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Off-grid UK-Australian couple describe ‘anguish’ at removal of children by Italian court

A couple have told of their heartache, trauma and stress after fighting for two years for their right to parent their children as they choose in the glare of the world’s attention. The three children of a Melbourne woman, Catherine Birmingham, and her British partner, Nathan Trevallion, were removed from their “dilapidated” off-grid home in Italy last year. It sparked global conversations about state intervention and alternative lifestyles. They were raising the children on a property in the woods in the Abruzzo region, where they grew their own food and homeschooled the children. In September 2024, the family was hospitalised after eating poisonous mushrooms they had picked, which brought them to the attention of authorities. In November 2025, the juvenile court ordered the removal of Utopia Rose, nine, and six-year-old twins Galorian and Bluebell to a residential care facility, citing a lack of hygiene, social interaction, toilet facilities and schooling. Birmingham stayed with them until March, when she was ordered to leave under a new court ruling. On Wednesday, an Italian court approved a staged process that would allow a “gradual reunification process”, and could eventually allow the children to leave the facility. “The ruling partially revises previous court decisions and sets out a ‌gradual reunification process, ‌allowing the children to return home for daytime visits immediately and, from October, for weekend ‌overnight stays with their family,” their lawyer, Simone Pillon, said. In a statement released on Thursday, the couple said the “long-awaited decision, which our entire family awaited with anguish, arrived with a harshness that broke each of our hearts”. They asked whether forcing school attendance was “fair, legal, and respectful” of their parental rights and the rights of their children, saying they chose Italy for reasons including its homeschooling rights and support for family bonds. The parents have said that doctors say the children’s health is at “serious risk” and “the only way to reduce this risk is to return them home immediately”. “We are deeply concerned for their health,” the parents wrote. “How will they be well if they are forced to travel back and forth from their home to the foster home, then to school, and then back to the foster home again, all while still being kept apart from their parents? “How will they fare in the evening when, after an afternoon spent at home with their friends and pets, they must return to the foster home?” Even Italy’s hard-right prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, has weighed in. She expressed “alarm” over the children being taken into care, while the deputy prime minister, Matteo Salvini, compared the case to a kidnapping. But the judiciary’s union said the court’s decision was based on factors including the children’s safety, sanitary conditions and education. After the latest decision, social services will monitor the process and make an assessment before any permanent reunion can happen. The couple wrote that the authorities wanted to impose a standard. “And those who don’t follow it lose their children,” they wrote. “We are deeply saddened by this. “We have continued to collaborate and engage with everyone, even under extreme trauma, stress, exasperation and concern for our children knowing their daily suffering but we will always demand respect for our parental rights and, above all, for our children’s rights, especially their right to health – mental, physical and emotional.” The couple plan to appeal for a complete and faster reunification.

Victims sue South African government over 1961 Sharpeville massacre that left 91 dead

The day dawned brightly on 21 March 1960, as residents of the South African township of Sharpeville gathered to protest against pass laws, which forced “Black, Indian and Coloured” South Africans to carry documents at all times specifying where they were allowed to be. Abraham Mofokeng joined the march, one of dozens organised nationwide by the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), a breakaway group from the African National Congress. “The weather was very nice, the sun was out. You could not have suspected that the day would go so horribly,” said Mofokeng, who was then a 20-year-old factory worker. Mofokeng, now 86, was among the thousands gathered peacefully outside the police station in Sharpeville, which is about 40 miles south of Johannesburg in a heavily industrialised region known as the Vaal Triangle. The crowd was singing, he said, when officers opened fire without warning. At least 91 people were killed and 238 injured, in what became known as the Sharpeville massacre. As Mofokeng fled, a bullet grazed the inside of his right foot, ripping his shoe off. A woman fell to the ground before him; he jumped over her and kept running. Only later, when he noticed blood running down his legs, did he realise he had been shot in the back, where a bullet remains lodged in his spine. Mofokeng is among three claimants suing the South Africa government, in a case filed on Thursday, for compensation for the massacre. If the case is successful, dozens more could file claims. The case is part of a wave of litigation demanding justice for apartheid-era crimes, amid widespread disillusionment with ANC-led governments that have failed to rectify South Africa’s huge racial inequality and poverty since the end of apartheid over three decades ago. In January 2025, 25 survivors and relatives of victims of apartheid state violence sued South Africa’s government for failing to prosecute cases referred to it by the post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission. That May, the president, Cyril Ramaphosa, announced a judicial inquiry into potential political interference, which is still ongoing. Spokespeople for South Africa’s justice department did not respond to a request for comment on the Sharpeville compensation case. In the immediate aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre, police claimed that protesters had been throwing rocks at them. “I don’t know how many we shot,” said Colonel J Pienaar, the local police commander, according to a story published by the Guardian the following day. “It all started when hordes of natives surrounded the police station. My car was struck with a stone. If they do these things they must learn their lesson the hard way.” In July 1961, in response to victims filing compensation claims, the white minority regime passed a law indemnifying the government and anyone acting under its authority for any actions taken “in good faith for the prevention or suppression of internal disorder, the maintenance or restoration of good order, public safety or essential services, or the preservation of life or property”. The law, which was made effective retrospectively from the date of the massacre, is still in force today. The claimants’ legal team is arguing that the law is unconstitutional. The claimants are hoping to get compensation of about 500,000 rand (£23,000), said Daniel Leader, a partner with UK law firm Leigh Day, which is advising the South African legal team, led by Lawyers For Human Rights, an NGO. Mafokeng was awarded 30,000 rand as a one-off payment, after the TRC concluded in 2003. The TRC had recommended annual reparations payments of around 20,000 rand for six years. “We continued to suffer,” said Mofokeng, who still lives in Sharpeville. “Especially now … I am struggling and my health is not up to standard.” The other two test claimants were children when their fathers were killed in the massacre. Paulina Mathinye was five when her father Samson was shot. “Every time he came back from work, I would be so happy to see him that I would run to him, and then he would pick me up,” she said. Mathinye didn’t initially understand what had happened that day in 1960. “I kept on asking my mum: ‘Mummy, why are you crying?’” Mathinye’s mother struggled to raise her five children on a domestic worker’s wages and Mathinye, who had wanted to train as a teacher but couldn’t afford the bursary, had to leave education at 17 to find work. Mathinye, who is now 71, said she hoped for compensation that would make up for some of what she lost when her father died. “Some of my friends are teachers, some of them are nurses, and I’m staying in the same house that my father did,” she said. Sharpeville’s problems didn’t begin with the massacre in 1960, but with the dispossession of Black South Africans from productive land, their forced removals to townships and their exclusion from the economy, said Vincent Thamae, a PAC member who supports the massacre victims and their families. “When people talk about compensation now,” he said, “compensation is a concept to them that includes all the land that they lost, the economy that they were taken out of and even how they have been treated in the new democracy.”

Spain’s Sánchez defends Morocco over Ceuta crisis as opponents call for his removal – Europe live

The loan of the famous Bayeux tapestry was “the best possible symbol” of the “entente amicale” between France and the UK, King Charles said, as he visited the famous embroidered masterpiece at the British Museum in London. Though the tapestry recounts a conflict, “here it is today, nearly 1,000 years later, as a precious symbol of trust, at a time when trust seems sadly to be in short supply between nations,” he said. The “70 metres of memory and artistry” were a reminder “that our two nations have been bound together for almost a millennium”, added Charles, speaking at the new exhibition and accompanied by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and UK prime minister, Andy Burnham. Macron’s visit to the UK continues today, and he is expected at Downing Street shortly for further political talks with Burnham. You can follow that on our UK blog here:

The US and Venezuela: a century-old relationship drenched in oil

Written in the middle of the last century, the US Department of State memo conveys its message in a curt and undiplomatically honest tone: the glue that binds Washington to Caracas is, and is always likely to be, oil. “All US policies toward Venezuela are affected in greater or less degree by the objective of assuring an adequate supply of petroleum for the US,” the 1950 document reads. Decades later, little appears to have changed. After a brazen night-time kidnapping of the country’s leader earlier this year, Donald Trump announced last week that the US was taking majority control over about a fifth of Venezuela’s oil reserves. That deal, according to the White House, “secures our energy dominance for the next century”. How much it will benefit Venezuelans is yet to be seen. The country’s importance to the US has been proven time and time again over the past century. Home to what are now known to be the world’s largest known oil reserves, Venezuela kept allied planes, ship and tanks well fuelled during the second world war. Washington and Caracas largely cooperated over the following decades, with US energy companies heavily involved in Venezuela’s oil industry, and profiting from it immensely. But relations took a nosedive in 1999, when Hugo Chávez became president. A self-professed socialist and anti-imperialist, Chávez made alliances, and often oil deals, with China, Iran and Russia. Venezuela switched 180 degrees to become a natural adversary of the US, alongside its ally Cuba. Relations deteriorated further when Chávez was briefly detained by his own military after a deadly crackdown on mass anti-government protests. The attempted overthrow lasted only two days and he was soon back in the presidential palace, accusing Washington of involvement in the failed coup. Chávez deepened Venezuela’s dependence on oil exports in the years that followed. In 2007, he stepped up his battle with Washington with a wave of nationalisation in which he seized oilfields, including those that US firms had operated. Caracas had nationalised the oil industry decades before, but had allowed US companies to profit from the extraction. Under Chávez’s new terms, however, the state oil company was given control of a majority share and foreign firms were offered minority stakes. Among US oil companies, Chevron agreed to the worse terms, but ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips refused and were in effect pushed out of the industry. Only Chevron, the second largest US oil company, has continued to operate in the country. ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips engaged in a years-long legal battle with Venezuela for compensation. The World Bank’s international centre for the settlement of investment disputes awarded them billions of dollars, but Venezuela has never paid the money in full. Still, much of the country’s oil infrastructure was built with foreign involvement, and foreign companies are still active in the exploitation of the fields, among them Russian, Chinese and Cuban firms, as well as UK and European companies, including Shell, BP, Italy’s Eni and Spain’s Repsol. When Chávez died in 2013, Nicolás Maduro rose to power. The former bus driver had worked as his foreign minister and continued an antagonistic policy towards the US. Maduro’s rule was considered dictatorial. The UN estimated in 2019 that more than 20,000 Venezuelans had died in extrajudicial killings. Key institutions, such as the judiciary, were eroded under Maduro and the rule of law deteriorated. The US has portrayed the Maduro government as illegitimate. A Washington-led sanctions campaign compounded widespread corruption, and the Venezuelan economy suffered. It did not help the relationship that Maduro kept close ties with Moscow and Beijing. About 80% of the crude oil Venezuela produced was exported to China before the US-imposed blockade in December. China is the world’s biggest oil importer, and takes the shipments as repayment for loans it previously gave to Caracas, often at low prices. Since the start of his second term, Donald Trump had repeatedly called for Maduro to be ousted, accusing him of sending drugs and criminals to the US – a claim experts say lacks evidence. He also claimed Maduro was stealing US oil, a reference to Chávez’s seizure. In July last year, Washington announced a $50m (£37m) bounty on Maduro’s head, accusing him of being one of the biggest drug traffickers in the world. Trump’s administration began to carry out airstrikes against alleged drug traffickers in the Caribbean Sea and then to seize Venezuelan tankers, while building up the US military presence in the waters surrounding the country. Trump gave Maduro an ultimatum to relinquish power in late November, offering him safe passage out of the country. But Maduro refused the offer, telling supporters he did not want “a slave’s peace” and accusing the US of wanting control of his country’s oil reserves. This January, in the ultimate expression of a relationship breakdown, US forces carried out a pre-dawn raid on Caracas, capturing Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, who are now on trial in New York. Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, initially denounced Maduro’s capture as a kidnapping, but has since shown she is willing to work with Washington. In the aftermath of Maduro’s abduction, Trump said the US would take control of Venezuela’s oil industry. And in August, after months of secret talks, Washington’s longstanding oil-focused policy was on display again when the US president announced the agreement to control millions of barrels of oil. A White House press release described the agreement as the “biggest oil deal in world history” that gave the US government “powerful governance rights” over reserves. Further down in the document, the White House claimed private-sector growth would help drive a democratic transition in Venezuela, though few in Caracas will be holding their breath. Rodríguez has already been forced to defend herself against claims she is surrendering Venezuela’s natural resources to a foreign power. One prominent Venezuelan economist has called the deal “predatory”, saying it was “done at gunpoint”. Francisco Rodríguez wrote that Washington’s actions in Venezuela had turned the country into “a protectorate in all but name”. “Trying to run a country from the capital of an imperial power has been tried before,” he said. “And it has not ended well.” Additional reporting by Jillian Ambrose

Wife of British man at risk of deportation from Sweden calls on Burnham to intervene

The wife of a British man detained by police in Stockholm on Tuesday ahead of a threatened deportation has pleaded with Andy Burnham to get involved in the Brexit catastrophe unfolding for many British citizens in Sweden. Charles, who does not want to be fully identified, and his Swedish wife, Lily, were summoned to the police station at 10am on Tuesday, where he was told he would be held at a detention centre and deported within the next two weeks. Lily, who is a lawyer, was told to go home and get his passport despite her protests that there was a court process under way appealing the deportation order. “I feel shame,” said Lily, who asked that their family’s surname not be published. “To me, Britain represents freedom for human beings, and then to see this British man in detention just because he wants to be with his wife and live in his house, this is not right. “What kind of country are we living in? Is this civilisation? They don’t care about human rights. This is a European country, but it looks like Sweden is like somewhere like Afghanistan,” she said. Lily met her husband in the UK after starting a law degree in London in 2010. She now works for the local authority in Stockholm and returned to Sweden in 2015, with her soon-to-be husband joining her in 2017, three years before Brexit. A former business consultant, now retired, Charles made an application to remain in the country before the deadline for applications after Brexit. His application was rejected two years later in 2022 and the family have been fighting deportation ever since with “six or seven” appeals, said Lily. “The Migration Agency has hunted us for five years.” During the summer the couple received a text asking them to show up at their local police station on 1 September. “They told us they needed to talk and we should show up at 10am. They didn’t say anything about deportation or to bring passports. “When we arrived they told us that they needed to talk to Charles privately, and after three hours they told me they were taking him to the detention centre and that they would deport him. “I told them that they can’t do this because his case is in court and they have to wait for the outcome, but they told me they were going ahead,” said Lily. She has pleaded with Andy Burnham, the UK prime minister, to intervene. “Why can’t Andy Burnham talk to the Swedish government? How many British families have to suffer in Sweden before Andy Burnham gets involved? How many families have to leave their homes, be forced into selling their houses? “This is not humanity. This is not right. They should threaten the trade agreement,” she added. Charles’s case comes amid growing controversy over Sweden’s approach to the withdrawal agreement, which is supposed to have protected EU citizens in the UK and British citizens settled in the bloc before Brexit. Among those threatened with removal in the past month are 78-year-old British widow Joyce Thomas, who has been in the country for 21 years, and George Mason, a 74-year-old man in dementia care who has been in the country for 24 years. A 34-year-old man revealed this week he was deported from Sweden in January despite having been in the country since he was 10 and being married to a Swedish woman in Gothenburg. Two years ago another British woman, Kathleen Poole, was threatened with deportation because she had not provided financial statements to the Migration Agency while in full-time dementia care. The Swedish migration minister defended the country’s implementation of the withdrawal agreement, saying the Migration Agency was following the rules and had granted a number of residency permits for Britons who had “reasonable grounds” for late applications. However, concerns have been raised formally by the UK government through the EU-UK specialised committee, the official platform to raise issues over the working out of the Brexit deal, over the high number of late applications for post Brexit residency being rejected. Sweden, along with 12 other EU member states, opted for a constitutive system requiring citizens to formally apply to extend their residency rights post Brexit. Others, like Spain, opted for a declaratory system requiring Britons to simply register their presence initially. Lily says she and her husband phoned the authorities and used the correct form for residency and have been fighting ever since. The latest statistics from the 2024 European Commission annual report show that 14,233 applications for post Brexit residency have been decided in Sweden. According to analysis by the UK government, 27.5% (3,918) of applications have been refused, “a refusal rate three times higher than any other member state and considerably higher than the EU average of between 3 and 4%”. Sources added that this “constitutes 12% of all refusals across the EU member states, even though UK nationals in Sweden makes up only 1.55% of the total population of WA beneficiaries in EU member states”. Denmark faced a similar controversy two years ago, but legislation was introduced to give British nationals a second chance to make the residency application.

More than 800 students and teachers in Indonesia suffer food poisoning after eating government free meals

More than 800 Indonesian students and teachers have fallen ill in separate incidents of food poisoning linked to President Prabowo Subianto’s free-meals program this week, with dozens hospitalised after they with struck with nausea, vomiting and stomach aches. The president’s flagship free-meals program was launched last year to tackle malnutrition, with meals distributed to more than 62 million students and pregnant women across the country. But the multi-billion policy has been plagued by controversy, including recurrent cases of food poisonings, alleged corruption, leadership changes, and complaints it is a major lag on the budget. This week 566 students fell ill after eating the government’s free meals in Sidoarjo, East Java, with 88 of them hospitalised. In Nganjuk, also in East Java, 49 students fell ill on Wednesday after eating a free meal of fried rice, chicken and tofu. Another 237 students and teachers in Agam, West Sumatra, also fell ill after their meals on Wednesday, according to local media reports. Eggs were suspected to be the cause. The regional government in Agam has reportedly suspended distributing the meals, pending an evaluation. The kitchen linked to the Sidoarjo case was also suspended on Wednesday. In the past year many Indonesians have complained about the program, writing on social media about maggots in tempeh, shards of glass in rice, and food trays washed in dirty water. Overall, 37,600 people are believed to have suffered food poisoning linked to the free meals as of 8 Aug., according to Network for Education Watch, a non-governmental watchdog. Charles Honoris, a lawmaker and member of the sole political party outside the governing coalition, described the situation as a “failure of the system”. The National Nutrition Agency has blamed previous cases of food poisoning on improper food storage and late delivery of cooked meals. Prabowo has also played down the scale of the problem, saying that of more than a billion meals served, poisoning cases represented just “0.0017% – quite a proud achievement”. He also said the policy had improved school attendance and achievement. In July, a survey by pollster Saiful Mujani Research and Consulting showed only a third of people were satisfied with the scheme, with the reported cases of poisoning cited as a major reason. Despite the mounting criticism, Prabowo told parliament last month the program would be continued, and promised that improvements would be made. “We start with the most fundamental aspect: nutrition. Our children must not study while hungry. No child can learn effectively if they are hungry,” he said. “We cannot accept a situation where one in four Indonesian children suffers from stunting,” he continued, “We cannot accept that.”

Thursday briefing: What life is like in a West Bank village under siege from Israeli settlers

Good morning. In the coming days, Andy Burnham’s new government is expected to announce a ban on trade with Israeli settlements on the West Bank. It’s a move long anticipated by campaigners, and after a summer of escalating violence across the West Bank and the expansion of Israeli settlements that are illegal under international law, the UN was warned last month that the area is “at breaking point”. But this is not just a story about high level diplomacy and global trade. It is a story about people’s homes and gardens – people who simply want to walk around them in peace. One of those people is Loui Abu Ridi, and this morning marks the 26th day that his house in the northern West Bank village of Qusra has been besieged by settlers. First, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | In his first prime ministers questions, Andy Burnham blames the Conservatives’ legacy for leaving the UK vulnerable to market turmoil. US news | JD Vance has said he is “doing as much of God’s work as possible” and that he is OK “if that leads to the end times”, which he says “are coming”. Tech | The UK government does not know what the country’s datacentres are being used for, despite fears over the growing environmental cost of the AI boom, a freedom of information request has found. Nepal-Tibet | There is a high chance that dozens ⁠of workers may be found alive after a week trapped in an underground chamber at Nepal’s Rasuwagadhi hydropower plant, a ⁠Nepal electricity authority official has said. Defence | A former defence minister has admitted misleading parliament over the existence of crucial medical records relating to nuclear bomb test veterans. In depth: ‘We live hour by hour’ Over the past two years, Loui Abu Ridi and his family have worked hard in their garden, which overlooks the village of Qusra, planting cherry, fig and olive trees, installing solar lights and a path to walk through the saplings. But in recent months, harassment by local settlers has intensified: they smashed windows, ripped out cabling and attacked his brother with rocks. They brought their sheep into Ridi’s yard – the sheep ate the saplings. Then, at the start of August, a group of settlers erected a tent outside his house and encircled two others, trapping the residents and blocking access to food and medical supplies. “When my brother called the police, they sent the military,” Abu Ridi explains, “but instead of helping him, they took selfies with the settlers”. “Now, we live hour by hour,” he tells me. The jeopardy is constant: just before we speak, a group of armed militants was circling his property in an ATV. His 83-year-old mother has run out of medicine, but any supplies must be negotiated via the village mayor and take days to arrive. His neighbour’s children should have gone back to school this week after the summer break. “Those kids, they cannot live their childhood. They cannot even go out in their yard to play.” I don’t speak Arabic, but Ridi speaks fluent English – he’s Palestinian-American, and grew up in Qusra, but left to study in the States, and he now runs a chain of gas stations in Ohio. With the assistance of the US embassy, he returned to the West Bank from midwest America soon after the siege commenced in August to be with his mother, brother and sister. “I was escorted into my house and since then, I have not left.” *** What is the West Bank, and who lives there? It’s nearly 20 years since I last visited the West Bank, and I can still remember the scream of a Palestinian mother as a bulldozer splintered the walls of her two-storey house, smashing bright, woven rugs and framed family photographs into dust and debris. The destruction of Palestinian homes and the expulsion of communities has been continuing for decades on this area of land on the west bank of the river Jordan. Since the Six Day War in 1967, the area, including Gaza, has been under Israeli occupation. The first Israeli settlements were established on the West Bank soon afterwards, backed by politicians across party lines, and have been formally recognised as violating international law ever since, although Israel has long disputed this interpretation. In 2024, the International Court of Justice declared that Israel’s continued occupation of Palestinians land unlawful. The 1995 Oslo peace deal created three administrative areas in the West Bank intended to constitute a future Palestinian state, a prospect consistently undermined by successive Israeli governments and their supporters in the settler movement. That encompasses both hardline right factions who claim historical and religious rights to the West Bank as the ancestral land of the Jewish people and other groups, and politicians on the left, who claim Israel needs to occupy Palestinian land as a security measure. While population counts vary, B’Tselem, the Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, estimates there are around 700,000 Israelis living illegally in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and more than 3.5 million Palestinians who call it home. *** How has the violence escalated? Since the Hamas atrocities of 7 October, when 1,200 predominantly Jewish people were killed and 251 taken hostage, settler expansion and accompanying violence on the West Bank has sharply escalated. According to UN figures, between 7 October 2023 and 21 June 2026, 1,105 Palestinians – at least 242 of them children – were killed in the West Bank. What is happening is ethnic cleansing. B’Tselem keeps a detailed chronology of violence, demolitions and displacement, estimating just under 5,000 people have been expelled since 2023, and over 60 communities have been wiped off the map. They are clear that this is the continuation of a systemic campaign rather than sporadic acts of violence by a handful of rogue extremists. The Israeli state has given settlers guns and uniforms, as part of locally established reserve units, and other equipment they use to terrorise Palestinians, including all-terrain vehicles. The aim is to push Palestinians into disconnected enclaves while establishing infrastructure for settlers to use, B-Tselem said, and supported by much of the Israeli government, including the far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich, a settler himself. Indeed, Orit Strook, Israel’s settlement minister, drew heavy criticism from opposition politicians and families of 7 October victims, when she described the period of rapid expansion of Israeli settler control in the West Bank after the attacks as “a time of miracles”. In the past month alone, B’Tselem identified further escalation, with hundreds of settlers targeting larger Palestinians villages, attacking families, setting fire to houses and cars, and taking over farmland. Examples of Israeli aggression towards foreign visitors have gained more international attention: British activist Finn Joughin was abducted by armed settlers, then deported from Israel, and NBC News correspondent Matt Bradley required medical treatment after his crew was attacked by masked settlers. But, as Abu Ridi describes, settlers are largely acting with impunity. B’Tselem believe they are using the window before Israeli government elections in the autumn to “change the reality” on the West Bank. The Israeli government is moving ahead with the E1 project, a plan to build thousands of homes on occupied land between East Jerusalem and the Ma’ale Adumim settlement on the West Bank, which many international critics argue would cut the West Bank in two and make the creation of a future Palestinian state even harder, if not impossible. *** Will the sanctions make a difference? On Tuesday, foreign secretary Ed Miliband told MPs: “This government will not acquiesce in the destruction of the two-state solution. We will act, and I will set out a comprehensive set of measures in the coming weeks.” And, the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, has previously made it known he wishes to take a more “robust” position on Israel than his predecessor Keir Starmer. However, this has not been welcomed by all quarters of his party, with Labour Friends of Israel warning that a ban on trade with settlements could become a de facto boycott of Israel due to the difficulty of separating out settlement goods from those made within the internationally recognised borders of the country. That in turn would cause significant harm to the UK’s Jewish community, the group say. But, a recent Amnesty briefing argues that the government can use the same enforcement framework already in place for trade sanctions following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which distinguishes between goods originating in occupied Ukrainian territory and those originating in Russia. And within Israel, security chiefs have demanded the government take action to “eradicate Jewish terrorism” on the West Bank. With Israel more isolated internationally than ever, Abu Ridi has tried to use his dual citizenship to draw attention to what is happening across the West Bank. The US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee – usually no ally to the Palestinian cause – recently described the actions of the settlers besieging Abu Ridi’s home as those of “terrorists”. “I am a Palestinian-American. But I’m not the only one living this life. There are hundreds and thousands of Palestinians in the West Bank, being threatened and beaten by Israeli extremists, and forced out of their houses.” At the end of our call, we speak a little more about his garden. Since the beginning of the siege three weeks ago, the settlers have stopped encouraging their sheep on to his property. “I was just talking with my brother about this,” he says. “We’ve started seeing green leaves, so there’s hope for those trees, if the settlers stay away from my yard.” What else we’ve been enjoying We’ve previously covered how big money is distorting politics on First Edition, so it’s very disappointing that Burnham has backtracked on a £500,000 cap. George Monbiot’s column on this is essential reading. Hettie This NYT report on the runway success of Delhi’s sprawling metro system neatly unpicks how it was built from scratch in one of the world’s most densely populated cities (£). Michael Freelancers are being hired to clean up “AI slop”, neatening and retouching content created by machines. It’s soulless work, Aaron Mok finds in this grimly fascinating piece. Hettie I’ve enjoyed so many of Simon Hattenstone’s recent interviews, and his tete-a-tete with Mr T is no exception. Michael When Stephen Buranyi first told me he was investigating the secretive world of restaurant influencers, I couldn’t wait to read what he found. His long read is well worth your time. Hettie Sport Tennis | Katie Boulter was outclassed 6-1, 6-0 in the second round of the US Open in New York, continuing the British No 1’s poor form. Cricket | Brydon Carse has been left out of England’s squad for the final Test of the summer, against Pakistan at Edgbaston next week, with police still investigating allegations of an assault connected with the late-night incident at a Derby bar last month. Football | Manchester City have equalled the British transfer record with a £125m deal to sign Enzo Fernández from Chelsea. The front pages “PM tries to calm bond markets as sell-off threatens first budget”, is the Guardian’s front page today, while the FT says “Burnham seeks to shield steel and farming from ‘Made in Europe’ push”. The Times’ headline is “‘Vibes’ won’t defend UK, Burnham told by Labour”, the Telegraph writes “Tories will cut benefits to hit 3pc on defence”, and the Mail leads with “Kemi: I’ll slash benefits bill to boost defence”. The i Paper’s front page says “Britain’s royals face Russian cyber threat in ‘grey war’”. The Sun splashes “One in the eye for Andy”, the Mirror has “A right whinger”, and the Express says “Voters would punish you if triple lock goes”. Lastly, Metro has “Sad pathetic creeps.co.uk”. Today in Focus: The Latest Iran retaliates after US strikes reportedly kill wedding guests Iran has accused the US of a ‘war crime’ after a missile blast killed at least four people, including a young child, and injured 68 at a wedding at a private house in southern Iran. A month-long uneasy truce between the US and Iran appears to have collapsed again, after US strikes on Saturday on Larak Island in the Strait of Hormuz. Iran has responded by launching drones and missiles on US bases across the Middle East, including the Gulf States. Lucy Hough speaks to Middle East correspondent Will Christou. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad For many people of colour, finding a reliable place to take care of your hair can be a battle. New York thinks it has an answer to that problem. As of this month, a new law means every hairdresser studying cosmetology will be specifically trained to work with all hair types. In time, this will make many salons more accommodating to more hair types. “No New Yorker should ever walk into a salon and be turned away or receive substandard care because of their hair texture,” New York state assembly member and bill sponsor Michaelle Solages said. “Now, with the adoption of this legislation, they won’t have to.” 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

Who are the Australians missing in the Nepal floods? What we know so far

The number of Australians missing in the Nepal-Tibet flash flooding disaster fell from 43 on Tuesday morning to 38 on Wednesday, with five unaccounted for people making contact. Of the five Australians confirmed safe on Wednesday, one was found in Nepal, one in Tibet and three outside the crisis-hit area. It comes after Sydney woman Cara Severino, 25, was safely located in Nepal last week. The names of the five Australians confirmed safe on Wednesday have not yet been released. Pilgrims trekking to a holy site in Tibet make up the majority of Australians who have been reported missing after deadly flash floods and landslides tore through valleys on the Nepal-Tibet border on 26 August. Most were travelling with Himalayan Glacier Adventures, Kailash Journeys and the Isha Foundation. Across Nepal and Tibet, more than 4,000 people have been reported missing and Nepali and Chinese authorities have confirmed more than 1,000 have died. Here’s what we know about the Australians who remain missing. This article will be updated as more information becomes available. Venkatraman Balakrishnan and Chitra Venkatraman New South Wales couple Venkatraman Balakrishnan, 52, and Chitra Venkatraman, 46, were among 15 Australians travelling to Mount Kailash on a spiritual trip with the Himalayan Glacier Adventures tour group. Their son, Akash Venkatraman, said his parents had planned to leave their riverside accommodation in Syabrubesi before it was devastated by flood waters. Muralitharan family Shylaja Muralitharan, 42, Chandresekaran Muralitharan, 47 and their children Ashwin, 14, and Aarush, 11, were also taking part in the Himalayan Glacier Adventures spiritual tour to Mount Kailash when the flood hit. The parents and two children had been training together for the long walk, Shylaja’s younger sister Vaishnavi said. She lost contact with the family shortly after their breakfast on the morning of the flood. Iyer family Sreedharan Iyer, 52, and Lakshmi Iyer, 50, and their adult sons Rishab Iyer, 23, and Rudhra Iyer, 20, were taking part in the spiritual pilgrimage to Mount Kailash with Himalayan Glacier Adventures. The Iyer brothers are medical students at the University of Newcastle and members of the West Pennant Hills Cherrybrook Cricket Club in Sydney’s north-west. Karan Bhardwaj, Arpan Mithalal Kothari and Bhavin Raval Karan Bhardwaj, Arpan Mithalal Kothari and Bhavin Raval were travelling together on a Kailash Journey tour of the region. Bhardwaj’s family says the three men have known each other since 2009, when they met at university. Raval’s wife, Bhavinkumar Raval, has told the ABC she believes her husband is still alive and is making plans to travel to Nepal. Bhardwaj is a 40-year-old Brisbane-based member of the Royal Australian Air Force. Bhardwaj’s family member Jen said: “Karan is a dad to my beautiful seven-year-old nephew, as well as a brother, uncle and brother in law. He is so desperately loved by his family and right now we are desperately praying, hoping and believing that Karan is safe, alive and somehow making his way back to us.” Narayan Panthi Narayan Panthi, from Brisbane, has been listed by Nepali police as travelling with operator Kathmandu Holiday Tours and Travel. It is understood Panthi had been carrying out independent volunteer charity work in Kathmandu earlier in the week before travelling towards the border region. Panthi’s cousin, Amrit Bhusal, told Guardian Australia his family were devastated but “holding on to hope and praying for positive news”. “We are still hoping,” Bhusal said. “We are still searching. We are still praying for Narayan to come home safely.” Bhusal said Panthi had been “helping disadvantaged children in Nepal reach their full potential through education”. Bharat Mangwani Bharat Mangwani, 42, was travelling with the Isha Foundation as part of a pilgrimage to Lake Manasarovar when his family lost contact with him on Wednesday morning. He was last seen at Gyirong before the group was set to depart for Kathmandu. “All of us are praying for him and hopefully he comes back to us soon,” close friend Kushagra Tiwari said. Mangwani’s family, including his nine-year-old son and three-year-old daughter, have travelled to India with a family friend, while his wife has flown to Nepal to look for him. Sumi Adhikari Sumi Adhikari, 41, was at the Gyirong Port crossing with the Isha Foundation group when the flood hit. Her husband, Nava Pandey, has travelled to Nepal seeking information about her whereabouts. “We still have no clear or official information about Sumi or the other members of her group,” Pandey said on Saturday morning. Renee Spry A Sunshine Coast disability support worker, Renee Spry has been described as a “deeply spiritual” person who travelled to Nepal on a pilgrimage. “She had two degrees, and she chose to do something that was … a completely selfless vocation. Her priority was always other people,” her sister Clair Spry said. “Every person she touched, they knew her love and kindness. She would be so uncomfortable with all this.” Clair Spry has set up a GoFundMe so her family can travel to Nepal to look for signs of Renee. Suhasini Kandimalla A mother of two from Springfield, near Brisbane, Suhasini Kandimalla was hiking with another Springfield local, according to her sister, Supreethini Kandimalla. While she was a New Zealand citizen, Suhasini had been approved for Australian citizenship, her sister said. She had planned to attend a citizenship ceremony for it to be granted soon after she returned. “I don’t know if it was a religious calling for her to do it,” Supreethini said of the Nepal trip. “But she certainly loved the treks in New Zealand too, and would go on lots of long hikes.” Reshma Patel Newcastle woman Reshma Patel, 46, was in the Isha Foundation group. She didn’t know Sumi Adhikari beforehand, but the pair had become friends on the pilgrimage, Patel’s family friend Chin Valsan says. “They were talking to each other, and they were supposed to come back on the same flight on Thursday,” he says. He describes Patel, who has two children aged 10 and 14 and works casually for Canterbury-Bankstown council, as “full of life” and a “kind soul” who loves her family and friends. Kanagamah Sundrasan The mother of two from Springfield, near Brisbane, was part of the Kailash Journey trek to Mount Kailash. Her daughter, Swaatika Kanniah, said her mother had been excited about the hike. “It was a pilgrimage, she really wanted to go and have that experience.” A photograph of her on the trip shows her smiling with five other members of the tour; all are now missing. “I feel like everyone is trying their best, but yes we don’t know much about what’s going on,” Kanniah said of the recovery efforts. Michael Keats The family of 37-year-old Michael Keats, from Mollymook in NSW, said on social media that he had died. Keats’s partner, Emily Boyd, said on Instagram on Sunday that he had been on a pilgrimage to Mount Kailash, which had been his “dream for many years”. “Mike went on a pilgrimage to Mt Kailash seeking enlightenment,” Boyd said. “There’s a bittersweetness knowing that there was nothing more that Mike wanted [than] to know God, and to merge with the divine. “He was a mystic, a medicine man, a teacher, leader, partner, father, brother, son, uncle and dearly beloved friend. He showed up for so many people in so many ways. A heart of pure gold. We love you forever and always.” On Tuesday, the foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the Australian government “has not yet received official confirmation of Mr Keats’ passing. He does remain unaccounted for in terms of the information we have. But … we respect the rights of the families to make the statements they have”. “Our thoughts go out to his family and to every Australian family who is hoping that the many who are missing can be located,” she said. Luke Costanzo Luke Costanzo, 30, from Perth remains missing, his family has confirmed. He was on a pilgrimage trek with the Isha foundation, and the group was last in contact at the Gyirong port border crossing as they were making their way back to Kathmandu on the final day of their journey, the family said in a statement. “Luke is an extremely strong, compassionate, disciplined and spiritual person. Once he makes a decision he commits to it fully and he was so excited to be visiting Mount Kailash on a pilgrimage trek with the Isha Foundation,” the family said. “We truly appreciate all the love and support from friends and family that we’ve received and ask everyone to keep Luke, and all those affected, in your thoughts and prayers.” The family has asked people who wish to help to donate “to aid the wonderful people on the ground who continue with rescue efforts”. Sandeep Mohapatra and Sidharthi Kumari Sahu Sandeep Mohapatra and Sidharthi Kumari Sahu are members of Melbourne’s Odia community. The couple had taken part in a pilgrimage and were last believed to have been making their way towards the immigration office. Hara Patro, a member of the Melbourne Odia community, travelled to India to speak with their families and has urged Australians to keep the couple in their hearts. “Their families are living through unimaginable uncertainty,” he said. “Every day without news makes the situation harder, but we continue to hope and pray that Sandeep and Sidharthi will be found safe.” The couple’s son is staying with family in India as they wait for news.