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Russian foreign minister says ‘nothing is happening’ in US talks on Ukraine and peace process is stuck – Europe live

in Bucharest Today’s Bucharest Nine talks in Romania take place against the backdrop of another domestic political crisis in the country, following the recent collapse of its pro-EU government. But Andrei Popoviciu has also this great story on the country’s judiciary system in “deep crisis” six months after documentary exposed alleged network used to delay graft convictions. As he says, “the cumulative toll is visible in the polls [as] a survey this year found that seven in 10 Romanians do not trust the justice system and more than half believe the law is not applied equally.” “In recent years, a series of major corruption trials involving politicians and businessmen have collapsed after reaching the statute of limitations due to repeated delays in judicial proceedings and despite extensive evidence, including wiretaps of suspects appearing to admit wrongdoing.” Read his story here:

Neuty the nutria, viral pet rodent whose family fought a state to keep him, dies of cancer

Condolences have poured in for a Louisiana couple who successfully battled wildlife authorities to keep their domesticated nutria as a pet, watched the semi-aquatic rodent appear on cable news and accumulate a social media following tens of thousands strong, and then endured the animal’s recent death from cancer. Denny and Myra Lacoste announced Neuty’s death on Monday on Instagram, where more than 37,000 users followed an account dedicated to documenting the nutria’s life. “Neuty passed away peacefully in his sleep Saturday morning on one of his favorite rugs,” the announcement read. “We are devastated and our hearts hurt.” One reply to the post that was representative of the various others said: “What an exceptional creature he was, with the very best family! He’ll be so dearly missed.” Another came from the popular New Orleans-based brewery Urban South, which said “we always loved having Neuty” at the business. The uniquely south-eastern Louisiana saga of Neuty began on Christmas Eve 2020, when he was a days-old baby and the Lacostes found him on the side of a road divided by a drainage canal in their home town, the New Orleans suburb of Metairie. Some of his siblings had just been fatally struck by a car. And it seemed he would have died as well, as the Guardian reporting partner WWL Louisiana has previously written. Resembling more diminutive capybaras, nutrias are considered to be part of an invasive species. The beaver-like creatures notoriously damage everything from the state’s crops and its marshes to its fragile coastline. But Denny Lacoste told the outlet that Neuty won his heart on sight. The seafood purveyor gave Neuty pet milk for several weeks and potty-trained him to a healthy weight upwards of 20lbs (9kg), and the animal essentially became a family member. Eventually, though, Neuty’s story received news coverage. Louisiana’s wildlife and fisheries department attempted to confiscate Neuty, citing laws governing wild animals. But, met with public outcry and a Change.org petition named “free Neuty” that drew more than 17,000 signatures, the authorities granted permission for the nutria to live with the Lacostes as a pet. The struggle pitting Neuty and the Lacostes against the government won the rodent a level of social media fame that many influencers would envy. He appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News show in April 2023, mere days before the host and the network went their separate ways. “I’m glad to meet Neuty,” Carlson said to the Lacostes at the time. “I just want to thank you on behalf of all animal lovers for your bravery in the face of state interference.” Neuty more recently made appearances at local schools, fairs, festivals and farmers’ markets as social media pages tracking his life gained popularity and event invitations poured in. He was known throughout his Metairie neighborhood of Bucktown and well beyond for displaying calm behavior with children and other people surrounding him, gazing at him and petting him – occasionally dozens at a time. He could be seen being led on a leash by the Lacostes and stopping to take pictures with Mardi Gras parade-goers young and old in mid-February. But less than a month later, on 11 March, the Lacostes revealed Neuty had been diagnosed with an inoperable, cancerous tumor. He was cleared for radiation treatment as his cancer spread, as WWL reported. Yet on Friday, the Lacostes noticed an unspecified change in his personality, they said. He had one last of his preferred milk bone treats on Saturday and died roughly an hour later. “We could go on and on about the joy [and] happiness Neuty has brought … [for] 5½ years,” the Lacostes wrote in their announcement of Neuty’s death. “We are heartbroken and miss him terribly & will continue to miss him, but will never forget the great times we shared with him, he literally made us laugh every single day.”

Trump-Xi China summit: five key issues on the agenda

Donald Trump’s state visit to China this week – the first by the US president in nearly a decade – comes amid a time of geopolitical upheaval, a new and intractable conflict in the Middle East, and a sometimes rocky relationship between the world’s two major superpowers. There is much for Trump and Xi Jinping to discuss, but a few key issues are likely to dominate the agenda. Iran war Trump is eager for China to lean on Tehran to advance peace talks and reopen the strait of Hormuz. To now, Beijing has sat back and watched the US struggle against Iran, at least publicly. But with about half of China’s crude oil imports passing through the strait, Xi does want the waterway unblocked. China knows its exports will suffer if a global recession results from an oil supply crisis. Complicating the picture, the US this week put sanctions on several Chinese firms accused of assisting Iranian oil shipments and supplying satellite imagery allegedly used in Iranian military operations, claims that Beijing denied. Trump’s arrival comes after Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, visited Beijing last week. Taiwan Beijing is keen to push the US on Taiwan, with Trump saying he is prepared to raise the issue of arms sales to the island, which China claims as a breakaway territory despite never having ruled it. In December, Trump authorised an $11bn arms package for Taiwan, the largest weapons sale ever to the island, but no shipments have been made yet. Xi may seek changes in how the US refers to Taiwan. Ideally, from the perspective of Beijing, this would be a statement from Washington “opposing” Taiwan’s independence rather than “not supporting” it. Taiwan will be watching closely. Just two weeks ago, China’s foreign minister in a phone call with Marco Rubio urged the US to “make the right choices” on Taiwan. With Trump known to veer off script, John Kirby, a former US state department and Pentagon spokesperson cautioned: “They just have to be so extraordinarily precise when you’re talking about Taiwan because, quite frankly, the stakes are enormously high.” Artificial intelligence China and the US are locked into a race on artificial intelligence that is becoming something of a technological cold war. In April, the White House accused China of stealing US AI labs’ intellectual property on an industrial scale, claims Beijing denied. Meanwhile, Beijing has been frustrated by Washington’s reluctance to allow Nvidia to export its most powerful processing chips to China. In January, the White House said Nvidia could export its second most powerful chip, the H200, but no shipments have been sent yet. Analysts and ethics leaders hope Trump and Xi will discuss non-binding AI guidelines, including sharing information about AI misuse and safety, which are seen as critical guardrails amid the advent of AI weaponry and military adoption. US-China trade Trump has repeatedly threatened China over trade, imposing tariffs above 140% last year. But Xi held some cards of his own and did not fold. Instead, China blocked exports of its rare earth minerals and magnets to the US. Trump, finally, backed down. The US has depleted notable levels of its weapons arsenal in the war against Iran, with many weaponry components requiring critical minerals that are linked to supply chains dominated by China. China is expected to announce purchases related to Boeing airplanes, American agriculture and energy, US officials have said. In turn, Beijing wants the US to ease curbs on exports of advanced semiconductors. Beijing also wants to reduce barriers to investment in the US, and hopes to establish a Board of Investment to match the Trump-back Board of Trade. Fentanyl Fentanyl is a key item on Trump’s agenda this week, Politico reported, citing an administration official granted anonymity to preview the closed-door sessions. The US has long accused Chinese businesses of knowingly supplying the chemical precursors to Mexican cartels who use them to make the drug. Trump knows that being seen to press China hard over fentanyl and precursors plays well with his Maga base. But Trump lost important leverage on the fentanyl front when China defied his tariffs threats. In March, the US and China clashed over fentanyl and trade at a UN drugs meeting. China wants to be removed from the state department’s annual list of “major drug transit or illicit drug producing countries”, due to be updated in September.

Wednesday briefing: How much longer can Keir Starmer cling to power?

Good morning. First as tragedy, then as farce. Once again, the UK is shrouded in political uncertainty as a deeply unpopular prime minister clings to power. It has become a familiar cycle in recent years: the wait to find out which perishable good will survive longer than our next doomed premier. Keir Starmer insists he is not leaving – a serious leader for a serious time – and will have been boosted by last night’s lifeline, when Wes Streeting’s challenge failed to materialise. However, his authority with Labour MPs remains weak. Each new resignation attempts to undermine his position. For now, Starmer remains in charge by default. For today’s First Edition, I spoke with the Guardian’s policy editor, Kiran Stacey, about the latest goings on behind the scenes in Westminster, and the obstacles facing the runners and riders vying to be the next temporary occupant of 10 Downing Street. But first, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Keir Starmer will attempt to regain the political initiative today as his government announces a package of 35 bills for the next parliamentary session, covering everything from housing to immigration. World news| Donald Trump is due to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening, the first visit to China by a US president in nearly a decade, as he seeks to mend power and prestige weakened by the war in Iran. UK news | Nine in 10 UK millionaires are proud to live in Britain and three-quarters would be willing to pay more tax to ensure public assets get the funding they need, according to research. Middle East | The risk of some Gulf states becoming embroiled in a direct war with Iran has risen after it was reported the United Arab Emirates had secretly launched a major attack on Iran during the conflict. Health | After more than a decade of global consultation, polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) – a condition that affects one in eight women – has been renamed. In depth: ‘Nobody is quite in control of events, including the prime minister’ To the naked eye, Tuesday was a quiet day in Westminster. Union jacks were hung from buildings in preparation for today’s state opening of parliament, where King Charles will set out the government’s priorities for the year ahead. Normally bustling corridors and courtyards were quiet, and the public was largely cordoned off from the estate. But the calm scene belied the political hurricane blowing through government. Keir Starmer is fighting for his political life as the crescendo of calls for him to step down – or set out an exit plan, at least – grows louder. But despite the noisy opposition to his leadership from across the Labour ranks, little else is certain. It remains unclear exactly how many MPs want Starmer to go. More than 100 signed a letter yesterday opposing a leadership contest. So far, it appears to exceed the number of Labour MPs calling for him to quit. How a leadership contest would work is unclear. The Conservative party has grown used to dispatching leaders in recent years – with rules that allow MPs to start a leadership race without an alternative garnering support. Not so in Labour. Even if one of Starmer’s rivals manages to force a leadership contest by winning the public support of 81 Labour MPs, each would face major hurdles to win the keys to No 10. The prime minister has indicated he would stand against any opponent – Burnham, Streeting, Rayner, Miliband or anyone else – and each of their respective paths to power is shrouded with risk. Here, we go through the obstacles. *** The ‘king in the north’? Andy Burnham, the mayor of Greater Manchester, is the most popular candidate among Labour MPs, say many observers, and the country. His supporters argue only he could unite different wings of the party and take on the charisma of the Reform UK leader, Nigel Farage. But Burnham is not a member of parliament and any return to Westminster would prove an uphill battle. His team are understood to be scouring the Greater Manchester and Liverpool areas for an MP who would stand down and allow him to run in a byelection. A promised place in the House of Lords is a likely reward. But so far a willing volunteer is proving harder to find than hoped. On Tuesday, Marie Rimmer, the MP for St Helens South and Whiston whose seat was on Burnham’s wishlist, said she would not stand down, while backing Starmer. If an MP does eventually stand aside, there is no guarantee that Burnham would even be permitted to stand by the Labour party as a candidate. “Even if Burnham managed to find someone in the next week or so, we’re still talking about two months before he could even be in contention,” says Kiran. “The game for Andy Burnham supporters is to drag this out as long as they can. Really, they want to agree a timetable that allows them to do this.” Then there’s the very real possibility a constituency would reject him. Reform and the Green party both surged in the north-west in last week’s local elections. For Burnham’s backers, timing is everything: “If Starmer said September’s party conference will be my last as leader and he would set the wheels in motion for choosing his successor, that would work for Burnham,” says Kiran. *** The man in a hurry Wes Streeting’s priority is speed. The health secretary is a skilled communicator, but he is not popular with the Labour party members who will actually pick the next prime minister if a contest is held. On Tuesday, some of Streeting’s supporters with ministerial positions resigned – calling for Starmer’s exit. Downing Street insiders said last night that the health secretary did not yet have the required support from the 81 MPs to formally launch a leadership bid, but Streeting and Starmer are set for talks today. If Streeting’s challenge does materialise, it will probably come soon, says Kiran. The Ilford North MP faces a narrow road to power and is in a race against time to secure the leadership before Burnham can get back into parliament. But he faces further problems: a wafer thin majority in his constituency, a lack of popular support from his parliamentary colleagues and members, and his relationship with Peter Mandelson. And then there’s the membership: many of Labour’s most leftwing members may have left to join the surging Greens, which could work in Streeting’s favour, but polling of Labour loyalists still shows him to be unpopular. “Those who’ve stuck around are highly likely to be left wing and very socially liberal,” explains Tim Bale, a professor of politics at Queen Mary University of London, in a recent interview with my colleague Aletha Adu. “But one thing we know about members – and Starmer getting himself elected in 2020 rather than Corbyn’s anointed successor, Rebecca Long-Bailey, is proof of this – is that party members also want to win elections … if Streeting can show them he’s the guy to do that, he still has a chance, even if he’s not their ideological ideal.” *** The best of the rest The rest of the pack have similarly bumpy potential routes to victory. Former deputy prime minister Angela Rayner has long been rumoured to want to stand, but with a tax investigation by HMRC still trudging on, reports from Westminster indicate that she has decided against any move, instead indicating her support for Burnham. If she does not go for it, it would probably mean that the leader of the Labour party remains a man. But that could open the door to others, says Kiran. “If a leadership election is called, it all becomes very uncertain. There are others who might want to get in the fight. Ed Miliband might want to.” Despite failing to win power as Labour leader once before, Miliband remains popular with party members. “Or junior defence minister Al Carns might, too,” say Kiran, of the relatively unknown outsider. “And there are other people who we’ve not really talked about who might find themselves deciding to make a bid.” When MPs return to Westminster today, they will do so once again in political chaos – in a country that has grown tired of drama. But predicting what is going to happen next is a fool’s game, says Kiran. “The one thing that everyone knows at the moment is that nobody is quite in control of events,” he says, “including the prime minister.” What else we’ve been reading Eddy Frankel looks back at 20 years of Bold Tendencies, which saw art placed in a multi-storey car park in Peckham and changed the way people viewed the potential of those kinds of spaces. Martin Do not miss our series on the 100 best novels, as voted for by authors, critics and academics worldwide. 100 to 61 will be published today. If you want to read any of the top 100, and support the Guardian at the same time, visit the Guardian bookstore here. Patrick For those of us of a certain age, Fame was one of the biggest TV shows on the planet. David Smith catches up with one of its stars, Debbie Allen. Martin Sammy Gecsoyler has written a shocking feature on the rise of road rage incidents against lollipop people. Patrick Judd Legum lays out the anatomy of a grift – the gold ‘Trump’ phones that have cost people $100 deposits, but have yet to ship any units. Martin Sport Football | Southampton reach the Championship playoff final after a freak winner settles Middlesbrough grudge match. Golf | Rory McIlroy has revealed he heard rumblings of impending trouble for LIV Golf weeks before Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund confirmed it would withdraw funding for the circuit. Football | Chelsea have held encouraging discussions over a move for Xabi Alonso but are keeping their options open and are closely monitoring Andoni Iraola’s situation. The front pages “Starmer sees off threat for now as Streeting challenge fails to emerge” is the Guardian’s front page. The Times says “Starmer and Streeting set for No10 showdown” while the Telegraph’s headline is “Streeting to confront Starmer”. The Mirror simply writes “Stand-off”. The FT leads with “Starmer throws down gauntlet to rivals as turmoil rattles gilts market”, and the i Paper says “Put up or shut up, Starmer tells his Cabinet rebels”. The Daily Mail splashes “Paralysed by Labour chaos”, while the Sun says “Crisis? What crisis?” The Metro calls it “Number 10 Doubting St”. Today in Focus Is Big Brother watching you shop? From supermarkets to corner shops, live facial recognition could be coming to retailers near you. Jessica Murray tells Annie Kelly about the AI systems increasingly used by the police and stores. Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad The Cockrow ‘Green’ Bridge in Surrey is reconnecting habitats split by the A3, which cuts in half the protected Wisley and Ockham commons, a rare lowland heath in Surrey that for centuries has been home to a rich pocket of biodiversity. James Herd, the Surrey Wildlife Trust’s director of reserves management, says “This isn’t just about big, charismatic species – it’s about reconnecting entire communities of insects that underpin the heathland.” The bridge itself is a floating patch of nature reserve; its contents were excavated and transplanted from the heathland on either side. Herd, who advised National Highways on the project, says it “changes how the ecosystem functionality can evolve and function better, in a landscape where species can interact more freely”. By building a link, he says, “we’ve removed a barrier”. 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

Trump due in China for high-stakes summit with Xi Jinping, as Iran war looms over talks

Donald Trump is due to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday evening, the first visit to China by a US president in nearly a decade, as he seeks to mend power and prestige weakened by the war in Iran. Trump will bring tech leaders, including Elon Musk of Tesla and Tim Cook of Apple, and plans for headline-grabbing deals. He has said he expects China’s leader, Xi Jinping, would “give me a big, fat hug when I get there”. But the Middle East conflict that Trump started, and seems unable to finish, will cast a long shadow over two days of talks amid fears that he might be tempted to weaken US support for Taiwan, the self-governing democracy claimed by China, in return for Xi’s assistance. “I don’t think we need any help with Iran,” Trump said to reporters before departing the White House on Tuesday. “We’ll win it one way or the other – peacefully or otherwise.” He also sought to play down divisions with Beijing, saying Xi had been “relatively good” during the crisis and insisting that Washington had “Iran very much under control”. The war has entered its third month, with Tehran tightening its grip over the strait of Hormuz and Washington struggling to turn a fragile ceasefire into a lasting settlement. Behind the scenes, US officials have spent weeks urging China – Iran’s biggest oil customer and one of the few powers with leverage in Tehran – to pressure the Islamic Republic into reopening the strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil supply ordinarily passes, while accepting US terms for peace. The US recently sanctioned several Chinese firms accused of assisting Iranian oil shipments and supplying satellite imagery allegedly used in Iranian military operations. China condemned the measures as “illegal unilateral sanctions” and invoked a rarely used blocking statute prohibiting Chinese entities from complying with them. Chinese officials have publicly called for stability while carefully avoiding overt alignment with Washington. Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi last week hosted his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, in Beijing, and defended Iran’s right to develop civilian nuclear energy. Xi has also offered implicit criticism of the US over the war. He has said safeguarding international rule of law is paramount, adding it “must not be selectively applied or disregarded,” nor should the world be allowed to revert “to the law of the jungle”. Still, neither side appears eager to allow the Iran crisis to derail broader diplomatic and economic engagement in the first of four potential meetings between Trump and Xi over the next year. The two countries remain locked in a fragile tariff truce reached last autumn after tensions threatened to erupt into a full-scale trade war. Trump has long complained about China’s trade surplus with the US, while Beijing has bristled at American export controls and sanctions. White House officials said Trump would travel with a delegation of more than a dozen US business leaders, including Musk and Cook, in a sign that both governments still seek economic cooperation despite strategic rivalry. A sale of 500 Boeing 737 Max jets, one of the biggest orders in its history, will be announced during the trip, the Bloomberg news agency reported. Trump and Xi will also discuss creating a new board of trade to manage what China should buy from the US and vice versa. Beijing, too, has reasons to avoid escalation. China’s economy remains burdened by sluggish domestic demand and a prolonged property crisis, while the closure of the strait of Hormuz has exposed its heavy dependence on Middle Eastern energy supplies. Trump’s trip will be closely scrutinised in Taiwan for any sign of weakening US support. On Monday, he said he would speak to Xi about US arms sales to Taiwan, a departure from historic US insistence that it will not consult Beijing on its support to the island. He also insisted that his personal relationship with Xi would prevent a Chinese invasion of the island. “I think we’ll be fine,” he said. “I have a very good relationship with President Xi. He knows I don’t want that to happen.” Another potential focus will be AI, with both countries facing calls to cooperate on global standards and safeguards. Bernie Sanders, an independent US senator, urged Trump and Xi to agree on allowing top scientists to share technical information and develop “AI redlines” about dangerous behaviour. Sanders said: “At the height of the cold war, Reagan and Gorbachev found a way to negotiate nuclear arms control. The existential risk posed by AI demands nothing less from Trump and Xi.” In Beijing, security was visibly tightened ahead of the visit, with police stationed at major intersections and checks increased on the metro system. The summit itinerary includes a formal welcome ceremony, private meetings between the two leaders and a tour of the Temple of Heaven – a religious complex dating to the 15th century symbolising the relationship between Earth and heaven. Trump will attend a state banquet on Thursday evening and then have a tea and working lunch with Xi on Friday before leaving. The US president, who has been criticised for emphasising foreign policy at the expense of domestic concerns in his second term, will be eager to project strength and present the trip as a victory. Anna Kelly, the White House principal deputy press secretary, told reporters on a call on Sunday: “President Trump cares about results, not symbols. But even still, the president has a great relationship with President Xi, and the upcoming summit in Beijing will be both symbolically and substantively significant.” But the US approach is likely to be pragmatic and transactional with little focus on structural reform. Scott Kennedy, senior adviser in Chinese business and economics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies thinktank in Washington, said: “China and Xi Jinping come into this meeting in a much stronger place than the United States. “China has goals that they would like: to extend the ceasefire, to reduce tech restrictions on the imports of semiconductors and lower tariffs. But even if they don’t get much on any of those things, as long as there’s not a blow up in the meeting and president Trump doesn’t go away and look to re-escalate, China basically comes out stronger.”

‘Blatant disregard for rights’: concern grows over Gabon’s social media clampdown

When Gabon’s media regulator indefinitely suspended major social media platforms in February, citing security concerns during anti-government protests, it became the talk of town – literally. Within weeks of the announcement, use of Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to bypass the restrictions surged in the central African country. When gendarmerie began stopping young men at road checkpoints in the capital Libreville and other urban centres to confiscate mobile phones with VPNs installed or detain the owners, warnings spread by word of mouth. Activists and opposition members said their accounts were also suspended due to efforts of state officials. Social media had helped citizens convene and stay informed since December, when workers in the education and health sectors protested over pay and the cost of living crisis. The government cited misinformation, disinformation, pornographic content, and incitement to hatred as reasons for the shutdown. Rights groups have urged authorities to follow due process to prosecute any offenders, rather than collective punishment through unconstitutional restriction of freedom of expression. “This sustained intentional interference with access to essential digital communication platforms in Gabon is a blatant disregard for people’s fundamental rights, specifically the freedom of expression and the right to access information,” said Felicia Anthonio, campaign manager at the #KeepItOn coalition — a global alliance of hundreds of human rights groups. Nelly Ngabima, a controversial activist also known as Princesse de Souba, said she received threats from Gabonese government officials that they would make her “disappear from social networks”. Within a couple of months, her accounts with a combined following of over 300,000 across Facebook, YouTube and TikTok, had been suspended. “They create fake accounts and they put our identities on those accounts, then they report us for identity theft,” she said. “Today, Gabonese people even struggle to send a WhatsApp message because they are afraid. They do not even go out with their phones.” The restrictions were temporarily lifted in April. However, a new regulation passed in February mandates social media users to provide verified names, addresses and ID numbers. Social networks are at risk of 50m central African CFA franc (£66,000) fines and prison terms for non-compliance. The law is one of a number of far-reaching changes to codify a crackdown on dissent including a controversial new nationality code signed in February and published last month. The code has come under criticism from those who say it restricts the rights of naturalised citizens and makes it easier for the state to strip citizens of their nationality. “What is being said here and there, in my view and humble opinion, concerns not so much the substance of the debate as its form,” said government spokesperson Charles Edgard Mombo, suggesting that any criticism was merely because the code had gone into force before parliamentary ratification. He cited article 99 of Gabon’s constitution which mandates parliament to ratify ordinances signed by the president during times of urgency. Former prime minister and opposition leader Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze, who filed a suit challenging the restrictions in a Libreville court, was arrested in April for alleged fraud and breach of trust in an old case from 2008. His supporters say the charges are trumped-up. Ngabima was a Gabonese intelligence operative between 2015 and 2019, whose roles included tapping phones and monitoring messages of politicians and the military until she left the country. Now based in France, she is warning that her experience provided her with an awareness of the regime’s capacity to surveil those considered dissidents. Gabon, a country with a huge youth population, is an oil-rich nation but a third of the population live in deep poverty, and nepotism and corruption are common. It also has a well-documented history of cracking down on dissent. The penultimate internet shutdown happened in August 2023, just before a disputed election that Ali Bongo won. The internet was restored four days later, after the military removed Bongo and put him under house arrest. After seizing power that same month to end 56 years of Bongo family rule, General Brice Oligui Nguema had presented himself as a different kind of leader. The 2025 presidential election, which he won with more than 90% of the vote, was notably more open to media scrutiny than previous elections under the Bongos, with foreign media allowed to film the ballot count. However, his critics say he has long been part of the inner caucus of power, as a Bongo relative and part of the security architecture, and is now using the same draconian copybook as his predecessors, especially their opaque management of the economy. “Today Gabonese people still die of hunger, have no jobs and struggle to get medical treatment … all that already existed during Ali Bongo’s time,” said Ngabima. “In reality, strictly speaking, nothing has changed. You cannot remove Mr Ali Bongo because you condemned certain behaviours and then arrive and reproduce the same. That is not possible.”

‘It’s toxic’: Romania reeling over claims of high-level justice system corruption

The courtroom was silent but tense, the whir of camera lenses the only sound as dozens of journalists fixed their eyes on the bench. An extraordinary press conference had been called after the airing of a documentary late last year that claimed the top of Romania’s justice system was riddled with corruption. Seated at the bench at the Bucharest court of appeal was its president, Liana Arsenie, flanked by her two vice-presidents. Behind them, in support, stood about 30 judges. Then, Raluca Moroșanu, also a judge at the court, entered the room and asked to speak before the press conference began. “We are simply terrorised,” she said in a steady voice, breaking ranks with the leadership sitting beside her. “I can’t describe the atmosphere here, how toxic and tense it has become.” Her declaration made, she swept out of the court in her robes, to a smattering of applause in the room and the stony expressions of her fellow judges. Moroșanu’s intervention was made in support of a colleague who had been targeted after appearing in the documentary by Romanian outlet Recorder, which alleged that a network of senior magistrates and politicians had “captured” Romania’s justice system. “Everything he said is true and if anyone contradicts him, it is a lie,” she said in her address. Last month her colleague was referred for disciplinary proceedings over statements made in the documentary. The film used rare prosecutors’ and judges’ testimonies to claim that the network used administrative manoeuvres to delay convictions in high-level corruption cases until they reached the statute of limitations. The fallout was immediate: thousands of Romanians took to the streets and nearly 900 judges and prosecutors signed an open letter warning of “profound and systemic dysfunctions”. But six months on, meaningful reform has yet to materialise, and the allegations keep mounting. Last month, the investigative outlets Rise Project and PressOne alleged that Lia Savonea – now head of the supreme court – had acquitted a convicted gangster of a seven-year robbery sentence while co-owning land with his uncle during her time as head of the Bucharest court of appeal 12 years ago, an alleged potential conflict of interest she did not declare. She has denied the allegations, saying they were part of an “obvious defamation campaign” against her “based on forced associations and speculation regarding people and situations that have no real connection”. The allegations had been “subjected to verification”, she said, with no wrongdoing found. Earlier this month, the Romanian president, Nicușor Dan, deepened public disillusionment in the justice system by approving a controversial series of prosecutor appointments over objections from the judicial regulator and civil society. Among those named was Marius Voineag, a former head of the national anti-corruption directorate – a figure Dan had criticised on the campaign trail and whom prosecutors in the Recorder documentary accused of intervening in sensitive investigations. Voineag denied wrongdoing and declined to comment. The crisis is unfolding against an already volatile backdrop. In 2024, Romania’s constitutional court annulled a presidential election over alleged Russian interference, a decision that deepened public mistrust in the country’s institutions. The cumulative toll is visible in the polls. A survey this year found that seven in 10 Romanians do not trust the justice system and more than half believe the law is not applied equally. For Moroșanu, none of this is surprising. In an interview with the Guardian, she was frank about the scale of the crisis as she sees it. “We are now in the worst moment the Romanian justice system has been in my 26-year career,” she said. “The majority of magistrates are fair, competent and hardworking; what we see is not generalised corruption, but corruption at the top of the system.” Moroșanu has been working as a judge for more than a quarter of a century and has spent 19 years at the Bucharest court of appeal, one of the country’s most important courts, which handles many final decisions in high-level corruption cases. In recent years, a series of major corruption trials involving politicians and businessmen have collapsed after reaching the statute of limitations due to repeated delays in judicial proceedings and despite extensive evidence, including wiretaps of suspects appearing to admit wrongdoing. “The justice system is in a deep crisis caused by the formation of groups within high-level courts, which have taken over administrative management power,” said Laura Ștefan, an anti-corruption expert with the Romanian think tank Expert Forum. Andreea Pocotilă, one of the authors of the documentary, claimed that cases were repeatedly reassigned to new judging panels by court leadership just before rulings, forcing proceedings to restart and evidence to be reheard until they became time-barred. Members of the superior council of magistrates, the guardian of judicial independence that supervises judicial careers, have been accused of being complicit. “Who is supposed to protect us from the guardian, though?” said Andrea Chiș, a former member of the council and a retired judge. In a statement, the council rejected the allegations, saying Romania’s judiciary had been subjected to “an unprecedented assault” aimed at destroying its reputation through false accusations of systemic corruption. An internal inspection had confirmed none of the claims in the Recorder documentary, it added. Chiş argued in a 2023 study that justice reforms concentrated power in the hands of court leadership by expanding their authority and weakening oversight, creating a pyramidal power structure. Despite criticism, the reforms led the EU to lift its rule-of-law monitoring mechanism. “It was a mistake to lift the mechanism,” said Chiș. “It was not good for our justice system and it took away the pressure from those in power.” Successive reforms have left no effective mechanism to prosecute corrupt magistrates, observers say, with accountability efforts yielding barely any convictions in the past years.“It’s a tacit agreement between politicians and senior magistrates to block accountability for corruption within the justice system, while politicians, in turn, are granted impunity,” said Ștefan. As president of the supreme court and former head of the council of magistrates, Savonea has been accused of being a prominent part of this alleged power structure. In a statement, Savonea said the allegations were “part of an orchestrated campaign of defamation and reputational harm, through serious distortion of factual realities and the association of narratives lacking any evidence”. She added: “I also emphasise that there is no finding or imputation regarding any interference in the administration of justice on my part. “In reality, these accusations do not rest on mere assertions – they rely on speculative interpretations that end up challenging the very institutional architecture of the judicial system. This architecture, however, has been built in accordance with the most rigorous European standards, including with regard to competition procedures and mechanisms for filling public positions, grounded in criteria of legality, transparency and meritocracy.” Arsenie, head of the court of appeal, has also rejected the allegations. She has accused the journalists behind the documentary of “instigation against the constitutional order” – one of the most serious offences in the Romanian criminal code, roughly equivalent to sedition. She declined a Guardian interview request. The anger has spilled into the streets. Raluca Kișescu, a marketing consultant who joined the protests last year, believes trust is eroding beyond repair. “A democracy without justice is a story with a tragic ending,” she said. “It feels like we’re mice in electric shock experiments: we get used to each shock from a new Recorder documentary, we comment on it with our friends and then it passes.” Since speaking out, Moroșanu said she had been recused from two cases after fellow judges argued her public criticism of Arsenie showed a lack of empathy. Still, she does not regret speaking out. “There’s still a chance that things might change if something happens this year,” she said, “but if nothing changes now, things will never change.”

Public health at risk across Asia as price of gas for cooking soars

In the ramshackle lanes of a south Delhi slum, Afshana Khatoon crouched wearily on her haunches and began lighting a small pile of firewood. She had only just returned from six hours spent trudging through the urban forests and dry parks of India’s capital looking for kindling to turn into a makeshift stove. As the unforgiving summer heat soared above 40C, she had walked for miles, piling the sticks and fallen branches into a bundle on her head while sweat ran down her face. Just a few weeks ago, the 35-year-old had been preparing meals for her four children on a small gas stove with little fuss. But as the crisis in the Middle East has choked India’s vital supplies of imported liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) – used by more than 60% of the country’s population for cooking – refills have been scarce and prices have risen far beyond what is widely affordable. Khatoon, like growing numbers of people in India and more widely across Asia, has been forced to cook with crude, dirty fuels such as firewood and coal in order to survive. “It already feels like hell,” she said, as she bustled about, filling a pot with water. “I’m not eating properly, and I have to work much more than before. My whole day now is about collecting firewood and cooking.” The return to fuels such as firewood and coal is not only deepening the economic strain of the war on ordinary civilians in countries across Asia, but raising concerns about public health, air pollution and the fragility of the energy transition. India imports about 60% of its LPG needs, of which about 90% usually comes through the strait of Hormuz, the critical shipping route still blockaded amid the ongoing conflict between Iran and the US. Official data shows India’s LPG consumption fell by 2.2m tonnes in April, the sharpest decline in years. As the war has dragged on, cooking gas prices in informal markets have surged. In Khatoon’s dimly lit shanty, her 5kg gas canister sat empty and forlorn in the corner. She said LPG had become prohibitively expensive for her family, rising to more than four times what she used to pay. “My husband earns 400 to 500 rupees a day. We can’t spend 1,000 rupees just on gas for a week,” she said. While the Indian government insists there is no shortage, in a speech this week the prime minister, Narendra Modi, called on people to adopt austerity measures including limiting their use of fuel and petrol. According to the defence minister, India has petroleum gas reserves to last just 45 days. Once Khatoon’s fire stove is lit, thick smoke rises from the flames. It stings the eyes and throat but she has no option but to breathe it in as she cooks. She put her head in her hands, admitting she felt utterly exhausted. “We just want to cook as quickly as possible,” she said. The return to biomass is raising alarms about air quality in cities across the region. Solid fuels such as wood and charcoal come with a range of health and environmental risks. They emit a dangerous set of pollutants that have been linked to respiratory problems, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and lung cancer, strokes and heart disease. The combined effects of ambient air pollution and household air pollution are associated with 6.7 million premature deaths annually, according to the World Health Organization. Women and children, widely responsible for household chores such as cooking or collecting firewood, are the most vulnerable. Delhi already ranks among the world’s most polluted cities, and years of policy have focused on promoting cleaner fuels such as LPG and compressed natural gas to reduce emissions. Environmental activists fear years of progress toward widespread use of cleaner fuels is being reversed as the war in the Middle East drags on. With shortages deepening, authorities in Delhi have temporarily relaxed restrictions on the use of coal and firewood. “When prices rise, it’s the poorest who are forced to switch back to biomass,” said Harjeet Singh, a climate activist and the founding director of the Satat Sampada Climate Foundation. “Biomass burning is a major source of fine particulate pollution. In dense urban areas, the impact is even more severe because of how closely people live and how poorly ventilated these spaces are.” Over the past decade, the Indian government has distributed more than 100m subsidised cooking gas canisters. But the current crisis is exposing a deeper fault line: access did not guarantee affordability, with families now forced to choose between food and fuel. For many families, the gas cylinder has become, Singh said, “a symbol of a transition they can no longer afford to sustain”. Thousands of miles away in the Philippines – where 90% of the country’s LPG needs are dependent on supplies flowing through the strait of Hormuz – a similar crisis has been playing out. In a dingy alleyway in the capital, Manila, Josephine Songalia sat quietly by a charcoal-lit stove, fanning it until a flame appeared. A few months ago, she would have turned a knob to light the LPG powering her stove. But gas has become an unaffordable luxury for cooking here too. Prices for a small tank of LPG have tripled to about Php600 (about $9.80 or £7.20). Charcoal, though far dirtier and more polluting, costs Songalia just Php10, allowing her to still cook rice and boil water. At dinnertime she tells her children to keep a distance, fearful they will breathe in the toxic fumes. “I worry the smoke could harm my lungs and make me sick, but I push those thoughts aside because I have to do this so my kids can eat,” says Songalia, 25, who lives with her husband and three children in Aroma, Tondo, one of Manila’s poorest neighbourhoods. Compounding the crisis, the cost of food in the Philippines has also increased because of the ripple effects of the war, meaning that her family has no choice but to skip meals. “In the morning, my kids say: ‘Mama, we’re hungry.’ I tell them we don’t have food – just drink coffee,” she said. Consumption of LPG in the Philippines has dropped 30% compared with the same period last year, as people have switched to charcoal owing to cost pressures. In a bid to ease the growing financial burden, the government has suspended the excise tax on LPG and paraffin for three months. “At stake right now is the health of families … air pollution indoors will be proliferating,” said Mylene G Cayetano, a professor of environmental science and meteorology at the University of the Philippines, Diliman. Cayetano said production of cheap charcoal was a “very dirty process”. The practice, mostly carried out in seaside or riverside areas, fills the air with ash and smoke and causes environmental devastation. Back in the Delhi slum, as evening fell and the firewood stoves began to be lit to cook dinner, Shanti, 75, struggled for breath. She has been diagnosed with a chronic lung condition but has been forced to cook on firewood again for the past two months. “A doctor told me to stay away from smoke,” she said, coughing. “But what choice do I have? My health is getting worse but I need to eat.”