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Friday briefing: What does the acquittal in the Caruana Galizia case mean for the safety of journalists?

Good morning. Malta is reeling today from the shock acquittal of one of the country’s wealthiest and best-connected men for involvement in the murder of the anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia. As the EU’s smallest member state once again faces intense international scrutiny over its response to the 2017 killing, opposition MPs are demanding the parliament be recalled for an immediate debate on a verdict that Caruana Galizia’s eldest son Matthew has denounced as “justice denied”. Caruana Galizia’s death brought angry crowds on to the streets; triggered a political crisis that resulted in the then prime minister, Joseph Muscat, being driven from office, and galvanised a cross-European reporting team to continue her investigations. One of those reporters is Juliette Garside, the Guardian’s European financial affairs editor. I spoke to her from Malta’s capital Valletta, where she’s digesting the aftermath of the country’s most consequential murder trial in recent times. But first, the headlines. Five big stories UK politics | Nigel Farage is facing fresh criticism on the eve of the Reform UK party conference after some of his team were filmed appearing to plot to avoid electoral laws on foreign donations in an undercover investigation broadcast by Channel 4 News. Nepal-Tibet | Two people have been pulled out alive from a hydropower tunnel in Nepal nine days after deadly flash floods left them trapped. UK news | Homeowners in the UK are braced for a jump in mortgage rates, driven by higher inflation and interest rate increase expectations amid turmoil in the global bond markets. US-Israel war on Iran | The US vice-president, JD Vance, said “sometimes things happen” when asked on Thursday whether an American strike was responsible for killing four people, including a child, at a wedding celebration in southern Iran this week. Climate crisis | British people have been urged to have enough food and water on hand to survive a few days without power or water, as the UN said the El Niño climate phenomenon was “supersizing before our eyes”, exacerbating extreme weather events worldwide. In depth: ‘This signals you can kill journalists with impunity’ Nearly nine years after Caruana Galizia’s death in a car bombing in October 2017, Yorgen Fenech, the head of one of Malta’s most successful business families, was found not guilty of both counts with which he had been charged: complicity in voluntary homicide, and association with the intention of committing a crime. Always a possibility, the complete acquittal – delivered by the jury at 7.30pm on Wednesday evening – was unexpected, after the longest-running murder trial in Maltese history which had gripped the small country over 55 days. As family members broke down in tears, Fenech exited the court house to chants of “mafia”. Following him into the balmy evening came Caruana Galizia’s sister, Corinne Vella, who told reporters: “This signals you can kill journalists with impunity.” Demonstrators later assembled outside the parliament building to demand action. Although five other men were convicted of carrying out the assassination and procuring the bomb used to kill the one of Malta’s most prominent journalists, Fenech’s acquittal leaves many unanswered questions. Fenech had been accused by prosecutors of paying €150,000 (£129,000) via a middleman to have her killed – so if he wasn’t the mastermind, who was? Caruana Galizia’s immediate family are bitterly disappointed, says Juliette. “She hadn’t investigated [the other men who were convicted]; they had no power or political influence. The only prosecution that really mattered to the family was this one.” The verdict was also a huge shock for the political establishment: “You got the sense they wanted a guilty verdict as a strong demonstration within the EU that Malta was able to hold people accountable”. For campaigners who regard the case as a landmark action in the fight to protect press freedom in Europe there is considerable dismay – Reporters Without Borders said it was “beyond outraged”. *** The Daphne Project Juliette talks to me as she’s packing up her hotel room and I can hear the sound of the suitcase zips. Whatever you might assume from Lois Lane, in my experience journalism is often about the mundane logistics. “This is a story of many twists and turns, but at base it is a story about press freedom, and one woman who pursued corruption at its highest levels,” she tells me. Juliette first became aware of Caruana Galizia’s work a year before she died, when she made contact with her eldest son Matthew, who was working with his mother on a tranche of leaked documents from the Panama Papers that suggested Labour figures set up offshore companies soon after entering government. She remembers the day Caruana Galizia was killed: a contact sent her a photograph of the mangled car wreckage, and Juliette ran over to the foreign desk to press the editor to give the assassination the coverage it deserved. “She was killed because she was an incredibly effective investigate journalist. She set her sights on the most powerful people in the country. She was interested in where crime and politics collided.” The Guardian later contacted Caruana Galizia’s family to follow up on what could be done – and the Daphne Project was born, a loose collective of journalists, from Reuters, the Times of Malta, Le Monde and Süddeutsche Zeitung, who agreed to work together to complete her investigations. Juliette met the family again in a safe house near London in November 2017, where they were having a break from the spotlight in Malta and also taking security advice. Before her murder, Caruana Galizia endured a campaign of intimidation including the killing of her pet dogs and fires set in her home – her remaining family were now targets. These attacks had intensified as she began to dig into a leak about a flagship power station project. “Matthew told us about the leak she’d been investigating, detailing the bizarre way the power station deal was structured. That’s what we focused on.” But the Daphne Project also asked questions about the police investigation into her death. “The administration that she attacked hadn’t bargained on much interest in her death outside Malta,” Juliette says. “But when the family took their campaign to the European parliament and the Daphne Project gave it an international news platform, that really forced the Maltese police to go higher than the hit men.” *** What next for Malta? While acknowledging that it is important to respect the verdict of the jury, Juliette says there’s a sense among the Maltese media that this is a chilling verdict: what happens the next time a journalist writes about corruption? The editorial headline in the Times of Malta yesterday was bleak: “We’ve turned the clock back to 2017”. It is likely that the prosecution will appeal, and details of the close relationship between big business, police chiefs and regulators exposed in the trial may feed into a number of other pending corruption cases both of which are unlikely to have got this far without the diligent reporting that followed her assassination. “What would really be unusual is if people got convicted,” Juliette adds. But, just like that Times of Malta headline, Juliette worries that the country has returned to business as usual. Malta has a small economy that runs on patronage; the political class is tribal and split between two parties, Labour and Nationalist. “There’s not much means to get neutral, independent information.” “After her death, it initially felt like the beginning of a stronger civil society, but the momentum behind change has slowed”. *** What next for Europe? A public inquiry into Caruana Galizia’s killing concluded in 2021 with a recommendation to introduce Europe-wide laws to protect journalists from strategic lawsuits against public participation, known as Slapps, which are increasingly used to silence whistleblowers, victims of sexual assault and those who report on them. Caruana Galizia was facing 47 lawsuits when she died. Although this was voted through by the European parliament, no member state has yet implemented it. Yesterday, European parliament president Roberta Metsola vowed to continue fighting for justice for Caruana Galizia in a Facebook post addressed directly to the assassinated journalist. “When they assassinated you, in broad daylight, outside your family home, we promised that we would not let them sweep it under the carpet … That promise holds today,” she wrote. “Hopefully this will be an impetus for EU member states to put this law on to their statute books”, says Juliette. There’s more to be done. An unsuccessful car bomb attack on an Italian investigative reporter, Sigfrido Rannucci, which appeared to be timed to coincide with the eighth anniversary of Caruana Galizia assassination, has intensified European Commission concerns about the silencing of government critics. Meanwhile, at a UK level, two private members’ bills designed to crack down on these potentially financially devastating lawsuits were introduced just before summer recess and are expected to attract cross-party support. The Guardian is now part of the UK Anti-Slapp Coalition, a group backed by charities including Amnesty International and Index on Censorship, and Juliette has written at length about how the courts have been weaponised in particular against victims of sexual violence. “The fact that the public know what a Slapp is at all – and that there’s now a coordinated push to protect whistleblowers, journalists and victims of sexual assault from being sued by those who wish to silence them – is all because of what happened to Daphne. That is her legacy.” What else we’ve been enjoying The life of Gloria Steinem, the groundbreaking feminist campaigner who died on Wednesday, is poignantly remembered by Moira Donegan, who asks what the movement will be without her. Jacqui Housden, newsletters team Michael Sheen spoke about his forthcoming play on Welsh rebel leader Owain Glyndŵr and how this important part of his country’s history was never taught to him at school. Katy Vans, newsletters team Laura Snapes’s takedown of the cosy treatment of Josh Homme, another male rock star who has attacked women, was much needed. Poppy For those like me who have watched the satirical film Mountainhead, this article that delves into why Peter Thiel has moved to Argentina is fascinatingly worrying. Katy I liked our tribute to Chicken Shop date, which is coming to an end after 12 years. Poppy Sport Tennis | Naomi Osaka recovered from a mid-match slump to beat Katerina Siniakova 6-2, 5-7, 6-1 and reach the third round of the US Open. Women’s Cricket | England sealed victory in their one-day international series against Ireland with a straightforward six-wicket win at Derby on Thursday, after seamer Issy Wong took a career-best five for 33. Boxing | Irish fight legend Katie Taylor can cap a special career by retiring as the undisputed super-lightweight champion with victory against Flora Pili on Saturday. Something for the weekend Our critics’ roundup of the best things to watch, read, play and listen to right now TV La Mesías (Mubi) | ★★★★★ A Spanish show centred on an estranged brother and sister, who discover their siblings have become a viral pop band, La Mesías is nothing if not singular in its vision. As well as being incredibly long (some episodes clock in at close to an hour and 20 minutes), it is – and I mean this lovingly – truly bizarre. There are about 10 plotlines too many, and some of the episodes drag, but as a work of art, this series is a triumph – a nightmare-inducing thriller with ambition. Hannah J Davies Film Late Fame | ★★★★☆ There’s a marvellous tenderness and generosity to this elegant tale of autumnal regret; an intimate movie acted with effortless grace by Willem Dafoe. In fact, this is yet another of his almost numberless performances of intelligence and self-possession. Screenwriter Samy Burch has adapted a novella by Arthur Schnitzler, which has been directed by critic turned film-maker Kent Jones. Their movie finds a new variation on the theme of life’s lost opportunities for love, lust and success, and how, as mortality’s shadow closes in, one might be tempted to risk everything for a last chance at worldly triumph. Peter Bradshaw Music Adéla: Prima | ★★★☆☆ There’s something striking about a pop star, voice larded with Auto-Tune, opening a song with the line “I can’t really sing”. That said, it’s very much on brand for Adéla Jergová, who has chosen to differentiate herself by spiking her songs about hedonism and messy sexual encounters with a kind of meta commentary on what it is to be a female pop star. Prima definitely feels like a debut album and there are moments where it sinks into boilerplate pop, but failing to be a perfectly turned finished product on arrival is hardly a crime: rather, it suggests an artist who has room to grow and develop. On the basis of what’s here – which is frequently sharp, funny and daring – watching Adéla do just that should be fascinating. Alexis Petridis Books The Bridge by Colm Tóibín Twenty years ago, Tóibín published A Long Winter, a steadily desolating novella set in the high villages of the Catalan Pyrenees in which a woman walks out of her house and her life, starts along the mountain road and disappears in the snow. Now, in The Bridge, a single year has passed and we follow Miquel, the woman’s son, as he ekes out an existence with his hurtful, unyielding father. It’s a memorable short work in which the author’s unsentimental prose is flawlessly matched to the austere worlds of people enduring, in their different ways, lives stripped back to the bone. Alexandra Harris The front pages “Britons warned to get ready for biggest El Niño in a millennium”, is the Guardian’s front page today, while Metro says “Hot as El”. The Times writes “Army halts training exercises to save money”, the Telegraph has “Argentina threat to Falklands oil fields”, and the Express says “Kemi: We must act now before it’s too late”. The i Paper leads with “Putin growing more reckless as his inner circle shrinks, warn UK security insiders”. The FT’s top headline is “Europe faces winter with lowest ever gas reserves as Gulf-led shortages bite”, the Mail has “Met chief stunned by release of serial criminals”, and the Mirror says “Reform: Back Britain … with our Chinese tat”. Today in Focus: The Latest ‘Godzilla-level’ El Niño could cause hottest year on record The UN has warned that the El Niño climate phenomenon is ‘supersizing before our eyes’. The event is forecast to be the largest in at least 1,000 years and will almost certainly shatter temperature records. After a summer of record-breaking heatwaves and extreme weather due to global heating, El Niño means 2027 is almost certain to be the hottest year ever recorded. Lucy Hough speaks to environment correspondent Damien Gayle – watch on YouTube. Cartoon of the day | Ben Jennings The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad Photographer Temi Adegbayibi started out shooting his church’s worship band and small gigs as a hobby. Now, at 26, his portfolio includes Jorja Smith, Basement Jaxx and Ezra Collective – and his work has been exhibited at the Royal Albert Hall, where he has also become an in-house photographer. His intimate, energetic images celebrate movement and Black joy, while documenting a generation of British musicians. “Maybe someday someone can look at an image and think: ‘That’s what jazz gigs were like back then,’” he says. “That’s the hope.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

President Javier Milei says ‘winds of change’ support Argentina’s claim to Falkland Islands

President Javier Milei has said “winds of change favourable” to Argentina’s claim to the Falkland Islands were “blowing around the world” in a televised address, citing signs that Donald Trump might reconsider the US position on the islands’ sovereignty. “Recently, President Trump declared that the US is re-evaluating its historic position in relation to the Malvinas,” he said, using the Argentinian name for the islands. The Argentinian president said the UK was facing “multiple crises of a migratory, demographic and economic nature that are unlikely to be resolved. It is clear that they are on a path of decline. Argentina’s future, however, is flourishing and will prevail.” Earlier on Thursday, Trump was asked by British outlet GB News if he would “come to the UK’s aid” during a potential territorial dispute over the Falkland Islands with Argentina, and hinted that he would not, adding that the UK “weren’t there to help me [with Iran]”. Supporters had expected Milei to use his address to the nation on Thursday night to announce an unprecedented US endorsement of Argentina’s sovereignty claim over the Falkland Islands. Instead, the self-styled libertarian, when asked whether he was reviewing the US position on the islands, repeated the US president’s words, saying: “I always review every position. That’s just one of many.” The far-right president then portrayed Trump’s response as a “threat” that was “not innocuous”. “The US is considering this change of position because it knows that Argentina has a reliable partner, aligned with western values, in a strategically important position that can be a valuable ally in the decades to come,” he said. The US has formally recognised the UK’s de facto administration of the islands but has not taken a formal position on sovereignty. The first reports of a possible revision emerged in April, when an internal Pentagon email reported by Reuters raised the prospect of Washington reconsidering its stance as one possible way of punishing Nato allies that declined to join the Iran war. In Thursday’s interview, Trump said of the UK: “Your country was not there to help me. We didn’t need help, but I did ask Nato, and I asked your former leader [Keir Starmer], ‘why don’t you send a couple of ships?’. He said, ‘We don’t have any’. It was pretty sad, the whole thing.” Despite the expectations created by Milei and his supporters – the president summoned all his ministers to stand alongside him – the main new elements of the speech were a few decrees announced by the president. One of them is to speed up sanctions “against those participating in oil extraction initiatives”, specifically citing an offshore oil project in the North Falkland Basin led by the Israeli company Navitas alongside its British partner Rockhopper. Milei claimed the project violated a UN call for neither Argentina nor the UK to take unilateral action in the territory. Despite his “radical” austerity policies, Milei also said he would sign an emergency decree to increase resources for the defence ministry, prioritising the construction of an integrated naval base in Tierra del Fuego. The project to build a base there predates Milei, and construction began in 2022. The UK said earlier this week that its position on the Falklands was “long-standing and unwavering”. It said in a statement: “Sovereignty rests with the UK, and the islanders’ right to self-determination is paramount. The UK’s position is clear. The islanders have repeatedly expressed their wish to remain a British overseas territory.” Some analysts had already viewed Milei’s recent embrace of the Malvinas cause as another attempt to create a “smokescreen” at the lowest point of his popularity since taking office. He is expected to seek re-election next year. Amid corruption allegations involving members of his government and poor economic results – his “chainsaw” austerity policies have brought inflation under control, but unemployment and poverty have risen – the far-right president has increasingly turned up the volume on controversial measures, including claims of an anti-Argentina campaign dating back to the World Cup, attacks on Brazil’s leftwing president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, and an immigration crackdown modelled on the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Many have also noted that his interest in the issue is recent. Milei had long described himself as a great admirer of Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister during the 1982 Falklands war, and only began adopting a public pro-sovereignty stance a few months ago, after reports emerged that the US might be reconsidering its position. The far-right leader also dismissed the principle of self-determination invoked by the UK – in a 2013 referendum, 99.8% of the islanders voted to remain a British overseas territory. Echoing the same phrase used by Argentina’s national team on a banner celebrating their victory over England in the World Cup semi-final, Milei said that “The Malvinas are Argentinian.”

Europe weighs solutions to curtail Russia’s growing hybrid warfare

Russia’s suspected sabotage campaign across Europe appears to be gathering pace again, confronting governments with a problem they have struggled to solve since the start of the war in Ukraine: how to impose a meaningful cost on Moscow for attacks that remain deliberately below the threshold of conventional war. Over the past month alone, an explosives-laden drone was discovered next to a Ukrainian cargo plane at Germany’s Leipzig airport, Poland has faced suspected acts of sabotage, and a string of unexplained explosions and fires have hit defence facilities supplying Ukraine across Europe. The attacks, aimed at sowing chaos and undermining support for Ukraine, vary widely in their ambition and sophistication, but share a common feature: they are often difficult to trace conclusively back to Moscow. That ambiguity is built into the way the operations are organised. Russian intelligence services have shifted away from relying primarily on professional operatives dispatched across Europe. Instead, suspected saboteurs are increasingly recruited remotely, including through Telegram channels, and paid in cryptocurrency to carry out individual tasks – allowing the Russian intelligence officers directing them to remain safely at home. The pattern was evident in Denmark this week, where authorities warned that Moscow was recruiting Danish citizens to carry out sabotage against defence companies with ties to Ukraine. But the growing scale of the attacks, and the speed with which European governments are now prepared to point the finger at Moscow, suggest the mood may be changing. When an incendiary parcel burst into flames at DHL’s Leipzig hub in July 2024, it took about nine months before German investigators reported a concrete link to the GRU, Russia’s military intelligence agency. This time, Berlin moved far faster. Within days of the second incident at Leipzig airport, German officials publicly blamed Moscow – a sign both of growing confidence in identifying Russian operations and diminishing patience with what officials see as an increasingly brazen campaign of sabotage. Yet while Berlin has become quicker to point the finger at Moscow, its punishment for now has followed a more cautious path. Germany’s response to the failed Leipzig drone attack appeared calibrated to keep tensions in check, underscoring the harder question of what Europe can actually do beyond sanctions and diplomatic expulsions without risking a direct military confrontation. Berlin announced the closure of a Russian cultural centre and a Russian consulate, prompting Moscow to shut down the already gutted Goethe-Institut – a measured retaliation rather than a real escalation. Europe’s room for retaliation is also constrained by the powers given to its intelligence agencies. Unlike the CIA, many European services are primarily tasked with collecting intelligence and have far less latitude to conduct covert operations abroad. That leaves governments with relatively few tools between diplomatic and economic punishment on one end of the spectrum and overt military action on the other. To counter the shortcoming, several EU states, including the Netherlands, have recently put forward bills that would greatly expand the surveillance powers of the country’s intelligence agencies One area where Europe can point to more tangible action is its growing willingness to detain vessels linked to Russia’s shadow fleet. On Wednesday, Norwegian authorities seized a Russian vessel in the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard at Ukraine’s request. But critics argue that such measures are still not enough to deter Moscow. “Every time we do nothing, we invite Putin to continue,” said one EU lawmaker, speaking on condition of anonymity. That argument has been made most forcefully by Poland and the Baltic states, which have consistently pushed their western European allies to take a harder line against Moscow. “Hybrid war is not just a nuisance on the internet,” the Polish foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, said on Thursday. “Hybrid war means assassination squads, it means arsonists, it means blowing up moving trains, like in Poland, it means breaches of airspace with drones and cruise missiles.” “We need to convince Putin that such actions are not for free,” he added. At the same time, Sikorski also appeared to acknowledge, somewhat jokingly, the limits of Europe’s existing toolkit. Recalling Poland’s response to previous suspected Russian operations, he said: “Every time Russia committed arson or tried to blow up a moving train … I closed one Russian consulate, but I ran out of consulates to close.” Jakub Krupa contributed reporting

‘This could just be the beginning’: minorities fear first far-right win in German state election

As the Bible study session wrapped up, leaving worshippers to mingle over cake and coffee, Fatemeh, 44, fought back tears as the conversation turned to Sunday’s state election in Saxony-Anhalt. “I worry about it every day,” she said. “I can’t stop thinking about my son and what might happen to us.” Three years ago she fled Iran with her son after he was stopped by police during a protest over the death in police custody of Mahsa Amini. They ended up in Saxony-Anhalt, where, as they await a final decision on their asylum claim, she has watched him blossom into a gifted athlete and develop a knack for repairing vehicles. Fatemeh worries about what might happen after the elections. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian Looming over their lives, however, are the politics of Saxony-Anhalt. Polls have suggested that the election on Sunday could yield Germany’s first-ever state government led by the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), shattering a postwar taboo and leaving Fatemeh and her son’s fate in the hands of a party that has promised to launch deportations “from day one”. That possibility has left her racked with worry. “They might send us back to Iran,” she said. “As a converted Christian, that could mean the death penalty for me.” It was a glimpse of the stakes at play in the election. Polls suggest the state’s AfD, whose antisemitic, anti-Islam and anti-migrant discourse has contributed to authorities classifying the party as “firmly rightwing extremist”, is poised to win the most votes. The square in the centre of Magdeburg where the Christmas market attack took place on 20 December 2024. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian A strong showing in the election could allow it to govern Saxony-Anhalt, turning the eastern state into Germany’s first testing ground for the AfD’s long-running hostility towards migrants, including refugees, Muslims and the LGBTQ+ community. “We’ve never seen emotions run so high over an election,” said Undra Dreßler of Lamsa, an umbrella group for migrant organisations in the state. Calls were coming in daily, she said, as people wrestled with whether the time had come to pack up their lives and start over again somewhere else. “People are really worried and scared,” said Dreßler. “For those with migrant backgrounds, it feels like this vote is about their right to exist and their security.” The pages-long manifesto for the AfD in Saxony-Anhalt promises a “complete, 180-degree” overhaul of the approach to migration, from educating refugee children separately to redirecting funds earmarked for integration to a unit focused on remigration, and calling on federal officials to stop recognising Ukrainians as war refugees. In June, Dreßler’s organisation appealed to Germany’s 15 other states, calling on them to prepare to take in refugees from Saxony-Anhalt after the election. “It’s a precautionary measure,” she said. “The social climate here is already extremely heated. We don’t know what will happen after the elections.” Left: A billboard in Magdeburg shows the AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund and the slogan ‘everything is possible’. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian. Right: Siegmund addresses delegates at the federal congress of Generation Germany, the party’s youth organisation. Photograph: Jens Schluter/AFP/Getty Tensions have run high in Saxony-Anhalt since late 2024 when a Saudi man drove his car into a crowded Christmas market in Magdeburg, killing six people and injuring hundreds more. Authorities described the attacker as an anti-Islam activist who was sympathetic to the far right. Even so, rightwing voices seized on the moment to scapegoat migrants and minorities for the ills of a state long ravaged by deindustrialisation and depopulation. In the aftermath of the attack, reports of racist attacks soared as migrants and people of colour told of being spat on, threatened and, in some cases, physically attacked. “By mid-2025, we had received as many reports of racist insults and attacks as we did in all of 2024,” said Dreßler. “As forces on the right become stronger, everyday racism and discrimination have become part of everyday life.” On the streets of Magdeburg, many shared their own brushes with overt racism. “When you’re on the street, some people harass you verbally,” said Kirti, 27, a student from India. “They show you the middle finger.” An AfD billboard reads ‘All for our children’. The party has promised to educate refugee children in the state separately. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian Kirti moved to Magdeburg just over a year ago to study for a master’s degree, becoming part of a cohort of foreign students for whom reports of racism were all too familiar. “I heard of one incident where a student was travelling on a train and people were throwing stones at the door, but the door was closed,” he said. “So people are more concerned about going out. They go out with fear, rather than feeling safe.” A recent survey suggested that as many as 80% of people with a migration background in Saxony-Anhalt are considering leaving, said Ketevan Asatiani-Hermann, who leads the board of the Advisory Council for Integration and Migration in Magdeburg. As questions swirl over what the AfD could realistically do if the party garners enough votes to govern alone, a chorus of voices has begun to warn of the fallout. Saxony-Anhalt is a rapidly depopulating state where the average age of 48.2 ranks as the highest in Germany. “So the fear is that we lose people because of what happens on 6 September,” said Asatiani-Hermann. “And Saxony-Anhalt is dependent on migrants, so it’s absolutely necessary that they stay here.” Ketevan Asatiani-Hermann says Saxony-Anhalt is dependent on migrants and it is ‘absolutely necessary’ they stay. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian Foreign nationals account for about 9% of the state’s population – compared with approximately 15% nationwide – with many playing a critical role in sectors such as hospitality and care for elderly people. In May, the state medical association said that more than one in four doctors working in Saxony-Anhalt’s hospitals, or 27.1%, do not hold a German passport. “In many regions of the state – especially in rural areas – comprehensive healthcare coverage would no longer be possible without foreign colleagues,” it said, citing the possibility of longer waiting times or facility closures if some of these doctors were to leave. “Migrants make up a huge part of healthcare. If you were to take them out, the whole system would collapse,” said Hamid, 41, a paramedic originally from Iran. “So it’s like if you have a bus and you take off all the tyres. You cannot move.” Hamid, a paramedic originally from Iran, says without migrants in Magdeburg, the ‘whole system would collapse’. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian At Magdeburg’s synagogue – whose light-filled foyer includes a mural showing one of the few remaining photographs of the original synagogue that was destroyed in a 1938 pogrom – people listed their concerns about an AfD majority, from whether it would affect the funding they receive, to what the party’s plans for a “remigration offensive” would mean for the Ukrainian refugees who had joined their congregation after Russia’s full-scale invasion. The far-right party has also promised to make changes to the school curriculum, in what one party member described as “more Bismarck, less Hitler”. The underlying assumption was that the focus on the rise of National Socialism and the Holocaust – as opposed to the unification of Germany by Otto von Bismarck – had shifted the guilt over what had happened to the current generation, said Igor Mendel Itkin, the synagogue’s rabbi. “They think: ‘If we get rid of this, we will feel free.’ But I think it will be the other way around,” he said. “You cannot get rid of this ghost; you can pacify it, but you cannot get rid of it. If people don’t learn about it, then something like this could happen again, maybe not with the Jewish people, but maybe with the Muslims.” He pointed to Saxony-Anhalt’s AfD manifesto, which makes no mention of the Jewish community but includes promises to “exhaust all legal means to restrict the influence” of Islam, even as it notes that Muslims account for just 2-3% of the 2 million people in the state. Rabbi Igor Mendel Itkin with Maria Schubert at the Magdeburg synagogue say an AfD win is ‘unimaginable’. Photograph: Christian Jungeblodt/The Guardian An AfD win would put Jewish people in a complicated position, said Maria Schubert from the Synagogue Community of Magdeburg. “If they win, we don’t know how we will act with them. For me, it’s unimaginable,” she said. She worried that it could also be a dilemma faced by others if Sunday’s election turned out to be a bellwether of shifting political forces rather than an outlier. “I see it as a threat, in that this could just be the beginning. In other German states, many are looking at Saxony-Anhalt to kick things off,” she said. “I mean, at the beginning, nobody took Hitler seriously.” The AfD was approached for comment. With contribution from Niclas Boenki

Pedicures and a pair of socks: sailors from USS Abraham Lincoln go wild in party resort of Pattaya

On Thursday morning in Pattaya’s Colour Nail salon there isn’t a spare burgundy lounger to be seen as sailors from the USS Abraham Lincoln – male and female alike – settle in for pedicures to take the edge off a gruelling deployment. More sailors are waiting outside for their turn and Arisa Suekkanya, a worker at the salon, says she is “excited” the US military chose Thailand as their first port of call after a record uninterrupted 286 days at sea. The aircraft carrier has been plagued by reports of deteriorating living conditions and poor mental health onboard, including attempted suicides, making headlines around the world and provoking criticism of Donald Trump’s war against Iran. The ship’s captain admitted to a lack of fresh fruit and vegetables but said reports about the living conditions were largely exaggerated. Some of the thousands of crew gave their view while on leave. Adam*, who is on his first deployment, says the living situation is like “being stuck in your bedroom with all your family” but that building relationships with fellow crew and “finding your people” made the difficulties worthwhile. The Guardian has chosen to change the names of the sailors spoken to because they were told not to speak to the media about conditions onboard. For him, the food was the hardest thing to swallow. “I almost choked on this many times,” he says, as he describes eating “uncooked beef” and sliced up, uncooked potato. According to Adam, the decline in living standards was down to the battle conditions imposed during Operation Epic Fury rather than the unprecedented length of deployment. Another crew member, Marco* agrees, saying there was a necessary deterioration during this “battle rhythm” period when it would have put them at risk to restock. Trent* admits the hardest part of the deployment was “pushing through, keeping the mentality” despite the hardships. Dane* says “a load came off my shoulders” when he stepped on dry land again after his first deployment. Lester acknowledged it was “tough but we had a job to do.” He said that on the previous evening, “I ate to my heart’s content. Me and Thai food might be best friends after this.” Another serviceman, who did not give his name, hinted at the toll the long deployment had taken: “Some people adapt to it but not everyone.” Boom time for the big brands Pattaya is a city well known for its red light district and colourful nightlife, but for many, the desires were more prosaic. Tim* was in the Vans store in the mall on Thursday. “It’s the simple stuff like new socks” he was after, holding the pair he was about to purchase. Another sailor, David*, has bought his wife a Hello Kitty soft toy from H&M. He says it was his fourth deployment, and agrees this would have been quite long for sailors on their first. At least for Adam, the past few months have made him all the more grateful for his first night ashore he orders two burgers at Burger King and makes plans to order a tailored suit and explore Thailand’s east coast. Many local businesses have put up signs welcoming the American visitors, offering incentives like tailors Tito Fashion advertising “specially for US Navy ready in 24 hours”, while Thai restaurant Imm-Oon Na offered 10% off for anyone presenting a valid military ID. But the draw of the familiar American brands also proved irresistible. In the mall, the likes of Nike, Victoria’s Secret and Starbucks all reported a spike in sales. The town is hoping the Lincoln’s crew will provide an economic boost. The war in the Middle East has created a downturn in tourism in Thailand, and the rainy season has slowed things, too. Pattaya’s mayor, Poramet Ngampichet, says if each American spends $100-150 per day the visit could generate about $100m Thai baht ($3m). However, not all businesses can take full advantage of the 5,000 sailors, who have not been able to spend money for nearly 10 months. Emma Moontee who runs a gift stall at a night market, says she has only sold one fridge magnet souvenir to a sailor, but hoped there would be more. The crew has also been advised not to go to the beer bars along Soi 6 after sunset, one of the most infamous areas of the town’s red light district where bar girls line the street, and can occasionally be seen physically pulling in male tourists. However, the main strip – known as Walking Street – is not off limits. It is dense with clubs and go go bars featuring pole dancing girls. They are largely private from the outside street view and passers by. Wittaya Phoobantad, who works at Poker Bar on the beach front, about a 10-minute walk from Soi 6, says: “You can see [sailors] walking around but because Soi 6 is banned most of them don’t come in, just go direct to Walking Street.” On Walking Street a massive neon sign has been built at its entrance saying: “Pattaya City is pleased to welcome USS Abraham Lincoln carrier and its personnel”. Venues like the Sapphire Club offered 10% off to US service members. Pattana Prasomsup, who works at M’s Mojito, says the 10 crew who visited the bar on Wednesday night provided a “good boost” but noted they appeared quite cautious about interacting with bar girls. Pattaya is familiar with the US military, who experts agree was the dominant influence in creating the sex tourism industry – and the modern city that developed around it. The once quiet fishing village was drastically transformed in the space of 15 years after becoming an official R&R destination for US soldiers during the Vietnam war, causing a boom in hotels, massage parlours and bars, where heavy drinking and paying for female companionship became the norm. Most of the workers in the sex tourism industry are not local but have themselves migrated to Pattaya, commonly from Isan – Thailand’s poorest and least economically developed region in the north-east – as well as neighbouring Laos and Myanmar or further afield. Back in the mall, Puangbubpha Duangsri, who works at American Eagle, says in the off season they’d usually make 70,000 Thai baht in a day but on Wednesday they made over 200,000 baht after the sailors arrived. By lunchtime on Thursday they had already made over 100,000 baht. “Can they stay an extra week?” she says. * Name has been changed

‘Everyone seems to have forgotten’: In Tibet, flood-hit families search for the missing and grapple with China’s silence

Fan Hong last heard from her husband on the morning of the Nepal-Tibet disaster. More than a week later, the 31-year-old is desperately searching for information about Lin Bo, who was working on a Chinese highway project in Nepal. Struggling to get information from authorities, Fan turned to social media for help. “My husband works on a project in Nepal, about 5 kilometres from the Gyirong border crossing. I want to know what the situation is, but I haven’t been able to reach him,” the 31-year-old from China’s Sichuan province wrote on Rednote. Her post has gained more than 18,000 likes and nearly 4,600 comments. She is one of many in China with missing loved ones trying to piece together information they are finding online, as Tibetan advocate groups say information is being suppressed on that side of the border. Lin began working on repairing the Syaphrubesi-Rasuwagadhi Highway – which links Nepal to Tibet, China, through the Gyirong border crossing – in 2024. He had been living on site and working on a 16km stretch of the road. Fan says that rescue missions into the construction site have stalled. She says relatives of survivors are asking the Chinese authorities for permission to send up their own drones or helicopters to look for the missing. “I feel more disheartened with each passing day. Feel colder and colder inside,” she told the Guardian. “I don’t even have any tears left.” It is just over a week since the collapse of a glacier triggered devastating floods along the Nepal-Tibet border, destroying entire villages and killing more than 1,200 people. On Wednesday, 4,216 remained missing, according to Nepal officials. Chinese authorities say 541 remain unaccounted for on the Tibetan side, including 261 foreign nationals from 23 countries. The relatively low official death toll from the Chinese authorities has also raised some concern among Tibetan advocacy groups, given the scale of the destruction seen in video footage. “All we can do is imagine – and that should terrify us,” said Tenzin Choekyi from Tibet Watch. As of Thursday, China had officially reported 21 people killed. While in China, the official narrative heavily focuses on rescue efforts, online posts across Chinese social media show an emotional outpouring of grief and mourning. On Douyin, China’s version of TikTok, photographs of missing border inspection officers are shared under the hashtag “Salute to heroes guarding the nation’s gateway”. In China, families with missing loved ones say they are relying on information from Nepal, as well as foreign embassies and social media. Tibetan advocate groups say information on the Tibetan side of the border remains heavily restricted. On 30 August, Tibetan police reported that 10 people had been punished for spreading what authorities called “false information” about the scale of the disaster online. “This crackdown is obstructing not just public reporting of the disaster and relief efforts but the basic work of establishing whether communities are alive and receiving the support that they need,” said Tencho Gyatso, president of the US-based Tibetan advocacy group the International Campaign for Tibet (ICT) “Sources are now afraid to speak to outside groups including ICT. One source told ICT it was “extremely unsafe” to speak. Another asked us not to make further contact given the potential ramifications,” she said. Fan says she is mainly relying on information from Nepal. “Everyone seems to have forgotten about the workers on the Syaphrubesi–Rasuwagadhi Highway project … All the news coverage is about the hydropower station [in Nepal]. Families of foreign tourists who went missing in Tibet are also desperately searching for information, British nationals Sridhar Avvari, 43, his wife, Deepti, 41, and their 14-year-old son Abhinav went missing near the immigration area at Gyirong on 26 August, close to the Nepal-Tibet border. The family lives in India and relatives believe they over on to the Tibetan side. In a call to the family days earlier, Deepti Avvari told them that there would be no signal but would talk when she returned to an area with network activity. After the flash flood, calls to Deepti’s phone stopped connecting. “There was no signal, so we can’t talk … After coming down, I will call you again,” Deepti told Priyanka Rapaka, her sister in law. They are desperately waiting for updates. “We didn’t get any information from China … We are checking online only who are rescued and … how many are dead,” Rapaka said. Chinese authorities say they are now able to reach the main disaster zone by road. According to state media they are describing the region as an active search and rescue operation and are searching for hundreds of missing people. Naresh Goyal is anxiously waiting for news about his sister, Neetu Goyal Tiwari, a 51-year-old missing British national who flew from India to Kathmandu on 14 August to join an Isha Foundation pilgrimage. “The last message received is that they have reached Gyirong immigration office. “They said they are going to check out.” He says he found his sister’s name on a list of missing people circulating on social media, but said he is unsure where the list originated. Getting information out of the Chinese authorities has been difficult. “Whenever we ask the China government, they are telling us that they will update us through the embassy of the UK,” he says. “It is very painful here Now we have spent at least seven days and every minute we are waiting,” Goyal says.

‘They’ll be finding bodies next year’: a renowned forensic scientist on Nepal’s ‘extreme challenges’

The bodies of some of those killed in the Nepal-Tibet flood disaster may never be found, and some of those that are may never be identified, a world-renowned forensic scientist says. Prof Richard Bassed, the head of forensic medicine at Melbourne’s Monash University, spent three months in Thailand after the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and also helped to identify victims of Victoria’s catastrophic Black Saturday bushfires in 2009. Now he has watched as authorities in Nepal and Tibet struggle to find and identify the dead amid the agonies of the living after last week’s devastating flash flood. More than 1,250 people have been confirmed dead, with more than 5,000 missing. The difficult terrain, and inadequate communications and resources, would all hamper efforts, Bassed says. “They could be washed anywhere, buried under mud. I imagine there’s a number they’ll never find. I imagine they’ll be finding bodies next year.” Authorities are still finding bodies from the 2011 Japanese tsunami, he says. The bodies from the 2004 tsunami were relatively easy to recover, but it still took a year to identify 5,000 people, he says. “And there were still some we couldn’t identify.” Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email Asked how he copes with the horror of death on such a scale, he says he has “never found it long-term traumatising”. “Occasionally you’ll see something that’ll hit close to home. For me, it’s kids,” he says. “And the randomness. The randomness of a tsunami, the randomness of this massive flood. That gets to you. “But mostly you have your clinical face on, you do the best you can and know you’re doing it to help people.” Authorities will use rapidly improving DNA techniques to try to identify the victims. This week Nepali police urged relatives of missing tourists to provide “a fresh blood sample for DNA profiling and two passport-sized photographs” to the pathology laboratory at the police hospital in Kathmandu. But authorities in Nepal and Tibet face “extreme challenges”, Bassed says. They include the danger of more mudslides, the complexity of co-ordinating across international borders and the likelihood of local mortuaries and other infrastructure being overwhelmed by the number of bodies. The mix of nations and religions also brings issues of different cultural beliefs around how and whether people should be buried. The International Committee of the Red Cross and other international bodies have published Management of dead bodies after disasters: A field manual for First Responders to help people deal with bodies in a “proper and dignified way”, including by taking down details that will later help experts identify the remains. First responders – often locals who are not forensic experts – are trained to follow those guidelines, tagging bodies in the hope they will later be matched to a missing person. They give each body a unique code (for example the name of the place, the name of the team and a number). They will also take photos of the body and any distinguishing features such as gold teeth, clothing and tattoos, including that code in the image. Then they place the body in a body bag and organise its “orderly temporary storage”, again marked with the body code. In Nepal, morgues are filling up and mass burials are taking place, as authorities collect DNA samples. Bassed says most of the missing Australians would have dental records, which could help to identify them, but in Nepal many matches will be made using DNA or pictures, as fingerprints will often no longer be usable. Work is under way to use AI and facial recognition technology to identify victims after disasters, but it’s controversial – Ukraine used Clearview AI software after the Russian invasion in 2022, just as the company was fined millions of dollars for collecting images of people in the UK and elsewhere without consent. Widespread use is also limited by access to the technology. Bassed says researchers have also worked to devise an algorithm that could use passport or driver’s licence photos to identify someone. “But it’s really complex, and it depends how they look, the trauma,” he says. Another possibility is CT scanning, which can get a serial number from joint replacements, for example. “But trying to get this technology to the places it’s needed in the middle of a disaster … you need running water, you need electricity … you could put CT scanners into helicopters, but all this costs an awful lot of money.”