham, South Yorkshire, was arrested on suspicion of murder on Saturday. Lucy Hough speaks to the Guardian’s head of national news, Archie Bland. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Chatsworth House in Derbyshire, which is supposed to have served as the inspiration for Jane Austen’s Pemberley in Pride and Prejudice, is home to a renowned private art collection, including rare first editions by authors such as Charlotte Brontë and Oscar Wilde. But the cost of admission to the house (£33 for an adult, rising to £40 at Christmas), has long put its heritage out of reach for many. Now, Chatsworth is pioneering a scheme of free community memberships that people can borrow from Derbyshire libraries. It hopes the pass could become a model for widening access to heritage across Britain. “For me, the best bit was walking around places that you recognise from TV and film adaptations,” said Kate, a contract worker who lives locally and was one of the first people to benefit from the scheme. “I felt like I’d been there before.” 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

Sweden prides itself on equality – so why is its political gender gap growing?

One is led by Sweden’s first female prime minister, Magdalena Andersson, and has promised smaller school-class sizes, more housing and free dental care for young people. The other, led by Jimmie Åkesson, has neo-Nazi roots and has pledged to lower taxes, improve public safety and treat “anti-Swedishness” as a hate crime. In the run-up to Sweden’s general election in September, the Social Democrats and the Sweden Democrats are placed first and second respectively in the polls, and between them are expected to scoop up more than 50% of the vote. But which party Swedes are most likely to back could depend in part on their gender, amid a widening gap between male and female voters. The 2022 election brought a record-breaking gender gap between men and women, and the latest statistics show that in September the gulf is likely to be even wider: a recent survey by Statistics Sweden found that twice as many men as women support the far-right Sweden Democrats, while female support for the Social Democrats is 10 percentage points higher than its male equivalent. If only women voted, the left-leaning bloc, led by Andersson’s party, would gain 64% of the vote, the survey found. If only men voted, the right-leaning parties, with the current prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, of the Moderates at the helm, would get 51%. Why, in Europe’s supposedly most gender-equal country, does gender play such a big role? Lena Wängnerud, a political science professor at the University of Gothenburg, said the move leftward of women and rightward of men had been happening since the 1970s, but that in recent years the Sweden Democrats had replaced the centre-right Moderates as the main choice for men. Her research showed that men in the private sector were most inclined to vote rightwing, driven by support for lower taxes, a smaller public sector and less immigration, she said. “The fact that women have not shifted to the right to the same extent, regardless of whether they work in the public or private sector, stems from their greater reliance on a well-functioning welfare state, given that they still bear the primary responsibility for caregiving in the private sphere.” Nelly Ailo, 41, a pharmacy assistant who was having her lunch just off the main shopping street in Södertälje, a city near Stockholm, had a similar take on what motivates male voters. “First it is economics – what is better for them,” she said. “They vote about economics. Not ‘is it good for people? Is it good for children? Is it good for …?’, No, no, no. For them it is high salaries, low tax on petrol.” Ermias Balcha, 23, who works in assisted housing, would dispute that theory. He says that under the current government, conditions, particularly for the unemployed and homeless, have declined. “It gets worse and worse actually. There are people who are pensioners who hardly get any pension or pay.” Balcha sees the best option in the next election as a vote for the Social Democrats- but acknowledges the party could do more to appeal to men. If the election had been held in May, the Statistics Sweden annual party sympathy survey published in June found that 39% of women said they would vote for the Social Democrats compared with 29% of men. A quarter of men and 12% of women said they would vote for the Sweden Democrats. Both parties had slight overall gains in support. Kristersson’s Moderates do not have the same gender gap, but with just 17% of total support, they came in third. The Social Democrats are Sweden’s biggest political party but have been in opposition for the last four years after the rightwing bloc formed a governing minority-run coalition led by Kristersson and supported by the Sweden Democrats. If the centre-right coalition, known as the Tidö parties, win the next general election, Kristersson has pledged to allow the far-right Sweden Democrats into government for the first time, promising them “big political influence and important ministerial posts within immigration and integration”. The party’s entry into government would be a landmark moment for Swedish politics, but in many ways, observers say, their influence has already had a lasting impact – both on daily life, particularly for immigrants, and the rightward shift of politics. This is particularly stark in some of the policies of the supposedly centre-left Social Democrats, who are, like Åkesson’s far right, hardline on immigration, integration and crime. The concern among rightwing parties about female support has led to talk of “a right with a heart”, the introduction of a six-month 50% discount on public transport and plenty of talk from male politicians about fertility and child-rearing. Moska Hassas, the chair of Socialdemokraternas ungdomsförbund (SSU), the Social Democrats youth association, said many girls and young women found these efforts “humiliating”. “They [right-leaning political parties] are so desperate that they don’t know that young women also care about politics,” she said, while campaigning in Södertälje. “All the traditional values – that women should be in the kitchen, which we have heard from Tidö side, that women shouldn’t do conscription – it’s a sick backlash that they are turning back time.” Among boys and young men, she added, there were signs of disillusionment in politics, and this was being harnessed by extreme forces such as far-right, male-only “active clubs”, and criminal gangs. “This exploits these political forces in a very tragic way,” she said. “It is very dangerous.”