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Middle East crisis is ‘getting out of control’, UN chief warns, as fears mount of escalation spiral – live updates

The Gulf Cooperation Council, led by secretary general Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi, has condemned the Houthi targeting of Encelia, a Saudi-owned tanker in the Red Sea. On Thursday, Albudaiwi said the attack “represents an extension of the hostile behavior pursued by the militia and a flagrant violation of international law.” He added that the Houthi’s “continued threats to target commercial vessels and jeopardise international navigation lanes constitute a danerous escalation” in the region. The attack marks a significant escalation in Middle East tensions and comes after Donald Trump vowed to destroy a bridge or power plant in Iran every time the country attacks a ship in the Hormuz Strait.

Donald Trump says decision on ‘massive attack’ against Iran is close

Donald Trump has said he is close to deciding whether to launch “a massive attack” against Iran, on a scale larger than strikes already witnessed during the months-long conflict with Tehran. Speaking to the Axios news site, the US president said: “I am considering a massive attack. Bigger than ever before. I am close to making a decision. We are all set for it.” Trump made his remarks on Thursday as oil prices once again surged past the symbolic $100 for a barrel of Brent crude, the international benchmark, and amid indications the price could go higher still. He acknowledged that such a decision would have consequences but said he had not yet made a final determination. Israel “would join in two minutes if I ask them to”, he added, before saying: “We don’t need anybody.” Trump’s comments followed the earlier threat of “major military punishment” against Iran and the Houthis, after the Iran-backed Yemeni militia’s attacks on two Saudi Arabian oil tankers in the Red Sea. Underlining the sense of a region increasingly approaching an abyss, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, told the security council that the Middle East was being pushed to the “edge of the unimaginable” amid mounting fears over the trajectory of the conflict. “The situation is getting out of control. It is teetering on the edge of the unimaginable. The region is being pulled into an ever-widening circle of confrontation. One crisis feeds another. One escalation triggers the next,” Guterres told a security council meeting. “As this dynamic spreads, the political objectives are becoming increasingly obscured by the confrontation itself.” The UK announced it was temporarily withdrawing diplomatic staff from Iran on Wednesday, and the German military announced on Thursday that it would withdraw two vessels from the Red Sea. And as Israeli cities opened bomb shelters, the US state department warned Americans living in the region that flights may be cancelled. In a separate development, Trump clarified on Thursday that an announced agreement that the US would help Saudi Arabia with its civilian nuclear programme would require the kingdom to normalise relations with Israel through the Abraham Accords, a move Saudi Arabia has long resisted until there is demonstrable movement on Palestinian rights and statehood. It emerged later that Trump had not spoken to Saudi Arabia about the new condition. The Houthi attacks threatened the safety of a second major maritime route connecting the Suez canal to the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. They also came amid reports that Iran had sent military advisers and drone parts to the Houthis 10 days ago. Quoting four sources, including two Iranians, Reuters reported on Thursday that Iran had transferred Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps personnel and military-related equipment on a flight from Tehran to Yemen on 13 July, as Tehran was calling for the Houthis to blockade the Bab el-Mandeb strait. Ships had begun turning back from sailing through the narrow strait this week after the Houthis announced a blockade of Saudi ports, most notably the Red Sea port of Yanbu, which Riyadh has been using to ship oil to Asia during the conflict that has all but halted shipping through the strait of Hormuz. The maritime data and analysis firm Lloyd’s List Intelligence said the Houthi attacks put Saudi oil shipments from Yanbu at risk and presented a “double whammy” on top of the Hormuz disruptions, , adding that the Houthi threat “raises questions on the viability of this route”. Trump wrote on social media: “If [the Houthis] do this again, the US will hold Iran responsible, in that the Houthis are a Surrogate and/or Proxy of Iran, and major military punishment will be inflicted upon Iran and, of course, the Houthis, themselves.” The Houthis’ Saba news agency said the rebels had struck two tankers, the Encelia and the Layla, causing fires on both. There were no reports of casualties in their first reported attack on a vessel since they announced the blockade of Saudi-linked shipping. The Bab el-Mandeb is a vital shipping chokepoint connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. About 12% of the world’s trade, including a fourth of global container traffic, passes through there, moving between Europe and Asia via the Suez canal at the northern end of the Red Sea. Trump has been escalating his rhetoric against Iran in recent days, hinting the US is prepared to bomb an underground tunnel complex at the “Pickaxe mountain” site where Israel alleges Tehran has hidden centrifuges used in uranium enrichment. As Trump has struggled to get a grip on the spiralling crisis, during which Iran has occasionally launched lethal strikes against US bases and Washington’s Gulf allies, he appears to have been sucked into an “escalation trap”, threatening ever more violent retaliation. On Wednesday, Trump said the US would destroy one bridge or power plant every time Iran shot at a ship in the strait. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, said Trump was seeking a “head for an eye” after the recent deaths of several US service members in an Iranian strike on the Muwaffaq Salti airbase in Jordan. However, speaking on the outskirts of the Asean conference in Manila, Rubio said Iran was “begging for a deal”, and insisted “they need to come to their senses” and that they will “pay a very heavy price for the things they are doing” – all claims US officials have made before. With Trump’s poll ratings in freefall, and his war against Iran deeply unpopular at home, the president and his administration are running short of time before the autumn midterm elections to find a resolution to the conflict on Washington’s terms. Underlining Trump’s growing political problems, the US House of Representatives narrowly passed a resolution on Thursday to halt US military action in Iran, the second such warning to the president.

Thousands flee wildfires in France as temperatures reach extreme levels in southern Europe

Brutal heat torching southern Europe has forced nearly 20,000 people to flee wildfires in France as a marine heatwave scalds the Mediterranean and researchers warn that “Dantesque” scenarios cannot be ruled out as infernos worsen. A “particularly intense” wildfire on France’s southwestern Atlantic coast prompted the evacuation of more than 18,800 people, including thousands of tourists from campsites and holiday homes, as firefighters struggled to control the blaze. Extreme highs of 44.7C were recorded on Thursday in Cieza, in the Spanish province of Murcia, according to Aemet, the Spanish meteorological agency. The previous day, the Spanish cities of Albacete, Ávila and Teruel broke their July temperatures records with heat as high as 42C. A marine heatwave is affecting 80% of the Mediterranean Sea’s surface area, according to the Mediterranean Monitoring System. Daily temperatures on Tuesday had reached “extreme” levels in several parts, with some anomalies 5C hotter than the average from 1991 to 2020. The severity of fires in the EU has broken records for this time of year, data from the European Forest Fire Information System showed on Wednesday, and about twice as much land had burned by 22 July than the average for that date over the last two decades. France has broken records for the area burned; it and Spain have broken records for the number of fires. The fire in France began in a dense pine forest near the village of Saumos about 40km (25 miles) west of Bordeaux and just north of the bay of Arcachon, a popular tourist destination. It had burned more than 3,700 hectares (9,140 acres) in a little over 24 hours, firefighters said on Thursday. No casualties had been reported but several houses had succumbed to the flames, they said. The Gironde prefecture said that while 800 firefighters and four water-bombing planes were battling to bring the fire under control, the situation remained “unfavourable” and the blaze was not yet stabilised. “The fire is highly erratic and gaining very significant force,” said Marc Vermeulen, the regional fire service chief, on Thursday evening. “One of the main fronts is very close to a semi-urban area. We are defending house by house.” France has endured three almost back-to-back heatwaves since May as climate breakdown leads to more frequent and extreme weather events causing thousands of excess deaths, evaporating soils and waterways and fuelling wildfires. Patrick Martineau, 69, who was evacuated from the village of Le Porge, told Agence France-Presse that police had “come banging on the doors … It’s scary – hard to take in. When we bought a home here, we never thought there’d be a fire risk.” Sylvie, a holidaymaker from Paris staying in the relatively more built-up area of Lège-Cap-Ferret, said a neighbour had told her: “‘Get your bags ready, we’re going to be evacuated during the night.’ We put the bulk of our stuff in the car boot and left.” Elke Urbain, from Antwerp in Belgium, who holidays in the area every year, said she was advised while she was on the beach on Wednesday afternoon to “go back immediately to the campsite and gather your things. It’s just terribly sad.” In 2022, a wildfire burned more than 30,000 hectares in the same area, forcing about 50,000 people to be evacuated. In tinder-dry conditions and fanned by a strong wind, the latest blaze has torn through the forest, with flames reaching 10 metres high. Jean-Luc Helias, 54, from Le Porge, said he and his family had lived through that fire four years ago and “the firefighters do an amazing job to protect people’s homes. All that matters to me is that my family is safe; the rest is just material possessions.” Nine local municipalities have opened reception centres for evacuees and were sheltering more than 2,500 people, the prefecture said. About 8,800 people were evacuated during the day on Thursday, 10,000 overnight. Numerous roads in the area, including those leading to the Cap Ferret peninsula a few kilometres to the south – home to the villas of celebrities and millionaires and one of France’s most exclusive holiday spots – were closed to all but essential traffic. Police have opened an investigation into the causes of the wildfire, which the mayor of Le Porge, Martial Zaninetti, said on Wednesday appeared to have been started by a machine that was clearing undergrowth. A fortnight ago, flames devastated a 10th of the Unesco-listed Fontainebleau forest outside Paris in a rare wildfire so far north. France’s interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, has said more than 12,500 wildfires had broken out since the beginning of the year. In Spain, most of the people evacuated on Wednesday evening owing to a fire 70km south-west of Madrid were also allowed to return home. A fire that has burned 32,000 hectares in the province of Guadalajara, north of the capital, was also described as stable. Spanish wildfire scientists said they were not surprised by the extreme figures as the abandonment of rural land had left more overgrown vegetation and the rise in temperatures from climate breakdown made it easier for such plant matter to dry out and burn. Víctor Resco de Dios, a professor of forestry engineering and global change at the University of Lleida, said: “Although it’s difficult to predict how far things might go, we will soon be unable to rule out Dantesque scenarios like those seen in California or Australia, with fires or fire complexes reaching hundreds of thousands of hectares or even a million hectares.” The marine heatwave in the Mediterranean is projected to shrink but stay strong from Sardinia to Greece, according to a forecast for Saturday from Mercator Ocean. From Gibraltar to the Balearic Islands, strong heat is expected to drop to moderate levels, despite intensifying locally in the Alboran Sea. Western Europe has been rocked by repeated heatwaves this summer, with extreme highs in June that scientists expect will have killed tens of thousands of people as hot days push bodies into overdrive and warm nights prevent them from resting. On Wednesday, an analysis estimated the cost of the June heatwave to the continent’s grain farmers at €2bn (£1.7bn) in lost revenue from 9m tonnes of destroyed crops. On Thursday, scientists found climate breakdown had contributed to drought conditions, making levels of soil dryness five times more likely in western Europe and 11 times more likely in eastern Europe.

Mayor shot dead in Mexico months after surviving assassination attempt

A mayor was shot dead on Wednesday in the Mexican state of Morelos after having survived a previous assassination attempt earlier this year. He is the 14th mayor to be murdered since Claudia Sheinbaum became president in October 2024. Valentín Lavín Romero, who was from the Green party, an ally of the ruling leftwing Morena party, was wounded at the end of January when hitmen shot him at a petrol station on a motorway. This time the hitmen entered the town hall of Temoac, near Mexico City, in the middle of the day before shooting Lavín Romero dead and escaping on a motorbike. Authorities are yet to identify a motive or suspects, but the Morelos prosecutor’s office vowed to “exhaust all lines of investigation”. Almost 100 mayors have been murdered in Mexico since 2006, when the then president, Felipe Calderón, deployed the military to take on Mexico’s organised crime groups, ultimately causing drug-related violence to rise. The municipal level of government is the least protected layer of the state and where criminal groups seek deals with authorities to strengthen their hold over the local territory and its businesses. Local media reported Lavín Romero himself allegedly had ties to local crime groups. His mother-in-law, a former treasurer for the municipal government, was arrested in September 2025 for alleged ties to a criminal group known as Los Aparicio and involvement in kidnappings. In March, the People’s Front in Defence of Land and Water, an activist group, demanded authorities investigate Lavín Romero for his alleged involvement in the murders of two activists, Samir Flores and Sandra Rosa Camacho Flores. In May – three months after the first attempt on his life – a banner was left in the centre of Temoac, seemingly by a criminal group, accusing Lavín Romero of protecting its rivals and demanding he fall in line with their interests. His assassination comes as Mexico’s federal government takes steps to unpick the corruption networks between municipal authorities and criminal groups as part of Operation Swarm, under which 85 officials have been arrested across three states, including Morelos. According to official data, the homicide rate in Mexico has fallen by roughly half over the past year, although security analysts say the true reduction is likely smaller, while more than 130,000 people are registered as missing.

Ousted Ukrainian defence minister refuses any other role in Zelenskyy’s government – as it happened

And, on that note, we will be closing the blog for today. The EU has adopted its 21st package of sanctions against Russia, delayed by Greece pushing for a controversial concession on LNG exports (9:37), making Russia “the most sanctioned country in the world” (17:56). European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said the sanctions will “continue to weaken the economic foundations of Russia’s war effort” (9:37), while EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said they were “hitting Putin where it hurts most” (11:52). Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha welcomed the package saying that “every new sanction decision strengthens Europe’s security and makes Russia pay a proper price for its war of aggression.” The move comes as the foreign ministers of the US and Russia met on the sidelines of an Asian summit for bilateral talks, which also covered the Russian war on Ukraine (9:59, 10:04, 10:15, 10:34). Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy remains under growing pressure to reinstate his sacked defence minister (11:09), after Mykhailo Fedorov ruled out returning to administration in any other role (17:10), and his supporters vowed to continue rare wartime street protests until he gets his old job back. Ireland’s prime minister Micheál Martin was faced with awkward questions about a leading Irish metals refinery during his trip to Kyiv to meet with Zelenskyy (17:06). 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.

Owner of Viking ship used in The Odyssey says studio has not paid bill for damage

The Swedish owners of a Viking longship replica that features in the Hollywood blockbuster The Odyssey say they feel “forgotten” after film-makers allegedly returned the vessel damaged and failed to foot the bill for repairs. In nearly three decades at sea, the warship Glad av Gillberga – based on a wreck from around 1040 found in Denmark’s Roskilde fjord – has successfully sailed the North Sea, the Baltic and even voyaged to Canada. But after six months in the hands of Universal, which according to its owners promised to cover the cost of any repairs, it allegedly sustained considerable damage including to the stern and the mast. Vikingaleden, a nonprofit Viking centre in Värmland, western Sweden, said that when it invoiced Universal for the materials used to repair their ship (they did not charge for their volunteer labour), no payment arrived. A year later, while the Christopher Nolan epic starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway and Zendaya storms global box offices, taking $264m (£196m) in its opening weekend alone, it says it is still waiting for its $6,000 payment. Peter Olausson, chair of the Vikingaleden association, said that although he felt proud that the ship was featured in the film, that feeling had been tinged with injustice after the film giant’s alleged failure to cover the cost of damages. “We are only charging for the material cost, not the labour,” he said. “Of course Universal can afford this $6,000. We feel forgotten.” The ship is now back in action but Olausson accused Universal of going back on their word. “The agreement was that we would fix it and get financially reimbursed.” Olausson said that to Universal, the outstanding sum would be comparatively small, but for the 200-member association that runs the Viking “village” and museum, it is a significant amount. Universal has been contacted for comment. The critically acclaimed film, which reportedly cost $250m to make, is based on Homer’s ancient Greek epic poem about the king of Ithaca, Odysseus, on a 10-year sea journey home from the Trojan war. The Glad av Gillberga was used as one of the escort vessels in the flotilla, which are thought to have been similar to Nordic Viking ships. The main ship, Odysseus’s boat, was the 35-metre-long Norwegian replica Draken Harald Hårfagre. Its Swedish captain, Björn Ahlander, said life on the ships filming for six months around Greek and Italian islands was not easy for the 30-person crew. He told the broadcaster SVT: “We rebuilt the ship into an ancient Greek ship. We removed the tents and all the modern things and had an open deck that we lived on during this time. It was quite tough.”

Iran crisis is not solely a product of Trump’s rule | Letters

Simon Tisdall’s article (Trump, not Iran, is the world’s greatest danger. He’s a one-man weapon of mass destruction, 18 July) is a forceful polemic, but it risks turning a structural problem into a personal one. If Donald Trump is uniquely reckless, that deserves criticism. Yet the article implies that America’s present predicament is chiefly the consequence of his character, rather than asking why successive administrations, Republican and Democrat alike, have repeatedly resorted to military intervention in the Middle East. To focus on Trump’s defects risks making war itself appear as an aberration rather than as a recurring feature of American power. The same applies to the strait of Hormuz. Its strategic importance does not begin or end with one president. It reflects a global economic order that depends on secure energy supplies, trade routes and the projection of military power to guarantee them. That broader context is largely absent. The article also assumes that a more competent president, acting with Congress, allies and international law on side, would have avoided today’s crisis. History offers little comfort. We have been here before: the Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya conflicts were carried out under far more conventional presidencies. Trump may be the spectacle, but he is not the problem. The article focuses on the drama rather than the system that keeps producing it. David Eaton Sunderland • Simon Tisdall is right to identify the dangers to the world presented by the Trump administration and the president himself. Tisdall enumerates the recent damage, death and destruction that the Trump administration has presided over, seeing current excesses and abuses of power as dangers to the rest of us, as indeed they are. But the current excesses, overt and covert, can be seen as a continuation of American history and practice that not only has led to the 20th century being seen as the American century, but also as the century of US wars. Since the end of the first world war, we have seen the US initiate the war for oil, the war against communism, the war against drugs, the war against terror and the war against Islam. All continue to have negative impacts on the rest of the world, and perpetuate American foreign policy arrogance and belligerence. All these wars failed to achieve their supposed aims. They have also provided cover for other tyrannical governments to act in similar, if less universal, fashion. I’m not sure we should see Trump as an aberration – more as a more shameless manifestation of what has always been there. Blaine Stothard London • I agree wholeheartedly with Simon Tisdall, but he didn’t answer his own question: who will stop Donald Trump? The polls show his weakness, but the upcoming elections may not because the Democrats are so weak and Trump will inevitably confuse the results to his own benefit. The answer to the question must lie in the Republican party itself. Surely there are enough right-thinking Republicans to turn votes against him and force some control over his behaviour. It is beginning to happen. This may be the way to begin to bring him to heel, but it creates further issues before any real resolution. The immediate problem for the American people and the world is twofold. First, as the “wounded bear”, Trump will continue to do catastrophic damage before November’s elections. And second, Marco Rubio to take over? God save us all. Harvey Gilbert Milton Keynes • 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.

Israeli security minister joins Jewish extremists as they storm al-Aqsa mosque compound

Israel’s far-right minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, joined thousands of Jewish extremists who stormed Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site on Thursday. Escorted by armed police, they prayed, waved the Israeli flag and sang the national anthem in a provocative display of political power. Under a fragile, decades-old agreement known as the status quo, non-Muslim prayer is banned at the site, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif compound and to Jews as the Temple Mount. Ben-Gvir has eroded the agreement in recent years through a series of inflammatory visits to the compound, and unilateral changes to rules for Jewish visitors, including allowing them to bring prayers and printed religious material to the site. He installed an ideological ally as the head of the Jerusalem police force in January, smoothing the path to greater changes. In a statement, the Palestinian ministry of religious endowments and affairs said: “These provocative practices, emanating from the highest political levels of the occupying government, seek to ignite a religious war throughout the entire region.” Israelis prayed on Thursday in parts of the compound close to al-Aqsa mosque and the seventh-century Dome of the Rock shrine. Likud lawmaker Amit Halevi joined a group that raised Israeli flags and sang the national anthem, Haaretz reported, citing Israeli “Temple Mount” activists pushing for Jewish worship at the site. In a social media post, Ben-Gvir wrote “we see enormous progress here”, and Jews praying there “feel like the owners”. He has previously said he wanted to raise the Israeli flag at the compound and build a synagogue there. Thursday is the Jewish holy day of Tisha B’Av, marking the destruction at the same site of the 10th-century BC first temple and the second temple, which was destroyed by the Romans in AD70. Changes in the status quo agreement have historically driven conflict in Jerusalem and Palestine, with repercussions across the world. A visit in 2000 by the then Israeli opposition leader, Ariel Sharon, ignited the second Palestinian intifada, which lasted five years, and Hamas gave the name “al-Aqsa flood” to its attack on Israel in October 2023 that killed 1,200 Israelis and triggered the Gaza war, claiming it was provoked by Israeli violations at the Jerusalem mosque. The prayers outside al-Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock are a “dangerous provocation” by extremists seeking to ignite a religious war, the Israeli activist group Peace Now said in a post on X. “This directly violates the fragile status quo, which bars non-Muslim prayer at the holy site.” The Jordanian foreign ministry strongly condemned the storming and called on the international community “to take a firm stance obliging Israel, as the occupying power, to halt its ongoing violations against the Islamic and Christian sanctities in Jerusalem”. The Islamic Waqf Department, which officially manages the compound, said 3,228 Israelis entered the compound during the morning period, Al Jazeera reported. Thousands more are expected in the afternoon Earlier this year, the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, publicly backed Jewish prayer at the site, claiming changes pushed by Ben-Gvir were coordinated with him. Although his government has effectively torn up a key part of the fragile status quo, Netanyahu also insisted that Israel had not violated the agreement. Overnight, thousands of people marched through areas of old Jerusalem near the compound, and some attacked Palestinians and vandalised a Muslim cemetery near the Lions’ Gate entrance, Haaretz reported. Police arrested 16 Jewish suspects over the violence.