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Elon Musk suggests US government was behind Starlink restrictions in Ukraine – Europe live

EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas acknowledged that the EU and the US had “definitely different approach to this war,” as she said Europeans believe “we should squeeze Russia, not Ukraine, to surrender and end this war.” Responding to the US diesel deal with Russia, she said: “The majority of Russia’s funding for the war comes from oil revenues. Clearly, Ukraine wants this war to stop, and that’s why … cutting off the funding for the war is the way to do it. We see that we should squeeze … Russia, not Ukraine, to surrender to end this war.” She added that the EU has adopted a new round of sanction listings earlier this week, as “this is the only way to put pressure on Russia.” She also said that it’s important to send a clear message to Russia that “all these things they are interested in – [unfreezing] frozen assets, lifting the sanctions – are actually up to Europeans to decide.” “And these things are not given for free for them,” she said.

Poland’s ascent from communist state to top 20 economy reverses the brain drain

Above the rain-soaked streets of Warsaw, the observation deck of the Varso tower overlooks Joseph Stalin’s gift to Poland that has divided opinion for decades. For some, the Soviet-era Palace of Culture and Science is a drunk confectioner’s nightmare; standing as a relic of oppression that should have been demolished. For others, it is an icon on the skyline and a monumental warning from history. For the managers of the Varso – completed four years ago, as the tallest building in the EU – with its 310m-high spire rising symbolically above its Stalinist neighbour, it is a waypoint on Poland’s rapid path to economic prosperity. “We look down on it,” says Cezary Błaszczyk, the managing director of HB Reavis in Poland, which owns the tower, gesturing at the palace opposite. A few months ago a slackline walker traversed the 500m gap between the buildings. “It was a symbolic walk from the past to the future,” says his colleague Natalia Kasperska. “Since we are higher and taller than the Palace of Culture, we treat it as: ‘We got over communism, and now we are a country with a strong economy,’” Błaszczyk says. Over the four decades since regaining its independence from Soviet-dominated rule, Poland has been transformed. Excluding oil-exporting states and financial hubs, incomes have converged with western levels at the fastest rate in the world; from 40% of the EU average in the mid-1990s to 81% last year. National income surpassed $1tn (£755bn) last year, ranking Poland among the world’s 20 largest economies. International Monetary Fund projections show income per capita will soon overtake Japan and Spain. “Four decades ago, we were in – excuse my English – deep, deep shit,” says Marcin Bosacki, the Polish deputy foreign minister. Stirring a cup of tea and lemon in his opulent Warsaw office, he recalls queueing after school in the 1980s for up to five hours to buy butter and meat as the communist government imposed martial law. However, the Gdańsk shipworkers’ Solidarność movement and Pope John Paul II’s 1979 pilgrimage to his home country paved the way for Poland’s transition to democracy in 1990 and an “economic miracle”. Integration with western institutions, including Nato in 1999 and EU accession in 2004, also helped. For years, many Poles chose to emigrate to earn more abroad, in a brain drain accelerated by EU membership. Polish plumbers became shorthand in Britain for foreign labour amid the political battles over EU freedom of movement before the Brexit vote. Now Britons are increasingly likely to have their taps fixed by Romanians and Bulgarians, after a surge in the number of Polish nationals leaving. In each year since 2021, when Brexit was enacted after a year-long transition period, twice as many Poles left the UK than arrived. Meanwhile, Germany recorded more non-Germans moving to Poland in 2024 than heading in the opposite direction for the first time on record. On the Varso’s 44th floor, in the Warsaw practice of Foster + Partners, Jedrzej Kolesinski and Krzysztof Gornicki are among those returnees. Both moved to London in their 20s to work in the British architecture firm’s head office – where they led the design team behind the tower they now occupy. Gornicki says Poland has changed dramatically in the years he was away. He always wanted to return to contribute to the country, and raising a family near his parents in a safe, green city that is more affordable than London also has its plus points. Now the pair are working to design Warsaw’s new airport – the biggest greenfield infrastructure project in Europe. “You can work globally from one location. In London we worked on projects from North America to Asia … right now, we’re doing the same thing, just from Warsaw.” On the streets below the Varso, the sights and sounds of progress are unmistakable. Modern electric trams glide past skyscrapers, there are cranes and construction work, giant advertising boards, and dockless e-scooters. The traditional working-class bar mleczny (milk bars) still do a roaring trade serving beetroot soup and Polish dumplings. But at the oldest, Prasowy, orders are taken on a digital touchscreen. Once an asphalt desert designed for columns of Soviet tanks, the old Parade Square surrounding the palace has had a green makeover. Further development is planned to bolster Warsaw’s bid for the 2040 summer Olympics. There are also growing pains. Just as the facades of Warsaw’s medieval old town – rebuilt from the rubble of the second world war – conceal 20th-century concrete, Poland’s stellar growth obscures tensions. The influx of global capital has driven up living costs, squeezing out poor Varsovians. Income inequality is among the highest in Europe, while growing political divisions set the stage for a fractious general election next year. Convergence with the west also presents a novel challenge for a country with a reputation as a low-cost hub within the EU. For years Poland’s cheap, skilled workforce attracted companies such as Volkswagen to build cars, Cadbury to make chocolate and banks such as JP Morgan to open global support centres. At €19.10 (£16.10) an hour, average labour costs (wages, taxes and other costs) are still half the level of Germany and France, but the gap is closing. Since 2004, the average monthly wage has more than tripled in nominal terms to 8,904 złoty (£1,723) last year. The net monthly salary in Warsaw has risen by 120% since 2016, according to Deutsche Bank, lifting it above Rome and Lisbon. A meal for two in the capital now costs more than in Tokyo and the price of a cappuccino has doubled. Rafał Brzoska, the billionaire founder of InPost, the pan-European parcel locker company started in Kraków, says Poles deserve their reputation as hard workers. But now the country must focus on working smarter, in higher-value-added manufacturing and knowledge-intensive services. “The next phase will depend less on catching up, and more on productivity. We don’t have labour cost advantage at all. We need to focus on productivity, technology, cheaper energy and better regulation.” He is, however, concerned about the tensions in Polish politics. Divisions between the nationalist president, Karol Nawrocki, and Donald Tusk’s liberal government have grown increasingly acrimonious. Meanwhile, fringe far-right parties together hold a fifth of public support. Poland is also investing heavily in defence and energy security – aiming to boost economic growth in the process – amid Europe’s response to Russian aggression and US disengagement. “People may put trust in someone else that has a magic remedy. [But] there is no magic remedy. We need to be super careful in terms of believing there is a secret sauce that will magically change things,” Brzoska says. “In my opinion – unfortunately for all of us – we still need to work hard.” As part of its growth plans, Poland is pushing to become a regional tech hub, bolstered by a $1bn investment fund backed by public and private capital to support tech startups and AI companies. The number of high-growth firms is rising, including ElevenLabs, an $11bn AI audio generation and voice cloning company named after 11 November – Poland’s national independence day. There are strong foundations for its ambition. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s annual programme for international student assessment (Pisa) scores ranks Poland equal to the UK among the top countries in Europe and globally for maths, while a greater share of adults have higher education qualifications than in Germany. On the eastern side of the Vistula River in the gritty and creative working-class district of Praga, the campus of the games company CD Projekt Red shows the progress being made. As the developer behind the smash hit games series The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077, the company started life in the 1990s as an importer of CD games made by US publishers. Michał Nowakowski, its co-chief executive, says this was about the limit of Polish ambition in the early days. Now he competes globally to attract coders, games developers and graphic designers. “In the late 90s and early 2000s I feel there was a massive inferiority complex. Among everybody who was young, you wanted to catch up with the west.” Growing up in the 1980s, his family were expelled from Poland in the period of martial law. He recalls visiting London aged 15 and being “blown away” by the Virgin megastore and British culture. “I could never imagine Poland being like it.” Within a generation, though, he says this attitude would be alien to his own children. “For young people now they have no inferiority complex. They don’t stop and think: ‘Can we be as good as Brits, French, Spanish?’ It’s not holding them back. “We have really good universities and skills teaching people. I think that can take us to unprecedented heights as a country. “We’re a proper-sized country. Not too small, not too big; no inferiority complex any more. There’s nothing holding us back.”

Thursday briefing: Thanks to an erratic Trump, peace in Ukraine is still far away

Good morning. In his usual asinine unconventional approach to international relations, Donald Trump announced on Sunday (via Truth Social, how else) an “ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine”, apparently without checking with either side. Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said any such deal was “news to me,” nonetheless declared he was “ready and we will accept it”. Vladimir Putin responded by blowing up some Ukrainian power plants. This has been the tenor of much diplomacy during Trump’s tenure: false starts, U-turns, incoherent positions (and some playful flirting with Vlad). Meanwhile fighting continues, and America’s allies attempt to manage the fallout. Andy Burnham hosted Zelenskyy at Downing Street yesterday, stating the UK is doubling down on its support for Ukraine, and pointedly calling on others to “follow suit”. It’s a negotiator’s nightmare. So how are ambassadors, spooks and diplomats handling the chaos? Is an actual ceasefire or peace deal within their grasp? For today’s First Edition, I spoke to career diplomat and former ambassador Nigel Gould-Davies to find out. Before that, this morning’s headlines. Five big stories UK | Sally Rooney has said she is being forced to withdraw her books from sale in the UK because of her support for the banned organisation Palestine Action. Gaza | Israel is refusing to allow a key military outpost project for Donald Trump’s Board of Peace to proceed in Gaza, the Guardian has learned. EU | Britain will benefit from much closer trading relations with the EU even if that means giving up its ability to negotiate free trade agreements, the Scotland secretary has said. Ukraine | Ukraine’s military has suddenly had its access to Starlink satellite internet terminals restricted as the Trump administration has increased pressure on Ukraine to immediately halt long-range strikes on Russia’s oil industry. Vaccine | Guinea-Bissau has not approved the controversial hepatitis B study in newborns that would be funded by the US government and private partners, the African country’s minister of health said. In depth: ‘A peace agreement is only possible when both sides believe that it better serves their interests’ Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, efforts to secure either a temporary ceasefire or a permanent peace deal have resolutely failed. Endless rounds of talks in Belarus, Turkey, Abu Dhabi and Geneva have all proved futile. To Nigel Gould-Davies, it’s obvious why. A former British diplomat, he was head of economics at the Foreign Office in Moscow before his stint as the UK’s ambassador to Belarus. Today, he is senior fellow for Russia and Eurasia at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. Gould-Davies tells me that there are established norms for negotiating during military conflicts. Diplomats look for the interests, needs and red lines that each side articulates, in pursuit of the elusive “win set”. “A peace agreement is only possible when both sides believe that it better serves their interests to end the fighting than to continue,” he says. “You have to find that overlap in the Venn diagram that leads to a defined set of conditions which, despite involving painful compromises, is ultimately judged to better serve each side than continuing to fight. “The problem with this situation is that Russia has no interest in ending the war,” he says. Tricky to find common ground, then. It is through this lens that we should view all Russia-Ukraine talks since Trump’s return to the presidency, Gould-Davies suggests. “They have not really been negotiations,” but “parallel efforts by Russia and Ukraine to persuade the White House it’s the other side’s fault” that a peace agreement (and, perhaps more importantly to Trump, that elusive Nobel peace prize) had failed to materialise. That said, the respective red lines aren’t difficult to identify. Ukraine has time and again said it is willing to accept an unconditional ceasefire. “Russia, by contrast, has repeatedly said publicly that it is not interested in a ceasefire,” says Gould-Davies, only in a full and final end to the war that, in Russian terms, means “decisive superiority and dominance over a severely weakened Ukraine”. That’s an outcome Ukraine can’t, and won’t, sign up for. *** The ‘non-standard president’ This is already a headache for UK, European and American diplomats, who most recently met in Miami at the end of last week. But there’s also the added Trump-shaped impediment to grapple with; what Gould-Davies diplomatically describes as the challenge of having “a non-standard president” in the White House. When Trump unilaterally declared an energy ceasefire, Gould-Davies says, it had “no basis whatsoever in reality”. Neither Moscow nor Kyiv was aware. “He simply made it up … a product of a fantasy.” The botched digital diplomacy aside, Trump’s interests also don’t appear aligned with Ukraine or traditional US allies. “[Trump’s] natural centre of gravity is to favour Russia,” says Gould-Davies, citing restrictions on US weapons supplies and past pauses in intelligence sharing. Yesterday, Zelenskyy accused Trump of restricting Ukrainian access to “military-grade” Starlink services, hampering Ukrainian drone strike missions and air defences. Granted, Trump has at times sided with the Ukrainian president: sanctioning Russian oil companies and helping Ukraine target Russian energy infrastructure. But for all Trump’s “lurching”, says Gould-Davies, his theory of ending the war involves concessions to Russia and coercion of Ukraine. *** The price of a deal After a period of relative quiet from Trump on the Russia-Ukraine front, this week Trump’s attention returned. With Americans facing soaring energy costs, he announced a plan to import Russian diesel in the hope of bringing down pump prices, much to the dismay not just of European leaders but a bipartisan group of US senators, too. Leave aside, for a second, suggestions that these imports could be illegal under American law and that quantities being discussed are seemingly too small to actually affect prices, even if the fuel could reach the US ahead of next month’s midterms, as Trump hopes. In some diplomatic circles, there are concerns that the diesel deal “is only the visible tip of the iceberg”, says Gould-Davies, with the White House privately pivoting towards a “much more substantial” pro-Russia tilt. Gould-Davies suspects that Trump could be, via Russia, seeking to get Iran to ease the blockade on the strait of Hormuz, in the hope of actually bringing down fuel prices before American voters head to the polls. Putin’s quid pro quo for brokering these efforts, Gould-Davies says, “could be an easing of America’s sanctions on Russia and an ending to America’s support for Ukraine”. It’s just a theory, he caveats, “but join the dots and it logically makes sense”. Either way, for diplomats it’s just further proof that Trump’s mercurial methods are more a hindrance than help. *** The quiet work behind the scenes Nonetheless, diplomatic back channels remain operational: secret, closed-door meetings and off-the-record communications between all sides. Not that Gould-Davies thinks they’re worth the effort. “There is a degree of collective delusion here,” he says: “A hope that Russia can somehow be persuaded” to change course, for which “there is literally no evidence for that whatsoever”. He worries that these informal discussions could even be “actively unhelpful, because they perpetuate the illusion that peace may be around the corner”. And, while Europe might traditionally have focused its diplomatic efforts in hostile territory, attention has now turned towards the US itself. There’s still hope that Trump’s whispers might pay further dividends. As Gould-Davies puts it, this “Avengers assemble” approach has seen European leaders and diplomats descend on Washington when Trump’s veered too far off course. For all the tumult, he says, this has proved effective in averting “the nightmare scenario” of Trump binning off America’s old transatlantic partners for good. But as fans of Netflix’s The Diplomat will know, even diplomacy between allies isn’t plain sailing. “Right now even ‘the White House’ is an abstraction,” says Gould-Davies. “It consists of many different players, plenty of whom have different views privately from President Trump.” Take John Ratcliffe, director of the CIA, who visited Moscow this summer. There is “reliable speculation”, says Gould-Davies, that he hoped to “warn Russia against escalation into Europe”. It’s a totally different note to those currently being struck by Trump. “There are people in positions of power and influence still in this administration who understand the problem of Russia in the right way,” says Gould-Davies. With that in mind, western diplomats will continue to try to shift the balance of influences within the White House, but they’re reliant on what he labels a White House Kremlinology – “trying to understand the different views and moods of those around Trump and who will be the last person to whisper in his ear.” What else we’ve been enjoying How We Win is a new Guardian newsletter series featuring writers like Naomi Klein, Mehdi Hasan and Bernie Sanders on defeating Trumpism. Read Robert Reich’s introduction to the project here, and then sign up here to get each week’s piece directly to your inbox. Charlie Lindlar, newsletters team Are you a Hannah, a Marnie, a Jess or a Shoshanna? Or did Lena Dunham’s Girls pass you by the first time round? If it did, then this excellent piece by Louis Staples (a Marnie) may well convince you to binge the whole thing in time for the recently announced five-episode revival. Lucinda Everett, newsletters team In another of our newsletters, The Long Wave, Micha Frazer-Carroll writes about taking up Jamaican Patois classes and what learning the language taught her about shame and her connection to her ancestry. Charlie I look forward to the Wildlife photographer of the year exhibition every year, and this year’s winning images didn’t disappoint. You can see a selection of them here, including my favourite: James Lewin’s dream-like shot of a young bull elephant giving a zebra an impromptu shower. Lucinda Rachel Dixon on our travel desk has pulled together this beautiful list of Britain’s best heated lidos to keep you swimming through winter. Move over WFH, and hello WFHL? Charlie Sport Champions League | Paris Saint-Germain romped to a 4-2 victory over Manchester City, while Bradley Barcola hit his first Liverpool goals with a hat-trick in a 6-3 win over Lask. Elsewhere, Aston Villa demolished Fenerbahce 6-0 at Villa Park. Fifa | Gianni Infantino will be questioned by Fifa council members over the aborted World Cup sell-off plan, the Folarin Balogun affair and awarding Donald Trump the Fifa peace prize at what is expected to be a heated meeting on Thursday. Formula One | Formula One has confirmed Rwanda will join its calendar, having concluded a 10-year agreement for the meeting on a purpose-built circuit, with the first race set for the early 2030s. The front pages The Guardian splashes on “Zelenskyy blames Trump for loss of protection from Russian raids”. The Times has “Zelensky: My people will die after Trump betrayal”, the Telegraph runs “More on benefits at age seven than age 50” and top story at the Financial Times is “Jump in US inflation deepens pain for voters ahead of key midterm elections”. Elsewhere, focus is on the Russell Brand trial. Brand denies all the charges and has pleaded not guilty. Reporting the prosecution’s opening statement, the Sun headlines with the quote “‘Ruthless calculated sexual predator’”, The i Paper also headlines with “Brand a ‘ruthless and calculated sexual predator’”, the Mail has “The ‘predator’ in sunglasses” and The Mirror leads with the quote “‘Predator’”. The Latest India’s Cockroach protesters defy Modi’s crackdown A fresh wave of protests by India’s youth-led Cockroach movement has been met with a brutal crackdown by Narendra Modi’s government and the closure of a historic protest site in Delhi. Two of the movement’s leaders have been imprisoned for five days for violating suppression measures. The protests, which began over frustration about education and unemployment, are now focused on voting rights. Modi’s government denies claims that it is seeking to disenfranchise millions of voters. But its treatment of protesters has been criticised by the UN and Amnesty International and raised concerns that the country is sliding further into autocracy. Lucy Hough speaks to the south Asia correspondent Hannah Ellis-Petersen – watch on YouTube Cartoon of the day | Nicola Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad On Copenhagen’s rooftops live 80 to 100 colonies of honeybees, tended by a collective of beekeepers called Bybi. Set up in 2010 with the aim of employing marginalised people, Bybi’s work has evolved into a response to the modern economic system. With the help of volunteers, from refugees to people on incapacity benefits, they produce between four and six tonnes of honey every year, which they sell (often letting people pay what they like) or give away, asking that people share it with loved ones and plant a flower to help the bees. They also run schools programmes, supported by sponsorships from universities and corporations. “Bybi is a constellation of time, work, money, community and connection,” says founder Oliver Maxwell, “asking an open question: what would it take for bees, people and communities to thrive?” 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

What is Starshield, SpaceX’s military-grade Starlink system, and how will its restriction affect Ukraine?

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has accused SpaceX of restricting access to its military-grade Starlink service, in effect hobbling Ukrainian drone strike missions and crucial air defences with a flick of the switch. The development – and its dire consequences for Ukraine – has put the spotlight on Starlink -SpaceX’s commercial satellite internet service – and Starshield, a powerful military version developed by Elon Musk’s company for the Pentagon. Here’s what we know about the two SpaceX systems, how they are controlled and why Zelenskyy has framed the shift as a betrayal by Donald Trump and the US. What has happened to Ukraine’s connection? On Tuesday night, Ukraine’s military reported the Starlink satellite communications system, produced by SpaceX but managed by the US government, was no longer working on terminals moving at speeds greater than 100mph (160km/h). Kyiv installs SpaceX Starlink receptors in many of its drones as part of an onboard guidance system. Kyiv said the change was imposed without any explanation from the US. How does the restriction affect Ukraine? The restriction had two immediate consequences: It effectively rendered most of the drones used by Ukraine to strike behind the frontlines inoperable and it hampered air defence systems that stop Russian drones bombarding Kyiv. Ukraine uses Starlink systems to direct many mid-range drones towards their targets – a critical frontline offensive capability. Russian Shaheds fly at speeds close to 200mph, so the new restriction means Ukrainian interceptor drones have no chance to chase them down. Starlink is not used for long-range Ukrainian missions that have successfully targeted Russian oil refineries in recent months. What is Starshield? Starshield is a SpaceX business unit that develops military and intelligence satellite systems for the Pentagon. Starshield’s service is separate from Starlink’s commercial broadband service, but the distinction is sometimes blurry. Starlink cannot be used for offensive military action, SpaceX says, only defensive activities or for use by civilian clients. Starshield, however, allows those capabilities and uses enhanced encryption to transmit sensitive information. In addition, Starshield provides users with the ability to integrate sensors on object like drones. Starshield’s secure communications rely on Starlink, the vast network of 11,000 satellites that Musk and SpaceX have sent into space since 2019. Who made the decision to restrict access, Musk or the Pentagon? Musk said the Ukrainian military was linked to Starshield, because Starlink is not licensed to clients who are using weapons. He added that any Starshield disruptions being experienced by Ukraine would be the responsibility of the US government, not SpaceX. “Starshield systems are owned and controlled by the US government. Any limits on speed or usage are decided by the US military and ultimately POTUS,” Musk said, referring to Donald Trump. The White House has not confirmed or denied Musk’s assertion. But the Trump administration has been pressuring Ukraine to limit its strikes on energy targets inside Russia. What has the reaction been? Zelenskyy said he felt personally betrayed by Trump, in an interview with Piers Morgan, saying Kyiv was “losing a strong partner”. As for what it meant for Ukraine and its people, Zelenskyy said: “This decision will bring a lot of human losses … of course, people will die.” In the US, Democrats denounced the Trump administration. “Trump’s making a choice – and it directly aids Putin’s slaughter of Ukrainian civilians,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Democrats said in a post on X, describing the restrictions as “unconscionable”. Republican senator Tom Tillis voiced his concern on X: “Supporting Ukrainian sovereignty – or at the very least, allowing for it – should not be a gray area for the US government or for American corporations.” With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

Indonesia fights fire with dry ice as toxic haze spreads across region

As fires ravage Indonesia, emitting a toxic smoke that has drawn the ire of regional neighbours, the government is testing an unusual new approach to tackle the haze: dry ice. Having tried cloud seeding, water bombing and sending in army personnel to fight the fires, Indonesia’s coordinating security minister said dry ice would be dropped on the province of South Sumatra on Thursday. “This trial of dry ice dispersal is being conducted under the president’s direct instruction to help tackle the haze in South Sumatra,” minister Dudung Abdurachman was quoted as saying by state news agency Antara. “We will first observe the results, and if effective, there is a possibility that this method could be implemented in other regions.” Since January, almost 900,000 hectares have been burned Indonesia-wide in the worst fire season in more than a decade, exacerbated by this year’s “godzilla” El-Nino and as the practice of “slash and burn” to clear land for crops such as palm oil persists. For months, millions of Indonesians have been subject to thick smoke and an apocalyptic tangerine haze, with criticism mounting of the government’s response, including a class action lawsuit filed last week accusing it of “gross negligence”. Tens of thousands of people have sought treatment for respiratory illness linked to the haze. Air quality has also plummeted in neighbouring countries, shuttering schools, grounding flights and driving a spike in respiratory illness. The haze has drifted into neighbouring Singapore, Malaysia and as far afield as the Philippines. Timor-Leste has said it would shut schools nationwide for three days from Thursday and urged families to keep children indoors or to use “respiratory protection” if going outside. Singapore rolled out subsidies for haze-related medical treatment starting on Monday, a measure last activated in 2015 when similar blazes occurred. The city-state has also begun distributing N95 masks to eligible residents. In the past week, the financial hub of Singapore was listed among the most polluted cities globally. Kuala Lumpur, also deeply affected, was at number two. On Thursday, a Cessna aircraft will reportedly disperse 1.5 tons of dry ice over the South Sumatran city of Palembang, a move the government hopes will ease the smoke and improve air quality and visibility. The technique was first deployed in the 1940s to promote ice formation in clouds, Bloomberg reported. But experts say the use of dry ice, or solid carbon dioxide, might only offer local, and limited relief. “It’s got some potential for local relief that might work for a while,” says Rick McRae, an adjunct professor from the University of New South Wales’ (UNSW) bushfire research group. “Weather systems are all moving from east to west. So if you’re in a town under that and you clear the smoke, there’s gonna be more blowing all the time,” he says, “So it’s a constant … It’s not going to be simple and it’s not going to be a permanent fix in any way.” In the Indonesian province of central Kalimantan on Wednesday, the ISPU air pollution index exceeded 1,200 – or four times the “hazardous” level of 300 – environment ministry data showed. Local news footage showed thick haze blanketing the provincial city of Palangka Raya, cutting visibility for motorists to a minimum. Indonesian president Prabowo Subianto has ordered firefighting efforts to be stepped up, and called for a crackdown on those suspected of starting fires. But the government has struggled to combat the fires, the worst of which occur in peatland areas, can burn for weeks underground, and are difficult to extinguish. “As time goes by and climate change kicks in, I think it could become a global problem, not just the fix that one country needs to find,” said McRae, of the widening regional issue. “There’s a lot of interconnectedness on a global scale.”

Unpolished, anti-Bibi, but evasive on peace: who is the Israeli opposition candidate Gadi Eisenkot?

He has been called the man who is everything the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not. Gadi Eisenkot, a former general and the main opposition candidate in Israel’s elections this month, is unpolished where Netanyahu is slick. To Israelis he is both menschy (decent) and schlumpy (unkempt), his crumpled appearance contrasting with Netanyahu’s hair rinse, makeup and obsessive need to control his media depiction. In the Israeli commentator Anshel Pfeffer’s framing, he is the anti-Bibi among a roster of wanna-Bibis. And in an era of Israeli politics that has been defined by betrayals, dirty tricks and public and private smears, Eisenkot’s brand is rectitude. He only entered politics four years ago, and the name of his party – Yashar – means “straight” or “honest”. But on key issues, an Israel under Eisenkot may not look very different, as he has been non-committal on crucial issues – including the two-state solution and Israeli settlement of the occupied West Bank. “He’s not sleek. He’s not corrupt. I think he’s going to be looking more inwards than outwards. Because he’s a military guy, he’s interested in calming the waters,” said Mairav Zonszein, a senior analyst for the International Crisis Group. “[But] he’s hedging a lot.” For many voters, Eisenkot’s appeal is less about ideology than the vibe around him. Key to his appeal, said Dahlia Scheindlin, an Israeli pollster and political analyst, is his “very modest background”. While Netanyahu is the son of a Polish-born academic, Eisenkot’s family were Mizrahi Jews from Morocco. He joined the army as an infantryman, and worked his way through the ranks to become the Israeli military’s chief of staff. “The fact that he’s from a working-class background, from a peripheral area, contributes to an overall sense that voters see in him somebody who is more with the people,” Scheindlin said. “He’s seen as empathetic. He’s seen as straightforward. That’s why I think they probably focus-tested the names of the party, and people probably thought he seemed very honest.” But if ideology remains an important predictor of how Israelis will vote, what precisely does Eisenkot believe in? On the domestic front, he is pushing for a full investigation of the intelligence failures that allowed Hamas’s deadly 7 October 2023 attack. More divisive is his support for the end of the military draft exemption for the ultra-Orthodox, long a source of friction in Israeli society. On the biggest issues, not least a two-state solution that would create a Palestinian state – he is ambiguous. “I’ve never said that the solution is two states for two peoples,” Eisenkot said on the campaign trail. “There is a very deep religious-national conflict here, and anyone who thinks an agreement can be reached now is gravely mistaken.” On the broader issue of Jewish settlements in the West Bank, Eisenkot is also evasive. He opposes the planned E1 settlement block that is seen as a potential obstacle to any future Palestinian state, but he supports settlement in general. Where Eisenkot separates himself from the current government, is over Netanyahu’s decision to place the far-right, pro-settler minister Bezalel Smotrich in charge of the occupied West Bank, where there has been a surge of settler violence, prompting widespread international condemnation and sanctions. Eisenkot has said he would immediately “reverse” that situation and put the army back in charge of the West Bank. Sceptics say Eisenkot and his allies are pushing for a return to an old, failed strategy: managing the conflict with the Palestinians – not solving it – with an aim of mitigating international pressure on Israel. “What Eisenkot and the rest are basically saying,” said Prof Yossi Mekelberg of the Chatham House thinktank, “is we’ll be better CEOs. We’ll manage the country better, not take it in a different direction … They are not really talking about the Palestinian issue.” Eisenkot is unequivocally not a dove in his views on the use of military force. As Israel’s northern front commander during the 2006 second Lebanon war, he was the architect of the notorious Dahiya doctrine, promising that Israel would wield “disproportionate power … and cause immense damage and destruction” – a policy that would see its fullest expression in the current Gaza war. On Gaza, he has been more of a military realist, insisting two years ago that Israel was unlikely to win “total victory” over Hamas, and calling for a strategy that prioritised the lives of hostages still held by Hamas. His son Gal Meir Eisenkot, 25, died of his wounds in late 2023 after an operation in Gaza to recover the bodies of Israeli hostages. Eisenkot’s philosophy governing the use of state violence is not the same as Netanyahu’s, who he criticised last year for saying that Israel needs to become a “super-Sparta” – a militarised state, feared by its neighbours. But while observers say an Eisenkot administration would be likely to crack down on settler violence in the West Bank, they wonder if it would go much further. “I think that is the low-hanging fruit and about half of Israeli society feels it would be good to crack down more [on violent settlers],” said Scheindlin. “It would help his foreign relations,” she added, but wondered whether there would be “a second step”. And even if Eisenkot wins sufficient votes to take the lead in putting together a coalition, there is question of how long such a government could survive – and what room he would have for making policies. “There will be a change if there is a different government,” said Mekelberg, “But I think it’s about managing expectations. “He would not be a prime minister who is facing corruption allegations [like Netanyahu]. I see it potentially as a government of containment, where there is an opportunity to build relations with the world again and not just [have ministers making] statements that lead you to the international court of justice and the international criminal court.” While Eisenkot has captured a moment for those who oppose Netanyahu, Scheindlin wondered how much is down to his character – and how much is projection. “I think Israel can get back to a normal path as long as there’s somebody who actually cares about the people. And people have projected on to him that he really cares about the people. “The more people see him, the more they project on to him the things that they want to see: he’s the one who will bring ‘professionalism’; he is the one who enjoys the aura of being ‘above politics’ because he comes from the army.” Shai Bazak, an Israeli former diplomat and communications figure and former adviser to Netanyahu, argued that Eisenkot’s main selling point may well be that he will not take dramatic action. “After a very charismatic and dominant leader, people deliberately choose someone less charismatic because they simply want peace and quiet,” he told Politico. “They do not want all the drama any more.”

Verse from the waste land: Rotterdam’s poetic bin lorries granted cultural status

It is best known for its rich migration history and striking modern architecture. But now the Dutch city of Rotterdam is seeking recognition for a rather different characteristic: its tradition of printing poetry on bin trucks. Since a poetry festival first came up with the idea in 1988, lines of verse have been printed on all of the city’s waste vehicles. The practice was this week elevated to the status of intangible cultural heritage, with formal recognition from a Dutch body that guards the nation’s traditions. “Since 1988, poetry has been travelling through Rotterdam on our bin lorries,” said Joan Nunnely, the deputy mayor for culture, community and language. “You see it as you cycle to work or wait for a lorry to pass. Sometimes you read a line that stays with you for the rest of the day. What started as a quirky idea has become part of our city.” The programme is democratising as well as uplifting, say its proponents. “Sometimes people think about culture as something only for those with a theoretical education,” said Nunnely. “This is one way to bring poetry to all Rotterdammers.” For waste collection workers such as Paul Keijzer, who started driving Rotterdam litter trucks in 1988, the poetry gives an added connection to the city. He has even been inspired to write the odd line himself, he said, while the four trucks he has so far driven inspire all kinds of responses. “We get positive reactions that people have never seen anything like it,” he said. “But sometimes they say: I don’t understand that line!” His truck currently bears a verse from Neeltje Maria Min: Hoe langer ik terugkijk hoe Strakker de knoop in de tijd. Or: The longer I look back the Tighter the knot in time. Diana Chin-A-Fat, director of Poetry International, which came up with the initiative, said they and Rotterdam municipality had approached the heritage body with a plan to preserve this tradition. “It’s become so much a part of the city,” she said. “Every Rotterdammer recognises it. Every Rotterdammer reads it. It’s unique.” Poet and spoken word artist Derek Otte said it also demonstrated how Rotterdam was carving out a modern identity. “You can switch Amsterdam for Leiden or Delft and they are all beautiful – but Rotterdam is something else,” he said. “That initial idea was to combine something beautiful like poetry with something beautiful in a different way, like the garbage trucks. It’s a way to say the important things in life, in as few words as possible.” His own words have recently joined the fleet. In Dutch, they read: Van stenen gaat een stad de hoogte in De mensen geven diepte. Or: Stones build a city high. The people give it depth. In its inventory of more than 400 traditions, crafts, rituals and customs, the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage aims to document the Netherlands’ unique cultural characteristics. These range from the annual Pride Amsterdam festival and its parade of colourful boats along the capital’s canals to the 10 remaining shepherded flocks of sheep. Several Dutch traditions are recognised in Unesco’s international list, such as traditional irrigation and the craft of the miller operating windmills and watermills.

Brazil cuts work week to 40 hours in win for Lula ahead of runoff

Brazil’s congress has approved a constitutional amendment to shorten the working week to a maximum of 40 hours, a move that could affect 30 million workers and that will hand a political victory to the leftist president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva ahead of the presidential runoff in under two weeks. In an attempt to overturn the first-round lead secured by his opponent, far-right senator Flávio Bolsonaro, Lula has strongly championed the amendment, which will give some workers an extra day off each week. Bolsonaro, by contrast, spent months opposing the change but reversed course on Tuesday, saying “the majority of Brazilian workers” supported it. On Wednesday, he joined 75 senators who approved the reform, which passed the lower house in May. Only one senator voted against it: Hamilton Mourão, former vice-president to Jair Bolsonaro, Flávio’s father. The constitutional amendment bans six-day workweeks, currently worked by 16 million people, while cutting the maximum workweek from 44 to 40 hours for more than 30 million workers. The change is expected to affect mainly workers in retail, restaurants and hotels, most of them low-paid – one of the groups which Lula lost the most support from since the 2022 election, when he defeated Jair Bolsonaro. Lula celebrated the amendment’s passing, writing on social media “ending the 6x1 schedule is about more than changing working hours. It means more time to live, rest, be with family, watch your children grow up, look after yourself and enjoy life.” Victor Escobar, a researcher at the Laboratory of Parties, Elections and Comparative Politics, said the change “could indeed benefit Lula’s re-election campaign”. The proposal began as a TikTok movement called Life Beyond Work, founded by a pharmacy assistant who entered politics after its success and later was embraced by Lula. His party spent months pushing the senate to put the proposal to a vote and many believed that after the far right’s sweeping victory last week secured a broad congressional majority in 2027, the Senate would no longer vote on it. But Senate president Davi Alcolumbre, whose relationship with Lula has at times been rocky, put it to a vote. Flávio Bolsonaro’s party had considered blocking it, but polls showed the change had more than 70% of the general population behind it, and more than half of the senator’s voters. In May, Bolsonaro said the proposal could cause “mass unemployment”, an argument employers’ associations opposed to the change have repeatedly made. The senator voted remotely while campaigning in the country’s south. Even after changing his position, Bolsonaro said on Tuesday that he “supports something even better,” referring to an alternative proposal he had long advocated in which pay would be based on the hours actually worked. The Folha newspaper reported that he told business leaders that, if elected, he would review parts of the new amendment, a point several allied senators also made during Wednesday’s vote. Despite its approval, none of the changes will take effect before the runoff on 25 October. After the Senate president promulgates it, a 60-day period will follow before six-day workweeks are abolished and the maximum working week is reduced from 44 to 42 hours, then to 40 hours after a further 14 months. However, Escobar believes its approval could already benefit Lula: “It will speak to how voters feel economically when they cast their ballot; they can feel more relieved with a change in their working schedule”. Marilane Oliveira Teixeira, a professor and researcher at a study centre at the University of Campinas who has spent months examining the possible impacts of the change, said there was no shortage of evidence showing how harmful having only one day off is to workers. “People who work a 6x1 schedule are practically prevented from having even a minimum level of social life,” she said, adding that the negative effects could include illness, workplace risks and exhaustion, “especially for women, who still carry the burden of unpaid domestic work”. Lilian Cristo dos Santos, 50, has only one day off from her job as a saleswoman at a home appliances shop in Salvador, Bahia. “There’s no time to go to the doctor, to the beach, to the salon, to look after myself; I wanted to have time to study and I can’t. On my only day off, I have to clean the house and look after my family,” she said. Santos said she voted for Lula, but has colleagues who chose Bolsonaro. “They say he represents change – well, yes, but certainly for the worse.” Escobar is among many political scientists who believe that, despite Bolsonaro’s lead, Lula has gained momentum not only from the change to the working schedule, but also from demonstrations by his supporters that have drawn thousands across the country and an effort to build a stronger presence on social media. Lula also continued announcing benefits just days before the vote, including debt relief for microentrepreneurs, and published a letter to evangelical Christians – who have historically favoured Bolsonaro – stressing his commitment “to ensuring that everyone has two days off a week, because life is not just about work”. Escobar said: “Although most people have already decided their vote, there are some who are more responsive to political moves, and Lula has been trying very strongly to reach them. … The race still looks somewhat tangled, tied, with some degree of advantage for Bolsonaro, but it is still a very open election.”