News and stories from all over the world

Donald Trump
Trump has created a slush fund of taxpayer money to give to his friends
Moira Donegan
Thu 21 May 2026 14.00 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 14.10 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/may/21/trump-slush-fund-anti-weaponization

Donald Trump is stealing almost $2bn in taxpayer money and handing it out to his friends. That’s the upshot of the president’s recent agreement following a $10bn lawsuit he brought in his personal capacity against the IRS, an agency that he oversees. Trump brought the suit over leaks of some documents from his tax returns to the press. To resolve the suit, the justice department will create a fund of nearly $1.8bn – a wildly outsized figure compared with Trump’s somewhat flimsily alleged injuries – that can be doled out to Trump allies. The Guardian describes the fund as “loosely controlled and secretive”, but members of the Trump administration have not ruled out January 6 i nsurrectionists as possible awardees.

The so-called “Anti-Weaponization Fund” will be administered by four commissioners appointed by Trump’s attorney general and one appointed “in consultation” with congressional leadership – Trump, who can fire the commissioners, will have ultimate control. It will have the authority to issue formal apologies for alleged mistreatment of conservative political actors by previous administrations – ie, those few who were prosecuted or sued during the Biden era. When Trump leaves office, any remaining money will not be available for his successor to use similarly, but will instead be distributed back to the federal government. But I doubt that there will be any remaining money. We may never know either way: there is no requirement that the fund’s work be made public, and required reports to the attorney general on its conduct are to be confidential. In addition to the creation of this massive slush fund, the agreement also requires that the IRS drop all audits of Trump and his family.

“The machinery of government should never be weaponized against any American,” said the acting attorney general, Todd Blanche, which is probably news to all those who have been subjected to politically motivated prosecutions by the justice department since Trump returned to power.

It is worth stating plainly what happened: the president sued an executive agency over which he claims – and wields – de facto total control. The defendant, the IRS, was represented by lawyers at the justice department – which Trump also controls. Since all the parties were under Trump’s personal control, the federal judge in charge of the case questioned whether there could really be a conflict at play – she commissioned an independent group of lawyers to examine the issue, who filed a brief saying that there was “reason to believe that the president is, in fact, exercising his control over the defendants in this litigation”. The agreement was reached at the 11th hour, just before that judge’s 20 May deadline asking the parties to explain how, exactly, they were actually in conflict. The little matter of the law would not be allowed to get in the way of a payout.

It is an extraordinary incident of bald self-dealing, even in an administration where such blatant corruption has become de rigueur. Trump’s second administration, even more than his first, has been marked by conflicts of interest and the widespread use of public office for personal enrichment by White House personnel. The interests of the nation are being subverted to the interests of the president and his cronies’ finances, as a group of the shameless, the greedy, and those unburdened by principle bend the massive buying and regulatory power of the federal government toward those who pay them off, and take a little off the top for themselves.

Why has Trump’s corruption not been the preoccupying media story of his second term? Maybe because it is the most technical and least lurid of his schemes, paling in drama and violence to his persistent diminishment of the democratic constitutional order, or his mass deportation ethnic cleansing effort, or his ties to the dead pedophile financier Jeffrey Epstein, or any of his alleged personal sexual assaults on women – all of which he has denied. Or perhaps the Trump administration’s widespread self-dealing has simply evaded notice because it is so brazen and unconcealed, benefiting from the press and the public’s misguided sense that a cover-up is worse than a crime. But the corruption that Trump has facilitated in Washington is likely to be one of his most enduring legacies. It is setting a precedent for future administrations; degrading the quality of federal projects and federal policy; transferring wealth to Trump’s allies and those willing to participate in such dealings at a massive scale; and instilling a profound sense of cynicism in bureaucrats, politicians and voters alike, who increasingly distrust their government as a self-interested scam in which graft is ubiquitous and civic-mindedness is for suckers.

Do Americans care about being scammed so much? I suspect they would, if the extent of Trump’s corruption was made clear to them, and if the issue was made salient. The Democrats have long been bad at messaging, strangely unwilling to aggressively attack Trump when it matters and unable to dictate the terms of the public conversation in an era when much of political media and discourse takes place on the same platforms controlled by Trump’s allies and patrons. But the issue is worth seizing on ahead of the midterms, if only for its plain simplicity. Americans are suffering, paying more for all their goods, struggling to find meaningful or fairly compensated work, and being mocked by a president who thinks of them as inconsequential, stupid and worthy of contempt. They do not like being stolen from; they do not like being played for fools.

Moira Donegan is a Guardian US columnist

Enhanced Games
Enhanced Games could tempt more young people into doping, Wada warns
Sean Ingle
Thu 21 May 2026 13.00 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 13.01 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2026/may/21/enhanced-games-could-tempt-more-young-people-doping-wada-warns

The World Anti-Doping Agency says it is concerned that Enhanced Games’ athletes will tempt more young people into using performance-enhancing drugs.

The stark warning comes before the controversial $50m event in Las Vegas on Sunday, which allows competitors to take banned drugs – and offers huge prizes if they win races and break world records.

Organisers of the Enhanced Games, which includes track and field, swimming and weightlifting events in its inaugural competition, have called it “the future of sports and human performance”. High-profile competitors who have won world titles or Olympic medals will include US sprinter Fred Kerley, British swimmer Ben Proud and Australian swimmer James Magnussen.

However, the global anti-doping body told the Guardian that the Enhanced Games “goes against everything Wada stands for” and said the event was using elite athletes to sell banned drugs and anti-ageing products to people who might not be aware of the risks involved.

“Wada has consistently made its view clear that the Enhanced Games is a dangerous and irresponsible concept,” a spokesperson told the Guardian. “Wada is concerned that events involving elite athletes that promote the use of PEDs could result in more people, including young people, being tempted to use PEDs. This obviously goes against everything Wada stands for.”

The Enhanced Games allows athletes to use substances that are banned in elite sport, including testosterone, EPO and human growth hormone, arguing that they are safe if taken under medical supervision as they have been approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. However Wada told the Guardian that was not the case.

“Just because a drug is FDA-approved, which includes most of the substances on Wada’s prohibited list, it does not mean it can be taken risk-free,” a Wada spokesperson said. “These powerful drugs can cause serious harm – sometimes immediately, sometimes months or years later.

“Steroids, for example, can increase the risk of heart attack, stroke and liver damage. Human growth hormone can trigger diabetes, heart problems and abnormal growth in organs and bones. And taking exogenous testosterone can lead to an increased risk of hypertension, heart attack and blood clots, as well as infertility and testicular shrinkage, increased aggression, anxiety and depression.”

Wada also warned against the practice of “stacking” various drugs together in an effort to further improve performance, which some Enhanced Games athletes, including Canadian strongman Mitchell Hooper, have been open about doing. “The reality is that sports medicine still doesn’t fully understand the long-term consequences of stacking multiple substances together at the doses elite athletes might use to chase records,” Wada’s spokesperson said.

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor
No evidence of formal security vetting when Andrew became UK trade envoy, minister says
Alexandra Topping
Thu 21 May 2026 13.59 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 14.08 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2026/may/21/security-vetting-due-diligence-prince-andrew-uk-trade-envoy

Formal security vetting and due diligence appears not to have been carried out before the appointment of Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor as a trade envoy, the government has said, as it emerged that the late queen was “very keen” for her son to take up a prominent role in promoting Britain’s interests.

The first batch of documents relating to the appointment of the former prince as trade envoy by Tony Blair in 2001 includes a memo dated 25 February 2000 and addressed to Robin Cook, then the foreign secretary, in which the then chief executive of British Trade International, David Wright, said Queen Elizabeth II’s “wish” had been for Mountbatten-Windsor, then the Duke of York, to take on the role.

The government published historic documents concerning the appointment on Thursday in response to a parliamentary move by the Liberal Democrats and said it had found no evidence that formal due diligence or security vetting was carried out at the time, despite the role giving Mountbatten-Windsor access to senior government and business contacts around the world.

“We have found no evidence that a formal due diligence or vetting process was undertaken. There is also no evidence that this was considered,” Chris Bryant, a trade minister, said in a written statement to parliament.

Bryant said this was “understandable since this new appointment was a continuation of the royal family’s involvement in trade and investment promotion work”, and because Mountbatten-Windsor was replacing the Duke of Kent, who was stepping down from his role as vice-chair of the Overseas Trade Board.

The government’s response, which includes the publication of 11 documents that show how the role was created and Mountbatten-Windsor was appointed, comes after the Liberal Democrats tabled a humble address in parliament calling for the publication of papers on his role, including any vetting and any correspondence from Peter Mandelson, the disgraced former ambassador to the US.

In the February 2000 memo to Cook, Wright suggested Mountbatten-Windsor’s role would include some regional trips and two or three overseas visits each year, as well as a “leading trade mission from time to time”.

He wrote: “Finally, we would want the Duke of York to be available to receive prominent trade visitors from overseas here in London and perhaps act as host at meals or receptions as appropriate.”

The senior official said he “did not envisage that the Duke of York would want to be burdened with the regularity of meetings of the board of British Trade International or the burden of paper which goes along with the board membership”.

Wright added: “We would nonetheless ensure that he was kept in touch with board developments and issues.”

The documents also show that Mountbatten-Windsor’s aide told the government that he preferred to go to “sophisticated countries” and to see ballet rather than theatre on overseas visits. He “should not be offered private golfing functions abroad”, said the aide, as this was a “private activity” and if the then prince “took his clubs with him, he would not play in any public sense”.

Mountbatten-Windsor served as the UK’s special representative for international trade and investment from 2001 to 2011, an unpaid role in which he travelled the world meeting senior business and government figures.

The second son of the late queen became the first royal family member to be arrested in modern times when he was held over claims of misconduct in public office. Emails appeared to show him sharing confidential information with the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein while working as the trade representative. He has previously denied any wrongdoing in relation to Epstein.

Christo
Christo: Air review – surprisingly profound manifestation of the wrapper’s impossible dream
Eddy Frankel
Thu 21 May 2026 12.33 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 12.35 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2026/may/21/christo-air-review-gagosian-grosvenor-hill-london

W hen he wasn’t busy wrapping buildings and bridges in vast reams of fabric, Christo was wrapping absolutely nothing. The Bulgarian artist made his name – alongside his partner Jeanne-Claude – with a wrapped Reichstag , a swaddled Arc de Triomphe and an enveloped Pont Neuf . They found a way of containing, embracing, protecting and smothering the whole world. But in the 1960s, he was trying to wrap air. Nothing more.

Christo (Jeanne-Claude hadn’t been given full joint credit at this point) wanted to contain the air within a room, but the original idea was limited by technical constraints. Now, 50 years after it was first proposed for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, and six years after Christo’s death in 2020 , he’s finally pulled it off. The opening room at Gagosian has been bisected horizontally, a huge polyethylene sack splitting the room in two, held to the ceiling by white ropes. It droops low, sinking into the middle of the space, forcing you to crouch to get under it. You’re forced into a physical relationship with the work, bullied into changing how you interact with the environment.

The space is still functionally, realistically, empty – there’s nothing up there but air. But now that air has been made physical. It has a visible presence.

The amazing trick of this work isn’t just making air into something tangible, it’s giving it a sense of weight. The plastic sack sags, bulges bulbously against the ropes. It hangs down into the space, presses itself heavily into the room. It looks like flesh that can’t be contained by clothes, love handles bursting over a too-tight waistband. How amazing is that? Making air visible, physical, heavy.

It’s not the only time Christo worked with air. He spent the 60s making wrapped bubble works, trying to contain the uncontainable. Photos in a vitrine show a work for Documenta in 1968: a giant polyethylene tube they could barely erect. It’s shown flapping about flaccidly before the US Air Force showed up and got it standing to full attention. It’s ridiculously, hilariously phallic, a superhuman boner of air and plastic reaching to the heavens in a German park. It makes the bodily implications of the main work all the more apparent: it’s not just air made visible, it’s air made flesh, bound by rope. Christo, you old dog.

In the last room, an old Volvo belonging to one of his art dealer mates has been wrapped in a sheet. The dealer had bought a new motor but was too attached to the old one to let it go to the scrapyard. Christo’s intervention is an act of conservation. He has preserved this car’s past life, saved all the memories worn into its leather, metal and rubber for eternity. It sits here as a monument to its own past.

Christo’s work is a funny mixture of profound and ridiculous. The car is just a Volvo in a sheet. The main installation looks like Gagosian got some dodgy builders in and they couldn’t be arsed to tidy up. But then the works trigger all these thoughts of space and weight, bodies and intimacy, history and memory. You think about your body in this room, the air that you’re breathing, the hours someone spent in that car driving down a motorway to see their family or go to the seaside, and wow, all of sudden you feel a bit emotional. And all Christo needed to achieve that effect was some ropes, a sheet and a really, really big plastic bag.

Christo: Air is at Gagosian, Grosvenor Hill, London , until 21 August

Food
From momos to punchy chai, these festival favourites are great at home
Georgina Hayden
Thu 21 May 2026 13.41 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 13.42 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/food/2026/may/20/feast-georgina-hayden-food-festival-flavours-at-home

T his weekend, my social media was flooded with swoon-worthy shots from the Ballymaloe Festival of Food in Ireland, one of my favourite events in the food world’s social calendar. It really is exceptional, because of its range of stalls, personalities and demos, and because you also get a glimpse into the world of the ever-inspiring Allen family (I desperately want an outbuilding purely for fermenting and making sourdough, à la Darina ).

Weekends such as this are becoming more and more popular, and they’re undoubtedly a fun and great way to try a range of cuisines, but you don’t have to go to a food festival to enjoy decent festival food. Almost all festivals have great culinary offerings now – I’ve had some highly memorable meals at the likes of Glastonbury , End of the Road and Latitude . Forget living off kebabs and chips after a day dancing in a field; some of my highlights have been meals such as Tibetan momos, vegan thali with sweet chai and Goan fish curry. While there is no Glasto this year, there are plenty of other places to get your fix – you could even bring the party home.

The Goan fish curry stall at Glastonbury is a real institution, and Felicity Cloake’s recipe for Goan seafood curry hits all the right notes (and can be made a bit fancier by the addition of juicy king prawns – yes, please). I’ve already planned ahead to make a batch for the last weekend of June and to enjoy it while sitting in the garden wearing muddy wellies and adorned in glow sticks. I’m also a sucker for a chewy momo when at a festival, and this is the recipe (pictured top) I have always made with my girls. Mild in flavour and fun to put together, they’re a great way to get kids helping in the kitchen. For slightly more advanced momos, Meera Sodha’s fiery sweet potato ones are a real joy. And, despite being a hardcore coffee addict, I love nothing more than a sweet, spiced chai when I’m at a festival: it is both soothing and energising. That said, by the evening, I’m usually reaching for something with a bit more of a punch – a bit like Heritage Dulwich’s Bhojpura cutting chai : with a splash of both Baileys and vodka, it is perfect for when the evening gets a bit chilly.

For more traditional food festival offerings, you’re looking at the likes of a cheese toastie and, yes, even the aforementioned kebabs. Honestly, after a long day and a bit of inevitable rain, there are few things more comforting than a crisp, oozing cheese butty. My top three are Tom Kerridge’s simple, chutney-filled version , Lori de Mori and Laura Jackson’s quince and spring onion toastie – inspired by their much-loved Towpath Cafe in London – and Maunika Gowardhan’s glorious chilli cheese toastie .

And, last but never least, we have those kebabs. Often associated with post-drinking fodder, in our house they are regularly on the menu. They really are the perfect street and festival food. I adore Samin Nosrat’s recipe for kufte kebabs , Rukmini Iyer’s quick and easy tandoori chicken skewers with coriander chutney and that perennial favourite, proper souvlaki . Whether in a field, after the pub or just at home on a Sunday afternoon, a lemony, chargrilled pork souvlaki is always welcome. Yamas!

My week in food

Where to get your fix | With Blenheim Palace and Sheffield food festival taking place this weekend, the season is officially in full swing. Some of my favourite food stalls to look out for are Tibetan Kitchen for incredible momos, a reuben from Archie’s Toasties , Dosa Deli for the best dosas and Chick’n’Sours for when only incredibly tender, crisp fried chicken with seaweed salt will do.

Take your own | If you love an outdoor get-together, but would rather take your own meal, there’s always the option of a picnic hamper or afternoon tea. Depending on price point and what you’re after, there are so many options: Cutter & Squidge does a sweet afternoon tea box, perfect for sitting on a lawn while listening to music, DukesHill has a wide range of hampers, with beautiful artisanal produce for all occasions, and, if you really want to push the boat out, then Fortnum & Mason always delivers on every front.

No place like home | If, on the other hand, festivals aren’t your thing, but you want some low-effort street food, many caterers and restaurants offer at-home meal kits (one of the better things to come out of lockdown). I’m a huge fan of The Beefy Boys and their phenomenal burgers ( their book is fantastic, too), Matsudai has an excellent selection of ramen kits, and you can still get the lockdown classic Pizza Pilgrims kit , but now from Ocado. And if, after all that, you still want a kebab, then Dishpatch have relaunched my own souvlaki kit , which comes with all the accessories.

If you want to read the complete version of this newsletter please subscribe to receive Feast in your inbox every Thursday.

Spain
Girl, two, dies after being left in car as extreme heat sweeps Spain
Sam Jones
Thu 21 May 2026 12.39 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 13.16 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/21/girl-dies-car-extreme-heat-spain

A two-year-old girl has died of heatstroke in north-west Spain after being accidentally left in her father’s car during an unseasonably hot spell that could push temperatures in some areas to 38C (100F).

The child, who has not been named, went into cardiac arrest on Wednesday afternoon after spending several hours inside the vehicle in the Galician town of Brión after her father forgot to take her to nursery.

According to media reports , the man had driven his older child to school that morning and had intended to drop the toddler at nursery when he was distracted by a phone call. Instead of heading to the nursery, he went to work, leaving the child in the car.

The alarm was raised that afternoon when the girl’s mother went to pick her up from the nursery at 3pm and was told she had not been dropped off that morning. Realising what had happened, the parents called the emergency services and the girl was taken to a health centre in the nearby town of Bertamiráns, where she was pronounced dead.

Police are investigating the incident and the family is receiving psychological support.

Brión town council declared two days of official morning for the girl and said a minute’s silence would be held in her memory on Friday.

“We would like to offer our deepest condolences and all our support to the family of the little girl who lost her life in Brión yesterday, as well as to all her friends, while we make all the municipal resources they need available to them in these difficult times,” the council said . “May she rest in peace.”

Spain has been bracing for the kind of heat more commonly associated with midsummer. The state meteorological office, Aemet, said the “ exceptionally high temperatures ” could reach 36-38C in some southern parts of the country.

“Throughout May, we have recorded a prolonged period of below-normal temperatures,” it said. “Now comes the complete opposite: a period of very high temperatures for this time of year across most of the country. In fact, some days could break heat records.”

Aemet said the hot spell, which does not meet the technical criteria to be declared a heatwave, would probably last until the middle of next week.

Spain, one of the European countries most exposed to the effects of the climate emergency , has experienced a growing number of heatwaves and a sharp increase in large forest fires in recent years.

A 2022 Aemet study found that the arrival of 30C temperatures across Spain and the Balearic islands had come, on average, 20-40 days earlier over the previous 71 years.

“The summer is eating up the spring,” Rubén del Campo, an Aemet spokesperson, told El País at the time. “What’s happening fits perfectly with a situation where you have a warmer planet,” he said, adding that rising temperatures were a “direct and palpable [consequence] of climate change … The climate in Spain isn’t the one we used to know. It’s got more extreme.”

Spain recorded its highest ever temperature in August 2021, when the mercury in the Andalucían town of La Rambla, near Córdoba, reached 47.6C .

Kurt Vile
Kurt Vile: Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me review – indie-rock’s most easygoing dude gets existential
Shaad D’Souza
Thu 21 May 2026 13.30 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 13.31 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2026/may/21/kurt-vile-philadelphias-been-good-to-me-review-indie-rocks-most-easygoing-dude-gets-existential

T hese days, Kurt Vile songs begin in the middle of the story. In the third decade of his career, the journeyman musician seems even more content than ever to ride his own wave, to let his laid-back koans sit in the air without explanation or context, waiting for a listener to find the right frequency to understand or absorb them in their own time. The Philadelphia guitarist and songwriter opens his 10th record – an auspicious number for any musician – in the least auspicious, most Vile of ways, mumbling his way through the moment: “Smoke on my lip / I wrote a song / Some people said / I was doin’ it wrong,” he sings, his plainspoken warble as familiar, at this point, as the taste of Coca-Cola, or the smell of a summer thunderstorm.

Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me relies on the fact that Vile, 46, is an elder statesman of indie rock at this point, and that it would be downright strange for him to put on any airs, or even for him to sound as if he was performing for any kind of audience. The album never labours its points or trades in anything so tacky as radical departures in sound or style. It is, emphatically, a Kurt Vile record – loose, lush, ambling, aimless, and totally, deeply poetic, bruh.

He broke out in the early 2010s with a trilogy of records – 2011’s Smoke Ring for My Halo; 2013’s Wakin on a Pretty Daze; 2015’s B’lieve I’m Goin Down … – that established him as one of indie rock’s most beloved, easily iconic figures: the long-haired stoner-philosopher quietly pumping out music that was virtuosic but unbothered, a figure of profound, understated realness rubbing shoulders on festival bills with self-consciously grandstanding acts such as Arcade Fire and Grizzly Bear. Although never as flashy or famous as those peers, Vile has maintained a level of consistency like few of his contemporaries, while refining and complicating that dirtbag shaman image.

Tap into Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me and you will find that Vile sounds as alarmingly great as ever, and more formally forward-thinking than he’s ever been. On 99th Song and Holiday OKV, he emerges as something like a jangle-pop Steve Reich, scatting and mumbling his way over subtly changeable loops, letting his repetitive grooves expand and contract alongside lyrics that pivot between the quotidian and the riotously profound. 99th Song is named for the fact that his loop pedal can only even contain 99 loops, and he turns that image into a blissful exploration of ageing from the perspective of a married father of two (“Got love in my life and three girls by my side / I’m holdin’ it down and takin’ it slow”) while Holiday OKV is a nervy referendum on his own chill sensibility: “I dream big, bomb hard, crash’n’burn, took a nose dive / Man, it feels so good to be alive.”

Vile says he’s treating this album as if it were his last, and it certainly has an air of omniscient wisdom, and a getting-the-band-back-together flair that’s enhanced by warm, high-in-the-mix backing vocals by musicians such as Natalie Hoffmann, of the underrated Memphis punk band Nots, and longtime Vile collaborator Jesse Trbovich. On the ramshackle blues of 99 BPM, he reminisces about making music with friends and a moment in time that “was 2012, but it felt like 2014”; the album’s title track lingers warmly on tour stops in Baltimore and homecomings to the Schuylkill River.

Behind every rose-coloured reminiscence is a looming sense of finality; exhaustion seeps into the sweet, sunshiny groove of Rock o’ Stone, while Every Time I Look at You, with its admission that “I flew close to the sun / And I had a whole lotta fun” feels as if it was written with the remove of someone looking back on brighter days. Vile’s music has always been about existence, but it’s rarely been this existential. Combined with these songs’ hypnotic, elliptical structures, it creates a stark sense of unease and unrest. Vile’s voice will always sound chill and extraordinarily comforting, but that voice belies some kind of deep dread this time around.

Could that be because of politics? Ageing? The climate crisis? Vile would never be so gauche as to let you know, instead preferring to let images shape like tea leaves in the bottom of a cup. The only thing he leaves certain is his own music. The album’s final line is: “You know what I mean, and you know the way I roll.” He’s assuming that’s a comfort – and rightly so.

This week Shaad listened to

Prophetic Justice Ministry – Psyop Anthemic, blown-out psych pop that sounds like it was recorded in the Sistine Chapel.

Philadelphia’s Been Good to Me is released 29 May

Australia news
Eleven Australian Gaza flotilla activists detained by Israel expected to be deported to Turkey
Josh Taylor
Thu 21 May 2026 13.42 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 13.59 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/may/21/eleven-australian-gaza-flotilla-activists-detained-by-israel-expected-to-be-deported-to-turkey-ntwnfb

Eleven Australians who were detained by Israeli forces while sailing in a flotilla to deliver humanitarian aid to Gaza are expected to be deported within hours.

It is understood the Australians, who were part of the Global Sumud flotilla and detained in Israel for three days, were on Thursday being transferred by bus to Ramon airport in southern Israel, where consular officials would seek access to them before departure.

It is understood Israel plans to deport the Australians by charter flight, arriving in Istanbul, Turkey overnight Australian time, where consular officials in Istanbul will deploy to the airport to provide assistance.

Neve O’Connor, Sam Woripa Watson, Anny Mokotow, Isla Lamont, Juliet Lamont, Surya McEwen, Zack Schofield, Dr Bianca Pullman-Webb, Gemma O’Toole, Violet Coco and Helen O’Sullivan have been held by Israeli forces since their ships were intercepted on Monday .

Joanne Jaworowski, Zack Schofield’s mother, said she was relieved about her son’s release, but that she had not received any information about Zack’s welfare.

“It is almost unbearable for me to think about what he has gone through over the more than three days at the hands of the brutal Israeli forces, and I shudder to think about the even worse treatment that the 11,000 Palestinian prisoners suffer every single day,” she said.

“My heart will not be calm until I have heard directly from Zack, that he is safe and unharmed.”

Jacinta McEwen, Surya McEwen’s mother, said: “We are overcome with relief that our kids are coming home”, but added that she was angry about the circumstances.

A spokesperson for the flotilla said the Israeli prison service and state officials had confirmed all detained had been released from the Ktzi’ot detention facility and were en route to deportation.

The move to deport the activists came after Israel’s national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, was widely condemned in Australia and across the world after posting a video of himself abusing bound activists captured from the flotilla.

In the video, dozens of men and women are seen kneeling in rows, with their foreheads to the ground and their hands zip-tied behind their backs.

Ben-Gvir waved an Israeli flag and shouted: “Welcome to Israel, we are the landlords.”

The foreign minister, Penny Wong, said the images were “shocking and unacceptable” and that she had asked Australia’s ambassador to Israel to make representations to Israel to reiterate the government’s call for the release of the detained Australians.

Moments before news of the Australian detainees’ release was made public, the Israeli ambassador, Hillel Newman, condemned Ben-Gvir’s actions, but said the IDF’s interception had been handled with “great sensitivity”.

“No one out of the 400 plus people that were on the flotilla – no one was harmed,” he told the ABC.

“The interception itself was done with great sensitivity by the state of Israel, by our security forces.”

Earlier on Thursday, he addressed reporters at parliament house.

“There can be ministers in Australia, politicians in Australia, even part of a party that is ruling, that can do things that are disgraceful. The question is, how you respond and whether you condemn it. In this case, Ben-Gvir was condemned by the leadership of the state of Israel.”

He said Ben-Gvir’s humiliation of the human rights defenders had been “condemned by the government of Israel entirely”.

“It’s not acceptable, it’s disgraceful … it does not reflect our values … and therefore is condemned and declared disgraceful and harmful to the state.”

Rivers
Record number of dams dismantled in Europe in effort to help wildlife thrive
Ajit Niranjan
Thu 21 May 2026 14.14 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 14.32 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/may/21/record-number-of-dams-dismantled-in-europe-in-effort-to-help-wildlife-thrive

A few miles downstream from a lava field in western Iceland, the gargle of free-flowing water is unbroken for the first time in decades after hydraulic peckers chipped away at a dilapidated dam that once powered a farm. The structure on the River Melsá had continued to block fish migration long after falling into disrepair.

“It wasn’t providing any electricity; the old power house had sheep living in it,” said Hamish Moir, a river engineer from CBEC, a Scottish firm that provided technical support for the demolition in December. To see the river restored to its natural state was “really rewarding”, he said.

The dam was officially the first that Iceland has removed from its rivers, but across Europe a record-breaking 602 barriers were removed last year, according to new analysis. A report from Dam Removal Europe found that the number of dams, weirs, culverts and sluices dismantled grew by 11% from the year before, letting more waterways resume their natural course. It is part of a global trend to restore rivers to help wildlife thrive.

The 2,324 miles (3,740km) of rivers that were reconnected through barrier removals in 2025 brings the EU a step closer to its goal of restoring 15,500 miles to their natural state by 2030.

Chris Baker, the director of the European branch of Wetlands International, said: “For centuries, Europe treated rivers as engines for economic growth – damming them for mills and hydropower, straightening them for navigation, and burying them beneath cities. We built our prosperity by fragmenting our rivers, but the ecological price has been enormous.”

River barrier removals have increased sixfold from the first official count in 2020, according to the report. It found that Iceland and North Macedonia took down barriers for the first time in 2025. Sweden led the way with 173 barrier removals, followed by Finland with 143 and Spain with 109. The UK has removed 35 barriers.

Dam Removal Europe is a coalition of environmental groups pushing to make rivers and streams free-flowing once more. Its analysis found that more than three-quarters of the barriers removed in 2025 were less than 2 metres tall. Such structures, many of which no longer serve their original purpose, are relatively cheap and easy to remove.

The damming of rivers disrupts ecosystems, hinders the transport of sediments and is thought to have contributed to a 75% decline in the continent’s freshwater migratory fish population since 1970. Rivers reconnected last year include the Kriva and Pčinja rivers in North Macedonia, a first for the small Balkan nation, while in Norway an obsolete 6-metre-high dam on the Vinstra River was dynamited.

Restoring rivers to their natural state helps wildlife thrive, though researchers caution that it can also present new risks. A study last year found artificial barriers could slow the spread of invasive species, presenting a “connectivity conundrum” in which barrier removals may allow new threats to travel from one part of a river to another.

Ellen Donovan, a biologist at Queen’s University Belfast and lead author of the study, said: “While initial improvements in connectivity can be rapid, stressors such as invasive species can eventually accumulate and erode longer-term conservation value. With careful preparation, monitoring and long-term management, these risks can be minimised.”

More than a million barriers break up Europe’s waterways, with tens of thousands thought to be obsolete. The EU’s nature restoration law, which entered into force in 2024, explicitly calls for their removal so rivers and lakes can be reconnected.

In the US, where streams are fragmented by more than 550,000 dams and 300,000 road-related barriers, an estimated 70% of dams have outlived the average design life. According to data from American Rivers, a nonprofit, 100 dams were dismantled in the US last year. Conservation efforts in China have resulted in the removal of hundreds of dams on the Yangtze River in recent years.

Baker said: “People increasingly understand that obsolete dams are not monuments that must stay for ever. Many are simply ageing industrial relics causing ongoing ecological damage.”

Israel
UK summons Israel’s chargé d’affaires over video of minister taunting activists
Peter Beaumont
Thu 21 May 2026 14.18 CESTLast modified on Thu 21 May 2026 14.42 CEST
News
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/21/uk-israel-video-itama-ben-gvir

The UK has summoned Israel’s chargé d’affaires as international outrage escalates over a video posted by the national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, in which he is seen taunting activists detained after a Gaza-bound flotilla was intercepted .

The global outcry continued as Israel began releasing hundreds of the activists who attempted to breach Israel’s naval blockade of Gaza and are in the process of deporting them, according to a legal organisation working with the flotilla.

Italy’s foreign minister, Antonio Tajani,, said on Thursday he had asked EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, to discuss sanctions on Ben-Gvir, “for the unacceptable acts committed against the flotilla, seizing the activists in international waters and subjecting them to harassment and humiliation, in violation of the most basic human rights”.

Poland’s foreign ministry said it was calling for a ban on Ben-Gvir entering the country over the video showing the far-right minister taunting detained flotilla activists who were handcuffed and kneeling.

Britain’s Foreign Office issued a statement harshly denouncing the treatment of the arrested activists.

“This behaviour violates the most basic standards of respect and dignity for people. We are also deeply concerned by the detention conditions depicted and have demanded an explanation from the Israeli authorities. We made clear their obligations to protect the rights of all those involved,” it said.

Human rights groups have documented widespread , systemic torture and abuse of Palestinians in Israeli prisons and detention centres during Israel’s war in Gaza, prompted by the Hamas-led attacks on 7 October 2023.

But the humiliating treatment of the Gaza flotilla activists, has drawn unusually strong international condemnation of Israel, reflecting growing frustration with the country’s policies in Gaza, Lebanon and in its joint war with the US against Iran.

Greece on Thursday also called on Israel immediately to release its nationals, the government spokesperson Pavlos Marinakis said.

The European Council president, Antonio Costa, said he was “appalled” by the way Ben-Gvir had treated aid flotilla members attempting to enter Gaza. “This behaviour is completely unacceptable. We call for their immediate release,” he said.

Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia MeloniTajani, demanded an apology for the activists’ treatment and what she called Israel’s “total disrespect” for Italy’s requests.

Turkey said on Thursday it was sending planes to retrieve its citizens and others who participated in the flotilla, Hakan Fidan, the Turkish foreign minister, said. About 85 Turkish nationals took part in the latest flotilla, according to local media.

The backlash has also prompted criticism within Israel and from the prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, who defended the interception of the flotilla but said Ben-Gvir’s treatment of the activists was “not in line with Israel’s values and norms”.

Netanyahu said on Wednesday that he had instructed that the activists be deported “as soon as possible”.

Despite Netanyahu’s comments, Israel has a history of intercepting vessels at sea trying to reach Gaza, including with lethal force. In 2010, nine activists on the MV Mari Marmara were killed when Israeli commandos stormed the ship. A 10th person later died of their wounds.

On Wednesday Gideon Saar, Israel’s foreign minister, criticised Ben-Gvir over the treatment of the activists, saying he had harmed Israel in a “disgraceful display” and undermined the work of Israeli soldiers and diplomats.

“No, you are not the face of Israel,” Saar wrote on X.

The US’s ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee – usually an uncritical supporter of Israel – also made a rare criticism of Ben-Gvir, saying that while the flotilla was a “stupid stunt”, Ben-Gvir had “betrayed the dignity” of Israel.

The Israel-based legal advocacy group, the Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, also known as Adalah, said on Thursday that all of the international activists were in transit to a civilian airport near the southern Israeli city of Eilat for deportation.

The group said one participant, Zohar Regev, was in a court hearing in the southern city of Ashkelon on charges of illegal entry into Israel and unlawful stay. Regev, who holds Israeli citizenship, has taken part in previous flotillas to Gaza.

Ben-Gvir was appointed security minister by Netanyahu despite a number of convictions, including for incitement to racism and support for a proscribed Jewish terrorist organisation.

The activists’ boats set sail from Spain to Gaza in April, with organisers saying they want to draw renewed attention to the conditions for nearly 2 million Palestinians in the Gaza Strip. Israel stopped 20 vessels from the group on 30 April near the southern Greek island of Crete and forced most of its activists to disembark there.