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Separately, I am also keeping an eye on Italy, with reports that several schools are being evacuated after receiving bomb threats by emails.

According to Rai and Sky TG24, the email was signed by “Mikhail Andropov” – the same name used in several hoax bomb alarms against European flights last week.

US-led talks in Abu Dhabi break up after four hours but are expected to resume tomorrow as Zelenskyy says humanitarian issues were discussed

• US officials seek ‘final end’ to Russia-Ukraine war as talks begin

The EU has said it stands ready “to come with a swift and united response” after France blamed Iran for a spate of cyber-attacks on supermarket freezers and chillers that caused millions of euros of damage.

Speaking to journalists on Monday, French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot said “Europe-wide sanctions” would be imposed against those responsible as he announced France believed that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were “responsible for this attack”.

We acknowledge that France has attributed these (cyber-attacks) to Iran. Pending discussions with member states, we as (the) European Union, we stand ready to come with a swift and united response.

We as the EU, we have consistently called on all states to refrain from malicious behaviour in the cyberspace. And we will continue to address such malicious behavior, making use of all the tools that we have also under the EU cyber diplomacy toolbox, including sanctions.

Third day of indirect talks as Qatar tries to negotiate release of $6bn in Iranian assets that could lead to waterway’s reopening

Officials from the Gulf states are “braced for the worst” as they wait for Washington’s response to an Iranian proposal that could reopen the strait of Hormuz before the US midterm elections on Tuesday.

Indirect talks in Doha ran into a third day on Sunday with Qatar trying to negotiate the release of more than $6bn in Iranian assets, which could lead to the reopening of the strait of Hormuz and the restart of negotiations on Iran’s nuclear programme.

Alleged self-dealing by the president and his allies doesn’t look so good as corruption emerges as a key issue for midterm voters

• Government corruption a top issue for US midterm voters, exclusive poll finds

Voters under 50 probably won’t remember the “welfare queen”. But she once embodied Republicans’ claim of the underlying reason for US societal decay: the poor are a bunch of fraudsters.

Ronald Reagan introduced Linda Taylor to US voters at a rally during the Republican presidential primary season in 1976. A resident of Chicago’s South Side, Taylor had been arrested for welfare fraud. “She used 80 names, 30 addresses, five phone numbers to collect food stamps, social security, veteran’s benefits for four non-existing deceased veteran husbands,” Reagan said. “Her tax-free cash income alone has been running $150,000 a year.”

The Qatari government gifted him a luxury jet, potentially violating the emoluments clause of the constitution.

The UAE gained access to some tightly guarded, high-end American AI chips soon after an investment firm linked to its ruling family secretly bought a $500m stake in World Liberty Financial, the crypto company funded by the families of Trump and his chum Steve Witkoff.

Rich people facing criminal charges have taken to donating to Trump’s political operations and then seeking pardons or clemency. Most recently, Wanda Vázquez Garced, the former governor of Puerto Rico, and the banker who paid her bribes, Julio Herrera Velutini, were pardoned after Velutini’s family gave a $50m deal to Alina Habba, Trump’s former personal lawyer, and donated $3.5m to Trump’s Maga Inc Super Pac.

The first family is also making a killing from the government. The Pentagon lent more than $600m to Vulcan Elements, a rare earths startup, just three months after Donald Jr’s venture capital firm 1789 Capital bought a stake in the outfit.

Powerus, a drone maker backed by Eric and Donald Jr is selling drone interceptors to Persian Gulf allies of the US that are under attack by Iran, enriching the kids from a misbegotten war launched by the dad without consulting Congress.

IISS study questions overreliance on American support and ‘overdependence on expensive, high-end systems’

Gulf states are going to have to reconfigure their trillion-dollar defences given the damage inflicted on their economies and the questionable continued value of US bases in the face of Iranian attack, according to a study by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

The report says that in the weeks before the 8 April ceasefire, 12 regional states, overwhelmingly in the Gulf, faced 4,670 Iranian one-way attack drones and more than 1,400 ballistic missiles. Nearly half were aimed at the United Arab Emirates. Although the vast majority were repelled, one estimate of the damage to energy infrastructure cited by the report is put as high as $58bn (£43bn).

Critics cite Lana Nusseibeh’s denial of accusations the UAE is fuelling Sudan war by supporting paramilitary RSF

Members of the Sudanese diaspora and international human rights monitors have denounced the candidature of an Emirati diplomat for the top job at the UN, citing her denial of accusations that the United Arab Emirates is fuelling the war in Sudan by supporting the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.

The UAE nominated Lana Nusseibeh last week to replace the UN secretary general, António Guterres, as he finishes his second five-year term ⁠this year, upending a race that had become gridlocked.

Lana Nusseibeh has been the face of a disastrous Emirates policy that has prolonged war and death. It is a scandal that she is even being considered

Over the past few years, you can plot the plunge into global instability not only through the unchecked assaults on international law and civilian life, but through the decline and undermining of the authority and credibility of international institutions. The latest level in this spiral is the proposed appointment of Lana Nusseibeh of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) as the UN secretary general. Her bid has been rapidly gaining momentum and endorsements. And it has been met with outrage among the Sudanese.

Nusseibeh is the minister of state at the UAE and a former UAE ambassador to the UN. For the past three years, the country has been connected to – bear with me, this will be a long sentence – supporting the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia in Sudan, facilitating mercenaries to fight alongside the militia (which is accused of ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and sexual violence), and appropriating international aid infrastructure to smuggle weapons into the country.

Lana Nusseibeh has Palestine’s endorsement but faces criticism over UAE’s record on human rights and Sudan

An Emirati diplomat who as UAE ambassador to the UN helped secure the delivery of humanitarian aid to Gaza has entered the race as a late contender to succeed António Guterres as the world body’s secretary general.

Lana Nusseibeh, who is of Palestinian heritage, is widely noted for her advocacy of the Palestinian cause and the two-state solution and has won the endorsement of the state of Palestine.

The story of the emirates’ presence in Manchester winds from the Arab Spring to some of the most deprived places in England – with complicated results

• Emirati-linked firms’ ownership of Manchester land ‘up 39%’ in 10 years
  
  

When Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s long-ruling dictator, was toppled from power in the Arab spring protests of 2011, his downfall sent shock waves across the Middle East. It also helped change the face of modern Manchester.

Mubarak’s successor, the Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Morsi, was a sworn enemy of the United Arab Emirates, whose rulers feared the advance of Morsi’s Islamism.

Capt Smit Machchhar said he screamed for help as he reached to open the cockpit door on flight FZ1073

The captain of a flydubai flight who was attacked by a co-pilot who intended to crash the plane has described ⁠blocking axe blows to his head and screaming for help as he reached to open the cockpit door.

Capt Smit ⁠Machchhar has been hailed ⁠as a ​hero for his role in averting disaster on the flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv last month, helping to thwart what the UAE ⁠attorney general has said was an attempted suicide attack by the co-pilot who had intended to crash the plane into Ben Gurion airport.

United Arab Emirates will reportedly resume payments to Yemeni forces as gains by Iran-backed Houthi fighters alarm Gulf state rulers

• Yemen civil war: what sparked latest escalation and who is involved?

The United Arab Emirates has agreed to re-enter the Yemen conflict by resuming payments to some government forces fighting Iran-aligned Houthis in the south, according to sources in Yemen. In return, Saudi Arabia has agreed to provide air cover for the anti-Houthi force.

The new cooperation agreement is the first tangible sign that the deep rift between the UAE and Saudi Arabia over Yemen’s future is starting to be healed – if only because the advance by Houthi forces across Yemen has alarmed all the rival Gulf state rulers.

MyCentre leader Samir Mohtadi, who also goes by Abu Hamza, refers to Islamic texts on the virtues of staying silent

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A leader of a Melbourne Islamic centre allegedly linked to the accused Flydubai hijacker has released a video extolling the virtues of staying silent, without directly commenting on the accusations from prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates.

Dr Hamad Saif al-Shamsi, the attorney general of the UAE, on the weekend said that investigators had traced the ideological and professional background of the 29-year-old suspect and that their findings indicated his “drift towards extremism and terrorism” began while he was studying at RMIT University in Melbourne in 2017.

Hammam al-Hammami is believed to have been targeting the passenger terminal at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv

The co-pilot who tried to seize control of a passenger jet flying from Dubai to Tel Aviv last week was planning to launch a suicide attack targeting the passenger terminal at Israel’s international airport, prosecutors in the United Arab Emirates said on Friday.

Hammam al-Hammami attacked the plane’s Indian pilot with an emergency axe, but failed to prevent his badly injured colleague from opening the cockpit’s security door to allow passengers to overpower his assailant.

The escalating violence reflects deep domestic rifts – but is fuelled by broader geopolitical power games

When the Nobel peace laureate is announced on Friday, the committee will be hoping that its choice ages better than 2019’s. Ethiopia’s prime minister, Abiy Ahmed, won the prize for ending the 20-year border conflict with neighbouring Eritrea – signing a peace agreement with President Isaias Afwerki. A year later, their new relationship facilitated a war with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) that killed as many as 600,000 people, displaced millions more, led to atrocities by both sides, and pushed Tigrayans into famine.

Both sides bear responsibility for failing to properly implement the deal that ended that conflict in 2022, and the African Union and US did little to ensure that a piece of paper became a durable settlement. Now violence has resurged in northern Ethiopia, and old foes are forming bizarre new pacts. Last month, seven Ethiopian regional groups announced an “Alliance for Survival” to remove the federal government. Mr Abiy’s coalition is held together by his patronage, but so far may be faring better than his rivals, united solely by shared loathing of him and riven by deep disputes. The TPLF, which controls Tigray, has previously battled the Fano militia of Amhara, and their territorial dispute endures. Ethiopia accuses Eritrea – previously accused of atrocities against Tigrayan civilians – of backing the rebel alliance. Despite Asmara’s denials, there are multiple reports of Eritrean troops in Tigray.

Police and security agencies in multiple countries scramble to piece together background and intentions of Hamam al-Hammami

Investigators believe the co-pilot who tried to take control of a plane from Dubai to Tel Aviv last week originally planned his attack for July but postponed the hijacking, possibly because a friend was among the crew, regional and Israeli officials have said.

The evidence of prior planning suggests that Hamam al-Hammami, 29, may have specifically sought employment with an airline that flew to Israel in order to carry out the attack on last Wednesday’s flydubai ‌flight FZ1073, experts believe.

Operation supported by 100 fighter jets said to have secured ‘air protection’ of Bab al-Mandab strait and destroyed hundreds of targets

Leaders of a Saudi-led coalition in Yemen claimed a broad air campaign involving 100 jet aircraft was under way on Monday against the Iran-backed Houthi rebels along the Red Sea coastline and farther north in the capital, Sana’a.

The Saudi coalition spokesperson, Maj Gen Turki al-Maliki, said the 100 fighter jets participating in Operation Dawn of Yemen were providing support to forces of Yemen’s internationally recognised government.

Attorney general says ‘terrorist attack’ was attempted by suspect who is said to have been barred from flying by Oman because of extremist views

The co-pilot of flydubai flight FZ1073 used an axe to attempt to carry out a “terrorist attack” during the Israel-bound flight, the United ⁠Arab Emirates prosecutor general has said.

Disaster was narrowly averted on Wednesday when passengers and crew intervened to stop the co-pilot’s attempt to take control of the plane, which had 182 people onboard and plunged 16,625ft in just over 30 seconds. The descent was so extreme that part of the rudder was ripped off.

Experts sceptical flydubai co-pilot’s only motivation was to end his own life and say key question is means of radicalisation

At about 9.30 on Wednesday morning local time, Tali Manes was taking her six-year-old daughter, Nina, to the toilet on the regular flydubai flight from Dubai to Tel Aviv when she heard a series of heavy blows against the cockpit door.

Manes, an Israeli bank executive, immediately told a flight attendant seated nearby that something was wrong. When he did not react, she shouted at him: “Something is happening in there!” Seconds later, the man “simply went to the [cockpit] door and opened it”, Manes told Israel’s Channel 12 TV.

Smit Machchhar says in video call with Indian PM that he realised if he did not get up ‘passengers would lose their lives’

The Indian pilot who helped thwart an apparent attempt to crash a flydubai flight to Tel Aviv said his faith and his desire to save his passengers allowed him to make a “last push” to open the cockpit door as he fought for his life.

Capt Smit Machchhar, who was recovering in an Abu Dhabi hospital, described to India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, how he helped save the plane and its more than 170 passengers.