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Donald Trump says he would ‘love’ to see united Ireland

Donald Trump has said he would “love” to see a united Ireland and that it “may as well happen now”. The US president appeared to endorse the push for constitutional change on the island at the start of a two-day visit to Ireland on Saturday. The unexpected intervention prompted a swift rebuttal from the UK government and Northern Ireland’s unionist leaders. “I don’t want ⁠to cause any problems, but ‌I will ‌tell you, I’d love ‌to see it unified,” Trump told reporters at joint press conference with the taoiseach, Micheál Martin, in Dublin. “I think it would be a great feather in everybody’s cap if that happened. You know what? The way I look at it, it’s going to happen eventually. It may as well happen now.” The unification of Northern Ireland with the republic of Ireland would be “fantastic”, Trump said. “The UK will have something to say about it, obviously. But I think it would be a great thing. I mean, how can it be bad?” The intervention jolted his hosts and came two weeks after Andy Burnham said a referendum on unification was “off the table”, which angered Sinn Féin and other Irish nationalists. Speaking later on Saturday, Trump acknowledged that his comments on unification, made in response to a reporter’s question, would be controversial. “No matter what you say or how you say it, there’s no good answer,” he said. “I gave a nice answer, I think. We’ll worry about it tomorrow.” Unification, he added, would be a “very cool thing”. A Downing Street spokesperson said the prime minister still believed there was not the required support for unification to trigger a referendum, as set out in the Good Friday agreement. Gavin Robinson, the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) leader, said Northern Ireland’s constitutional future would be decided by its people, not by commentary in London, Dublin or Washington. “Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom because that is the settled democratic will of its people. I am confident Northern Ireland will continue to choose the UK and the security it offers. As unionists we are not interested in the destruction of our country by joining with the Irish republic.” Colum Eastwood, an MP and former leader of the Social Democratic and Labour party (SDLP), and frequent critic of Trump, posted a clip of the president’s remarks on social media and wrote: “Always liked him.” The Conservative leader, Kemi Badenoch, said: “President Trump is shooting from the hip as usual, just like he did with Greenland and Canada becoming the 51st state. This sort of loose talk about the future of democratic countries is deeply unhelpful and creates unnecessary tension.” Trump’s comments strayed from predecessors who sought to keep the White House neutral on Ireland’s constitutional future, but the off-the-cuff nature of the remarks suggested there was no change in US policy. Trump’s unofficial visit is centred on golf – he flew on Saturday afternoon to his resort in Doonbeg, County Clare, which is hosting the Irish Open – but started with a courtesy call in Dublin to Áras an Uachtaráin, the official residence and workplace of the Irish president, Catherine Connolly. Before her election to the ceremonial post last year, Connolly called Trump a bully and criticised his policies in Gaza and Iran. Their brief encounter, behind closed doors, appeared to go smoothly despite a coded critique of White House policies. Connolly said in a statement afterwards that she “conveyed the strong view of the Irish people that the normalisation of war and genocide can never be accepted” and stressed the importance of the United Nations – an organisation Trump has disparaged. Trump said they had a wide-ranging discussion, including about energy and water, and that Connolly was “terrific”. Trump held a separate meeting with Martin at the Phoenix Park, where he told the press that Iran would seek peace after the US midterm elections and repeated his claim that his war had prevented Tehran obtaining a nuclear weapon. Asked about protests against his visit – a large crowd was gathering in central Dublin, 5 miles away, as well as at Doonbeg – the president said he had not seen any protests. Addressing guests as at the US ambassador’s residence, Trump assailed US Democrats as extremists and criticised Europe’s approach to immigration. He lauded US-Irish relations but reiterated a complaint about the American pharma giants in Ireland. “You took all our medical companies, we’ve got to get a couple of them back. You fleeced us but that’s OK.” Thousands of protesters marched through central Dublin and held a rally outside parliament. Speakers accused Trump of facilitating genocide in Gaza and led chants of “Donald Trump, can you hear? We don’t want you here.” Others in the crowd accused the president of misogyny, sexual assault, racism and xenophobia. “Donald Trump is utterly immoral and he’s wrecking the world,” said Anne McGuinness, 70, who held a banner that said “unwelcome”. Emily Hamilton, whose daughter held a banner saying “Get rid of the evil orange”, said the Irish government should have shunned him. “We can’t stop him going to Doonbeg but we should not be welcoming him.” Mick Brennan, 70, said he and his wife Helen do not normally attend protests but made an exception for the US president. “We can’t stand that Trump fella, from his toes to his nose.” A smaller protest was held at Doonbeg. Trump is to stay overnight at his resort and present the Irish Open trophy to the winner on Sunday before returning to Washington.

Number of UK anti-migrant vigilante groups surges in last 18 months

At least 28 anti-migrant vigilante groups have formed in the UK in the last 18 months, ranging from unauthorised street patrols claiming to protect women and children to groups harassing migrants in France and blocking ports. From Belfast to the south coast of England, the number of active groups has surged since the summer of 2025, according to analysis by the Guardian, amid widespread concerns over fresh disorder after black-clad vigilantes, many of them wearing balaclavas, blocked roads in Portsmouth and Dover last weekend. Often arguing that they are filling gaps left by the police or taking action on migration that the government is unable to, the groups range from small-scale community patrols near asylum-seeker accommodation to those attempting to stop migrants crossing the Channel from France. They include Scots Active, which conducts late-night patrols around Glasgow city centre claiming to protect the public from migrants, sometimes wearing balaclavas and stab-proof vests. It says its activities help ensure the safety of women and girls. It was one of two groups banned from TikTok earlier this year after reportedly sharing footage claiming to expose migrant hotels. Another is the British Security Project, a self-styled civilian safety group that has described itself as the “tip of the spear in mass deportation under a Rupert Lowe government”. It recruits “visible deterrent patrol” volunteers via its website and social media platforms, and responds to reports from the public about incidents claiming to involve migrants. It aims to “provide 124,000 security personnel to public spaces by 2035”, according to its Facebook page. When the Guardian contacted the group for comment, a spokesperson said it was neither vigilante nor anti-migrant. “The British Security Project is a developing non-profit community protection organisation committed to lawful, peaceful and accountable volunteer action,” they said. “It has no police or immigration-enforcement powers, does not permit people to be targeted because of their nationality or immigration status, and expressly prohibits vigilantism, intimidation, racism and unlawful discrimination.” Members of another group, Raise the Colours, made several trips to France in 2025 to try to stop migrants crossing the Channel in small boats. They filmed themselves claiming to have slashed dinghies on French beaches. France subsequently banned 10 members from the country. Members of far-right Patriot Platform blocked roads near Dover for several hours last Saturday, disrupting traffic to and from the port. Kent police initially said they had received no warning, but later admitted officers had failed to act on calls made on Friday evening. On Sunday, about 200 black-clad men gathered in Portsmouth after 120 asylum seekers rescued from a dinghy were brought ashore there. They blocked roads and allegedly assaulted several police officers. The home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, urged police on Thursday to curb the activities of such groups, telling senior officers to make full use of their powers. The rise in vigilante groups is a recent phenomenon, overwhelmingly happening in the last year. Of the 31 active groups the Guardian was able to establish initiation dates for, 28 were set up since last summer, with a spike in August 2025 after Raise the Colours’ flag operation and unrest at an asylum hotel in Epping. Setup dates were taken from online activity on Facebook and Instagram, domain name registrations and media reports. To classify as anti-migrant vigilantes, the Guardian considers that a group must have taken the law into its own hands in the name of opposing migrants or asylum seekers. Groups limited to more conventional protests and far-right political parties were not included. In a campaign of intimidation last summer, a vigilante group called the Belfast Nightwatch First Division was involved in targeting dark-skinned males in the city, challenging them to produce identification documents. Dr Julia Ebner, an expert on extremism at the University of Oxford, said the figures showed a rapid shift in the ways anti-migrant activists were mobilising which was particularly striking. “At the heart of most vigilante groups is the claim that the authorities are incapable or unwilling to protect a country’s citizens,” she said. “This is a dangerous dynamic, because when trust in authorities is undermined this can quickly translate into justifications of running their own policing operations or even violent campaigns – all supposedly for a good cause. “Another underlying narrative that is not new but has been amplified across social media is the idea that ‘our’ women and children are threatened by men of migrant backgrounds. There is also a performative aspect of vigilante movements: uniforms, patrols and security equipment can project authority and legitimacy even when the groups themselves are relatively small. “This can help far-right movements recruit new members and produce visually appealing social media content to increase their public profile and expand their followership.” Alex MacKinnon, a researcher at Hope Not Hate, said vigilantism had long been part of far-right activism, but that there had been a dramatic increase in extremists’ grassroots efforts in the last 18 months. “While vigilante groups typically purport to protect the wider community, the majority do not properly vet their members, resulting in several being exposed for their violent criminal histories,” he said. “Furthermore, they regularly engage in intimidatory behaviour, as seen in Patriot Platform’s Dover demonstration. Vigilante groups of this type often promote aggressive anti-migrant agendas, using ‘community protection’ as a cover for racist thuggery.” In response to the Guardian’s analysis, the National Police Chiefs’ Council said it was important for the public to report concerns about crime and safety. “Police officers are specially trained to respond to a wide range of incidents safely and lawfully,” a spokesperson said. “While we understand people may want to protect their communities, taking enforcement into your own hands can be dangerous, and could compromise a police investigation.”

Saudi Arabia shuts down key oil pipeline, blaming drones from Iraq

Saudi Arabia has shut down a critical oil pipeline, accusing militants in Iraq of launching drone attacks on the export route being used to bypass the lockdown of the strait of Hormuz. The world’s largest ⁠crude oil exporter has increased its use of the 745-mile (1,200km) pipeline running across the Arabian peninsula, which links Abqaiq, near the Gulf, to the port of Yanbu, on the Red Sea, since the US-Israeli war against Iran began. The Saudi foreign ministry condemned “the targeting of the East-West pipeline in the Riyadh and Medina regions by several drones coming from Iraq, which caused human injuries and damage”. An energy ministry official told the SPA news agency earlier that the pipeline was “stopped as a precaution”. Baghdad is under mounting pressure to prevent militant groups, including those backed by Saudi Arabia’s regional rival Iran, from launching attacks on Gulf countries from Iraqi soil. The US president, Donald Trump, said he believed Tehran was responsible for the aerial attack. “I ‌think they ‌are, probably they are,” Trump told reporters in ‌Dublin during a visit to Ireland. On Saturday, Iraq’s government confirmed the attacks were launched from its territory and ordered an investigation. It condemned “the attacks targeting our brethren in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia”, and the office of the Iraqi prime minister, Ali al-Zaidi, said the commander in charge of the southern province of Maysan had been dismissed. Satellite images from Copernicus Sentinel Data taken on Thursday showed black smoke billowing near Medina, along the general route of the East-West pipeline. According to the International Energy Agency, Saudi oil exports through the Red Sea port at the pipeline’s end have more than doubled since the war began. The news comes as Yemen’s Houthi forces have captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab strait, expanding their control of the narrow waterway, one of the world’s vital shipping routes linking Europe and Asia. Oil prices climbed past $100 (£74) a barrel this week, while average US diesel prices topped $6 for the first time on Friday – a potential headache for Trump before midterm elections in November. A failed attempt by the US and Israel to overthrow the Iranian regime this year has destabilised the Gulf, and Iran and its proxies have now tightened their grip over two crucial shipping routes – the strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea. Trump said ⁠on Saturday ⁠that everything would “work out ⁠just fine” when asked whether he ⁠could help move ‌traffic ‌through the strait ‌of Hormuz in light of fresh concerns about Saudi ‌Arabia. “Everything will work out just fine,” Trump said, speaking in Dublin ⁠after meeting the Irish president, Catherine Connolly. But Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, speaking on the sidelines of a developing nations Brics summit in India, said the Middle East did not need the US to be a “regional policeman”. Saudi Arabia has previously accused Tehran-backed Iraqi militias of targeting its oil infrastructure. It said the kingdom “reserves the right to take all necessary measures to protect its sovereignty, its security, its facilities” and its people. Bahrain, Jordan and Qatar also condemned the attack on the Saudi pipeline, while the Gulf Cooperation Council denounced “a dangerous escalation and an unacceptable threat to the security of the Kingdom”. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels announced a maritime blockade in July against Saudi Arabia – which supports the Yemeni government – attacking its oil tankers in the Red Sea. After taking control of the Yemeni Red Sea coast on Friday, the Houthis said navigation through the Bab al-Mandab strait was “safe” for all but Saudi Arabia.

IDF soldier filmed shooting Palestinian in leg amid West Bank settler standoff

An Israeli soldier has shot a Palestinian man, wounding him in the leg, as settlers confronted villagers by grazing livestock on Palestinian-owned land in the town of Faqqua in the occupied West Bank. Witnesses said a group of settlers had entered the area with their livestock, prompting residents to try to stop them. Israeli forces then intervened and, according to men at the scene, opened fire at residents. One of them shot Qassem Hussam, a Palestinian man in his mid-30s, wounding him in the leg. Reached by the Guardian, the IDF confirmed it had received a report of the incident and that the person who fired was one of its soldiers. “Earlier today [Saturday], a report was received regarding friction between Israeli civilians and Palestinians near the area of Faqqua,” the IDF said. “An IDF force that was at the scene fired into the air and toward a Palestinian.” Mohammed al-Sheikh, 34, who was standing next to Hussam, told the Guardian the confrontation began when villagers encountered Israeli settlers grazing livestock on Palestinian-owned land. “Then the Israeli soldiers came,” al-Sheikh said. “They started shooting. One soldier shot Hussam and he fell to the ground. We immediately went to help him and move him away. We couldn’t get an ambulance to the area, so we took him to hospital in a private car.” Hussam was taken to hospital in a light-to-moderate condition, according to the Palestine Red Crescent. The Israeli military said the incident was being reviewed by commanders and that its findings would be forwarded to the relevant authorities for examination. The IDF added that the military was investigating the soldier who shot the Palestinian man, apparently in breach of army protocol, according to the Times of Israel. Video of the incident shows a group of Israeli soldiers and settlers confronting unarmed Palestinian men before shots are fired. The incident is the latest to raise questions over the Israeli government’s ability or willingness to curb violent settlers in the occupied West Bank, where attacks have continued to increase. On 8 September, the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, said he would “not stand by” as horrific suffering continued, writing in the Guardian that for too long the UK had been hesitant to act, “fearful of being accused of being anti-Israel”. Ed Miliband, the UK’s foreign secretary, said the government would now take the official position that Israel’s occupation of the West Bank was unlawful in its entirety, and announced sweeping sanctions on trade with Israeli settlements. The dramatic shift in the UK’s position came after a summer of intense diplomacy against a backdrop of rising settler violence in the West Bank, which led 12 countries, including France and Canada, to announce sanctions. After Miliband described violent Jewish settler activity in the occupied West Bank as “ethnic cleansing” carried out with the tacit backing of the government of the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s foreign minister, Gideon Sa’ar, announced retaliatory measures including the closure of the consulate and entry bans on several MPs. It marked the latest stage in a rapidly worsening dispute between the two countries, with diplomatic relations at their lowest point in years, even as violence in the West Bank has continued. Israeli forces also carried out raids across Jenin governorate on Saturday, arresting six people and injuring a 14-year-old boy, who suffered a broken hand, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa. Soldiers also raided several villages around Jenin, while forces entered at least five towns in Bethlehem governorate and set up a checkpoint at Za’atara. East of Ramallah, Israeli settlers attacked the outskirts of Burqa, throwing stones at homes and vehicles. On 4 September, two Palestinian teenagers were shot dead in al-Mughayyir after settlers entered the village under police and military escort and took dozens of sheep from a Palestinian home, residents and Israeli activists said. The victims were Khalil Abu Alia, 16, and Omar al-Nassan, 19. Three other pupils from their 470-strong school had already been killed by Israeli soldiers and settlers this year. According to the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), more than 1,111 Palestinians, including at least 243 children, have been killed in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, since 7 October 2023.

Xi Jinping gets red carpet at Brics summit amid thaw in India-China relations

The Chinese president, Xi Jinping, has received a red-carpet welcome in India for a summit of Brics developing nations, as regional rivals Beijing and Delhi make a public display of thawing relations while quietly competing to lead at a time of shaky US global dominance. As Xi stepped off the plane, he was walked past an honour guard of Indian soldiers and traditional dancers in colourful dresses. Later on Saturday, he was due to attend a gala dinner for the two-day summit. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and Iranian president, Masoud Pezeshkian, had already been welcomed by the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, who is hosting one of the group’s most closely watched gatherings since its inception. The summit marks Xi’s first visit to India in seven years and is seen as the biggest step towards reconciliation after a deadly 2020 military clash along the disputed Himalayan border, in which ‌20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers were killed. Ties between the nuclear-armed Asian giants have been warming recently, with flights and high-level contacts gradually being restored. China was “willing” to work with India to properly manage differences and be “good neighbours and friends”, China’s foreign ministry said on Friday. Leaders and diplomats have been convening in India for the annual gathering of the Brics grouping, named after five of its earliest members – Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa – that was conceived as a counterweight to western dominance. This summit comes as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, along with rising US-China tensions, test the bloc’s ability to find common ground. Since its inception in 2009, Brics has expanded as a forum for major emerging economies to include Egypt, Ethiopia, Indonesia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The group now rivals the US-dominated G7 forum of advanced economies, accounting for half of the global population. But its growth has also created new fractures and disunity – Iran was bombing Saudi Arabia and the UAE earlier this year, and Brics foreign ministers failed to agree on a joint statement when they met in Delhi in May. On Saturday, the bloc managed to unanimously agree on the wording of a joint declaration that reiterated a commitment to peaceful resolution of international disputes “through dialogue, consultation and diplomacy”. The “New Delhi declaration” called for “maximum restraint” in the Middle East, although it was worded so as not to call out member countries actively involved in conflicts. Jiang Shixue, the vice-president of the expert committee of the China thinktank Council for BRICs cooperation (China), said the 11 members “cannot speak with one voice on many issues”. “The only solution is to continuously strengthen political consensus,” he told the South China Morning Post. Beijing and Delhi have differing views on the role of the group. China has sought to expand Brics power as a counterweight to the US under Donald Trump’s leadership, which has launched global tariff and trade wars and retreated from multilateral institutions such as the UN, which afforded it international credibility. India has taken a more cautious approach, seeing Brics as a bridge between the west and the developing world. Saturday’s talks began with an address by Modi, who said Brics was “not against anyone”. Chietigj Bajpaee, a senior research fellow for South Asia in the Asia-Pacific programme at Chatham House, said this week that Delhi had found it hard to maintain its policy of “strategic hedging” during such a disruptive US presidency. “India’s position can appear out of sync in a forum whose membership includes countries with more overtly anti-western agendas, including China, Russia and Iran. And two other Brics countries, South Africa and Brazil, have suffered high-profile diplomatic disputes with the US,” he wrote. “The challenge for Delhi is that it wishes to promote this worldview in a way that is non-western but not explicitly anti-western.” Agence France-Presse contributed to this report

From socialist student to Trump proxy: the 25-year rise of Venezuela’s Delcy Rodríguez

It was April 2002 and Delcy Rodríguez was a woman on a mission. Venezuela’s then president, Hugo Chávez, had been temporarily toppled by a bungled coup and Rodríguez, a junior diplomat who had been studying at Birkbeck, University of London, decided to act. Rodríguez, then 32, set about trying to convince two reporters from the BBC programme Newsnight to accompany her to Venezuela’s capital to tell the world about what had happened. “She desperately wanted to get the story of Chávez and the coup out there on a big platform,” says one of those journalists, Meirion Jones, who engaged Rodríguez as their fixer and flew to Caracas with her. As the trio travelled around the South American city trying to land an interview with Chávez – who by then had reclaimed the presidency after being briefly detained – Jones had no inkling that his Venezuelan field producer and interpreter might one day become president herself. “She looked like she was still a student really … it was just impossible to imagine at that point that she would become president of Venezuela,” Jones says. Yet that is precisely what Rodríguez, now 57, has become, albeit in extraordinary circumstances precipitated by Donald Trump’s decision to abduct Chávez’s authoritarian heir, Nicolás Maduro. When US special forces snatched the unpopular Maduro on 3 January this year, he was widely expected to be replaced with María Corina Machado, the Nobel-winning opposition leader whose movement beat him in the stolen 2024 election. Instead, Trump discarded Machado and backed Maduro’s vice-president, Rodríguez, who became Venezuela’s interim leader two days after the downfall of her boss. Eight months later, Rodríguez is still in power – despite leading a country many now consider a US protectorate – and looks likely to remain there for the foreseeable future, with scant sign of fresh presidential elections being called. “We are very happy with the president-elect that we have right now,” Trump said of the un-elected Rodríguez after announcing what he called “the biggest oil deal in world history”. Imdat Oner, a former Turkish diplomat in Caracas, believes the deal has strengthened Rodríguez and dealt a big blow to those hoping for democratic change. “Delcy is winning … I see Delcy Rodríguez staying in the presidency for at least four or five more years,” he says. The Delcy Rodríguez that Jones flew with to Caracas more than two decades ago was a well-connected but politically insignificant figure known fundamentally because of her father. Jorge Antonio Rodríguez was a Marxist activist who died in police custody in 1976, when his daughter was seven, reputedly after being tortured while detained over the kidnapping of a US businessman. “All the Chavistas knew who her father had been – but they didn’t really know who she was,” says Jones, who is now a freelance investigative journalist. “[But during our time in Caracas] she’d made herself known to all these people … and I think by the end of the trip she was starting to think: ‘Maybe there is an opening for me in politics in Venezuela.’” Soon after, Rodríguez returned to Venezuela, landing jobs with its state oil company, PDVSA, and foreign ministry. By 2006, she had become Chávez’s chief of staff, although she fell out of favour after clashing with Venezuela’s then ambassador to Russia during a visit to Moscow. That row interrupted Rodríguez’s rise but she was rehabilitated by Maduro when he became president after Chávez’s 2013 death. In the years that followed, as her country nosedived into hunger and authoritarianism, Rodríguez enjoyed a rapid ascent. She served as foreign minister before taking charge of the country’s economy as petroleum minister, finance minister and Maduro’s vice-president. Her brother, a psychiatrist turned politician, Jorge Rodríguez, established himself as the head of the national assembly. After Maduro’s capture, the siblings formed a powerful triumvirate, alongside the feared interior minister, Diosdado Cabello. “Delcy is not Delcy. Delcy’s Delcy and her brother. They do everything in tandem … they don’t do anything without each other’s approval or consent,” says Andrés Izarra, Chávez’s communication minister who went into exile after falling out with Maduro. Those who have encountered Rodríguez during her unlikely 25-year rise, from being a leftwing student in the UK to the pinnacle of power in Venezuela, paint her in dramatically different ways. Admirers describe a pragmatic, witty and intelligent workaholic who they credit with helping Venezuela escape years of hyperinflation and believe can fulfil promises to revive the country’s decaying oil industry and economy. “Venezuela under Delcy is going to have the best possible kind of technocratic care – and that’s what is needed right now … she’s going to get that oil moving,” says Greg Palast, the other journalist who flew to Caracas with Rodríguez for the BBC in 2002. Palast believes Venezuela is “way better off” under Rodríguez than the incompetent Maduro, calling her a clever strategist who plays politics “on a four-dimensional chessboard”. Detractors paint Rodríguez as a belligerent, power-hungry chameleon whose political leanings can change on a dime and who, as a key member of Maduro’s regime, was herself responsible for Venezuela’s slide into poverty and dictatorship. “They’re evil, they are crazy and they are smart … they’re evil geniuses,” a prominent opposition politician, who asked not to be named, says of the Rodríguez siblings. Izarra says his former friend is “very machiavellian” and has a taste for luxury. Tom Shannon, a retired US diplomat who has worked with Venezuela since the 1990s, describes the multilingual Rodríguez as a “very smart, very articulate, very determined” and profoundly ideological person. Shannon recalls being “intercepted” by Rodríguez – then foreign minister – after flying to Caracas to meet Maduro during Barack Obama’s second term. Their conversation was wide-ranging. “But I remember very distinctly, at one point I raised the issue of human rights – our interest in especially seeing the release of certain people from prison,” Shannon says. “She … turned to me, with a look almost of contempt, not for me, but for the subject I was raising and she said: ‘You might not know my story, but my father was a revolutionary member of an armed revolutionary movement in Venezuela who was arrested [and] tortured during interrogation and killed by the Venezuelan security services when I was a girl.’ “And she said: ‘This interrogation and the killing of my father took place during a time when, from your point of view, Venezuela was a democratic country governed by the rule of law. But I can tell you, the security services weren’t.” Shannon adds: “It was very striking … it was evident to me that she saw her father as kind of a revolutionary north star, kind of a martyr point of reference – and I believe that’s still the case.” He thinks Rodríguez’s objective in her new partnership with Washington is political survival “and to make sure that a revanchist, conservative, elitist, democratic opposition does not return to power”. Speaking in the White House, Trump heaped praise on his unlikely Venezuelan partner. “Delcy is doing a very, very good job – very highly respected,” he told reporters. Trump claimed Venezuela had only just escaped a “very nasty” regime and was not ready for elections. “You know, it’s very new. We took them out of a dictatorship, and we’re getting along great with the government,” he said. Such comments will have been music to Rodríguez’s ears. “Delcy wants to survive,” says Oner. “And she knows that if she gives enough to the Trump administration, the Trump administration will allow her to stay in power.”

Sweden’s extremely close election could see far right enter government

Sweden goes to the polls on Sunday in an extremely close election that could see the far right enter government for the first time if the country’s rightwing parties can form a majority. Opinion polls show the centre-left opposition alliance ahead, with Magdalena ⁠Andersson of the Social Democrats the favourite to become prime minister again after four years in opposition, but her bloc’s lead has narrowed considerably in the final days of the campaign. In 2022, the current prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, the leader of the centre-right Moderates, broke a longstanding taboo to make a deal with the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), so that his minority coalition could form a government. That agreement gave the SD outsized influence over government policy, especially on crime and immigration, and Kristersson has now gone further, promising ministerial posts for the SD if he is returned to power. The election comes days after Germany’s nativist Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) seized first place in a state election, and as Marine Le Pen leads the polls for next year’s presidential vote in France. Legal and civil rights experts have warned that such a result could further undermine Sweden’s long-held reputation as a global champion of human rights, which has significantly deteriorated under the current government. “What we have seen in the past four years is huge changes when it comes to policies on crime and immigration,” said John Stauffer, legalthe director at Civil Rights Defenders. “That is also the concern moving forward into the next mandate period: that this government will continue with a clear aim to further decrease the number of people coming to Sweden, the number of people who can get protection, and also that as many people as possible with migrant backgrounds leave Sweden – either by force or voluntarily.” SD’s manifesto includes pledges to introduce “anti-Swedish sentiment in legislation on incitement against ethnic groups”, revoke permanent resident permits and further cut immigration. One of its slogans is a promise to “make Sweden Sweden again”. Despite recent changes – including the deportation of teenagers, lowering the age of criminal responsibility and sending 14-year-olds to adult prisons – many voters and politicians continued to see Sweden as a “champion of human rights and a champion of the rules-based world order where human rights is an important part”, Stauffer said. “But it is quite clear that the Sweden Democrats do not have that ambition. They don’t see Sweden as an important player on these issues on human rights. So there will be less focus on this and Sweden contributing to developing the judicial framework around human rights.” He added: “It’s a fair guess that the negative trend will continue with SD in government, the view from abroad of Sweden will continue to deteriorate, less and less will [Sweden] be seen as a champion of human rights, but as any other country maybe. For some time Sweden has been seen as the exception.” In an attempt to win back voters, Andersson’s Social Democrats have also moved to the right on crime, immigration and integration, meaning that a win for the left is unlikely to mean a reform of current hardline policies, said Stauffer. “With a Social Democrats-led government, many of the things we see as problematic are not going to be rolled back. But maybe negative development will not continue in the same way,” he said. With polls so tight and record early voting expected, the performance of smaller parties could prove critical. The Liberals, who are tiny but part of the governing coalition and whose leader, Simona Mohamsson, has controversially cosied up to the SD’s leader, Jimmie Åkesson, in recent months, could be crucial for the right’s ability to form a coalition. And, on the left, turnout for the Centre party could also prove significant. Meanwhile, the Left party (Vänsterpartiet) has made some headway in the polls, which it hopes could be a sign of a surge. In Stockholm municipality, in particular, it is gaining ground on the Moderates and hopes to become the second biggest party. The SD had already won the immigration argument among mainstream Swedish political parties, said Bo Petersson, a political science professor at Malmö University, who argued that the election could become a test of whether the far-right party had any further appeal to Swedish voters. “The mainstream parties have taken the restrictive immigration politics and then there isn’t so much for SD to say ‘we are unique and stand for this’,” he said. “They have been a very clear part of the establishment.” Fredrik Furtenbach, a senior political correspondent for Sveriges Radio, Sweden’s public broadcaster, said that if the rightwing parties won, the SD was likely to get several ministerial posts which would be a “big breakthrough for them”. If the rightwing coalition lost, he expected there to be a post-election debate within the centre-right parties about “whether they allowed the Sweden Democrats to get too close”. The biggest issues among voters are healthcare, law and order, immigration and the economy. After heated television debates between leaders, the last of which was held on Friday night, election results are expected on Sunday night, but it could take weeks or even months of talks to form a government. The latest polls show an extremely tight race, with a Dagens Nyheter/Ipsos poll showing on Friday just 0.3 percentage points between the left and right blocs, which would leave Andersson’s left-leaning side with 175 seats and 174 for Kristersson’s right-leaning side.

Iran’s Houthi allies capture strategic island on vital oil shipping route

Yemen’s rampant Houthi forces have captured the strategic island of Perim in the Bab al-Mandab strait, expanding their control of the narrow waterway, one of the world’s vital shipping routes. The Iran-aligned Houthis took control of the volcanic island after forces allied to the UN-backed, Aden-based government left in the latest of a dramatic series of reverses along Yemen’s west coast in recent days, including the loss of the port city of Mocha on Thursday. Saudi Arabia, which supports and bankrolls the official Yemen government, mounted air raids on Houthi positions in Mocha on Friday. The Bab al-Mandab strait links Asia to Europe via the Red Sea and Suez canal. Perim island, also known as Mayun, divides the waterway in two, close to its narrowest point. The United Arab Emirates, a former Saudi ally in the anti-Houthi coalition, had been building an airbase on the island before ending its active involvement in the conflict in January. Saudi Arabia has increasingly relied on the Red Sea and Bab al-Mandab to export its crude since Iran has been targeting vessels in the strait of Hormuz. About 12% of the world’s goods are typically shipped through the strait. Saudi Arabia has now said it has shut down a crucial pipeline a day after it was attacked by drones, and Yemen’s Iranian-backed Houthi rebels captured Perim. It said it had shut its East-West pipeline as “a precautionary measure”, blaming the attack on several drones that came from Iraq. In a statement carried by the state-run Saudi Press Agency, the kingdom said it would not respond to the attack to give the Iraqi government “an opportunity to take the necessary measures”. The pipeline, also known as the Petroline, runs for 1,201km (746 miles) from the Abqaiq oilfield in the kingdom’s east near Bahrain and Qatar, to the port city Yanbu at the Red Sea. Built in the 1980s, it has played an important role in Saudi Arabia’s ability to export oil after the disruption of the strait of Hormuz during the Iran war. Full Houthi control of shipping in the Bab al-Mandab strait, alongside Iranian control of the strait of Hormuz, would strengthen the chokeholds of anti-western forces over global energy shipments. Oil prices have risen to more than $100 a barrel as the fighting in Yemen has escalated. Iran hailed the Houthi advances in an official statement on Friday, its first extended comment on the renewed fighting inside Yemen. Iran and the Houthis have been allied since the Houthis rose to power inside Yemen in 2014. In a statement the Houthis hailed the expulsion of “Saudi enemy” troops from six districts in the Taiz and Hodeidah regions, the capture of 4,500 sq miles, the targeting of “seven military divisions of the Saudi enemy’s forces” and the “killing, capture, and wounding” of hundreds of soldiers. It also claimed to have released hundreds of prisoners “held by the Saudi enemy’s mercenaries for years”. British diplomatic sources said they did not at present expect Donald Trump to sanction any US bombing of Houthi positions in Yemen, despite requests to do so from Saudi Arabia. The pace of the Houthi advance, and political divisions in the Yemen governorates not controlled by the Houthis, have left western capitals fearful that even the Yemen government capital, Aden, could fall to the Houthis. The UK effectively treated Yemen as a British protectorate until 1967. The Houthi offensive has cost more than 500 lives and displaced about 46,000 people, the UN migration agency said on Friday. The Houthi progress down the Red Sea coast from the port of Hodeidah also strengthens Iran’s hand in trying to reach an agreement with other Gulf states on future control of the strait of Hormuz, the central dispute between the US and Iran. Iran has reached an agreement on temporary approved routes with Oman, the country sharing the southern coast of the Hormuz strait. The proposed deal is supposed to be discussed at a meeting of Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) foreign ministers in the Omani coastal city of Salalah on Monday. The deal, including a temporary approved route for shipping largely under Iranian control, would – if agreed by the GCC – put pressure on the US to lift its highly effective blockade of Iranian oil ports, which is severely damaging the Iranian economy. The US struck a surprise ceasefire deal with the Houthis in May 2025 after the cost of a bombing campaign escalated, and Houthis gave private assurances that they would not attack US shipping in the Red Sea. The Houthi leadership this week continued to give similar assurances to all shipping except Saudi Arabian oil tankers. On 14 August Saudi Arabia assembled a 14-country international maritime naval coalition to protect freedom of navigation in the Bab al-Mandab strait and the Gulf of Aden. The coalition, including Bahrain, Pakistan, Somalia, Djibouti, Turkey and Egypt, has so far been invisible, though Riyadh would argue that such a coalition of the willing takes time to assemble. Recriminations are under way over the fall of Mocha, with the role of Maj Gen Tareq Saleh, the leader of the National Resistance Forces that retreated from the city, under scrutiny. He said the retreat was necessary to regroup his forces. On her Facebook page, the Yemeni 2011 Nobel peace prize winner, Tawakkol Karman, called on Yemen’s president, Rashad al-Alimi, to dismiss Saleh and to refer him for investigation and trial on charges of conspiracy and high treason. Amr al-Bidh, the foreign affairs representative of the separatist political organisation the Southern Transitional Council (STC), said he had warned western diplomats repeatedly of the need for a comprehensive national regional and international strategy to defeat the Houthis, adding occasional airstrikes were not enough. He accused the Saudis of strategic incompetence and of alienating the southern forces most needed to combat the Houthis. “The position is now very serious,” he said. “The Houthis’ presence in the strait means they will be able to control the waterways without needing to use sophisticated weapons that as a result they can now use elsewhere. The advance is also likely to give them a new income through control of ports along the west coast of the Red Sea.” The Houthis are already offering concessionary rates to draw traffic from ports controlled by the Yemeni government in the Gulf of Aden. The STC was the dominant political and military force in southern Yemen until this January, when Saudi Arabia bombed its troops, closed its political organisation down and detained as many as 20 of its leaders in Riyadh. A Saudi promise of a dialogue about the southern question made in January has never been kept, al-Bidh said, adding that Human Rights Watch warned in a March report that some pro-STC protests in Aden were being repressed with undue violence. “The betrayal of promises had left the southern population unwilling to leave their home territories to fight the Houthis in the north,” he said. “The Saudis for 10 years have been dependent on the people of the south to deter the Houthis, and the STC with as many as 80,000 troops at its disposal, has been the backbone of that force.” Saudi Arabia is facing a familiar dilemma: whether to reach a negotiated settlement with the Houthis on the future of Yemen or to try to push the highly stretched Houthi forces back. Although the Houthis operate independently of Tehran’s instructions, it is hugely to Iran’s advantage for them to be fighting Saudi Arabia, as the Saudis are more likely in turn to put pressure on Washington to relent over Iran. There is also concern in western capitals about the use of western weaponry by the Saudis in Yemen, and whether their activity complies with international humanitarian law, including whether the Saudi strikes can truly be seen as acts of self-defence.