In a critical press conference meant to make or break his presidential campaign, Joe Biden spiritedly defended his foreign policy record even as he faced a barrage of questions on his mental fitness and, in another gaffe, mistakenly referred to Kamala Harris as “vice-president Trump”.

Biden offered extensive remarks on thorny foreign policy issues including competition with China and the Israel-Hamas war, in which he said he had warned Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu away from an occupation of the Gaza Strip.

He said he was directly in contact with Xi Jinping to warn him not to offer further support for Russia’s war in Ukraine, but not with Vladimir Putin, whom he said: “I have no reason to speak to him right now.”

But Biden, who is running to be president until January 2029, fielded an equal number of questions during the press conference on his mental fitness, an issue that has loomed over his campaign since a faltering debate performance against Donald Trump that he called “that dumb mistake”.

Ultimately, it was a performance that supporters will probably say shows he is capable of handling his responsibilities as commander-in-chief, but unlikely to convince those already in doubt about his mental fitness that he can serve another four years in office.

Biden, 81, insisted he would stay in the race despite calls from some in his party to drop out and to allow another figure, including Harris, run in the November election.

Shortly after he finished speaking, Connecticut congressman Jim Himes, the top ranking Democrat on the House intelligence committee, called on Biden to step down from the campaign, writing on X: “We must put forth the strongest candidate possible to confront the threat posed by Trump’s promised MAGA authoritarianism. I no longer believe that is Joe Biden.”

Appearing later on CNN, Himes said: “Imagine that three months from now, we get another performance like there was in the debate, right before the election. Do you want to take that risk? I don’t.”

Two more congressional Democrats also called on Biden to step aside, bringing the total to 17. Representative Scott Peters of California said, “The stakes are high, and we are on a losing course,” while Representative Eric Sorensen of Illinois said that Biden should “put country over party”.

Wrapping up a summit of the 32-member bloc in Washington DC, Biden said: “I’ve not had any of my European allies come up and say, ‘Joe, don’t run’. What I’ve heard them say is, ‘You’ve got to win’.

“If I slow down and can’t get the job done that’s a sign I shouldn’t be doing this,” he said. “But there’s no indication of that. None.”

Biden said he wouldn’t leave the race unless polls showed him that he had no chance of winning against Trump, even if they showed that Harris’s chances in the election were better than his own.

Nonetheless, he said Harris was qualified to be president as well, although he misnamed her in the endorsement. “I wouldn’t have picked vice-president Trump to be vice-president, if she’s not qualified to be president,” he said.

That gaffe was compounded by the fact that he had introduced the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as “President Putin” just hours earlier, before correcting himself and saying “we’re going to beat Putin”.

Biden initially used the final Nato summit press conference as something of a stump speech, brandishing his national security record in supporting Ukraine against Russian aggression and saying that the November vote was “much more than a political question … It’s a national security issue.”

He then turned to his record on the economy, border security and his efforts to broker a peace in the Israel-Hamas war to bolster his case for his campaign in November.

Biden spoke for 58 minutes, including 50 minutes of unscripted question-and-answer. He appeared most comfortable and cogent as he discussed thorny foreign policy questions.

“Don’t make the same mistake America made after [Osama] bin Laden,” he said he told Netanyahu, as he sought to ward off a potential occupation of the Gaza Strip. “There’s no need to occupy anywhere. Go after the people who did the job.”

He also indicated that European countries were prepared to cut their investments in China if Xi continued to “[supply] Russia, with information and capacity, along with working with North Korea and others, to help Russia in armament”.

But at times he got lost in the weeds. Asked about reports that he had asked his schedule to be moved up, he said: “I’m not talking about, and if you’ve looked at my schedule since I, since I made that stupid mistake in the campaign, in the debate. I mean, my schedule has been full bore.”

“Where’s Trump been?” he continued. “Riding around on his golf cart? Filling out his scorecard before he hits the ball?”

During Joe Biden’s press conference at the Nato summit, which many described as a test for the future of his re-election bid, he demonstrated clarity and conviction on foreign policy. But much was overshadowed by a couple of awkward gaffes and a shaky voice, at a time when the US is hyper-focused on his fitness to lead.

After roughly eight minutes of prepared remarks, Biden answered reporters’ questions on Nato, Ukraine, China and Israel, and just as many on his cognitive health and his vow to stay in the race.

“I’m determined on running, but I think it’s important that I allay fears,” Biden said at one point.

The press conference is not likely to be the decisive moment that some hoped would push a critical mass of elected Democrats to call for him to end his campaign – or decide that he can’t be replaced.

Here are the key takeaways:

Joe Biden has accidentally introduced the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as “President Putin” in a gaffe that will fuel further concerns about his mental acuity that have threatened to scuttle his presidential campaign.

Biden made the mistake while flanked by Nato leaders during a signing ceremony alongside Zelenskiy on the final day of the Nato summit in Washington. It came just an hour before a rare press conference by Biden that has been called “make-or-break” for his campaign, as a growing number of political allies and donors have been calling for him to drop out of the race.

Concluding his opening remarks, Biden handed over to Zelenskiy with the words: “Now I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination.”

He said: “Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin!”

A number of European leaders began clapping hesitantly. German chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni turned their heads in surprise as Biden mentioned the Russian leader, while other European leaders broke into an awkward smattering of applause.

Realising his mistake, Biden caught himself and said: “President Putin! We’re going to beat President Putin. President Zelenskiy. I’m so focused on beating Putin. We’ve got to worry about it. Anyway, Mr President.”

“I’m better,” Zelenskiy said, shaking Biden’s hand.

“You are a hell of a lot better,” Biden responded in concluding his remarks.

The remark elicited gasps in a press centre, where hundreds of journalists were watching the remarks live on an internal television feed. A number of people in the room shouted out “Zelenskiy” to correct Biden’s mistake, after which he returned to the podium.

Zelenskiy had been due to give a press conference at the end of the Nato summit an hour later. But journalists who were waiting were told at short notice that the event was cancelled – meaning he didn’t have to respond to questions about Biden’s gaffe.

The news about the mistake quickly filtered into other press conferences with heads of government, rehashing questions about Biden’s mental state that have loomed over the conference since it began.

Keir Starmer, asked about President Biden’s gaffe, insisted that the Nato summit had made breakthroughs that were welcomed by President Zelenskiy and had left Nato in a stronger position.

Pressed by reporters on whether the US president was capable of serving another four years in office, he said: “Look, I was with him last night. We spent the best part of an hour together. We covered a lot of ground.

“We’ve been through two days of this council and come to a very good outcome. He’s led through all, spoken at every session, pulled people together, and we got a good outcome and I think he should give credit for that.”

French president Emanuel Macron in his press conference said: “Slips of the tongue happen, it’s happened to me.”

Scholz was asked, in English, about Biden’s gaffe in a press conference a few minutes later. He sidestepped the question, and said he hoped that Biden would continue to strongly support Ukraine.

About 6,400 Palestinians reported as missing to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) since the outbreak of the war in Gaza on 7 October are yet to have been found, the group has said.

Many are believed to be trapped under debris, buried without identification, or held in Israeli detention while others have been separated from their loved ones, who have been unable to contact them.

Approximately 1,100 new cases of missing people have been registered and remain unsolved since April, the ICRC said.

“Each week we can receive anywhere between 500 and 2,500 calls to our hotlines, and the majority of these are requests for missing family members,” said Sarah Davies, an ICRC spokesperson. “The level of requests fluctuates, sometimes depending on the situation in areas of Gaza – if there are hostilities close to large numbers of people, or evacuation instructions issued, our hotline operators receive more calls with tracing requests in the hours and days that follow.

“Unfortunately, in such chaotic situations, people can be separated easily. People are panicked, sometimes it is dark and difficult to see, if there are explosions nearby people flee and lose one another.”

Davies said that when people were injured and taken to hospital in an ambulance, their family members don’t always know which one they are at. “People can lose their phones, connections can be disrupted, sim cards are changed. There are untold reasons people get separated in a war zone.”

The persistent violence has severely disrupted communications, with hospitals coming under attack, complicating efforts for medical personnel to document casualties and identify the deceased. The unrelenting warfare, coupled with movement restrictions and communication breakdowns, has created significant challenges in monitoring and locating missing individuals. Moreover, access for forensic and human rights experts has been restricted, preventing the identification of victims.

In a recent report, Save the Children said: “Even if they had the equipment, the intensity of Israeli airstrikes and hostilities between the parties – as well as unexploded bombs and missiles in the debris – means it’s too dangerous for families, first responders, and humanitarian workers to search through the rubble.”

Since 7 October, the ICRC has reported more than 8,700 missing Palestinians in Gaza and has engaged with 7,429 Palestinian families to gather information. About 2,300 cases have been resolved, meaning families have found their relatives, either alive or dead.

Muhammad Naji, a resident of al-Falluja in the north of Gaza, said emergency response teams managed to rescue eight people from the rubble after a recent attack, but that 17 others were still buried beneath the debris, and that some of his cousins were missing.

“We don’t know anything about them,” Naji said. “The whole building collapsed on their heads. Are they dead? Are they alive? No one can tell us anything … If my cousins are dead we want to bury them. We can’t think or comprehend.

“I am not the only one who has missing family members. Many people here have the same problem.”

Davies said: “We know from our work in conflict zones all around the world that the most excruciating pain people experience is being separated from a loved one with no knowledge of where or how they are, or what has happened to them. People are fearful, they are anxious, and many of them feel helpless because there is very little they can do in this situation. It’s heartbreaking to hear the pain of people who are frantically trying to reconnect with their family members or hear some news about their fate and whereabouts.”

Abu Ali Zahir lost 23 family members when the three-storey residential building they lived in was destroyed by an Israeli airstrike. Sixteen bodies were pulled out from the rubble about 60 days after the attack, but another seven have not been found.

“I don’t think any of the seven members of the family still under the rubble are alive, but we live in hope,” he said. “We want to give them a proper burial. The pain that the family went through is unbearable.”

The actual number of missing Palestinians is believed to be considerably higher, in part because not all families are aware they can contact the ICRC but also because in some cases entire families have been killed, meaning there is no one to report them missing.

Gaza’s health ministry says the death toll from the war is more than 38,000, and that this figure doesn’t account for missing individuals – including those trapped under rubble, detained or buried in mass graves. The ministry estimates that as of 6 July about 10,000 people were missing.

Locating the missing is a complex process involving cross-referencing information on their status with data from various conflict parties and other sources, such as hospital patient lists or records of detainees returned to Gaza.

“A challenge in this situation is that the conditions for our search activities in the field – where, for example, teams would go door to door, or shelter to shelter and check or ask about the fate and whereabouts of the missing person – don’t exist right now in Gaza,” Davies said. “People are moving so often; they are living in tents and don’t have fixed addresses.”

Every day, Abu Ali Zahir ventures among the rubble of his destroyed home, holding out for miracle. “I go every day among the rubble and call their names, shouting, hoping that someone will reply,” he said.

An app that allows users to track trucks across China has been disabled after a scandal in which reporters discovered that tankers used to transport fuel were also being used to transport cooking oil, without proper cleaning in between.

On Thursday, Chinese media reported that the tracking function on Shipping Help, an app used to track cargos, had been disabled. The app displayed a message saying the service was being “upgraded” and was therefore “temporarily unavailable”.

Previously, Shipping Help’s tracking function could be used by normal people and businesses to inquire about the location of specific trucks, using satellite monitors.

The app reportedly received a surge in queries this week after reports emerged about long-distance tankers used for transporting fuel being loaded up with edible oil for their return journeys, without the tankers being disinfected in between loads. The reports led to fears that oil that may be contaminated with toxic chemicals is finding its way into people’s food.

The news caused outrage in China, and the government has vowed to investigate and punish rule-breakers. There are widespread concerns about food safety among the Chinese public, with many people fearing that health and safety standards are not properly enforced.

After the scandal was first reported by Beijing News, a state-run outlet, earlier this month, people started to independently track where the potentially contaminated oil ended up. Some reports suggested that the tankers delivered oil to packaging facilities run by household brand names in China, including Jinlongyu, a brand of soya bean oil that is widely available in Chinese supermarkets. The company said its trucks meet requirements.

There has been some surprise that a state-run outlet was allowed to publish such a damning report, given the government’s strict censorship regime. Some people speculated that the removal of Shipping Help’s tracking function was motivated by a desire to limit the size of the scandal.

“In the information age, data is power,” one Weibo user wrote. “However, this power sometimes makes people feel helpless. I hope that every ‘system upgrade’ is to better serve users, not to cover up the problem.”

As many as 35,000 England fans are expected at Berlin’s Olympiastadion for Sunday’s Euro 2024 final against Spain, despite an official allocation of 10,000.

Many of the tickets on general sale are expected to be snapped up by England supporters, who will take their place inside the ground alongside the customary extensive retinue of Uefa dignitaries and corporate sponsors.

A spokesperson for the Football Supporters’ Association said that the allocation for the 71,000-stadium confirmed “the old story” of tickets being kept from supporters. “It’s tickets going to the wrong people in the first place,” they said. “There will still be 30,000 England fans in the stadium but many will have ended up paying way over the odds on the black market.”

The 10,000 number is roughly a 50% increase on the official allocation to this point and is distributed to members of the England Supporters Travel Club. This is the group found behind the goal at matches and where the most vocal support (and drumming) comes from.

England are expected to be given the bank of seating at the Olympiastadion’s west stand, where the cauldron which once held the Olympic torch during the Nazi games of 1936 still resides. The Olympiastadion is in the far west of the German capital.

The FSA has repeated warnings to supporters looking to buy tickets via unofficial channels that they could leave themselves exposed to scams. “We are reminding supporters of the risks when purchasing tickets via unofficial third party websites or social media accounts,” it said. “There is every chance you could lose your money and end up with no ticket – it happens to many fans at every tournament.”

As many as 35,000 England fans are expected at Berlin’s Olympiastadion for Sunday’s Euro 2024 final against Spain, despite an official allocation of 10,000.

Many of the tickets on general sale are expected to be snapped up by England supporters, who will take their place inside the ground alongside the customary extensive retinue of Uefa dignitaries and corporate sponsors.

A spokesperson for the Football Supporters’ Association said that the allocation for the 71,000-stadium confirmed “the old story” of tickets being kept from supporters. “It’s tickets going to the wrong people in the first place,” they said. “There will still be 30,000 England fans in the stadium but many will have ended up paying way over the odds on the black market.”

The 10,000 number is roughly a 50% increase on the official allocation to this point and is distributed to members of the England Supporters Travel Club. This is the group found behind the goal at matches and where the most vocal support (and drumming) comes from.

England are expected to be given the bank of seating at the Olympiastadion’s west stand, where the cauldron which once held the Olympic torch during the Nazi games of 1936 still resides. The Olympiastadion is in the far west of the German capital.

The FSA has repeated warnings to supporters looking to buy tickets via unofficial channels that they could leave themselves exposed to scams. “We are reminding supporters of the risks when purchasing tickets via unofficial third party websites or social media accounts,” it said. “There is every chance you could lose your money and end up with no ticket – it happens to many fans at every tournament.”

Four people died overnight trying to cross the Channel to reach Britain, French officials have said.

A rescue operation took place off Boulogne-sur-Mer on France’s northern coast after reports of people in the sea. Four of those pulled from the sea had drowned.

At least 53 survivors were rescued early on Friday morning, according to Whitehall sources. They are being cared for by the French authorities.

The drownings happened after one of the tubes from the dinghy the group were travelling in deflated, according to the French maritime prefect of the Channel and North Sea.

The French coastguard spotted the dinghy at 4.30am and a French navy boat and a helicopter were drafted in to assist with the rescue.

Three people were found unconscious in the water and a fourth clinging to the wreckage of the dinghy. None were able to be resuscitated. The survivors were taken back to the quayside at Boulogne.

An HM Coastguard spokesperson said assistance was offered to the French coastguard on Friday. “An RNLI lifeboat from Dover and Border Force vessel were initially sent to provide support but were not required to attend the scene,” they said.

The deaths are the first to happen since Keir Starmer took office. He has pledged to “stop the criminal gangs” responsible for organising Channel crossings but it is unlikely that any new policy can be put into action quickly enough to make a dent in the peak in crossings through the summer months.

The home secretary, Yvette Cooper, said: “The further loss of life in the Channel this morning is truly awful. My thoughts are with all those affected. Criminal gangs are making vast profit from putting lives at risk. We are accelerating action with international partners to pursue and bring down dangerous smuggler gangs.”

The last major incident was on 23 April when five people died off the French coast trying to reach the UK.

The deaths take the total number killed on the perilous crossing from France to Britain this year to 19.

Home Office figures show 419 people made the journey across the Channel from France to the UK in six boats on Tuesday. The figures mean an average of about 70 people for each boat and take the provisional total for 2024 to date to 14,058, according to the Press Association.

The chief executive of the Refugee Council, Enver Solomon, said: “This devastating loss of life in the Channel highlights the scale of the challenge facing the new government. Preventing more deaths which are now happening too often is a critical and urgent task.

“We need to bring an end to men, women and children who have fled war and oppression in countries such as Afghanistan, Syria and Iran being driven into the arms of the smuggling gangs by opening safe routes so refugees wanting to be with their families are not forced to take deadly risks. We also need to put in place cooperation agreements with our European allies to provide safe passage from France and trial the use of refugee visas.”

The shadow home secretary, James Cleverly, said on X: “Reports of more deaths in the Channel are a tragedy. As a country we must do everything in our power to stop the boats and put an end to this vile trade in human suffering.”

In a report published on Friday the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, has called on the UK’s new government to uphold the right to asylum and for regional and international cooperation to deal with refugee issues.

Vicky Tennant, UNHCR’s representative to the UK, said: “In recent years, arrivals across the Channel have generated a perception of crisis, often obscuring the desperation driving these journeys, as refugees move in search of safety and stability. While the challenges of addressing irregular movements of refugees and migrants are real, practical solutions are at hand that work for states and refugees.”

China posted a record $99bn (£76.4bn) trade surplus last month amid signs of importers bringing forward orders to beat higher tariffs on goods from the world’s second biggest economy.

The latest official figures from Beijing showed exports growing at their fastest rate in 15 months, while the weakness of China’s domestic economy resulted in falling imports.

The size of China’s trade surplus was far bigger than the $85bn expected by the financial markets and comes at a time of heightened concern in developed countries about Chinese exports.

Higher US tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles and other hi-tech products come into force on 1 August, while higher EU import duties on Chinese electric vehicles came into force earlier this month.

Analysts said the disparity between booming exports and sluggish imports highlighted the reliance of China’s economy on access to the west’s affluent consumers and would put pressure on Beijing to do more to stimulate domestic demand.

“This reflects the economic condition in China, with weak domestic demand and strong production capacity relying on exports,” said Zhiwei Zhang, the chief economist at Pinpoint Asset Management.

“The sustainability of strong exports is a major risk for China’s economy in the second half of the year. The economy in the US is weakening. Trade conflicts are getting worse.”

Exports grew by 8.6% year on year in June to $308bn (£238bn) and over the first half of 2024 China’s exports totalled $1.7tn, up by 3.6% year on year.

Auto exports rose by 18.9% in terms of value in the first half of 2024 and by 25.3% in volume amid lower export prices.

Lynn Song, the chief China economist at ING Bank, said there was likely to be a front-loading effect before auto tariffs from the EU and US came into effect, “but tariffs could lead to a slowdown in auto exports towards the end of the year”.

Household electronics sales climbed by 14.8% in value terms but showed even faster volume growth of 24.9%.

Semiconductor exports grew by 21.6% year on year in terms of value, and by 9.5% in terms of volume. “Strong semiconductor export growth shows that China’s self-sufficiency push in tech and its pivot towards hi-tech manufacturing is starting to pay some dividends,” Song said.

Kelvin Lam, a China economist at Pantheon Macro, said there had been a pickup in Chinese exports to the US, the UK and Germany last month. “Export growth of hi-tech products, mechanical and electrical items, cars, and ships is outperforming those low value-added products that China thrived on in the 1990s.”

A sci-fi-inspired spacesuit that recycles urine into drinking water could enable astronauts to perform lengthy spacewalks on upcoming lunar expeditions.

The prototype, modelled on the “stillsuits” in the sci-fi classic Dune, collects urine, purifies it and can return it to the astronaut through a drinking tube within five minutes.

The suit’s creators hope it could be deployed before the end of the decade in Nasa’s Artemis programme, which is focused on learning how to live and work for prolonged periods on another world.

“The design includes a vacuum-based external catheter leading to a combined forward-reverse osmosis unit, providing a continuous supply of potable water with multiple safety mechanisms to ensure astronaut wellbeing,” said Sofia Etlin, a researcher at Weill Cornell Medicine and Cornell University and co-designer of the suit.

Nasa is preparing for the Artemis III mission in 2026, which aims to land a crew on the lunar south pole, with a stated ambition of launching crewed missions to Mars by the 2030s. Urine and sweat are already routinely recycled on the International Space Station (ISS), but Etlin says an equivalent system is needed for when astronauts are out on expedition.

“Astronauts currently have only one litre of water available in their in-suit drink bags,” said Etlin. “This is insufficient for the planned longer-lasting lunar spacewalks, which can last 10 hours, and even up to 24 hours in an emergency.”

There are also longstanding complaints about the current waste management solution, the so-called maximum absorbency garment (MAG), which is essentially an adult nappy.

The garments are reportedly leak-prone, uncomfortable and unhygienic, prompting some astronauts to limit food and drink intake before spacewalks and others to complain of urinary tract infections (UTIs).

“If you’re giving Nasa billions of dollars, you’d think they wouldn’t keep the diaper,” said Etlin, who surveyed astronauts while researching the new design.

“It’s commonplace for the MAG to leak,” she added. “The astronauts talk about how at a certain point they can’t tell whether it’s urine or sweat any more. They’re like: ‘Yes, I’m an astronaut and this is a burden I have to bear.’”

Future commercial astronauts may be less likely to take such a stoical view, she suggested.

Prof Christopher Mason, of Weill Cornell Medicine, the study’s senior author, said: “Even in the absence of a large desert planet, like in Dune, this is something that could be better for astronauts.”

The proposed stillsuit system comprises a collection cup of moulded silicone to fit around the genitalia, with a different shape and size for women and men. This is contained within an undergarment made of multiple layers of flexible fabric.

The silicon cup connects to a moisture-activated vacuum pump that automatically switches on as soon as the astronaut begins to urinate. Once collected, the urine is diverted to the filtration system where it gets recycled into water with an efficiency of 87%. The system uses an osmosis system to remove water from urine, plus a pump to separate water from salt.

Collecting and purifying 500ml of urine takes only five minutes. In deployment, the purified water could be enriched with electrolytes and returned to the astronaut as an energy drink.

The system measures 38cm by 23cm by 23cm, with a weight of approximately 8kg, which was judged to be sufficiently compact and light to be carried on the back of a spacesuit. The team are planning to recruit 100 volunteers in New York in the autumn to test the system for comfort and functionality.

“Our system can be tested in simulated microgravity conditions, as microgravity is the primary space factor we must account for,” said Mason. “These tests will ensure the system’s functionality and safety before it is deployed in actual space missions.”

Details of the prototype are published in the journal Frontiers in Space Technology.

Conservative groups are threatening to block Switzerland from hosting next year’s Eurovision by forcing budget referendums on potential host cities, saying the song contest is a “propaganda event” that “celebrates satanism and occultism”.

Switzerland won the right to host the world’s largest live music event after the Swiss singer Nemo triumphed in Sweden with The Code. The cities of Zurich, Geneva, Bern and Basel have all filed applications to host the five-day spectacle.

The Christian conservative Federal Democratic Union of Switzerland (EDU) party, however, has said it will seek to make use of the country’s direct democracy system to put the bidding cities’ loan applications to the vote.

“The Eurovision song contest is a ghastly propaganda occasion”, the EDU said in a social media post on Tuesday. “A country that provides a stage to such disgusting trash won’t elevate its image but merely showcase its own intellectual decline.”

Samuel Kullmann, a senior EDU politician, told the Swiss broadcaster SRF his party was disturbed by Eurovision’s increasing “celebration, or at least tolerance of … satanism and occultism”. “More and more artists present openly occultist messages and underline them with respective symbols,” he said.

The Irish singer Bambie Thug’s stage show at the 2024 contest involved a devil-like horned dancer and a circle of candles containing a pentagram, which in its inverted form is a common satanic symbol.

In the final in Malmö, Nemo became the first non-binary artist to win the contest in its 68-year history with a song celebrating their identity beyond male and female gender norms.

The EDU is a minor political party with only one seat on the Swiss national council, but its calls for referendums have been supported in some cantons by the larger rightwing Swiss People’s party (SVP) and the Swiss taxpayers’ association.

The SVP’s youth wing cited what it called the introduction of a third gender and “overt antisemitism” as a reason for supporting a referendum. There were large pro-Palestine protests outside the venue for the Malmö final and semi-finals in May.

Any referendums against Swiss cities hosting Eurovision would not necessarily swing in the political right’s favour, but the threat of plebiscites introduces immense uncertainty for planners.

Votes could not be held before November, but the host city for the May 2025 event is scheduled to be chosen by the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation in consultation with the European Broadcasting Union by the end of August.