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Escape of big cat belonging to Germany’s ‘Tiger Queen’ shatters peace of small town

A tiger on the loose among garden allotments. Panicked residents summoning armed police ill-equipped to deal with a dangerous predator. And, behind it all, Germany’s self-proclaimed “Tiger Queen” and her private menagerie. In startling scenes over the weekend in the eastern town of Schkeuditz, near Leipzig airport, the mix proved fatal for a big cat named Sandokan and left a keeper seriously injured. On Sunday afternoon, a warm spring day when many hobby gardeners were tending to their flower beds, the tiger attacked a 72-year-old man at an enclosure kept by the former tamer Carmen Zander and escaped. Officers alerted to the scene by panicked neighbours tracked the animal down to a nearby allotment complex and killed it about 30 minutes after it had escaped “to prevent danger to those present”, police said. Witnesses said officers climbed on to the roof of a car and fired three shots at the tiger, which had been lying just a few metres from a small fence bordering the gardens. “Our paradise was shattered,” Silvia Kaempf, 68, who has a shed in the neighbouring allotment association, told local media. The keeper, who police said had been in the tiger enclosure “with permission”, is reported to still be in hospital with severe scratches and bites and is unable to answer investigators’ questions. A spokesperson said the police did not have a veterinarian or a stun gun at their disposal at the time of the escape, leaving only lethal means to restore public order. Prosecutors said no inquiry was planned against the officers who killed the animal. But the regional public prosecutor’s office said it had opened an investigation into suspected negligent bodily harm against Zander, 52, over possible breaches of safety protocols. The mayor of the Dölzig district where Zander lives with the tigers, Thomas Druskat, called for the immediate removal of the enclosure. “It’s unthinkable what might have happened if other people had been injured,” he told the newspaper Leipziger Volkszeitung. Zander, who was not present at the time of the attack, reportedly worked for 15 years as a circus tiger tamer but stopped touring about three years ago. She expressed her shock over the week’s events, and avowed her love for her tigers. “It’s actually every animal trainer’s worst nightmare,” she told the public broadcaster MDR in reference to the attack and its consequences, saying she was also worried about her injured colleague. Zander’s website, which was still up this week advertising “wonderful” and “unforgettable” tiger-petting events for the public, features short biographies of each of her animals. Three tigers apart from Sandokan were listed as having died in recent years. Sandokan was a nine-year-old, 280kg “majestic” Bengal-Siberian mix but was “a scaredy-cat” that could “quickly become overwhelmed and insecure” and “be triggered more quickly and unexpectedly” than the other animals. “That’s why I need to be extremely sensitive and empathetic when training him, so that he feels secure with me,” Zander wrote, saying with the right treatment Sandokan reverted to being “a lovely, cuddly chap again”. The website said that Zander had won multiple prizes at the Monte Carlo circus festival and featured a picture of her with Princess Stéphanie of Monaco. However, she has previously faced scrutiny for the animals’ living conditions at the enclosure in an industrial zone of Schkeuditz, where she has kept tigers since 2016. The district administration office said there were eight tigers living at the facility. A spokesperson for the office told Spiegel magazine that it had been “working for some time to improve the conditions in which the tigers are kept”. Recently, Zander had been asked to “comply with the regulations in such a way that all animals have access to the required indoor and outdoor space, or to reduce the number of animals to fit the space currently available”. The spokesperson said it was not yet clear what would happen with the animals as “no findings have yet been released regarding the investigation into the cause of the incident”. The German Animal Protection Association called for stronger legal protections governing keeping wild animals, including a ban in some cases. The animal rights group Peta, which has long criticised Zander, said veterinary authorities “share responsibility for this tragic incident” by having failed to act against the facility sooner and demanded that the remaining animals there be confiscated. Yvonne Würz, a Peta adviser on zoos and circuses, criticised how Zander kept the big cats, telling local media: “The tigers are confined to a tiny space in their enclosure, in bare metal cages, and deprived of everything that would constitute a species-appropriate life for a tiger.” Zander insisted her enclosure offered more hospitable conditions to those usually experienced by tigers in captivity. “The difference compared to a zoo environment is that my animals are always together and I don’t keep them in solitary confinement,” she said. Zander relies on donations to care for the tigers, as well as the help of friends. She said she dreamed of having her own tiger park, partly to raise awareness about the endangered species, and wondered why animal rights activists were not interested in finding a suitable solution for the tigers with her as their keeper. If the animals were taken away from her, she said, they would be emotionally devastated. “They would become apathetic and refuse to eat. They would call out for me for days on end, withdraw into themselves and die.” Zander did not respond to a Guardian request for comment.

Friday briefing: As Israel’s coalition collapses, can its prime minister hang on to power?

Good morning. On Wednesday, Israeli legislators took the first steps towards dissolving parliament and calling fresh nationwide elections. Leading leftwing Knesset member Yair Golan hailed it “the beginning of the end of the worst government in Israel’s history.” Benjamin Netanyahu has spent 20 of the last 30 years as Israel’s prime minister, the last four of which have seen him helm a far-right coalition. Under the incumbent government, settlement building in the illegally occupied West Bank has accelerated, while many international humanitarian NGOs have been banned from the Palestinian territories. Following Hamas’s killing of 1,200 Israelis on 7 October 2023, Netanyahu has orchestrated a campaign of violence in Gaza, wiping out more than 10% of the population, and flattening the strip in what the UN has declared a genocide. Netanyahu remains on trial for three counts of corruption. Much has changed since Israeli voters last went to the polls. Public support for Israel in both western Europe and the US is at its lowest ever level. Israeli public opinion, meanwhile, has shifted further right. For today’s First Edition, I spoke to Dahlia Scheindlin, a Tel Aviv-based political consultant and pollster, who has worked on nine Israeli election campaigns, about what is at stake and whether this vote may spell the end for Netanyahu. First, the headlines: Five big stories UK news | The parents of a girl critically injured in the Southport attack were allowed no more than 12 counselling sessions after the atrocity, while others described a “woeful” lack of support. UK politics | Sadiq Khan has blocked a £50m Metropolitan police deal with the controversial US tech company Palantir, sparking a bitter row between the London mayor and Scotland Yard. Israel | Israel has said it has deported all the foreign activists it seized from a Gaza-bound flotilla, after a global outcry over their treatment in custody. UK news | Single-sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog. Ukraine | Ukrainian drones hit the Syzran oil refinery more than 800km inside Russia, setting it on fire, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday. In depth: A thorny, unsolved question cracks the coalition In power since 2022, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud is the largest parliamentary party. That said, Scheindlin explains, no one expected his coalition government to last this long. “He is backed by two ultra-nationalist religious fundamentalist parties, and two ultra-orthodox religious fundamentalist parties.” Collectively, they hold 64 seats. For years, Scheindlin continues, Netanyahu’s coalition government has been plagued by the same thorny question. “Can it pass a law to guarantee the continued exemption of most ultra-orthodox young men from military service?” This has long been divisive in Israeli society, and yet, the coalition has trudged along, without resolving it. To Netanyahu’s coalition partners, this exemption law is of paramount importance. “It has seen many governments collapse. This government repeatedly reached crisis point over it,” says Scheindlin. On Wednesday, their coalition finally cracked. “Netanyahu’s partners said we don’t trust this government to pass that legislation any more.” A vote to dissolve parliament received the backing of 110 out of 120 lawmakers. A three-month pre-election run-up period is required by law. Late August is the earliest possible polling day, with a cut-off date of 27 October. *** No guaranteed victory Netanyahu remains the most popular potential PM – having topped the polls consistently since August 2024 – but that’s no guarantee of electoral victory. “He is coming in strongest in almost all surveys,” says Scheindlin, “although with slight variations lately.” Made up of 120 seats, the Knesset is elected every four years through nationwide proportional representation. “Usually 30 to 40 parties compete,” Scheindlin says, “cross the 3.25% vote share threshold and you enter parliament.” No party in Israel’s history has won a majority of 61+ seats – so Netanyahu, like all those before him, relies on fragile coalitions. “In all polling from the last two years,” says Scheindlin, “his coalition has been getting between 49 and 56 seats.” If public opinion remains as is, Netanyahu will fail to secure another majority. Scheindlin also points out the remaining opposition parties which outnumber Netanyahu’s bloc aren’t necessarily more progressive. “Polling between 64 and 71 seats, these are dominated by what Israelis perceive to be moderate right, secular right, or semi-religious anti-Netanyahu parties.” While Likud has remained steady at the top of opinion polls, the second-ranked party has shifted regularly. “It is always a party that Israelis perceive as centre or moderate right. In the six months before and after 7 October, it was the party led by [former senior minister] Benny Gantz.” Fortunes change fast. “That party is now polling way below the 3.25% threshold.” *** Shifting alliances The ever-changing political landscape makes allegiances fluid and hard to follow. Gantz has now been usurped to second place by former prime minister Naftali Bennett, though his new party – Together (Israel) – is not currently in the Knesset. “Israelis view it as the moderate rightwing party, though Bennett came from the far right,” says Scheindlin. Bennett has achieved this feat by joining forces with once political rival, Yair Lapid. A former PM, Lapid’s past political persona was of a centrist, secular liberal. “Israelis perceive Lapid to be leftwing because he was the last PM to publicly support a two state solution, in September 2022. He doesn’t say that any more,” says Scheindlin. On the contrary, at the launch of their joint venture, Bennett declared: “We will safeguard the lands of our country and will not hand over a single centimetre to the enemy.” Lapid stood on stage with him. In some polls, Together (Israel) are one seat ahead of Netanyahu, in most they’re a small number of seats behind. There are plenty of challengers, too. Former IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot was polling at six seats just a few months ago. That’s 13-15 now. “He is bereaved, having lost his son and his nephew in the Gaza war. Avigdor Lieberman is also a longtime challenger to Netanyahu, from the secular, nationalist right. He gets 10 seats in most surveys.” Today, there’s a gap in the (relative) centre, after Yair Lapid joined forces with Naftali Bennett. “Then you have the Democrats, a merger of two former leftwing parties. Most Israelis view them as very leftwing; firm leftwingers view them as centrist.” With policies focused on affordable housing, trade unions and public services, they support a two state solution and oppose Israel’s occupation of the West Bank. The Democrats are polling about 10 seats. “The two major Arab parties currently have 10 seats, and are still trying to decide their constellation. Will they merge? Stay separate? Form a new party? Jewish-Arab party, maybe? All of this is still in play,” explains Scheindlin. *** A race wide open While these opposition parties consistently garner a majority of seats, a path to power remains almost inconceivable. “The leaders from these opposition parties tell the public repeatedly they will not form a government which includes Arab parties,” Scheindlin says. “If they dropped this taboo, of course they would have a majority. But here is the catch, to announce that, the Zionist parties worry they would haemorrhage support to the further-right Netanyahu bloc, harming their chances.” As such, Netanyahu may well cling on to power. “Many of his supporters believe in a conspiracy: that army chiefs and intelligence knew of [Hamas’s 7 October] plans, and let it happen, to embarrass the PM and bring him down. The belief in that conspiracy among coalition voters is growing over time,” says Scheindlin. “His polling, if anything, is getting a tiny bit better. His personal ratings are not at all bad. He has 45% of people who are always with him.” says Scheindlin, adding: “In the last election, his supporting parties combined won 48.3%. He doesn’t need to win a huge number of voters back.” And polls do show 17-20% of Israelis remain undecided. “If the numbers remain as they are now, very small percentages could tip the elections. Let’s put it this way,” says Scheindlin, “This race is simultaneously extremely close and wide open.” *** The end of Netanyahu? Should Netanyahu’s majority fade, progressive parties would be in the distinct minority. But while the country would – in Scheindlin’s prediction – likely still be led by firm right-wingers, there would probably be some domestic change: “A less populist style, less divisive rhetoric, less targeting of civilian institutions. Maybe they would try to revive damaged diplomatic relations. They would like to advance the draft for the ultra-orthodox. Attacks on the Israeli judiciary may reduce.” Resisted by Netanyahu, an independent inquiry into what happened on 7 October would “almost certainly be established … That will be a huge focus on the campaign.” “But least likely to change” Scheindlin continues, “is policy towards Palestinians.” She points to the role of Naftali Bennett – who would be at the heart of any new government and had a leading role in the Judea and Samaria Settlement Council before going into politics, an umbrella organisation for Israeli settlements in the illegally occupied West Bank. “He is dead set against a Palestinian state,” says Scheindlin. “This different government might say we need to start ending wars, but not through anything that looks like concessions.” The aim, says Scheindlin, would be “to turn down the volume on the Palestinian issue to avoid international pressure. In many ways, it would be window dressing.” This is more than an educated guess, Scheindlin says: it’s what happened when current opposition parties governed in 2021/22. Whichever outcome materialises, Scheindlin suggests, “the underlying problems as they relate to the Palestinians: occupation, self-determination, a two-state solution? I have a hard time seeing that changing.” Still, she accepts, the unexpected might just happen. “Maybe a government with the range of ideologies currently found in the opposition parties – under sustained international pressure from multiple sides – could just find itself in the perfect storm for change.” What else we’ve been reading Liz Lawrence is thoughtful talking about how she came back to music after her sister died, and made a record exploring her need for songs that explore the “open and frank sadness” of grief. Martin The latest instalment in Sam Wollaston’s Abandoned Britain series makes remarkable reading. He meets residents on the Carpenters estate in Newham, left in limbo during council “regeneration”. Michael Simon Hattenstone’s interview with national treasure Derek Jacobi – with Derek’s husband Richard Clifford chipping in – is an absolute joy. Martin Have you been searching for somewhere to hang out with 15,000 mannequins? You’re in luck. Mannakin Hall near Grantham offers you precisely this, one of 10 gloriously odd British sites to visit this bank holiday weekend. Michael For Huck magazine, Miss Rosen explores some recently rediscovered photographs of the legendary period of New York’s counterculture centre, the Chelsea Hotel. Martin Sport Cycling | Alec Segaert won stage 12 of the Giro d’Italia on Thursday and his Bahrain Victorious teammate Afonso Eulálio snatched bonus seconds in the intermediate sprint to extend his overall lead. Football | Southampton have provided footage of their training sessions to the English Football League’s independent disciplinary commission to try to prove they gained no material advantage from the Spygate saga. Football | Eight nations have won the World Cup. An expanded field and a gruelling schedule means a new champion could emerge from the pack this summer. The front pages “London mayor blocks Met’s AI deal with controversial tech firm” is the Guardian’s splash today. The FT says “SpaceX, OpenAI and Anthropic IPOs to trigger Wall Street trading frenzy”. On UK politics, the Telegraph says “Rayner in election fraud row”, while the Mail’s take is “Polling fraud row in Rayner constituency”. The Express says “Stop running away from the Brexit question Andy!” The i Paper leads with “Police widen inquiry into Andrew to include sexual misconduct claims”, while the Mirror has “Andrew cops in sex crime probe” and Metro says “Immigration: it’s tit for stat”. Something for the weekend Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now Film Eagles of the Republic| ★★★★☆ In the last of his “Cairo trilogy”, the Swedish-Egyptian film-maker Tarik Saleh turns a satirical lens to the glamorous world of the movies in this seductive black-comic political thriller set in present-day Egypt. It is a rackety, despairing, funny film with something of Billy Wilder, or István Szabó’s Mephisto, or Bertolucci’s fascism parable The Conformist. Saleh’s lead is his longtime leading man Fares Fares, playing the ageing movie star, George Fahmy – a pampered idol comfortable doing cheesy crowd-pleasing potboilers, but now bullied into performing in a sinister government-sponsored biopic of the president (with news footage of the current president, Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, cheekily cut in). Poor, preening George finds himself ordered to attend dinner parties and soirees convened by the reactionary junta – the self-styled “eagles of the republic” – who all profess a feline, insincere admiration for his cinematic art. The actor flies high before a horrible and sickening descent. Peter Bradshaw TV The Boroughs | ★★★★☆ A retirement village Scooby gang of heroes take on a horrific creature in a series that is funny, tender and wise. The Boroughs takes its time to crank up the plot. It moves, you might say, at the pace of its inhabitants, but that is only to the good. While channelling the spirit of Spielberg, the series speaks, via monsters and electroplasm, to eternal human fears. Death is one – the fear of dying alone and friendless, after one’s loved ones, or after years of living in a terrifying, memory-less present – and then gives us comfort, that together most monsters can be defeated. Lucy Mangan Games Forza Horizon 6, PC, Xbox, (PS5 due later) | ★★★★☆ The Forza Horizon games have always been about drama. Not just the tension and excitement of racing, but also the sensory impact of the natural environment – the sun rising over a dense city, rain clouds hovering above a valley floor. So in many ways, Forza Horizon 6 is a continuation of that and fans have been waiting years for Japan and now here it is: the whole country, reduced, remixed and repackaged as a driving paradise. It does not revolutionise what this series has always done, there is nothing radical here to attract a whole new base of players. But that’s fine. There is no other way most of us will ever get to sit in a Porsche 911 GT3 and cruise into the Daikoku parking area with Yellow Magic Orchestra playing on the radio. Keith Stuart Music Kurt Vile: Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me | ★★★★☆ Tap into Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me and you will find that Vile sounds as alarmingly great as ever, and more formally forward-thinking than he’s ever been. The album never labours its points or trades in anything so tacky as radical departures in sound or style. Vile’s music has always been about existence, but it’s rarely been this existential, and the songs’ hypnotic, elliptical structures create a stark sense of unease and unrest. It is, emphatically, a Kurt Vile record – loose, lush, ambling, aimless, and totally, deeply poetic, bruh. Shaad D’Souza Today in Focus Are we heading for another Ebola crisis? The Guardian’s global health correspondent, Kay Lay, and reporter Prosper Heri Ngorora, based in Goma, report on the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Cartoon of the day | Jason White The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad An aardvark calf born at Chester zoo in April, and nicknamed Womble, is thriving thanks to the dedication of a team of zookeepers. Womble was healthy at birth but its mother Oni wasn’t producing enough milk, so keepers began bottle-feeding the calf every two hours around the clock in a heated incubator. Aardvarks face increasing threats in the wild due to habitat loss and hunting, and births are extremely rare in captivity – Womble is only the second aardvark born at the zoo in its 94-year history. Zookeeper Sophie Tyson says: “Womble has gone from strength to strength and is doing brilliantly, so now lives full-time with mum Oni, and it’s wonderful to see them snuggled up side by side together.” 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

A pursuit in the senate, gunfire, now on the run: why is a former Philippines police chief in hiding?

Ronald dela Rosa, a former head of police in the Philippines, is wanted for alleged crimes against humanity over his role in a bloody “war on drugs” during Rodrigo Duterte’s 2016-2022 presidency. The controversial senator has gone into hiding after a dramatic entry, then escape from the senate building in Manila last week. The Philippines justice secretary has since ordered his arrest, calling him a “fugitive from justice”. Here’s everything to know about dela Rosa and the case against him: Who is Ronald dela Rosa? Dela Rosa, 64, is a Philippine senator and former head of national police, who is known for his role as the chief enforcer of former president Rodrigo Duterte’s so-called “war on drugs”. Known by the nickname “Bato”, which translates as “rock”, he is a celebrity-like figure in the Philippines, where he cultivated a tough-talking image, often making violent threats against drug dealers. His close ties with Duterte date back to their shared roots in Davao, in Mindanao, southern Philippines, where dela Rosa served as city police chief from 2012-13 and Duterte was mayor for more than 20 years cumulatively. It was in Davao that Duterte first rolled out his ruthless approach to law enforcement and established the Davao Death Squad (DDS), a group of police officers and non-police hitmen whose task was to kill alleged criminals, including drug dealers, according to International Criminal Court (ICC) prosecutors. Dela Rosa is accused of helping to recruit individuals and direct the group. When Duterte was elected president in 2016, he appointed dela Rosa head of Philippine national police to implement his “war on drugs” on a national scale. Dela Rosa vowed to “crush” drug lords, and once told crowds of surrendering drug users they could “kill” drug lords. “Pour gasoline on their houses and burn them. Show your anger,” he said. Police say more than 6,000 suspects were killed in official anti-drug operations during Duterte’s presidency. Activists say the real death toll may never be known, with some estimates suggesting as many as 30,000 may have been killed. After leaving the police force, dela Rosa was appointed the director general of Bureau of Corrections, before successfully running for the senate in 2019. He won a second senatorial term in May 2025. Why is he wanted by the ICC? The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for dela Rosa for alleged crimes against humanity for his role in Duterte’s “war on drugs”. Duterte was arrested last year and is imprisoned awaiting trial in The Hague. The arrest warrant, first issued confidentially in November, but unsealed this month, accuses dela Rosa of implementing the “war on drugs” at a national level. This includes “encouraging the police to legitimise killings through fictitious self-defence scenarios, and promising impunity” and “ordering the police to kill specific targets and planning killing operations”. It also accuses him of “expressing approval and rewarding perpetrators of killings” and making public statements “authorising, condoning and promoting” the killing of alleged criminals. ICC prosecutors also accuse him of playing a role in recruiting individuals who he could “trust and control” to the DDS in Davao. Members were easily replaced, the warrant says, adding that members were killed for opposing orders, “wanting to leave the DDS, or having too much information about the DDS killings”. Dela Rosa has previously denied involvement in illegal killings. Duterte, who is accused of crimes against humanity, has also denied the charges against him. Where is Dela Rosa? Dela Rosa was last seen in public at the senate last week, when he made a surprise appearance after six months staying out of the public eye to avoid arrest. He attended the senate to take part in a vote that would benefit his ally, the vice-president, Sara Duterte, the daughter of the former imprisoned leader. In bizarre and dramatic scenes, he was chased through hallways and up staircases in the senate by government agents seeking his arrest. Dela Rosa managed to outpace them, and his allies in the senate granted him protective custody, a concept some deem legally dubious. Dela Rosa remained inside the senate for three days in a standoff with the authorities. Tensions escalated into gunfire, for unclear reasons, and he disappeared from the heavily guarded building in the early hours of Thursday, 14 May. Some reports suggested he drove off in an SUV with a fellow Duterte-aligned senator. His whereabouts are not known. What happens next? The justice secretary, Fredderick Vida, announced on Thursday that law enforcement had been ordered to apprehend dela Rosa, after the supreme court rejected the senator’s attempts to block his arrest. “We are pursuing this so that the ends of justice may be achieved,” Vida said. Many questions remain over dela Rosa’s case. It’s unclear how dela Rosa managed to escape from the heavily guarded senate building last week without detection. It’s also unclear why the authorities had not previously acted on the ICC arrest warrant, which was first issued confidentially in November. Vida said law enforcement agencies have “leads” on dela Rosa’s whereabouts and that the arrest would be carried out as soon as possible. In the unpredictable world of Philippine politics, it’s very difficult to know what might happen next.

Chinese authorities destroy villager’s ramshackle 10-storey Studio Ghibli-esque home

A ramshackle 10-storey home that had become an offbeat tourist attraction in south-western China has been torn down, ending a years-long battle between the structure’s owner and local authorities. Chen Tianming said local authorities took just hours to return the stone bungalow – which had been transformed into a pyramid-shaped structure of plywood rooms stacked upon one another – back down to its original single storey. “I don’t feel regret, because regret is useless,” Chen told the AFP news agency. “I also don’t blame myself for failing to protect it – it’s just that the force driving its destruction was simply too powerful.” The 43-year-old had spent about 200,000 yuan ($29,000) over eight years to convert his family home into an unlikely tourist attraction in the village of Xingyi in Guizhou province. Visiting tourists drew comparisons between Chen’s home and the intricately detailed, whimsical worlds created by Japanese animator and Studio Ghibli co-founder Hayao Miyazaki. Authorities in Guizhou province have long threatened to remove the multi-storey structure that was held together by bamboo scaffolding, saying it lacked the necessary building permits and was a safety hazard. Chen’s home village of Xingyi was mostly demolished in 2018, as authorities planned to build a tourist resort in the region known for its otherworldly mountain landscapes. Chen’s family refused to leave, and as the resort’s construction faltered he began building his home higher and higher in defiance of demolition threats by authorities. In August 2024, authorities labelled Chen’s home an illegal construction and he was ordered to destroy everything except the original bungalow. On 18 May, Xingyi officials issued a final notice ordering Chen’s family to leave by 9am on Wednesday. After the deadline local law enforcement and public security bureau officials escorted Chen and his parents away from his home and confiscated his phone, holding him in custody as his home was demolished. Chen, who filmed the aftermath showing piles of building materials scattered around where the towering structure once stood, told AFP that he is now seeking legal help to have the forced demolition designated illegal. “Then I will have a chance to restore it,” he said. Additional reporting by Yu-chen Li

From Fiji to French Polynesia, how Pacific islands are uniquely vulnerable to the oil crisis

When 53-year-old Agbar Mohammad pulled into a petrol station in Fiji in May, he was expecting a queue. Instead, it was almost empty. “I could only see one or two cars at the service station, which was very unusual,” Mohammad says. The reason became clear very quickly: as Mohammad filled his car, the numbers on the fuel pump climbed so much faster than the needle on his dashboard. Normally he would put in about $40 of fuel, but this time $100 barely got his 60-litre tank halfway full. The Pacific region is already at the forefront of the climate crisis thanks to rising sea levels and increasing natural disasters. But the fuel crisis caused by the US-Israel war on Iran is revealing another fossil-fuel based vulnerability. The reliance of countries and territories in the Pacific on imported oil is expected to hit economic growth and increase inflation. The shortages are already showing up in the price of cassava, the cost of the school run, and in businesses’ bottom lines. Dr Rubayat Chowdhury from the Australian National University says Pacific Islands are very dependent on imports for food and basic necessities. And in a region that earns a lot from tourism, remittances and foreign aid, higher fuel prices will not just push up the cost of goods, but could also threaten incomes. “The Pacific will be hit hard,” says Chowdhury, for two main reasons. “The first is its remoteness. And the second is small populations.” Oil accounted for more than 80% of the region’s energy supply in 2023 – more than half of that for transport, and more than a third for electricity. At least eight Pacific countries generated more than half of their electricity in 2024 from oil products – over 90% in Solomon Islands and more than 80% in Tonga and Nauru. By comparison Australia and New Zealand derived 2.3% and 1.5% of their electricity from oil products in 2024, mostly from small, intermittent or temporary sources, such as remote or emergency generators. Many Pacific countries have a target to generate 100% of their electricity from renewables by 2030. Some, like Tokelau, have already achieved this, but most have not yet. Oil products accounted for about 20% of all imports for some Pacific countries in 2019, but many also import a lot of food and other staples that cannot be produced locally, meaning higher transport costs will affect a variety of goods and services. Data from the UN shows that in 2021-23, food made up over 20% of net imports in Samoa and Tonga, and over 29% in Kiribati. Many Pacific countries are already taking action, before oil supply shortages start to hit. Fiji’s parliament voted for a 20% pay cut for its members due to pressure on the budget from the global fuel price shock. Other countries have had to repeatedly hike fuel prices while introducing relief for businesses and residents. To help with fuel security, the Australian government has announced $30m in support for Fiji – including a supply and storage hub in the region. Fiji’s prime minister, Sitiveni Rabuka, said this would support the country’s upcoming national budget as Fijians brace for another fuel price increase this month. Guardian Australia analysis of global trade flows in 2024 found that Pacific countries received most of their fuel from just one of a handful of countries – Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea and China. Some Pacific countries source 80%, 90% or more of their oil products from their largest supplier country. This kind of concentration could leave Pacific countries exposed if their suppliers have to prioritise their own domestic markets. Australia has already been warned that Malaysia or South Korea might need to do this if the crisis continues. Dr Chowdhury also notes that Australia is relatively protected from an oil supply shock by its purchasing power, and by being one of the world’s largest producers and exporters of liquefied natural gas. “It’s relatively easier for bigger nations like Australia to negotiate, right? To reach out to Brunei, for example, to secure the oil supply. “It’s not easy for Solomon Islands or the [Federated States of Micronesia] to do the same.” For Agbar in Suva, the fuel crisis so far has largely meant working longer hours to break even. For bus operators, tighter margins. For farmers from provinces like Tailevu, Naitasiri and Ra, it means paying more just to get produce into town. And for fellow driver Gerald Elaisa, every trip now comes with calculation. “We only buy fuel for the important runs – school, work, home,” he says. “The children now catch the bus or walk. We are cutting down on unnecessary spending.” For many Fijian families, fuel is no longer just filling their tanks. It is shaping how they live.

South Korea hosts America’s biggest overseas military base – but what does its future look like under Trump?

There are school bus routes, baseball diamonds and American football fields. Soldiers queue for lunch at Taco Bell, Pizza Hut and Arby’s outlets. A postbox stamped with the logo of the US postal service stands outside the commissary stocked with American groceries. The signage is all in English and the US dollar is the currency in use. Beyond the perimeter fence, military helicopters rise above the airfield and cut across the blue sky. The scene is a slice of contemporary America, despite being more than 5,000km from the US mainland. Camp Humphreys, located in the South Korean city of Pyeongtaek, is the largest American military base outside the US: 1,372 hectares (3,390 acres), nearly a thousand buildings and with a population of roughly 41,000, including American service members, their families and Korean nationals. It serves as headquarters for United States Forces Korea (USFK), the clearest physical expression of the alliance between Washington and Seoul that has underpinned stability on the Korean peninsula since the Korean war ended in an armistice in 1953. Yet the alliance that planted this piece of America in South Korea is now being tested. From trade tensions to security guarantees, relations under President Donald Trump are increasingly transactional in a way that has unsettled Seoul, which has long depended on Washington as a guarantor in its defence against North Korea. “Reliability and credibility issues are worse than they were before,” says Mason Richey, a professor of international politics at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies in Seoul. The alliance retains deep operational ties, he says, but the political surface has become far more fraught. When Trump announced earlier this month that he would withdraw 5,000 troops from Germany after the country’s chancellor, Friedrich Merz, said Washington was being “humiliated” by Iran – with the US president also threatening reductions elsewhere in Europe – Korean media raised the question of whether South Korea would be next, reviving speculation that has persisted throughout Trump’s presidency. The defence ministry and presidential office moved quickly to deny that any troop reduction discussions were under way. Asked about reported adjustments to troop numbers and assets, USFK said the current 28,500 troops was “a baseline, not a limit or a ceiling”, and that the command’s focus was on capabilities rather than fixed numbers. But under Trump, tensions in the alliance – including an immigration raid at a Hyundai-LG battery plant in Georgia last year, and threats to hike tariffs on South Korean goods to 25% – have begun to spill out into national security. The US reportedly partly restricted intelligence sharing after a South Korean minister publicly identified a suspected North Korean nuclear site. And in April, fallout from a US-incorporated company’s data breach stalled talks on the development of nuclear-powered submarines. Amid these tensions, South Korea is debating how dependent it can remain on American protection. An advantage ‘no other US ally can replicate’ Behind the suburban veneer of Camp Humphreys is a military installation training for war. At the state-of-the-art Vandal Training Center, US and Korean soldiers run water-survival drills in a massive pool designed to simulate a helicopter crashing into the sea. In a darkened medical room filled with artificial smoke and the piped-in sounds of combat, troops wearing night-vision goggles practise battlefield evacuations on $400,000 mannequins with severed limbs that are rigged to bleed on command. Upstairs, virtual-reality simulators allow units to run combat scenarios in almost any country or terrain in the world. An official at the base says the readiness standard is “fight tonight”. For years, their focus has been across the northern border. North Korea possesses nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles theoretically capable of reaching the US mainland. In late 2024 it deployed more than 12,000 troops to support Russian forces in Ukraine and is widely believed to have received advanced military technology and training from Moscow in return. But Washington is becoming more explicit about recalibrating the division of labour. The Pentagon’s national defence strategy – published in January – states that South Korea is capable of taking “primary responsibility” for deterring North Korea, with increasingly limited US support. Washington is also pushing to expand its mission beyond the Korean peninsula. From Camp Humphreys, the US has China in view. The base is positioned roughly 800km (500 miles) from Shanghai and under 1,400km from Taiwan. “Korea sits at the centre of the regional security geometry, with a positional advantage no other US ally can replicate,” a USFK official told the Guardian. Xavier Brunson, the commander of USFK, says the base’s presence “complicates every calculation” an adversary makes. In Seoul, though, there are fears that hosting a launchpad for US regional operations beyond North Korea could drag South Korea into unwanted conflict with China. “Many South Koreans, particularly among more progressive constituencies, are reluctant to see USFK reoriented toward containing China,” says Jaechun Kim, a professor of international relations at Sogang University in Seoul. “There is strong concern about entrapment in broader US-China strategic competition, particularly over potential Taiwan contingencies.” Trump’s recent calls for allies, including South Korea, to join US-led operations in the strait of Hormuz sharpened concerns in Seoul about how far the alliance could extend beyond the peninsula. At Camp Humphreys, four new barracks are nearing completion, and a new elementary school is under construction. The base is going nowhere, and for now at least, large-scale troop withdrawals remain unlikely. A sculpture commemorating the US-South Korea alliance stands outside the USFK headquarters. Inscribed on one side, in Korean, are the words: “함께 갑시다” (hamkke gapsida) – we go together.

Protests at new US consulate after Trump envoy says time for US ‘to put its footprint back’ on Greenland

Hundreds of people protested against the opening of a new US consulate in Nuuk after comments by the US special envoy to Greenland that it was time for Washington “to put its footprint back” on the Arctic territory. Many Greenlandic politicians, including the prime minister, said they would not attend the official opening on Thursday. Protesters carried Greenlandic flags and signs that read “USA Asu” (Stop USA) and shouted “Greenland belongs to Greenlanders” outside the Greenlandic parliament before shouting “go home” outside the US consulate. The US special envoy, Jeff Landry, arrived in Nuuk uninvited with a delegation including a doctor, who caused fury by saying he was there to “assess the medical needs of Greenland”. Landry briefly attended a business conference with the US ambassador to Denmark, Kenneth Lowery, and left Nuuk on Wednesday night. During his visit, Landry told Agence France-Presse he thought it was “time for the US to put its footprint back on Greenland”. He said: “Greenland needs the US. I think that you’re seeing the president talk about increasing national security operations and repopulating certain bases in Greenland.” Meanwhile, negotiations between the US, Greenland and Denmark are continuing, despite the fact Copenhagen is without a fully functioning government amid record-long coalition talks. While Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, reiterated this week that the largely autonomous territory – a former Danish colony that remains part of the Danish kingdom – was not for sale, he also said Greenland was “obliged to find a solution” with the US. The US already had a consulate in Nuuk, in a modest traditional-style building, but the move to new premises in a modern high-rise is symbolic of its growing presence. Aqqalukkuluk Fontain, 37, an IT account manager who organised the protest because of the strength of feeling against the US presence in Nuuk, said: “It’s very important, now more than ever, to show the American people what we already said, that no means no, and that the future and self-determination of Greenland belongs to the Greenlandic people.” Fontain added: “The protest itself is not to provoke Donald Trump or Jeff Landry but to show the world that Greenland has its own democracy.” He said the future of Greenland was a concern for the entire world. “It is very dangerous what the United States is trying to do, because if Greenland falls, the world will fall and it might lead to world war three.” Christian Keldsen, the chief executive of Greenland Business Association, which organised the Future Greenland conference, said Landry did not get the reception he was hoping for. “Three months ago Greenland was under threat of invasion and takeover and he [Landry] was one of the people supporting that statement,” he said. “Then three months later you show up here wanting to make friends, handing out chocolate to children and trying to hand out Maga caps.” Among the conference speakers was Rufus Gifford, the US ambassador to Denmark between 2013 and 2017, who criticised comments by Landry to reporters that had suggested no high-level diplomats had visited Greenland before Trump became president. In a video posted on social media, Gifford said: “He wants Greenlanders to be grateful to Donald Trump. You are way in over your head, man. Way in over your head. Go home.” Trump has repeatedly threatened to invade Greenland, which he claims he needs for US national security. As well as its location on the shortest route for missiles between the US and Russia, Greenland is also attracting global attention for its rare-earth minerals and its critical location for shipping as the polar ice melts. A US Northern Command (Northcom) spokesperson told the Guardian last month the US was “evaluating options to strengthen homeland defence efforts in Greenland” and that any new defence areas would be established “in accordance with the 1951 agreement on the defence of Greenland”. That included plans for “significant investment” in Pituffik, where the US already has a base, and the possibility of “expanding defence areas beyond Pituffik”. Among additional sites under consideration, the spokesperson said, was Narsarsuaq, a settlement in southern Greenland, but they said no final decisions had been made. Northcom said the US was also looking at the use of deep-water ports and longer airfields, “particularly to support maritime surveillance and operations in the North Atlantic and to track activity past the Greenland-Iceland-UK Gap”. They said they US was “coordinating with the kingdom of Denmark on site surveys and assessments”, which were expected to take several months. While coalition talks between political leaders in Copenhagen have entered their eighth week after a general election in March, the foreign policy committee continues to meet. Denmark’s acting foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, will attend Thursday’s Nato meeting of foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, will also be there. In an interview with the Greenlandic newspaper Sermitsiaq, Landry appeared to try to capitalise on Greenland’s future hopes for full independence from Denmark. “I think there are some incredible opportunities that can actually lift Greenlanders from dependency to independence,” he said. “I think that the president of the United States would like to see the country become economically independent. And I think it’s possible here.”

Single-sex toilets must exclude transgender people, says EHRC

Single-sex toilets and changing rooms in England, Wales and Scotland must exclude transgender men and women, according to a new code of practice from the equalities watchdog. But the long-awaited guidance also says that businesses and service providers have to offer practical alternatives such as gender-neutral toilets for people who do not wish to use services for their biological sex. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) document sets out how public bodies, businesses and other service providers should respond in practical terms to April 2025’s landmark supreme court ruling that sex in the Equality Act refers only to biological sex. The guidance will be seen as an incremental victory for gender-critical campaigners, who have long argued that trans women specifically should be excluded from women-only services. But critics fear it will consolidate a chilling effect as trans people avoid public places altogether. Trans advocacy groups had hoped that amendments made to the code by the EHRC in April, after feedback from the government, as well as consultation responses and extra legal advice, might result in a less blanket exclusion. The guidance does suggest it is feasible for clubs and associations to remain trans inclusive, by making themselves open to several protected characteristics at once, for example women or men and trans people. But in healthcare, where mixed-sex accommodation is not available, trans patients must be accommodated on the single-sex ward that accords with their biological sex. But the code also states it would not be proportionate to exclude a trans man from obstetrics and gynaecology outpatient services based on the objections of female patients. The government’s own equality impact assessment that accompanies the updated code acknowledges that the likely impact on transgender people is “negative”, but highlights mitigating factors like the ability of services to create “third-space” provision. The guidance is clear that if a service provider admits a trans person to a service that aligns to their lived gender, that service can no longer be described as single sex and the provider is “very likely” to be at risk of legal challenge. The chair of the EHRC, Mary-Ann Stephenson, said: “The supreme court was very clear … if you are providing separate toilets for women and men, that has to be on the basis of biological sex.” Stephenson suggested that people had “got caught up in a hyperfocus on: which toilets can trans women use?” She said: “It would take a lot of the heat out and we might be able to provide some solutions if we could take a bigger step back and say: ‘Lots of us have different needs in terms of accessing toilets.’” She called for a “wider conversation about how we make that work in practice”, referring to services supporting women who are escaping violence, where a provider will often provide a variety of accommodation including communal space and self-contained accommodation, which it might offer to women who have teenage sons, for example, or to trans women. While campaign groups continued to digest the 340-page document on Thursday evening, early responses reflected continued divisions over how to interpret the supreme court ruling. The Trans+ Solidarity Alliance director, Alexandra Parmar-Yee, said the guidance was “a section 28 moment for this Labour government” and “worryingly similar to a US bathroom ban condemned by the UK Foreign Office in 2016”. “The law here is a mess, and clearly many businesses will just go gender neutral to avoid the headache, but the government risks pushing trans people yet further out of public life.” For Women Scotland, the gender-critical campaign group that brought the original case to the supreme court and has heavily criticised the length of time taken by the UK government to review the code described this as “a significant milestone in ensuring women’s rights are upheld and protected across the UK”. Co-founder Susan Smith said: “Hopefully, this will put an end to the unjustified excuses and delays in implementing the supreme court ruling. There is now no reason for public bodies and organisations to evade their responsibilities to women.” The updated code of practice for service providers, associations and those delivering public functions – which remains in draft form – was laid before parliament by the equalities minister, Bridget Phillipson, on Thursday afternoon. MPs now have 40 days to consider the document before the minister issues a final order and it comes into force across England, Scotland and Wales. In a written statement, Phillipson said the draft code’s content on sex and gender reassignment had “changed substantially” in light of the supreme court’s judgment and thanked the commission for its work ensuring the document was “accessible and provides a wide range of examples for duty bearers”. Many businesses have raised concerns that the required changes could undermine inclusion, and be unworkable, for example, in hospitality, where venues differ drastically in terms of size, space and age of buildings. The code gives the example of renovation to a shopping centre. The management recognises that providing only male and female toilets would disadvantage trans users and could cause safety risks and distress if they were required to use toilets designated for those of the same biological sex. “The service provider therefore decides to also provide toilets in individual lockable rooms with hand basins, which can be used by people of either sex.” This cost would be borne by the business itself. When the Equality Act 2010 was passed, the impact assessment estimated costs in the first year alone could amount to more than £300m. Another example concerns a community advice centre with single-sex toilets extending the use of its accessible toilets to trans people. The code advises the group to monitor whether this arrangement has any negative impact on both trans and disabled people. Disabled rights campaigners have previously told the Guardian they were watching “in horror” as the trans community faces similar toilet segregation and exclusion from public spaces that they do. The guidance states that while it is unlikely to be “practical or appropriate” to question an individual using single-sex facilities, such as toilets, about their sex, it may be legitimate if concerns are raised about that person’s “physical appearance, behaviour or concerns raised by other service users”.