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France drops opposition to UK being included in ‘Made in Europe’ legislation

France has dropped its opposition to the UK being included in the EU’s “Made in Europe” legislation as long as the British government aligns with the bloc’s position over tariffs on Chinese EVs. France on Thursday came round to backing Germany, which has always supported the UK’s calls to be designated European for the purposes of the Industrial Accelerator Act. The legislation, which is in its draft stage, is designed to protect domestic manufacturing from cheap Chinese competition. According to a joint Franco-German paper seen by the Guardian, the two countries are now proposing that for the car industry specifically the UK could be included in Made in Europe. “For the automotive sector, ‘Made in Europe’ should comprise the EU27 and an opt-in to further include European partners who were part of the EU single market as of 01/01/2020, subject to an agreement on full reciprocity – i.e. adopting the European preference scheme relevant to the automotive sector,” it says in a clear reference to the UK, which was still in the single market as an EU member in January 2020. It would also include Norway, which is in the single market but not a member of the EU. The paper added that the opt-in would come with conditions, including alignment on trade defence measures, which have included tariffs on Chinese EVs imposed by the EU in 2024 and any future trade barriers, such as the quota deal being finalised with China on its exports of hybrid cars. The paper says that “as well as relevant anti-circumvention measures”, these “opt-in” countries would have to accept “dynamic alignment on the EU’s conditions related to third countries’ investments and on relevant EU trade defence measures”. Liam Byrne, the chair of the UK’s business, innovation, science and trade committee, said he believed aligning with the EU on trade defence measures was a small price to pay to save British manufacturing. “Sometimes politics is the least worst choice – aligning with Europe on trade defence against an over-subsidised China is the way we deliver for all of us,” he said. “Tariffs on these would be a small price to pay for the protection of a European manufacturing industry which safeguards jobs across supply chains in the UK and makes us less prone to coercion from China in the future.” On Wednesday the head of Mercedes implored EU leaders to let the UK join the package. Locking the UK out of the EU’s flagship industrial Made in Europe legislation would amount to a “deliberate choice” by EU leaders to “hurt” the car industry across the bloc, the head of Mercedes-Benz said. The UK has been under pressure for weeks to align with the EU on tariffs on Chinese vehicles, but this week the business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said he would not be coerced into aligning with the EU’s policy. However the government has been desperate to be included in the Made in Europe package, fearing billions of pounds of trade in the car industry could be lost if the UK was locked out of supply chains in the EU. Earlier on Thursday trade minister Anas Sarwar hinted that the UK was minded to align on tariffs. He told Politico the UK and the EU must “work together and act in lockstep” to tackle China’s dominance in the automotive sector. Bernd Lange, the chair of the European parliament’s influential international trade committee, told the Guardian the UK should “of course” be included in the Made in Europe legislation, calling France’s opposition “not rational”. A Downing Street spokesperson said it had yet to see the detail but saw the development as positive. “This is a Franco-German proposal and there is still a European process to run, but if confirmed, we welcome the objective to have UK included in the Industrial Accelerator Act and this would be good news for the British automotive industry and the jobs and investment it supports across the UK.”

Albania’s prime minister vows not to resign over student-led protests

Albania’s prime minister has said he will not resign as a protest movement, initially prompted by a proposal to build a Trump family-backed resort in the Balkan state, turned violent with clashes convulsing the capital for a third consecutive day. Speaking on Thursday after calls by students who this week assumed control of the anti-government demonstrations that have rattled Tirana since June, Edi Rama said: “Governments are changed through democratic elections. We had elections last year, not a revolution.” Rama’s comments to Reuters came hours before fresh clashes erupted outside the education ministry, where riot police responded to rock-throwing youths with teargas and water cannon. “My responsibility is to listen, address legitimate concerns and keep Albania moving forward,” he added. The alternative, he argued, would be tantamount “to a betrayal of the Albanians who gave me a strong mandate to complete negotiations on European Union membership … I will not allow violence to derail Albania’s European future.” Rama, who won a historic fourth term last year, has vowed to get what was once the continent’s most isolated Stalinist state into the 27-member bloc by 2030. The unrest – in contrast to the largely peaceful protests of recent months – marks the veteran leader’s biggest challenge yet. On Thursday, after a night of running street battles between demonstrators and riot police, residents awoke to see the facades of shops smashed and traffic signals destroyed, with government buildings and banks burned and ransacked. An estimated 89 people, including 61 police officers, were injured. The renewed violence has created an atmosphere of unpredictability amid predictions that public patience may finally be running out for the socialist government after 13 years in power. “Young Albanians are tired of all the corruption, tired of all the arrogance. They want to live in a better country and they are not afraid to use violence,” said Afrim Krasniqi, the director of the Albanian Institute for Political Studies in Tirana. “There is no prognosis. Nobody can say what will come next.” But Rama, who emerged from the protest movement himself – becoming the face of state violence when he dared to criticise Albania’s first-post-communist government 30 years ago – also doubled down. “Students are the future. They are the ones who look ahead, who want to go further and faster,” he said as he visited the fire-damaged premises of Tirana’s College of Europe on Thursday. “Today, this is the ruin left by hands that are not, and can never be, the hands of students. These are the hands that try to push Albania down every time Albania tries to rise.” While he was willing to talk with the younger generation about the rising costs of education – a central complaint that has also spurred the unrest – vandalism would not be tolerated, he said. For nearly five months, demonstrators have gathered daily outside Rama’s office, prompted by plans for a controversial tourism complex championed by the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. The venture foresees construction along pristine coastline deemed a conservation zone of unique natural beauty, including the uninhabited island of Sazan. Labelled the “flamingo revolution” because of the risk posed by the development to wildlife and delicate ecosystems, the rallies have attracted crowds big and small. They, too, have demanded the prime minister resign. Despite the opposition, Rama has steadfastly refused to back down, defending the project as a “gift” that will boost the economy and provide badly needed jobs by transforming Albania into a high-end tourist destination. But Krasniqi said he believed the protest movement was at an inflection point – even if the demonstrations had also been inspired by similar student unrest sweeping Europe, particularly France. “I think this week we reached a turning point,” he said. “The government had more than four months to talk to people, who every day have been out on the street. It chose to belittle and dismiss them instead. And now students have joined in, and they appear to have the upper hand.” For the first time, Krasniqi said, he had heard young people saying they were prepared to be hurt or go to jail if that was the price “for ensuring democracy”. “Their demands are very different to the [flamingo] protesters. They want better education, better university buildings, a society that offers them hope. They also don’t believe Albania should be for sale.” At €4bn (€3.37bn), the Trump family-backed resort would be the biggest investment the nation has seen. Last week, addressing the controversy triggered by the project, Kushner admitted he and his investment firm, Affinity Partners, were “betting on a country that has never had a project of this scale”. “There are no guarantees,” he said. “We are taking that risk because we believe in Albania and we believe in Albanians. If successful, the project would represent approximately €4bn of investment and create significant jobs, economic activity and international visibility for Albania.” This week environmentalists, who first led the charge against the development, begged to differ. Months after the protests began, people still felt as exercised about a venture many believed would only benefit the elite, said Aleksandër Trajçe, who heads the country’s leading conservation group, the Protection and Preservation of Natural Environment in Albania. “Anger over the [Kushner] project has prepared the ground for the violence we are seeing, because day after day protesters have been faced with the arrogance of a government that has refused to listen to them, or give an inch.”

Seven sailors missing after drones strike tankers near Romania’s Black Sea coast

Seven sailors are missing after drones struck two tankers near Romania’s Black Sea ⁠coast, setting them ablaze and raising ⁠fresh security concerns on a vital shipping route used by Ukraine. A Nato military source told Reuters the drones that had hit the Wine Trader and the Yara J came from Russia. “The drones that caused ⁠the fires on board two tankers inside Romanian territorial waters were of Russian origin,” the source said. Romania’s president, Nicușor Dan, described the situation in the Black Sea as serious. “Commercial ships are being attacked and sunk,” he wrote on X. “Seafarers killed, injured and missing very close to the shores of Romania and Bulgaria. This is unacceptable and it has to stop.” His statement followed a meeting with Bulgaria’s prime minister, Rumen Radev, and Nato’s secretary-general, Mark Rutte, on Thursday, where they agreed “to strengthen our defences in the Black Sea”, Dan said. Rutte said: “Nato will continue to work closely with our allies in the Black Sea, adjusting our deterrence and defence posture as needed.” A Nato official said the issue would be discussed at a meeting of the North Atlantic Council next week. The missing crew were from the Wine Trader, a San Marino-flagged tanker travelling from Tunisia to Romania. All crew on the Yara J, which was struck just inside Romanian waters late on Wednesday, were safe. Similar incidents in recent weeks have raised fears that the zone is becoming another front in Russia’s war on Ukraine. Dan said the two ships had been struck by drones, but declined to say whether Russia was responsible. Romania shares a 614km (381-mile) border with Ukraine, much of it along the Danube. The country has experienced frequent drone incursions since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, including a daytime encroachment last November that led Nato to scramble fighter jets. EU leaders were already concerned about drone strikes on merchant ships off the coast of Bulgaria. On Tuesday, drone strikes on two ships off the coast of Bulgaria prompted emergency rescue operations, with 11 crew member from the HS Dignity, a cargo ship sailing under a Guinea-Bissau flag, still missing. On another ship, the Ukrainian-operated Chelsea 3 sailing under a Maltese flag, rescuers evacuated all 15 crew members, with five receiving treatment for minor injuries. The crew reported that the ship’s deck and hull were hit by three aerial drones. “The results of this attack favour Russia. However, we don’t have any solid evidence that the drones are Russians,” Radev said after arriving in Brussels for an EU summit on Thursday. At least 23 sailors have been reported missing or killed after attacks on commercial shipping near the coasts of Bulgaria and Romania in the past 10 days, according to Reuters. Russia has stepped up its bombing campaign on Ukraine’s Black Sea infrastructure, forcing Kyiv to turn to Danube river ports and Black Sea routes off the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria to export its grain, sunflower oil and other products. According to a draft summit declaration, EU leaders will say that attacks against civilian shipping, including “member state-flagged vessels, such as the recent attacks in Bulgaria’s and Romania’s exclusive economic zones in the Black Sea, are unacceptable and constitute a serious violation of international and maritime law”.

Eritrean aggression must not be overlooked | Letter

Your attention to Ethiopia is welcome, but your editorial (8 October) presents an incomplete account of the crisis, framing Ethiopia’s national interests as sources of regional instability while insufficiently examining the actions of other actors. The opening reference to the Nobel peace prize is particularly telling. By suggesting that the committee will hope its next choice “ages better than 2019’s”, the editorial invites readers to question Abiy Ahmed’s award because of the war that followed a year later. Yet the prime minister received the prize for his efforts to achieve peace with Eritrea. The subsequent war in Tigray does not erase that achievement or, by itself, establish that the award was undeserved. Describing the rapprochement with Eritrea as having “facilitated a war with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front” implies causation without adequately explaining the evidence. Likewise, claiming Mr Abiy’s coalition is “held together by his patronage” reduces political support to personal favours without establishing that this is what sustains it. More seriously, the editorial overlooks the broader context of Eritrean aggression. The current crisis must also be understood in the context of an Eritrean foreign policy that, from Ethiopia’s perspective, has treated a weak Ethiopia as serving Eritrea’s interests. The call for a truce also fails to address responsibility for renewed hostilities. Dialogue is welcome, but it must not reward armed aggression with political leverage or pressure Ethiopia into concessions. Ethiopia’s pursuit of Red Sea access and its right to develop the Nile’s resources should not be portrayed as threats simply because they challenge neighbouring states’ preferences. Whether or not Eritrea’s strategic value to Washington explains its approach, that should not eclipse the consequences of its actions for Ethiopia’s sovereignty and security. Biruk Mekonnen Ethiopian ambassador to the UK • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

Repressive, secretive and highly militarised: Eritrea, the east African country facing UK visa ban threat

Eritrea, the east African country embroiled in a row with the UK over its refusal to accept the return of rejected asylum seekers and criminals, is considered one of world’s most secretive and repressive states, with reports of arbitrary detention and severe restrictions on freedom of expression, opinion and religion. Situated in the Horn of Africa and bordering Sudan, Ethiopia and Djibouti, it became a sovereign state after gaining independence from Ethiopia in 1993 following a 30-year war. The country is run by an authoritarian regime under Isaias Afwerki, who led separatist forces to defeat Ethiopian forces in 1991 and became president in 1993. He has served as president since independence and heads the People’s Front for Democracy and Justice, the country’s only legal political party. Eritrea has not held a national election since independence. A constitution that was ratified in 1997 by the constituent assembly has still not been implemented nearly three decades later. In 2001, the government shut down all independent newspapers after the publishing of an open letter by senior ruling party officials calling on the government to implement the constitution and hold elections. A highly militarised state, Eritrea runs a compulsory national service system that requires students to study at a military training centre in their final year of secondary school. They undergo military training and political education before working in either military units or civilian national service roles that can last decades. The repression and conscription has forced many Eritreans to risk harsh punishment for evading, deserting or escaping the military by fleeing the country. It is estimated that up to one-third of the Eritrean-born population lives abroad. Eritreans were the most common nationality arriving by small boat to the UK in the year ending June 2026. Earlier this year, Eritrea abruptly withdrew cooperation with the UK on migrant returns, and on Thursday the UK home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, said all Eritreans could be stopped from coming to the UK unless the country agreed to accept more rejected asylum seekers and criminals. Eritrea’s political, economic and social framework has been defined by a doctrine of economic self-reliance, with the country notably rejecting foreign aid. It was an Italian colony and parts of the country feature early to mid-20th-century Italian modernist architecture. The capital, Asmara, was inscribed as a world heritage site in 2017, with Unesco describing it as “an exceptional example of early modernist urbanism at the beginning of the 20th century and its application in an African context”. A multi-ethnic country, Eritrea is mainly made up of the Tigrinya people. Its extensive Red Sea coastline (1,388 miles) gives it a strategic position along the Red Sea corridor. The country has been in the spotlight in recent weeks because of fears of war with Ethiopia. Both countries have accused each other of aggression. Ethiopia has claimed Eritrean troops crossed up to 60km (37 miles) into Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region, while Eritrea has said the accusation is a fabrication to create a pretext for war. The escalation is linked to renewed fighting between Ethiopian government forces and the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF), an armed opposition group, in Tigray, which borders Eritrea. Ethiopia has accused Eritrea of supporting the TPLF, a claim that Eritrea has denied. On Tuesday, Ethiopian forces advanced to Zalambessa, a town on the border with Eritrea that was under Tigrayan rebel control.

EU must curb energy prices to prevent people turning to populists, commissioner warns – as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. Europe has to take action to curb soaring oil and gas prices to prevent people from turning to populists and extremists, a senior EU official has said (16:03). If EU citizens don’t see their “fundamental problems” addressed, they may turn “to populists and extremists,” Dan Jørgensen said. In other news, EU leaders are meeting in Brussels to discuss energy prices, EU budget, Middle East, and Ukraine during a two-day summit attended by Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy (11:16, 11:57, 13:25, 15:08). The meeting comes amid heightened tensions between Ukraine and the US, with EU leaders joining Kyiv in criticising the US-Russia diesel deal (10:36) and reported Starlink disruptions (9:45, 9:49). We will pick up on tonight’s developments in tomorrow morning’s blog. Separately, the leaders of Romania and Bulgaria held urgent talks with Nato’s secretary general Mark Rutte over repeated drone attacks on ships off Black Sea coast (14:31, 15:26), with seven people missing after latest incidents last night (12:03, 13:01). If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at jakub.krupa@theguardian.com. I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.

Russia and Ukraine trade strikes as Trump ‘energy ceasefire’ collapses

The White House’s unilateral effort to negotiate an energy ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine has collapsed as Moscow sent a record swarm of drones overnight to attack infrastructure in central Ukraine and Kyiv appeared to resume strikes on Russian oil refineries despite warnings from Donald Trump. Moscow accused Ukraine of launching a strike against a Russian oil refinery in the Ryazan region, its first since Trump abruptly declared an “energy ceasefire” that neither Russia nor Ukraine said they had agreed to. Trump has demanded that Volodymyr Zelenskyy stop attacking Russian oil refineries, claiming it is the cause of a global rise in the price of diesel fuel. An attack on two neutral ships in Romanian territorial waters at the mouth of the Danube River indicated that strikes against vulnerable commercial targets are set to expand. The Romanian president, Nicușor Dan, said two Russian drones violated Romanian airspace and struck two chemical tankers, setting the ships ablaze. Rescue crews were searching for at least seven missing sailors. “The situation in the Black Sea is serious,” he said. “Commercial ships are being attacked and sunk. Seafarers killed, injured and missing, very close to the shores of Romania and Bulgaria. This is unacceptable and it has to stop.” Zelenskyy said on Wednesday he would resume strikes on Russian oil refineries, after briefly halting them to demonstrate that Ukraine was ready for peace talks. “The block [on attacking refineries] is out. We’re done,” he told the Financial Times. He also attacked a gap in US intelligence sharing as “dangerous”. Images from Ryazan showed flames at the refinery, which regional officials said had been targeted by 69 drones and four Flamingo cruise missiles. Moscow claimed debris from a drone struck by anti-aircraft fire had hit the refinery and sparked the fire. Ukraine also struck back at Russia’s military, hitting four Sukhoi Su-34 fighter/bomber jets and damaging two more, according to Zelenskyy. Ukraine’s military said it had used a Neptune cruise missile to strike an airfield in Russia’s southern Voronezh region. “These very warplanes were ready to launch new attacks on Ukraine and were loaded with aerial bombs,” Zelenskyy said, publishing a satellite photo of the damaged airfield. In Ukraine, more than 360 Russian drones targeted Kirovohrad, a central region that has been hit less hard than others closer to Russia, in attacks that killed three people and injured six. “The enemy deliberately hit critical infrastructure, transport enterprises, logistics ⁠facilities and residential homes,” the regional governor, Andriy Raikovych, said in a statement. Zelenskyy said Russia had attacked Ukraine with more than 850 Shahed drones at a time when the speed of Ukraine’s defensive capabilities was being “artificially restricted”, a reference to sudden limitations on Ukraine’s use of the Starlink and Starshield mobile internet terminals. “It is obvious that Russia deliberately chose to escalate its attacks after receiving sanctions relief and seeing attempts to pressure Ukraine,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post on X, referring to a growing quarrel with the Trump administration. “Ukraine needs steady support, above all in defending our skies. We need HONESTY from our partners about this war: It is important that everyone in America stand not with the aggressor, but with our efforts to protect lives, end this war, and guarantee security,” he said. Trump suddenly declared an “energy ceasefire” last week, writing on TruthSocial: “Effective immediately, there is an ENERGY CEASEFIRE in the War between Russia and Ukraine. Both parties have agreed. Do not break it!” Despite Trump’s claims, however, Russia continued to launch heavy strikes on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, using hypersonic and ballistic missiles to target key Ukrainian power plants, leaving cities including Kyiv without power and water for hours. Ukraine said it would not strike Russian oil refineries in the interim in order to show that it was ready for negotiations. But the White House piled pressure on Zelenskyy to capitulate to Russia by threatening to cut programmes to deliver arms to Ukraine and to stop sharing US battlefield intelligence with Ukraine. The US appeared to make good on some threats. Ukraine said it had not received advance warning from Washington of Russian missile strikes for several days this week. And on Wednesday, Ukrainian soldiers complained that their access to Starshield programmes controlled by the US military had been restricted, scuppering drone missions on the frontlines. The feud between Zelenskyy and Trump has spun out of control over the last week. Trump, who believes his support for Ukraine should come with a degree of control over the country’s leadership, has said Ukraine should “get a new president”. Zelenskyy, when asked on Thursday by Piers Morgan whether he felt betrayed, said yes. “It’s a pity that we are losing, we are losing a strong partner,” he said. Musk, the head of SpaceX, which produces the Starlink terminals used by Ukraine’s military, has emerged as a leading critic of Zelenskyy in the US. On Thursday, Musk denied throttling the Starlink systems and said they were controlled by the US government. But in a social media post commenting on a Zelenskyy statement that Ukraine would continue to fight until Russia’s defeat, he wrote: “And so the slaughter continues … Time for Zelensky to go.”

Jim Bakker obituary

Jim Bakker, who has died aged 86, was one of the most popular and influential US television evangelists of the 1970s and 80s, but he was brought down, as were many of his preaching contemporaries, by the twin sins of greed and lust. Bakker and his wife, Tammy Faye, built an empire around their Christian chatshow PTL (for Praise the Lord), which spawned their own satellite TV network based in Charlotte, North Carolina. At their peak, their broadcasts attracted more than 13 million viewers and $1m a day in donations; and their Disney-style theme park, Heritage USA, at Fort Mill, South Carolina, drew six million visitors a year. In 1980, Bakker joined President Jimmy Carter on Air Force One to pray for the American hostages held in Iran – but Bakker’s support and that of his fellow conservative evangelicals soon proved key in electing Ronald Reagan president. The Bakkers preached the “prosperity gospel”, growing from the Calvinist idea that material success was a sign of God’s blessing, and flaunted those blessings. “Excess and success are close together,” Bakker claimed. They never skimped on opulence, with everything from a fleet of luxury cars to jewellery for Tammy Faye and an air-conditioned dog kennel. But the mansion crumbled from within when, in 1987, Bakker was revealed to have paid $265,000 in hush money to Jessica Hahn, a secretary in his Assemblies of God ministry, who said she had been drugged and raped in 1980 by him and his fellow PTL host John Wesley Fletcher. Hahn then told her story and posed for Penthouse magazine, while Fletcher wrote his own story for Penthouse, The Devil in Jim Bakker, claiming he had been both Bakker’s lover and his pimp for other gay men. Bakker was stripped of his ministry in the Assemblies of God. He resigned as head of PTL and was replaced by Jerry Falwell, who called him “the greatest scab and a cancer on the face of Christianity in 2,000 years of church history”. Bakker had passed PTL on to Falwell to prevent another Assemblies of God preacher, Jimmy Swaggart, from taking it over. Swaggart, who faced his own sex scandal years later, called Bakker “a cancer on the face of God”. The sex scandal opened the doors to revealing Bakker’s frauds. PTL was nicknamed “Pass the Loot”. Under Reagan, the Federal Communications Commission, the government regulatory agency, had buried its investigation into the Bakkers’ soliciting donations for overseas aid that instead went to Heritage USA and into their own pockets. The Internal Revenue Service had sat for years on a report recommending that PTL should lose its tax-exempt status. But the Charlotte Observer’s reporting of PTL selling far more “lifetime memberships” guaranteeing annual three-night stays at Heritage USA than it was able to provide, led to a trial. In 1989, a jury convicted Bakker on all 24 counts, and Judge Robert “Maximum Bob” Potter sentenced him to 45 years, saying: “Those of us who do have a religion are sick of being saps for money-grubbing preachers and priests.” That animus led to the sentence being reduced to eight years on appeal. By the time Bakker emerged from prison, Tammy Faye had divorced him, and married Roe Messner, one of the principals of Heritage USA. Messner would be convicted of bankruptcy fraud two years later. Bakker was born in Muskegon, Michigan. His father, Raleigh, a machinist, and his mother, Furnia (nee Irwin), came from Pentecostal families. Jim studied at the Assemblies of God’s North Central Bible College in Minneapolis, where in 1961 he met Tammy Faye LaValley. Although he was engaged to his high-school sweetheart in Muskegon, three weeks later he and Tammy Faye married, leaving college and becoming travelling evangelists. In 1966 they caught the eye of Pat Robertson, who hired them for his Christian Broadcasting Network. Their children’s show, Come On Over, featuring Tammy Faye using puppets, became so popular that Robertson gave them a talkshow, The 700 Club, named in the then-optimistic hope of attracting $700 a month from loyal viewers. They left Robertson in 1973 to co-found the Trinity Broadcasting Network in Los Angeles, where they launched PTL. After quickly falling out with their partners, they moved to Charlotte, where they created the PTL Network. “I believe if Jesus were alive today, he would be on TV,” said Bakker, a statement that helped inspire Ray Stevens’ 1987 hit song, Would Jesus Wear a Rolex?. At Bakker’s 1994 parole hearing, his lawyer, Alan Dershowitz, pledged to “guarantee that Mr Bakker would never again engage in the blend of religion and commerce that led to his conviction”. That did not last long. His 1996 book I Was Wrong was more a rationalisation than confession. Bakker worked at the Los Angeles International Church (also known as the Dream Center), where in 1998 he met and married Lori Beth Graham, a youth preacher who had a strong resemblance to Tammy Faye. By 2003 they were broadcasting The Jim Bakker Show from Branson, Missouri. Bakker’s pitch switched from prosperity to apocalypse, selling “doomsday survival gear” including freeze-dried beans on toast. He said PTL now stood for Prophets Talking Loud and used natural disasters as examples of God’s vengeance against Americans who did not support him – and later Donald Trump. Barack Obama, he said, was “a representative of the antichrist” and he called Hillary Clinton “the bride of Satan”. During the Covid pandemic, Bakker sold colloidal silver supplements he claimed could cure the disease. He was prosecuted by state authorities in Missouri and Arkansas and forced to refund buyers. In 2020 he had a stroke. He is survived by his wife and their five children, Maricella, Lori, Clarissa, Marie and Ricky, and by a daughter, Tammy Sue, and son, Jay, from his first marriage. • James Orsen Bakker, television evangelist, born 2 January 1940; died 5 October 2026