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Latvia prime minister resigns days after ‘stray’ drone incursion – Europe live

Latvian public broadcaster LSM has a helpful explainer as to what’s the process after Evika Siliņa resigned as prime minister this morning. Her resignation letter has now reached the country’s president, Edgars Rinkēvičs, it said. But the government will continue in its role as a caretaker until a new administration can be agreed, with political consultations set to begin on Friday. Rinkēvičs is expected to look for a new prime minister who could command a majority in the parliament until the elections in October. In his Facebook post last night, he said the international situation was too “fragile” to not have a proper government in place. But if the talks drag on, the current government could continue in its technical role for a bit longer.

Brazil’s Atlantic forest records lowest deforestation in 40 years

Brazil’s Atlantic forest, the country’s most threatened biome, last year recorded its lowest level of deforestation since monitoring began 40 years ago, a new report shows. The forest is Brazil’s most populous biome, and home to 80% of the population and major cities such as Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In 2025 it recorded 8,658 hectares of deforestation, marking the first time it has fallen below 10,000 hectares since 1985. Environmentalists have welcomed the results, which they say could even lead to “zero deforestation” in the Atlantic forest within just a few years, but warned of potential risks that could reverse the downward trend of recent years. One is the recent approval of the so-called “devastation bill” in Brazil’s congress that drastically weakens environmental law. The other is the prospect of a far-right government, opposed to environmental protection policies, returning to power in the October presidential election: Flávio Bolsonaro, the senator and son of the former president Jair Bolsonaro, is tied in the polls with the current president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, who will seek re-election. “It’s a very worrying scenario,” said Luís Fernando Guedes Pinto, executive director of the NGO SOS Mata Atlântica, who added that, with a victory for Bolsonaro, “Brazil could lose the opportunity to be a global environmental leader”. During the elder Bolsonaro’s 2019–23 administration, his policies led to a historic surge in deforestation and a gold rush into Indigenous lands. Many scientists, environmentalists and activists fear such rampant destruction could return if his son, who has vowed to follow his father’s playbook, comes to power. “We have seen the return of a policy to combat deforestation under the current government … [If Flávio Bolsonaro wins] there is a risk of returning to a path of rising deforestation across all biomes, because his political group – the same as his father’s – is anti-science, denies climate science, and sees nature and forests as obstacles to development,” said Pinto. Two new sets of data were released on Thursday, both based on monitoring carried out in partnership between the NGO and other organisations. One, conducted over four decades, showed a 40% drop in deforestation from 2024 to 2025, falling from 14,366 to 8,658 hectares. Under Bolsonaro’s presidency, it exceeded 20,000 hectares in each of his final two years in office. The other dataset showed a 28% decline, from 53,303 to 38,385 hectares. This monitoring has been conducted only since 2022, and last year’s figure was the lowest. The difference between the two monitoring systems, according to the NGO, stems from the satellites they use – the newer system is more precise, while the older one provides a longer historical record. Despite the decline, “deforestation is still high” in the biome, said Pinto, adding that “in the Atlantic forest, every fragment lost makes a huge difference”. The biome is the country’s third largest, behind the Amazon and the Cerrado savanna, but is by far the most urbanised and degraded. The Atlantic forest now has only 24% of its original forest cover, while the Amazon retains about 80% and the Cerrado around 50%. Even so, if the downward trend of recent years continues – which the NGO attributes to a combination of public pressure, civil society mobilisation, environmental policies and enforcement actions – Pinto believes the biome could reach “zero deforestation” within the next three years. Standing in the way, however, is the new law, considered the greatest setback to Brazil’s environmental legislation since licensing first became a legal requirement in the 1980s. Lula vetoed parts of it, but his vetoes were overturned by the largely conservative congress at the end of 2025. The new law removes the requirement for prior approval from the federal environmental agency for states to authorise deforestation, leaving the decision entirely to local authorities, and its constitutionality is being challenged in the supreme court. Malu Ribeiro, director of public policy at SOS Mata Atlântica, said the law is a “distortion” that puts Brazil at odds with the Paris agreement and could exacerbate climate disasters. “Weakening protection instruments now risks everything we have spent years building,” she added.

Ukraine hit by second day of large-scale Russian missile and drone strikes

Russian missiles and drones are pounding Ukraine for a second day, as almost continuous heavy attacks hit the country, with Kyiv bearing the brunt of an assault that has killed at least three and injured 40 in the capital. The overnight attacks followed heavy daylight raids with missiles and drones across the country on Wednesday. The assault began at 3am on Thursday with hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles fired by Moscow as the sound of explosions echoed through Kyiv. Water supplies were disrupted in the east of the city. The scale of the Russian attacks and their intensity appeared to put paid to claims by the US president, Donald Trump, that a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine was close, following recent remarks by the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, that the war might be approaching an end. Ukraine’s air force said the latest attack involved 56 missiles of various types and almost 700 drones. Kyiv’s mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said a large apartment block had collapsed in the Darnytskyi district, where rescue work was ongoing and with 11 people so far rescued. “Eighteen apartments have been destroyed. A rescue and search operation is ongoing. According to preliminary information, 11 people have been rescued from the building,” he told local media. “Forty people have been injured in the capital as a result of the enemy large-scale attack. Among them are two children. Thirty-one of the injured have been taken to hospital, including one child,” the mayor added. Wednesday’s daytime raids killed at least 14 people and injured more than 80 others. They appear to have included “double-tap” strikes aimed at first responders sent to the sites of attacks, and also struck two-dozen sites associated with Ukraine’s railway system and other critical infrastructure. The scale of the recent raids led to warnings that Russia was attempting to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defence systems by swarming them with drones and missiles. In a late afternoon post on Wednesday the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had described Wednesday’s attack as “one of the longest [and most] massive Russian attacks against Ukraine”, suggesting Moscow’s aim was to spoil the “political atmosphere” during Trump’s visit to China. Zelenskyy added that Ukraine’s intelligence had assessed Moscow was attempting to overwhelm Kyiv’s air defences through the scale and intensity of the attacks to cause “as much grief and pain as possible”. The attacks followed Trump’s latest claims of progress in negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow, which were offered on Wednesday with scant detail and followed similar unfounded claims. “The end of the war in Ukraine I really think is getting very close,” the US president told reporters as he left the White House for a summit in Beijing. “Believe it or not, it’s getting closer.” His comments follow remarks by Putin in a speech last weekend that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was possibly coming to an end. The attacks came as Ukraine’s military situation on the battlefield appeared to have been improving in recent months. Ukraine has gone from pleading for international help with its defence to offering other countries expertise on how to counter attacks thanks to its domestically developed drone technology.

Benjamin Netanyahu says he made secret trip to UAE at height of Iran war

Benjamin Netanyahu has claimed he made a secret trip to the United Arab Emirates at the height of the Iran war to meet the president, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. “This visit has led to a historic breakthrough in relations between Israel and the UAE,” the Israeli prime minister’s office said on Wednesday night. The two leaders met for several hours in Al Ain, an oasis city by the Oman border, on 26 March, Reuters reported. A source told the news agency that the Mossad director, David Barnea, made at least two visits to the UAE during the war with Iran to coordinate military actions. The intelligence chief’s visit was first reported by the Wall Street Journal. The supposed visit would be the latest milestone in a rapidly developing Middle East alliance. On Tuesday, the US ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, disclosed that Israel had shared its air defence system with the UAE, sending Iron Dome batteries and military specialists to operate them over the course of the war. “There’s an extraordinary relationship between the UAE and Israel,” Huckabee said. But the United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry denied the reports of Netanyahu’s visit to the country, saying such claims were “baseless”. It was also reported that the UAE had secretly carried out its own strikes on Iran, including an attack on a refinery on Lavan island in early April, in retaliation for Iranian attacks on its oil facilities, according to the Wall Street Journal. Reuters news agency has reported that Saudi Arabia also carried out retaliatory airstrikes against Iran and Iranian-backed Shia militias in Iraq in the early weeks of the war, which would be the first time that Riyadh has struck Iranian territory. In 2020, the UAE was the first Islamic country to agree to normalising relations with Israel, and was followed by three other Islamic countries: Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan, in what were described as the “Abraham accords”. The UAE has gone much further than the other members in tightening the relationship into a de facto alliance. The Emirati rulers have increasingly sought to chart an independent foreign policy course from their larger neighbour, Saudi Arabia. At the beginning of the month, the UAE left the Saudi-led oil cartel, Opec, severely weakening the organisation’s clout in global markets. Israel and the UAE have close relationships with the Trump administration, which have been deepened by their involvement in the Iran war. But they are vulnerable to a change of administration and policy direction in Washington. Both are under intense scrutiny for their alleged involvement in war crimes. Israel has been accused of genocide in Gaza, and arrest warrants have been issued by the international criminal court for Netanyahu and his former defence minister, Yoav Gallant. The UAE is widely believed to be arming and funding the Rapid Support Forces, which have been accused of mass atrocities in Sudan. Its government has denied the allegations, despite considerable evidence underpinning them.

Australians from hantavirus cruise ship fly out of Netherlands in full PPE after plane and crew secured

Four Australian citizens who were aboard the MV Hondius, the cruise ship at the centre of the hantavirus outbreak, will soon be home after the government secured a suitable aircraft and crew for the journey. The health minister, Mark Butler, said the citizens, along with a permanent resident and a New Zealand citizen, were due to take off from the Netherlands on Thursday and land in Perth on Friday local time. Guardian Australia has been told the flight departed the Netherlands and was due to arrive at RAAF Base Pearce in Perth at around 11am local time on Friday, before passengers were transported to the WA Centre for National Resilience in Bullsbrook. “Six passengers are still in good health, they have all tested negative for hantavirus and are showing no symptoms as well,” Butler said. Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email “Passengers and crew members will travel this flight for its duration in full PPE. There are very strict conditions about the flight, the landing, and the quarantine arrangements.” The passengers will be subject to a quarantine order, remaining at Western Australia’s Bullsbrook quarantine facility for at least three weeks. The flight crew bringing them home will also be required to quarantine, either in Australia or in another country. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade had scrambled to find an aircraft and crew who were able to complete quarantine, after a 48-hour deadline was imposed on their international transfer through the Netherlands by Dutch authorities. The outbreak now includes 11 reported cases, with nine officially confirmed. Three people have died. The MV Hondius, which is registered in the Netherlands, is on its way to Rotterdam, with 25 crew members and two medical staff on board. It is expected to arrive on Monday. After disembarking, the crew will enter quarantine and the ship will undergo what its operator calls a “thorough cleaning and disinfection process”. “The operation to bring all those on board home in the safest possible way was highly complex. It required intensive cooperation with national and international partners,” the Dutch government said in a statement on Tuesday. “The Dutch government thanks all those involved, including the shipping company, and expresses its gratitude and appreciation for the cooperation with Spain.” The Australian government has been working around the clock to bring the group home. “This is a difficult arrangement to make,” Butler told ABC News on Tuesday, adding the travellers were in “good health and relatively good spirits” at the time. “You’ve got to have crew that are willing to isolate at the end of the flight, you’ve got to have a flight that has some refuelling arrangements put in place between the Netherlands and Australia,” Butler said. “And it’s important that we’ve put those quarantine arrangements in place, ready to go when they do land in Australia.” Butler said the hantavirus had been listed under Australia’s Biosecurity Act, which allows the government to make quarantine orders. Hantavirus, a group of viruses found around the world, is generally spread via infected rodents to humans through faeces, urine or saliva. Human-to-human transmission is very uncommon, but can occur through close and prolonged contact, the Australian Centre for Disease Control says. Still, infection can be serious, resulting in critical illness or death. Three people have died from the outbreak, and a French woman is currently being treated after falling critically ill, with life-threatening heart and lung problems. The World Health Organization maintains that the threat to the general public remains low, but officials have urged caution. “At the moment, there is no sign that we are seeing the start of a larger outbreak,” Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, told reporters on Tuesday. “But of course the situation could change, and given the long incubation period of the virus, it’s possible we might see more cases in the coming weeks.” Butler said this week Australia’s quarantine protocols would be among the most stringent in the world. • This story was amended on 14 May 2026. An earlier version stated the plane would arrive in Perth on Friday afternoon. It was due to arrive in Perth on Friday morning.

Philippine politician wanted by ICC flees senate after days holed up in building

A Philippine lawmaker wanted by the international criminal court for his alleged role enforcing Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody anti-drugs crackdown has secretly fled the senate, after spending days holed up in the building to avoid arrest. The senate president, Alan Peter Cayetano, confirmed to media that senator Ronald dela Rosa was “no longer in the building”, after reports that he had slipped out of the heavily guarded building before dawn. “I’m waiting for a complete incident report on what time he left,” Cayetano said. Dela Rosa avoided arrest earlier this week after he dramatically outran government agents who chased him through the hallways and staircases of the senate, and was offered protective custody by allies in the senate chamber. He had remained in the building for days, but further chaos erupted on Wednesday night when gunshots were fired in the senate, forcing journalists to scramble for cover. Dela Rosa had earlier said his arrest was imminent and called for supporters to gather outside the senate to protect him. Conflicting accounts of events on Wednesday night have been given. The Philippines president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, later said no government personnel had been involved in the shooting incident in the senate and there were no instructions to arrest Dela Rosa. He questioned whether the event was an attempt to “destabilise the government or trigger chaos”. An investigation into the shooting is ongoing. Police said on Thursday they had detained a person in connection with the incident. Philippine police spokesperson Brig Gen Randulf Tuano said the man was apprehended on the second floor of the senate building. The interior secretary, Juanito Victor Remulla, had said senate security fired “warning shots” at several unknown armed men who had gone up the senate stairway. Dela Rosa was head of the Philippine national police during Duterte’s administration and was a chief enforcer of anti-drugs crackdowns in which thousands of people were killed. He is one of eight co-perpetrators named by the ICC in their case against Duterte, who is now detained at The Hague. An arrest warrant accuses him of “authorising, condoning and promoting” drug war killings, providing weapons, promising impunity and rewarding perpetrators, according to an ICC arrest warrant that was unsealed on Monday. He did not respond to a request for comment, but has denied wrongdoing. Earlier on Thursday, while entering the senate, Dela Rosa’s lawyer Jimmy Bondoc said he spoke to him during the night and believed he was inside. “I asked him if you have plans to leave, he said none,” Bondoc told reporters. With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

UN members prepare for pivotal vote on landmark ICJ climate justice ruling

The UN’s willingness to tackle the climate crisis in a fair and legal way will be tested next week during a critical vote of the UN general assembly in New York. Every member state is being asked to back a series of landmark findings on climate justice from the international court of justice (ICJ) as part of a new political resolution. If passed, it will mean governments recognise they have a legal responsibility to cut their greenhouse gas emissions, including tackling fossil fuels. The ICJ’s advisory opinion, published last year following a series of hearings in the Hague, had been requested by an unprecedented 132 states without opposition in 2023. It was hailed as a “historic win” for small island states. The Pacific island nation of Vanuatu has since been leading a group of states to draft a resolution that welcomes the opinion and tries to help it make a difference on the ground. Ahead of the UN vote on 20 May, it is seeking support from as many other nations as possible. At a UN briefing earlier this month, the Vanuatu climate minister, Ralph Regenvanu, described the UN’s initial resolution as “a collective act of multilateral confidence that law can help steer us through the climate crisis” that the court answered unanimously. “That unanimity is a gift to the membership. It gives us legal clarity and it gives us something precious in the UN; a common reference point.” Regenvanu wants the resolution to get the “broadest possible support”, at least matching the 132 co-sponsors of the previous one. The text of the resolution has changed significantly since an initial draft circulated in February. Calls for a “rapid, just and quantified phase‑out of fossil fuel production and use”, for example, were replaced with an urge to transition away. An original aim to set up an international register of damage, loss or injury was dropped altogether. Some major changes were the result of pressure from the US, which has lobbied to drop the resolution altogether. But Vanuatu’s climate justice envoy, Lee-Ann Sackett, who led the negotiations, said many states raised concerns or had comments, so significant effort was made to keep the text both “meaningful and unifying”. “Where delegations asked for reassurance we made it explicit,” she said. “Where delegations asked for restraint, we built in safeguards.” The final text, published at the start of the month, now clearly states that the UNFCCC and the Paris agreement are the primary international intergovernmental forums for negotiating a global response to climate change. Regenvanu stressed that it does not adjudicate disputes or attribute responsibility to any particular state. Nor does it create new obligations or prejudice legal positions. Despite the changes, Regenvanu said it was “not a resolution that simply files the opinion away. It calls on all states to comply with their existing obligations as established by the court.” It is also intended to help member states think through how to implement these obligations. The court’s advisory opinion is already being used in climate litigation around the world and judges are starting to reference it in their climate-related rulings. But it has proved more intractable as a diplomatic lever. It failed to make a mark at last year’s UNFCCC climate talks in Belem; Saudi Arabia called its inclusion in final texts a “red, red line”. The opinion was more evident at the inaugural fossil fuel conference in Santa Marta, Colombia, where Regenvanu told state delegates that they were “frontrunners” in doing what is both legally and scientifically required. “That is why theICJ’s landmark advisory opinion on climate change considers international cooperation indispensable.” More broadly, the resolution is being seen as a key test for the credibility of the international legal system. Sackett said there was close engagement from state delegations that do not usually intervene on climate texts “because they recognise that this is also about the authority of the court, the integrity of the UN system and how we translate legal clarification into multilateral cooperation”. Tania Romualdo, the permanent representative of Cape Verde to the UN representing the Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), said the importance of the resolution extends beyond the text itself. For small island developing states, she said, “this is about the affirmation and protection of our territories, sovereignty and fundamental rights of our populations. This process has not been easy. There have been many sacrifices along the way. These are not easy compromises but they reflect the reality of negotiation.”