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Middle East crisis live: Netanyahu rejects Trump’s Gaza plan and vows no withdrawal until Hamas disarms

Along with his rejection of the US Gaza plan earlier, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed once again to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, regardless of the course of diplomacy with Washington and Arab states. “I want to emphasise once again: with an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons,” Netanyahu said at the cabinet meeting. Both the US and Israel have said a goal of their war on Iran is to stop it obtaining a nuclear weapon. Iran has always maintained its nuclear program is peaceful.

Alleged crime boss Daniel Kinahan’s return to Ireland ends global game of cat-and-mouse

A decade after escaping assassination and fleeing into exile, Daniel Kinahan is on his way back to Ireland – but it is not the homecoming he wanted. The alleged leader of the Kinahan organised crime group was extradited from Dubai in an Irish government jet on Sunday and headed to a huge security operation in Dublin, marking the end of a global game of cat-and-mouse with European, US and Gulf authorities. If all goes according to plan, the 49-year-old will land at Casement aerodrome in Dublin on Sunday evening and be taken in a bomb-proof van to the criminal courts of justice in central Dublin where he will be charged with directing organised crime before being taken 50 miles outside the city to his new home in Portlaoise prison. Tabloid headlines anticipated his return with glee. “Du-Bye!” said one. “Dan and Dusted,” said another. “Kin Air: He’s Coming Home,” said another. It is a moment long sought by law enforcement agencies that named Kinahan as a leader of a cartel said to control about a third of Europe’s cocaine supply, along with running criminal sidelines in firearms and racketeering. As the founder of the boxing management company MTK Global the Dubliner was also an influential figure in sports and boasted of friendships with Tyson Fury and other champions. Kinahan has not been tried but is braced for conviction and a long sentence, according to clips of an interview that he gave by phone from Dubai to the podcaster James English. “I think I’ve already got life in prison. And we have to go through the dance now.” The married father of five said he had “not been an angel” but that accusations against him were overblown. “I believe in a way I’m a scapegoat.” He had not laundered money through boxing promotion, he said, rebutting one of the allegations against him. Kinahan said he looked forward to familiar Irish treats such as a crisp sandwich. “Get back home and have a little bit of batch bread and a packet of King crisps or Tayto.” The bravado, or fatalism, could not disguise a dramatic fall. From gilded opulence in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), allegedly at the helm of a criminal empire worth hundreds of millions of euros, Kinahan will reportedly become an inmate at the maximum-security A5 unit within A block at Portlaoise. His father, Christopher Kinahan, launched a family enterprise in the 1980s by importing heroin into Dublin. A polished figure with university degrees and a facility for languages, Kinahan senior, better known as Christy, was convicted of drug and money laundering while creating a network that spanned Latin America, north Africa, the UK and continental Europe. In 2009, a US diplomatic cable named his son Daniel as “an Irish businessman involved in narco-trafficking throughout Europe”. Soon after, Spanish authorities arrested Christy and Daniel and seized assets, but the Kinahans emerged largely unscathed. That changed when a murderous feud with the rival Hutch gang piled up corpses and led to an audacious but unsuccessful attempt on Daniel’s life at a boxing weigh-in at Dublin’s Regency hotel in February 2016. The death of one man, David Byrne, fuelled further killings. Kinahan was never again seen in public in Ireland and operated from southern Spain before settling in Dubai in the UAE, which had no extradition agreement with Ireland. With his father and brother Christopher junior, Daniel remained alert to surveillance attempts but lived openly and turned MTK Global into a boxing powerhouse. That apparent untouchability evaporated in 2022 when the US offered a reward of up to $15m for information that led to the arrest or conviction of the trio. Washington had been reluctant to get involved until lobbied by the then assistant garda commissioner, John O’Driscoll, Greg Gatjanis, who ran the US national security council’s strategy for transnational organised crime, told the MacGill summer school last month. “To this day I hold Ireland, the gardai, as the model [for international manhunts] of how they handled the Kinahan organisation,” said Gatjanis. “Their drug empire probably did not touch the US, but then he started talking about the effects of the Kinahan organisation and the terror they were inflicting. I went from telling him I couldn’t accommodate sanctions because I could not make a case for it to agreeing to starting up an investigation, and that began the entire sanction investigation.” In May 2025 Ireland agreed an extradition treaty with the UAE and the net began to close. Sean McGovern, a cartel lieutenant wanted for murder and directing organised crime, was extradited that month and jailed for 24 years. Daniel Kinahan was arrested in April this year. UAE authorities rejected his appeal last month, clearing the way for extradition. Irish military personnel are expected to reinforce police during Kinahan’s transfers to court and prison. Kinahan told the podcast he would be subject to a “circus” and “character assassination”. Gatjanis said no organised crime group lasted for ever. “It’s born, it crawls, walks, runs, starts to decline, ultimately dies.”

Can the Mounties regain Canada’s trust after race, sexism and public safety scandals?

With their bright red tunics, dark blue breeches and beige Stetsons, the officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police offer a globally recognised symbol of Canada. The Mounties, as they are colloquially known, have been featured across popular culture for decades, from Hollywood films to the Simpsons. But the RCMP is now facing an increasingly uncertain future amid questions about its core role and because of a string of scandals that range from systemic racism to sexual harassment and public safety failures. “We need to modernise and transform the RCMP, but we are a very long way away … unfortunately, the future doesn’t look particularly bright,” said Kent Roach, a law professor at the University of Toronto, who this week published a book about the pressures on the RCMP. On a national level, the RCMP handles security, including foreign interference and terrorism, but also offers local policing in 150 municipalities and 600 Indigenous communities, which cover eight of the country’s 10 provinces and all three territories. Those local policing contracts are set to expire in 2032, and even though the date is six years away, provincial leaders have called on the federal government to “urgently begin negotiations” for “new police service agreements”. “The federal government must provide a clear decision on the future of RCMP contract policing,” provincial premiers said in a joint communique following a meeting in Prince Edward Island last month. The request for clarity on the contracts appears to have been prompted in part by the resignation of Justin Trudeau and his replacement as prime minister by Mark Carney. As one of his last acts in office, Trudeau argued in March 2025 for widespread reform of the RCMP, recommending the force abandon boots-on-the-ground policing to focus on national security. But the Carney government has bucked Trudeau’s suggestions and instead has increased pay for RCMP cadets and has committed an additional $1.8bn in spending over four years to the RCMP’s policing budget. One of the reasons for the investment in the RCMP is pressure from the US Donald Trump administration to crack down on supposed border issues, said Roach. But Roach argues that it is unfeasible for the RCMP to continue in its current form because of structural issues: Mounties typically operate in small, often temporary detachments in Canada’s rural communities and territories where they do not speak local Indigenous languages. That language gap feeds a historical lack of trust among First Nation communities, due to the force’s colonial roots as a force of repression. Canada’s first prime minister, John A MacDonald, created the North-West Mounted Police in 1873, which eventually became the RCMP in 1920. From its inception, the force enacted government rules that restricted the movement of Indigenous people and, from the 1930s, RCMP officers were used to force Indigenous children to attend abusive residential schools, according to the force’s own records. The strained relationship between the RCMP and Indigenous peoples has been exacerbated by a series of high-profile cases. The deaths of the Indigenous men Dale Culver in 2017 and Jared Lowndes in 2021 after violent interactions with RCMP officers led to a public outcry. And after the 2016 murder of Colten Boushie, the official watchdog for the RCMP found that the force discriminated against his family. The Mounties are also accused of systemic sexual harassment: a 2021 class action lawsuit resulted in the federal government paying more than $125m to 2,304 female RCMP members who said they had experienced sexual assault and harassment while on duty. In the past decade, the RCMP has contended with two mass killings that led to wider criticisms around the force’s abilities to keep the public safe. In April 2020, a man dressed as a Mountie killed 22 people in a rampage in Nova Scotia. A government inquiry found that a string of RCMP missteps worsened the attack, as the force failed to share information with the public and with its own officers. Then, in September 2022, the RCMP came under further criticism over its slow response to a stabbing attack which killed 11 people in the James Smith Cree Nation community in Saskatchewan. In recent years, several scholars have called on the RCMP to be disbanded and replaced with a national service better equipped to confront 21st-century security threats, including cybercrimes. Roach argued that Canada should be looking to other models rather than the RCMP’s “one size fits all” approach to all jurisdictions. “The way the RCMP trained … is very much out of touch,” he said. “The RCMP seems stuck in a very paramilitary and frankly colonial approach,” he said. Public Safety Canada, the federal agency responsible for national security, said Ottawa was in discussions with provinces and territories on “policing needs beyond 2032”. It said community protection would be achieved through hiring more RCMP officers and investing more in the force.

‘Like being in prison’: the ship crews stuck in Gulf since February

The panicked crew of a cargo ship broadcast a distress signal late on Monday night from their location in the strait of Hormuz. About 20 nautical miles north of the coast of Oman, the Minoan Pioneer bulk carrier was hit by an unknown projectile, causing a blackout in the engine room and a fire in the accommodation area. The crew scrambled to put out the blaze and called for help from nearby vessels. When they managed to disembark from the Greek-owned, Liberian-flagged ship on Tuesday morning, they realised the third engineer was missing. Days later, he is yet to be found. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations centre is investigating but has not yet officially confirmed the origin of the projectile, although analysts at the maritime intelligence company Windward noted: “Prior kinetic attacks at this exact location have been Iranian in origin, though Iran denies involvement.” In the preceding 24 hours two other vessels in the region, a large- and a medium-sized oil tanker, had reported near-misses. The flurry of incidents casts a spotlight on the danger facing the thousands of seafarers who remain trapped in the Gulf as the US-led war on Iran extends into its sixth month. What should have been a normal journey when they passed through the strait and entered the Gulf back in February has turned into a long and stressful waiting game. Iran has in effect blockaded the waterway, trapping 20,000 seafarers for weeks on end and inflicting a huge psychological toll. One seafarer stuck in the Gulf told the Guardian in the early weeks of the conflict of the “impossible” situation they and their crew were in, which had contributed to another sailor having a breakdown. As the war has dragged on, sailors have become casualties: 17 seafarers have died since hostilities began, the majority following Iranian strikes. The crews stuck in the strait have had their hopes of departure raised several times, before being dashed. April’s ceasefire and the peace deal signed in June by Washington and Tehran both broke down shortly after being announced. Several dozen oil and gas tankers seized the brief window offered by the memorandum of understanding (MOU), the ceasefire deal signed by both sides, to exit through the channel, but not all made it through in time. There are still 6,000 seafarers on 500 vessels, encompassing all types of ships, trapped in the Gulf, according to the UN’s International Maritime Organization. “We need to remember that these are innocent people who are trained to do the work, that they are not trained for combat, and the vessels are not prepared to defend themselves against missiles and drones,” said the IMO’s secretary-general, Arsenio Dominguez. For the crews stuck waiting to exit it is like being in “prison”, the head of one of India’s maritime trade unions said. “For the guys who are on board, the question that arises is, when is this going to end? The uncertainty of the ongoing geopolitical tension is causing them stress,” said Savio Ramos, general secretary of the Maritime Union of India, which represents merchant navy officers. “It is like putting somebody in prison and not giving them freedom to move,” added Ramos, a tanker captain with more than two decades of experience moving large oil carriers around the globe. “You don’t know where you’re going, you don’t what you’re doing. It gets to you after some time.” Most vessels – at least those with responsible owners – are receiving regular supplies of fresh water, food and other goods ferried by small boats from shore, yet most crews have no way of getting out of a perilous situation. Ramos said some of the union’s members who wanted to return home had been able to do so, provided other senior officers were willing to enter the region and replace them. Talks have been taking place, mediated by Oman, which along with Iran borders the waterway. However, the two countries’ proposed deal suggested Tehran would have control over the flow of traffic entering the Gulf. This would not be popular with shipowners or the wider industry and would be a significant deviation from the freedom of navigation for vessels before the conflict. Traffic is still passing through the strait, albeit at extremely low levels, since hostilities and attacks on ships resumed following the collapse of the MOU peace deal. Only 52 non-Iranian linked vessels transited the strait in the week from 27 July to 2 August, according to analysts at the shipping publication Lloyd’s List, of which 60% exited the channel and 40% entered. A further 32 Iranian-linked ships passed through the strait during the week. In total, these 84 vessels represent just over 10% of the average 700 ship movements each week before the conflict broke out. This means 70 large oil and gas tankers, owned by mainstream companies that are not subject to sanctions, have been stranded in the Gulf since February, according to Lloyd’s List analysis. A further 65 tankers entered the region following the announcement of the MOU, only to find themselves unable to leave. It is not clear how the stranded seafarers break down by nationality, but the biggest cohorts are likely to be Indians and Filipinos. India is the second largest global supplier of seafarers, with 312,000 working in the industry, after the 460,000 from the Philippines, according to the latest global seafarer report from the shipping associations the Baltic and International Maritime Council and the International Chamber of Shipping. Since the war on Iran began, hostilities have spread to other regions including the Red Sea and Iraq. In addition, Russia and Ukraine have been attacking each other’s vessels in the Black Sea in an escalation of a maritime conflict in which 24 seafarers have been killed since the start of July. This prompted analysts from Lloyd’s to call July “one of the deadliest months ever for commercial seafarers”. Many in shipping are concerned that the longer the Iran conflict drags on and crews are stuck on vessels in a dangerous region, the fewer seafarers will be willing to travel to dangerous regions – or go to sea at all. The IMO chief, Dominguez, pointed out that without seafarers the “90% of goods that are transported by ships will not be able to reach their final destinations and all of us are going to be impacted”.

Russian family denied asylum in Finland fear reprisals for pro-Ukraine activism

A Russian family faces deportation from Finland after repeatedly being denied asylum – despite the threat of arrest, imprisonment and potential torture for their pro-Ukrainian activism. Nikita and Olga Belov fled their homeland in 2022 after attracting the attention of Russian authorities – including military summons, threatening messages and attempts to locate them – after expressing opposition to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Nikita, 25, left his engineering job at a research institute in Moscow specialising in metallurgical technologies after finding out the work he was doing was connected to the Russian war effort. Since arriving in Finland on visas, Nikita and his mother, Olga, 55, a nurse anaesthetist, have been vocal supporters of Ukraine and public in their active support and coordination of aid sent to the country and its armed forces. But the Finnish immigration service told the mother and son that despite this they face “no real risk” if they return to Russia. In April, they were detained by Finnish authorities pending deportation. They were later released after a court intervention but are now awaiting a decision that could result in them being deported within weeks. The Belov case is understood to be one of many of Russians being denied asylum in neighbouring Finland where legal experts deem their future risk and human rights have not been sufficiently assessed. Between February 2022 and June 2026, the Finnish immigration service deported 1,039 Russians according to official statistics: the most of any nationality. During the same period, 1,109 of 1,342 Russians were refused entry to Finland in connection with a negative asylum application. Since Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Finland’s relationship with its neighbour has shifted drastically. Previously, Finland was a popular tourism destination for Russians and there were several well-used border crossings. It has since indefinitely closed its entire border, accusing Moscow of directing asylum seekers to Finland in a “hybrid operation”. Russia has also expanded its military bases on the border, while Nato – which Finland joined in 2023 – has conducted training exercises in the country. Nikita said his problems in Russia started when he realised that his boss had lied when he had told him that the project he was working on was not linked to the war effort. When he tried to come off the project, he said his boss threatened him with arrest or being sent to the frontline. “After that I realised I cannot leave this job without consequences and that we had to think about the situation,” Nikita said. His mother, he said, was then called by the military to ask about him and their house was visited by police. They soon came to the conclusion that they had no option but to leave Russia. “Now we realise if we come back we will be arrested immediately and go to jail and be tortured,” Nikita said. In Finland they have volunteered at their local Ukraine centre and contributed to humanitarian support, including help for first aid, food, clothes, Starlink equipment and a 3D printer, for which they received a video thank you message from Ukrainian soldiers. “We try to adapt, try to support Ukraine, try to state our opinion, because it is very important to help Ukraine. Help them strike back,” he said. The mother and son first applied for asylum in Finland in 2022 but it was refused, after which they unsuccessfully appealed. This year they applied again and were refused and were sent a deportation order. They were then placed in a detention centre awaiting deportation but after a court intervention were allowed to go home before a final decision. “There were all bad things in our minds. It was like the start of torture because it was a totally traumatic experience,” Nikita said. “At the time we really tried to prepare for our death.” Since then they have suffered with their mental health and undergone panic attacks as they wait for the decision of the court. Their lawyer, who requested not to be named for security reasons, said the Belovs are very likely to be at risk if they are deported to Russia. Nikita’s work history will also put them at risk, the lawyer said. In a previous role he said he had access to confidential government information. While it has long been difficult to get asylum in Finland, the lawyer said that recent changes on the border and to asylum procedure, including reduced access to legal aid, has made it even harder. “It’s even more difficult to get refugee status, even with clear political opinion showing. We really have to fight these cases to get the status that was earlier easier to get.” The political activist and Putin critic Bill Browder, who is the head of the Global Magnitsky Justice Campaign, said the case is “a defining test of Europe’s commitment to protecting those who have risked everything to oppose Putin’s war”. Browder, whose friend and lawyer Sergei Magnitsky died at the hands of Putin’s regime, added: “If people who refused to support aggression, openly opposed the regime, and now face persecution are denied protection, it could create a dangerous precedent that discourages others from taking a stand against authoritarianism.” A Finnish immigration service spokesperson said it could not comment on individual cases. Antti Lehtinen, the director of the department for international protection, which is part of the Finnish immigration service, added: “The situation of each applicant is assessed individually, taking into account their personal circumstances. “For example, opposition to the war in Ukraine and related activities may constitute grounds for persecution based on political opinion. If we assess that a person’s political opinion or activities place them at risk of persecution or serious harm in Russia, they will be granted international protection.”

Costa Rican diplomat emerges as strong contender to be first female head of UN

A Costa Rican diplomat and former vice-president whose parents were refugees from the Holocaust has become the surprise frontrunner to lead the United Nations as its first female secretary general. Rebeca Grynspan, whose parents emigrated to Central America from Poland – and whose maternal grandparents were killed by the Nazis – is the current head of the UN conference on trade and development (UNCTAD), a body that has exhaustively tallied the economic damage inflicted by Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories. The current secretary general, António Guterres, will complete his second term on 31 December 2026 and under an informal system of regional rotation his successor is expected to come from Latin America. In a secret first straw poll of the UN security council, the five permanent and 10 temporary members were asked to say whether they supported, objected to or were neutral about each of seven candidates. Grynspan secured 10 “encourage” votes, four “no opinion” votes and one “discourage” vote. The identity of the discourage vote is not known, but the fact that she had only one objection places her in a strong opening position. The process is likely to conclude in October. Grynspan’s closest rival is Carolyn Rodrigues-Burkett, Guyana’s former UN envoy, with nine encourages, two discourages and four no opinions. At the close of a Bloomberg-sponsored debate at the general assembly last month she secured 49% of the vote among those attending, with Grynspan second on 14%. “Grynspan is seen by some as the continuity candidate, having the tacit support from Guterres,” said one western diplomat. “But the key is the source of the candidate’s discouragement votes: if [the votes] are coming from Russia, China or the US, there is a risk of deadlock.” The election comes at a critical moment for the legitimacy of multilateralism, as the UN suffers 20% job cuts and the secretary general’s role as mediator is supplanted by other actors, leaving the world body as a largely ignored moral conscience, or as a venue in which all sides vent their well-rehearsed differences. If elected, Grynspan would be the UN’s first Jewish secretary general. The UN has been criticised for overly focusing on Israel in its debates, but Grynspan has invoked her Jewish heritage to argue for the importance of ending conflict. She told the UN general assembly: “Peace is what made it possible for my parents, two refugees from the second world war, to find respect and dignity in a small country, Costa Rica. I am the daughter of this peace, a demonstration of what peace makes possible.” Her sister moved to Israel as a 17-year-old to study chemistry at the Hebrew University. As a result, her niece and nephew have completed compulsory service in the Israel Defense Forces. Under her leadership, however, UNCTAD has factually and starkly documented the economic damage wrought by Israel’s long-term occupation of the Palestinian territories. Its landmark February 2026 report found that “cumulatively, the Palestinian economy lost an estimated $212.2bn (in constant 2015 dollars) from 2000 to 2024. This partial, estimated lost potential, equivalent to nearly 20 times the entire Palestinian GDP of 2024, stems directly from Israeli occupation policies, restrictions, closures, and recurrent military operations.” In November 2025 Grynspan pointed out that Gaza’s GDP per capita had plummeted to $161 per person per year, one of the most severe economic contractions in modern history. Three other candidates, including Michelle Bachelet, have probably met with too much influential opposition to secure the job. Bachelet, the former president of Chile and a former UN human rights commissioner, faces opposition from the US government, which claims she was soft on China’s human rights record. But the Trump administration’s recent suggestion that the Fifa president, Gianni Infantino, should get the job symbolises America’s drift away from the UN mainstream. The secretary general is elected to serve an initial four-year term after the 193-strong general assembly is requested to endorse a single recommendation by the security council. A candidate needs nine positive votes and no veto by a security council member. The new candidate must be elected by the end of the year, and there will be further meetings of the security council to test opinion.

Blame game as Brussels builds ‘Europe’s largest frying pan’ instead of shady square

The redevelopment plan for Schuman Square at the heart of the EU quarter in Brussels was very ambitious. From a traffic-clogged, nondescript roundabout, it would become “an urban agora”, a greener, calmer meeting place, nothing less, said a former head of the Brussels government, than “a symbol that beats as the heart … of the European project”. It did not turn out that way. The result, say critics, is Europe’s largest frying pan, a concrete expanse with little greenery or shade. While the number of cars has reduced and the space is remodelled with smart grey paving, the centrepiece – a steel canopy with a green roof – was never built. Pascal Smet, a former Brussels minister for mobility, who launched the project in 2015, said he was disappointed, angry and sad. “Schuman Square is the carte de visite [the calling card] of Brussels. It is the symbol of Europe,” he said from a cafe on the square. “This should be a meeting place for people.” Outside on a humid July day around lunchtime, few were lingering on the vast concrete area. An international competition resulted in a Belgian-Danish consortium of architects being chosen to redesign the space, promising an “urban agora”. The roundabout is named after Robert Schuman, the former French foreign minister, who is celebrated as a founding father of what became the European Union. The canopy was to be the crowning glory. Planners imagined that EU officials and local people would lunch and chat under its shelter, which was modelled on the European parliament’s semi-circular chamber, the hemicycle. Tourists, it was hoped, would flock to the landmark and take selfies in its mirrored reflection. The green roof would be a refreshing contrast to the surrounding glass and steel EU buildings, offering respite from the sun, a need underscored by the record-breaking heatwave that hit Belgium in June. It would also shelter people from more traditional Brussels weather – it rains about 200 days a year. “The project is not finished,” its engineer-architect, Francis De Wolf, told the Belgian daily Le Soir. “It is very difficult for me to understand what has happened behind the scenes in politics.” It was always going to be a complex project: majestic tall trees were out of the question as the square sits over an underground car tunnel, railway and metro station, and a maze of gas and water pipelines. Planners also have to take into account the security needs of the surrounding EU institutions and its use as a venue for frequent demonstrations. The square is within the security perimeter of the European Council building, the “space egg”, which hosts regular summits of EU leaders. By the time work began in 2023 – six years after the winning design had been chosen – costs had spiralled as a result of high Europe-wide inflation stoked by the Covid pandemic and the Ukraine war, say city officials. The budget was announced as €25m (£21m) in 2023, with €17.4m from EU Covid recovery funds. Then came a Brussels political crisis. Power in Belgium is very decentralised and regional governments, including Brussels, have wide-ranging controls over public works, most transport and urban planning. The governance of Brussels is extra complicated: a bilingual city with 14 parties in the 89-seat parliament. After Brussels elections in June 2024 produced no clear result, parties were deadlocked over a new government for the city of 1.2 million people. Big construction projects were put on hold and investments were frozen. A coalition led by a Francophone liberal minister-president finally emerged this year after a record-breaking 613 days of negotiations. In the interim, the caretaker government had been unable to authorise new funds to pay for the higher costs of the canopy, but faced a deadline to complete works in order not to lose EU funds. “So we were in quite a conundrum, because we did not have the right to put the money into the canopy,” said François Deschamps, a spokesperson for the Brussels minister for mobility and public works, Elke Van den Brandt, who has held the post since 2019. The caretaker government in June 2025 appealed to the EU for a top-up. Their plea was shot down by Belgium’s prime minister, Bart De Wever, who denounced Brussels as “a failed state”. De Wever, a fiscal conservative on a mission to bring Belgium’s federal finances under control, argued that “begging” numerous European institutions for help was a national embarrassment. Taking office in February 2026, the new Brussels government cancelled the canopy, whose costs had shot up to €13m from €5m, Deschamps said. The Brussels council of ministers decided, Deschamps said, “we could do something greener, something cheaper, and something that still fulfils the goal, which is to bring shade and refreshment”. Brussels is in talks with architects to develop “something as green as possible within the building limitations of the square”, possibly with water features, Deschamps added. The city hopes the square will be finished by the summer of 2028, with details on the plans promised by the end of the year. Smet continues to argue for the canopy, while more than 2,100 people have signed a petition, launched by the Brussels branch of his Flemish socialist party, calling for its construction. But Smet says he is open to other ideas: “If you can imagine something better, that allows demonstrations, [deals with] security issues, is green, is iconic, is symbolic for European unity … if the alternative is better, I will not say no.”

Thailand school shooting toll rises to nine after 12-year-old dies, police say

The death toll from a school shooting in Thailand rose to nine on Saturday, after police said a 12-year-old girl caught up in Friday’s incident had died. Police at the Plai Bang Police Station in Nonthaburi Province said the girl, who had been treated at hospital with critical wounds, had died, a day after a 14-year-old boy allegedly shot his grandparents and then killed more people at his school before turning the gun on ⁠himself. The 14-year-old wounded more than 30 people in the ⁠shooting at the Debsirin Nonthaburi school northwest of Bangkok. Fourteen people remained in hospital on Saturday evening, seven of them in critical condition. Police are questioning more witnesses as part of their investigation, including the suspect’s parents. The boy had lived with his grandparents for 12 years after his parents had separated, Atthapol Anusit, deputy commissioner of the Provincial Police Region 1, ‌told reporters on Sunday. The suspected attacker fired at least 26 bullets with a gun belonging to his grandfather, and was found with 34 additional ammunition rounds. Police on Sunday told reporters the teenager had an air ⁠gun confiscated by a teacher last year and had watched violent content online and used social media to learn how to ⁠use a firearm. “According to witness interviews, the perpetrator had begun showing interest in studying the use of firearms ‌for some time, about one ‌to two years,” Atthapol said. Atthapol, who said police had so far interviewed 17 witnesses, said a knife had also been found in the boy’s bag and other evidence found at the crime scenes included a firearm, spent cartridge cases, and a personal computer. On the day of the incident, the suspected shooter remained inside the school after reports of the attack emerged, Arsit Sampantharat, the permanent secretary of the interior ministry, told PPTV. A lockdown at the school was declared over in about half an hour. Images from the scene showed students running with only socks on their feet as they were evacuated from the school. Thailand’s prime minister, Anutin Charnvirakul, has vowed to implement new gun laws, telling reporters only government officials on duty would be allowed to carry guns. However, he did not provide any ⁠specifics, including whether the legislation would tighten gun ownership requirements. Thailand has the highest rate of civilian gun ownership in south-east Asia, and in 2017 the Switzerland-based Small Arms Survey placed the country 13th worldwide for small-gun possession. A number of mass shootings have occurred in recent years in Thailand, including incidents at schools and a large Bangkok mall, and a 2022 attack in the country’s north-east that ‌killed 37 people including 22 children.