54 h. ago Pontins holiday park left abandoned and 'frozen in time' with rooms left completely untouched

The Pontins Holiday Park in Southport appeared as if "time had stood still", and the apartments remain untouched, complete with kitchen gadgets and furnishings inside each flat

Politics

5 d. ago Geneva fights to remain ‘kitchen’ of world diplomacy as Trump cuts bite

US and European withdrawals force soul-searching in the city that is home to 450 international bodies

Politics

7 d. ago A plea to the West: help us save America’s democracy | Anonymous

Countries from Canada to Japan must take steps to isolate the United States in world diplomacyDonald Trump and his political allies in Washington have undertaken far-sweeping actions to undermine the foundations of American democracy, while simultaneously pursuing policies that erode and disrupt eight decades of trust and cooperation with democratic allies in Europe, North America and Asia.While leaders in these countries grapple with what is happening in Trump’s America, they must now ask themselves a new and critical question of immense relevance – one that has never been asked before in the modern era: Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Ukraine has prised Trump away from the Kremlin with minerals deal in triumph of diplomacy

The US-Ukraine mineral deal is good for both countries and the first sign that Trump may turn away from Putin, world affairs editor Sam Kiley writes

Politics

1 week ago Trump’s 100 days pushes the world toward instability, economic decline and diplomatic crisis

Donald Trump has gutted American diplomacy, disparaged NATO allies, cosied up to autocrats, floated wild ambitions to annexe Greenland, and even suggested Canada should become the 51st state

Politics

1 week ago Did ‘Vatican diplomacy’ change Trump’s mind on Ukraine? I’m sceptical for three reasons | Orysia Lutsevych

Zelenskyy, Starmer, Macron they all had his ear at Pope Francis’s funeral. But he is just as easily swayed by the elevator doormanThe most recent diplomatic effort to find a way to stop Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took place at the most unlikely of events: the funeral of Pope Francis. The image of Presidents Zelenskyy and Trump leaning toward each other, under Carlo Maratta’s late-17th-century painting, The Baptism of Christ, rekindled hopes that the US might, at last, hear Kyiv out. Would this unexpected setting make Trump’s compassion, so frequently expressed for the loss of human life, real? And could it lead to a better strategy for ending this criminal and brutal war?The goal of Kyiv and the coalition of the willing – a group of 31 nations that back Ukraine in its fight against Russia – is to distance Trump from what has become a dangerous rapprochement between the Washington and Moscow. But this will be an uphill battle – Europe and Kyiv are trying to fight their way to Trump...

Politics

1 week ago Middle East crisis live: Israel has turned Gaza into a ‘mass grave’, top UN court hears

ICJ holding hearing about Israel’s obligation to facilitate aid to Gaza and the West Bank amid the outlawing of UnrwaTehran has accused Benjamin Netanyahu of trying to dictate US policy in negotiations after the Israeli prime minister repeated calls for Iran’s entire nuclear infrastructure to be dismantled.The US and Iran have so far held three rounds of indirect talks, mediated by Oman, aimed at sealing a deal that would block Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon but also lift crippling economic sanctions imposed by Washington.Israel’s fantasy that it can dictate what Iran may or may not do is so detached from reality that it hardly merits a response. What is striking, however, is how brazenly Netanyahu is now dictating what President Trump can and cannot do in his diplomacy with Iran Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Marco Rubio announces sweeping reorganisation of US state department

Secretary of state says overhaul of department will close a number of overseas missions and reduce staffThe secretary of state, Marco Rubio, has announced a proposed reorganisation of the US state department as part of what he called an effort to reform it amid criticism from the Trump White House over the execution of US diplomacy.The reorganisation will close a number of overseas missions, reduce staff and minimise offices dedicated to promoting liberal values in a stated goal to subsume them to regional bureaus. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago The Guardian view on Donald Trump’s Congo deal: mineral riches for protection | Editorial

Faced with regional chaos and shrinking options, Kinshasa seeks terms of trade that echo the old extractive order in modern disguise“The vilest scramble for loot that has ever disfigured the history of human conscience” is how Joseph Conrad described colonial-era concessions granted to private companies for Congo’s natural resources in Heart of Darkness. Under Donald Trump, that scramble may be back. If news reports are right, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is offering the US a blunt deal: minerals for military help – a slice of sovereignty traded for a shot at stability.The concern is this isn’t a return, it’s a sequel. For three decades, Washington supported Joseph-Désiré Mobutu, a cold war ally and brutal dictator who looted the Congo until his 1997 fall. That history of power politics still casts a long shadow. The Trump administration openly favours muscle over diplomacy. Fadhel Kaboub, an associate professor of economics at Denison University, notes that Biden-era ...

Politics