Up to ten people, including children, have been shot and wounded at a city-run water park near Detroit in what appeared to be a random attack, police have said.

The suspect was still at large late on Saturday, but police said they believed he had been cornered in a house nearby. A handgun and three empty magazines were found at the scene, Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard told a press conference.

A man got out of a vehicle in front of Brooklands Plaza Splash Pad park, in Rochester Hills, Michigan, at about 5 pm local time and fired about 30 shots from a 9mm semiautomatic Glock, reloading several times, Bouchard said.

The victims were taken to hospitals, and their conditions were not yet known, said police, who had initially reported five people shot. An eight-year-old was among those wounded.

Police had surrounded the home where the possible suspect was believed to be hiding, Bouchard said. It was not immediately clear if other people or weapons were inside with him. Law enforcement officials were trying to make contact with him, Bouchard said.

Rochester Hills is about 30 miles (50 km) north of Detroit. The neighboring community, Oxford Township, also in Oakland County, was the scene of a 2021 mass school shooting in which student Ethan Crumbley, then 15, killed four students and wounded six other students and a teacher at Oxford High School.

“It’s a gut punch, obviously, for us here in Oakland County,” Bouchard said. “We’ve gone through so many tragedies, you know. We’re not even fully comprehending what happened at Oxford.”

Michigan governor Gretchen Whitmer said on X, “I am heartbroken to learn about the shooting in Rochester Hills.”

In the US as of Saturday, there had been more than 215 mass shootings so far this year, according to the Gun Violence Archive.

The nonpartisan online resource defines a mass shooting as one in which four or more victims are wounded or killed.

Such a high rate of mass shootings in the US has prompted calls to Congress for lawmakers to pass more substantial gun-control measures, but such requests have largely gone unheeded.

Reuters and Associated Press contributed to this report

A Missouri woman who was imprisoned for more than 40 years for murder has had her conviction overturned after a judge found “clear and convincing” evidence that she was innocent of the killing in question.

Sandra “Sandy” Hemme, 63, was convicted of – and sentenced to life imprisonment for – the 1980 slaying of Patricia Jeschke, a library worker in St Joseph, Missouri, after Hemme made statements to the police incriminating herself while she was a psychiatric patient.

On Friday, Livingston county circuit judge Ryan Horsman ruled that “evidence directly” ties the killing of Jeschke to a local police officer who later went to prison for another crime and has since died.

Hemme, who has spent the last 43 years behind bars, must be freed within 30 days unless prosecutors decide to re-try her, the judge said. The ruling came after an evidentiary hearing in January where Hemme’s legal team presented arguments supporting her evidence.

Hemme’s prison term marks the longest-known wrongful conviction of a woman in US history, her attorneys with the Innocence Project – a criminal justice nonprofit – said.

“We are grateful to the Court for acknowledging the grave injustice Ms Hemme has endured for more than four decades,” her attorneys said in a statement.

Hemme initially pleaded guilty to capital murder in exchange for avoiding the death penalty. But her conviction was thrown out on appeal, according to the Associated Press. She was convicted again in 1985 after a one-day trial in which the only evidence against her was her “confession”.

In a 147-page petition seeking her exoneration, attorneys argued that authorities ignored Hemme’s “wildly contradictory” and “factually impossible” statements while she was a patient at a psychiatric hospital.

Hemme, then 20, was receiving treatment for auditory hallucinations, de-realization and drug use when she was targeted by the police, her attorneys said. She had spent most of her life, beginning from the age of 12, in inpatient psychiatric treatment.

Over a series of hours-long interviews, Hemme gave conflicting statements about the murder while being treated with antipsychotic drugs, her attorneys said. “At some points, she was so heavily medicated that she was unable to even hold her head up and was restrained and strapped to a chair,” they wrote.

Detectives noted that Hemme seemed “mentally confused” and not able to fully comprehend their questions. Steven Fueston, a retired St Joseph police department detective, testified that he stopped one of the interviews because “she didn’t seem totally coherent”.

Police “exploited her mental illness and coerced her into making false statements while she was sedated and being treated with antipsychotic medication”, Hemme’s lawyers said.

They alleged that authorities at the time suppressed evidence that implicated Michael Holman, then a 22-year-old police officer who had tried to use the victim’s credit card. Holman’s truck was spotted near the crime scene and a pair of earrings identified by Jeschke’s father were found in Holman’s possession.

Holman had been a suspect and was questioned at the time. Many of the details uncovered during the investigation into Holman were never given to Hemme’s attorneys. Holman was investigated for insurance fraud and burglaries and spent time in prison. He died in 2015.

In his ruling Friday, Horsman wrote that “no evidence whatsoever outside of Ms Hemme’s unreliable statements connects her to the crime”, adding that those statements had been “taken while she was in psychiatric crisis and physical pain”.

In contrast, “this court finds that the evidence directly ties Holman to this crime and murder scene”, Horsman wrote. He said prosecutors had failed to disclose evidence that would have helped Hemme’s defense and that her trial counsel had fallen “below professional standards”.

The Missouri attorney general’s office, which fought to uphold her conviction, did not immediately comment on the judge’s ruling, the Kansas City Star reported.

Any sense of a ceasefire in Australia’s fractious climate wars was blown away this week after the Coalition said it would not back the country’s 2030 emissions reduction target at the next election.

Peter Dutton’s declaration would mean that, if elected, a Coalition government will seek to breach a central tenet of the global Paris climate accord that countries should not “backslide” on their climate ambition.

Dutton also said his party would not be taking any interim targets to the next general election, which could be as late as May next year.

“I’m not going to sign up to an arrangement that destroys our economy and sends families and small businesses into bankruptcy,” Dutton said.

Speaking to Guardian Australia, veterans of international climate negotiations and public advocacy spoke of their anger and disappointment at the Coalition’s position, saying it would damage Australia’s economy and international reputation.

Peter Garrett

Peter Garrett, the frontman of rock band Midnight Oil and a former Labor environment minister, said the shift was astonishing and alarming.

“It’s a bitter surprise but it renders the Coalition unfit to govern,” he said.

“Mr Dutton has abrogated all responsibility as Coalition leader and decided to allow the narrow self-interest of the fossil fuel industry to overturn rational climate policy. This action means the Coalition has abandoned the field of rational policymaking altogether.

“It’s alarming in the sense we don’t have a foundation of bipartisan support for moderate but necessary action on reducing emissions.

“It has cast a really big dark shadow over the climate policy debate because we’re disappearing backwards into a pit of his own making with no rational assessment of why he did this, other than he seems to believe what the fossil fuel lobbyists are whispering in his ear.

“It’s astonishing a political leader in 2024 can make such a poor decision with a judgment disastrous in consequences and destabilising for his own party.”

Erwin Jackson

Erwin Jackson has been an observer at climate negotiations since the 1990s and is currently the policy director with the Investor Group on Climate Change, whose members manage $35tn of assets globally.

“I remember these same arguments when [Paul] Keating was prime minister and when [John] Howard was prime minister,” Jackson said.

“It’s really really sad for me – the fact the body politic is going through these same old lines, and this lack of acknowledgment of how serious a threat climate change is to our communities, economy and people.

“We have so much to gain from action on climate, but we have so much to lose from inaction.”

Jackson said investor confidence in Australia had rallied significantly in the past two years.

“That’s why it’s important we stay the course. Investors over the last few days will be rolling their eyes, saying: ‘Why are we having to go through this again?’

“We will get to net zero. The politics will follow the economics. But the question is do we want to be a passenger or a prisoner in that process.”

Lesley Hughes

Prof Lesley Hughes is a pioneering climate change scientist and a Climate Council councillor with decades of science advocacy behind her. She is also a member of the Climate Change Authority.

Hearing Dutton was risking Australia’s international climate credibility, Hughes said she “let out an enormous, frustrated groan, followed by some swearing”.

“It shows the current leadership of the Liberal party is as willing to deny and delay as the previous conservative government. They have not progressed and it is extremely disappointing that there’s an active push to reignite the so-called climate wars. We had hoped we had matured beyond that, but apparently not.

“It’s absolutely damaging to our international reputation. When Australia became a signatory to the Paris agreement, it was a condition that there was no backsliding and every five years you put up a more ambitious target.

“There’s no consistency at all with a politician saying they still want to be part of the Paris agreement and then backsliding. It’s just not on.”

Bill Hare

Bill Hare, chief executive and senior scientist at Climate Analytics, has been involved in international climate negotiations since the late 1980s.

Speaking from a UN climate meeting in Bonn, he said Dutton’s statements were “an incredibly wilful and destructive regression – the very idea we are not going to have a 2030 target and these arguments they’re making that it will destroy the economy are totally wrong”.

“I just feel a towering sense of anger because of the climate crisis unfolding around the world and in Australia. I wonder who Dutton is listening to. Who is it?

“Opinion polls say most people want more climate action, not less.

“We elect politicians to represent the interests of ourselves and our country and we know, to the extent that we know anything, that [Dutton’s position] is a dead end for the economy and the planet.”

Hare believes Dutton’s shift is a “convenient” distraction for the Albanese government, which he said continued to approve coal and gas developments while releasing weak policy reforms on climate.

“Climate policy isn’t a left/right issue. Look at Texas – that hotbed of Marxist bedwetters – that is exploding with wind and solar because it’s good business. Peter Dutton and his party appear to be opposed to those opportunities for Australia.”

Howard Bamsey

Howard Bamsey is a long-time national and international public servant on climate change and a former Australian government climate ambassador.

“This feels like a debilitating illness that you hoped had gone away but it keeps coming back,” he said.

“The solution [to climate change] is changing the direction of investment and, if they take it seriously, this will only confound investors and boardrooms.

“If [the Liberal party] followed through, it would be devastating to the economy. It seems to me a reaction would be investors walking away from Australia.

“In the backrooms of political offices there are all these arcane calculations being made that are not based on any reality, or on the national interest.

“I’ve been a public servant most of my life and this sort of behaviour absolutely undermines the national interest. It’s a vacuous political move.”

Israel is falling into a trap laid by Hamas in its war in Gaza, Giorgia Meloni said at a press conference closing the G7 summit in Bari that affirmed her role as a leading figure in Europe. The Italian prime minister also stated that the EU will not directly contribute to a $50bn loan to Ukraine agreed by the G7 leaders.

And she underlined her status by declaring that she will start talks on Monday about the allocation of top jobs in the EU on the basis that Europe has to accept the verdict of the people reflected in the results of last week’s European parliament elections.

Meloni was one of the few European incumbents to do well in the elections. She said: “If we want to draw from the vote the indication that everything was fine it is a distorted reading. The citizens want pragmatism., a less ideological approach.”

Meloni is seen as vital to the reappointment of Ursula von der Leyen, whose European People’s Party came first, as Commission president, but insisted that Italy will also be seeking senior Commission posts.

She dismissed a row about the absence of the word abortion, which she fought to excise despite French and American protests, from the final G7 communique. Last year’s communique, issued under the Japanese presidency, explicitly referred to the right to abortion.

She said she “understood why some sought to light such fires”, a reference to the French president Emmanuel Macron publicly raising his rift with Meloni, but she insisted “the issue was constructed in a totally artificial manner, the controversy did not exist in our discussions because there was no reason to argue”.

The communique referred to “universal access to adequate, affordable, and quality health services for women, including comprehensive sexual and reproductive health and rights for all”.

She also insisted she had not sought to alter the commitment to the rights of LGBTQ+ people, saying: “We are not taking any steps backwards, and therefore the expectations of some have been disappointed, because the story did not correspond to the truth”.

Meloni, a self-described “Christian mother” has in the past condemned “LGBT lobbies”, but she said no rights had changed since she came to power in 2022.

In some respects her remarks about Israel falling into a trap set by Hamas were the most surprising. Although she stressed it was necessary to remember the attacks on women and children on 7 October, “it seems that Israel has fallen into a trap, a Hamas trap that had the aim of isolating it, and it seems to be working. We are working on its security,” she added.

But she is understood to believe that Israel should be willing to accept the peace plan set out by President Biden that seeks to create a permanent ceasefire on the basis of a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza.

She also gave fresh details about the $50bn (£39bn) loan to Ukraine to be funded out of the interest accrued from the $230bn frozen Russian state assets, saying the cash will be provided by the US, Canada, UK and probably Japan. “Currently, European nations are not involved”, she said.

US officials explained that some countries, notably the US and Canada, are going to contribute to the loan; others will help with the repayment. Yet more states, including the UK, will provide guarantees of repayment if the income flow isn’t sufficient to service and repay the loan in full.

Meloni said she saw little prospect of the assets being repaid to Russia for many years. She said: “Since the assets were frozen due to the sanctions and the sanctions are linked to the aggression towards Ukraine, the hypothesis of an unfreezing only occurs in the case of a peace process – but I assume that in this process of peace, the issue of who should pay for the reconstruction of Ukraine would also be negotiated.”

She described Vladimir Putin’s peace offer delivered on Friday as a propaganda initiative rather than a real peace proposal.

Eight Israeli soldiers have been killed in a blast that engulfed their armoured vehicle in southern Gaza, in the biggest loss of life for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in a single incident since January.

The deaths came amid continuing fighting around Rafah in which at least 19 Palestinians were killed in Israeli strikes.

According to the IDF, the squad of combat engineers were in a convoy of half a dozen armoured vehicles returning from a mission at about 5am on Saturday morning in the Tal al-Sultan area of the southern Gaza city when their vehicle was destroyed.

Earlier, the armed wing of Hamas said fighters had ambushed an armoured personnel carrier, killing and wounding a number of Israeli soldiers, in the area in the west of Rafah, where Israeli forces have been advancing for weeks.

According to reports in the Israeli media, the IDF was investigating whether the vehicle exploded after being targeted or following the accidental detonation of explosives which the soldiers had been transporting in their vehicle.

The explosives had been stored on the vehicle’s exterior, a tactic reportedly used to avoid harm to the occupants in the event of detonation. The blast occurred after several other vehicles had already passed the same location, and killed all those inside immediately.

The latest deaths will probably fuel mounting calls for a ceasefire and heighten Israeli public anger over ultra-Orthodox exemptions from the military. Although IDF fatalities from the Gaza operation and immediate surroundings, which now stand at 307, have been hugely outnumbered by Palestinian deaths – which have seen more than 37,000 killed, the majority of them civilians – the growing toll of death and injuries to Israel’s armed forces has taken greater prominence as the war has dragged on.

In January, 21 Israeli troops were killed in a single attack. On Sunday the Israeli cabinet is expected to discuss increasing the age limit for reserve duty for soldiers by a year. It follows the recent decision to raise the cap on the number of reservists who can be called up by 50,000, amid evidence that the IDF is being stretched fighting on two fronts and with no end to the conflict in sight.

In May, the parents of more than 900 Israeli soldiers deployed in Gaza signed a letter urging the military to call off its ongoing offensive in Rafah, calling it a “deadly trap” for their children.

“It is evident to anyone with common sense that after months of warnings and announcements regarding an incursion into Rafah, there are forces on the other side actively preparing to strike our troops,” said the letter, sent on 2 May.

“Our sons are physically and mentally exhausted,” adds the letter, addressed to the defence minister, Yoav Gallant, and the IDF chief of staff, Lt Gen Herzi Halevi.

“And now, you intend to send them into this perilous situation? … This appears to be nothing short of recklessness.”

The increasing combat toll also comes against the background of a heated debate around the issue of who serves in the army. Last month, Israel’s supreme court ordered an end to government subsidies for many ultra-Orthodox men who don’t serve in the army.

However, Benjamin Netanyahu’s government – which relies heavily on ultra-Orthodox parties – last week voted in favour of a new law extending exemptions for religious men.

Although the first vote was only procedural, it caused an uproar by being approved during a war in which hundreds of soldiers have died and many others remain inside Gaza or on the frontlines against Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

That prompted a second open letter last week from families of combat soldiers addressed to Gallant and Halevi. In the letter the families said they were asking their “fighting children” to “stop the fighting right now, put down their weapons and return home immediately,” adding: “We will not sacrifice our children on the altar of public corruption.”

Harry, 71

My body just reacted. I suddenly felt, I’d love to take this person to bed just to get closer to her

I had a wonderful partner who died suddenly six years ago. I gave up hope for a while, but eventually started dating. I wasn’t sure I’d ever fall in love again, or meet somebody I’d want to be with for the rest of my life. So I was surprised when I met Meredith and we hit it off. We’ve now been together for two and a half years, and I probably have a constant smile on my face.

I think I have quite a big sex drive. Not ridiculous, but I’ve always enjoyed it. I could never understand why people would spend a fortune on a meal and wine, when sex and intimacy are the most wonderful free thing and can bring such happiness – and the experience lingers way longer than a gulp of red wine.

I was really anxious when Meredith and I first slept together, on our fourth date. I’ve never had problems achieving or maintaining an erection but I was worried whether I would be able to stay firm when I was with somebody else after my wife, or whether the picture of her would come into my mind. I even bought some Viagra. But my body just reacted. It’s as simple as that. I suddenly felt: I’d love to take this person to bed just to get closer to her.

I’m quite happy just pleasing Meredith. I enjoy it so much, especially going down on her. In the bedroom I try to play a little game to guess what’s going to turn her on. She might want me to gently lick and kiss her, or it might just be a hug. She’s very open about what she likes and we often spend hours discussing what’s bad or good, and what we can do to improve our love life – not just sex but our relationship.

There’s a 14-year gap between us, and I wonder if that will catch up with me, and how Meredith will feel about it. But after losing my wife so suddenly, it made me realise that I shouldn’t worry about the future.

So I’m just going to enjoy being in the moment: like climbing naked into bed with Meredith, drinking a cup of tea and just chatting, which usually leads to us making love.

Meredith, 57

I didn’t connect with my vulva really, and I was apprehensive to start with when Harry and I first slept together

I separated from my husband of over a decade in 2020. After a couple of years being single, I wanted to find someone I could have a serious relationship with, but also a lot of fun – something that had been missing in my marriage. The idea of a dating site was daunting but exciting. Harry was my first date.

Prior to meeting Harry, sex had never been a priority. My husband had a very Victorian attitude to sex – he wouldn’t go down on me and our sex life was very repetitive.

But Harry and I have such a good sex life that I think: “Christ, this is what I’ve been missing.” It’s been a revelation, particularly with cunnilingus. Because of my husband’s almost disgust of it, I just cut out that part of my body. I didn’t connect with my vulva, and I was apprehensive about it when Harry and I first slept together. I felt my body tighten up and couldn’t let go.

But Harry is a competent, confident lover. He kept saying: “Sweetheart, I absolutely love doing this.” It took me a while to accept that he did, but now I just let go and enjoy it, too. And that’s probably been one of the biggest changes for me sexually: it’s a pleasure for him and a huge pleasure for me.

We live about an hour apart and see each other at weekends. We’ve worked out that having sex in the morning works for us. We are very intimate and tactile, and kiss a lot. Kissing is really important and it’s always how things start, as that’s how Harry gets aroused.

We approach our whole relationship like a work in progress. We’ll have a review every now and then, where we each talk uninterrupted about every aspect of our relationship. That includes talking about sex, which I had never really done before. We discuss what we like, what we want, how to keep it fresh and have fun. And we do have a lot of fun.

Hikers may be inadvertently damaging the environment and risking their own health by wearing clothes made waterproof with “forever chemicals”, according to research by Ethical Consumer.

The campaigning magazine examined 27 companies that make outdoor clothing such as fleeces, waterproof jackets, walking boots and rucksacks, and found 82% were still using per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS.

Some chemicals classed as PFAS have been linked to health problems including high cholesterol, fertility, immune system disorders and some cancers. They have been used in consumer products since the 1950s and can take hundreds of years to degrade, contaminating the soil and water supply.

The government said in February that it was considering restricting the use of PFAS in consumer products under the UK’s REACH chemical regulations on the basis that they may be hazardous. Yet there are alternatives. Páramo and Finisterre use no PFAS in their products, while Fjällräven, Alpkit, Lowe Alpine and Patagonia are mostly PFAS free. They and more than a dozen other firms say they will end their PFAS use next year.

But nearly half of the companies assessed by Ethical Consumer had no phase-out date for using PFAS.

Jane Turner, an Ethical Consumer writer and researcher, said: “The irreversible global contamination and extreme toxicity of ‘forever chemicals’ have been undisputed for years, but most outdoor clothing companies are still unnecessarily using them and adding to the PFAS pollution burden. That’s not acceptable, and companies must stop using them now. Consumers should only buy from the responsible companies that have stopped using PFAS.”

There are more than 10,000 PFAS chemicals, according to Fidra, an environmental charity aiming to reduce plastic waste and chemical pollution. Those used in outdoor gear help fabrics repel water, making the liquid slide off.

The process of weathering the material means that hikers wearing outdoor gear shed some of the chemicals into the environment, although most PFAS pollution occurs during the manufacture of the chemicals, when they are applied to fabric, and when a product is thrown away.

Hannah Evans, a project manager at Fidra, said: “PFAS have been found in rivers running through England, on the slopes of Mount Everest and in more than 600 wildlife species, from polar bears to bottlenose dolphins.

“In Europe alone there are at least 23,000 known contamination sites, 2,000 of which are considered PFAS ‘hotspots’ – areas where ­concentrations are deemed hazardous to health. PFAS are contributing to a global chemical pollution crisis.”

Páramo said it did not use PFAS in its products because its fabric, Nikwax, mimicked animal fur by pushing water outwards. But contamination from other companies using the chemicals can be a problem for firms trying to move away from PFAS.

“The biggest issue for us was not removing PFAS substances from our own processes but rather persuading the fabric mills we work with to do the same, guaranteeing PFAS-free fabrics,” a Páramo spokesperson said. “Since 2016, we have been able to guarantee that every single garment we make is PFAS-free.”

The attraction of using PFAS is that it can make fabrics stain resistant as well as water resistant. They are also used to make nonstick frying pans, fridges, jet engines and electrical devices. Choosing to remove a potential selling point can be a difficult decision for some companies to make. Keen, whose walking boots have been PFAS-free since 2018, said that it “just needed something that was effective at repelling water and dirt” rather than “stains, grease and motor oil”.

Fjällräven said that not making its jackets oil repellent was “a low price to pay. It’s easy to add functionality because it’s nice to have, but every function has a side-effect”.

The Royal Society of Chemistry has called on the next government to establish an agency to regulate the use of PFAS and other substances. After Brexit, the UK left the ECHA, the European chemicals agency, and chemical use is governed by the Health and Safety Executive with the support of the Environment Agency. The government under Theresa May promised in 2018 to create a chemicals strategy, yet nothing has been published.

The Princess of Wales watched the spectacle of the trooping the colour ceremony from the windows of the Major General’s office, along with her three children, Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis, in her first public appearance since revealing her cancer diagnosis.

Catherine, who wore white with navy details, could be seen earlier smiling and talking to her children, who were dressed in navy and white, in their carriage before they arrived at Horse Guards Parade in Whitehall. The Princess of Wales, who is the regiment’s colonel, also wore an Irish guards regimental brooch. They were cheered by crowds in the Mall as they left Buckingham Palace.

King Charles and Queen Camilla were riding in a carriage in their royal procession ahead of the Princess of Wales.

The Princess of Wales was photographed prior to that arriving at Buckingham Palace by car before the parade.

Ahead of the event, Kate said in a statement: “I’m looking forward to attending the King’s birthday parade this weekend with my family and hope to join a few public engagements over the summer, but equally knowing I am not out of the woods yet.

“I am learning how to be patient, especially with uncertainty. Taking each day as it comes, listening to my body and allowing myself to take this much needed time to heal.”

The Princess of Wales said she was making “good progress” but “there are good days and bad days”. “On those bad days you feel weak, tired and you have to give in to your body resting. But on the good days, when you feel stronger, you want to make the most of feeling well.” She added that her treatment will continue “for a few more months”.

A Buckingham Palace spokesperson said: “His Majesty is delighted that the princess is able to attend tomorrow’s events and is much looking forward to all elements of the day.”

The celebration has been held on the sovereign’s birthday for more than 260 years. At the event, Number 9 Company, Irish guards, a regiment Kate represents as colonel, will be trooping the king’s colour.

In a letter read to the regiment last week, the Princess of Wales, who is undergoing chemotherapy, wrote to the Irish guards to apologise for being unable to take the salute and wished them luck. Lt Gen Sir James Bucknall will take the salute on her behalf.

The king, who is also undergoing treatment for cancer, will not ride on horseback during the ceremony, but will instead review the parade from an Ascot landau carriage. He attended his first trooping at the age of three, riding in a carriage with his grandmother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother.

More than 1,250 soldiers and hundreds of Guardsmen assembled on the parade ground to be inspected by the King from his carriage with Queen Camilla, who is colonel of the Grenadier Guards, and accompanied by the mounted royal colonels.

The stands overlooking the parade ground were filled with about 8,000 family members and partners of the guardsmen and officers on parade.

Alaska’s capital city is to limit the numbers of cruise ship passengers arriving at the port amid concerns over tourism’s growing impact, but a leading critic of the industry has said further measures to protect Alaskans’ quality of life are needed.

Located on the Gastineau Channel in southern Alaska, Juneau has a population of 32,000 and last year received a record 1.65 million cruise ship passengers – a 23% increase from the previous high.

While many businesses encourage the bonanza of tourist dollars, other people are bothered by buzzing helicopters, crowded streets and hiking trails, and damage to the local environment.

Seeking to balance the economic benefits against the effects of high numbers of visitors, the city reached an agreement last week with the Cruise Lines International Association in Alaska that will limit daily cruise passenger arrivals to 16,000 from Sundays to Fridays and to 12,000 on Saturdays.

Juneau’s tourism manager, Alexandra Pierce, said: “The city’s position is that we do not have room for cruise growth with our current infrastructure and we have negotiated the daily passenger limits to bring down our busiest days.” The agreement aimed to hold cruise passenger numbers roughly steady while the city worked on improving infrastructure, she said.

“Cruise tourism is important for our local and regional economies and we need to be good neighbours while also finding the balance between concerned residents and the local livelihoods that depend on the visitor industry,” Pierce said.

A former gold-rush town set near an imposing glacier, amid lush rainforests, towering mountains and abutting a pristine waterway that is home to humpback whales, Juneau has become Alaska’s most popular port for cruise ships.

Karla Hart, a Juneau resident and longtime critic of the cruise industry, remains concerned that the daily visitors allowed under the new agreement could still see arrival records broken over the course of the 22-week cruise season.

“The city’s direction to the staff was to hold the number or somewhat reduce it, and yet we now have a negotiated agreement that, if you do the math, would let us have 2.5 million cruise-ship passengers,” she said.

Instead, Hart is backing a local referendum proposal for “ship-free Saturdays”, a policy that would prevent ships with more than 250 passengers stopping in Juneau one day a week.

“Our ballot initiative is really looking at providing some quality-of-life protection for the community that we can tangibly see and feel one day a week by not having the cruise ships in our port,” she said.

The cruise industry is booming after the pandemic, and the ships are getting bigger. Some vessels are now able to carry close to 6,000 passengers, with insiders saying the industry is still far from reaching the limits of how big they can get.

In January, the world’s largest cruise ship to date, Icon of the Seas, was launched. It towers 20 decks above sea level, carries more than 7,000 passengers and crew, and has the world’s largest waterpark on a ship.

Juneau is not the only city concerned about the growing social and environmental impacts of cruise ships. In 2021, Venice banned them from the city’s lagoon altogether, while Barcelona has restricted access and Amsterdam has introduced a day tax on passengers.

Hart said: “Air and water emissions from the cruise ships are a big concern, as well as ship strikes and climate change. The list goes on.”

Rebecca on Lars