US Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel will sit out Nagasaki’s peace ceremony over Israel’s exclusion from the annual commemoration of the 1945 atomic bombing of the city, the embassy said.

This year’s ceremony will take place at Nagasaki Peace Park on Friday, where diplomats from more than 100 countries will observe a minute of silence to mark the moment the US dropped the second atomic bomb in Japan during World War II.

Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki told reporters last week that Israel would be excluded due to security concerns, despite warnings from Western nations that there could be implications for the attendance of their own ambassadors.

“Should Israel be excluded, it would become difficult for us to have high-level participation in this event,” said a July 19 letter to the mayor signed by ambassadors from France, Germany, Italy and the US, as well as the chargé d’affaires from Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union.

The bombing of Hiroshima on August 6, 1945, and Nagasaki three days later led to Japan’s unconditional surrender and brought an end to World War II. But it also killed tens of thousands of people, both instantly and in the months and years to come due to radiation sickness.

Each year the two cities hold memorials attended by diplomats to promote global peace and the idea that nuclear weapons must never be used again.

The move by Nagasaki contrasts with that of Hiroshima, which hosted its ceremony on Tuesday and invited Israeli ambassador to Japan Gilad Cohen, whose presence was met with protests from pro-Palestinian demonstrators.

Both cities had been under pressure from activists and bomb survivor groups to exclude Israel due to its bombardment of Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed since Israel began targeting militant group Hamas following the October 7 attack.

Russia and Belarus were both disinvited from the ceremonies over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and campaigners had hoped Nagasaki and Hiroshima would similarly exclude Israel.

“He will attend a peace ceremony at Zojoji Temple in Tokyo in addition to holding a moment of silence at the embassy,” the spokesperson said. The temple holds a memorial service on Friday.

The ambassador had directed other US consulates in Japan to do the same, according to the embassy.

“The US government will be represented at Nagasaki by the Principal Officer of Consulate Fukuoka,” the spokesperson said.

On Thursday, Mayor Suzuki reiterated that the decision was unrelated to politics, and said he was “sorry to hear” the US ambassador was unable to attend.

“The reason for this is to avoid unforeseen circumstances and to ensure that the ceremony will be conducted smoothly and in a peaceful and solemn atmosphere,” he told reporters.

“If it was for political reasons, I personally believe that countries in a dispute should be invited, but unfortunately we cannot invite such countries considering the impact it would have on the ceremony.”

He said the authorities would “continue to seek their understanding by persistently explaining the situation.”

Japan’s Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshimasa Hayashi said the foreign affairs ministry had been in touch with Nagasaki to explain international affairs, but local authorities make ultimate decisions on events they organize.

This article has been updated.

The details emerging of the alleged terror plot aimed at Taylor Swift’s three Vienna concerts are scant, but already adhere to a chilling pattern familiar to European counterterrorism officials.

Austrian police said Wednesday that a 19-year-old man was arrested in Ternitz, about an hour’s drive from where Swift was scheduled to perform Thursday, Friday and Saturday for an expected 65,000 fans each night at the Ernst Happel Stadium.

“Chemical substances” possibly linked to bomb-making were discovered in a search of the Austrian citizen’s home, police said, declaring that “specific preparatory measures have been undertaken” to target Swift’s concerts.

The search of the area around the home led to 60 households being evacuated, local media reported, with police adding it continued into the evening.

A second suspect was arrested in Vienna that afternoon. Police did not give their age or gender, citing an ongoing investigation that appeared to be widening in scope. “Further detentions have also been carried out,” police said.

Both suspects had been radicalized online, police said, adding the 19-year-old had sworn allegiance to ISIS’ new leader last month.

Police also alluded to the role of social media in both the radicalization of the suspects and alleged planning of the attacks.

“Communication of the perpetrators is undertaken usually in an encrypted form,” often masking their conversations from routine counter-terror surveillance, General Director for Public Security Franz Ruf told reporters.

Online chatter to action

Neumann noted the latest Europol data showed “the number of attacks and planned attacks has more than quadrupled” since 2022.

Among the cases Neumann referenced was another in Austria, in which a 14-year-old girl from Montenegro was arrested in May in the southern city of Graz after buying a knife and axe for an attack she was allegedly plotting. ISIS material was also found on her computer.

Teenagers were also arrested during France’s security sweep ahead of the Paris Olympics.

In late May, an 18-year-old man of Chechen origin was indicted for “terrorist criminal association,” for alleged plans to target spectators in the city of Saint-Étienne during the Games, according to a statement from French anti-terror prosecutors.

About a fortnight earlier, two teenagers were arrested in northeast and southern France for plotting a terror attack, the target unclear, the statement said.

And in April, a 16-year-old from the Haute-Savoie department in southeastern France was arrested for allegedly researching how to make an explosives belt and die as an ISIS martyr, possibly targeting the Olympics, the statement added.

German police have also publicized two alleged terror plots involving teenagers in recent months.

In April, officials in the western city of Dusseldorf said they arrested two girls, aged 15 and 16, and a 15-year-old boy accused of planning a terror attack.

Another alleged plot involving a possible knife attack on a Heidelberg synagogue, which was disrupted in May, involved an 18-year-old man, a German prosecutor’s statement said.

Meanwhile in Switzerland, police in March arrested a 15-year-old Swiss boy and a 16-year-old Italian boy for alleged ISIS support and plotting bomb attacks, according to a police statement.

Neumann, the terrorism expert, said teenagers were often recruited online, where ISIS and its Central Asian affiliate ISIS-K only needed to see success in a handful from hundreds of potential recruits.

“Groups like (ISIS-K are) specifically targeting young teenagers,” Neumann said. “They may not be very useful. They may mess up. They may change their mind,” he said, but they are “not least less suspicious. Who would think of a 13-year-old as a terrorist? One is enough.”

Teenagers were being recruited through social media platforms like TikTok, dragged through algorithms into “bubbles” online where jihadist recruiters can reach them, Neumann said.

ISIS-K was “by far the most ambitious and aggressive part of ISIS right now,” plotting complex attacks and recruiting online, he added.

While details of the alleged plans to attack Swift’s concerts remain unclear, European security sources have been increasingly concerned that terror plots are becoming more “directed” – or organized by a more experienced or resourced recruiter from afar.

European counter-terror officials are also struggling with a fast-morphing terror threat emerging from parts of the former Soviet Union, including Russia’s North Caucasus region and Central Asian states like Tajikistan.

Last month, Austrian counter-terror police said they had detained eight men and a woman for fundraising for ISIS. Laptops, cash, fake passports and a vehicle were confiscated, and authorities said the suspects, originally from Chechnya in the Russian Federation, might have their Austrian residence permits revoked.

Tiffany Kidd, a 41-year-old nurse from Arizona, had never left the United States – but Taylor Swift was worth it.

She bought her ticket last summer, and since then has gotten her first passport, sewn several Swift-inspired outfits and spent $5,000 to fly to Vienna to watch the superstar perform live in concert.

But her dreams ended in disappointment on Wednesday after organizers canceled all three shows scheduled for the Austrian capital following authorities’ discovery of an alleged terror plot to attack the venue.

With shows scheduled for Thursday through Saturday, Vienna’s Ernst-Happel Stadium was supposed to be the penultimate venue on the European leg of Swift’s mammoth global Eras Tour, which has passed through Asia, Australia and the Americas since March last year.

Fans have flocked to see Swift from all corners of the world, with many saving up for the occasion and going the extra mile to show their love and support for the star.

Kidd, for instance, traveled 13 hours to Austria from Arizona after planning her trip for an entire year. But her homemade costumes, including a dazzling bodysuit, sequined jacket and lace dress emblazoned with Swift’s lyrics and motifs, will now go unworn.

Barracuda Music, the promoter for Swift’s concerts in Austria, announced the cancelations on Wednesday, saying they had “confirmation from government officials of a planned terrorist attack.” Swift’s official website also listed the concerts as canceled.

Kardelen Kocakcigil, 30, said she was “heartbroken” after traveling from Toronto to Vienna via Istanbul – a journey of more than 24 hours.

She paid about $2,100 for the trip, including extra baggage charges for her Swift-themed costume, she said.

“My travel was planned around the concert, dressing up, meeting with my Swiftie friends around the world and going to Taylor Swift-themed attractions around the city,” she said.

“Now I don’t have any itinerary and my friends are not coming due to safety concerns. This trip turned from something I was looking forward to for over a year to aimless, expensive travel.”

Kocakcigil was glad everybody was safe, and believed that cancelation was the right decision, she added. But, exhausted from all the travel and stunned by the abrupt turn of events, she said she felt “very heartbroken and purposeless.”

Most fans had similar mixed feelings – thankful that the alleged planned terror plot had been foiled, yet extremely disappointed to see their Swift concert dreams evaporate.

Vanessa Szombathelyi, 24, traveled from Ireland to Hungary, where she planned to drive across the border to Austria for what would have been her first Swift concert.

“(I’m) feeling mixed emotions, everything from tears to being angry, mad and grateful,” that the alleged plot was thwarted, she said.

Another Swift fan, Denis Savić, 23, traveled to Vienna for the show from the Czech capital Prague. He initially thought reports of a terror threat were a prank by his friends – but felt “pretty scared” when he realized they were real, he said.

After looking forward to the shows for a year, he said he felt “crushed” when they were canceled. “I felt like something heavy was sitting on my chest,” he said.

Still, he understood the decision, adding: “I would rather not go to a show than potentially get hurt and have my mom hurt, because she was supposed to go to the show with me.”

His close friends and brother were also supposed to be in Vienna, so he was glad for their safety, too. With no show to attend, they were now scrambling to change their plans, he said.

Some fans came from as far away as China – with one Swiftie who had arrived in Belgium en route to Vienna venting their frustration on Chinese social media.

“I get that safety comes first,” the fan said. “But after years of waiting, I was just three days away from meeting Taylor, and now it’s all canceled. I’m absolutely devastated.”

Thousands of anti-racist protesters have taken to the streets across the United Kingdom to counter a spate of far-right rallies planned to target immigration centers, seeming to thwart what looked set to be another day of rioting.

After days of violence spurred by disinformation around a deadly stabbing attack, police had braced for another night of unrest on Wednesday. Far-right groups on social media had called for protests to target visa processing centers and immigration lawyers’ offices at more than 100 sites around the country at 8 p.m. local time (3 p.m. ET).

But by the early evening, thousands of counter-protesters had gathered at more than a dozen cities to guard the immigration centers and prevent them being targeted by the far right.

“There are many, many more of us than you,” crowds chanted at anti-racist demonstrations across the country, bolstered by a markedly stronger police presence than over the weekend, and with virtually no sign of any far-right supporters.

Whether Wednesday’s counter-protests represent a turning point is not yet clear, but fears of another night of unrest have abated for now. The fizzling out of the planned protests will come as a major relief for the new Labour government, and for communities that had prepared for the worst.

It may also be a sign that many have been deterred from taking to the streets, after previous far-right protests turned violent and hundreds of rioters were arrested over the weekend, with some already receiving prison sentences.

In Walthamstow, east London, the immigration center was entirely boarded up, protected by a heavy police presence and surrounded by around three or four thousand counter-protesters.

“We today have got such brilliant numbers in our community,” an organizer shouted through a megaphone to a hastily organized crowd. “We have shown them whose streets these really are. These are our streets.”

Ahmed Hussain, 31, said he had come out to support the counter-protesters because “when you don’t, the fascists feel emboldened.”

The worst of the past week’s violence was concentrated in the north of England. In Rotherham on Sunday, far-right rioters set fire to a hotel used to house asylum seekers as more than 200 people cowered inside. Large crowds of people shouting “enough is enough” and “get ’em out” were also seen clashing with police in several other cities.

“I normally walk through this city center all the time,” said Nadeem Akhtar, 18, who has lived in Sheffield his whole life. “But now, recently, even my mum’s been saying to me, don’t be going out so much, because you never know what could happen.”

Akhtar had gathered with friends midday Wednesday in the city center to demonstrate against a planned far-right protest. Unlike last week, where protests across the country were allowed to boil over into racist violence, the Sheffield demonstration was overseen by a huge police presence separating the protesters and counter-protesters.

At least three right-wing demonstrators were arrested during altercations between the two groups. As one man was escorted away by police, he called out: “I ain’t done nothing. Double standards.”

Anti-immigration protesters have often accused police of double standards in responding to their demonstrations, claiming that they are not treated fairly and giving Keir Starmer, the prime minister, the nickname “two-tier Keir.”

At the counter-protest in Sheffield later Wednesday evening, one of the speakers criticized Musk’s comments. “The richest man in the world is stirring the pot for a race war,” he said.

The US State Department called allegations of sexual abuse of Palestinian detainees by Israeli soldiers “horrific” and said Israel must investigate “swiftly” and “fully,” according to a State Department spokesperson.

“There ought to be zero tolerance of any sexual abuse, rape, of any detainees, period,” said State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller at a press briefing.

Israeli media obtained leaked surveillance video that allegedly showed Israeli soldiers sexually assaulting a Palestinian detainee.

“When there are alleged violations, the government of Israel needs to take steps to investigate those who are alleged to have committed abuses and, if appropriate, hold them accountable,” said Miller, who called the IDF announcement of arrests of those alleged to have involved and an investigation “appropriate.”

A report released by the UN Human Rights Office last week said Palestinian detainees from the Gaza Strip and the West Bank have faced torture, mistreatment and sexual abuse since October 7 and that least 53 have died in detention.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

Russia has accused Ukrainian troops of crossing the border into its Kursk region, which, if confirmed, marks the first incursion of its kind from Ukraine and puts pressure on Moscow in an area largely unaffected by the two-year war.

The Russian Ministry of Defense, the Russian Investigative Committee and the Russian Ombudsman for Children all said Ukrainian forces had launched a “massive attack” on Tuesday, attempting to break through the Russian defenses on the borders of the Kursk region, which sits just north of Ukraine’s Sumy region.

Russian President Vladimir Putin called the alleged incursion a “large-scale provocation,” saying Kyiv conducted “indiscriminate shooting from various types of weapons, including missiles, at civilian buildings, residential buildings, and ambulances.”

Russian authorities and military bloggers said Ukrainian forces attacked by land and air to enter Russia near the town of Sudzha, about 6 miles (10 kilometers) from the border.

The Russian Ministry of Defense said that about 300 troops, supported by tanks and armored vehicles, attacked Russian positions near the villages of Nikolayevo-Daryino and Oleshnya.

Initially, the ministry said the attack was repelled, but that statement was later corrected to say that “the enemy is being inflicted with fire damage.”

Aleksey Smirnov, the acting head of Kursk region, said Wednesday that several thousand people left the area over the past 24 hours.

It is unclear why Ukrainian forces would launch an attack of the scale described by Russian authorities.

Ukrainian troops have found themselves under increased pressure along the 600-mile frontline as Moscow continues its slow, grinding offensive, so it could be an attempt to divert Russian resources elsewhere. Given the spate of more negative developments from the frontline, the news of a successful incursion help Kyiv boost the morale of its troops and civilian population.

If confirmed, the attack would be a major development in the conflict – even if its immediate impact is limited.

While there have been reports of pro-Ukrainian sabotage groups crossing into Russia, none have caused significant damage. The Ukrainian military has regularly attacked targets inside Russia with drones and missiles, but Kyiv has not launched any official ground incursions across the border in the two and half years since the start of the full-scale war.

The Institute for the Study of War, a US-based conflict monitoring group, said it had geolocated footage published on August 6 that shows damaged and abandoned armored vehicles roughly 4.3 miles (7 kilometers) north of the border, but said it could not confirm if they were Russian, Ukrainian or both.

Russian forces have meanwhile been inching toward the strategically important city of Pokrovsk in eastern Ukraine, threatening a vital Ukrainian supply line. At the same time, Russian forces claim to have seized the village of Niu York and are getting closer to Toretsk.

Hamas’ choice of a hardline political leader did little to comfort Gazans displaced, hungry, and seeking a way out of their misery after nearly 10 months of war on Wednesday.

The Palestinian militant group appointed Yahya Sinwar to lead its political bureau on Tuesday, replacing Ismail Haniyeh, who was killed in Tehran in an attack Iran blamed on Israel. Israel has neither confirmed nor denied responsibility.

The move consolidates power within the organization under Sinwar, who until this week was the head of Hamas in Gaza. Sinwar, a hardened militant with many years spent in an Israeli prison, is viewed as less compromising in dealings with Israel and closer to Iran than his predecessor. He is accused by Israel of being the mastermind of the October 7 attack and believed to be hiding in a tunnel in Gaza.

“I’m surprised about this move,” said Hatem Mohammed, 47, a Gaza-based retired civil servant for the Palestinian Authority that is run by Fatah, a rival party to Hamas. “It’s a hasty, irrational and reactionary move in response to Haniyeh’s assassination. They (Hamas) know internally that he’s not fit for the job. He’s an emotive and hasty person.”

“This appointment sends a message that the war will continue. I don’t know what they were thinking,” said Mohammed, who said he lost five members of his family in the war and suffers from infection brought about by food poisoning.

Israel’s war in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people in the enclave, according to the Palestinian authorities. Sinwar, meanwhile, is believed by US officials to be deep underground, possibly surrounded by Israeli hostages as human shields.

Sinwar’s appointment has cast uncertainty on the fate ceasefire talks with Israel that would also see Israeli hostages and Palestinian prisoners released. He is hard to reach, is considered more hardline than Haniyeh, and is seen as being less vulnerable to pressure from Arab nations than Haniyeh, who lived in Qatar.

‘The death is all the same’

“We don’t care who they name (as leader). The names are plenty, but the death is all the same. All they’ve brought us is destruction,” said Ismail Jalal, a father of two in northern Gaza who says he struggles to find food for his sick children. “All we’re asking for is a ceasefire. Someone who will be able to reach a deal and save what is left of our people and the children that are dying daily… someone who can practice self-restraint, with no empty slogans.”

Abu Fadi Rafeeq from Beit Lahia, northern Gaza, and displaced in Khan Younis, said the decision to appoint Sinwar was “reckless.” The new leader is “stubborn” and “will let the entire population die just so he can keep his word.”

“I lost everything. My house, my soul and my family,” he said.

Israel launched the war in retaliation to Hamas-led militants’ October 7 attack on Israel that killed 1,200 people and more than 250 abducted, according to Israeli authorities.

Despite some Gazans being disgruntled with Hamas’ choice of political leader, there are indications that support for the organization remains significant in the enclave.

Polling in Gaza faces multiple challenges, including population displacement, people’s reluctance to criticize Hamas publicly and the risks to personal safety in war time. But one survey conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research between May 26 and June 1 in the West Bank and Gaza showed that only 8% of Gazans blame Hamas for their suffering, with two-thirds blaming Israel. Of Gazan respondents, 46% supported Hamas returning to power in the enclave after the war. Satisfaction with Hamas’ performance stood at 64% and Sinwar’s at 50%.

“He’s the best choice to lead the next phase,” said Abu Ali, an injured Gazan who said he was a Hamas fighter. “He’s the only one who has lived this ordeal.”

A 39-year-old Polish man has been found guilty of assaulting Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in June, national broadcaster DR reported on Wednesday.

The man could face four months in prison and deportation from Denmark for six years, according to DR.

Frederiksen was “hit by a man” in a public square in the capital Copenhagen on June 7, her office said.

The Polish man said he can’t remember what happened, because he was drunk, according to DR.

Frederiksen, the leader of Denmark’s center-left Socialist Democratic party, has served as prime minister since 2019.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.

A Thai court on Wednesday ordered the kingdom’s most popular political party to be disbanded, a verdict that delivers a major blow to a vibrant progressive movement and one that threatens to bring more political turbulence to Thailand.

The Move Forward Party won a stunning electoral victory in 2023, winning the most parliamentary seats on an anti-establishment reform agenda that drew huge support across the country, particularly among young people disaffected by years of military-backed rule.

The Constitutional Court in Bangkok ruled Wednesday that Move Forward should be dissolved, following a request from Thailand’s Election Commission, over the party’s campaign to amend lese majeste, the country’s notoriously strict royal insult law.

In January, the same court ordered the party to end its lese majeste campaign, accusing its leaders, including former prime ministerial hopeful Pita Limjaroenrat, of seeking to overthrow the constitutional monarchy.

Wednesday’s ruling goes further, dissolving the party and banning its executives from politics for 10 years – effectively disenfranchising 14 million people who voted for them and raising fresh concerns about the erosion of democratic rights in the kingdom.

Move Forward’s leaders have repeatedly said that dissolution will not stop their movement. Speaking to the Associated Press this week, Pita said they will continue to fight so that Move Forward “becomes the last party that joins the graveyard of political parties.”

It’s the first of two high-profile, politically sensitive cases with the potential to further entrench a power struggle between the establishment and progressives. Next week, the court is expected to rule on a petition seeking to remove Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office for appointing a lawyer who had served jail time to the Cabinet.

Crushing blow

Move Forward’s election victory was a decisive win for progressive parties and delivered a crushing blow to the conservative, military-backed establishment that has ruled Thailand on and off for decades, often by turfing out popularly elected governments in coups.

Ultimately Move Forward was prevented from forming a government because it failed to win enough support for its royal reform agenda in parliament, which heavily favors the establishment under a political system implemented by the previous ruling military junta.

Pita resigned as leader of the party, which became the main opposition.

Thailand’s turbulent political history has previously seen parties that have pushed for change run afoul of the powerful establishment – a nexus of the military, royalist and influential elites.

The purportedly independent election commission, anti-corruption commission and the Constitutional Court are all dominated in favor of the establishment.

Wednesday’s ruling will likely only further entrench the feeling for many young supporters that there is little hope for change within Thailand’s political system.

Progressive lawmakers have faced bans, parties have been dissolved, and governments have been overthrown. Thailand has witnessed a dozen successful coups since 1932, including two in the past two decades.

It’s the second time the court has ordered the dissolution of parties linked to Move Forward’s progressive movement.

Move Forward is the de facto successor to the Future Forward Party, which won the third most number of seats in the 2019 election. Shortly after the vote, Thailand’s Constitutional Court dissolved that party and banned its leaders from politics for 10 years.

That brought millions of young people out onto the streets across the country – sparking a nationwide youth-led protest movement in 2020 that saw the emergence of a new generation of young political leaders, many who openly criticized the monarchy and publicly questioned its power and wealth.

Lese majeste here to stay

The ruling could now ensure that no party or person would legally be able to push for amendments to lese majeste, known as Section 112, without violating the constitution.

The calls for reform of the monarchy electrified Thailand, where any frank discussion of the royal family is fraught with the threat of prison.

Criticizing the king, queen, or heir apparent can lead to a maximum 15-year prison sentence for each offense and sentences for those convicted Section 112 of the country’s criminal code can be decades long.

Hundreds of people have been prosecuted in recent years including Mongkol Thirakhot, who was sentenced to a record 50 years in prison in January for social media posts deemed damaging to the king.

Anyone – including ordinary citizens – can bring lese majeste charges on behalf of the king, even if they are not directly involved with the case. Move Forward pledged to reduce lese majeste sentences and limit who can make a complaint.

For years, human rights organizations and free speech campaigners have said the lese majeste law has been used as a political tool to silence critics of the Thai government.

Many of those who took part in the protests now face lese majeste charges and long jail sentences.

Legal Rights group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights said that at least 1,954 people have been prosecuted for their participation in political assemblies since the start of protests in July 2020, with at least 272 people charged with lese majeste.

Prominent activist lawyer Arnon Nampa is currently serving eight years in prison for two lese majeste convictions.

In May, the death of a young Thai activist in pre-trial detention for lese majeste charges shocked many in the country and sparked renewed calls for justice reform.

At least one person has died and several people have been injured after a hotel collapsed in the popular wine village of Kröv in western Germany overnight.

There were 14 people in the building at the time of the collapse, the spokesperson said.

While the building is still partially intact, it is moving by 4 millimeters (0.16 inches) an hour, so rescue operations are proving to be difficult.

Around 250 firefighters, paramedics, police and technical relief workers, including special forces, rescue dog teams and drone units, are on site.

This is a breaking story and will be updated.