5 d. ago UK and EU summon Russian envoys after Kyiv offices damaged in strikes

Overnight attacks kill 18 and severely damage buildings including those housing EU delegation and British CouncilUK politics live – latest updatesThe UK and European Union have summoned their Russian envoys after overnight missile strikes on Kyiv killed at least 18 people and damaged the city’s British Council and EU offices in the most deadly aerial assault on the Ukrainian capital since the Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.Four children are among the 17 reported dead after a residential building was struck in the middle of the night within the eastern Darnytskyi district, according to Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago At least 21 dead in overnight Kyiv attack as UK and EU summon Russian envoys

Missile strikes on Ukrainian capital hit EU and British Council offices in deadliest assault in monthsThe UK and European Union have summoned their Russian envoys after overnight missile strikes on Kyiv killed at least 21 people and damaged the city’s British Council and EU offices, in the deadliest aerial assault on the Ukrainian capital since the Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.Four children were among those killed after a residential building in the eastern Darnytskyi district was struck in the middle of the night within the eastern Darnytskyi district, according to Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko. Continue reading...

Events

5 d. ago ‘Massive’ Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv kills at least 14 people

Zelenskyy says Moscow ‘chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table’ after assault affecting more than 20 locations• Europe live – latest updatesRussian airstrikes have killed at least 14 people in a succession of attacks on Kyiv and wounded dozens in the most deadly night raid on the Ukrainian capital since the Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.Twelve people were reported killed when a five-storey residential building in the eastern Darnytskyi district was struck in the middle of the night, Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said. Continue reading...

Events

6 d. ago This boho Cairo neighbourhood is the perfect escape from the hustle of Egypt’s busiest city

Having lived in Egypt for several years, Tamara Davison knows the capital can feel rushed and chaotic – but in Maadi she finds a peaceful oasis with charming cafes, boutique supermarkets and sleepy residential streets surrounded by greenery

Politics

6 d. ago Ukraine war briefing: Russian troops inside Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine says

Fighting under way, Ukrainian military confirms, in central oblast that is not part of Russia’s illegal annexation. What we know on day 1,281Ukraine acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that Russia’s army had entered the Dnipropetrovsk region, a central administrative area previously spared from intense fighting. “Yes, they have entered, and fighting is ongoing as of now,” said Viktor Tregubov, a spokesperson for Ukrainian forces in Dnipro, Ukraine’s fourth-largest city. Russian forces have slowly gained ground in costly battles for largely devastated areas in eastern and southern Ukraine, normally with few inhabitants or intact buildings left.Separately, Ukraine’s military general staff rejected Moscow’s claims to have fully captured the villages of Zaporizke and Novogeorgiivka just inside Dnipropetrovsk oblast. But battlefield monitor DeepState, which has close ties to Ukraine’s military, said on Tuesday that Russia had “occupied” them and was “consolidating its positions [a...

Events

9 d. ago ‘Doesn’t feel like peace to me’: Ukrainians in the UK fear war will never end after Trump

‘Unless Ukraine is given real security guarantees, the war will resume,’ warn citizens who fled the country when Russia invaded

Politics

9 d. ago Peacemaker season two review – the orgy scene feels like a TV first

John Cena puts in an Emmy-worthy performance in a DC superhero drama whose lengthy group sex scene isn’t exactly new to television. But a follow-up episode about the logistics of clean-up? You don’t see that very oftenWith his medicine-ball biceps and chin worthy of an Easter Island moai, the wrestler turned actor John Cena can actually pull off wearing a daft comic book outfit, shiny silver helmet and all. That’s what makes Cena’s spandex-clad Chris Smith AKA Peacemaker so inherently funny: he looks the part but is a demonstrably terrible superhero. Being a hard-charging, self-sabotaging meathead with a propensity for violence and a hair-trigger temper will never make you as beloved as Superman. But it can be highly entertaining to watch.To give Peacemaker his due, he is a survivor. He was first introduced in James Gunn’s 2021 movie The Suicide Squad, a film that bumped off cast members with glee, before getting his own small-screen spin-off overseen by Gunn in 2022. That brash and...

Culture

1 week ago Trump needs to understand what the war in Ukraine is really about | Kenneth Roth

It’s not about Nato or the Soviet Union. It’s about democracyIt may be difficult for a real-estate mogul like Donald Trump to recognize, but Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is not about slices of war-torn land in eastern Ukraine. It is about Ukraine’s democracy. Putin fears that the Russian people will see that democracy as an enticing alternative to his stultifying autocratic rule. Trump is unlikely to secure a peace deal unless he acts on that reality and changes the cost-benefit analysis behind Putin’s continuing war.Much of the public analysis of the Alaska summit between Trump and Putin, and the Washington collection of European leaders protecting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from the temperamental Trump, has been replete with red-herring issues. For example, Putin did not invade Ukraine because of feared Nato expansion. The unanimous consent of all Nato members required to admit Ukraine is nowhere on the horizon, especially since article 5 of the Nato tre...

Politics

2 w. ago Why Russia is desperate to capture eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland

Giving up the region will have ‘catastrophic consequences’, say experts

Politics

2 w. ago Putin won in Anchorage. Now Zelenskyy and Europe are in an even more perilous position | Rajan Menon

Trump’s summit failed to achieve a ceasefire, but the Russian president will be very happy with how events are unfoldingDonald Trump portrays himself as a hard-nosed dealmaker. Yet in the run-up to Friday’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, his claim that the Russian leader held him in high regard and was therefore serious about ending the war in Ukraine sounded naive. Putin doesn’t let sentimentality shape his political and military decisions. Nor has he disavowed his longstanding claim to four Ukrainian provinces: Donetsk and Luhansk, which together comprise Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south. Despite Russia’s overwhelming numerical advantage in troops and weaponry, Putin occupies only one province, Luhansk, almost entirely. Yet he persists.In the days before his meeting with Putin, Trump said the Russian economy “stinks” and that falling oil prices would cause Russia’s war to run aground. The war has certainly placed severe s...

Politics

2 w. ago Putin told Trump he could relax some territorial claims in exchange for Donetsk region

Russian president offered at Alaska summit to freeze front lines if Ukraine withdraws from crucial eastern area

Politics

2 w. ago Putin demands Ukraine withdrawal from eastern Donetsk as price of ending war

Trump urges European leaders to drop efforts for ceasefire after failing to win over Russian president in Alaska

Politics

2 w. ago Donbas: Why Russia is desperate to capture eastern Ukraine’s industrial heartland

Fully giving up Donbas could have ‘catastrophic consequences’, according to experts

Politics

2 w. ago ‘It’s a robot war’: eastern Ukraine faces onslaught of Russian glide bombs, rockets and kamikaze drones

Putin has escalated strikes on Donetsk region and is likely to demand Ukraine hands it over in talks with TrumpNataliya Petrovna pointed to a crater on the edge of a football field. Around it lay bits of twisted metal. From nearby came loud banging as residents fixed plywood to their damaged five-storey apartment block. Many of its windows were broken. “The last few days have been terrible. We could hear the drones buzzing over us. The one that exploded near the school opposite was a Russian Shahed. Maybe some kind of new type,” she said.Petrovna lives in the eastern garrison city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk province, about 15 miles from the frontline. The distance is just beyond the range of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, at least for now. But it is easily reachable by other kinds of enemy objects. They include air-dropped glide bombs, Grad rockets and unmanned kamikaze drones – now cruising Ukraine’s skies in overwhelming numbers. Continue reading...

Events

3 w. ago Putin races to grab territory in Ukraine with lightning advance days before meeting with Trump

Battlefield reports claim Russian sabotage and reconnaisance teams have breached weak points in eastern Ukraine, advancing up to six miles past the front line in two days

Politics

3 w. ago Georgina Hayden’s recipe for grilled peach, gorgonzola and thyme tartine

Griddled, tiger-striped peaches with thyme and chilli on top of oozy gorgonzola and rocket? You’ll never think of ‘cheese on toast’ in the same way again Essentially a fancy name for “things on toast”, a tartine is a topless sandwich that can be piled high with delicious things with no threat of being squished together. I love the simplicity and elegance of this recipe: it is the perfect balance of sweet and sour, spicy and salty, and it feels special at the same time. Griddle and marinate the peaches ahead of time, if you like, and feel free to switch them for nectarines, apricots or whatever you have to hand that looks good for griddling. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Soldiers under bombardment in eastern Ukraine say peace still feels far away

‘We are preparing for a long war. We have no illusions that Russia will stop’

Events

4 w. ago James Whale dies aged 74 after devastating terminal kidney cancer battle

Broadcaster James Whale, who was first diagnosed with kidney cancer in 2000, has sadly passed after re-locating to a hospice and admitting he "feels at peace" in the facility

Events

4 w. ago Terminally ill James Whale, 74, says he's 'happy to go now and feels at peace' after moving to hospice amid kidney cancer battle

The legendary DJ and radio presenter, 74, was first diagnosed with kidney cancer in February 2020, which sadly later spread to his spine, brain and lungs.

Events

4 w. ago ‘Poetry pulled me out of the abyss’: keeping culture alive in Kharkiv – picture essay

Eastern Ukraine’s biggest city is unsettlingly close to the Russian border and vulnerable to missile strikes, but there is a determination to maintain a cultural life, and a poetry festival is testament to the resilience and creativity of its peopleThe city of Kharkiv, just 18 miles from the Russian border, is a paradoxical mix of tended-to and broken. Public sculptures are wrapped and coddled in sandbags to protect them from missiles. Flowerbeds in parks are punctiliously maintained. The life of the streets is several notches quieter than you would expect from a European country’s second city – and yet, bookshops, coffee shops and restaurants are open and doing a steady business.People browsing the books at Pochaina market Continue reading...

Politics