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Ukraine war briefing: Nord Stream bombings were not us, Zelenskyy insists

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has insisted the Ukrainian government did not take part in the 2022 bombing of the Nord Stream undersea gas pipelines. Ukraine’s president said Germany was “well aware that Ukraine did not stand behind the execution or the very conception of this operation”. On Wednesday a Ukrainian man was arrested in Croatia on suspicion of taking part in the bombings. He was reportedly working on a film about the plot when arrested. German prosecutors allege he collaborated with another Ukrainian man who was arrested in Italy in 2025. German prosecutors allege the Nord Stream bombings were ordered by the Ukrainian state. Zelenskky has always denied his country’s involvement. He said Kyiv was helping Berlin with its investigation and hoped it would not cause a rift in relations. “It is very important for us not to lose our partnership, not to lose the trust of European countries that have been helping Ukraine since the very beginning of this war.” The pipelines were built to carry natural gas from Russia to Germany. The “coalition of the willing” supporting Ukraine will meet in Kyiv of Monday. The meeting will be jointly chaired by the leaders of Britain, France and Germany. Ukraine on Monday celebrates independence while also marking exactly four and a half years since the Russian full-scale invasion of 24 February 2022. Andy Burnham, Britain’s prime minister, is set to announce that the British government will let defence firm MBDA release classified information so Ukraine and France can set up local production of the long-range Storm Shadow/Scalp missile, writes Kiran Stacey and Dan Sabbagh. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has pledged Paris will deliver new the SAMP/T interceptor system, said to be capable of shooting down some types of ballistic missiles. The Russian ⁠online retailer Ozon ⁠said a drone attack caused a major fire ⁠that shut down its ⁠logistics hub ‌in ‌Krasnodar in southern ‌Russia. Ukraine also hit Ozon warehouses in the central Orenburg region on Sunday, and the day before that, in the neighbouring Samara region. “After Ukrainian units hit the 15 largest logistics hubs of Wildberries, it is now Ozon’s turn,” said a Ukrainian defence ministry announcement. Authorities in Krasnodar claimed two ⁠children were killed and ⁠another ⁠nine people were ⁠injured when drone debris hit ⁠a private childcare ‌centre. There was no independent confirmation. Early on Sunday, a drone attack was under way against an industrial area ⁠of Nevinnomyssk ‌in ‌Russia’s southern Stavropol ‌region, its governor said. Nevinnomyssk is ⁠a major chemical production area. A ⁠Russian attack on the ⁠outskirts ⁠of Kharkiv in Ukraine’s north-east killed ⁠three people, the regional governor ⁠said late on Sunday. Emergency services evacuated ‌eight people, some of whom were injured, said Oleh Syniehubov, ⁠adding that a search was under way for other ‌possible casualties. Zelenskyy has said holding elections in Ukraine during wartime could split the country. Dan Sabbagh writes that Zelenskyy was responding to a demand for elections by Mykhailo Fedorov whom he sacked as defence minister. Supporters have distanced themselves from Fedorovo because of his call for elections. Zelenskyy said on Saturday: “I believe that if we want to destroy the country, then during such a war we can move in the selection of elections … Elections right now are a tsunami for the state that will split Ukraine.” Elections have been suspended by law in Ukraine since martial law was imposed in response to the Russian invasion. Zelenskyy said on Saturday that if Ukraine’s allies established “specific conditions” for a safe, legitimate and democratic election process he would support it. It would require “the participation of the military, in frontline territories, abroad, where millions of our citizens have gone, fleeing the war” and would have to occur “without strikes and shelling”. Zelenskyy said he had removed Fedorov as defence minister because he had overreached, intruding on functions belonging to the military. He was offered four alternative jobs in the government but declined them. “I really had and still have a very positive attitude toward Mykhailo,” Zelenskyy said. “We have been through a lot together. But I believe that he himself goes, or is pushed, into the wrong things.” Ukraine thinks that Russian president Vladimir Putin is planning to draft an additional 300,000 troops for the war after Russian parliamentary elections ⁠in mid-September. Zelenskyy described a “peripheral mobilisation” targeting Russia’s far-flung regions. “We ⁠believe it will not take place in the central cities,” he said. “But I don’t think they will be able to hide it very well.”

‘No more!!!’: Trump lashes out after US-Canada talks devolve into trade war

Donald Trump has hit back at Canada after a breakdown in negotiations plunged the two countries into a trade war. In his first public comments since negotiations collapsed on Friday in Washington, the US president wrote on social media: “Canada wants the benefits of being a State, without being one!!!” “They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of tariffs,” he added. “No more!!!” His comments came after the US imposed 50% tariffs on $20bn (£14.6bn) worth of Canadian goods, while Mark Carney, the country’s prime minister, has vowed to match them “dollar for dollar”. The US tariffs came into force on Saturday, ranging from hockey sticks to tongue depressors. Trade experts have predicted that the tariffs could result in some job losses, but the biggest impact is expected to be political, triggering fresh tension between the neighbours. Both sides blamed the other for the breakdown in talks on Friday. Carney told Canadian journalists that the country was “at war” over trade with the US, after Trump “miscalculated” by escalating his tariff attack. “You’re at war when you’re attacked, and we got attacked,” the Canadian prime minister told reporters in Ottawa. “We cannot accept what they’ve offered and we will not give what they’ve asked.” Jamieson Greer, the US trade representative, has said the US was compelled to act after a year of retaliatory measures by Canada. He told Fox & Friends Weekend: “We’ve said enough and so we’ve taken countermeasures. Our interest is in protecting American workers and protecting American supply chains.” Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business, estimated that 40% of small Canadian exporters will be directly hit by the US tariffs, and that nearly one-third expect their revenues will drop by 50% or more as a result. The escalation was also met with anger by Democrat lawmakers and governors from US states that border Canada including Minnesota, New York and Washington. New York governor Kathy Hochul posted on X: “Needlessly picking fights with our allies and raising prices here at home. That’s Trump’s economic policy in a nutshell.” Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar, said the new tariffs meant “higher costs for small businesses, farmers, and all Minnesota families.” She wrote on X: “Canada is Minnesota’s #1 trading partner. Minnesotans are paying for Trump’s chaos.” Carney, who previously served as the governor of the Bank of England, was elected as Canada’s prime minister last year after campaigning to lead a fightback against Trump, who has suggested he wants to make Canada a 51st state with “economic force”. Carney’s “dollar for dollar” tariffs are expected to take effect from 8 September, with new levies on steel, dairy, appliances and electronics. The escalation has also called into question the future of the North American trade pact between the US, Canada and Mexico, known as USMCA. The pact, which was signed by Trump during his first term, governs about $2tn annually in goods and services between the three countries. Trump refused to renew the USMCA this summer after Canada and Mexico formally requested for it to be renewed for another 16 years. When asked how the US-Canadian collapse in trade talks would affect the USMCA, Carney said it was “certainly not good news”. Increasingly aggressive rhetoric and trade policy from the Trump administration has damaged US-Canadian relations, with tourism also suffering – there was a 21% drop in Canadians entering New York state in 2025 and 3mn fewer visits compared with the previous year. Furthermore, a petition to expel the US ambassador to Canada, Pete Hoekstra, from the country has gathered around 248,000 signatures since late July, according to the Associated Press. This year a poll by Globe and Mail newspaper found that only 9% of Canadians agreed that the US was a “trustworthy ally”, and that 51% of those polled had cancelled American trips in reaction to comments by Trump.

The far right is steering the EU’s response on migration | Letter

I agree with much of Alberto Alemanno’s analysis (How the far right is tightening its grip over the EU – from the inside, 18 August), but I wonder whether framing this primarily as the far right tightening its grip on the EU risks missing an even more troubling development. What we are witnessing is not simply the success of the far right. It is a broader cultural shift within the European political mainstream. Migration is perhaps the clearest example. The convergence between governments as politically different as those of Denmark and Italy suggests that positions once associated with the radical right have travelled well beyond it. Parts of the centre-left and centre-right have progressively abandoned a rights-based understanding of migration. More fundamentally, migrants increasingly disappear from the European political conversation as persons – as bearers of rights whose dignity should constitute a limit to what political majorities may legitimately do. This cultural transformation has been facilitated by an increasingly weak European Commission. The second Ursula von der Leyen commission was born under the auspices of a strong presidency, but that political authority seems to have progressively evaporated. The response to the Ceuta crisis is revealing. Neither the commission’s president, Von der Leyen, nor its European commissioner for internal affairs and migration, Magnus Brunner, has provided the kind of strong political signal that might counterbalance the competitive hardening of national positions. The problem, therefore, may be deeper than the collapse of the traditional firewall around the far right. The firewall becomes almost irrelevant once much of the mainstream has internalised the assumptions that it was originally supposed to contain. The real question is no longer simply whether mainstream parties cooperate with the far right, but how much of the far right’s understanding of migration, rights and belonging has already become mainstream European common sense. Giuseppe Martinico Professor of comparative public law, Dirpolis Institute, Sant’Anna School of Advanced Studies, Pisa, Italy • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Iran-linked hackers blamed for cyber-attack that shut down UK power plant

Hackers linked to Iran have been blamed for a cyber-attack that caused a British power plant to be temporarily shut down. The incident involved a small-scale energy generator, according to the UK government, which said that at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system. However, it marks an apparent escalation in the threat posed by Iran after the UK said it had given permission for the US to launch “defensive” operations against Tehran from British bases. The power plant was shut down for four days as a result of the attack last month, according to the Sunday Telegraph, which first reported it. A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “This story refers to an incident impacting a small-scale energy generator, and at no point was there a risk to the wider energy system. The UK has a highly resilient energy system. We work closely with the energy sector to protect infrastructure and ensure the highest security standards.” The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which deals with attacks on critical infrastructure, is understood not to have received any reported outages from regulated operators of power stations. The Conservatives said the incident reflected a “new kind of warfare”, which meant Britain needed to prioritise “cheap, reliable energy”. “The world is getting more dangerous, which is why we need to prioritise our energy security,” said Claire Coutinho, the Conservative spokesperson on energy. “Leaving ourselves reliant on imports of gas and electricity and failing to build enough reliable gas or nuclear plants for backup at home, all leaves us more vulnerable.” Hostile states such as Russia, China and Iran are increasingly targeting systems behind the UK’s key services, according to a warning this year from Richard Horne, the NCSC’s chief executive. The government said last month the UK was “ready to defend itself” after Iran’s military warned any bases being used by the US were “legitimate targets”. The UK has allowed the US to launch so-called defensive operations from British bases hosting American planes since the start of its war on Iran but has refused to help in offensive operations. That policy has not been altered by the new prime minister, Andy Burnham, who was notified last week that a decision had been made to extend the agreement with the US. Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said last month that “any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces”. Iran has been accused for years of carrying out cyber-attacks on various countries, including in relation to a massive power outage in Turkey in 2015 and several possible breaches of Israeli government websites in 2022. US government security agencies issued a warning earlier this year of cyber-attacks on critical infrastructure by hackers linked to the IRGC. The US has alleged that an Iran-affiliated group known as “CyberAv3ngers” carried out a campaign against it in 2023 that compromised at least 75 devices in multiple infrastructure sectors.

Iran’s foreign minister calls threat of new US economic sanctions ‘desperate’

Iran’s foreign minister has dismissed the threat of a fresh round of US economic sanctions as a “desperate” ploy, even as its president acknowledged that the Iranian people are facing “many problems” amid Washington’s efforts to isolate and debilitate the country’s economy. Last week, Donald Trump announced a new campaign to increase the pressure on the Iranian economy, calling it “the most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country”. The US Treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, is expected to announce further punitive economic measures on Iran – which he has described as “the toughest sanctions in history” – on Monday. Despite the threats, Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, insisted the country remained unbowed. “The fact that [US leaders] ‌have moved on from military operations … to bringing up the same old plans shows that they are desperate,” he said in a ‌video posted on Telegram on Sunday. “We have never been afraid. All of their actions – whether blockades or other military moves they have made – have failed, and this new issue of theirs will fail as well.” Araghchi urged Washington to speak to Iran respectfully to find “a ‌solution based on justice and honour.“ His defiant message came hours after Iran’s president, Masoud Pezeshkian, said Trump had thrust his country into “a full-scale economic, military and security war”. “I understand we have many problems in society right now. We are trying to prevent these as much as we can,” he said in a speech broadcast on state television. “We are striving with all our hearts to overcome inflation, livelihood problems, unemployment, and to secure the future of the people, so that they can live with dignity and pride.” The Iranian government has faced several waves of mass protest in recent years, often triggered by economic hardships, including inflation and exchange-rate swings leading to declining purchasing power. At the end of December last year, a protest movement initially sparked by the rising cost of living turned into mass demonstrations denouncing those in power. Authorities reported more than 3,000 deaths during the unrest, accusing the US and Israel of orchestrating the violence. Foreign-based NGOs, however, said Iranian officials had launched an indiscriminate crackdown that left thousands dead. The new leader of Iran’s top security body has warned its neighbours against joining new US efforts to squeeze Tehran’s economy, and threatened US commercial interests in the region, as Trump doubled down on his fanciful view that the strait of Hormuz was a new US territory. Mohsen Rezaei, the hardline leader of Iran’s supreme national security council, told state television that Iran would target oil-shipping routes out of the Gulf – alternatives to the strait of Hormuz – if its neighbours joined what he called the “economic war” waged by the US. Those neighbours would be “considered an enemy” and “we will target their interests”, he said. Rezaei also claimed Iran had more cards to play in the war, saying it had “not yet attacked any American economic interests”. “So far, we have only targeted military bases, but if they want to impose economic sanctions on us, the United States has oil and economic companies around Iran and elsewhere, and we will strike them,” he said in the interview, which was broadcast on Saturday. Trump’s efforts to finish the war he started along with Israel on 28 February have foundered after a ceasefire agreement signed in June collapsed, leaving Iran in control of the strait of Hormuz, a waterway that was the conduit for one-fifth of the world’s oil supplies before the conflict. Washington has called on other governments to join its efforts to isolate the Iranian economy, notably China, among Iran’s top strategic partners. However, Beijing has criticised the initiative, arguing that US sanctions will not resolve the conflict in the Middle East. One of Iran’s main trading partners, the United Arab Emirates, announced on Tuesday last week it was suspending all trade and financial transactions with Tehran until further notice. The US treasury has for months been carrying out Operation Economic Fury, aiming to cut off Iran’s funding with targeted sanctions, while a naval blockade in the strait of Hormuz has sought to block Iranian oil exports that are vital in keeping the country’s economy afloat. The US president has in recent days repeatedly raised the concept of declaring the strait a US territory, sharing a map identifying it as such in a social media post on Saturday. Rezaei said in his interview that discussions continued with Iran’s cross-strait neighbour Oman over management of the waterway, and said fees would be imposed. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, are expected to discuss plans to develop alternative routes to the strait of Hormuz during the Saudi leader’s two-day visit to Paris that starts on Sunday. Proposals include increasing trade through Omani ports outside the Gulf, expanding or doubling pipelines in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, and developing new rail links, officials told the Associated Press. France and Saudi Arabia have formed a taskforce on energy and logistics connections between the Middle East and Europe that is scheduled to meet at the ministerial level on Monday. The officials said the work would focus on identifying the most strategic projects, securing financing and establishing roles for French companies. With Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters

Russia withdraws ambassador to UK as Kremlin raises pressure over Ukraine support

Russia has withdrawn its ambassador to the UK, it has emerged, as the Kremlin continues to try to put pressure on Britain over its support for Ukraine. Andrey Kelin left last month after seven years in the diplomatic post, according to the Russian embassy in London. Tensions have since ratcheted up, with a warning by the embassy last week of “consequences” after it emerged Britain was supplying attack drones to Kyiv. Russia’s online list of “senior diplomatic staff” in the UK now includes only Vasily A Tsyganov, chargé d’affaires at the embassy. A gap between ambassadors was not unprecedented, said John Foreman, a former British defence attache in Moscow and Kyiv. But he said in a post on X: “The embassy’s strident ‘consequences’ statement this week and the huge deterioration of bilateral relations since 2018 and especially since the start of the war make me wonder if Moscow will permanently downgrade the relationship this time, by default by not replacing him.” A spokesperson for the embassy said the Kremlin had concluded Kelin’s diplomatic mission on 21 July. “As for the state of Russia-UK relations across all areas, they have deteriorated to an unprecedentedly low level entirely on London’s initiative,” they added. A spokesperson told the Sunday Times Kelin had made efforts to preserve channels of communication with the UK and accused the government of choosing a “path of confrontation” with Russia. “He left Britain in the hope that a more constructive and respectful dialogue could eventually be restored, should the UK reconsider its policies towards our country,” they said, adding that the Kremlin had not yet put forward a replacement candidate. The embassy later issued a statement saying there was nothing in the comments to imply that Russia intended to downgrade diplomatic relations with the UK. A spokesperson for Britain’s Foreign Office said: “This is a matter for the Russian ministry of foreign affairs. We have an ambassador and embassy in Moscow to engage and raise concerns with the Russian government. “We continue to stand shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine, which has the right to defend itself against Russia’s illegal and unprovoked invasion.” Shaun Pinner, a former British soldier who later fought alongside Ukrainian marines before he was captured and held for a time by Russian forces, said there would be arguments that Kelin’s exit had been a “dangerous erosion” of communication between Britain and Russia but he added that this had not been the case for some time in reality. He said: “If Moscow refuses to meaningfully engage, rebuffs attempts at communication and uses its diplomatic presence primarily to repeat Kremlin narratives, then we shouldn’t pretend we’re witnessing some functioning diplomatic relationship.” Kelin has repeated Kremlin narratives in interviews to British media in recent years. In one on Sky News in June, he said that Russia “cannot lose” the war in Ukraine. He joined the Soviet diplomatic service in 1979. Russia stepped up its rhetoric towards the UK last week after Ministry of Defence sources indicated a report that two drones made by British companies had been used by Ukraine’s military to attack targets inside Russia was true. The Russian embassy, seeking to maximise the impact of its remarks, added in a widely reported statement on Telegram: “London’s actions will inevitably carry consequences for which it will have to answer.”

Stephen Pedley obituary

My friend Stephen Pedley, who has died aged 85, was bishop of Lancaster from 1998 until 2005. A true son of the church, he was the quintessential Catholic – English not Roman – immersed in the worship, history and culture of the Church of England with a joyous appreciation of its richness. His single most memorable characteristic was his laughter, which sprang from his love of life and his delight in people of all shapes and sizes. His empathy with those around him made him an outstanding pastor, guide and friend, while his ready sense of the ridiculous made him great fun, too. At times he could collapse in helpless, almost painful, laughter; uproarious and uncontrollable, heels hammering the floorboards. Born in Coventry, to Geoffrey, a priest, and his wife, Muriel, he went to Marlborough school in Wiltshire, then gained a history degree at Queens’ College, Cambridge, before training for the priesthood at Ripon College Cuddesdon in Oxfordshire, where he and I met. At the time, Cuddesdon retained the aura of the Oxford Movement that had recalled the Church of England to its Catholic roots, and, under the tutelage of Robert Runcie, Stephen took to the romance of its quasi-monastic common life. After ordination in 1966, he became a curate at Liverpool parish church – one of the most famous and flamboyant city centre churches in England, and a perfect match for his gifts. It was in Liverpool that he met Mary Macdonald, a clergyman’s daughter who was training to be a teacher, and they married in 1970. In 1969 Stephen had left Liverpool for another curacy, at Holy Trinity Coventry, and after two years there he moved to Kitwe in Zambia’s copper belt, where he was a priest from 1971 to 1977. Returning to the north-east of England, Stephen was vicar at Stockton (1977-78), rector at Whickham (1988–93) and then residentiary canon at Durham Cathedral (1993–98), also serving as chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II from 1984 until he became bishop of Lancaster in 1998, based in Blackburn. Held in great affection there as “the people’s bishop”, wherever he went he reassured, encouraged and empowered those in his care. He lifted everyone’s spirits, and made sure you knew he was on your side – and that all would be well. He retired as bishop after seven years, after which he became an honorary assistant bishop for the diocese of Newcastle. Throughout their married life, he and Mary provided open and generous hospitality at their various homes, most happily in their recent years of retirement on the terrace of the Blue House, Newbrough, overlooking the upper Tyne valley in Northumberland, where the wine flowed and the laughter echoed. Mary survives him, as do their children, Mark, Andrew and Philippa, and six grandchildren.

Holding election in wartime would risk destroying Ukraine, says Zelenskyy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said holding elections in Ukraine during wartime would risk splitting the country at a time when Russia is amassing ballistic missiles and considering whether to mobilise an extra 300,000 soldiers. The Ukrainian president, responding for the first time to a demand made by the sacked former defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov, sharply criticised an idea that he said was impractical given Russia appeared to have no interest in a ceasefire. “I believe that if we want to destroy the country, then during such a war we can move in the selection of elections,” Zelenskyy said in a briefing to selected journalists that was held on Saturday, but details of which were reported on Sunday. “I believe that during such a war, elections in general are big risks. Elections right now are a tsunami for the state that will split Ukraine,” he said, adding that his plan was to end the war and preserve Ukraine as an independent state. Elections have been suspended in Ukraine since martial law was imposed at the start of the full-scale invasion by Russia. Zelenskyy’s five-year term ended in May 2024 but there had until recently been little desire in Ukraine to hold a contest while the war continued. That shifted when Fedorov, a popular minister who had been dismissed by Zelenskyy a month earlier, called for a fresh contest. It was the most open challenge to Zelenskyy’s authority from inside Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion. Zelenskyy said, according to a transcript from the briefing, that if Ukraine’s allies were to establish “specific conditions” under which elections could be safely, legitimately and democratically held in Ukraine, he would support them. It would require “the participation of the military, in frontline territories, abroad, where millions of our citizens have gone, fleeing the war” and a poll would have to take place safely “without strikes and shelling”, he said. Fedorov, he said, had moved from his post because had had overreached, trying to cover functions belonging to the military. He had been offered four alternative jobs in the government but declined all four, the president added. “I really had and still have a very positive attitude toward Mykhailo,” Zelenskyy said. “We have been through a lot together. But I believe that he himself goes, or is pushed, into the wrong things.” Russia had a stockpile of 600-630 high-speed ballistic missiles, its most potent type of weapon, and was trying to build a little more than 100 more a month in the run-up to winter, Zelenskyy said. Its maximum production capacity was 1,300 a year, he added. Ballistic missiles have been used to bomb Ukrainian infrastructure and warehouses and to attack the capital, causing increased civilian casualties. There is a shortage of US-made Patriot interceptors, the only weapon that can effectively counter them. “I wanted to secure 300 Patriot missiles for the winter package. The request from our air force is 360,” Zelenskyy said. He acknowledged this was difficult given that only about 600 of the most capable PAC-3 interceptor missiles were made a year. He said he had reached an agreement with France on at least one SAMP/T air-defence system this year, and with ‌Germany on the supply of about 600 PAC-2 and PAC-3 interceptors in 2027--28. The US could help by supplying “some small percentage” of its stockpiles – about 5% to 10%, he added. Ukraine was willing to pay and it would mean the country “could get through the winter”, he said, calling on the US to make what would be “a very significant difference both in protecting lives and diplomatically”. Following a conversation with Zelenskyy on Saturday, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, said he had agreed to strengthen French support for Ukraine, including through the delivery of interceptor missiles, without giving further details. Ukraine’s allies in the so-called coalition of the willing – an initiative led by France and Britain – will meet on Monday to look at how to ramp up pressure on Moscow to halt its invasion. Russia is seeking to build up forces for a renewed effort to capture the rest of the eastern Donetsk province it does not control by the end of the year, though Zelenskyy said he was confident Moscow would fail to capture the area, comprising principally the cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk. The president said he believed Russia would try to conscript a further 300,000 soldiers after the Russian parliamentary elections in September. It would be a “peripheral mobilisation” conducted away from Moscow, St Petersburg and other main cities in an effort to regain momentum in the almost deadlocked frontline, he said.