22 h. ago ‘It’s blackmail’: Ukrainians react to Trump demand for $500bn share of minerals

Ukraine’s lithium deposits are among biggest in Europe and the US is looking for ‘payback’ for previous military assistanceDrawing in the snow with his finger, Mykola Hrechukha sketched out how Ukraine’s new lithium mine might look. It would have a deep central shaft, with a series of side tunnels, he said. “The lithium is good everywhere. The biggest concentration is at a depth of 200-500 metres,” he said. “We should be able to extract 4,300 tonnes a day. The potential is terrific.”For now, though, there is little sign of activity. The deposit is buried under a large sloping field, used in communist times to grow beetroot and wheat. The mine’s proposed entrance is in an abandoned former-Soviet village, Liodiane, today a scruffy grove of acacia and maple trees. The only inhabitant is a security guard, who lives on the 150-hectare site in an ancient Gaz-53 truck. Wild boar and even a wolf sometimes wander past. Continue reading...

Politics

30 h. ago 'I was at an Asda supermarket when security stopped me, what happened shook me to my core'

Melanie has said she will never go back to store where she was stopped

Events

4 d. ago Gates return with security guards blocking popular mountain path used by locals for decades

Locals are angry the path used by dog walkers and horse riders has been blocked off

Events

4 d. ago Syrian authorities arrest three men with suspected links to notorious Tadamon massacre

The men are accused of involvement in the execution of nearly 300 civilians by government forces in Damascus in 2013, which the perpetrators filmedAuthorities in Damascus have arrested three men they claim were involved in a notorious massacre of civilians by Syrian security forces revealed by the Guardian three years ago.Footage posted online purported to show one of the men, Monzer al-Jazairi, with his hands bound and being led through the heavily damaged streets of Tadamon, the Damascus suburb where nearly 300 people were killed in an atrocity filmed by the perpetrators themselves – and then leaked by a whistleblower to activists in Europe. Continue reading...

Events

4 d. ago Syrian authorities arrest three men with suspected links to Tadamon massacre

Men are accused of involvement in the execution of nearly 300 civilians by government forces in Damascus in 2013, which the perpetrators filmedAuthorities in Damascus have arrested three men they claim were involved in a notorious massacre of civilians by Syrian security forces revealed by the Guardian three years ago.Footage posted online purported to show one of the men, Monzer al-Jazairi, with his hands bound and being led through the heavily damaged streets of Tadamon, the Damascus suburb where nearly 300 people were killed in an atrocity filmed by the perpetrators themselves and then leaked by a whistleblower to activists in Europe. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago Lanarkshire craft group reaches milestone of 20,000 donations in anniversary year

Members of the local Project Linus group have created thousands of blankets for local youngsters over the past two decades

Politics

5 d. ago Teenage thieves mount brazen Valentines Day raid on Aldi before barging past security guards with a haul of FLOWERS

The teenagers seemed not to care that they were being filmed as they casually strode out of Aldi in Seven Kings, Ilford, east London, clutching their unlikely haul.

Events

6 d. ago ‘We live in constant fear’: Alawites in Syria’s Homs terrified of reprisals

Diverse city has grown tense since fall of Assad regime, as security forces target groups loyal to the former dictatorOutside the deserted Homs political security directorate building, a group of freshly recruited armed guards were engaged in a heated debate about justice. Sado Junaid, whose sister and brother-in-law were detained and tortured in the squat facility’s underground prison, sided with Mahmoud al-Bashar, who as they spoke sometimes held the black coil of wire and a black-and-white rod once used to beat him and other detainees.They clashed with another young recruit about whether they should be allowed to torture officers from the deposed regime of Bashar al-Assad before any accused of crimes face trial, or whether suspects should be immediately delivered to Syria’s nascent justice system. Continue reading...

Society