Read the daily news to learn English

‘She never says goodbye when she leaves’: the Romanian families separated by migration

Maria’s day runs differently to those of most 11-year-olds. By the time other children in her home town of Târgoviște are still waking up, she’s making sure her grandmother takes her morning pills. After school, before she starts homework, she helps with cooking and cleaning, and gives her grandmother her treatment again. When her grandmother needs to see a doctor – sometimes across town, sometimes a two-hour bus ride to Bucharest – Maria* is the one who takes her. During the visits, she sits across from the doctor and listens carefully. Maria keeps note of the medication names, the dosages, the frequency, what each test is looking for and what the results mean. Sometimes it means she misses school but she doesn’t complain. “I don’t mind taking care of my grandma,” said Maria with adult-like composure. “It’s an activity like any other. I’m used to it.” Maria has been living with her grandparents since she was three months old. Her parents left Romania for work, first in Spain, then in Germany. Her parents split and her mother moved to London to work as a cleaner while her father remained in Târgoviște, although he is largely absent from her life. Maria is one of more than 53,000 Romanian children with at least one parent working abroad, according to the latest figures by Romanian social services. Of those, more than 10,000 have both parents or the sole breadwinner working abroad. The true scale, however, is difficult to gauge. Many parents, afraid that declaring their absence might trigger state intervention, leave without registering a legal guardian – an omission that means children can face barriers enrolling in school and accessing medical care without a legal guardian. A 2022 study estimates the real number to be more than 530,000, while 184,000 have both parents away. The Romanian authorities put the number for the same period at 76,000. Anca Stamin, programme manager at Save the Children, said that in addition to the figures collected quarterly by the social services system, schools also collect data, and these figures are two to three times higher. “There has been a wave of disinformation in disadvantaged communities that the state will take their children away,” said Stamin. “Combined with low trust in authorities and little guidance from the state, it pushes many parents not to formally transfer parental rights to the grandparents or relatives raising their children.” The exodus of parents began when Romania joined the European Union in 2007 and it now has the biggest diaspora in the EU, with more than 3 million people officially living in the bloc – although real numbers are likely to be higher – according to EU statistics. Romania remains one of the poorest countries in the EU. Despite years of economic growth, wages remain among the lowest in the bloc. Even after a decade of the fastest minimum wage growth in the EU, the minimum wage lags far behind western Europe. For many families in cities such as Târgoviște, the arithmetic is simple and brutal: a parent working as a cleaner or labourer in London or Frankfurt can earn in a week what they might take a month to earn at home. The parents who go rarely describe it as a choice but rather as the only way to give their children a better life. “If I could find a job in Romania that paid enough to live without fear of tomorrow, I would come back tomorrow,” said Diana Sabu, whose eight-year-old son, Edi, is being looked after by his grandmother while his mother works as a cleaner in France. Many of those children, like Maria, have quietly absorbed responsibilities that weren’t theirs to carry – caring for elderly relatives, managing households and steadying younger siblings. Research shows the emotional impact on children can be severe, with feelings of guilt, withdrawal, anxiety, or aggression being commonplace, while access to psychological support for these children remains scarce. At Christmas, Maria’s mother came home for a month and a half. When it was time to leave, she told Maria she would wake her to say goodbye. But when she finally opened her eyes in the morning, her mother was already gone. “She never says goodbye when she leaves,” said Maria. A recent survey found that more than three-quarters of parents abroad say their greatest struggle is maintaining an emotional bond with the children they left. Nearly half of parents working abroad did not return home for Easter this year, according to the same study, most citing costs as the reason. Children also grow up with feelings of guilt because parents often tell them it’s for their good that they have to leave for work. “Parents make various promises they don’t keep, and if they fail to do so, the emotional burden falls heavily on the child’s shoulders,” said Stamin. “Against this backdrop of emotional instability, they are more prone to behavioural problems and at risk of dropping out of school.” Save the Children runs after-school programmes in 50 Romanian schools, including two in Târgoviște, for children with parents working abroad. The programme offers activities, trips, homework support, and a warm meal, a partial substitute for what is missing at home. “These children mature so quickly,” said Dana Zoe, the Târgoviște programme manager. “But they’re also more sensitive than others. It’s a trauma and you can see it manifest.” Eight-year-old Edi is part of the programme. His mother, Sabu, left for Corsica in April because there was no work for her in Târgoviște. He now lives with his grandmother, Roxana, who does everything she can to care for him. His father has been working in Denmark for five years and visits every few months. “It’s clear he misses her a lot,” said Roxana. “They left to give the children a better future, but it’s different from how I grew up, with my parents next to me.” She pauses. “I don’t see her coming back for good any more.” Sabu works as a cleaner in a campsite with just one day off a week. She earns about €1,600 a month, with accommodation and meals covered, a much better deal than she could find anywhere near Târgoviște. The decision to leave came suddenly, after months of commuting to a job in a nearby town about an hour’s drive from Târgoviște, waking up at three in the morning and arriving back at six in the evening. It wasn’t sustainable, so she left. “The longing is what hurts most,” she said. “But I’m at peace knowing he’ll have what he needs. We’re learning to manage the distance.” But when the children are asked directly what they prefer, the answer is consistent, they say. “They say they’d rather be poor and have their parents here,” Zoe explained. Despite that, Edi’s mother keeps in touch with him daily. Every evening, she falls asleep on a video call. It is, she said, the only moment in the day that makes sense. She plans to return in October, and beyond that, to save enough to buy a home for them. Darius Gavriș is 17 now and he speaks of his childhood with a perspective that only distance and time can give. His parents left for Spain when he was three months old, then moved to Italy, where they have been living for eight years. He grew up in Târgoviște with his grandparents, surrounded by nine cousins in the same situation: all of their parents, his aunts and uncles, had also left. Until he was five he didn’t see much of his parents. Then, until the age of 11, he saw his parents every two years. During the Covid pandemic, four years went by without seeing them at all. He remembers watching other children at school being dropped off and collected by their parents. “I wanted that too,” he said. But he’s made his peace with his childhood. “It made me stronger, in a way, more ambitious, because I wanted to make my parents proud,” said Darius. He speaks carefully, without self-pity, but there is one memory he cannot quite neutralise. The first time his mother came home to visit he didn’t know who she was. He turned to his grandmother and asked: “Who is this lady?” Maria has never had that problem. Her grandmother is the most constant presence in her life and sees her as her mother. She doesn’t want to go to London and leave her behind, even though her brother moved there with their mother a few months ago. She wants to stay to take care of her grandmother’s wellbeing. Some nights, if her grandmother is unwell, Maria stays awake beside her. “I always fall asleep after my grandma, I need to make sure she’s OK and then I can sleep,” said Maria. * Some names have been changed

Monday briefing: Will the heatwave spark action, or further inflame the culture wars?

Good morning. You could be forgiven for thinking that last week’s heatwave in Europe would be a galvanising moment for action on the climate crisis. At one point, more than 150 million Europeans sweltered in temperatures above 35C (95F) – with several parts of the continent soaring past 40C. A heatwave of this magnitude has never been recorded this early in the year. When scientists finish their calculations, the death toll will probably number in the thousands. Spain, one of the few countries that produces real-time statistics on excess deaths linked to heat, has recorded more than 100 per day since Wednesday. French authorities said that at least 1,000 additional deaths had been recorded between 24 and 27 June, a figure that is likely to rise. They include four toddlers who died in incidents linked to the heat. A three-year-old boy in a Paris suburb was found dead last week after climbing into a car and becoming trapped. There is a miserable inevitability surrounding these events: scientists have long warned they were coming. Yet countries have not done enough to cut the emissions from fossil fuels that are causing the extreme weather – or adapt to the realities of managing the toll on their transport and healthcare systems. For today’s First Edition, I spoke with Ajit Niranjan, the Guardian’s Europe environment correspondent, about whether this week’s heatwave in Europe could prompt a fresh drive for action on global heating or whether it may, counterintuitively, boost support for political parties that are sceptical about the climate crisis. But first, the headlines. Weekend roundup Iran | The sudden eruption of fresh hostilities in the Gulf – just 10 days after Iran and the US signed a memorandum of understanding to end the conflict – threatens to put the two countries back on the path to war. Europe heatwave | Germany, Czechia, Poland and Hungary reached record temperatures of more than 40C on Sunday as a heatwave linked to hundreds of deaths in western Europe spread east. UK politics | Andy Burnham is the most popular man at Westminster right now, and Labour MPs, the unions, Whitehall civil servants, political advisers and thinktanks are all battling for the ear of the next prime minister. UK news | One pound in every £11 of UK government spending on contractors went to private equity-controlled companies last year, research shows, including key services such as transport, waste management and healthcare. Royal family | The Duke of Sussex fears his children will not meet King Charles in the coming days after their UK visit was “pulled out from under their feet at the 11th hour”. In depth: We are unprepared for the strain these weather conditions put on our services Growing up in England, 25C always felt like the threshold for a hot summer day. Sun cream and a good hat were vital, as were ice-cream and a blanket for reading in the shade away from the heat. But today, in the wake of a heatwave that pushed the UK’s record June temperature to 37.3C, normal has shifted dramatically: yesterday 25C felt cool, a welcome relief from the recent furnace. The arrival of extreme weather in Europe has been quick. It is the world’s fastest-warming continent, heating up at twice the rate of the rest of the planet. In the 1950s, 60s and 80s, there was not a single “tropical night” recorded at the London Heathrow weather station – defined as when the night-time temperature does not fall below 20C. Now, they are common: four in a row were recorded last week, according to the popular weather blogger London & Southeast. The UK and other European countries are unprepared for these conditions and the immense strain they put on health and travel networks. In the UK, hundreds of schools closed early, workplaces overheated, and train operators asked people not to travel. On Wednesday, the London ambulance service recorded its busiest ever day for the most serious category of callouts, with 642 responses to reports of cardiac arrests, patients who have stopped breathing and life-threatening injuries. Just two days later, the record was broken again, with more 999 calls made than ever before, more even than during the Covid-19 pandemic. By yesterday, the heatwave had moved east. Poland, Czechia and Slovakia were all expecting record temperatures of more than 40C. Bautzen in in eastern Saxony broke the German record for the highest overnight minimum temperature of 29.4C. For many years, climate scientists assumed that extreme weather events in richer countries would have a galvanising impact for investment in renewable energy, support for green political parties and phasing out of fossil fuels. But that logic has not played out in reality. The climate is now at the frontier of the culture wars, shaped by arguments about air conditioning or phone-ins about whether people are being “wimps” for complaining about the high temperatures. *** A boost for the far right Sometimes, climate-driven weather events can temporarily cut through, says Ajit, pointing to the 2021 floods in the Ahr valley in Germany, which killed 188 people and washed away entire villages. But increasingly, the opposite happens. “One trend that’s possibly the most counterintuitive about these kinds of moments is that far-right parties who are denying the science of climate change can get a bit of a boost from extreme weather events,” says Ajit. “They spin the extreme weather as a failure of government policy, arguing that focusing on climate change was part of the initial problem, and it is more about mismanagement.” In many cases, such as the 2024 floods in Valencia, when more than 230 people were killed after a year’s worth of rain fell in eight hours to parts of eastern Spain, both things are true: the climate drove the extreme weather, but poor governance contributed to the deadly outcome. This is likely to become an increasingly common dynamic as extreme weather events grow in frequency. “Both sides of this issue need to be addressed,” says Ajit. “There is this weird tendency where political parties completely deny one of the causes by either focusing just on climate or just on adaptation, without having a good plan for the other. This is certainly a part of the strategy used by far-right parties to bash climate policy,.” *** The great air-con debate Social media played a major role in shaping perceptions of last week’s heatwave – and driving divisions about what should be done to protect people from future extreme weather events. Some of the reaction has been lighthearted. In Paris, balconies and rooftops became so hot that people were frying eggs and steak in the sun. One man went viral for making a heatwave crepe. But much of the online debate centred on whether Europe needed a larger rollout of air conditioning to protect its population from the heat. In a post seen by nearly 20 million people, Patrick Collison, CEO of US tech firm Stripe, asked the AI model Claude to settle the air-con debate for Europeans. It concluded that the continent needed to throw its weight behind air conditioning and move past “the psychological discomfort” of “admitting that the American approach to summer was correct all along”. But many places still have some reservations about embracing air-con. In France, the centre of last weeks’ heatwave, many green progressives continue to argue against its use for ideological reasons, despite the extreme heat. The far-right National Rally in France has been quick to capitalise on this, announcing a “major” plan for AC. Ajit says that, as is often the case, there is a significant gap between the online discourse and reality when it comes to air conditioning. “Within Europe, air conditioning is nowhere near as big of a fight as some of the international press have made it out to be,” he says. “There are very few actual restrictions on putting in air conditioning units in your home. This meme in the US that we hate air-con and refuse to have it is not really true. It is less common than in rich parts of Asia and North America but, until recently, people did not need it.” *** Caring for those most at risk Even if there was a major success in cutting fossil fuel emissions, extreme weather events of increasing severity are guaranteed in coming years. While much of the world’s trajectory on global heating will be shaped by government policy in China, the US and India, Ajit underscores that mitigating the impact of extreme heat is something that we can all get involved in. “For people who have this feeling of futility about climate change, there is still a lot we can do,” he says. “There are obvious things like drinking water, wearing loose-fitting clothing, staying in the shade and avoiding the hotter parts of the day. But we also need to look out for vulnerable people. Older people especially cannot regulate their body temperature as well.” Many of the excess deaths happen among elderly and vulnerable people, and among those who were not necessarily close to death. Earlier this month, the World Health Organization said that nearly 200,000 people had died in Europe due to heat in the past four years, and the majority of those deaths would have been preventable if obvious adaptation measures had been taken. “The advice that a lot of charities have given is to check on your elderly neighbours, particularly those who live alone,” says Ajit. “The small things really matter. Pop over with a glass of icy water or an ice-cream. None of this will make a difference to the big picture on the climate crisis, but it is ridiculously hot, and people are dying without many of us realising.” We want to hear from you Later this week, Libby will be speaking to Andy Beckett, columnist and author of The Searchers, about why Britain goes through prime ministers quicker than Taylor Swift goes through eras and what it means for democracy. If you’ve got a question for him hit reply or email first.edition@theguardian.com The week to come Today | Andy Burnham will give his first major speech since winning the Makerfield byelection and becoming Labour leader in waiting, setting out his economic vision and plans for radical devolution. Tomorrow | The Amos review into NHS maternity services will be published. Wednesday | The review into the sentences in the Fordingbridge rape case, which shocked the country and prompted a debate about leniency towards young offenders, will be heard in the court of appeal. What else we’ve been reading Zoe Williams has spoken to the one and only Erin Brockovich about her latest environmental battle against AI datacentres – and how she plans to take the campaign global. Patrick After Zohran Mamdani-backed candidates were victorious in Democrat primaries, David Smith asks whether the US could be set for a truly leftwing president in 2028. Toby Moses, head of newsletters Mike Bell was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at the age of 53 – but eight years later, he learned the diagnosis was wrong. He has written about the experience for the Guardian’s A new start after 60 series. Patrick World Cup 2026 On the pitch Last 32 | Canada became the first team to reach the last 16 of the World Cup with a late 1-0 victory against South Africa. They will face the winner of Netherland and Morocco in Houston on Saturday. Off the pitch England | Harry Kane and Jude Bellingham’s goals saw off Panama, but Thomas Tuchel has problems at right-back and on flanks for last-32 tie against the DRC. World Cup power rankings | After the conclusion of the group stages, the Guardian’s football writers have revisited their pre-tournament power rankings. One country has climbed 26 places – although France are still top dogs. Penalties | The knockout stages are here – along with the spectre of the dreaded penalty shootout. Agony and ecstasy are guaranteed. Nick Evershed has been looking into the stats on the best way to take them. Fans | Do not miss this beautiful photo essay of fans from all 48 countries at the World Cup during the group stages. DR Congo fan Michel Nkuka Mboladinga, also known as Lumumba Vea, deserves his spot in the main image. Icon. Today’s Fixtures Brazil v Japan, 6pm on ITV Germany v Paraguay, 9.30pm on BBC The front pages “Alarm raised over growing role of private equity firms”, is the Guardian’s front page today. The Times has “Burnham: I want mayors to help cut benefits bill”, the FT says “Burnham sets out ‘10-year mission’ to raise living standards nationwide” and the i Paper goes with “Burnham vows to ‘lift Britain back up’ with biggest ever power transfer”. The Telegraph splashes “Burnham: Give me 10 years to fix Britain”, and the Mail writes “Tax raids on middle classes in Burnham’s 10-year plan”. The Express leads on “‘Maddening’ £1.25 million waste of taxpayers’ money”, The Mirror, on a charity walk by the Princess of Wales, has “My chance to give something back”, and Metro, writing about plans to revamp the Royal Navy, says “All hands off deck!”. Today in Focus Life on the porch of an empty mansion In the heart of Knightsbridge, London, 2-8A Rutland Gate, which sold for £210m in 2020, sits empty. But Anders Fernstedt has been sleeping rough on the porch for three years, surrounded by his collection of plant pots and flowers in vases. With many people desperate for housing, what do abandoned luxury properties like this one tell us about the UK? Sam Wollaston tells Lucy Hough about the Guardian’s Abandoned Britain series and how Anders found himself living outside the mansion. Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad “We used to talk this way in the old days. And I like speaking now. I enjoy the songs we sing, the Cornish books we read, all the words.” Those are the words of seven-year-old Ablie, one of 200 children who attended the Go Cornish Celebration in Truro, a joyous event showcasing youngsters’ explorations of the Celtic language. Children in Cornwall are embracing Kernewek in what the council is calling a “remarkable resurgence” of the language, amid its 10-year council to boost its everyday use. Goals include making sure every child in Cornwall leaves primary school with a basic understanding of Cornish, and making sure Cornish is routinely seen and heard in civic spaces. Kernewek is undoubtedly having a cultural moment – after all, as Albie says: “It’s fun.” 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 deadly strain of bird flu has landed on Australian shores. Does it pose a risk to pets?

The deadly H5N1 strain of bird flu has arrived on the Australian mainland and, while there’s no evidence yet of mass animal mortality, authorities are on high alert. The virus has killed millions of birds and thousands of marine mammals since it began spreading around the globe in 2021. The risk to humans is low – but should we be worried about our pets? How far is bird flu spreading in Australia? Australia’s fourth confirmed case of the H5 bird flu was detected in Western Australia in a giant petrel found at Quindalup on the state’s south-west coast on Saturday. Three birds in WA and one in South Australia have so far been confirmed to have had the virus. Results of a further suspected positive detection in a giant petrel on the WA south coast at Roses beach, 30km west of Esperance, were pending as of Sunday. The federal government analysed Australia’s 800 different birds and 350 mammals threatened by the disease. It assessed more than 150 native and unique bird species, and more than 10 mammal species including sea lions and fur seals, as being at “very high risk” of extinction or major decline if they caught the disease. Could bird flu spread among our pets? Along with birds and poultry, the virus can also be fatal for cats and dogs. The Australian government said in its advice that overseas infections were “infrequent” and usually resulted from “dogs or cats being exposed to sick or dead birds, other animals infected with [bird flu], consumption of raw pet food or unpasteurised (raw) milk”. Sheep, pigs, and horses were also considered low risk. On Sunday the threatened species commissioner, Dr Fiona Fraser, urged the public to avoid touching potentially sick birds in the wild and to keep pets away from wild birds. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “Pet cats and dogs which come into contact with sick birds could capture H5 bird flu themselves and all mammals are susceptible to H5 bird flu, so that includes our pet cats and dogs,” she said. “And it’s generally good practice to keep your pets away from wildlife anyway.” In an article for the Conversation, Prof Ricardo J Soares Magalhães, a veterinary science expert at the University of Queensland, said the risks were very real for back-yard chickens if an outbreak occurred, particularly if they were free range, and advised keeping chickens housed as much as possible. The Tasmanian government has noted in its advice that no reptiles have been reported to be affected. A general practitioner vet and senior lecturer at the University of Sydney, Dr Anne Quain, told Guardian Australia it was important to take precautions to minimise risks because H5 bird flu was “highly pathogenic” and there were no vaccines for cats or dogs. “The infection can cause respiratory or neurological signs,” she said. “There are reports of fatalities in cats and (less commonly) dogs elsewhere in the world.” What are the symptoms of bird flu in pets? The Australian government says in its advice that signs of the disease “may be subtle or mistaken for other illnesses”. They vary between species, but can include fever, lethargy, discharge from eyes or nose, difficulty breathing and neurological signs, such as tremors or seizures. The president of the Australian Veterinarian Association, Dr Diana Barker, said signs of bird flu included lethargy, swelling and fever. She advised bird owners to isolate animals suspected of having the virus and call clinics rather than bringing the bird in, to minimise the risk of spread. “Right now, the risk to common household pets in Australia is low, and there is no cause for alarm,” she said. “However the public must remain vigilant … Most cases overseas have been linked to specific exposures, most commonly cats eating infected wild birds or infected raw meat. “Dogs appear far less susceptible and typically show only mild signs.” One study, published by the American Veterinary Medical Association, found domestic cats infected with H5N1 had overall mortality rates of 50 to 70%. Should I keep my cat locked inside and my dog on a leash? Sean Dooley from BirdLife Australia advised that cats should be kept indoors in general for bird safety. Owners should keep their cats indoors in the case of an outbreak – both to curtail potential spread and protect cats from falling severely ill, he said. Dog owners should keep them on the leash at the beach, particularly along the southern coast and after heavy storms, which tended to cause more dead birds to wash up onshore. “If we do find a bird flu spread here then there is going to need to be a change in behaviour if people want to protect their pets,” he said. What else should pet owners do? Quain said the best way to prevent the infection was to “minimise or eliminate the risk of exposure to wildlife or infected animals” – making sure outdoor animal runs couldn’t be accessed by wildlife. “While we know cats are likely to be more susceptible than dogs, it would be wise to avoid allowing dogs to mix with potentially sick birds or their carcasses,” she said. “Avoid leaving pet food or water in areas where wild birds or animals can have contact with it.” Quain said in other countries, raw poultry and unpasteurised milk were sources of infection, particularly in cats. “If you have any contact with sick or dead birds yourself, even if you’ve worn gloves, shower and change clothes before contact with cats and dogs,” she said. Additional reporting by Petra Stock

Ukraine war briefing: Putin expects US negotiators in Moscow; fuel rationing in Siberia as crisis bites

Vladimir Putin says he expects US negotiators to come to Moscow, once Washington had reached an agreement with Iran over the Middle East conflict. “We expect that after all the events are over, after the active phase on the Iranian track has passed, we will see the arrival of those representatives of the US administration with whom we have already met in Moscow repeatedly,” the Russian president told Russian journalist Pavel Zarubin. “We are ready to continue negotiations and ready to continue negotiations and discuss all the details.” Putin was responding to a question on the state of Russian-US relations after the G7 summit in France, when Donald Trump said Russia should “make a deal with Ukraine”. On Wednesday, the US President said his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy was doing well in the war against Russia, having previously said he lacked the “cards” to win. Russia’s president acknowledged “a certain shortage” of fuel after Ukrainian retaliatory strikes on energy infrastructure sparked by his invasion of the country. “As for strikes against critical infrastructure in general, and energy infrastructure in particular, of course these attacks on our infrastructure facilities create problems, that’s obvious,” said Putin in an interview published by the Kremlin on Sunday. “Right now we’re observing a certain shortage, but it’s not critical.” The priority now was to improve air defences and protest fuel supplies particularly in Russian-occupied Crimea, he said. Fuel deliveries to the Black Sea peninsula by land and sea will be increased, Putin said. A governor in Siberia announced that drivers will be allowed to buy no more than 50 litres (13 gallons) of fuel per vehicle per day at state-run Rosneft fuel stations in the province. Igor Kobzev, the governor of the Irkutsk region, made the announcement as fuel shortages spread across Russia. Russia’s deputy prime minister Alexander Novak said Moscow was actively reviewing fuel export agreements to avoid compromising domestic needs. Zelenskyy said his forces had struck two oil refineries inside Russia over the weekend. A drone strike that sparked a blaze at a refinery in Slavyansk-na-Kubani, a town in Russia’s Krasnodar region, killed one person in Slavyansk and wounded another in a nearby village, local authorities said. Zelenskyy also claimed that another Russian refinery, in the Yaroslavl region around 700km (435 miles) from the Ukrainian border, was hit during the night-time strikes. There were no immediate reports from Russian authorities about the strike on the Yaroslavl refinery. Local governor Mikhail Evraev reported on Sunday morning that some roads between Moscow and the region’s capital, Yaroslavl, were temporarily closed due to “an enemy attack by Ukrainian drones”. Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram: “Each [strike] means a reduction in the resources that fuel the Russian war machine, and another step toward peace.” A Russian attack killed two people in Zaporizhzhia – a city in southern Ukraine – and injured 16 others, including two children, said regional administration head Ivan Fedorov. In Russia’s border region of Belgorod, Ukrainian drone strikes killed one person and injured another earlier on Sunday, according to the acting local governor, Alexander Shuvayev. Russia’s Defense Ministry said its forces shot down 213 Ukrainian drones during the night, including over Russia, occupied Crimea and the Black and Azov seas. Meanwhile, Russia attacked Ukraine with 142 long-range strike drones and eight missiles overnight, according to the Ukrainian air force. Of those, 125 drones and seven missiles were struck down, the air force said.

British man arrested in Ecuador after woman’s body found in suitcase in Colombia

A British man has been arrested in Ecuador after the body of a woman was found inside a suitcase in Colombia. Matthew Ashley Foster-Smith is alleged to have caused the death of 36-year-old Natalia Villalba in an apartment in the Chicó neighbourhood of Bogotá on 18 June, local authorities said. Foster-Smith, from Bournemouth, Dorset, reportedly phoned the Sun a day before his arrest and said he had been watching an England World Cup match on television at the time of the incident. “I was watching England versus Croatia on a big screen in an Irish bar so it wasn’t me,” the 46-year-old told the newspaper. “After the match I went in to the shopping centre, I mooched about, bought an ice-cream, and came back later for the later games.” England’s opening World Cup match took place in Dallas, Texas on 17 June. The Sun reported that the suspect made a second call to the newspaper on Friday prior to his arrest, with a source telling the newspaper he had been located via the phone calls he had made. A post on the official X account of the attorney general’s office in Colombia said Foster-Smith was accused of beating Villalba to death before placing her body in a suitcase, trying to conceal what happened, and fleeing the scene. Dorset police are said to have been among the authorities that assisted with locating him before he was held at Quito international airport in Ecuador’s capital. An arrest warrant had been obtained by prosecutors in Colombia and an Interpol red notice issued, local authorities said. Carlos Fernando Galán, Bogotá’s mayor, said Dorset police had assisted with the operation. “This painful case will not go unpunished,” he said. A spokesperson for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: “We are supporting a British man who has been detained in Ecuador and are in touch with the local authorities.” Dorset police were approached for comment on Sunday.

Ukraine’s targets in Russia are fully justified | Letters

Prof Christian Enemark’s letter (‘Morale’ bombing Moscow is not justified, 25 June) articulates a position of admirable moral consistency, but one that risks being fatally disconnected from the strategic and moral realities that Ukraine faces. The professor rests his argument on a bright-line distinction between combatants and civilians – a distinction that has genuine force in international humanitarian law, but which becomes considerably more complicated when Russian civilians fund, staff and politically sustain a war machine that has systematically targeted Ukrainian hospitals, schools, apartment blocks and energy infrastructure. The notion that Russian civilians are entirely without moral agency in relation to a war prosecuted in their name, with their taxes, and – polls suggest – with their substantial approval, is one that deserves more scrutiny than it receives here. Furthermore, Prof Enemark conflates two distinct categories of infrastructure targeting. Strikes on oil refineries and energy facilities are not “morale bombing” in the sense associated with the discredited area bombing campaigns of the second world war. They are attacks on dual-use industrial infrastructure that directly enables the Russian war effort – precisely the kind of target that international humanitarian law has long recognised as potentially legitimate, provided proportionality is observed. That civilians are inconvenienced, or even harmed incidentally, does not automatically render such strikes indiscriminate. The professor’s closing maxim – that “two wrongs do not make a right” – is philosophically tidy but strategically hollow. Ukraine is not retaliating for its own satisfaction; it is attempting to shorten a war in which its own civilian population continues to suffer grievously. If bringing the costs of that war home to Russian society accelerates its end, the calculus of harm may well favour such a strategy, not undermine it. The legitimate concern is proportionality and intent – not whether Ukraine must forever absorb punishment without responding in kind. Tim Dee-McCullough Windsor, Berkshire • In his letter, Prof Christian Enemark uses language that hides the clear moral reasoning and justification for Ukraine’s defence strategy, which is clearly targeting Russia’s ability to fuel its continued attacks on Ukraine. Videos on social media show that the injuries and private property damage caused in Ukraine’s strike on the Moscow oil refinery on 18 June probably arose due to air defences missing targets, or drone debris. In many past attacks, Russia maintained that the injuries arose due to the debris of drones intercepted by Moscow’s air defences. If Russia wants to protect its civilians, it should let Ukraine hit targets or, even better, the most moral act would be to withdraw from Ukraine’s territory entirely. Further, it is not reasonable to suspect Ukraine of deliberately targeting civilians when the Ukrainian president speaks of bringing the war closer to ordinary Russians. In this context, “ordinary Russians” does not include activists speaking out against the war, and probably refers to middle-class Russian urbanites. In the past few months, “ordinary Russians” have been vocal on social media about internet restrictions and now fuel shortages. Prior to this, “ordinary Russians” rarely spoke about the consequences of the war, and some even cheered the killings of Ukrainian civilians. Further, Russia’s mobilisation deliberately targets prisoners and ethnic minorities from remote regions, and exploits the global south. The Moscow regime shields “ordinary Russians” as a political strategy against any uprisings. Prof Enemark ignores not only the political strategy but the battlefield and defensive strategy of these attacks. Moving air defence systems to Moscow will leave gaps that Ukraine can now exploit to liberate occupied territories. Moreover, hitting strategic military and fuel installations in Russia prevents their use in Ukraine. These attacks save thousands of lives for every “ordinary Russian’s” shoulder injury. Bombing Moscow influences morale, but morale does not serve as the primary motivation for the attacks. Nonetheless, allies could have helped to defend Ukraine in a more ethical manner. Political will to end our global addiction to fossil fuels would have stopped the west from continuing to economically support Russia’s war machine after the 2014 invasion. Instead, Europe continues to import Russian energy. The west could have “closed the skies” over Ukraine at any point since February 2022. This moral act would have prevented the deliberate killing of children in Mariupol in March 2022. Ukraine already pays deeply for the moral failings of Russia; do not make it pay for the moral failings of allies. Dr Natalie Kopytko Lecturer, Sustainability Research Institute, University of Leeds • The main target of Ukraine’s largest-ever drone attack on Moscow was very clearly the Moscow oil refinery located in the Kapotnya district of the capital. One drone did not reach its target, hitting a nearby residential area, but there are no indications this was intentional, and the strike’s proximity to the Moscow refinery indicates that the drone probably missed its target or was driven off course due to Russian electronic warfare. Despite this, Prof Christian Enemark argues that “a strategy of ‘morale bombing’ a city’s residents is one that suffers from being inherently unjust”, writing that “Ukraine does not gain any moral permission to retaliate against Russia by launching indiscriminate attacks”. Yet Ukraine’s attack was highly discriminate, with nearly all drones that made it through Russia’s dense missile defence network – comprised of multiple rings of defensive systems – hitting the Moscow oil refinery. Enemark further argues that the “desired effect of such action is to increase [Russian] civilians’ sense of insecurity”, thus anchoring his objections to the attack. But if Ukraine’s aim was simply to increase a sense of insecurity in Moscow, many other less well-defended targets could have been hit. Or targets with more civilians in the immediate vicinity. The fact is that Ukraine chose to strike – with great precision – a key source of fuel and revenue for Russia’s ongoing illegal war against Ukraine. Enemark’s arguments also rely on a false moral equivalency between Russia and Ukraine, treating the two states as potentially acting on a par with one another – he remarks that “two wrongs do not make a right” – despite the widespread documentation of Russian soldiers targeting civilians, torturing civilians and prisoners of war, kidnapping children, and using rape as a method of war. The simple fact is that the Russian military has carried out a dizzying array of war crimes throughout its illegal and immoral war, and Ukraine precisely striking core pillars of the Russian economy that directly feed into ongoing wartime efforts is exactly what Volodymyr Zelenskyy says they are, “long-range sanctions” on the Russian war machine. Nathan Gabriel Wood Executive director, International Society for Military Ethics in Europe • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Israel’s actions are fuelling antisemitism around the world | Letters

The leaked letter signed by significant figures in the Israeli political and cultural establishments, including former prime ministers and heads of the security services, threatening legal action over an “ideology of ethnic cleansing” in the occupied West Bank, is an important intervention (Israeli former leaders and security chiefs threaten legal action over ‘Jewish terrorism’, 24 June). Notably, while making comparisons with European anti‑Jewish pogroms in the 19th and 20th centuries, they also draw attention to the way in which Israel’s actions have fuelled antisemitism around the world. In his resignation speech, Keir Starmer praised himself for “ripping out the poison of antisemitism” in the Labour party. By waging factional war, while failing to draw any real distinction between genuine antisemitism and opposition to Israel’s policies, he contrived to expel disproportionate numbers of Jewish Labour party members who felt strongly about Israel’s war crimes and breaches of international law. While fighting antisemitism and all forms of racism remains critical, the Israeli intervention should finally put to rest the notion that appeasing Israel in its perpetration of war crimes contributes to a reduction of antisemitism, when the truth is the reverse. Dr Anthony Isaacs London • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Mortuary in Caracas ‘overwhelmed’ as Venezuela struggles to respond after earthquakes

The bodies turn up on motorcycles, in the backs of cars or the load beds of pickup trucks: victims of a natural disaster that has shaken an already fragile nation to its core. “[Yesterday], the entire street was packed with people arriving with deceased relatives,” said Camila Rodríguez, a psychology student who is offering emotional support to grieving families at the Bello Monte mortuary in Venezuela’s capital, Caracas. At least 1,430 lives were lost when back-to-back earthquakes rattled the country’s Caribbean coast last Wednesday, toppling hundreds of buildings and leaving tens of thousands missing. Many of those fatal victims have ended up at Bello Monte, as have relatives of the dead, who gather there hoping to identify their loved ones. One of those waiting outside the pastel yellow facility was Marjorie Cedeño, who lost her mother, father and brother to Venezuela’s worst earthquake event in more than 125 years. The trio were trapped beneath the rubble when their four-floor building, Residencias Obelisco, collapsed in Los Palos Grandes, an upmarket neighbourhood at the foot of the El Ávila mountain. By 9pm on Friday, Cedeño had only managed to identify her brother, José Ruiz, 44, through a photograph shown to her by forensic police. Her mother, Zoila Cedeño, 72, who worked as the building’s superintendent, and her father, Jacinto Ruiz, 74, remain buried beneath the debris. “When the earthquake started, my brother was just entering the building. We believe his instinct was to go inside and rescue my parents, who were still there. He had just come back from the beach with a friend, who also died,” said Cedeño, who believed another 25 people remained trapped in the building’s ruins. “It’s horrible in there,” she said of the mortuary. “You can’t imagine how overwhelmed it is … This is something you wouldn’t wish on anyone. It’s an unimaginable tragedy.” Another woman, Belkis Cedeño, no relation, had come to the swamped facility hoping to find her sister-in-law, 56-year-old María Elena Moreno, who had been a resident of La Guiara, the coastal region worst affected by the quakes. “Their building was completely destroyed. A 10-storey building was reduced to the ground floor. They managed to pull her out early this morning. She was alone because her son had gone to the supermarket with his girlfriend,” Cedeño said. Cedeño said she had heard that her relative was rescued alive at about 2am on Thursday. But a false tsunami alert that spread across social media triggered panic and she was left exposed outside. “When they finally transferred her to the hospital, she arrived dead,” Cedeño said. Edgar Hernández, the former president of Venezuela’s National Funeral Homes Association, said undertakers across the country had donated more than 200 coffins, body bags and other supplies, while supporting colleagues responding to the disaster. “Many people have recovered bodies and transported them in their private vehicles to Bello Monte because it’s less congested and easier to access than the … mortuary [in La Guaira], which has completely collapsed under the pressure of the emergency.” On Saturday, Venezuela’s acting leader, Delcy Rodríguez, tried to comfort shell-shocked citizens. “Today we have managed to save 33 people who were still alive and I want to thank you,” she told a group of foreign rescue workers during a televised broadcast. “Every life means hope for Venezuela,” Rodríguez later tweeted, announcing that an 11-year-old boy had been found alive in the town of Caraballeda, along the devastated northern coast. Venezuela’s communications ministry has also sought to project an image of unity and diligence in the face of the tragedy, posting social media videos of government rescue teams using sledgehammers and stretchers to pluck dust-caked survivors from the rubble. But on the streets, there is growing anger at what many perceive as the sluggish response of a government unprepared for a crisis of this scale, and the way many feel they were abandoned to their own fate in the hours after disaster struck. Rodríguez was heckled by frustrated locals while touring one badly hit part of the capital. “The government isn’t doing anything for the people!” shouted one critic. Outside the mortuary, the relentless work of volunteers offering water, coffee and trauma counselling contrasted with the lethargic official reaction, which experts blame on years of underinvestment in emergency services, as well as the sheer scale of the natural disaster. Similar scenes could be seen all across the traumatised city, as tents, mattresses and food were delivered to hundreds of families sleeping out on the streets because they were too frightened to return home, many with young children. If there is one thing not lacking in Caracas, it is the food provided by volunteers. “I thank God because Venezuelans have such enormous hearts … The people have been extraordinary,” Marjorie Cedeño said as she waited for news of her parents. “There may be no government response,” she added. “But there are so many good people helping.”