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India’s electoral roll revision threatens democracy and Muslims, say critics

India’s political opposition has warned that democracy is under threat amid a controversial exercise to revise the voter register across the country, which critics say will disenfranchise minority voters and entrench the power of the ruling Narendra Modi government. An debate erupted in India’s parliament last week over the special intensive revision (SIR) process, which is taking place in nine states and three union territories, in one of the biggest revisions of the country’s electoral roll in decades. Ostensibly a bureaucratic exercise to update the lists of citizens eligible to vote, India’s opposition leaders have instead alleged the SIR is being used by the ruling Bharatiya Janata party (BJP) as an underhand “citizenship survey”. State leaders have claimed it is being used to disenfranchise poor and minority voters – particularly Muslims – as “illegal immigrants” and manipulate the electoral roll to benefit the Modi government. The BJP openly embraces a Hindu nationalist ideology seeking to reshape India from a secular state into a Hindu rashtra, or Hindu nation. During the party’s 11 years in power, its policies and discourse have sharply polarised the nation along religious lines fuelling a surge in anti-Muslim hostility. The BJP has gained unprecedented power over state institutions and its ruling alliance governs 21 out of 28 states. In states such as West Bengal, critics have alleged that it is primarily Muslims facing the threat of being disenfranchised and deported by SIR, while Bangladeshi Hindus living illegally in India say they are being assured of citizenship. Speaking in parliament last week, Rahul Gandhi, a leader of Congress, India’s largest opposition party, alleged that SIR was part of a wider project by the BJP to conduct “vote chori [theft]” and destroy the longstanding integrity of India’s democratic elections, which have been held since independence. “When you destroy the vote, you destroy the fabric of this country, you destroy modern India, you destroy the idea of India,” said Gandhi, who in recent months has claimed to have substantial evidence of foul play among the voting processes in multiple state elections, which has been repeatedly denied by the BJP. The opposition has alleged SIR is being used as a covert national register of citizens (NRC), similar to what took place in the north Indian state of Assam a few years ago. There, NRC led to hundreds of thousands, primarily Muslims, being rounded up and detained in detention centres or forced to face citizenship tribunals, with some deported to Bangladesh. The BJP has denied any irregularities in the SIR process, calling it a routine administrative exercise to “cleanse” the electoral roll of “infiltrators”, a term mostly referring to Muslims coming illegally from neighbouring Bangladesh. Responding to Gandhi in parliament, the home minister, Amit Shah, said the BJP was protecting India’s democracy with a policy of “detect, delete and deport”. “Can a country’s democracy be safe when the prime minister and chief minister are decided by illegal immigrants?” he added. The electoral commission (EC), the government body conducting the survey, has said SIR is a means to ensure that deceased, illegitimate and duplicate voters are removed from the voter register. However, in parliament Gandhi accused the EC of being controlled by the BJP and “colluding with those in power to shape elections”. SIR already provoked a significant backlash and a slew of legal challenges when it was carried out in Bihar, a state of 130 million people, earlier this year. More than 6.5 million people were removed from the voter list as a result. The EC had claimed it was because they were dead or had moved away, but many turned out to be alive, and it resulted in millions of complaints. Opposition parties alleged that many of those removed were Muslims or belonged to communities that do not form the vote bank of the Hindu nationalist BJP, while other names were added erroneously, a claim the EC has denied. In the Bihar state election that took place in November after the SIR process was completed, the BJP won by a historic landslide. Nowhere has SIR been more controversial than in West Bengal, the state neighbouring Bangladesh, which has a high number of Muslims. The ruling Trinamool Congress party (TMC) government, led by the chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, has described SIR as a “politically motivated” process to “capture West Bengal by trickery”. West Bengal is one of the few states where the BJP has so far failed to gain political traction but state elections are due next year. Banerjee also alleged that the “shadow of fear and uncertainty” being created by SIR has led to panic and distress among the people, creating a widespread fear among the state’s Muslims that they will lose their citizenship. TMC has linked the stress of SIR to multiple deaths and suicides that have taken place in the state in recent weeks, and Banerjee wrote to the EC to intervene and halt the process. Among those left in extreme stress was Jahir Mal, who lived in a mud-walled, plastic-roofed shack in Khalisani, 25 miles (40km) west of Kolkata with his wife and children. After news of the electoral revision exercise spread, his family recounted how he began watching SIR-related videos on Facebook warning of mass expulsion and then stopped going to work and isolated himself from family and neighbours. An illiterate Muslim labourer, he feared that as he was not on the electoral list, he would immediately be deemed an illegal citizen by SIR – despite being born in India. “He kept asking, ‘What will I do if they send me to Bangladesh? I have no connection there’,” recounted his wife, Rejina. “I begged him to calm down and assured him nothing would happen … But he wouldn’t listen. “On November 4, the SIR officials were scheduled to arrive at 10am to check the documents. At 9am, when no one else was home, my husband took his life.” Now Rejina is left alone with their three young children, the family’s sole breadwinner gone. “I don’t know how we will survive. I am broken,” she said. The government has denied that the SIR discriminates against Muslims. But critics have pointed to inflammatory comments made by local BJP leaders such as Suvendu Adhikari, who said Hindus who fled persecution in Bangladesh were “welcome” and would receive citizenship under a controversial act passed by the BJP in 2019, whereas Muslims from the same country were “infiltrators” whose names would be detected and deleted. Bangladeshi Hindus living in India without documents confirmed to the Guardian they had been given assurances by local BJP leaders that SIR would not result in them being detained or deported as infiltrators, despite their illegal status. Bikash Das, a Hindu from Bangladesh, said he had come to India 10 years ago, and despite not being an official citizen had managed to obtain an Indian ID and vote in the past two elections. He said SIR had initially caused him concern that he and his family would be deported. “Then, some local BJP leaders reassured us that we would definitely be granted Indian citizenship,” he said. The SIR process has also sparked anger and protest in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, which have been ruled by opposition parties for decades and where the BJP has been attempting to make electoral inroads. In Tamil Nadu, the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam party has formally opposed the exercise. In Kerala, the Communist party of India (Marxist)-led government passed a resolution against SIR, condemning it as a “citizenship survey” by the backdoor. Though it was due to be completed by early December, the SIR deadline for many states has been pushed back by several weeks. The final voter lists are due to be published in February 2026.

What did Ukraine peace talks in Berlin achieve – and what happens next?

The US has held talks with Ukrainian and European leaders in Berlin about a potential peace deal between Ukraine and Russia. But what was the outcome, and what comes next? What happened in the Ukraine talks in Berlin? The talks focused on security guarantees the US and Europe could offer Ukraine as part of a future peace deal with the Kremlin. On Monday, European leaders, including Keir Starmer, published a joint statement with a list of the security guarantees on the table. They included: A European-led “multinational force” to support Ukraine’s army and defend its skies and seas. A “legally binding commitment” from the UK and other European nations to “take measures to restore peace and security in the case of a future armed attack”. European support for Ukraine’s accession to the EU. “Sustained and significant support” from Europe to help Ukraine “build its armed forces”, which should remain at a peacetime level of 800,000 troops (Russia has demanded that Ukraine cut the size of its armed forces far lower). A US-led “ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism” to “provide early warning of any future attack”. Investment in Ukrainian reconstruction, which may include Russian sovereign assets that have been frozen in Europe. We have had peace talks before. Why are these important? European leaders spoke unusually positively about these proposals for defending Ukraine from further aggression. Kyiv would want the US to send troops to Ukraine as a “tripwire” to prevent a Russian attack, but the next best thing would be European troops from Nato countries on the ground in Ukraine helping defend the country. The joint statement signed by the leaders of the UK, France, Germany, Italy and seven other European nations said this would “provide robust security guarantees and economic recovery support measures for Ukraine in the context of an agreement on ending the war”. The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told reporters “we now have the chance for a real peace process”. So is the war over? No. This is a kind of shuttle diplomacy with Ukraine and its European allies on one side, and Russia on the other. After this, the US negotiators led by envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would take the proposal back to the Russians. But it is not at all clear that the Kremlin would sign a peace deal at this point. First, Russians may not accept troops from Nato countries in Ukraine (the Kremlin has said this is a red line in the past). US officials briefed on the negotiations claim Russia would be ready to sign a deal with these security guarantees in place for Ukraine, but the Trump administration has been overly optimistic about achieving a ceasefire before. And second, the two sides still have not agreed on what to do with the Ukrainian territory that has been occupied by Russia. The US delegation led by Witkoff and Kushner was said to be “brainstorming” what to do with the occupied territories by turning them into “economic free zones”. But really they are trying to find a way to make Ukraine agree to cede its sovereign territory to an invading army, something that Kyiv has said it does not want to do. US negotiators said they were 90% of the way to a deal. But some of the hardest questions remain unresolved, and on Monday night Volodymyr Zelenskyy reiterated that Ukraine would not ever recognise the occupied territory as Russian, nor would there be “economic free zones” under Russian control.

European leaders propose ‘multinational force’ and hail ‘significant progress’ on Ukraine talks – as it happened

We are wrapping our coverage of the Berlin talks for tonight. Here is a summary of what happened today: European leaders, US negotiators and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy have all hailed “significant progress” on Ukraine talks after crunch talks in Berlin, while noting some areas of disagreements still required further work (18:22, 18:42). A group of European leaders, including UK’s Keir Starmer, France’s Emmanuel Macron and Germany’s Friedrich Merz, issued a detailed statement welcoming the progress and outlining key areas – including security guarantees, support for armed forces, and presence of a European-led multinational force in Ukraine – that are being agreed, but noted that “nothing is agreed until everything is agreed” (20:15). In an unusually upbeat update, US negotiators involved in the Berlin talks claimed that “90%” of the issues between Ukraine and Russia have been resolved (17:56). US president Trump said “we are closer now … than we have ever been” to a peace agreement on Ukraine, but admitted “it’s a difficult one,” as he praised “a long discussion” with European leaders, praising them for “tremendous support” for ending the war (21:36), a significant tone shift compared to his last week’s comments on his EU counterparts. Trump also confirmed the ongoing work on security guarantees to be provided for Ukraine to “so the war doesn’t start again,” saying “Europe would be a big part of that” (22:05). Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy also sounded cautiously positive, but made it clear that he needed more detail on security guarantees before he can contemplate any far-reaching asks, including for concessions on territory (18:13). Separately, the EU’s discussion on the use of frozen Russian assets to fund its help for Ukraine continued amid signs that the bloc is bitterly divided on the European Commission’s proposals, complicating the prospect of its adoption at this week’s European Council (11:52, 18:21, 19:11). And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Europe ready to lead ‘multinational force’ in Ukraine as part of US peace plan

Europe is ready to lead a “multinational force” in Ukraine as part of a US proposal for a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine, European leaders have said. In a statement, the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and eight other European countries said troops from a “coalition of the willing” with US support could “assist in the regeneration of Ukraine’s forces, in securing Ukraine’s skies, and in supporting safer seas, including through operating inside Ukraine”. The proposal was part of a new package of security guarantees, backed by the White House, that could mark a breakthrough in reaching a peace deal between Moscow and Kyiv, US and European leaders have said. But they added that significant differences remained over the future status of the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia. Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Monday he had “very long and very good” talks with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European and Nato leaders, adding: “We had numerous conversations with President Putin of Russia, and I think we’re closer now than we have been ever, and we’ll see what we can do.” Asked if he had recently spoken directly to Vladimir Putin, Trump replied “yeah, I have,” but did not give any details. But Trump appeared to suggest that in exchange for security guarantees, Ukraine must agree to give Russia the parts of the eastern Donbas region that Kyiv still holds – something Zelenskyy has previously ruled out. “Well, they’ve already lost the territory, to be honest,” he said when asked what incentive Ukraine would have to give up land. Zelenskyy said talks with Trump’s envoys were “not easy” but brought “real progress” on the question of security guarantees. However, differences remained on the question of what territory. “There has been sufficient dialogue on the territory, and I think that, frankly speaking, we still have different positions,” Zelenskyy told reporters. Under the proposal, Ukraine would have western support to maintain a standing army of 800,000 troops, the US would lead a “ceasefire monitoring and verification mechanism” to provide early warning of any future attack, and the European countries would also sign a “legally binding commitment, subject to national procedures, to take measures to restore peace and security in the case of a future armed attack”. Europe would also back Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. The deal would effectively provide “article five-like” guarantees to Ukraine, according to two US officials briefed on the negotiations, comparing the security guarantees to those provided to Nato allies from foreign attacks. The US presented the new package at talks in Berlin this week with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as well as senior diplomats and security officials from European allies. The US officials said that they believed Russia would accept the security guarantees presented at the talks, which would mark a significant relaxation in the Kremlin’s demands for limitations on the size of Ukraine’s army and opposition to troops from Nato countries operating in Ukraine. The American delegation, which was led by the US envoy Steve Witkoff and Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, said Zelenskyy and European leaders had responded positively to the White House’s latest proposal for security guarantees resembling those given to Nato allies, and intended to prevent Russia from resuming its invasion if a peace agreement is reached. “I think the Ukrainians would tell you, as would the Europeans, that this is the most robust set of security protocols they have ever seen,” said one US official briefed on the negotiations. “It is a very, very strong package. I think hopefully the Russians are going to look at it and say to themselves: ‘That’s OK, because we have no intention [of restarting the war].’ We’re going to take them at their word.” US officials declined to give specific details of what that security package would include and who would defend Ukraine if Russia resumed its invasion after a peace deal was reached. They confirmed the US would not put boots on the ground in Ukraine as part of the deal. Nonetheless, the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, told a news conference on Monday he believed the two sides were the closest to a real peace process since Russia’s large-scale invasion began in 2022. “What the US has placed on the table here in Berlin in terms of legal and material guarantees is really considerable,” Merz said during a joint press conference with Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian president said he welcomed the “productive” discussions, as Kyiv’s top peace negotiator hailed “real progress” in the second round of talks in Berlin. The security guarantees are considered a key factor of a potential peace deal. Britain’s prime minister, Keir Starmer, had said earlier that a deal between Russia and Ukraine would fail if it did not include “robust” security guarantees from the west. “It’s really important we attend to this in detail,” he said. “[Vladimir] Putin has shown time and again that he will keep coming back for more if he sees the chance.” US officials said on Monday they were still “brainstorming” the future status of the occupied territories of Ukraine under a peace deal, adding that they were considering these areas becoming an “economic free zone”. But they said there remained significant differences on the control and status of the territories taken by Russia. “Ultimately, if we can get that defined, then it will really get to [Russia and Ukraine] to work out the final issues of sovereignty and to see if there’s a deal that can be done between them,” said a US official briefed on the talks. The two sides were also not in agreement on the future operations of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is located in Ukraine but is under Russian control. US officials said they wanted the two sides to split the power produced by the plant “50/50”. US negotiators claimed they had resolved “90%” of the disputes between the Russian and Ukrainian sides. Zelenskyy described the talks with the US side as “not easy” but said they had made headway. He said Russia was using its relentless strikes as leverage in negotiations and noted that not a single power station in Ukraine had been spared attack. Rustem Umerov, the secretary of the National Security and Defence Council of Ukraine, also struck an upbeat note on the discussions: “Over the past two days, Ukrainian-US negotiations have been constructive and productive, with real progress achieved,” he said. Umerov wrote on X that Witkoff and Kushner were “working extremely constructively to help Ukraine find a way to a peace agreement that lasts”. A German government spokesperson said earlier that Witkoff and Kushner had also been invited to the working dinner. Witkoff said in a social media post that “a lot of progress was made” after he and Kushner met Zelenskyy for five-and-a-half hours at Merz’s chancellery on Sunday, without disclosing details. A picture released by Merz’s team showed him sitting beside Zelenskyy in a gesture of solidarity, across the table from Witkoff and Kushner, but the chancellor did not join their talks. Trump has appeared increasingly impatient to bring about an end to four years of fighting, which he at first sought by Thanksgiving at the end of November. Zelenskyy has said the US leader is targeting Christmas as a deadline for a “full understanding” on a peace plan. The search for viable terms for an end to the war has run into major obstacles, including a dispute over control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, which is occupied mostly by Russian forces. Zelenskyy on Sunday expressed readiness to drop his country’s bid to join Nato if the US and other western nations gave Kyiv legally binding security guarantees similar to those offered to alliance members. He also said he hoped Washington would accept freezing the frontline where it was, rather than Ukraine ceding the entire Donbas region, which comprises Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Putin has described Ukraine’s drive to join Nato as a major threat to Moscow’s security and a reason for launching the full-scale invasion in February 2022. “Naturally this issue is one of the cornerstones and, of course, it is subject to special discussion,” the Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told reporters on Monday, adding that Moscow was expecting a US briefing on the Berlin discussions when they were over. European leaders stressed that the outcome of the talks on Ukraine would affect their own countries’ security for decades to come. Merz said at the weekend that Putin’s goal was “a fundamental change to the borders in Europe, the restoration of the old Soviet Union within its borders”. “If Ukraine falls, he won’t stop,” the German chancellor told a conference of fellow conservatives in Munich. Russia has denied it intends to attack Nato members. In London, meanwhile, the head of Britain’s foreign spy service, MI6, has warned that Russia poses an “aggressive, expansionist” threat in her first speech since taking office. Blaise Metreweli took over from Richard Moore in October, becoming the first woman to lead MI6. She said Putin was not serious about trying to end the war in Ukraine, describing him as “dragging out negotiations” and shifting the burden of the conflict on to his own population. The EU, meanwhile, is scrambling this week to agree a plan on financing Ukraine in the coming years by using frozen Russian assets. A leaders’ meeting is scheduled to begin on Thursday and a deal still appears elusive. European leaders including Zelenskyy will also meet in The Hague on Tuesday to launch an International Claims Commission to compensate Kyiv for hundreds of billions of dollars in damage from Russian attacks and alleged war crimes.

Chile’s new far-right head is latest Latin American leader to ride hardline wave to power

José Antonio Kast’s victory in Chile’s presidential election has been widely praised by leaders of the global right, with congratulations coming from the US secretary of state Marco Rubio, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Argentina’s Javier Milei and X’s Elon Musk. The son of a Nazi party member, a father of nine and a staunch Catholic known for opposing abortion and same-sex marriage, Kast won 58.16% of the vote in the runoff – more than 2m votes than the leftist Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister under the current president, Gabriel Boric. Kast was running for the third time and had built his campaign on the claim that rising migration over the past decade had fuelled a rise in crime. Two of his flagship promises were directly inspired by the policies of Donald Trump: the expulsion of about 330,000 undocumented migrants – most of them Venezuelan – and the construction of detention centres and 5-metre-high walls, electric fences, 3-metre-deep trenches and an increased military presence along the border. Analysts view his victory as part of swing between the left and the right that has characterised national politics over the past 15 years – but Kast is the most far-right leader Chile has elected a president since the end of the military dictatorship in 1990. Kast is the first post-dictatorship president to openly declare himself an admirer of Augusto Pinochet, under whose regime an estimated 40,000 people were tortured and more than 3,000 killed. Among the many tributes he has paid to Pinochet, Kast said during the 2017 presidential campaign: “If [Pinochet] were alive, he would vote for me.” His election “is bad news for Chile’s democratic system”, said Cristóbal Rovira Kaltwasser, a populism researcher and professor at the Institute of Political Science at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. “What we are seeing with Kast is a return to the origins of a right that clearly did not have democratic credentials,” said Kaltwasser. Like many rightwing leaders across the region, Kast describes himself as an admirer of El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele, who has imprisoned at least 2% of his country’s adult population as part of a controversial crackdown on gangs. “My fear is not that Chilean democracy will collapse in four years, but that the conventional right will shift ever further to the right and democratic rightwing forces will therefore disappear,” said Kaltwasser, adding that there is no evidence to support Kast’s claim that rising migration is responsible for the increase in crime. Many analysts and political leaders see Kast’s election as part of a rightwing wave sweeping Latin America, with victories this year in Ecuador, Bolivia, Argentina and – according to the latest data from a vote count that has dragged on for three weeks – Honduras. Colombia’s leftist president, Gustavo Petro, acknowledged the trend, tweeting: “From the south and from the north come the winds of death … Fascism advances.” Alongside the rightward shift, there is also a regional swing towards “hardline security measures,” said Sandra Pellegrini, a senior analyst for Latin America and the Caribbean at the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). She attributes this wave largely to a widespread public belief that Bukele’s measures have been successful in El Salvador. “What people are not seeing, or seem not to worry about, is the trade-off behind such a decrease – which has been a striking surge in state-perpetrated violence and human rights violations.” Under Bukele’s state of emergency imposed, hundreds of indiscriminate raids particularly in low-income neighbourhoods have led to the arrest of more than 81,000 people, drawing widespread condemnation from human rights groups. Pellegrini recently published a report arguing that the US military buildup on Venezuela’s doorstep and its deadly strikes on alleged drug boats – which have already killed more than 80 people – “may be more about pressuring governments to align with its foreign policy goals”. Trump has justified the operations as part of a “war on drugs” and has threatened similar action in Colombia, accusing the country of not being tough enough in curbing its cocaine production. But many in the region see the threat of a US invasion or strike on Venezuela is intended to force regime change and the removal of dictator Nicolás Maduro, According to the ACLED report, pressure from the White House for governments to be “tougher” is aimed at “reasserting the US as the dominant economic player in the Western Hemisphere and securing access to the region’s resources, staving off Chinese influence by promoting the emergence of US-aligned governments”. Pellegrini added: “Conducting strikes – or extrajudicial killings, as the UN has called them – is clearly sending a message to governments across the region that human rights are no longer a priority for the US and that the cost of committing human rights violations is much lower. “There is a real risk that we could see more of this in the coming years, not only in Chile, but across the other governments that have embarked on the path of militarisation,” she said.

Governments and rights groups condemn conviction of Hong Kong activist Jimmy Lai

Governments, institutions and rights groups across the world have condemned the conviction of the former pro-democracy media tycoon and British citizen Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong on national security charges. The 78-year-old was found guilty in West Kowloon district court on Monday of one count of conspiracy to publish seditious publications and two counts of conspiracy to foreign collusion. The charges were brought under the city’s punitive national security law , introduced in 2020, and a British colonial-era sedition law that has been used in recent years by authorities. Lai faces spending the rest of his life in prison, amid increasing fears about his physical condition. A diabetes sufferer, he is thought to have lost about 10kg in the past year. Yvette Cooper, the British foreign secretary, said: “The UK condemns the politically motivated prosecution of Jimmy Lai that has resulted in today’s guilty verdict. Jimmy Lai has been targeted by the Chinese and Hong Kong governments for peacefully exercising his right to freedom of expression … We continue to call for Mr Lai’s immediate release.” She later told parliament the Chinese ambassador to the UK had been summoned over Lai’s conviction. The Australian government said it was “deeply concerned by the guilty verdict” while the EU said the outcome was “emblematic of the erosion of democracy and fundamental freedoms in Hong Kong”. Taiwan’s mainland affair’s council said the conviction had caused “profound sorrow” in Taiwan. On Monday US president Donald Trump said he feels “so badly” about Lai’s conviction and has asked China’s leader Xi Jinping to consider his release. Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, also called on China to release him. Lai is the founder of Apple Daily, a hugely popular pro-democracy newspaper in Hong Kong that was forced to close in 2021. He was arrested in 2020 and has spent more than five years behind bars during a lengthy trial that has been delayed several times. Lai was accused of using Apple Daily and political connections, particularly in the US, to lobby for foreign governments to impose sanctions on China and Hong Kong after the crackdown on pro-democracy protests in 2019 and 2020. Lai pleaded not guilty to all charges. There has been particular criticism over the fact that the prosecution case used messages and meetings from before the national security law was in effect as part of its evidence. The law cannot be applied retroactively and Lai said he never called for sanctions after it had taken effect, as “it would be suicidal to do so”. But in their 855-page judgment, the judges, who are picked by the government for national security cases, said the evidence was “clear”. Sarah Brooks, the China director for Amnesty International, said: “The conviction of Jimmy Lai feels like the death knell for press freedom in Hong Kong. This verdict shows that Hong Kong’s so-called national security laws are not in place to protect people, but to silence them. It should also serve as a warning to all people doing business in Hong Kong: that pursuing opportunities in the city comes with severe legal risks.” Speaking to reporters in London on Monday, Lai’s son Sebastien Lai said while the guilty verdict was not a surprise, it was “still painful”. “It signifies a Hong Kong that has completely changed,” he said. Sebastien Lai and his father’s international legal team called on the UK government to make his release a precondition for closer relations between London and Beijing. Keir Starmer has called for Lai’s release and has raised the case directly with China’s president, Xi Jinping. The UK prime minister is expected to visit Beijing in January. Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC, the head of the international legal team, said there was “no use shouting into the wind” and statements in support of Lai needed to be backed up by concrete action. “China needs to see there are real consequences” for Lai’s prosecution, Gallagher said. Thibaut Bruttin, the director of Reporters Without Borders, said: “We are outraged that Jimmy Lai, Hong Kong’s symbol of press freedom, has been found guilty on trumped-up national security charges. This unlawful conviction only demonstrates the alarming deterioration of media freedom in the territory.” Cooper also called for Lai, who has been kept in solitary confinement for more than 1,800 days, to be given full access to independent medical professionals. Earlier this month, his family said Lai had lost a significant amount of weight, his nails were becoming discoloured and falling off, and his teeth were rotting. The closing arguments in Lai’s trial were delayed at one point because he was suffering from heart palpitations. Lai’s daughter Claire Lai said: “Having spent the last few years in Hong Kong, I have personally witnessed my father’s rapidly failing health. He is 78 and has spent five years in terrible conditions, we are worried about how much more he can bear.” Sebastien Lai said on Monday that his father, who has a British passport, “could have left at any point” but that he stayed to give “everything that he has for the freedom of others”. He said that if Lai was allowed to die in jail Hong Kong would die “with my father”. The government would have “arbitrarily and vindictively killed a man for his journalism, for his criticism”, he said, describing his father as “a man who lives with no regrets”. Earlier in December, the Hong Kong government said Lai’s medical provision in prison was “adequate and comprehensive”. China’s foreign ministry said: “We urge the relevant countries to … not make irresponsible remarks on the trial of judicial cases in Hong Kong and not to interfere in Hong Kong’s judiciary or China’s internal affairs in any form.” The Chinese embassy in London criticised the UK government’s statement. The embassy said Cooper’s comment “blatantly interferes in China’s internal affairs and tramples on the rule of law, and seriously violates the basic norms governing international relations”.

Spain to launch €60 monthly nationwide public transport pass

Spain’s socialist-led government is to launch a national public transport pass that will allow people to travel anywhere in the country by bus or train for a flat monthly fee of €60 (£52.70). The prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, unveiled the initiative on Monday, saying it would come into effect in the second half of January and was intended “to change the way Spaniards understand and use public transport for ever”. News of the pass – which has yet to be publicly costed – came as Sánchez’s coalition minority government struggles to survive a series of corruption and sexual harassment allegations that have engulfed his inner circle, his Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) and his administration. Despite calls from his opponents to hold a snap general election, Sánchez has vowed to keep governing, insisting that Spain is on the right path and that his government has “the energy and the determination” to reach the end of the current legislature in 2027. The prime minister hailed the transport pass as proof of his administration’s commitment to improving the everyday lives of Spaniards. He said the pass, which will cost €30 a month for those under 26, would allow people to “travel anywhere in the country” on middle-distance and suburban trains, and on national bus services. According to Sánchez, the scheme could help some workers cut their monthly travel costs by as much as 60%. “We’re talking about 2 million people who will be paying less each month to get to work, to get home or to do their day-to-day stuff,” he said. “That’s what governing is about: making the important things easier for ordinary people.” The Spanish scheme follows a similar initiative in Germany, which introduced a €49-a-month ticket covering regional rail, metro, trams and bus travel across the country in 2023. As well as announcing the scheme and defending his government’s stewardship of Spain’s growing economy, Sánchez addressed the corruption and sexual harassment allegations that have proliferated over recent weeks and months. He said his government and his party had acted with “forcefulness and not connivance” when confronted with instances of alleged corruption, adding they were “absolutely committed to feminism” and to tackling sexual abuse and harassment. Opposition calls for an early general election were backed over the weekend by the head of Spain’s Episcopal Conference, who said the time had come to give Spanish voters their say. The intervention received short shrift from Sánchez, who said: “The time when bishops meddled in politics ended when this country’s democracy began.”

Any Russia-Ukraine deal is doomed without security guarantees, says Starmer

A peace deal between Russia and Ukraine will fail unless it is backed up by “robust” security guarantees from western powers, the UK prime minister has said. Keir Starmer, speaking ahead of talks with European leaders in Berlin, told MPs on Monday he was opposed to any agreement that did not include sufficient military guarantees for Ukraine, as Kyiv comes under mounting US pressure to sign up to a Trump-backed plan. Starmer said: “European history is full of peace agreements that failed and sometimes led to even greater conflict. And that is why it’s really important we attend to this in detail. Putin has shown time and again that he will keep coming back for more if he sees the chance.” He added: “Peace agreements fail, in my view, predominantly because there aren’t sufficiently robust security guarantees behind them – which is why the French president and I set up the coalition of the willing … to put in place guarantees from the coalition-of-the-willing countries in accordance with and alongside the US.” In a separate speech on Monday, Blaise Metreweli, the head of the UK’s Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, said Vladimir Putin was “dragging out negotiations” over Ukraine, in keeping with the spy agency’s long-standing assessment that the Russian leader was not serious about ending the war, except on very favourable terms to the Kremlin. She accused Putin of engaging in “historical distortions” while insisting that the UK’s support for Ukraine would be enduring, because “it is fundamental not just to European sovereignty and security but to global stability”. Starmer was speaking to parliament’s liaison committee hours before he was due to board a flight to Berlin for dinner with the leaders of eight European countries, as well as those of the European Commission, the EU Council and Nato. The prime minister is one of a handful of western leaders who has offered Volodymyr Zelenskyy advice and support as talks between the US, Russia and Ukraine gather pace. Starmer hosted the Ukrainian president along with the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, at Downing Street last week in a coordinated show of support. Zelenskyy spent Monday in Berlin, where Ukrainian officials have been locked in talks with their US counterparts for two days. He said on Monday that the talks were “not easy” but had been productive. Over the weekend he offered to drop Ukraine’s ambition to join Nato for the first time in an attempt to show his willingness to reach an agreement. In return Zelenskyy and his European allies are pushing for “article-5-like” security guarantees from Europe and the US, referring to Nato’s founding principle that an attack on one member country should be seen as an attack on all. Starmer has said the UK is willing to commit troops to defend Ukrainian sovereignty as part of a multinational force. Doing so, however, would require logistical support from Washington, the status of which remains unclear. European officials have been scrambling to respond to the national security strategy launched by Trump last week, which claimed Europe was facing “civilisational erasure” and called for US backing for far-right parties across the continent. Starmer on Monday reiterated his calls for Europe to spend more on its own defence, arguing: “I will always believe in the Euro-Atlantic security mechanisms, but I do think it is time for European countries to step up, step into the breach on spend, capability, coordination.”