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‘The door to the future of Gaza is still closed’: Trump’s reconstruction promises stall

Gaza is in a grim limbo more than seven months after Donald Trump brokered a ceasefire deal: no reconstruction is under way, the so-called Board of Peace is struggling with funding and Palestinian technocrats chosen to run the strip are sidelined in Egypt. In a 15 May submission to the UN security council, the Board of Peace said the “principal obstacle” to realising Trump’s plan for Gaza was Hamas’s refusal to hand over its weapons and cede control of the strip – but several people familiar with the body said funding shortfalls could jeopardise the effort. Nine countries pledged $7bn (£5bn) to a “Gaza relief” package at the inaugural meeting of the Board of Peace, which Trump chaired. But only the United Arab Emirates and Morocco have sent funds, according to a person familiar with its operations. The group has received $23m to fund its operations, as well as an injection of $100m to fund a future Palestinian police force, the person said. In sum, that amounts to $1.75 for every $100 pledged. The UN has estimated the total cost of rebuilding Gaza to be upward of $70bn over decades. Several countries that initially pledged funds to the Board of Peace (BoP) are now reluctant to pay, after months of stalled diplomacy and no progress on the ground, according to five people familiar with the organisation. “Countries are hesitant to pay their portions,” said one diplomat familiar with international negotiations about Gaza, who was not authorised to speak publicly. The Iran war has provided cover for delays to payments, another source said. “Nobody with money and resources wants to work with the Board of Peace,” said a third person familiar with the group’s efforts, who, like others critical of the initiative, asked to speak on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. “Lump on the conflict with Iran, and the people with deep pockets now have an excuse not to pay.” Nickolay Mladenov, a Bulgarian diplomat tasked with delivering the US president’s vision as “high representative” for Gaza admitted last week that Palestinians in Gaza had been let down by the world. “The door to the future of Gaza is still closed. It is not what the Palestinians were promised, and it is not what they deserve,” Mladenov told journalists in Jerusalem. The impasse also jeopardised Israel’s long-term security, he added. Mladenov’s 15 May report to the UN security council urged its donor states to contribute funds “without delay”. “Funds committed but not yet disbursed represent the difference between a framework that exists on paper and one that delivers on the ground for the people of Gaza,” the BoP submission said. A senior BoP official denied urgent funding challenges and said its donors remained committed. The appeal to the UN was made in the context of longstanding shortfalls in payments for UN aid programmes in occupied Palestine, the official said. The board is confident it can collect pledges as needed to fund its programmes, which are still mostly in the planning stages, the official said. Morocco, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates have all transferred money to support the group’s overhead costs and fund training for a Palestinian police force, he said. A person familiar with the board denied Bahrain had transferred any money. The Bahraini embassy in Washington did not respond to a request for comment. Trump also pledged $10bn of US funding which has not been disbursed. Board officials have not formally requested the $10bn in pledged US funds, the senior official added. They are controlled by Jeremy Lewin, a US state department official. Aryeh Lightstone, a key adviser on Middle East policy in both of Trump’s administrations, is “the only person” handling fundraising conversations for the BoP, a senior board official said. For months, Lightstone has shuttled between Tel Aviv, Abu Dhabi and Washington to wrangle support for Trump’s vision, including with aid organisations to discuss Gaza’s needs. Among the board’s expenses are the salaries for 12 Palestinians chosen to run a planned civilian administration in Gaza, the National Committee for the Administration of Gaza (NCAG), who are in Egypt, waiting for security guarantees and diplomatic permissions to enter Gaza. They are being paid an average of $16,000 to $17,000 a month, according to a person familiar with the committee. Mladenov is slated to earn about $400,000 a year for his role leading the BoP, according to records reviewed by the Guardian. Asked about the figures, the senior BoP official said he could not comment directly. “I’m not the CFO … but those were eye-popping.” A board spokesperson said the salary figures provided to the Guardian were “incorrect” and payments to Palestinian technocrats are modelled on the salary scale used by the Palestinian Authority. He declined to comment further. The NCAG, which answers to Mladenov, has not had any tangible impact on Palestinian life inside the strip, the sources said. “Not a single bottle of water has come into Gaza under the NCAG flag since January 2026,” a person familiar with the committee said. When the ceasefire deal for Gaza was agreed in October last year, critics and US allies warned it was dangerously vague on the fraught details of reconstruction, governance and security for Gaza. It called for an international force to secure Gaza, paving the way for reconstruction, an aid surge, the demilitarisation of Hamas and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces. More than half a year on there is no international force or any actionable plans to create one. Israeli forces still control well over half of Gaza. They limit critical shipments of food and other aid. Most survivors still live in makeshift, unsanitary camps; hunger is widespread; schools have not reopened; there are critical shortages of clean water; and healthcare is hobbled by damage to buildings and shortages of staff and supplies. Trump and his aides have laid out plans for a future which could hardly be more removed from the current reality of ruins and humanitarian disaster. Over the past year, they talked about transforming the strip into a gleaming hub of tourism and trade, with airports, seaports and “AI-powered, smart cities” for Gazan residents. “Let’s plan for catastrophic success,” Kushner said to potential donors in Davos in January. But there has been no significant work on reconstruction, even basic projects in the areas of Gaza under full Israeli military control. Last year US officials said fenced semi-permanent camps could be ready to house thousands of Palestinians in those areas by summer. Several contractors have submitted bids to clear rubble, provide security and build compounds in Gaza but said they have not received contracts for work. “Nothing has happened. They haven’t even contracted to remove rubble,” said one person, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution. Mladenov acknowledged both sides have violated the ceasefire but repeatedly blamed Hamas for the lack of progress, saying the group must give up its weapons to pave the way for reconstruction. At stake is the future of more than 2 million Palestinians in Gaza, mostly displaced and desperate to rebuild after a war deemed genocidal by a UN commission, rights groups and genocide scholars. In the unlikely event Hamas agreed to disarm, the BoP would be unable to deliver the support on the scale needed in the war-ravaged territory, said one person familiar with the body. “The worst outcome is that Hamas agrees to disarmament, and then says ‘go ahead, start delivering’,” they said. “What will they do?” A senior Board of Peace official disputed that assessment. “It happens to be that we’re more than prepared and we would not fail,” they said. Additional reporting by Aram Roston

Wednesday briefing: Why millions of Britons face a pension cliff edge

Good morning. I am going to whisper this gently so you don’t get spooked back under the duvet – there is a good chance that you are one of at least 15 million Britons not saving adequately for retirement. That is according to a report published this week by the Pensions Commission. The pensions “cliff edge” is no longer a distant warning; for many, it is becoming a reality. As the cost of living continues to bite, the dream of a comfortable retirement is being replaced by a pragmatic – and often scary – calculation of how long one might have to stay in the workforce. And many of us, it seems, are getting our numbers wrong. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to business and financial journalist Elizabeth Anderson, and Paul Lewis, who presents Money Box on BBC Radio 4. I asked them how we as a nation have got ourselves into this situation, and how we should properly prepare for retirement. First, the headlines. Five big stories UK news | British homes will need air conditioning to survive predicted levels of global heating, the government’s climate advisers have warned in a report, as measures such as drawing curtains, opening windows and growing trees for shade are not likely to be enough. UK politics | Andy Burnham will face Reform UK’s Robert Kenyon in next month’s crucial Makerfield byelection in a clash that could change the course of British politics for years to come. World news | Xi Jinping welcomed Russian president Vladimir Putin with pomp and pageantry as the pair kicked off talks in the Great Hall of the People, days after the Chinese leader hosted Donald Trump in the same location. US news | The US vice-president, JD Vance, has urged anti-immigration activists in the UK to “keep on going” after tens of thousands gathered for a rally in London. Cost of living | UK supermarkets have been asked by the government to consider freezing the prices of some essential foodstuffs to protect the public from inflation fuelled by the Middle East conflict. In depth: ‘Doing nothing isn’t an option’ As our senior economics correspondent Richard Partington reported yesterday, 15 million Britons are not adequately saving for retirement. Without action this figure could quickly rise to 19 million, according to the Pensions Commission. The crisis is particularly acute among low- to middle-earners and the self-employed, with only 4% of the latter group putting money into a pension at all. Auto-enrolment, introduced by the last Labour government and implemented by the coalition and Conservative administrations, has brought millions of employed workers into the pension system, but about half of those employees are putting only the minimum required amounts into their retirement funds – currently 8% of total earnings, split between employee and employer contributions. The report also exposed a staggering gender gap, with women approaching retirement holding just half the private pension wealth of men. To address these systemic failings, the commission is calling for a “renewed national settlement”. Elizabeth Anderson, who has been writing about pensions and finance for more than a decade, tells me that sometimes she wonders if it is just the word “pension” that puts people off. “Having spoken to a lot of people about this over many years, a lot of people still don’t really understand how pensions work,” she says. “People think it’s something complicated and inaccessible, whereas effectively it’s just a savings pot.” *** Why has this happened and is the problem getting worse? In recent years, there has been a shift away from “defined benefit” schemes – the gold-standard final salary pensions of previous generations, where you were guaranteed a set income for life after retirement – to “defined contribution” schemes. This has caused major problems for retirement planning. In most modern schemes, you can only get out of your pension pot what has been put in, along with any interest that has accrued. As wages have stagnated and housing costs have swallowed a larger share of take-home pay, the “surplus” cash required to top up a private pension has simply evaporated for many households. With the state pension currently topping out at £241.30 a week, private pensions are vital. “That’s the tragedy of auto-enrolment,” Paul Lewis concludes. Minimum contribution levels are set at levels to make the schemes affordable for employers. “It’s a great idea, and it’s much better than having nothing, but it’s simply not enough. These funds will be enough to keep you off means-tested benefits, which is good news for future governments, but they won’t be enough to live on in any decent way.” *** Why are we neglecting our pension pots? “There is a rule of thumb,” Lewis says, “that you should save a percentage of your income equal to half the age you were when you started saving. If you start at 20, 10% of your income a year until you’re 70 might be OK. If you start at 50, you’d need to save 25% a year. Personally, I think those figures actually underestimate what is required.” Anderson raises the cost of living in our conversation. She notes that if people are paying into a pension, they are locking that money away until they are at least 55. “For a lot of people, they need as much money as they can get right now.” Lewis concurs. “It’s very easy for me to say ‘put more in’, but if you’re saving for a mortgage, buying food for children, or commuting, there’s often nothing left. That is the worry. The arithmetically ‘good’ advice is almost impossible for many people to follow.” According to the Resolution Foundation, the poorest working-age families have seen their incomes fall by £1,800 per year since 2021-22. Still, Anderson tells me she is particularly surprised at the low number of self-employed people contributing to a pension scheme. “For the self-employed, saving into one is much more tax-efficient because you get tax relief. To put it simply: if you put £10,000 of your earnings into a pension, the whole lot goes in (subject to allowances). If you took that as income, you’d be paying tax and national insurance; if you’re a higher-rate taxpayer, you could lose almost 50% of it. It’s just a way of saving tax-efficiently for the future.” *** What should you be doing? Lewis offers the slightly impractical advice of going back in time and starting to save earlier, which, it must be said, isn’t particularly comforting. Especially at my age when I’d need to go back to the last century to adjust spending habits sufficiently to counteract the amount of money I foolishly frittered away in my youth. There is a wealth of advice out there. Sandra Haurant wrote for us that people shouldn’t panic during turbulent times, and should prioritise sticking with paying into their pension. She advises that you should resist opting out of your work’s pension scheme, and instead consider contributing extra where you can. In many schemes, greater personal contributions trigger an increase in those from your employer. For the self-employed, a stakeholder pension – a retirement plan with capped annual charges and a minimum monthly contribution of £20 – is well worth considering. The government-backed MoneyHelper website has a section dedicated to advising people on pensions, with the chance to make appointments to speak to an expert, a calculator to help you work out what you can afford to pay and what you can expect to receive, and clear explanations of what types of pension there are. And, if you want to give your finances an entire overhaul, at the turn of the year our money and consumer editor Hilary Osborne, among others, put together this list of 26 apps and tools to help with your money planning. *** What should the government be doing? In publishing its interim report, pensions commissioner Jeannie Drake said: “The recommendations we present in our final report will address the need to secure adequate income in later life and a pension system that is fit for decades to come.” Lewis suggests that real reform will be a tough sell to UK businesses. “It is almost impossible to contemplate making employers pay more right now because they have so many extra costs and businesses are struggling. I don’t see that happening politically in the near future.” The report offers an interim conclusion to government, suggesting ministers face a brutal three-way choice: hike taxes to fund a growing elderly population, force both individuals and employers to cough up significantly higher contributions, or further hike the retirement age (for Britain’s younger workers, the state pension age is due to rise to 68). It is an unenviable “pick-your-poison” scenario for any politician, but with four in 10 people currently under-saving, “doing nothing” isn’t an option. For now, it’s on us. “The first easy step for most people,” Anderson says, “is just to find out exactly how much you have.” “If people check, they might have a pleasant surprise, especially if they’ve been paying in for a long time and compound interest has helped it grow. The earlier you start, the more time it has to compound.” What else we’ve enjoyed In her dispatch from Suifenhe in north-east China, which borders Russia, Amy Hawkins explores how trade and tourism are rapidly evolving in this border town, and what it tells us about the changing relationship between Beijing and Moscow. Michael Segalov, newsletters team My parents sometimes said: “Who’s that, Whistler’s mother?”, which was baffling as a child. The painting that inspired the phrase is on loan in London as part of a James McNeill Whistler retrospective, reviewed by Jonathan Jones. Martin Post-pandemic, millions more of us have dogs, and we are bringing them everywhere. Not everyone, however, is thrilled at the proliferation of pets in our public spaces, myself included. I enjoyed Emine Saner’s reporting on Britain’s plague of pooches. Michael The story of a student forced to drop a class, pick up a job and navigate a complicated financial aid system after her father was detained by ICE during her second semester at Cornell. Martin Stretching across the African continent, the Sahel region south of the Sahara has seen approximately half of all global deaths from terrorism for three years running. In 2007, that figure was under 1%. This meticulously researched interactive story examines the data and the specific challenges facing Nigeria. Michael Sport Football | Arsenal are Premier League champions for the first time since Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles in 2004, after Manchester City drew 1-1 at Bournemouth. Football | Southampton could face a legal claim from their players for loss of earnings after the club were expelled from the Championship playoff final for spying on training sessions staged by Middlesbrough and two other second-tier rivals. Tennis | Carlos Alcaraz has been forced to withdraw from Wimbledon as he continues his recovery from the wrist injury that will force him out of action for at least three months during the most significant part of the tennis season. The front pages “UK must get used to being a hot country, climate advisers warn”, is the story leading the Guardian today. The Times says “Milk, egg and bread prices could be frozen”, the Telegraph’s take is “Reeves tells shops to cap food prices”, and the FT writes “Treasury asks supermarkets to cap prices on staple foods”. The i Paper runs with “Cabinet ministers woo Burnham in race for top jobs”, while the Mail says “Burnham said that men who identify as women should be able to use female toilets”. The Express says “Energy bills to soar by £200 in ‘another failed promise’”. The Sun splashes on “Married at First Sight axed” and on the same story Metro says “In hindsight, no wonder it went wrong”. The Mirror’s lead story is “Kylie: my secret cancer battle”. Today in Focus Did Trump really rescue Venezuela? The Guardian’s Latin America correspondent, Tom Phillips, on life in the country four months after the US abduction of the former president Nicolás Maduro. Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad The Chelsea flower show began yesterday with a curious addition to the more typical displays of flora that visitors have become accustomed to each year. Filled with the scent of jasmine and the pleasant textures of dill and thyme, the Sightsavers sensory garden aims to be “an accessible, inclusive space” that encourages people to feel, taste and touch the plants – or even hear them, courtesy of a soundscape devised from their bioelectric signals. Janice Molyneux, one of the designers, said: “If you were to shut your eyes, you could feel and smell your way around the garden.” At its centre is a steel halo structure that collects rainwater, creating a “relaxing, natural sound” as it does so. The garden’s ethos is modelled on the charitable work that Sightsavers does across more than 30 countries, supporting people experiencing sensory loss. 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

Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin meet in Beijing less than a week after Trump visit

Xi Jinping welcomed Russian president Vladimir Putin with pomp and pageantry as the pair kicked off talks in the Great Hall of the People on Wednesday morning, days after the Chinese leader hosted Donald Trump in the same location. Chinese soldiers stood in position as a military band played the Russian and Chinese national anthems for the leaders in central Beijing. Children waving Russian and Chinese flags and cheered “Welcome, welcome!” in Chinese, before the pair entered the Great Hall. The scene was reminiscent of Trump’s high-profile meeting with Xi in Beijing last week, when the leaders of the world’s two largest economies discussed issues from trade and investment, to the Iran conflict and Taiwan. Talks between Xi and Putin began with a shorter so-called “narrow format meeting”, featuring fewer delegates to discuss sensitive issues, before both leaders held a “wide format meeting” with their delegations. China’s foreign minister Wang Yi, who greeted Putin when he landed in Beijing on Tuesday evening, is also expected to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. Chinese state media reported that Xi, in his opening remarks, said the two countries should help one another with national development and revitalisation, adding that the world is in danger of reverting back to the “law of the jungle”. In his opening remarks, Putin hailed the countries’ relationship as being at an unprecedented level, as he stated that Moscow remained a “reliable energy supplier” amid the ongoing Middle East crisis. Putin also invited Xi to visit Russia next year. Xi said further hostilities in the Middle East were “inadvisable”, and that a “comprehensive ceasefire is of utmost urgency”, state media reported. Reciprocal trade and investment are likely to be top of the agenda for Putin as his sanctions-hit economy suffers under the growing cost of Moscow’s war in Ukraine. As Xi was preparing to welcome Putin, the Chinese commerce ministry confirmed China will buy 200 Boeing jets and seek an extension of the trade agreement with the US that was reached in Kuala Lumpur last year. The statement marked Beijing’s first confirmation of the Boeing order which Trump alluded to last week. The setting and manner of Xi’s encounters with other world leaders is often viewed as a signal of the Chinese president’s regard for his guest, with the optics and outcomes of his meeting with Putin to come under added scrutiny coming so soon after Trump’s visit. In contrast to the adversarial nature of Washington and Beijing’s relationship, Putin and Xi have signalled an increasingly warm bond over recent years, with the leaders labelling one another “dear” ⁠and “old” friends. When the Chinese leader last hosted his Russian counterpart in May 2024, the pair seemed at ease as they ditched their ties and spoke over tea in a former imperial garden that now houses Chinese Communist party offices.

‘How are we going to survive this?’ Wellington faces six-month wait to halt sewage spill

A fix to stop millions of litres of sewage continuing to pour into the waters off the coast of New Zealand’s capital, Wellington will be in place by November, officials have said, with full repairs at the cost of NZ$53.5m by late next year. More than 100 days since the catastrophic failure of the city’s wastewater treatment plant on 4 February, a mix of raw and partially screened human effluent is still being flushed directly into the Pacific Ocean. In an announcement on Wednesday, Wellington’s mayor, Andrew Little, said the Moa Point wastewater plant would be operational again in six months. Work had begun to assess the damage and clean the plant, with all major repair works to be completed by November. By then, effluent would be removed and the waste products would be mostly treated, with water quality improving to the highest level within weeks. “People are looking for certainty about when the plant will be up and running, and I’m confident this can be relied upon in terms of a timeline,” Little said, saying it would provide reassurance to hard-hit businesses on Wellington’s South Coast which had faced “massive disruption”. Full restoration of capacity and a fix for the design flaw that caused the failure would be completed by late 2027, officials said. Wellington residents had mixed feelings about the latest update, saying human and marine health and livelihoods remained at risk. “It would be better if it hadn’t happened, and we should still be significantly worried about the penguins, the dolphins, the fish who are going to be eating raw sewage,” said Nicole Miller, chair of the trust that supports the Taputeranga marine reserve, a network of pristine reefs and underwater ecosystems in the disaster zone. Destination Kilbirnie general manager Steve Walters said they were disappointed with a longer-than-anticipated timeline. The two dozen businesses most affected – which include diving and water recreation companies – were projected to lose a combined NZ$3-4m in earnings, and that was if the plant was fixed by September. Now, some may not make it through winter. “Our concerns are is this going to happen again,” Walters said. “This is a council failure, and we still have to pay rates, electricity, staff costs. We feel let down, frustrated, and in a state of ‘how are we going to survive this?” A council business subsidy of NZ$200,000 was not enough, and legal action was being considered, he said. An independent crown review of the disaster is due in August, with two damage reports finding an air bubble in a pipe had likely contributed to the flooding of the treatment plant, destroying 80% of equipment. Since February, sewage has been pouring into the Cook Strait. When it rains, sewage appears just metres offshore, closing beaches. Wellington Water’s chief operating operator, Charles Barker, told the Guardian they were working “incredibly fast” on the complex plan. “If you look at the scale of the floods, the enormity of the task, it’s not surprising. If this was a house you’d still be in the recovery phase as well.” The rebuild would focus on preventing another disaster, he said, adding there had been no indication the plant would fail. “Nothing in our understanding of the plant over 30 years led us to believe it couldn’t do what it was designed to do.” The chance of the plant flooding again would be “eliminated” once the work was complete, he said. The Moa Point facility is owned and overseen by two layers of local government and a council-owned water utility – Wellington Water – which contracts the French-owned waste management company Veolia to run the plant. On 1 July, a new entity called Tiaki Wai – created by the government as part of its water reforms – will take over the Wellington region’s water assets. The disaster comes as a national Climate Change Commission report highlights the country’s water infrastructure as at major risk of failure during increasing storm events. Local government and climate change minister Simon Watts said he shared the frustration of local residents. He said “historic underinvestment” in water infrastructure would be addressed by his reforms, including introducing new environmental standards. “Due to the scale of the challenge, and constraints in the sector’s capacity to address it including the financial impact on local government and the public, this will take time.” Many who initially stayed out of the water had returned despite experiencing sickness. “Surfing’s an addiction, you can’t live without it but you know you’re putting your health at risk,” said local Simon Hurley. Other ocean-goers had reported suffering gastroenteritis, fatigue, chills, and mouth ulcers, or what locals had nicknamed sea ulcers. “It makes you feel uneasy, like ‘Is the water meant to be that colour?’” Official advice is that the health risk is low unless it has been raining, But effluent can be pushed back into the bay by tides, currents and southerly winds, and human-borne bacteria and viruses are of concern, said Otago University environmental epidemiologist Simon Hales. “The major immediate risk is various infections, and some of these organisms you only need to ingest a tiny amount to get very sick.” South Coast resident Jamie McCaskill, from the Ngati Tamaterā iwi (tribe), has dived for seafood in the area for more than two decades. His tūpuna (ancestors) had done so for generations. This year, eating it could make them gravely ill. “The way I look at the moana [ocean], the way I feel when I’m out there has changed, and it’s hit the grocery bill, too,” said McCaskill. “We’re all gutted, and it’s like we’ve been forgotten about.” In the meantime, people like Real Aotearoa business owner Jane Fahy, who is 200 metres away from the beach, are trying not to think about the bacteria alighting on their salt and sand-smudged windows. “I used to call it beach glitter,” she says. “Now I don’t like to think too much about what’s in it.”

Full steam ahead: how ‘navy curry’ conquered hearts in Japan

The sailors aboard the navy vessel Hashidate know what’s for lunch long before the telltale aromas escape from the galley. Yosuke Oyama, the ship’s chef, has been up since dawn, softening onions and occasionally stirring a pot of chicken stock that has been simmering for several hours. He slices carrots and potatoes, places strips of beef on a tray and performs a quick inventory of the other ingredients – among them a selection of spices, apple puree, ginger and garlic and, for extra umami, a red wine and honey reduction. After a chorus of “Itadakimasu” – bon appétit – the mess deck is silent except for the appreciative noises made by the ravenous men and women of Japan’s maritime self-defence forces (SDF). “The crew love hamburgers, steak, sushi and ramen … they eat a lot like children,” jokes Oyama, a navy chef for three decades who is more accustomed to cooking for up to 500 sailors at a time. “And curry is always a winner.” With each spoonful, they are upholding a tradition of eating curry for lunch every Friday – once a way to track the passage of time on long voyages – and keeping rival SDF vessels around Japan on their culinary toes as they continue their search for the perfect curry recipe. Despite its south Asian origins, it’s no exaggeration to describe curry as Japan’s de facto national dish: a soupy, mild version beloved of schoolchildren and office workers, and generations of SDF personnel for whom kaigun kare – or navy curry – is a source of fierce pride as well as sustenance. The 10 crew members aboard Hashidate, a special services vessel used to host international VIPs that lies at anchor in Yokosuka, a naval base south of Tokyo, are among thousands of sailors eating their ship’s version of the same dish. Chef Oyama says variety is the key to keeping his diners interested in their Friday curry week in, week out. “We mix things up, like making keema or seafood curry, or keeping the leftover sauce and serving it with udon noodles the next day. The other day I fried up some apple puree and added it to the curry … it was delicious.” ‘If I don’t eat curry it messes around with my body clock’ Tradition dictates that Yokosuka curry – one of many variations on the navy curry theme – must be accompanied by salad, pickles and a glass of milk for nutritional balance. As Japan expanded its influence in Asia in the late 1800s, large numbers of soldiers fell ill or died from beriberi, a vitamin B1 deficiency linked to their diet, which largely comprised plain white rice. The solution came in the form of curry powder thought to have been introduced by Anglo-Indian officers in the Royal Navy who were among the first westerners to come into contact with Japan after Commodore Perry’s “black ships” forced it to end centuries of sakoku “locked country” isolation in the 1850s. Curry powder, it turned out, contained enough vitamin B1 to keep soldiers and sailors healthy. Beriberi cases plummeted, and military personnel quickly developed a taste for anglicised curry and rice, made with meat and vegetables and a flour-thickened sauce that was less likely to splash around in rough seas. A more romantic explanation claims that a party of British sailors who were shipwrecked off Japan’s coast came ashore with their rations, which included curry powder. It didn’t take long for curry to establish a loyal following among civilians. The first Japanese recipe for curry was published in 1872, and restaurants began serving it five years later, according to Japanese food writer Makiko Itoh. In 1908, a recipe for curry appeared in the Navy Cooking Reference Book. When the present-day maritime SDF was formed in 1954 – a postwar replacement for the imperial Japanese navy – the tradition continued, spurring “rival” bases to create their own recipes and lay claim to making Japan’s best navy curry. Together, Japan’s sailors get through 45 tonnes of curry a year – equivalent to 2.25m meals – according to the maritime SDF. Sailors in Maizuru, on the Japan Sea coast, and in Kure, in the Seto Inland Sea, will disagree, but Yokosuka has a strong case for claiming the title of navy curry capital. The city’s seagull mascot, Sucurry, greets visitors at the main railway station with a bowl of its signature dish; at Yokosuka Navy Curry Honpo, diners can eat kaigun kare- made according to the 1908 recipe and take home boil-in-the bag versions. Yokosuka’s annual curry festival, held in May, attracts tens of thousands of visitors eager to sample dozens of recipes. However, the dish has landed some of its fans in hot water. In 2022, six Japanese sailors were suspended from duty after it was found that they had been helping themselves to curry without paying for up to three years at an SDF base. As visiting personnel, they were not entitled to gratis servings. The previous year, curry was at the centre of diplomatic tensions after media reported on a seafood curry sold in Japan that included mounds of rice shaped to resemble the uninhabited Takeshima islands, which are administered by Japan but claimed by South Korea, where they are known as the Dokdo. Aboard the Hashidate, Yosuke Ohtsuki, a first lieutenant, admits he rarely eats curry at home. “I’ve heard that some families wait until the sailor in the household is away on a voyage before they eat curry,” he says, adding: “If it’s Friday we know it’s going to be a good day.” Their bowls empty, the sailors clear up and prepare for an upcoming voyage along the coast. “I never tire of eating curry,” says Hideaki Ito, the chief of operations. “In fact, if I don’t eat curry it messes around with my body clock.”

Ukraine war briefing: Britain to buy diesel and jet fuel made from Russian crude oil

A breach widened in the oil and gas sanctions cordon around Russia on Tuesday, as Britain exempted imports of diesel and jet fuel made from Russia crude, but refined in third-party countries. It comes after the US extended a waiver that critics say allows the Kremlin to earn more money and fund the war in Ukraine. Russian oil is shipped to India, Turkey and other countries where it is refined and re-exported as their own product – complicating sanctions enforcement. The new rules take effect on Wednesday and will be of indefinite duration, though they will be reviewed periodically and can be amended or revoked, the British government said in a notice. Higher fuel costs have fed into broader cost-of-living pressures in Britain. An EU official on Tuesday criticised the latest US waiver of sanctions on Russian oil, announced via the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent. “From the EU point of view, we do not think that this is a time to ease pressure on Russia,” said the EU economics commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis. “In fact, Russia is the one which is gaining from the war in Iran and the increase in fossil fuel prices … Secretary Bessent was reassuring us that this is a temporary measure, but we know that it’s already a second extension of the measure which initially was meant to last only 30 days.” Britain on Tuesday also issued a licence for maritime transport of liquefied natural gas from Russia’s Sakhalin-2 and Yamal projects and related services – including shipping, financing and brokering – under Russia sanctions rules, running until 1 January 2027. The US warned Russia against attacking Latvia after the Kremlin’s UN ambassador threatened it with “retaliation” over Ukrainian drones. Baltic countries denounced as lies claims by Vasily Nebenzya that Ukraine was planning to launch drones from Baltic countries. A Romanian F-16 Nato jet shot down a drone over Estonia on Tuesday, Shaun Walker writes, in what appeared to be the latest case of Russian electronic jamming diverting long-range Ukrainian drones into Nato territory. Russia’s SVR foreign spying and disinformation service said on Tuesday that Ukraine planned to launch drone attacks against Russia from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia. At the UN, Nebenzya threatened Latvia by saying “the membership of Nato will not protect you from retaliation”. US ambassador Tammy Bruce responded: “There is no place for threats against a council member. The United States keeps all of its Nato commitments.” Latvia’s UN representative Sanita Pavļuta-Deslandes sounded breezier. “Lies and aggressive disinformation and threats are a sign of despair and weakness, and we have seen similar lies addressed against other members of this council in the previous meetings, so I’m very honoured to have the attention drawn to my country today.” The Latvian president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, posted: “Russia is lying about Latvia allowing any country to use Latvian airspace and territory to launch attacks against Russia or any other country.” Officials from Estonia and Lithuania also denied such plans. A funeral was held in Kyiv on Tuesday for Liubava Yakovlieva, 12, and her sister Vira, 17 who were killed when a Russian missile tore through their Kyiv apartment building on 14 May. Twenty-four people were killed in all. The girls’ mother, Tetiana, sat beside the coffins, the family’s sole surviving member. The father, Yevhen, was killed on the frontline as a soldier three years ago. “This is an unnatural order of things, when parents bury their children,” said Efrem Khomiak, the priest presiding at the St Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, where Kyiv mourns its soldiers and its prominent dead. “This funeral, this grief, this tragedy, it is not only your family’s. It belongs to all of Ukraine. Because we are all bound together in this war.” Ukrainian forces struck a Russian refinery and an oil pumping station over the past 48 hours, Ukraine’s general staff said on Tuesday. Russia attacked Ukraine with 209 drones over the previous night, killing five civilians and wounding 24 others, officials said. Five people were injured after Russia hit the south-eastern city of Dnipro, said the regional governor, Oleksandr Hanzha. Industrial areas around Nevinnomyssk in Russia’s southern Stavropol region were under drone attack on Wednesday morning, said the governor, Vladimir Vladimirov. The area is home to Nevinnomyssky Azot, a large chemical plant, which has been a target of drone attacks from Ukraine before.

JD Vance says US remains ‘locked and loaded’ to restart military campaign as Iran warns of ‘new fronts’ – as it happened

JD Vance reiterated the US is “willing to cut a deal” if Iran commits to never having a nuclear weapon, otherwise the US is “locked and loaded” to restart its military campaign. “That’s not what the president wants and I don’t think that’s what the Iranians want either,” the US vice-president told reporters the White House press briefing. “We don’t want to go down that pathway but the president is willing and able to if we have to.” Vance stated many times that he feels Iran wants to make a deal and a deal is possible, “but I will not say with confidence that we’re going to reach a deal until we’re actually signing a negotiated settlement here. And I think it’s ultimately up to the Iranians if they’re willing to meet us [halfway].” He also maintained that the US has been negotiating “in good faith”. ““All we can do is negotiate in good faith and try to find a pathway that accomplished the president’s objectives,” he said. Vance also insisted that “this is not a forever war” when quizzed about the length of the conflict, now in its 11th week. He contended that the “active period of conflict” lasted around five weeks, and says that a “big chunk” of the 11 weeks has been under a ceasefire. “This is not a forever war, we’re going to take care of business and come home,” he said. Earlier, Donald Trump said that the US may need to hit Iran again and he was only an hour away from deciding on a strike before he postponed the attack. “I was an hour away from making the decision to go today,” Trump told reporters at the White House. Trump also told reporters he is giving Iran until the weekend to make a deal to end the war. He said he was within an hour of deciding to resume bombing Iran but that his negotiators had reported progress in talks. Iran’s army has warned it would “open new fronts” against the US if it resumes attacks on the country amid reports that Trump is weighing up restarting military operations in Iran amid an impasse in negotiations. “If the enemy is foolish enough to fall into the Zionist trap again and launches new aggression against our beloved Iran, we will open new fronts against it, with new equipment and new methods,” army spokesperson Mohammad Akraminia said, according to Iran’s ISNA news agency. The US has imposed new sanctions on Iran, a posting on the US Treasury department’s website showed on Tuesday. The list published includes 12 new individuals, a host of companies and several shipping vessels. Top Nato commander Alexus Grynkewich said on Tuesday that a potential mission of the military alliance in the strait of Hormuz would be a political decision. “The conditions under which Nato would consider operating in the strait of Hormuz are ultimately a political decision,” Grynkewich said, speaking in Brussels where he met with military chiefs from Nato countries. In an update carried by the country’s National News Agency, the Lebanese health ministry said since 2 March Israeli attacks have killed at least 3,042 people and injured 9,301 others. As a reminder, the renewed Israeli assault on Lebanon was launched as a response to Hezbollah firing missiles at Israel on 2 March after the US-Israeli bombing of Iran in late February. British Airways has delayed resuming flights to Dubai, Doha and Tel Aviv by a month to 1 August as departures continue to be disrupted by the joint Israeli and US war on Iran. “Due to the ongoing situation in the Middle East, we have made further changes to our flying schedule to provide greater clarity for our customers,” a spokesperson for British Airways told the Reuters news agency when approached for comment. The United Arab Emirates said on Tuesday that the drones that targeted its nuclear plant last week came from Iraq – from where Iranian-backed groups have launched several attacks since the Middle East war began. “As part of the ongoing investigation into the blatant attack on the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant on May 17, 2026, technical tracking and monitoring confirmed that the three drones... all originated from Iraqi territory,” the Emirati defence ministry said. Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s far-right finance minister, has revealed he was informed that the international criminal court (ICC) in The Hague requested an arrest warrant against him. “Issuing arrest warrants against the prime minister, the defense minister and the finance minister is a declaration of war – and in the face of a declaration of war, we will respond in kind,” Smotrich said, according to comments carried in Israeli newspaper Hareetz. Gaza’s health ministry said in its latest update that two people were killed and three others injured in Israeli attacks across the territory over the past day despite the supposed ceasefire between Israel and Hamas. One other person – who was already injured from an Israeli attack – was pronounced dead over the same period, the ministry added.