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Words we should staff the barricades against | Brief letters

As someone working in human resources who has spent years encouraging colleagues to use the word “staffing” rather than “manning”, I find it ironic that in reviewing the TV series Furious, which is “powered [by] female rage” (27 July), Lucy Mangan wrote that its lead character Alice Black “is manning the FBI tip line”. Kathy Ashton York • Mark Lawson states that Jimmy Cricket’s “retained native accent allowed him to rhyme ‘faffing’ with ‘laughing’” (No smut, no swearing, wrong-feet wellies and a silly hat: the gentle comedy world of Jimmy Cricket, 4 August). As most of the UK’s English speakers would say, these words do rhyme. It is only some from southern England and a few other areas who pronounce laughing incorrectly. Gordon Glassford Corby, Northamptonshire • As Kemi Badenoch still supports Joshua Bonehill-Paine because he has been deradicalised (Kemi Badenoch gives former neo-Nazi advisory role after he withdraws as Tory candidate, 5 August), perhaps she’ll now campaign to allow Shamima Begum to return to the UK. Mary Hutty Bath • “Vertical drinking” is not the problem (Council wants pubs in London’s Soho and West End to ban standing, 6 August). It is the inability to remain vertical while drinking that is where the trouble begins. Austen Lynch Garstang, Lancashire • I will only accept a safety driver in a self-driving taxi if it is Ann Droid (Leicester Square, please guv’: Self-driving taxis cleared for London streets ‘later this summer’, 5 August). Margaret Squires St Andrews, Fife • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Iran says a deal with Oman to reopen the strait of Hormuz is close to being finalised – Middle East crisis live

In Rome, the seventh round of US-mediated negotiations between Lebanon and Israel have concluded, according to Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency.

Leipzig drone bomb was found near Ukrainian plane carrying ammunition, say police

A catastrophe with multiple casualties was possibly narrowly averted by the discovery of a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, German officials said, as they examined whether a foreign state could be behind the plot. One of the Ukrainian aircraft next to where the bomb drone was found was loaded with military ammunition, according to a classified police report quoted by the public broadcasters WDR and NDR and the Süddeutsche newspaper. The interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, who said on Wednesday Germany faced a “new level of danger”, said only an apparently “ripped” detonator had prevented the device going off near Ukrainian cargo planes on the tarmac at the shipping and military hub. The highly explosive Ukrainiancargo, with a tank filled with jet fuel, had apparently been transported from France to Leipzig shortly beforehand and was presumably intended for onward transport, the report said. The airport is about 12.5 miles (20km) from the centre of Leipzig, a city of more than 600,000 people. The facility hosts a major cargo processing centre that employs hundreds of people round the clock and is adjacent to two busy autobahn routes. The Bild newspaper reported that the drone found near the Ukrainian plane had a handmade remote detonator that did not work, and investigators hoped it could offer clues as to its origin and the culprits. Leipzig airport’s status as a Nato and German military logistics hub, as well as the the base for Ukraine’s Antonov Airlines in Europe, has directed suspicion toward Russia, which German and European authorities say has carried out repeated sabotage attacks. The German government and authorities have stopped short of pointing the finger at Moscow for what marked a clear escalation of the threat level in Europe. But Dobrindt said investigators were treating the incident as part of a “professional hybrid threat scenario” with a focus on “foreign powers” as likely perpetrators. Roderich Kiesewetter, a member of the German parliament’s intelligence committee, blamed Russia directly. “I consider the threat to Germany posed by hybrid attacks orchestrated by Russia to be serious,” said Kiesewetter, a member of the co-ruling Christian Democrats. “I also believe that the attempted drone attack at Leipzig airport was a targeted hybrid attack – in other words, an attempted act of terrorism – orchestrated by Russia.” An airport staff member discovered the drone shortly before midnight on Tuesday, “hovering” near the ground between two Antonov Airlines An-124 cargo airplanes, among the world’s biggest freighters. Police said a drone defence sensor system at the airport, considered “critical infrastructure” by Germany, had not picked up the drone. They now believe based on security footage it had been on site for several hours before it was found. Dobrindt told reporters that the drone seemed to have been modified to circumvent electronic detection. It was attached to a package of explosives roughly the size of a fist, according to the WDR-NDR-Süddeutsche report, and investigators said the substance inside was believed to be semtex, a powerful plastic explosive. The discovery of the drone led the airport to suspend air traffic, forcing a DHL cargo plane from Marseille on its approach to take off again. It then collided with what is believed to have been a second drone. The media report said that plane had also been carrying unspecified “dangerous goods” before it made an emergency landing in Hanover, about 155 miles north-west, with minor damage. Bild said the drone that hit the DHL plane had a camera used to film the attack. Air traffic had been diverted on Wednesday from the airport’s southern runway but was back to normal on Thursday with no additional security measures reported. Ukraine has been using Leipzig airport as an alternate location for the transport of military goods since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to official records. German defence ministry officials said its armed forces were not conducting military transport operations at the airport at the time of the incident. The airport has previously been targeted. A firebomb, posted via DHL, exploded at the facility in July 2024 while a second was sent to the UK and caught fire at a warehouse in Birmingham. Two similar packages were also found in Poland. A subsequent pan-European investigation identified 22 suspects in Lithuania and Poland who were suspected of having been employed by Russian intelligence. Testimony this week at a trial in Lithuania of five people suspected of mailing the incendiary devices showed how narrowly the plane from Leipzig avoided being set on fire in mid-flight. A DHL company representative told the court the parcel ignited on the ground at its logistics centre at Leipzig airport shortly before loading, rather than during the flight, because the plane was delayed.

India-Bangladesh relations hit new low over exiled PM’s speech to press in Delhi

Bangladesh has lashed out at India for allowing the ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina to address journalists in New Delhi, plunging already strained bilateral relations to a fresh low. Dhaka accused India of giving a platform to a fugitive it labelled a “convicted genocider” and of undermining efforts to repair ties, after Hasina vowed to return to Bangladesh in December despite facing a death sentence on charges of “crimes against humanity”. The angry response late on Wednesday came hours after Hasina, speaking on the second anniversary of the massive student-led uprising that led to her flight to India, declared: “Whatever fate awaits me, I will return to my people.” Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said it was “outraged” Hasina had been allowed to participate in the event, where it said she and her allies launched “venomous vitriol” against Bangladesh and its people. “This interaction by Hasina on Indian soil stands as an affront to the sovereignty of Bangladesh,” the ministry said. Dhaka also renewed its demands for India to extradite Hasina. India earlier distanced itself from the news conference – Hasina’s first since fleeing Bangladesh in 2024, saying it had no role in organising it and would not endorse any political views voiced. Hasina said she was ready to face whatever fate awaited her in Bangladesh, where her Awami League party is now banned. “They may put me in a cell. They may kill me. Anything may happen, but I still have to go,” the 78-year-old said via audio link. “My life moved beyond calculations of personal safety long ago.” After 15 years in power, Hasina fled to India in 2024 following weeks of student-led protests. Her government was accused of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the killing of opposition activists. In her speech, she dismissed criminal cases against her as politically motivated and accused Bangladesh’s new government, led by Tarique Rahman, of economic mismanagement, political repression and persecution of her supporters. Hasina was sentenced in absentia to death by hanging over her government’s deadly crackdown on the uprising. She said she wanted to return in December because it marked Bangladesh’s “month of victory”, commemorating Pakistan’s defeat in the 1971 independence war. She claimed thousands of Awami League activists had been killed or jailed since her downfall. Her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy stoked the diplomatic row by extolling India’s hospitality. “She’s being treated very well and has been provided with the full services and security accorded to a head of state,” he said. “Prime Minister Modi’s government has shown her the utmost respect.” Hasina was joined at the event by Shakib Al Hasan, a former national cricket captain. Hours later unidentified attackers hurled petrol bombs and smashed windows at his home in Bangladesh, but no one was hurt, police said. Shakib, elected to parliament as an Awami League candidate, has remained outside Bangladesh since Hasina’s overthrow.

Ceuta residents ‘sad, helpless, anxious’ as up to 5,000 migrants remain in the city, president says – Europe live

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. Ceuta’s conservative president Juan Jesús Vivas told European lawmakers that the Spanish enclave’s residents were left feeling “sad, helpless, anxious” after last week’s storm on the border with Morocco. He said that up to 80,000 irregular migrants crossed the border, and while most later returned to Morocco, 3,000 to 5,000 still remained in the territory (14:21). Some 100 people died during the border crisis, Vivas said. EU migration commissioner Magnus Brunner accepted that the situation “has shaken” European politics and prompted concern about the bloc’s external borders among EU citizens, but insisted the integrity of the travel-free Schengen zone remained “preserved” as he praised Spain’s response to the situation (14:29). In other news, Lithuanian defence minister warned that Russia could be considering possible “false flag” provocations against Nato countries in the Baltic region to undermine their support for Ukraine (11:18). Seeking to reassure the public, the country’s prime minister, stressed that citizens should not be “additionally concerned” as the threat level remains generally stable (15:45). Elsewhere, German media reported that one of the Ukrainian planes near where the drone was spotted at Leipzig airport was carrying “military ammunition” transported from France and “likely intended for onward transport” (12:42). Authorities in Hungary (13:24) and Romania (13:48) adopted further energy-saving measures as the countries are still gripped by unprecedented heatwave and drought, impacting their energy generation. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Nigerian security forces free more than 300 hostages in ‘largest single-day recovery’

Nigerian security forces have rescued more than 300 abducted people in what the president, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, hailed as the largest single-day hostage recovery in the country’s history. The release was announced on Wednesday after a joint operation, conducted by the military, police and counter-terrorism units, freed victims held captive in the dense forests of the Kainji Lake national park in the north-central region. Among those who regained freedom were 163 people abducted in February during a deadly raid on the village of Woro in Kwara state, and 145 others seized primarily from the neighbouring Niger state. Both states are flanked to the west by Benin, where militant attacks have been surging in recent times. Officials confirmed the survivors are receiving medical evaluations at an army installation before being reunited with their families. “The successful execution of this intelligence-led operation demonstrates the growing efficiency and collaboration among our security services,” Tinubu said in a statement on the presidency’s website. “I commend our gallant men and women in uniform for their bravery and unwavering commitment to safeguarding Nigerian lives.” The government spokesperson Bayo Onanuga said the rescue operation was part of the president’s resolve to “restore lasting peace across every corner of the nation”. In the last decade, kidnapping for ransom has become endemic in Africa’s most populous country, especially in the north where different armed groups including bandit gangs and jihadists roam large unoccupied forests and shrublands. Between July 2024 and June 2025, at least 4,722 people were kidnapped across 997 reported incidents, leading to at least 762 deaths, according to a report by the Lagos-based geopolitical advisory SBM Intelligence. In that 12-month period, abductors demanded ₦48bn ($35m or £26m) in payments, with families and communities ultimately handing over at least ₦2.57bn in ransom to secure the release of their loved ones. Ahead of January’s presidential election in which Tinubu is seeking a second four-year term, the government has been ramping up reforms and rescue operations as insecurity worsens. The latest rescue was announced in the same week the army declared the governor of Islamic State West Africa Province, Abu Musa al-Mangawi Baa Shuwa, and his deputy, Amirul Jaish Muhammad Jidda, wanted. The duo run the Islamic State-affiliated Boko Haram offshoot operating primarily around the Lake Chad basin, which straddles Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria. In July, security services freed at least 40 students and teachers who had been kidnapped in May from a school in Oyo in south-western Nigeria. Last week, the presidency announced a salary increase worth 30% to 80% for thousands of soldiers, the largest hike in years for an army once seen as one of the continent’s most powerful but now derided as underfunded and unequipped to handle concurrent insurgencies across Nigerian territory.

Trump’s Gaza Board of Peace issues first building contract – for a military base

Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, which was set up in January to oversee the reconstruction of Gaza, has finally issued its first construction contract in the devastated territory: a project to build a rudimentary 150-person military outpost to house Moroccan troops, a source familiar with the matter told the Guardian. The contract, which has not yet been finalised, was awarded to Arkel International, a Louisiana-based firm that has previously carried out work with the US government in countries such as Iraq. The Board of Peace is chaired by the US president and led by a team that includes his son-in-law Jared Kushner and friend Steve Witkoff. In an email, a Board of Peace official said the board and a group of Palestinian technocrats installed to oversee Gaza “are in the final stages of preparing several contract awards. None have been finalised.” The Palestinian group is known as the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza. The official said “one prospective contract concerns facilities to support the international stabilisation force (ISF), which will assist in implementing the roadmap’s security and governance arrangements”. They added: “This contract will be one of many that are essential for the future of Gaza.” The award comes just days after Trump announced that Hamas had agreed to disarm, though there are considerable questions about how the group would give up its guns. Israel has opposed the plan, and increased airstrikes in Gaza after Trump’s announcement. The Guardian reported in July that the board’s original Gaza reconstruction had shrunk dramatically from an ambitious blueprint to rebuild the whole territory to a small pilot project in the south of the strip. The base now being planned is just 100 metres by 120 metres and is intended to house a contingent of Moroccan troops, who would rotate from a base in Israel, the source said. It would lie in the 60% of Gaza’s territory that the Israeli army directly controls. Israeli forces have also created a buffer zone beyond that area. The source said the base was about a mile from the Israeli border and would have a “quick extraction route” in case the small force came under attack. The UN resolution authorising the Board of Peace had approved establishing an “international stabilisation force” for Gaza, and there have been varying reports on which country would provide these troops. Morocco has promised a small contingent, but the legal framework for the ISF has yet to be finalised, and it is not clear when the deployment would begin. In earlier contract plans seen by the Guardian, the 150-person base was the first phase of a plan to build a 5,000-person military base in Gaza for the ISF. This base would have included “vehicle fighting positions” and a perimeter berm – or raised defensive bank – and would have rudimentary facilities suitable for short-term deployments. The earlier contract said the first phase would consist of “tents and cots for forces to sleep, as well as chemical toilets and handwashing stations. At this phase, this is what we would consider habitable.” Trump announced in February 2025 that the US would “take over” and “own” Gaza, although the agreement that set up the Board of Peace fell short of that. At the board’s first meeting in January, Kushner unveiled a “master plan” to build “New Gaza” with an expansive waterfront city with gleaming mixed-use towers. “It could be a hope, it could be a destination. A lot of industry,” he said. At least 80% of Gaza’s buildings were damaged or destroyed in the war. Ten months after the ceasefire, most of the territory’s 2 million people are still living in makeshift and unsanitary camps.

‘Morocco feels emboldened’: Trump’s influence in spotlight after Ceuta disaster

The cosy relationship between Washington and Rabat has long been flaunted by both sides, from Morocco’s announcement this year that it would be the first African state to join Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to the congratulatory message recently sent by Trump to mark King Mohammed VI’s 27 years in power. The latest example landed this week. As Spain grappled with the aftermath of the sudden influx – and swift return – of more than 70,000 people into Ceuta, Morocco’s monarch confirmed he had named a $1bn highway flanking the disputed territory of Western Sahara after Trump. The deepening ties have come under renewed scrutiny as questions continue to swirl over what exactly led to the deadly mass border crossing into the tiny Spanish territory in north Africa. “I think there’s enough evidence to hypothesise or claim that Morocco is behind this,” said Riccardo Fabiani, the north Africa project director for the International Crisis Group. “But there was no clear trigger for this, and this is what is puzzling for everyone.” Observers have suggested Spain’s recent rapprochement with Rabat’s archrival, Algeria, could have set off Morocco. But another, perhaps more plausible explanation pointed towards the US, said Fabiani. “It’s obviously impossible to demonstrate,” he said. “But in terms of plausibility, I don’t think it’s impossible to imagine that Morocco might have done something to earn brownie points with its allies, given that Morocco and this particular administration in Washington do have a very close, excellent relationship.” While Morocco had probably not “masterminded” the surge into Ceuta, he said, its relationship with the Trump administration – along with the Moroccan king’s desire to keep its claim to Ceuta in the spotlight – may have affected how it responded to fast-spreading online rumours about the Spanish border being thrown open. “For sure the Moroccan security forces were monitoring those conversations,” said Fabiani. “They saw that and there was probably some conversation where they decided to do nothing and see where this goes.” What followed made headlines across the globe as tens of thousands of people swam or waded across one of the EU’s two land borders with Africa. As Spain scrambled to cope, far-right voices seized on the images. In the US, the vice-president, JD Vance, and the state department blamed the influx on the Socialist-led government of Spain, while Trump warned that electing Democrats would make what happened in Spain “look small-time”. At no point did any of them mention Morocco or the potential role it might have played. Trump and his administration have long been open about the deep antipathy they feel for Pedro Sánchez, the Spanish prime minister, whose refusal to allow the US to use its airbases during the Iran war, rejection of the 5% defence spending target and vociferous criticism of Israel’s actions in Gaza have arguably made Spain the administration’s least favourite EU country. The American response seemed to be a triumph for Rabat, whose relationship with the US president traces back to his first term, when Morocco agreed to normalise ties with Israel in exchange for Trump’s recognition of its sovereignty claim over the disputed territory of Western Sahara. Since then, Morocco’s all-powerful monarch had doubled down on outreach efforts, said Fabiani. “The Moroccans have really made extra efforts to cultivate every single major decision-maker within the administration, including the president himself, to make sure that this administration will support, until the end, the Moroccan autonomy plan for Western Sahara.” A hint that the relationship could help Morocco lay claim to more than Western Sahara came in a recent US congressional report that appeared to be sympathetic to Morocco’s refusal to recognise Ceuta as Spanish territory, describing it as “Spanish-administered” rather than a part of Spain, as it has been since 1580. Days after the influx, interest in Ceuta remained heightened among those close to both Trump and the Israeli government, said Haizam Amirah-Fernández, the director of the Madrid-based Centre for Contemporary Arab Studies. “They haven’t stopped talking about Ceuta for several days in a row, which is quite striking.” What had been laid bare was Rabat’s willingness to use “hybrid tactics to achieve political objectives”, said Amirah-Fernández, drawing a parallel with May 2021 when Rabat loosened border controls to allow more than 8,000 people to cross into Ceuta in a show of anger over Madrid’s decision to allow a Western Sahara pro-independence leader to travel to Spain to be treated for Covid-19. This time around, as nearly 10 times more people crossed into Ceuta, it set off a bout of finger-pointing across the EU rather than any kind of concerted effort to push back using the bloc’s status as Morocco’s largest trading partner and largest foreign investor. “The reaction of several governments in the EU was, in the end, what the White House was looking for – the erosion of solidarity between European partners,” said Amirah-Fernández. Senior officials in Morocco have pushed back against accusations it was in any way complicit. At the Rabat-based Moroccan Institute for Policy Analysis, there was little doubt that relations between Morocco and the US were in their “golden era”. Even so, the country’s approach to the Trump administration remained pragmatic, said Said Saddiki, a senior fellow at the institute. “Moroccan policymakers are well aware of President Trump’s transactional style and have sought to preserve Morocco’s strategic autonomy,” Saddiki said in an email, citing efforts to maintain partnerships with the EU, China and the Gulf states, among others. “The relationship with the Trump administration has strengthened Morocco’s international position, but so far it has not come at the expense of its relations with Spain or the European Union.” For Fabiani, the events in Ceuta served to underscore the perils of Europe’s reliance on north African states to control migration flows. “This has made Europe entirely vulnerable and dependent on the goodwill of a country like Morocco,” he said. “Morocco is a partner, but at the same time it has its own interests. This vulnerability was on show.” This weakness could become more of an issue as time passed, given Morocco’s perception that the issue of Ceuta remained unsettled, Fabiani warned. “And Morocco feels emboldened, and there is an administration in Washington that is willing to back it up,” he said. “I don’t think Europe is ready for what comes next because it could get much more complicated.”