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US and Iran exchange strikes as Tehran again says strait of Hormuz is closed

Iran has declared the strait of Hormuz closed after six days of hostilities with the US, reversing an agreement signed last month that was intended to restore maritime traffic through the waterway and pave the way for a broader peace deal. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) announced the closure on Sunday after an intense exchange of aerial bombardment with the US, although the US said some ships were continuing to cross the waterway. US Central Command said on Saturday night, after Iran struck a Cypriot-flagged container ship, that its forces had hit 140 Iranian military targets “to degrade Iran’s ability to attack civilian mariners and commercial vessels freely transiting the strait”. Its statement said the targets had included missile and drone sites, naval facilities, ammunition depots, communication networks and surveillance locations. Iran launched retaliatory drone and missile attacks across the region, saying it was targeting US bases in neighbouring Arab countries. There were reports of aerial attacks in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain and Oman. The IRGC claimed to have destroyed “the logistical support centres for naval vessels and the refuelling facilities for US aircraft carriers at the port of Duqm in Oman”. Without confirming details on the damage, Oman condemned the attack, which came just hours after the sultanate hosted an Iranian delegation for talks on security in the strait. The Cypriot-flagged ship had been travelling through the strait on a southerly route along the Omani shoreline, according to the UK Maritime Trade Operations centre, a British military body, when the vessel was struck, disabled and its crew forced to take to lifeboats. The Indian government said 10 of its nationals from the ship had been rescued but that one remained missing. It called for “free and unimpeded” navigation through the strait. The IRGC said several vessels had “disregarded our warnings and instructions to correct their course and proceed along the approved route”. One of them “was struck by a warning shot and brought to a stop”, it added. The strait would remain closed until the “end of US interference”, the IRGC said, adding that it would consider targeting “additional enemy bases in the region” if it faced more American attacks. On Sunday, it claimed to have intercepted and disabled a second ship and carried out ballistic missile strikes on the US airbase ‌at Al Udeid in Qatar, destroying ⁠a fighter jet maintenance centre and command and ‌control facility. There was no US confirmation of the damage. The US-Iranian memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed on 17 June extended a ceasefire in the war by 60 days to allow the restoration of trade through the strait and create breathing space for talks on Tehran’s nuclear programme and sanctions relief, the main points of contention between Iran and the west. Apart from some indirect technical talks, those negotiations have failed to materialise, and fighting continued between Israel and Hezbollah in Lebanon, which was supposed to be covered by the agreement. The MoU started to unravel when Iran attacked three commercial vessels on Monday night as they were crossing the strait along a southern route next to the Omani coast that the Iranians had not approved. This drew US missile attacks in response, beginning almost a week of tit-for-tat exchanges. The return of hostilities rattled global markets, though the price for Brent crude oil was $75 a barrel going into the weekend, well down from wartime highs of more than $120 and close to its prewar average. The latest price appears to reflect traders’ belief that the US and Iran want to avoid a return to full-scale war, and that the global economy is adapting to the prolonged uncertainty over the strait of Hormuz. US Central Command said ships were continuing to transit the waterway along the southern route. Tehran is determined that any long-term settlement in the region recognises its control over the strait, which it seized soon after the US-Israel attack on Iran in February. On Sunday, Mohsen Rezaee, a senior adviser to Iran’s supreme leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, was quoted in state media as saying: “This strategic passage is more important than dozens of atomic bombs, and the Islamic Republic of Iran will protect it.” In last month’s MoU, Tehran undertook to “make arrangements using its best efforts for the safe passage of commercial vessels with no charge for 60 days”, leaving the question of tolls or fees on shipping after that period to be agreed later. With an eye to maintaining its leverage, Iran has said it will allow seaborne traffic to flow without payment during the ceasefire but only in coordination with Iranian authorities and along an approved route close to the country’s coast. There were talks in Oman on Saturday between Iranian and Omani officials aimed at agreeing on passage along the southern route, but so far they have not led to agreement. Regime hardliners in Tehran have resisted compromises on what they see as Iran’s biggest strategic gain from the war. In a possible illustration of the splits within the Tehran regime, Oman was bombed soon after the Iranian delegation led by the foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, had left Muscat. A senior Iranian source told Reuters that Iran, the US, Qatar and Pakistan had agreed to negotiate in a call that ‌mediators were trying to arrange for Saturday while Araghchi was still in Oman. It was not immediately clear whether the efforts had borne fruit before the IRGC began bombing Omani targets. Amid the continuing diplomatic efforts, the leaders of both sides have exchanged bellicose rhetoric. Khamenei vowed revenge for the killing of his father and predecessor. “Vengeance is the will of our nation and must inevitably be carried out,” Iran’s new supreme leader said in a written message, his first since the funeral of his father, Ali Khamenei, last week. He said Iran had compiled a list of individuals to be targeted. A few hours earlier Trump had posted on his Truth Social platform that any attempt to assassinate him would lead the US to “completely decimate” Iran. “1000 missiles are locked and loaded and aimed at the Islamic Republic of Iran, with thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian government act on its threat, pronounced in many corners of the globe, to assassinate, or attempt to assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!,” Trump wrote.

Iran attacks Gulf countries following fresh US strikes – Middle East crisis live

Oman has summoned Iran’s ambassador to the country to protest of drone strikes on its territory. Mousa Fereidoun, ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran, was handed a protest note regarding the targeting of sites in Oman’s regions of Musandam and al-Batinah by Iranian drones, the foreign ministry said. During a meeting officials “expressed the sultanate of Oman’s dismay at these irresponsible acts, calling for the necessity of adhering to the provisions of state sovereignty, good neighbourliness, non-interference in internal affairs, and respect for the customs and ethical values that bind the two countries and peoples”, it said.

To make wine is to believe in the future: the Ukrainians growing grapes on the frontline

As winemaker Mykhailo Molchanov pottered about trimming foliage from his vines on a warm early-summer day, his dog Direktor at his heels, it was hard to imagine a more idyllic scene. The Molchanovs’ organic vines are planted directly into the richly biodiverse grassland for which southern Ukraine is renowned – hence their label’s name, Steppe Wines – amid the silvery feathergrass and wild salvia. The soundtrack of the day was not the all too familiar buzzing of drones, but the buzzing of bees and the music of cuckoos and golden orioles. But there was also a terrifying reminder of the relentless presence of war: an unexploded Russian rocket, nose down, half-buried in the soil between rows of Chardonnay grapes. The Molchanovs have considered trying to get it removed, but the huge machinery needed, they concluded, would be too damaging to their precious rows of vines. So they simply work around it. When Russia’s full-scale invasion began in the early hours of 24 February 2022, Molchanov and his wife, Svitlana, left their home in the city of Mykolaiv and crossed the river to their winery, where their vineyards roll down towards the banks of the Southern Buh river. The bad news was that, as fighting intensified in the early days of March, they found themselves between the lines, under the artillery of both armies. “You could see the rockets going directly up towards space – as if they were launching cosmonauts,” said Heorhii Molchanov, the son of the family and a central part of the winemarking business. The good news was twofold. First, the defence of Mykolaiv was successful. Second, the Molchanovs had a serviceable bomb shelter, AKA their wine cellar. “Put it this way,” said Mykhailo. “We used to have a pretty decent 2017 Cabernet down there. Not any more.” The capture of Mykolaiv was an important objective for the Russians; success would have opened the way to an attempt on the vital Black Sea port of Odesa. Even outside the city itself, the Molchanovs were uncomfortably close to the battle for Mykolaiv. On the opposite bank of the Southern Buh is the city’s small airport, an obvious target. Also on the opposite bank, a column of Russians was pushing north up the highway, trying to capture an upstream crossing from which to turn back and encircle the city. “We are lucky,” Heorhii said. “They could have crossed the river.” He added: “For my mental health I have tried to think about wine, not whether or not we would be occupied.” Wine growing is an uncertain business, even without a war raging. While the Russian invasion presented the most apocalyptic threat to the family’s vineyard, grapes have other enemies. Bad weather, rot, disease, fungus – all conspire against growers, particularly since the Molchanovs use only copper and sulphur as pesticides. Last year, said Heorhii, wild goats and pigs munched their way through at least a ton of grapes. But, unlikely as it may seem, the Molchanov family – admittedly working on a very small scale – have actually expanded their acreage since the full-scale invasion, and they plan to increase the current production of about 10,000 bottles a year to 30,000-50,000 over the next decade. Mykhailo is optimistic – he believes Ukrainian wine, little known outside the country itself, has huge potential to develop. “I was listening to Italian wine growers talking at a conference recently,” he said, “and their situation reminded me of ours – except they were talking about the 1960s.” Aside from grape varieties familiar in western Europe, Australia and the US – pinot gris, cabernet, and so on – the family grows native Ukrainian grapes such as telti kuruk and odesa black. They are also involved in a new cooperative that one day, in happier times, Mykhailo hopes could attract tourists with a winery on the road to Olbia, the ancient Greek settlement on the Black Sea that is too dangerous for visitors to access now. In the meantime, they are running a hub for local winemakers, some of whom have lost their own vineyards. Passing through the Molchanov winery was Olha Kashchenko and her young son, who live in Kherson – a city of incalculable danger for its reduced population of citizens. They live under drone-netted streets and the grim threat of what has became known as Russia’s “drone safari” – the targeting of civilian vehicles by drones. Kashchenko, who took the decision to stay on in the city to care for her elderly mother, once worked as a guide on wine tours, and dreamed of becoming a winemaker herself. She went back to university to study wine production, bought land for vines and built a house in the countryside outside the city. But now her plot is firmly in the red zone, the country house has been destroyed, and she has been unable to reach it since 2023. For now, she plans to buy grapes and use the hub at the Molchakovs’ to produce wine – “red with strong tannins and whites with good acidity – sauvignon and riesling, I hope,” she said. “We plan to return, we will rebuild and plant our own grapes. But the area is mined, and who knows how long it will take.” Lost land but not lost hope Kashchenko’s experience is the tip of the iceberg. As in every other sphere of life in Ukraine, the scale of loss is devastating, growing, and hard to calculate. The historical Prince Trubetskoy winery in the Kherson region, for example, dating from the early 20th century, was occupied at the start of the full-scale invasion. When the area was liberated, the owners found the premises damaged and looted – including its important wine collection. And then, in February this year, the entire building was obliterated by bombing. According to Svitlana Tsybak, the president of the Ukrainian Association of Craft Winemakers and co-owner of UA Wines, which has imported good-quality Ukrainian wine to the UK since 2022, the country’s 68,000 hectares of land planted with vines in 2014 dropped to 47,000 after the Crimean peninsula was illegally annexed by Russia. “And now it’s 15,000,” she said, “which is nothing for such a big country”. Since 2022, many of those vineyards have been lost to occupation, and to events such as the blowing up of the Kakhovka dam, which flooded tracts of agricultural land in southern Ukraine. But they have also been lost, she said, to changing farming practices. In the face of the uncertainties of war, many large growers have uprooted their vines in favour of the more reliable, faster rewards of sunflowers or wheat. Growing vines, harvesting grapes, making wine, and presiding over its slow creep to maturity is work that, by its very nature, implies hope. To make wine is to believe in the future. Despite this broad picture of shrinking acreage, a remarkable 82 craft wineries have been established since 2022 in Ukraine, said Tsybak, mostly in the safer central and western parts of the country. Newer vineyards include what she considers to be an exciting new maker, Gigi, in the Vinnytsia region, whose Georgian owners grow the grapes of their home country, such as saperavi, as well as the Ukrainian grape, sukholymaskyi. She serves Gigi’s wines among many other Ukrainian labels at a bar she co-owns in central Kyiv, called Artania. Despite having many of its windows and glasses smashed in a Russian bombing in late May, it quickly reopened to serve customers wines from across Ukraine. Tsybak, though, is also the chief executive of a vineyard that is far from safe. Beykush winery is on a narrow cape southwest of Mykolaiv. With an estuary on one side and the open waters of the Black Sea on the other, it sits amid a spectacular landscape, with rich native and migratory birdlife. It is uncomfortably close to the strategic coastal town of Ochakiv, a frequent target for Russian attacks. Only 8km (5 miles) across the water, a long finger of land protrudes from the Kherson region to the south-west – a national park that is under Russian occupation. Also visible from this coastline is the island of Berezan, the home of the earliest ancient Greek settlement on the modern territory of Ukraine, from the seventh century BCE. Wine is often thought to have been introduced here by these early trader-colonists – but some think it goes back much earlier. The Beykush vineyards, which produce about 65,000 bottles a year, are the latest layer in a rich history of viticulture in this area, said Tsybak – not just the ancient Greeks but the Ottomans and, later, Jewish growers who worked here in the early 20th century. The layered history and biodiversity of the area is acknowledged in everything that Beykush does – Italian timorasso grapes are grown, for example, by way of tribute to an old Genoese fort nearby; and many of their labels feature the area’s rich birdlife. Beykush was established in 2010, one of a new wave of fresh vineyards focusing on quality, small-scale production in place of the high-quantity, low-quality, often sweet wines produced before independence. Even so, it was a struggle for fledging small producers like Beykush to operate, until in 2018 a successful campaign led to the reform of the legal framework regulating craft winemakers. Before the full-scale invasion, visitors would be offered tastings on the winery’s waterside terrace. Now it is far too dangerous to welcome enthusiasts, and the operation is run by a skeleton team headed by Olha Romashko, head winemaker, and her deputy, Oleksandr Pashkovsky. Three former colleagues are serving in the army. Romashko has moved into the winery from her home in Ochakiv for her own safety. The winery’s underground tasting rooms have been a useful refuge. She and Pashkovsky have avoided working visibly out in the open, and observe a blackout after 10pm. Missiles overhead are so ubiquitous, she said, that “when there isn’t an FPV drone or anything else for a while – then it’s strange, and people start to be suspicious about what’s on its way”. “In 2022,” she added, “we had lots of cruise missiles from Crimea, sometimes flying low. Then at some point Shaheds appeared and they changed our life. If you can see a cruise missile you’re fine, it’s not coming for you. If you see a Shahed, though, it is coming for you, or somewhere nearby.” In November 2022, she and Pashkovsky planted malbec grapes, having ordered the young vines two years before that. “People should understand that wine growing has its own cycle,” said Pashkovsky. “You can’t just stop taking care of it. You have to keep on. You can’t miss a single cycle or step – if you do, you have wasted all your work. Sometimes we do forget there’s a war – of course we hear it all the time here, but we are busy, getting on with it. “We have big hopes for these vines,” he said, as he gave the leaves and shoots of the new malbec vines a loving caress. “You can see that they started to blossom. When you look at these buds, how could you possibly abandon them?”

EU accused of dragging its feet over ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements

The EU has been accused of dragging its feet over upholding international law, on the eve of a long-awaited debate about banning trade with illegal Israeli settlements. EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday will discuss a possible ban on imports from the settlements, against an ongoing humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where a UN inquiry found Israel to be committing a genocide, and surging state-backed violence in the occupied West Bank, which has killed at least 235 children. But the 27 ministers are not expected to take decisions about trade amid persistent divisions about how to respond to Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and his government. A part or total ban on imports from settlements is one of three options presented by the European Commission in a paper seen by the Guardian. The other two options are high tariffs that make trade economically unviable or an import licensing system. The leaked paper was first reported by Euronews. Written in cautious, bureaucratic language, the paper notes that the options “can have a substantive impact on the EU-Israel relationship, also in view of the upcoming election”, underscoring that the commission is mindful of Israel’s general election later this year. Israelis are due to go to the polls by 27 October, the first electoral test for Netanyahu since the 7 October 2023 terror attacks by Hamas. Under the EU-Israel agreement, goods from the occupied Palestinian territories (the Golan Heights, Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem) are not entitled to the preferential trade terms that apply to Israel. At least 10 European member states, including Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain, say the EU has an obligation to end trade with occupied territories, following a ruling from the international court of justice (ICJ) in 2024 that called on Israel to end its occupation of the Palestinian territories “as rapidly as possible”. The ruling found multiple breaches of international law by Israel including activities that amounted to apartheid. It said that states had to “take steps to prevent trade or investment relations that assists in the maintenance of the illegal situation created by Israel in the occupied Palestinian territory”. This call to end trade with the settlements is backed by more than 100 legal scholars, who wrote to the European Commission’s most senior trade and foreign policy officials this month affirming the EU’s “international legal obligation”. Ignacio García Bercero, a former senior trade official at the commission, who signed the letter, said: “The only way to ensure compliance with the opinion of the ICJ is a ban on trade with the illegal settlements. Any other option will not be effective in view of Israeli policy to compensate settlement producers from tariffs paid on their exports to the EU.” A recent investigation by NGO Global Echo found that Israeli exporters benefit from illegal tax breaks for products cultivated in settlements, while Israeli tax authorities permit misleading labels. One in six shipments that the NGO investigated contained agricultural products that had originated in settlements in occupied Palestinian territory and the Syrian Golan Heights, at least 42% of which had been mislabelled as Israeli-grown. But the EU is not expected to act anytime soon, amid an ongoing dispute about whether a ban on trade with illegal settlements can be done via a qualified majority vote or requires unanimity. After Monday’s meeting, EU foreign ministers will not gather in a decision-making format until October. The maximalist outcome from Monday, sources suggested, could be a call from a simple majority of member states to demand a legal proposal on ending illegal settlement trade. Alberto Alemanno, a law professor at the HEC Paris business school, said: “Each month of delay doesn’t just postpone compliance, it deepens the EU’s own legal liability for sustaining trade with an unlawful occupation.” One senior EU diplomat said it had been “a tough battle” to get the options paper, adding that there had not been “joyful cooperation” from the commission, which is responsible for drafting EU laws. Claudio Francavilla, an associate director at Human Rights Watch, said: “It is astonishing a ban is still presented as an ‘option’, when it’s the only measure that complies with international law.”

Toronto shooting: two dead and four injured at Salsa on St Clair street festival

A shooting near a Toronto street festival killed two men and wounded four other people on Saturday evening, police said, adding that what initially prompted an active-shooter warning was an exchange of gunfire between two people targeting each other. Toronto police deputy chief Frank Barredo said investigators recovered two firearms after the shooting, which was reported at 8.12pm near St. Clair Avenue West and Arlington Avenue, where the Salsa on St Clair festival was underway. No suspect or suspects had been arrested by the time of a late-night news conference, however Barredo confirmed both of the deceased were men. Officers initially urged the public to avoid the area before later announcing the scene had been secured. “There was some concern about an active shooter. That turned out not to be the case,” Barredo said. But the two gunmen involved in the shooting “indiscriminately put vast numbers of people in danger”. Toronto Mayor Olivia Chow said: “I’m deeply disturbed and angry about this reckless and irresponsible act of violence right in the middle of a festival attended by families.” Valerie Rodriguez said she was sitting outside a nearby restaurant when people suddenly began screaming and running. “A bunch of people … told us to lay down onto the floor,” she said. “We got scared because we didn’t know exactly what was happening.” Festival vendor Patsy Gutierrez said she was serving customers when she saw “a huge wave” of people fleeing. “Everybody started getting frantic and then we stopped serving,” she said. “I don’t think it should be something that’s happening at these types of events.” A large police presence remained around the festival, an annual celebration of Latin American culture that draws thousands of people to Toronto’s St Clair West neighborhood for live music, dancing, food and cultural performances. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he was “horrified” by the shooting and said ‌the police had his full support in their efforts to apprehend those responsible, in a post on X. “My prayers are with the families grieving their loved ones, those who are in critical condition and everyone who has been affected by this ⁠horrific event,” he said. Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a social media post that his thoughts were with the victims, families and others affected by the shooting. “I am devastated by the senseless violence at the Salsa on St. Clair Festival that has claimed two lives and injured others,” Ford said. Toronto, Canada’s largest city, is among North America’s safest major cities. Fatal shootings, particularly those involving multiple victims in public places, are relatively rare. “Toronto is one of the safest cities in the world but we are 3 million people and unfortunately we are not immune,” Barredo said.

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy decries housing of weapons in civilian area after Russian strike kills 10

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said officials who ⁠allowed weapons warehouses to operate in a residential area outside Kyiv, where ⁠explosions killed 10 ⁠people, had been identified and would be held accountable. A Russian strike earlier this week on ⁠the small town of Vyshneve on Kyiv’s western outskirts hit a warehouse containing arms, ⁠setting off a series of secondary explosions. Hundreds of houses were damaged. The Ukrainian president ‌said an investigation ‌by the Ukrainian Security Service had established which officials ‌at the state weapons producer Ukroboronprom had authorised use of the warehouse. “This was a direct violation of both the law and a decision of the supreme commander-in-chief’s staff,” he said. “The responsible ‌officials have been identified and the state’s position is that each of them must be held accountable.” He added: “Every enterprise manager must ensure that ‌such tragedies are never repeated.” The issue sparked a public outcry, with residents claiming negligence and a lack of information from officials. Zelenskyy’s announcement came as Russian missile and drone attacks in Ukraine on Saturday killed eight people, including a child, and wounded dozens more, officials said. Two glide bombs hit a crowded area in the northern city of Sumy, a frequent Russian target, killing five people and injuring 30.In a border district of Sumy region, where the Kremlin wants to expand a buffer zone, an official said a man ⁠was killed after stepping on an explosive device. Glide bombs also injured 10 in the south-eastern city of Zaporizhzhia, the regional governor said. Two people were killed and another wounded earlier in the day by a missile strike on the southern port city of Odesa. The injury toll from Saturday’s strikes on the capital Kyiv rose to 12, including two children, according to the city’s mayor. Zelenskyy said Russia launched more than 120 drones and 12 missiles during the night, half of them ballistic. “Civilian infrastructure was hit even before the air raid alert was issued,” he added. He posted videos of emergency teams working in the smoke and rubble of ruined buildings. Apartment buildings, offices and a theological school were damaged in Kyiv, while recovery efforts were under way in other regions, he added. Zelenskyy said air defences “managed to shoot down most of the targets – but not the ballistic ones”. He repeated his plea for allies to send more military aid to help it fight off the Russian invasion, now well into its fifth year. Russia has stepped up attacks on the capital in recent weeks. So far this month, strikes on Kyiv and the surrounding region have killed more than 60 people. Saturday’s strike on Kyiv marked the second time in less than a week that missiles hit before an air alert was issued. Sergiy Sternenko, an adviser to Ukraine’s defence minister, said the strike happened before the sirens could indicate Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missiles were incoming. “During ground attacks, these missiles are more difficult to detect by radar,” he said. “There is no military logic to such attacks. It is simply terrorism for the sake of terrorism.” Russia, which denies targeting civilians, said it had struck “military-industrial facilities in Kyiv and seaport infrastructure in Odesa”. Zelenskyy ⁠also said on Saturday that diplomacy should ⁠focus on ⁠getting Kyiv’s allies to follow through more ⁠quickly on arms-supply agreements. “I am preparing changes ⁠in Ukraine’s diplomatic efforts. ‌We need a ‌new level of cooperation ‌with our partners to ensure that agreements on arms supplies are fulfilled,” Zelenskyy said ‌in his nightly video address. “Agreements reached by national leaders must be implemented much more quickly and completely,” he ⁠said, saying this applied to cooperation with the United States on licensing for ‌the production of Patriot air defence systems. Ukraine’s drone forces chief Robert Brovdi ‌said his units had struck 21 fuel tanker vessels in the Sea of Azov overnight, as well as seven other cargo and support ships, bringing the total number of vessels struck this week to 76. Zelenskyy has said the aim of the drone campaign is to bring Russia to the negotiating table, although Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has not yet shown any willingness to soften his position. One person was killed in a drone attack on four vessels, including a tanker carrying methanol, in Taganrog Bay on the Sea of Azov, Russian authorities said on Saturday. “A seaman on a technical support vessel has lost ⁠his life. I offer my condolences to the family ‌and loved ones ‌of the deceased. No one else was ‌injured,” Yuri Slyusar, governor of the southern Rostov region, wrote on Telegram. He said the vessels sustained various degrees of damage, but “there is no ‌risk of a methanol spill or leak.” Russian ⁠troops ⁠took control of the ⁠settlement ⁠of Bachivsk ‌in ‌Ukraine’s ‌Sumy region, the ‌defence ministry said on Saturday. The ‌battlefield report ⁠could not be immediately independently verified. Authorities in Russia’s Novosibirsk region have urged residents to work remotely and limit travel by car, amid a deepening fuel crisis triggered by Ukrainian strikes on oil refineries. The region, home to almost three million people, is one of the largest in Siberia by population and a major economic and manufacturing hub. The announcement comes after Ukraine struck an oil refinery in the neighbouring region of Omsk earlier this week, knocking out one of Russia’s largest oil processing facilities by capacity.

Venezuela quake death toll passes 4,300 as scale of recovery effort looms large

The death toll in Venezuela’s devastating twin earthquakes has passed 4,300, the government said on Saturday. At least 4,333 people were killed and 16,740 injured in the back-to-back quakes on 24 June that flattened entire districts in the coastal state of La Guaira, the Venezuelan parliament chief, Jorge Rodríguez, wrote on Telegram. Thousands more people are listed as missing. A 7.5-magnitude quake – the biggest in Venezuela in over a century – struck 39 seconds after a 7.2-magnitude shock, flattening entire high-rise apartment blocks. Although rescue teams have halted searches for survivors, family members continue to scour the ruins for their loved ones in the hope of giving them a dignified burial. On Friday, a 3.0-magnitude quake in central Caracas caused momentary panic and led to buildings being evacuated. The scale of the recovery effort facing Venezuela, where state services have been severely degraded by a prolonged economic crisis, is huge. The United Nations on Wednesday issued an urgent appeal for nearly $300m towards earthquake relief operations to assist 1.3 million people in urgent need of aid in the South American country where non-governmental organisations until recently were targets of government repression. Mobile kitchens and clinics as well as field hospitals now dot public spaces in the northern state of La Guaira, where most of the devastation occurred. The UN Office for Disaster Risk Reduction has estimated direct physical damage to housing and infrastructure at about $37bn. Venezuela’s interim president, Delcy Rodríguez, has called for the release of frozen assets held abroad to be used towards the recovery. On Wednesday she said she had asked King Charles to release about 30 tons of Venezuelan gold frozen under UK sanctions. Delcy Rodríguez has defended her country’s emergency response to the twin earthquakes, vowing the country would not descend into social unrest. Many Venezuelans have expressed anger at what they see as the US-backed government’s inadequate response to the disaster before international teams arrived. With Agence France-Presse and Associated Press

US congressman says he was detained by armed Israeli settlers in occupied West Bank

The US congressman Ro Khanna says armed Israeli settlers detained him during a visit to the Israel-occupied West Bank recently, describing the experience as a first-hand view of the realities faced by Palestinians living under occupation. In an interview with Reuters on Thursday from a Palestinian village, the progressive US House Democrat from California said his detention happened the previous day while his delegation visited an area of the southern West Bank that has experienced repeated attacks by Israeli settlers. Khanna recounted how settlers carrying US-made M4 rifles surrounded the group’s van. “We were at a village that Israeli settlers had destroyed – they had destroyed the school, they had destroyed that village, and we were just looking at it,” Khanna said. Referring to the Israel Defense Forces, which are funded in part by US military aid, Khanna continued: “And these hoodlums … detain us. They block off the road. And then they call the IDF and the IDF is on their side, not on the side of the Americans.” Khanna also told Reuters: “I saw the arrogance in the eyes of those settlers, 21- and 22-year-olds with guns, laughing that they had detained us, the arrogance of those young IDF soldiers that my tax dollars are funding – having no respect for the fact that they were detaining Americans, no respect that there was an American congressperson in that bus, and laughing when our translator told them that there are Americans there and the American embassy is concerned.” Khanna aide Cameron Kasky wrote on X that he was there when the congressman’s group was detained, saying: “The IDF showed up to back up the settlers, not the US congressman.” Khanna added that the encounter illustrated “the arrogance of power – of a power that has had no accountability, total impunity – and it’s created a toxic culture of oppression”. The New York Times first reported Khanna’s account on Saturday morning. He told the outlet: “I felt powerless in that situation, which is not an easy thing, as I have a lot of privilege in life. “Imagine how people feel every day, Palestinians under the occupation, if they could make an American congressperson feel powerless for 90 minutes.” Khanna said he and his group were ultimately able to continue traveling after contacting the US embassy and Israeli police. The Israeli military said troops and police responded after receiving a report that settlers were obstructing vehicles near Khirbet Zanuta, according to Reuters. Khirbet Zanuta is a Palestinian hamlet whose residents were forced to leave in the wake of violent settler raids after the Hamas attacks on Israel in October 2023. Asked by Reuters whether he intends to run for president, Khanna replied: “I’m strongly considering it. And I’m more resolved to consider it after this trip.” More than 700,000 Israelis reside in settlements across the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem. The United Nations considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank to be illegal, and Israel has faced repeated criticism over violence and other actions by settlers in the territory. Since Israel took control of the West Bank in 1967, restrictions imposed there have prevented the territory from developing a self-sustaining economy. Those restrictions intensified significantly after the deadly 7 October 2023 Hamas attacks on Israel. Nearly 300,000 Palestinians have lost employment in the West Bank and Israel. A June report issued by a UN independent international commission of inquiry concluded that “Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children resulting in genocide, crimes against humanity, and war crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank”. According to data from human rights organisation Yesh Din, no Israeli has been indicted for the killing of a Palestinian since October 2023. Khanna has been one of the most outspoken critics in the US Congress of the war in Gaza and the occupation of the West Bank, often clashing with his own party’s establishment. In May, he released a video criticizing the Democratic National Committee’s incomplete postmortem report on the defeat that the party suffered at the hands of Donald Trump in the 2024 presidential election. The postmortem did not mention Gaza. In his video, Khanna said: “As someone who campaigned in Michigan and Wisconsin, let me tell you – one of the reasons we lost is our blank check to Israel and [prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu while they committed genocide in Gaza. “We must speak and confront hard truths if this party is to win” the 2028 presidential election, he added. Reuters contributed reporting