theguardian

Brent crude hits highest level since April while airline shares slide amid escalation of conflict in Middle East

The price of oil and gold has soared and stock markets have fallen afterIsrael’s strikes against targets in Iran.

The escalation of the conflict in the Middle East, the focal point of global oil production, prompted a sharp increase in wholesale prices. Brent crude surged by more than 7% after news of the attacks broke, briefly moving above $75 (£55) a barrel to its highest level since April.

Stocks fell on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones dropping 1.8%, the S&P 500 falling 1.1% and the Nasdaq down 1.3%. Airline stocks, including Delta, United and American declined on fears that fuel costs could climb if there were issues with oil supply.

News of the strikes affected the aviation industry as airlines cleared the airspace over the region, while investors turned to safe investment assets such as gold.

The British Airways owner, IAG, was the top faller on London’sFTSE100, closing 3.7% down, and shares in the airline easyJet ended the day 2.7% lower.

One of the top risers on the UK blue-chip index was the weapons producer BAE Systems, up almost 3%, reflecting concerns that the Israel-Iran conflict could escalate. In the US, the share prices of military suppliers including Lockheed, Northrop Grumman and RTX all rose. The oil companies BP and Shell also gained value, with the former closing nearly 2% up and the latter closing just over 1% higher.

The price of gold was trading about 1% higher on Friday afternoon at $3,426 an ounce, close to the record high of $3,500 it hit in April.

“The geopolitical escalation adds another layer of uncertainty to already fragile sentiment,” said Charu Chanana, the chief investment strategist at Saxo. Stocks dived in Asia, with Japan’s Nikkei down 1.3%, South Korea’s Kospi falling 1.1% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dipping 0.8%.

In Europe, major markets across Germany, France, Italy and Spain all closed at least 1% down. In London, the FTSE 100 ended the day down 34 points at 8,850, 0.4% belowThursday’s record closing high.

Israel, which said its attack was a “pre-emptive strike” over Iran’s nuclear programme, has declared a state of emergency as its military said Tehranhad launched 100 drones in retaliation.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, called Israel’s strikes againstIrana “unilateral action” and said Washington was not involved.

The move to perceived safe haven assets has resulted in the yield on 10-year US Treasury notes falling to a one-month low of 4.31%.

Derren Nathan, the head of equity research at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “It’s not just the outlook for Iranian exports that’s a concern but also the potential for disruption to shipping in the Persian Gulf’s strait of Hormuz, a key route for about 20% of global oil flows and an even higher proportion of liquified natural gas haulage.”

Much of the world’s oil, as well as key commodities such as grain, passes through busy sea lanes in the Middle East, including the strait of Hormuz.

Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning

There are concerns in the maritime supply chain that continued conflict between Israel and Iran could lead to a de facto closure of the strait, which is considered a vital entry point for container ships calling at ports in the wider Gulf region.

All UK-flagged ships were advised on Friday to avoid sailing through the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, according to a document from the Department for Transport. The Greek shipping association has urged shipowners to provide details of vessels sailing through the strait.

“Any closure of the strait of Hormuz would see services rerouted, with increased reliance on Indian west coast ports for connecting the far east to the Indian subcontinent,” said Peter Sand of the shipping analytics company Xeneta. “The inevitable disruption and port congestion, as well as the potential for higher oil prices, would cause a spike in ocean freight container shipping rates.”

A large-scale return of container ships to the Red Sea now “seems less likely”, according to Sand.Attacks on vessels by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen18 months ago led to many ships being diverted around the Cape of Good Hope, a rocky headland on the Atlantic coast of the Cape peninsula in South Africa, adding thousands of miles to journeys and pushing up shipping rates.

Energean, a UK gas producer, said on Friday it had temporarily suspended the production and activities of its facility off the coast of northern Israel.

Energean told investors it had received a notice from Israel’s ministry of energy and infrastructure ordering the suspension “following the recent geopolitical escalation in the region”.

Critics say history shows recreational shooting is not as effective as evidence-based baiting and aerial shooting programs

Get ourbreaking news email,free appordaily news podcast

In a back-to-the-future move, the Minns Labor government has backed a Shooters and Fishers partybill that will promote hunting in state forests and crown lands in NSWand recognise “conservation hunting” as a legitimate tool to control feral animals.

The NSW premier,Chris Minns, has thrown his support behind a proposed Conservation Hunting Council, to the horror of environmental groups which warn of a repeat of the now-defunct Game Council.

The Game Council, which served as the licensing agency and regulating agency, resulted in more, not less, feral animals in public lands, particularly feral deer which came to be managed not as a pest but as a hunting species.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

One difference from the previous regulatory regime is that hunting will not be permitted in NSW national parksbut will be in state forests and crown lands with a permit.

The Invasive Species council’s chief executive Jack Gough said the bill would divert funding from effective control programs to hunters and would lock in state forests as “de facto game parks and breeding grounds for pests”.

The authority would effectively become “a taxpayer-funded propaganda vehicle for the shooting lobby” that could “undermine the social licence for effective feral animal control nationally – particularly aerial shooting and baiting”, he warned.

Environmental groups urged the premier to re-consider and be guided by the science, which they argue clearly demonstrates that recreational shooting is not as effective as evidence-based baiting and aerial shooting programs.

But with the Coalition also likely to support the latest hunting plan, the bill looks likely to be passed when NSW parliament resumes on 24 June.

The latest plan is something the Shooters and Fishers party have long pressed for.

“Recreational and conservation hunters are vital partners in controlling invasive species such as feral pigs, rabbits, foxes and wild deer inNew South Wales,” Shooters MLC Robert Borsak said as he introduced the bill last week.

“Unlike sporadic and government-run management programs, which cost New South Wales millions of dollars each year, recreational and conservation hunters contribute over half a billion dollars to the New South Wales economy, mainly in regional and rural areas.” he said.

Minns has also floated introducing a bounty scheme, which is also strongly supported by the Shooters.

The government denies it has done a deal with the Shooters party to support other legislation, but it needs the two Shooter votes and others to pass legislation, when the Greens oppose bills.

Sign up toBreaking News Australia

Get the most important news as it breaks

“It is not just coincidence that this radical expansion of recreational shooting rights in NSW is being supported by the government at the same time as the Minns Labor government is trying to cut injured workers off from their compensation payments,” said Greens upper house MP Sue Higginson.

The conservation hunting bill would create a new conservation hunting authority to represent the interests of hunters, make recommendations to the agriculture minister, promote research into “game, feral and pest animal management issues” and into the benefits of hunting. It would also “promote, develop and deliver educational courses regarding game animals”.

The authority would have eight members, while seven of those would have voting rights. Four of the voting members would be nominated by hunting organisations.

The bill proposes other changes, including enshrining a “right to hunt” and recognition of hunting as a conservation management tool.

It would also require managers of some public lands – primarily state forests and travelling stock reserves and excluding national parks – to consider the impact on hunters of any land management activity.

James Trezise, the chief executive of the scientist-led Biodiversity Council, said evidence showed professional programs were most effective for controlling invasive species.

For example, he said feral pigs had been effectively eradicated from Kangaroo Island off South Australia through a multi-year dedicated control program using professional shooters. He also pointed to the NSW government’s recent efforts in the Kosciuszko national park to use all tools available, including aerial shooting, to cull thousands of feral horses, deer and pigs.

Environment minister Murray Watt is returning from oceans conference where he pledged to curb the scourge of plastics and ratify a treaty to protect the high seas

Sign up for climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s free Clear Air newsletter here

The federal environment minister, Murray Watt, is returning from a UN oceans conference where he pledged to curb the scourge of plastics and make good on Australia’s promise to ratify a treaty to protect the high seas.

The five-day meeting in Nice, France finished on Friday, and conservationists celebrated some key steps towards protecting wildlife in international waters.

But on plastics, campaigners warned that Australia’s drive for an international treaty needed to be matched with ambition domestically.

In 2022, Australia joined a “high ambition coalition” to push for a global treaty on plastics, buttalks in December failed to produce the treaty.

The treaty aims to cut the production and consumption of virgin plastics, phase out problematic plastics and introduce design rules to minimise environmental harm and make recycling and re-use easier.

Cip Hamilton, the plastics campaign manager at Australian MarineConservationSociety, said attention on the treaty would now focus on talks in Geneva in August, when she would travel with Indigenous rangers from north-east Arnhem Land.

That community in Australia’sNorthern Territorywas being inundated by so-called ghost nets – discarded or lost industrial fishing gear – and other plastics washing up onshore, Hamilton said.

Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter

“There is about 250kg ofplastic leaking into our environment every minute. Once it gets into the environment, it’s almost impossible to get it out and it’s causing devastation to our wildlife,” she said.

“We need to be enacting domestic solutions … Recycling alone won’t end plastic pollution.”

Jeff Angel, a leading plastics campaigner and director of theBoomerang Alliance, said Australia’s desire for a global plastics treaty “must also mean high ambition at home”.

Australia had a substantial “unfinished” agenda dealing with plastics, he said, withrecycling and recovery rates stuck at just 12.5%.

“The vast majority of plastic polluting our coasts, waterways, public spaces, soil and air is generated domestically,” Angel said.

While in Nice, Australia joined nine other countries, including France, the UK and Spain, in a new coalition tohalt the extinction of sharks and rays.

A federal government spokesperson said this would “generate momentum for urgent, coordinated conservation efforts”.

Watt told the conference Australia would expand its ocean area protected from fishing, drilling and miningto 30% by 2030.

Adam Morton brings you incisive analysis about the politics and impact of the climate crisis

The Albanese government also said it would bring in legislation before the end of the year to ratify a landmark global high seas treaty it signed in 2023, and had been two decades in the making.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, said enough countries hadcommitted to ratifying the treatythat it could come into force as early as January 2026.

The treaty covers the 60% of the ocean that is beyond the jurisdiction of any individual country – about 90% of the ocean by volume.

Prof Tim Stephens, an international law expert at the University of Sydney, said the treaty would probably be “very widely ratified” around the world.

“The high seas has remained an ungoverned area,” Stephens said. “Australia has been an incredibly strong supporter of this treaty process that at several points could have fallen over.

“The high seas is an area where states have freedoms, like navigation, research and fishing, but that also means they haven’t been adequately managed and protected.”

The treaty– an agreement under the 1982UN Convention on the Law of the Sea– would allow for countries to nominate areas of the high seas for protection and would regulate access to marine genetic resources (which, for example, could be used in research or to develop new technologies).

Stephens said the treaty would require signatories, including Australia, to assess any impacts that new activities in domestic waters, such as major fossil fuel projects, could have on the high seas.

This would reinforce that members of the UN convention had obligations to protect the marine environment, he said.

This would mean countries could be held to account under the treaty for protecting the high seas “in a way we have not seen before”, he added.

Another motion on agenda at party’s state conference calls for withdrawal from Paris agreement

Get ourbreaking news email,free appordaily news podcast

TheNew South WalesNationals have passed a motion at their state conference in Coffs Harbour that calls on the party to “reinstate our full support of the use of coal in power generation”, keep coal power stations open and explore building new high efficiency, low emissions coal fired power stations in the future.

The motion was proposed by the Orange branch and the Northern Tablelands state electorate council and was carried easily on Friday.

On Saturday, the NSW Nationals will consider whether to abandon Australia’s commitment to achieving net zero emissions by 2050, when debate resumes at the party’s weekend state conference.

The motion has been placed on the agenda by the Tweed state electorate council, in Northern NSW and is expected to spark torrid debate. A separate motion from the Young Nationals calls for the Nationals to advocate for withdrawal from the Paris agreement.

Since the federal election in May, the Nationals have continued to fight publicly and privately over whether to hold fast to the goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions by 2050, a target they agreed to in 2021, despite strong internal opposition.

A decision to abandon the target by the NSW branch, which contains more moderate elements of the Nationals, would be a new headache for federal opposition leader, Sussan Ley, who managed to patch up the Coalition last month after the Nationals briefly announced they would split.

It would also increase pressure on the Nationals leader, David Littleproud, who has stuck by thenet zero target to date, despite deep internal dissent.

The rapprochement in the Coalition was achieved by Ley agreeing to discuss the Coaltion’s future position on net zero internally in coming months.

“We have to play, as a country, our part in the global response to climate change. Net zero, Paris targets, gas, all of the resources, conversations around critical minerals, they’re all part of that,”Ley said recently.But she has added it cannot come at any cost, leaving open a possibility of a more nuanced position.

On the other hand, Ley faces deep concern in her own Liberal party over the lack of climate policy, particularly from the moderates.

The Liberals have now lost all their federal heartland city seats in Sydney to independents who campaigned on tackling climate change.

The Nationals state conference also passed a motion on immigration calling for the slashing of Australia’s immigration targets by 50% for four years, to below 100,000 a year.

A motion from the Young NSW Nationals branch, aimed at providing incentives to boost Australia’s birthrate, was defeated.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

The motion called on the party to support “a 25% income tax discount per child, up to a maximum of four children for parents … to encourage a strong and growing Australia”.

A family with four children would have paid no income tax at all.

Another motion from the Coffs Harbour branch, which called on the Nationals to provide subsidies to stay-at-home parents equivalent to the subsidies their taxes would have contributed towards government funded childcare, was also defeated.

Both policies would have cost billions. The Howard-era baby bonus of 2004 caused only a slight uptick in the birthrate before the downward trend continued.

The overall fertility rate has dropped in recent decades, falling from two babies per woman in 2008 to1.6 in 2023.

The Northern Tablelands branch is proposing tough new policies on bail. The motion calls for no bail for offenders who already have a criminal record in the last five years and for offenders who commit a crime while on bail.

The Cowra branch has proposed a motion that advocates for the removal of Australian citizenship from people born overseas and deportation if they commit serious crimes or demonstrate “toxic, antisocial behaviour or prejudice”.

Exclusive:As the shortest day of the year draws near, government study shows how earlier sunsets curb economic activity and public transport trips

Get ourbreaking news email,free appordaily news podcast

Daylight saving and its delayed sunsets encourages people to stay out later and spend more money,New South Walesgovernment data shows. The data also found more evening light attracts people to public transport and out of their cars.

Conversely, that uptick in mobility almost entirely vanishes in the days after clocks are wound back an hour, as earlier sunsets cut post-work social and economic activity, the data showed.

The contrasts in night-time behaviour are most pronounced between the peaks of summer and winter. However, the data focused on how NSW residents responded to shifting an hour of daylight from the morning to evening and vice versa.

This was done by comparing data from the final week of standard time and first week of daylight saving (which begins in early October) – and the corresponding fortnight six months later, when daylight saving ends in early April. Public holidays were excluded from the data.

In the week beginning 7 April 2024, when daylight saving ended in NSW, there was a 14.8% decrease in night-time trips, down from an average of 450,000 in the final week of daylight saving to 383,000 in the first week without it. Night trips were defined as journeys made between 6pm and 6am on the state’s Opal public transport network.

Over the fortnight, the proportion of night-time tap-offs as a share of total daily tap-offs dropped from 23.6% to 22%.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Night-time movement – based on mobile phone data when people aged 20 and above move to a new location and stay there for at least 15 minutes – dropped by 9.7%, from an average of 5.46m in the final week of daylight saving to 4.93m in the first week without it.

Proportionally, night-time movement activity as a share of all daily movement activity dropped from 30% to 28.3%.

The earlier sunsets also affected economic activity. There was a 12.9% drop in night-time in-person spending at businesses such as restaurants, bars and retail, down from a nightly average of $44.1m in the final week of daylight saving to $38.4m. Over the fortnight, the proportion of night-time spending as a share of spending across the day dropped from 18.5% to 16.5%.

The figures also revealed the reduction in nightly movement, public transport use and spending in the transition out of daylight saving was not made up for by the extra hour of sunlight in the morning.

Instead, there was an overall decrease in mobility, spending and public transport activity across the whole day without daylight saving.

“This analysis underscores daylight saving time’s key role in boosting night-time economic activity and community engagement in New South Wales,” the NSW 24-hour commissioner’s office said.

“The data demonstrates a uniform reduction across the week and across all metrics, indicating that the shift back to standard time (between April and October) broadly diminishes participation in evening activities.”

The report also found that when exiting daylight saving, “this effect is more pronounced on the weekends, suggesting that the reduction in evening daylight hours particularly impacts leisure and social activities that are more common during this time”.

“The impact on public transport usage over the weekend nights is the strongest, suggesting a growing preference to private transport options … as the evening gets darker and colder earlier,” the report said.

By contrast, comparing the weeks either side of 6 October 2024, when daylight saving time resumed, a noticeable uptick in all three activity areas was observed.

Nightly average Opal tap-offs increased by 11.1%, from 400,000 to 445,000. The share of tap-offs each day between 6pm and 6am rose from 21.1% to 26.1%.

Night-time people movement activity increased by 7.7%, from a nightly average of 5.13m to 5.53m. The proportion of an average day’s movement activity occurring at night rose from 27.8% to 33.9%.

Meanwhile, night-time in-person spending rose by 10.5%, from a nightly average of $39.8m to $44m, with the share of an average day’s spending between 6pm-6am rising from 16.8% to 20.5%.

A spokesperson for the 24-hour economy commissioner’s office said the uptick in night activity in the first week of daylight saving, particularly on Tuesday and Wednesday, was likely the result of people going out after work.

In the same period, Sunday recorded strong increases in Opal tap-offs and spending but only a modest rise in total people movement trips.

“This pattern suggests that a large proportion of the increased night-time visitation on Sunday was by public transport, indicating that many visitors are willing to take public transport in the evening while it remains light outside,” the spokesperson said.

While the NSW data was anonymised,studies have found darkness has a disproportionately negative effect on women’s mobility.

A 2023Transport for New South Wales surveyfound 59% of female respondents felt unsafe walking after dark, compared with 31% of men. Poor lighting was identified as the most common reason.

The ability for daylight saving and an hour of extra sunlight each evening to influence consumer behaviour is well documented. AUniversity of Queensland studyfrom 2021 found the state’s lack of daylight saving costs its economy$4bn in lost productivity each year.

Similarly, a campaign in the 2010s for the UK to have two hours of daylight saving in summer and one during winter – effectively shifting its time zone forward an hour – predicted that in addition to boosting spending,80,000 jobs would be created, boosting the economy by £2.5 to £3.5bn annually.

Australian prime minister to tell world leaders, including US president, that free trade can help calm rising global insecurity

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Anthony Albanese will tell Donald Trump and the leaders of the world’s biggest economies that free trade can help calm rising global insecurity, as next week’s G7 summit looks set to be dominated byconflict in the Middle East.

The prime minister will visit technology giant Amazon’s Seattle headquarters on Sunday, on his way to talks with world leaders in Alberta next week, a trip he hopes will include his first face-to-face meeting with the US president.

Amazon and the federal government are building new top-secret data centres in Melbourne, set to allow the country’s military and intelligence agencies to collaborate with overseas partners on highly secured networks.

But, after Israel’s strikes on Iran and a retaliatory barrage of missiles ordered by Tehran,the meeting in Kananaskisis expected to focus on the fallout from the Middle East crisis.

Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email

Albanese will tell business leaders on Sunday that the summit will be focused “on the significant security and economic challenges facing the world”.

“But we should not lose sight of the profound opportunities that can be realised by closer and deeper cooperation,” he will say at the event hosted by Australia’s ambassador to the US, Kevin Rudd.

He will talk up the government’s plans on energy security and critical minerals, expected to be offered up in negotiations with the US as Australia seeks an exemption from Trump’s punishing aluminium tariffs.

“We will continue to advocate for free and fair trade, for the jobs it creates and the investment it drives,” Albanese will say.

“We will hold true to the principles of shared opportunity and collective responsibility that are vital to building a more secure, prosperous and stable region – and world.”

The federal government has so far failed to lock in a meeting withthe US presidenton the sidelines of the G7.

Albanese is part of a long list of world leaders seeking their first face time, including the European Union’s Ursula von der Leyen and the Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum.

Sign up toBreaking News Australia

Get the most important news as it breaks

The Pentagon’s review of the Aukus nuclear submarines agreement will be a top agenda item if Albanese and Trump hold talks.

The shadow defence minister, Angus Taylor, said Albanese should “do whatever is necessary to get a meeting with the president at this time”.

So far the Amazon project, dubbed the Top Secret Cloud, will see the federal government fund construction of new data centre facilities and pay for their use. Additional investments are expected, as Albanese called the deal a demonstration of joint Australian-US ties.

The world’s largest cloud computing company, Amazon already has significant deals to provide national security systems in the US and United Kingdom. The data centres provide access to Amazon cloud products as well as critical backup capabilities for an outage event taking government servers offline.

Albanese is expected to meet with executives from companies including BHP, Diraq, Trellis Health, Airwallex and Anthropic while in the US.

The G7 host, the Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, has ditched the practice of a lengthy joint statement from summit participants. Trump objected to a series of similar communiques in his first term.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade issued updated travel advice for Israel on Friday, warning nowhere in the country was safe for travel due to the volatile security situation.

Dolphin Surf will start at £18,650 – among the cheapest new vehicles on sale in Britain

The Chinese manufacturer BYD has launched its cheapest model in the UK, in the latest stage of its efforts to overtakeTeslaas the world’s biggest electric carmaker.

The Dolphin Surf will start at £18,650, a price that puts it among the cheapest new vehicles on sale in Britain.

BYD is vying with American rival Tesla, run by Elon Musk, for the crown of world’s biggest battery carmaker, although BYD already beats Tesla when including figures for hybrid cars, which combine a battery with a petrol engine.

The Chinese carmaker registered more pure electric cars than Tesla in Europe for the first time in April. Tesla just about remained the biggest seller of EVs globally in 2024.

Tesla has since been hit by a backlash over Musk’s role in Donald Trump’s administration. Registrations for new Teslas in Europehalved in Aprilcompared with the same month a year earlier. Musk remains the world’s richest man, worth more than $400bn (£295bn), according to Forbes.

Electric cars are alreadymuch cheaper to own than their petrol equivalentsfor most people, but the arrival of smaller models with a comparable sticker price to fossil fuel cars is seen as important in persuading lower-income buyers.

Analysts suggest that BYD has a lot of room to cut the price of the Dolphin Surf further. The company sells a near-identical model under the Seagull name inChinafor about £6,000, although Chinese safety regulations are significantly less onerous.

The company’s European growth has come despite the EU imposing17.4% tariffs on BYDon the grounds of allegedly unfair state aid from China.

In contrast, the UK has not added tariffs on Chinese electric cars, and has therefore been the biggest target market for Chinese brands. BYD sells through a network of dealerships across Britain.

The UK accounted for 30% of all Chinese electric models sold in Europe in March, according to Matthias Schmidt, an electric vehicle analyst, with brands like Xpeng, Leapmotor and Jaecoo, owned by state-controlled Chery also trying to win market share.

Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning

Schmidt has cautioned against writing off European carmakers, which already have several smaller cars on sale, and more on the way. The cheapest electric car on sale in the UK is the Dacia Spring, which costs £14,995, although its official range is only 140 miles. The Citroën ë-C3 starts at £18,305, while Renault’s well-received 5 model starts at £22,995.

The Dolphin Surf has an official range of up to 137 miles, but also has some features that are generally found on more expensive models, such as a rotating touchscreen and driver assistance functions like intelligent cruise control and automatic emergency braking.

BYD has taken a deliberate decision to offer much of the same technology on lower-end models as are found in its premium vehicles, in an effort to drive down the cost of sensors and software whilemaintaining its lead over rivals.

The Surf uses BYD’s Blade battery, which relies on lithium iron phosphate (LFP) for its cathode. LFP batteries are made from cheaper materials than lithium batteries that use more expensive nickel, manganese and cobalt (NMC) – although the latter offer better performance such as longer range.

While carmakers in Europe have until now mostly focused on NMC batteries to help assuagerange anxietyamong early adopters, LFP batteries have proved to be hugely popular among Chinese buyers looking for a cheaper upfront cost. More than 80% of electric cars sold in China in 2024 used LFP batteries, according to data cited by Kallanish Commodities, an industry news provider.

BYD’s main Chinese battery rival,Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Limited(Catl), has also invested heavily in LFP technology in the race to dominate the global electric vehicle industry. Both companies are also competing to offer full recharging in minutes.

Christian Tein, who denies accusations of instigating violence in the French territory in 2024, will remain under judicial supervision

A French court freed an independence leader from the overseas territory ofNew Caledoniawho had been detained for a year over deadly riots in 2024.

Christian Tein, who is indigenous Kanak , was charged and incarcerated over therioting on the Pacific archipelago in May last yearthat left more than a dozen dead.

He has beenheld in custody in eastern France since June 2024but has always denied accusations of instigating the violence and sees himself as a political prisoner.

In a hearing attended by Agence France-Presse, the Paris appeals court ordered the release of Tein on Thursday after a video call with him in which he promised to respond to future judicial summons and to live with his partner in easternFrance.

They ordered his release under judicial control on condition he does not return to New Caledonia nor enter into contact with other suspects in the case, a source close to the case said.

Prosecutors have lodged an appeal.

One of Tein’s lawyers, Francois Roux, on Thursday hailed what he called “a first victory”.

“This is a decolonisation case that is being followed by the United Nations,” he said, adding it was regrettable to see “pro-independence activists being treated like terrorists”.

New Caledonia, nearly 17,000km (10,500 miles) distant from mainland France, in the Pacific Ocean, is one of several overseas territories that remain part of France.

Christopher Luxon’s visit to Beijing comes as former NZ PMs warn the country must not become part of defence arrangements ‘explicitly aimed at China’

New Zealand’s prime minister will meet Xi Jinping on a formal visit to China next week, his office has confirmed, a week after an open letter signed by some of his predecessors warned against positioningNew Zealandas an “adversary” of its biggest trading partner.

Christopher Luxon is scheduled to travel to Shanghai and Beijing, before going to Europe. His office said he will meet Xi and China’s premier, Li Qiang, for a visit focused on trade, but which would also discuss “the comprehensive bilateral relationship and key regional and global issues”.

“The challenging global outlook makes it vital that we are sharing perspectives and engagingChinaon issues that matter to New Zealand,” Luxon said.

It will be Luxon’s his first visit to China since he was elected in October 2023.

The announcement of the visit comes a week after an open letter signed by former New Zealand political leaders, including former prime ministers Helen Clark and Sir Geoffrey Palmer, urged Luxon to use his visit “to make it clear at the highest level that New Zealand retains its bipartisan commitment to its strategic partnership with China”.

The letter said recent government statements appeared to be “positioning New Zealand alongside the United States as an adversary of China”.

“We see considerable disadvantage to New Zealand in becoming part of defence arrangements, including the associated prospective Aukus Pillar Two, which are explicitly aimed at China,” they wrote.

“We do believe that a military relationship with the United States directed against China has many risks for New Zealand.”

“It would not be surprising if China were to come to the conclusion that the special relationship which New Zealand has had with it since becoming the first developed country to have a free trade agreement with it in 2008 is no longer so valued by New Zealand,” the letter said.

Foreign minister Winston Peters has dismissed the letter, saying there was “no value in indulging the tired arguments of various former politicians/officials who appear to be suffering from relevance deprivation syndrome”.

In May, Peterstold the Guardianthe Pacific must be protected from becoming a military zone amid China’s growing push for influence in the region.

New Zealand’s relationship with China has been subject to debate, as the US-Beijing rivalry heightens tensions in the region, and Beijing’s behaviour grows more expansionist. In February, China’s military heldlive-fire drills in the Tasman Sea, with little to no notice given, prompting rebuke from both Wellington and Canberra.

Speaking to the Guardian at the Shangri-la dialogue in Singapore earlier this month, prior to the letter and Luxon’s announcement, New Zealand’s defence minister, Judith Collins, defended the government’s hawkish turn, which includes almost doubling its defence spending, saying it was “about time”.

“The Pacific will become an area of strategic tension and competition. And the best way to prepare for that is to do our bit to defend ourselves, but also to work with Australia and like-minded partners as much as possible,” she said.

Temperatures over 40C recorded in Portugal and Spain, while China endures heatwave conditions in high 40s

Temperature records for early June are being broken across large parts of Europe, with the mercury reaching 40.5C (104.9F) in Mértola,Portugal, on Sunday. On the same day, several weather stations in Spain recorded temperatures in excess of 42C, with dozens of sites at record levels for early summer. Across the Balkans, temperatures reached 37C. On Monday, 37.6C was recorded in Tirana, Albania, while in Greece night-time minimum temperatures have stayed mostly over 30C for much of this week.

Hot conditions are to intensify across central and westernEuropeover the next few days, with temperatures across large parts of France, Benelux, Italy and west Germany expected to reach the low to mid 30s celsius. Highs of up to 35C are expected in Paris on Friday, with up to 38C forecast in Rome. Conditions will ease somewhat, but a heatwave will soon develop across Iberia, with Madrid expected to reach the high-30s celsius each day next week.

Meanwhile, parts ofChinahave also been in the midst of brutal heatwave conditions. Temperatures in northern China rose to 46.8C on Sunday at Mangxiaohu in Xinjiang province. Temperatures also hit 45.5C in Toksun. China’s meteorological authority issued the first high temperature heatstroke alert for the year at the start of the week, issuing yellow alerts for large parts of the country. The national college entrance examinations are taking place and forecasters have urged students to take precautions to protect against the heat.

By Monday, temperatures across the north of the country had risen further, with the city of Turpan in Xinjiang reaching 44.8C, while the weather station at Mangxiaohu reached 47.1C. It follows one of the warmest springs on record: China’s average temperature for the March-May period was 11.8C, the fourth highest in history. Temperature records were broken at nearly 300 weather stations.

InCanada, the military were forced to evacuate a remote Indigenous group on Monday as wildfires spread. More than 3m hectares (7.4m acres) of forests and hundreds of buildings have been destroyed so far this year. The wildfires moved from the Prairies region into Ontario, the country’s most populous province, and continue to rage.