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As Russian missiles rain down on Kyiv, casualties mount and the mood darkens

Viktor, 23, Sofiia, 18, and their dog, Teddy, were bedding down for the night on Thursday at the Dorohozhychi metro station three stops from Kyiv’s city centre. The couple have sheltered here “every night for the past three weeks”, Viktor said, as the missile threat to the city worsened; the dog, only three months old, has been with them a fortnight. Teddy lies quietly, knowing no different a life. People sleeping at Dorogozhychi metro station for safety. The atmosphere in the Ukrainian capital has shifted in the past couple of months as the war has returned more sharply to the home front. Russian high-speed ballistic missiles are routinely targeting the city and Ukraine’s military have run out of the interceptors from the only weapon system that can stop them, US-made Patriots. The anxiety that hangs over the wartime city has intensified. (Clockwise from top left): Vitalii clears debris from around his damaged car with the help of a neighbour; the aftermath of a Russian night attack on Solomyanskiy district; a woman rests near the site of the attack. “Before, if you heard an air-raid warning you still had time to pack your stuff and get to the shelter. Now you have a warning and then in 30 seconds you have explosions, so you have no time,” Sofiia said. A night earlier, a wave of missiles targeted the city within minutes of the first warning, at 11.51pm. Sixteen people were reported killed after the missiles struck locations including residential blocks in the suburbs. Warnings of drone attacks followed for several more hours, fraying nerves after the opening hits. City dwellers had been fearing a big attack on Wednesday night. It had been a few days since the last one – and there were also reports that Russian Tu-160 strategic bombers were flying to the war zone. They launch cruise missiles, but their presence in the air heralds a wider missile and drone attack. The lower hall at Dorohozhychi metro was packed by 10pm that night, Viktor said, with tents or people lying on ground sheets, almost no space left for the couple as they arrived. Earlier on Thursday, in the morning, the grim aftermath of the missile strikes on residential areaswas clearly visible. Two missiles struck the Solomianskyi district west of the centre, one shearing off the top floor of a 10-storey apartment block, killing two people, the second crashing into a disused building in the centre of a car park, reducing it to a scatter of rubble, while local people tried to see if there was any hope for their cars – the ones that were not completely burnt out. The rear end of Vitalii’s car was smashed in by the blast, and it appears to be a write-off. The 42-year-old said he works for an insurance company, yet admitted he had not insured his own vehicle. After a while, however, the car started, remarkably, its engine having faced away from the blast. At first the impact of the overnight attack may be financial, but Vitalii said its real effect will be psychological. “We are alive, our arms and legs whole. We will go on. But now it will be more scary.” Vitalii, a Kyiv resident, checks his damaged car; a woman rests and checks her phone the day after the Russian attack. *** Kyiv’s mayor, the former champion heavyweight Vitali Klitschko, arrived on the scene. “These attacks on the city have one aim – to drive people into depression,” he said. He is pressed about how many new bomb shelters the city has built, which might avoid people having to sleep in metro stations that reopen at 6am. He could offer no figure to one questioner. Vitali Klitschko, Kyiv’s city mayor, talks to the media at the site of a direct hit. Ukraine’s military no longer announces how many ballistics come in because it cannot stop them, though hits can easily heard from bedrooms right across the capital. In July, the last full month for which figures are available, 437 civilians were killed across Ukraine and 2,610 injured according to UN figures – the highest number recorded killed since May 2022. Though it is August and the daily temperatures are frequently in the 30s, much of the talk is about the winter to come, when people expect to lose central heating and electricity as so many homes did last year when apartment temperatures in the worst-affected districts dropped to 4-5C. Kyiv’s infrastructure appears defenceless and those who can have long bought generators, batteries, electric radiators and anything else for emergency heating, but worries linger. A survivor of the night’s attacks holds a backpack containing her cat in Solomyanskiy district. “We are prepared to cope without electricity and without central heating – we did our homework, prepared the apartment and lasted last dreadful winter,” said Maria Hlazunova, who lives in the centre of the city. “But water … I’m afraid of lacking the opportunity to wash hands and food properly. Not to mention the toilet,” which she acknowledges is a particular source of anxiety. Residents know the city has only one wastewater treatment site, at Bortnychi. It has not yet been hit. Ukraine has defended itself by stepping up its attacks on Russia, long-range targeting first of the country’s oil refineries, leading to queues at petrol stations, and more recently by targeting warehouses, e-commerce sites that Kyiv says are also used by the military for logistics. It has been effective, though Russia has responded in kind – bombing and destroying warehouses just outside Kyiv, the medium-term economic consequences from the destruction uncertain. The damaged Rozetka warehouse in Brovary, Kyiv region; a firefighter works at the warehouse after a Russian attack. Early on Thursday, a food distribution warehouse near Ukraine’s unused Boryspil commercial airport was completely destroyed by a missile attack. The fire spread because a succession of drone warnings – Shaheds were flying above – meant that emergency workers could not safely attend at first. When the Guardian visited in the afternoon, parts of the burnt-out site were still smouldering, and there were a handful of employees who recognised their jobs had disappeared in the wreckage. Viktoriia Ruban, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s state emergency services in Kyiv region, the area just outside the city, described a change in Russian military tactics. “Previously, the Russians would strike the Kyiv region at night. Now it’s three or four hours, then a strike; another three or four hours, then another strike. Whether it’s morning or daytime – it makes no difference now,” she said, and the observation applies also to the capital city where daytime alerts have become more common. Iryna Chechotkina, the co-founder of Rozetka, Ukraine’s most successful e-commerce distributor, showed a few journalists around the ruins of what was her company’s largest distribution hub near Brovary, north-east of Kyiv. It was a modern automated facility, built for $70m, capable of sending 100,000 parcels a day, and employing 1,000. But it was totally destroyed by three missiles on the night of August 4-5, the inferno so great that in places only bent-over cranes can be made out. Iryna Chechotkina, the co-founder of Rozetka, inside her company’s burnt-out distribution hub in Brovary, Kyiv region. It was a clearly difficult visit for the businesswoman, amid worries that more of the company’s warehouses could be struck, affecting Rozetka and the 50,000 vendors who rely on its service. But the wider military reality is fragile. “How can a country defend itself against ballistic threats if we have nothing with which to shoot them down?” she asked. “It’s very hard for me; I’m a mother of four and I’ve sacrificed time with them to build this place. It’s my life’s work.” Breaking into English, she added: “This is not easy.”

Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy vows response to Russia’s deadly shopping centre attack

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has vowed to hit back at Russia after its deadly attack on a shopping centre in central Ukraine. At least 16 people were killed and more than 130 wounded, authorities said, when drones on hit the mall in Kryvyi Rih in what the Ukrainian president called a “cynical and despicable” attack on Friday. In an evening video post on social media, Zelenskyy said of the strikes in his home town: “An absolute Russian atrocity. They’re just monsters. We will definitely respond.” He added: “It is important that we have everything to protect life. It is important that the world does not remain silent about all this. There must be an end to this Russian war – and we need the world to help us make that happen.” The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, condemned the attack as “terror by design” and threatened “the most far-reaching Russia sanctions listings since the start of the war”. Four more people, including three minors, were killed in another strike in the southern Mykolaiv region on Friday, said the interior minister, Ivan Vygivsky. Russian strikes on Ukraine killed at least two people early on Saturday, local authorities said. The Kyiv city military administration reported a fire in a warehouse in the capital’s Darnytskyi district after issuing an alert for a ballistic missile. One person died and several were injured, it said, citing preliminary information. In the southern city of Zaporizhzhia, a Russian drone killed a man and wounded four people, according to the regional military administration’s chief, Ivan Fedorov. Countries allied with Ukraine are to meet on Monday to reaffirm support for Kyiv in the war, at talks held on Ukraine’s independence day. The meeting of the so-called Coalition of the Willing will be co-chaired by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, the UK prime minister, Andy Burnham, and the German chancellor, Friedrich Merz. About 10 leaders including the European Council chief, António Costa, will be in Kyiv for the meeting, according to an EU official. Zelenskyy urged a strong response from Ukraine’s allies after Russia’s shopping centre attack, saying: “The world must respond to them accordingly – with real pressure on the aggressor. For peace to be possible, Russia must face real accountability.” Germany is seeking to extradite a suspect from Romania over the discovery of an underground stash of weapons in a forest near Berlin that German media reports have linked to Russian intelligence, reports Deborah Cole. Two weeks after German authorities found a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, the interior minister confirmed federal prosecutors had opened an investigation related to the secret cache of guns “on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that threatens national security”. “This case demonstrates that ‌we are operating under a high threat level,” Alexander Dobrindt told reporters. Ukraine has sanctioned Russian hit children’s cartoon Masha and the Bear and its producers in a step towards banning the series, the Ukrainian culture minister said on Friday, slamming it as a Russian “propaganda” tool. The cartoon about a little girl and a retired circus bear has been viewed tens of billions of times on YouTube alone and broadcast in about 100 countries but has faced criticism in Ukraine and among its allies, including the UK and Estonia, as painting Russia in a positive light. The Kremlin has laughed off the allegations.

Meet Fat Papi, the little-known NZ rapper catapulted to Billboard 100 fame

Two months ago, Baban Hussain, a 22-year-old Kurdish New Zealander, was working from a self-run studio in Auckland, putting out music to a few thousand followers as little-known rapper Fat Papi. Then, as modern fairytales go, he made a viral hit that has amassed over 7.5bn views across YouTube, gained him nearly 10m new monthly listeners on Spotify, and catapulted him on to global charts – including the US Billboard Hot 100. The last feat made history: Hussain is the first Kurdish artist to land on the Billboard Hot 100, and only the second New Zealand rapper to do so. “It’s a whirlwind,” Hussain tells the Guardian on a video call from a hotel in New York City where he has been promoting his music and meeting with industry. “My life is completely different. It’s a very intense time and honestly amazing and everything we have ever wanted.” Hussain seems candid and relaxed despite having only spoken to media a handful of times. He is joined on the call by producer Owen Omen, an Australian-based artist known as Prodshushy, who is beaming in from Perth. Their now-viral song Freaked Out was released in May and initially got little attention. “It was doing terrible numbers,” Hussain says. After various attempts at promoting it online, Prodshushy released a short dance video, backed by a clip of the song where Fat Papi raps “Get that bag, you ain’t ever comin’ last.” It quickly clocked up 1.5m views and a couple of days later caught the attention of a UK-based TikTok influencer, Jocelyn Meiere, or Miss Diva Bob, who posted a video to her 3.1m followers of her slick bob haircut, using the song as a backing track. “We look back a week later and it’s growing and growing,” Hussain says. “From that point, it was over, it was everywhere, it was insane.” TikTok has been flooded with copycat videos of people shaking their haircuts to Freaked Out, including British artist Raye. US rapper Megan Thee Stallion posted a video of her making enchiladas as she mouths the words. The song became number one on Shazam globally; hit the UK, Australia and US charts; and then debuted at 88 on the Billboard Hot 100. Omen, who is of Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands descent, says it was “a surreal moment”. “No one where I’m from has ever reached this point in their career, like music producing-wise. It was such a big moment for me and also my people back home.” The song’s success has been similarly moving for Hussain, whose parents fled Iraq as refugees in 1999. He grew up within a tiny Kurdish community in Auckland, and was the only Kurdish student at his school. “It’s history, it’s insane,” he says. “I think that’s a big thing – actually just representing people and our home towns. Being able to do that for my people was insane. I still struggle to find the words to show love for that.” The duo only began working together four months ago, and met in person for the first time in July. Their collaboration came about after Hussain rapped over one of Prodshushy’s beats and sent it back to him. “I didn’t expect him to reply – he had 20,000 followers at the time, I had 800,” Hussain says. “But I was like, OK, I’m going to shoot my shot … and he really liked it.” The pair say they have an incredible “flow state” when working together, with Hussain praising Prodshushy’s mixing skills and wide array of influences – including hip-hop, trap and afro-beat – and Prodshushy lauding Fat Papi’s ability “to flow over any beat”. Hussain is drawn to the sounds of 2015 club music, US rapper Kid Ink, US record producer Mustard, as well as west coast, New York and New Jersey hip-hop. He believes growing up listening exclusively to Kurdish music shaped his ear for different styles. Gaining viral fame means every door is now open, Hussain says. “There is nothing too far away or anything we won’t reach for.” They have management and record deals, a new single dropping in September, and are scheduled to play at Australia’s four-date Spilt Milk festival in December. They aspire to one day play at Coachella, and to collaborate with other artists. To make this viral moment into something “bigger, forever” will require hard work, Hussain says. “Even if it doesn’t happen, we’ll definitely give it our best go, and we’ve got that confidence with us.”

‘She’s not afraid of anyone’: the prison writings of one of Hong Kong’s last outspoken democracy activists

In one essay written from prison, Chow Hang-tung worries about her hairstyle before court appearances because there are no combs or mirrors in her cell. “In a place like prison, where anything that is personal is stripped away, it’s even more important to hold on to every means by which you can express yourself,” she writes. “Don’t let uniform, depersonalised rules, dress codes, schedules, and behavioural requirements grind down your edges and mould you into a ‘model citizen’”. The vignette is everyday, almost mundane. It stands in contrast to Chow’s position as one of Hong Kong’s most outspoken dissidents, one who has been detained for nearly five years awaiting trial over her role in organising an annual vigil marking the Tiananmen Square massacre. Her case represents one of the last high-profile national security trials to be heard in Hong Kong, as the national security law imposed by Beijing in 2020 extinguishes what was once one of the world’s most widely watched pro-democracy struggles. On Friday, Chow and her co-defendant Lee Cheuk-yan were found guilty of “incitement to subversion” by a Hong Kong court. They face a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail when they are sentenced later in the year. As the years pass by, the 41-year-old barrister has written screeds from behind bars on everything from the meaning of freedom to the legacy of the 1989 massacre, some of which have been translated by Brian Kern, a writer and human rights activist. Chow’s profile has only grown since she has been detained. She has won several human rights awards, and her social media profiles, which are managed on her behalf, are regularly updated with her writings from prison. In another essay, she describes being handed a white Mickey Mouse t-shirt to wear in court because she is not allowed to wear clothing that carries the branding of her protest group, the Hong Kong Alliance. “The Mickey Mouse t-shirt may seem innocent on the surface, but isn’t it still a prison uniform provided by the correctional facility? Even before the Alliance has been convicted, its clothes have already become contraband,” she writes. While some writings are breezy and irreverent, many are deeply considered essays on defending civil rights in the face of a powerful and oppressive Chinese Communist party. As a highly regarded barrister who has been representing herself in court, she also dives into legal philosophy. “She’s not afraid of anything or anyone,” said Kevin Yam, a Hong Kong lawyer who now lives in exile. “For a lot of us who are outside Hong Kong now and sometimes feel a bit dispirited by things, her example and her inspiration is a big factor in us not losing hope and keeping our spirits up.” Wu Yangwei, Chow’s fiance, a Chinese activist better known by his pen name, Ye Du, said it was Chow’s interest in mainland Chinese struggles that first attracted him to her. “From the moment I met her… I felt that she was incredibly innocent, deeply compassionate, and deeply empathetic toward China’s democracy and human rights defense movements,” Wu said. He now lives under close police surveillance in Guangdong province. ‘A society that loses freedom of speech … loses its very soul’ Chow was arrested in September 2021 along with two other organisers of the now disbanded Hong Kong Alliance in Support of Democratic Movements of China. The Hong Kong Alliance’s annual Tiananmen vigil, which attracted tens of thousands of Hongkongers each year, was banned in 2020 on the grounds of pandemic control. Chow, along with Lee Cheuk-yan and Albert Ho, were charged with incitement to subversion under Hong Kong’s new sweeping national security law. Chow and Lee pleaded not guilty in their trial, which ended on 19 May, while Ho submitted a guilty plea, which could help him get a sentence reduction. All three have already served shorter sentences for other convictions relating to the vigil. A Hong Kong government spokesperson said Lee and Chow were prosecuted “because they have overstepped the boundaries of lawful conduct by committing a criminal act of inciting subversion.” The spokesperson said law enforcement actions paid “no regard to their political stance, background or occupation.” In an essay written this year for the 37th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, Chow wrote: “A society that loses its freedom of speech never just loses a few articles or events – it loses its very soul”. “‘Power corrupts’ is a hackneyed phrase, but when the will to power permeates everything … the decline of society becomes inevitable. Conversely, resisting the encroachment of power, or even attempting to put it back in its cage, requires a steadfast return to fundamental human values.” From studying earthquakes to fighting for human rights Chow came late to the law. A straight-A student, she had originally gone to Cambridge University to study natural sciences, specialising in seismology. In 2008, a massive earthquake struck Sichuan province, killing 70,000 people. Chow travelled to the region to volunteer as a rescue worker. Friends of Chow said the experience had a profound impact on her. She believed that the failure of the Chinese government to adequately prepare for the natural disaster, and the handling of the aftermath, increased the death toll, said the friends. Chow dropped out of her PhD programme and returned to Hong Kong to retrain as a barrister. She threw herself into Hong Kong’s then vibrant civil society, volunteering for human rights groups alongside her studies. It was while preparing a bail application for a fellow pro-democracy activist, Gwyneth Ho, that Chow was arrested in September 2021. “She’s turned her scientific training to the Communist party, dissecting the party’s manoeuvres as clinically as she once looked at tectonic plates and seismic movements,” said Mark Clifford, the president of the Committee for Freedom in Hong Kong Foundation. Since Chow has been in jail, her fiance Wu has communicated with her by letter, and occasionally through letters published in the newspaper Ming Pao, which is available in prison. In January last year, their correspondence was cut off, Wu said. “It’s even worse than mainland China. In mainland prisons, political prisoners can still communicate with family, but Hong Kong prisons now block even that,” he said. Hong Kong’s correctional services department said that all prisoners, including Chow, can send and receive letters “subject to the requirements of the prison rules”. The department said Wu’s claim was “totally false and misleading”. Wu said that Chow’s letters are “full of fighting spirit”. “I am not worried about her,” he said. As far back as 2021, Chow published an essay about her refusal to plead guilty, writing: “A stubborn freak like me can only march on and fight my case till the end … Having a chance to exhaust oneself is better than living a purposeless life, isn’t it?”

Mary John obituary

My mother-in-law, Mary John, who has died aged 85, was a developmental psychologist and an instrumental figure in the movements for equal rights for people with disabilities and for the rights of children. Mary found her vocation in the 1970s and 80s, as an academic specialising in disability in the social sciences faculty of the Open University, where she worked closely with Vic Finkelstein. During this time she also served on the US Committee on the Employment of the Handicapped under the Jimmy Carter administration, and helped to set up the European Commission’s Bureau for Action in Favour of Disabled People. In 1992, now at the University of Exeter, Mary hosted the first global conference on children’s rights to involve children themselves, and later edited the book series Children in Charge, which included her own title, Children’s Rights and Power: Charging Up for a New Century (2003). In 1996 she was given a European Woman of Achievement award, and in 1999, the OU awarded Mary an honorary doctorate for her lifetime’s work for disadvantaged people. Born in Wigan, Lancashire, Mary was the daughter of Elvira (nee Evans) and William John, a headteacher. Aged seven, she was hospitalised with peritonitis and septicaemia, and put in an iron lung. As was medical orthodoxy at the time, her parents were not allowed to visit – but no one explained any of it to Mary. She later wrote she was “a child abandoned, bewildered, drugged, hallucinating and desperately solitary … This child faced the same problems that have beset children in many places, at many times – problems of recognition of her needs, of establishing identity, agency, of managing relationships wisely and richly, of exercising power and of finding a voice that is heard.” After Wigan county high school for girls, Mary studied psychology at the University of Nottingham, graduating in 1962. A Medical Research Council scholarship under Elizabeth and John Newson, who were revolutionising the study of parenting, followed, and in 1996 she completed her PhD on the social adjustment of children. Mary then lectured at Nottingham and Bristol universities, and for seven years at Exeter, before joining the OU in 1974. In 1990 she returned to Exeter as the first female professor of education. She became dean of education and director of the Women’s Studies Centre in 1995, before being appointed deputy vice-chancellor the following year. After retirement in 1998, Mary continued to work as an author, editor and consultant. Outside work, Mary turned her hand to all kinds of creative endeavours: from a full-size papier-mache pony for her student union ball, to watercolours for friends, and an immaculate pair of curtains that still hang in our window. In 2008, she was learning calligraphy when a stroke left her with severe disabilities. Characteristically, she reflected on her situation from a societal and academic perspective. A marriage to John Croxen in 1964 ended in divorce in 1978. She is survived by her sons, Dan and Adam (my partner), four grandchildren, Cerys, Huw, Martha and Harry, and her sister, Heulwen. Her brother, Gareth, predeceased her.

‘Shameful’: UK, Australia and Canada criticise Israel over Gaza aid convoy killings decision

Britain, Australia and Canada have called the decision of the Israeli military authorities not to open a criminal investigation into the April 2024 airstrikes that hit a convoy of aid vehicles in Gaza “shameful”. The strikes killed seven humanitarian workers from the US-based World Central Kitchen (WCK) organisation. WCK staff from the three countries were among the casualties of the attack, which prompted global outrage. “This decision is both too little, and too late. The victims of this incident and their families deserve justice and accountability, and we will continue to seek answers on their behalf. The World Central Kitchen attack is one of countless incidents in Gaza where there has been no accountability,” the countries’ joint statement said. It continued: “In Gaza, humanitarian workers continue to work tirelessly to support civilians in desperate need, risking their lives whilst working in the most perilous conditions. Yet despite the fragile ceasefire, Gaza remains the deadliest place to deliver aid, with 186 humanitarian workers killed in 2025.” On Thursday, Australia’s government expressed “outrage” over the decision, while relatives said that Zomi Frankcom, the Australian among those killed, deserved more than an “internal, opaque process that ends with a short statement by the Israeli military absolving their soldiers of criminal wrongdoing.” Israel’s ambassador to Australia, Hillel Newman, defended the decision. The Polish government said on Thursday it was “very disappointed” and called for Israeli authorities to cooperate with Polish investigations into the incident. Damian Soból, a volunteer from Przemyśl, was also among the casualties. In London, the Foreign Office said the UK was “appalled and angry” for the families of John Chapman, James Henderson and James Kirby, three British citizens who were killed in the attack. WCK, which distributed food in Gaza throughout the war, said immediately after the lethal attack that it had coordinated with the military over the movement of its cars, which had the group’s logo on their roofs visible from the air. “There has never been any excuse or justification for the attacks, and there is nothing in this account that does so. The decision is inconsistent with the full truth and deeply offensive,” it said in a statement. The IDF said on Wednesday that it had mistaken several individuals in the vehicles for armed Hamas military operatives, and that the WCK convoy had deviated from the previously coordinated route. But it concluded that “the decisions of the commanders did not raise reasonable suspicion of criminal misconduct”. Two officers were removed from their positions at the time and three others reprimanded. One of the officers who was dismissed had reportedly signed an open letter earlier that year calling for Gaza to be deprived of aid. Israel imposed strict restrictions on the entry of humanitarian assistance during the conflict in Gaza, where experts declared a famine in August 2025. The Israeli military admitted on Wednesday that its troops had opened fire on a car carrying five-year-old Hind Rajab and six family members in Gaza in 2024, saying it had ordered a criminal investigation into the killing, as well as into the fatal shooting of 15 paramedics in 2025. Hind Rajab died after a desperate three-hour phone call to the Palestinian Red Crescent on 29 January 2024 in which she pleaded for rescue. The family’s Kia Picanto car had been hit as they sought to flee a new Israeli offensive into Gaza City. All the other passengers were also killed. The IDF repeatedly denied its troops had been in the area near the incident, but investigations by media and others found evidence that strongly suggested nearby Israeli tanks were responsible. The IDF said that as part of the its obligations under international law and Israeli domestic law it examined “exceptional incidents that occurred during combat”, but experts said criminal misconduct investigations into Israeli troops over the killing of Palestinians very rarely lead to convictions.

From the classroom to the locker room: nine days of ‘deeply disturbing’ sexual assault allegations shake Australia

For the fourth time that week, youth advocate and educator Daniel Principe stood in a classroom and asked the same question: Are female teachers respected as much as male ones? “The boys unanimously said no,” Principe says. “If that is the case, why is this rewarded in some pockets of boy culture? Being callous and cruel and intimidating to women is being rewarded.” From primary schools to universities, he steps into a classroom every day to have conversations about respect and violence. When he asks the boys if they’ve seen content that says degrading things about women – that they’re gold diggers, that they should be in the kitchen, that they all cheat – 90% of them put their hands up. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “Some of these social norms and gendered stereotypes have, of course, existed prior to this moment, but they’re just inflamed right now,” he says. “There is more social reward for acting this out.” Outside the classrooms, five Sydney Swans players might have been in the spotlight, but they were far from alone this week. Across the nation, a series of high-profile sexual assault cases has put allegations involving teenagers, professional athletes and men in the centre of a storm. In the past nine days alone, three Scots College students were charged over the alleged sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, and in another instance in Sydney, three 17-year-olds were charged over the alleged group sexual assault of a 17-year-old girl. In Melbourne, a 13-year-old boy was arrested over an alleged attempted sexual assault of two women; in Brisbane, a 32-year-old man was charged with allegedly raping a young woman walking her dog; and in Perth, two men, 30 and 25, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a 14-year-old girl and were jailed. Victoria police are investigating an alleged sexual assault early on Monday morning at the Pullman Hotel in Melbourne, where the Sydney Swans were staying. None of the Swans players have been arrested or charged and there is much detail about the allegations and its links to the team that remains unknown. The culture goes beyond private schools and sporting clubs, and its prevalence is hard to track. While many people do not report sexual assault, the most up-to-date data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics showed the number of sexual assaults recorded by police in 2024 exceeded 40,000 – over 100 a day nationwide and an increase of 10% or 3,735 victims, from the previous year. Nationally, around two in five victim-survivors were aged between 10 and 17 years old at the time of incident, and 81% were female. The majority of sexual assaults occurred in homes. Patty Kinnersly, the CEO of Our Watch, says the country has seen “some deeply disturbing, high-profile allegations of sexual violence” this week, but the increase in reporting shows more women are coming forward. “Police-recorded sexual assault increased by around 67% between 2014 and 2024, with 2024 the highest rate recorded since the national series began in 1993,” Kinnersly says. But the population-level picture is more complex, she says, with personal safety survey data showing recent sexual violence towards women has risen from 1.2% in 2012 to 1.9% in 2021/22, while the long term rate remained broadly stable. She says the number of police reports and the volume of media coverage can’t paint an accurate picture of whether sexual violence is increasing, but that it is encouraging more women to speak up about sexual violence. For Principe, there’s a clear connection between some of the attitudes he sees in schools and the violence directed toward women. “When heterosexual men are socially conditioned to see sex and relationships as a conquest, that’s where a lot of this stuff goes awry,” Principe says. “When it’s not seen as something that should be mutual, but instead something to be taken from women, that is where it gets really troubling.” Teachers and other educators who work in schools – and who could only speak on the condition of anonymity – told Guardian Australia a similar story: in class, male students will bark at female teachers, and the boys will laugh. They’ll post degrading content on Snapchat, knowing there are no repercussions because no one can trace it back to them. Covid has supercharged their views. And the government’s internet ban has all but failed. This week, a first-of-its-kind report, Misogyny, Online Radicalisation and Youth Extremism in Australia, surveyed 3,429 Australians, including more than 1,000 people 13 to 17, to compare attitudes on women and gender equality. About one in three teen boys expressed misogynistic attitudes, mistrust of women, and a belief in traditional gender roles, according to the University of Melbourne research, with Gen Z more likely than men in other generations to endorse traditional or hostile attitudes towards women. At the same time, Gen Z girls were twice as likely as millennial women to believe marriage entitled a husband to sex even if his wife did not want intercourse. Sociologist Michael Flood says research in the US across male-dominated spaces like the military, sporting codes and fraternities shows there are consistent indicators for sexual violence to be more prevalent. “There are risk factors in any setting that make sexual violence perpetration and victimisation more likely,” the professor at the Queensland University of Technology School of Justice says. “Where there’s strong codes of loyalty and bonding between men, where there’s strong norms of sexism and sexual objectification, high levels of alcohol and drug consumption, high levels of pornography consumption.” Flood says research across sporting codes shows there are higher rates of sexual assault among men who play team-based contact sports, such as NRL and AFL, than those who play individual non-contact sports like tennis or swimming. “But further research has found that it’s not just the nature of the sport,” he says. “It’s also the particular character of the clubs and communities associated with that sport or that setting.” He says the key problem is there has not been “enough effort to change”. Even when institutions like the AFL or NRL tried to shift the culture in the mid-2000s, it was not enough. “It takes comprehensive effort in a sporting code or in a school to really shift the cultures of sexism and objectification that feed into sexual violence,” Flood says. “And if our efforts are only piecemeal or tokenistic, then they won’t shift the problem.” Flood says there is a growing body of research that shows multi-session programs that focus on the key drivers of sexual violence can help to bring the number of assaults down. “Well-designed prevention efforts in a school and in a sporting code, in the military and other contexts, can make change,” he says. “The question is, are they being implemented? Are they being supported comprehensively?” • Information and support for anyone affected by rape or sexual abuse is available from the following organisations. In Australia, support is available at Full Stop Australia (1800 385 578). In the UK, Rape Crisis offers support on 0808 500 2222. In the US, Rainn offers support on 800-656-4673. Other international helplines can be found at ibiblio.org/rcip/internl.html

Gun stash in German forest believed to be linked to Russia, say reports

Germany is seeking to extradite a suspect from Romania over the discovery of an underground stash of weapons in a forest near Berlin that German media reports have linked to Russian intelligence. Two weeks after German authorities found a drone carrying explosives at Leipzig airport, the interior minister, Alexander Dobrindt, confirmed federal prosecutors had opened an investigation related to the secret cache of guns “on suspicion of preparing a serious act of violence that threatens national security”. “This case demonstrates that ‌we are operating under a high threat level,” he told reporters. As with the Leipzig incident, Dobrindt said he could not rule out the involvement of “foreign powers”. Earlier, local media had reported that German authorities had unearthed two handguns and ammunition about a year ago in a wooded area outside the German capital after agents of the domestic intelligence service received a tip. The find has been the focus of covert investigations by state security and counterespionage services on suspicion Russian intelligence was plotting assassinations on German soil, according to separate reports by Der Spiegel magazine and an investigative team led by Süddeutsche Zeitung. Rather than removing the arms, German authorities left them on site after rendering them unusable in the hope they would lead to clues during a months-long electronic surveillance operation, Dobrindt said. No one was observed trying to collect the weapons, leading investigators to believe the agent or agents had learned of the cache’s discovery and it was now “dead”. Dobrindt described the suspect in Romania, whose nationality was not disclosed, as a “low-level agent” and noted several other such operatives had ‌been detained so far this year. Although the investigation into the Berlin stash has been long-running, the revelations apparently led Dobrindt to hastily call the news conference on Friday. Sinan Selen, the head of the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, has warned for months of more aggressive tactics by Russian secret services, including plans for targeted attacks on German soil. Moscow’s potential hit list is believed to include weapons contractor executives, opposition figures in exile and other prominent Ukraine supporters, according to the report by Süddeutsche and the public broadcasters NDR and WDR. The federal prosecutor’s office and the Russian embassy declined to comment. A BfV spokesperson said: “As a matter of principle, we don’t comment on matters relating to any specific intelligence activities.” Spiegel said German authorities were looking into possible links between the arms cache – a familiar Soviet tactic during the cold war – and a sabotage campaign against Ukrainian logistics routes blamed on Russia. Last year Polish security officials arrested several people allegedly planning to mail parcels containing incendiary devices or detonators, some of them reportedly posted from Romania. Investigators believe the packages could have been remotely ignited or set off using timers during transit to do serious damage to vehicles, cargo planes or logistics centres and spread fear in the EU. In 2024, a firebomb in a parcel posted via DHL exploded in a freight container on the tarmac at Leipzig airport. Only a delayed flight kept it from going off in the air. Ukraine has been using the facility in Leipzig as an alternate location for the transport of military goods since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, according to official records. This month the German newspaper Die Zeit reported that Russian secret services were plotting an attack against Stefan Thumann, the head of German drone manufacturer Donaustahl. The report said German investigators were tipped off by a foreign intelligence service at the end of last year and arrested a Ukrainian man and a Romanian woman this spring. Thumann is said to be under police protection. The case recalled reports in 2024 that US intelligence services had foiled a Russian plot to assassinate the chief executive of Germany’s leading arms manufacturer, in an apparent attempt to retaliate over the company’s role in providing armaments for Ukraine. The plan to murder Armin Papperger, the chief executive of Rheinmetall, was reportedly one of several Russian government schemes to kill defence industry executives in several countries in Europe that have been supporting Ukraine’s war effort. The plot against Papperger was believed to be the most advanced. Russia has repeatedly denied any involvement in sabotage, disruption or intimidation against EU member states.