Read the daily news to learn English

Caribbean nations draft action plan to push UK to redress reparations over slavery

Caribbean nations are drawing up a multi-pronged “action plan” with legal options to push the UK into negotiating a decades-long slavery reparations deal, officials at a reparations conference have said. Leaders in the region are hoping the UK would agree to targeted and constructive negotiation talks at upcoming Commonwealth and UN summits, but they are ready to take the matter to international courts if Britain continues to resist diplomatic options. Earlier this month, a spokesperson for Andy Burnham reiterated the British government’s long‑held position that “the UK does not and will not pay reparations”. Ralph Gonsalves, the former prime minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, said the Caricom Regional Conference on Reparations, which took place this week, hosted by Barbados with the Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC), was key for agreeing a unified strategy to bring Britain to the negotiating table. Gonsalves is now an elder and adviser for the Repair Campaign, a social movement for reparatory justice. He said that slavery happened over centuries and reparations had to be realistic and set over decades. “We need a concrete, multigenerational plan,” he said. On the legal options available to the Caribbean, Gonsalves challenged arguments that Britain did not violate historical laws during transatlantic slavery, adding that the UK’s signature on contemporary UN conventions had established a binding legal obligation for reparative justice. “The fact is that the consequences of slavery fall squarely under the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, which obliges states to help address the consequences of native genocide and slavery,” Gonsalves said. In March this year, 123 nations voted for a landmark UN resolution that described chattel slavery as the gravest crime against humanity. The UK was one of several European countries that abstained from voting in the resolution. But, last month, a UN committee on the elimination of racial discrimination said countries were legally obliged to consider reparations for the transatlantic slave trade and take other ⁠measures to address the enduring ⁠legacy of racial discrimination. David Comissiong, the deputy chair of the Barbados National Task Force on Reparations, said the Caribbean nations were considering “several legal strategies”. “You’ve had Jamaica trying to engage with the national legal judicial system of the UK, the privy council – that is one strategy,” he said, adding that going to the international court of justice for an advisory opinion was another option. Prof Sir Hilary Beckles, the chair of the CRC, said reparations was a matter of justice, adding that countries in the region were forced to create viable democracies “out of the mess” of colonialism, which was still having an impact today. “When Jamaica took its petition to the UK, we had to surround that petition with the fact that when Jamaica became independent in 1962, 80% of the black people in Jamaica could not read or write. After 300 years of British colonisation, they moved into independence with 80% illiteracy. How do you build a modern nation, not even a competitive economy, with 80% illiteracy?” Speaking at the conference, Mia Mottley, the prime minister of Barbados, said the Caribbean had “no desire to bankrupt anybody”. “But we have a desire for justice,” she said. Earlier this year, Barbados commissioned a report which showed that Britain stole 25 million years of life and labour through slavery in the country. She added: “The British government took almost 200 years to repay the debt that it incurred when it paid the slave owners £20m.” Mottley pointed to the fact that Germany paid $95bn (£71bn) to the Jewish community because of the horrors of the Holocaust. Mottley said that she did not want “anybody to diminish the fact that in this country here, which I have the honour to lead, that from settlement in 1627, 400 years ago next year, for 211 years, not six, people were treated as chattel”. “If they dared to speak or to do things that were displeasing, their lives and limbs were put at risk. The evidence is clear. What is absent is the will,” she said.

Thick smoke seen near Riyadh airport after air raid alerts in Saudi capital

Flames and a large plume of black smoke were seen rising above Riyadh airport in Saudi Arabia on Saturday after the government sent air raid alerts to citizens by phone overnight warning of aerial attacks. Explosions were heard in the capital as firefighters battled to extinguish the flames of a burning fuel tank emblazoned with the logo of the Saudi oil company Aramco near the city’s King Khalid international airport. It is the first time the government has issued such alerts for Riyadh since fighting with the Iran-backed Houthis in neighbouring Yemen escalated in July. Residents told Agence France-Presse that hours after the alert, they had heard what sounded like another round of explosions echoing through parts of the Saudi capital. According to tracking website FlightRadar24, there are “major problems” at the airport and it has been listed under its maximum disruption index. “In the direction of the airport, we saw black smoke and fire,” one resident told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Saudi civil defence force sent air raid alerts overnight on Friday to residents of Riyadh, Jeddah and other cities including Yanbu, a major industrial port which is home to critical oil facilities. The all-clear was given shortly afterwards, but residents were encouraged not to gather in crowds. The UN security council condemned the continued Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia in a statement on Friday. It said they had included attacks that affected civilian and energy infrastructure and had injured civilians, including women and children. It also condemned the Houthis’ military offensive in Yemen, where nearly 105,000 people have fled their homes, the International Organization for Migration said on Wednesday. The security council’s 15 members called for “practical cooperation” to prevent the Houthis from acquiring arms, military training, financing and other military-related assistance needed to carry out their attacks. They stressed that all countries must enforce the UN arms embargo against the group. The Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the group had foiled unspecified “criminal attempts” ⁠in the Yemeni capital of Sana’a, blaming Saudi Arabia and vowing a response. The group also said the Saudi air force had conducted hundreds of airstrikes against it in recent days. The Houthis recently seized control of strategic the Red Sea islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish. Earlier this month, the group captured the port of Mokha and Perim island in the Bab al-Mandab strait, fueling fears the world could face a second oil supply crisis. Elsewhere in the region, Israel’s military launched airstrikes in several areas of southern Lebanon after it said that two of its soldiers were wounded by a “Hezbollah explosive device”. Associated Press also reported on Saturday that Israeli strikes had killed three men in the Gaza Strip. In Iran, a man accused of spying for Israel was executed in the latest of a recent surge of executions in the country.

Denmark and Greenland say US military agreement will not compromise Arctic territory’s sovereignty

Denmark and Greenland have said any agreement with the US to develop a significant military presence in the strategic Arctic territory will not compromise Greenland’s sovereignty. In a statement on Saturday clarifying an announcement by Donald Trump that an agreement had been reached to give Washington “permanent control” ⁠over Greenland’s security, Denmark and the semiautonomous territory ⁠expressed hope that a deal would end friction with the US over the issue. Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, said that he was pleased with the proposed deal. “The agreement recognizes the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our kingdom and the right of the Greenlandic people to self-determination,” he said in a post on Facebook. “Next week could be a good week – for Greenland, ‌Denmark and the United States,” Denmark’s foreign minister, ‌Lars Lokke Rasmussen, said in a statement, also on Facebook. “A time of uncertainty will hopefully give way to a binding agreement that strengthens security ‌in the Arctic and the north Atlantic, and thereby our shared security within Nato Europe – while respecting the Danish kingdom’s red lines,” Rasmussen said. The US, Denmark and Greenland said late on Friday they had reached a deal to allow the US to develop a significant military presence on Greenland, while prohibiting US adversaries from building their ⁠own bases on the island. The deal is expected to be signed during the UN general assembly next week. Key details of the agreement have not been made public, including the degree of the US military presence in the self-governing Danish territory and whether any formal power over foreign policy and resources would be ceded to Washington. Trump said on social media that under the deal, “the United States will FOREVER have the complete ability to do what is necessary in Greenland in order to secure and defend the security of Greenland, and the United States of America”. He added that the agreement would give the US “permanent control over security, and all ‌other needs, in Greenland”. The security and mineral resources of the vast northern island have been subject to Washington’s foreign policy and attention since the start of the second Trump administration, with officials citing national security, access to valuable natural resources, including rare earth minerals, and control over emerging Arctic shipping lanes. The island had a significant US military presence in the 1950s, when fears of annihilation in a US-Soviet nuclear exchange required that long-range nuclear bombers and early-warning systems be based on Greenland. The US still maintains a reduced military presence at the Pituffik space base, formerly known as Thule, on the island to monitor for missiles. Mikkel Vedby Rasmussen, a political science professor at the University of Copenhagen, told Reuters that the Denmark-US deal “is probably not the end of President Trump’s ambitions for Greenland and certainly not the end of US strategic interest in the territory and its resources”. Rasmussen added that if Copenhagen cedes any formal power to Washington over Greenland, which it has held for 1,000 years, it would raise questions for Greenlanders of whether “this is the beginning of replacing the colonial relationship with Denmark with a colonial relationship to the United States”. US ambitions for greater sway over the Arctic island have strained relations with Nato. In January, European member nations sent military personnel to Greenland to demonstrate military readiness. Eight European allies issued a joint statement confirming their commitment to Arctic security. Negotiations followed. A Nato spokesperson ‌on Saturday said the alliance welcomed the agreement, which would “help advance security, stability and cooperation in this vital region”. Reuters contributed reporting

‘It’s almost impossible not to feel inspired’: how the story of Terry Fox fired up Canada’s patriotic spirit again

Rob Stickle was six years old and waiting to see The Empire Strikes Back when a ripple passed through the crowd. His mother hoisted him on to her shoulders to see a man loping down one of Toronto’s busiest streets. “I was a Star Wars fanatic, and I remember saying to mom: ‘He has a robot leg.’” Who Stickle saw that mid-July day in 1980 was the 21-year-old Terry Fox on his journey to run across the entire breadth of Canada. Residents packed the city’s sidewalks for miles to catch a glimpse. By the time Stickle saw him, and after nearly 2,200 exhausting miles, Fox had completed more than half of his “Marathon of Hope” in aid of cancer research. The distinctive style of Fox’s run – a kind of limping hop – was the result of a journey undertaken on a crude and ill-fitting prosthetic leg made of plastic, leather and metal. “I didn’t fully appreciate what was happening at the moment – that we were all part of something much larger,” said Stickle, now an elementary school teacher in Toronto. “But what I’ve learned since – after losing my mom to cancer and becoming a teacher – is that we were seeing someone special. Someone who chose the route that was going to hurt. Someone who did it because he believed that the cause was important.” Fox’s status as a national hero in Canada has never been in dispute, but at a moment when the country’s sovereignty is under attack and people are once again debating what binds the nation together, his story is attracting renewed, and bipartisan, praise. Indeed, for those outside Canada it can be a surprise to discover the degree to which Fox has become less a person than a national symbol: dozens of roads have been named after him, as have 14 schools. A mountain bears his name. Statues of him dot the country. Canada has issued both stamps and coins with his image. Parks Canada designated him a National Historic Person and called Fox “an enduring icon” who “transformed our vocabulary about personal courage”. The annual Terry Fox Run takes place in late September are now held in more than 60 countries and are the world’s largest one-day fundraiser for cancer research. More than C$1bn (US$715m) has been raised in his name. But in 2026 Fox has also become a vector for a renewed sense of Canadian nationalism. The singer Bryan Adams recently joined the prime minister, Mark Carney, to visit a memorial to Fox, in a moment that seemed to signal a confluence of political and cultural powers coalescing around Fox’s legacy. Adams, whose hits include Summer of ‘69 and (Everything I Do) I Do It for You, has penned a new tribute, The Ballad of Terry Fox. And on 19 September the documentary Run Terry Run will premiere at the Toronto film festival. Compiling previously unseen footage from the 1980s to reveal a shy but determined young man whose singular odyssey enthralled the country before breaking its heart, it also upends myths that Fox enjoyed the country’s full support from day one – showing how he struggled through hundreds of early miles with little support or interest. “Watching him run, it’s almost impossible for a Canadian to not feel moved and inspired,” said director Sean Menard. Fox was an avid athlete from British Columbia whose leg was amputated in 1977 after he contracted osteosarcoma. “He’s presented as almost a superhero today, but he was just a person who had to watch other kids die in the cancer ward,” said Menard. In 1980, angered by the lack of support for young people suffering from cancer, Fox decided on an ambitious goal: he would run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. On 12 April 1980, after dipping his foot in the Atlantic Ocean in St John’s, Newfoundland, Fox began a journey that, if completed, would span nearly 5,000 miles. Run Terry Run shows a surprisingly lonely and rag-tag trek, aided largely by friends and family. Dangerous roads, fatigue, heat, rain, wind and painful chafing all threaten to derail the effort. “The first reel that I found was a three and a half minute shot of him just running up a hill,” Menard said. “And he’s constantly adjusting the leather strap on his prosthetic leg because it’s not designed for that type of momentum and movement. It’s a walking prosthetic.” But as Fox moved slowly across the country, completing a full marathon each day, word spread. He soon met the prime minister. And by the time he reached Toronto, he received a hero’s welcome. The film also captures a quiet, goofy and shy Fox, who remains singularly focused on his goal and rarely permits himself moments of emotional respite. In one poignant scene he breaks down while telling a crowd about a 10-year-old boy he’d spent the day with who was also battling cancer. As donation money poured in and Fox exceeded his initial C$1m (US$714,775) goal, he resisted any endorsements or the use of his name. After passing through northern Ontario – what his team called “the backbreaker” – Fox felt optimistic that the worst was behind him. But in late August he developed a cough and grew increasingly tired. The team soon learned the cough was due to cancerous tumors in his lungs. On 1 September, Fox was forced to stop outside Thunder Bay, Ontario, after running 3,339 miles over 143 days. The following day, he tearfully announced the Marathon of Hope was suspended. He died the following June. The documentary has the effect of humanizing a man whose identity has become enmeshed with the country’s narratives. “At this particular moment in time in Canada, having these kinds of stories remind us of how great Terry was … and his bringing us together is a good thing,” said Adams, whose song is featured in the documentary and has been met with chants of ‘Terry! Terry!’ at performances in Canada. In it, he sings: Across the asphalt and the gravel Through the heat and rain He carried the nation’s weight for twenty-six miles Then he’d go again “I tried to encapsulate that story in a lyric as best I could,” Adams said. “I’m glad it’s becoming a near-mythological story in Canada. It should be, because it’s an incredible story about a human being fighting. It’s an odyssey. And it deserves to be folklore.” “We like to think of ourselves as selfless. We like to think of ourselves as brave. He even apologized when he had to stop,” said Stickle. “There’s no scandals for him and so it’s easy for people seem him as the emblematic Canadian hero.” But questions over how much to elevate the runner have long dogged Fox’s legacy. Rick Hansen, a friend of Fox who recruited the young man to play wheelchair basketball in Vancouver, said he understands the temptation. “Terry’s story and his legend is basically steeped in our values and our sense of identity as a nation: one in which people deeply care about each other,” he said. “But he also just had an absolute raw sense of purpose and determination to keep going. “The world is changing dramatically and there are perceived threats to Canada. In this sort of environment, we recognize examples of our country’s DNA in Terry’s journey.” Hansen, who completed his own journey of 25,000 miles around the world by wheelchair, recalled Fox first telling him of his cross-country plan while the pair took a rainy drive in Hansen’s Honda Civic. “I told him, ‘You need a team, Terry. Because there will be days when it gets hard when you need the support of more than just yourself.’” Hansen says there were days on his own journey when fatigue would overwhelm him. “But all it took was a little smile on the road or meeting someone who was in a chair and said how much you encouraged them – that kept me going,” he said. “For Terry, when he met young people with cancer, who were struggling, he showed them what hope looked like.” But Hansen cautions against beatifying Fox, even in a moment of renewed Canadian national spirit. “The one thing he would not want us to do is create this legend to such a lofty and disconnected status where we couldn’t see a bit of Terry in all of us,” he said. “Terry was an everyday Canadian. But he showed us what could be done with extraordinary determination and purpose.”

Pact with Saudi Arabia threatens to draw Pakistan into Middle East conflict

As he stood in Riyadh last September, the world looked like a very different place for Pakistan’s most powerful man, Gen Asim Munir. The country’s army chief was there to witness the signing of a historic defence pact with Saudi Arabia, which he had personally orchestrated with the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. To Munir, it appeared to be a highly strategic win: Riyadh would provide cash-strapped Pakistan with billions of dollars of life-saving investments and loans. In exchange, Pakistan agreed to train up the Saudi military, and Pakistan’s armed forces would defend Saudi Arabia in the unlikely event of an attack on its territory. Analysts say it was clear that Pakistan presumed US-Iran relations would soon get back on track and the risk of a conflict sweeping across the Middle East and the Gulf was low. But a very different scenario soon unfolded. By February, the Middle East was on fire after the US and Israel began bombing Iran – and Iran began firing missiles at the Gulf states, including Saudi Arabia, in retaliation. It did not take long for the war to reinflame Saudi’s conflict with the Houthis, the Iran-backed rebel group based in Yemen, and for their fragile truce to collapse. Earlier this month the Houthis made unprecedented territorial gains in Yemen and hit Saudi territory with strikes and drones. Saudi Arabia has responded by pounding Yemen with airstrikes. Some believe a return to full-scale war is on the horizon. The pressure is now mounting on Pakistan, and particularly Munir. In August, the defence pact with Saudi Arabia was extended to include Turkey and renamed the Mecca joint defence agreement. The countries agreed that an armed attack on any one of them would be treated as an attack on all three. Ayesha Siddiqa, a defence analyst and senior fellow at King’s College London, said: “I don’t think Asim Munir properly calculated the threats the region was facing – and that Pakistan might need to put its troops on the line quite so soon.” Saudi Arabia has tens of billions of dollars in fighter jets and war machinery, but it does not have any warfare experience to fight the Houthis, who have proved to be tough, resilient fighters. Pakistan’s forces, trained to deal with the constant menace of India, would be highly valuable on the frontline. Analysts say that if Saudi Arabia decided to activate the Mecca pact to fight the Houthis, Pakistan would have no choice but to send in its troops, including thousands who are already deployed in Saudi Arabia for training. As well as being a defence partner, Pakistan is almost totally economically and geopolitically dependent on Saudi Arabia, which has recently given the country a lifesaving $8bn (£6bn) in funds and investments. Last week, Pakistani government ministers and senior military figures gave increasingly bullish statements, confirming their “unconditional” commitment to the pact and saying Islamabad would go to “any extent” to defend Saudi Arabia. But privately, officials in Pakistan are deeply worried about being dragged into the never-ending war unfolding across the Middle East. The country is already economically crippled, in a de facto war with the Taliban in Afghanistan, and facing an uncontrollable surge in militancy in its border areas. To many, an activation of the Mecca pact would be perceived as Islamabad taking a clear stance against Iran. Before the US and Israeli strikes on Iran, Pakistan had good relations with its neighbour – ties that Munir utilised to bring Tehran to the negotiating table in his attempt to secure a lasting ceasefire. But as the war has dragged on, Pakistan has become increasingly infuriated with Iran, while Tehran has little trust left in Islamabad. As Siddiqa emphasised, Pakistan joining the fight against the Houthis “would come with major repercussions”. After Iran, Pakistan is home to the second-largest population of Shia Muslims, who would probably rise up in protest against any involvement in strikes on the Houthis. Iran also maintains good relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan, posing the risk of further provoking one of Pakistan’s biggest security threats and driving militancy and security problems along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border to even deadlier levels. It also risks inflaming the situation in Balochistan, Pakistan’s unstable border region with Iran, which is home to a long-running and uncontrollable insurgency. Raja Nasir Abbas, the opposition leader in Pakistan’s senate, said that only the very few at the top of Pakistan’s military even knew what conditions and agreements had been made in the Mecca pact. With the military as Pakistan’s de facto rulers, the decision to join was not even put before parliament. “It will be a disaster for the country if Pakistan jumps into war,” said Abbas. “We are already facing two lethal insurgencies; our economy is in a shambles and inflation has rocketed. If we take Saudi Arabia’s side in this conflict, the country will face chaos, instability and religious division.” So far, no one has been able to pinpoint what the “red line” would be that would force the pact to be activated. Analysts said Pakistan appeared to be banking on Riyadh’s reluctance to enter into open warfare with Iran by escalating its fight with the Houthis. Turkey has also made it clear it does not want to enter the fray. “Pakistan will do its best not to get involved in any incursion on Yemeni soil,” said Muhammad Amir Rana, the director of the Islamabad-based Pak Institute for Peace Studies. Speaking privately, one senior official said he did not think the Saudi crown prince “wants to activate the pact now”. “If the kingdom plans to send its ground forces, Pakistan would support that,” he said. “But I don’t think Saudi Arabia would start a full-fledged war against the Houthis without American approval and Trump has snubbed them. Right now, the US does not want to open up another front; they prefer talking to Houthis.” He added: “You can’t predict the future though.”

Record fuel prices across EU prompt calls for bloc-wide windfall tax on firms

European governments have discussed imposing a bloc-wide windfall tax on energy companies, as near-record fuel and gas prices pile pressure on leaders desperate to contain mounting public discontent and the challenge of the far right. With elections due next year in eight EU countries including France, Italy, Spain and Poland, leaders are scrambling to head off the potential fallout from what analysts have warned could be one of the continent’s biggest energy shocks in decades. Germany’s finance minister, Lars Klingbeil, called on ‌the European Commission at a meeting of EU finance ministers in Dublin on Friday to propose possible ways to tax what he described as the excessive profits of oil companies. “Several member states have been calling for models for a long time,” Klingbeil said, demanding proposals by next month. “People can see how oil companies are exploiting the situation, overcharging and significantly increasing their profits.” Oil futures have climbed back above $100 a ⁠barrel, about 50% higher than before the Iran war, as escalating attacks across the Middle East threaten more supply routes. Derivatives markets suggest traders do not ‌expect a near-term drop in ‌prices. Pump prices have already reached all-time highs across Europe. In Germany, diesel prices surged to a record average of €2.45 a litre on Wednesday, while petrol hit a fresh high of €2.31 a litre, according to Europe’s largest motoring association, ADAC. Prices are even higher in the Netherlands, where petrol eclipsed last week’s record high to reach €2.73 a litre on Wednesday, with diesel at an average €2.78 a litre. Prices have risen higher still for petrol in Denmark and for diesel in Finland. Across the EU, petrol prices are 24% higher than a year earlier, while diesel is up 38% and jet fuel costs more than 100% more. Benchmark gas is trading at €81 a megawatt hour, up 150% on a year earlier, with analysts suggesting it could hit €100. The EU’s economic commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, has said the commission has no plans “at this stage” for an ⁠EU-wide taxing mechanism, but stressed it was “ready to engage in discussion” and member states were free to impose their own taxes. Sky-high fuel prices are already a major domestic political issue in France and Italy, both of which next year face crunch elections in which voters’ concerns are likely to be dominated by the soaring cost of living, driven largely by high energy prices. In Italy, Giorgia Meloni’s ruling rightwing coalition, trailing rivals in the polls, said this week it would scrap road tax for 14.5m cars and motorbikes from next year at a cost of over €2bn, on top of a cut to diesel duty that has already cost €2.8bn. “We have chosen to redirect a portion of the resources used to address rising fuel prices into a simple, structural measure designed especially for those who use cars and motorcycles every day to work, take their children, or get around,” Meloni said. France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, told ministers he wanted the government’s “full mobilisation” on fuel supply and prices, including efforts to secure supplies internationally by working toward the “peaceful reopening” of the strait of Hormuz. In the latest of a wave of protests, French fishers blocked access to two ports and a fuel depot in southern France on Thursday over soaring diesel prices that this week rose to €2.37 a litre, just below their record of €2.38. The fisheries minister, Catherine Chabaud, said the fishers had agreed after six hours of talks to lift the blockades after a promise that those with cashflow issues would be granted zero-interest ⁠loans and support measures would to be tied ‌to fuel price changes. The prime minister, Sébastien Lecornu, this week extended emergency fuel subsidies until the end of the year for the agriculture, fishing and construction sectors. But the government is reluctant to step in to cut fuel prices for all. “Blanket measures that affect everyone – including those who don’t need them – are a false economy,” the country’s finance minister, Roland Lescure, told journalists earlier in the week. “Why? Because ultimately, we’ll have to fund them.” In August, Spain doubled its diesel tax discount to €0.20 a litre from 1 September after diesel prices jumped by 15.7% in July, while in Germany, the embattled chancellor, Friedrich Merz, announced a fuel tax cut late on Friday. Taxes on petrol and diesel ⁠would be cut by by €0.17 from 1 October until the end of the year, the government said, as well as holding talks with the oil industry with the aim of introducing a cap on fuel prices by 1 January 2027 ‌at the latest. “Anyone who relies on their car every day is reaching breaking point,” Merz said in a statement. “We are ‌showing that we are resilient in the face of the crisis and are helping our citizens,” he added. Merz’s centre-right CDU was this month heavily defeated in state elections in Saxony-Anhalt by the far-right AfD, and two more state elections this weekend are likely to bring further gains for the far-right party, which has campaigned on a platform of a return to the cheap Russian gas imports Europe largely abandoned after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

I live in the ‘coolest neighbourhood’ in the world. It’s not as great as you’d think

In 2021, I was asked by Time Out to nominate a Seoul neighbourhood for its annual list of the world’s coolest. I didn’t think much of it and put forward the one I live in, Jongno 3-ga, in the old centre of the city. Somehow, it got ranked third. This week, the same area was named the coolest neighbourhood in the world. I should be pleased, but instead, I’m devastated. All these lists seem to celebrate the same idea of “cool”: expensive conceptual art galleries, high-end restaurants, and the sort of places that cater to a narrow demographic of people who read lifestyle magazines. Most cities have these places. But when I moved to Jongno 3-ga, I chose somewhere that was the opposite: humble, raw and completely unpretentious. I was first drawn to the neighbourhood 20 years ago, fresh out of school. I recollect with sweet nostalgia being one of the few tourists at a time when South Korea was not “cool”, and people often advised me against travelling there, confusing South Korea with North Korea. There were no English menus, but restaurants were welcoming. Shopfronts were rusty but full of artisanry, while alleys that went nowhere and were slightly dilapidated felt cosy. There were men getting drunk over bottles of soju who occasionally got into a brawl, but nothing that ever felt particularly threatening. I felt at home and eventually made it my home. It was a refuge for society’s rejects: people with nowhere to go, some of the poorest in Seoul, residents of the city’s tiny-room settlements and people with disabilities. In Tapgol Park, elderly women sold sexual services to older men in plain sight. Outside the park, pensioners played janggi, Korean chess, on the pavement. Around them lived musicians and artists. In Jongno 3-ga, everyone was welcome. For years, the pojangmacha, the street-food tents that serve everything from fried squid to kimchi pancake, catered to older people drinking through to the early evening. Then at some point – around 9pm – there was an unofficial handover to the gay scene. South Korea is socially conservative and the LGBTQ+ community is still very much frowned upon. But come the weekend, hundreds of excited men of all ages came to let off steam out in the open, as well as in one of the area’s more than 100 gay bars and karaoke rooms. Jongno 3-ga was a place where people could be themselves, without fear of being outed, harassed or judged. None of that was cool. But that was the entire point: people could mind their own business in a safe haven amid a culture addicted to consumerism and keeping up appearances. That all changed after Covid. The street barbecues and pojangmacha are still there, but now they have queues, some up to an hour long. People line up for a seat, take their Instagram shots, and the neighbourhood that used to hide people has become a place to be seen. With the crowds came the displacement. Gay patrons no longer take over the streets at night. The older drinkers have largely gone. The sex workers have been pushed out. The chess boards outside Tapgol Park were cleared away. Rents have risen sharply. The area is now littered with kitschy tourist shops, claw-machine arcades and unmanned photo-booths, and, in the streets nearby, bakery after bakery, coffee shop after coffee shop. One by one, the small merchants have left, to be replaced with another dessert shop. It’s now hard to find the humble rice-and-soup places that fed this neighbourhood for decades. The once shabby and unremarkable place is now heavily curated, and doesn’t feel very “Korean” any more. Locals complain about lost identity and gentrification but put on a brave face for the hordes of tourists, both local and international, who come to gorge on this area. None of this is the fault of the visitors either. They were told the place was worth seeing, and they are buying exactly what they were sold. K-culture has never been more popular. From the likes of BTS to Squid Game, the whole world is looking to South Korea and keeps coming – and things are changing to accommodate for these tourist dollars. But in a way, I feel part of the problem. I highlighted a place I loved for being overlooked, and feel I helped create a monster. Now, as the neighbourhood becomes almost unrecognisable, I wonder what effect these rankings have on the people who live in the listed destinations. Jongno 3-ga becoming the “world’s coolest neighbourhood” is nothing to celebrate. I feel guilty for calling it cool. I’d take the word back if I could.

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy reaches out to eastern Europe for new trade and security partnership

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy launched on Friday a ⁠new trade and security scheme with a group of eight countries from the Carpathian region of central and eastern Europe. In a comment summing up the outcome of the meeting, Zelenskyy said on ⁠Telegram that 50 agreements had been signed for a total value of more than €1bn ($1.15bn). ‌He gave few details, but ‌said more than half the accords dealt with energy, particularly solar and ‌wind power, with the aim of energy independence from Russia. The group includes Romania, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, and the European Union. At the meeting in western Ukraine, Zelenskyy thanked regional allies for keeping trade and transport ⁠links open following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022. Polish ‌prime minister Donald Tusk, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic and Romania’s President Nicusor Dan attended the inaugural event, which is expected to last until Sunday. “This marks the start of a movement that should bring our countries even closer together and create another strong framework for cooperation at the EU level,” Zelenskyy said. Donald Trump on Friday signed legislation enabling sweeping sanctions on Russia aimed at pressing it to end its war with Ukraine, and also giving him the power to impose additional tariffs on countries breaking the embargo. The Lindsey O Graham Sanctioning Russia and Iran Act, named after the hawkish Republican senator, Lindsey Graham, who died in July, aims to deplete Russia’s ability to continue funding the war by targeting its natural gas and oil revenues, as well as countries that continue to buy Russian energy. The legislation imposes new sanctions on Russian political and military officials and foreign networks helping to supply Russia’s war machine and evade existing sanctions. Russians are going to the polls to elect a new State Duma against a backdrop of intensifying conflict between Russia and Ukraine. There is little doubt that Vladimir Putin’s United Russia will extend its grip on parliament thanks to a tightly controlled vote. The three-day vote began Friday, with results expected after polls close on Sunday. It is the first Duma election since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Swarms of Ukrainian drones have struck oil refineries, factories and logistics hubs across Russia over the summer, while polling has pointed to growing anxiety about the course of the fighting and what may still lie ahead. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Ukraine was deliberately hindering talks aimed at ending the war and accused Kyiv ⁠of interfering in Russia’s parliamentary ⁠election. Putin, in comments to Russia’s Military-Industrial commission, also reasserted Moscow’s main defence aim of relying on its “nuclear triad” of weapons and said Moscow needed to improve its anti-missile defences. In comments reported by Russian news agencies, Putin said Ukraine had “long degenerated into a dictatorship,” referring to the country not holding a new presidential election ⁠despite the expiry of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s mandate. Latvia’s president has warned that Europe is not keeping up with developments of drone and aerial warfare in Ukraine and that most countries in Nato could not repulse an attack by Russian missiles if the conflict expands. The remarks came during a Guardian interview in Washington DC in which Edgars Rinkēvičs said that the technological developments in drone warfare in Ukraine were moving at “lightning speed”. “What we see is that air defence, drone defence, anti-ballistic defence has serious problems,” he said. “Because if Russia decides to use a couple of missiles in that territory, I think that would be a serious challenge today for many countries to cope with that,” he added. A Russian ⁠glide bomb hit an apartment building in the northern Ukrainian city of Sumy on Friday, killing two people and injuring ⁠seven, leaving three of them ⁠in a serious condition. Writing on the Telegram messaging app, President Zelenskyy said ⁠emergency crews had rescued four people after the attack and said others could still be trapped under rubble. The head of Sumy city council said the two dead were city employees. Regional Governor Oleh Hryhorov said three of the seven injured were in a serious condition. Among the injured was a 13-year-old girl.