2 h. ago Russia hit by two major earthquakes as millions wait on tsunami warnings

This is a breaking news story and is being constantly updated by our reporters as the breaking news story develops

Events

5 h. ago Xi, Putin and Kim: behind the choreographed image that could symbolise a shift in the global balance of power

In an unprecedented spectacle the leaders of Russia, China and North Korea led a group of more than 20 world leaders at a victory day parade in BeijingFull report: Xi Jinping appears with Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un at China military paradeIt is an image that, had it been published just a few years ago, would have been dismissed as a piece of mischievous photo-shopping: the leaders of Russia and China, accompanied by the head of a pariah regime whose mission to arm his country with nuclear weapons had been opposed at the United Nations by his two companions.But dramatic shifts in the geopolitical landscape – Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and, crucially, the re-election of Donald Trump – have combined to bring Xi Jinping, Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un together in what many observers are calling a dramatic redrawing of the global balance of power. Continue reading...

Politics

7 h. ago China’s victory day parade live: Xi Jinping appears alongside Putin and Kim Jong

Xi Jinping is showing off China’s military hardware at event attended by leaders from Russia, North Korea, Iran and MyanmarThe parade has commenced, they are singing the Chinese national anthem.Photos have emerged showing North Korean leader Kim Jong-un stepping off his armoured train at Beijing Railway Station accompanied by his daughter, Kim Ju-ae. Continue reading...

Politics

8 h. ago Ukraine war briefing: No action from Trump as another Putin deadline passes

US president ‘very disappointed’ in Russian ruler; Trump had promised to get Putin to negotiating table with Volodymr Zelenskyy. What we know on day 1,288Donald Trump took no apparent action at the passing of his latest deadline for Vladimir Putin to come to the negotiating table with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He was “very disappointed” in the Russian ruler, and was planning on “doing something to help people live”, said the US president, without any specifics. He was speaking on the radio show of Scott Jennings, a US conservative pundit.Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday that Russia was engaged in a new troop buildup in certain sectors of the frontline and still launching strikes on Ukrainian targets. “Now we see another buildup of Russian forces in certain sectors of the front. [Putin] refuses to be forced into peace Russia continues to launch strikes. Of course, we will respond to this,” said the Ukrainian president in his nightly address.European allies are ready to contribute to po...

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22 h. ago Ukraine war latest: Putin claims Russia has no intention of attacking anyone after launching daytime strike on Kyiv

Putin also claimed Moscow has never opposed Ukraine's potential membership of the European Union

Events

39 h. ago The Guardian view on Donald Trump and India: the tariff war that boosted China | Editorial

The White House wanted India to bow. Instead, Narendra Modi flew to China, shook Xi Jinping’s hand and left Washington sidelined Donald Trump’s imperial tendencies see the US president wield tariffs and sanctions in the expectation that America will receive tributes. Yet his latest move – punishing India with 50% tariffs for Russian oil purchases once encouraged by the US – has produced not submission but spectacle. It has sent India’s Narendra Modi to China for the first time in seven years as Xi Jinping hosted more than 20 leaders for the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit in Tianjin. And it is in Tianjin, not Washington, where it looks as if the hinge of history is moving.The SCO is easy to dismiss: the bloc is a bundle of contradictions. India and Pakistan remain adversaries. China and India still stare across a garrisoned Himalayan frontier, though relations have thawed since last October’s border breakthrough. Russia and China vie for influence in Central Asia. Unl...

Politics

47 h. ago Russia in 'plane hack' as 'EU chief von der Leyen's aircraft sabotaged'

The plane lost all electrical navigation aids when approaching the Plovdiv airport in Bulgaria and incident is being treated as Russian interference, according to three officials

Politics

3 d. ago Top Ukrainian politician assassinated in broad daylight shooting as Putin blamed

Andriy Parubiy, a prominent pro-Western politician in Ukraine, was shot up to eight times and killed by a gunman believed to have been disguised as a courier in Lviv today

Politics

6 d. ago Kim Jong Un to join Xi and Putin at Beijing military parade in rare trip outside North Korea

Western leaders have shunned China’s ‘Victory Day’ celebrations, while Russia and North Korea are strengthening ties with China

Events

6 d. ago Ukrainian soldier watched comrades' genitals be sliced before miraculously escaping mass grave

A Ukrainian soldier has recalled the gruesome torture he and his comrades suffered at the hands of Putin's goons before he was forced to crawl for five days to escape

Events

1 week ago ‘These are Ukrainian lands’: people in Donetsk pour scorn on Putin’s territorial demands

In Kramatorsk, 12 miles from the frontline, daily life goes on amid the constant threat of attacksIn a branch of the Ukrainian coffee chain Lviv Croissants in the frontline city of Kramatorsk, there is a noticeboard where people leave coloured Post-it notes with simple hand-drawn messages. One just says “Kramatorsk”, with red hearts below and a yellow and blue semi-circular fan above, the colours of Ukraine.Among those looking at the notes is Bohdan, a 26-year-old, who has been serving in the army for the past three years. The soldier, now in logistics, has chosen to spend his one day off in Kramatorsk with his dog Arnold to photograph for himself recent Russian bombing on a city where he was based for 18 months. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Europe’s show of unity at the White House is a plus for Ukraine, but peace is still a distant dream | Andrey Kurkov

As Russian drones and missiles continue to rain down death, the prospect of a Putin-Zelenskyy meeting seems unlikelyIt was night in Ukraine when President Trump met President Putin in Alaska – a night during which Russia shelled only frontline Ukrainian cities. People in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, Dnipro and even Kharkiv could sleep, but they did not. They were waiting for news from Alaska. I was also awake and watching the news feed, aware that this meeting would lead to nothing, or worse, something bad for Ukraine. But in difficult, seemingly hopeless situations, human nature is prone to desperate optimism. In the middle ages, people often hoped for a miracle, forgetting about the logic of events. So, the night of 15 August was a night of hope for a miracle, which, of course, did not happen.Unlike on the eve of the Alaska meeting, in Ukraine, there was no particular tension in the buildup to the meeting of European leaders at the White House on Monday, despite images of a hugely powerful ...

Events

1 week ago Putin dusts off his delaying tactics playbook as Kremlin stalls Zelensky peace

Vladimir Putin is dusting off his stalling and delaying tactics playbook as peace talks with Ukraine falter and Russia continues to build up troops on the frontline and pound Ukrainian targets. 

Politics

1 week ago Vladimir Putin launches hypersonic attack in worst raid since Alaska summit

Russia hit Ukraine with one of its heaviest missile and drone of the war so far, forcing NATO to scramble fighter jets just days after Vladimir Putin travelled to meet Donald Trump in Alaska

Politics

2 w. ago ‘It would be a terrible loss’: Ukrainian frontline troops sceptical of ceding land

Near Dobropillia new trenches are visible, drone attacks continue and there is no sign of the fighting easingOver dinner on Monday, a simple barbecue of meat and roasted vegetables, the soldiers of Ukraine’s 150th reconnaissance and strike battalion have other things on their mind. Volodymyr Zelenskyy is in the White House and Donald Trump has just promised to give Ukraine “very good protection”.When this development is passed on to the group around, one of the soldiers pipes up “From who?” and laughs, such is the uncertainty about who the US really supports. But in reality the troops are not following the news closely. After three and half years, the war has its own momentum, technology and schedule. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Is Trump abandoning his ‘America First’ policy for Ukraine? – podcast

Donald Trump has been all smiles with both Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy over the last few days, but in trying to be ‘peacemaker-in-chief, is the president abandoning his ‘America First’ policy? Rachel Leingang and Andrew Roth discussArchive: CNBC, AFP News Agency, Fox News, Steve Bannon’s War Room, PBS NewsHour, Sky News, NBC News Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Four key takeaways from Trump’s White House summit on Ukraine

The US president has hosted European leaders at short notice amid intense political efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Here are four key points to what was achievedUkraine war: live updatesFull report: Trump arranging Zelenskyy-Putin meeting as European leaders push for US security guaranteesDonald Trump has hosted leaders from across Europe as part of a flurry of diplomacy to find a path to peace in Ukraine. Coming just days after a disappointing summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the pressure was on to make headway in a years-long conflict that the US president once said he could solve in 24 hours.Below are some key points arising from the US president’s range of bilateral and multilateral talks with the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and Nato. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Donald Trump says Ukraine does 'not need ceasefire' during meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy

All eyes were on Washington as Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy met up to discuss the future of Ukraine a few days after an initial meeting with Putin – which did not go as planned

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2 w. ago Russian troops taunt Zelensky by flying US flag on captured American armoured vehicle during frontline assault ahead of Ukrainian leader's crunch talks with Trump today

They were filmed flying the US flag alongside the Russian tricolour in a captured American M113 armoured personnel carrier captured from Volodymyr Zelensky's forces.

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2 w. ago Trump's day of reckoning as leaders stand with Zelensky after humiliating Putin talks

Sir Keir Starmer and other European leaders arrive in Washington to stand united with Volodymyr Zelensky as he faces a US president who, just days earlier, extended a red carpet welcome to Vladimir Putin

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