7 h. ago The Guardian view on billionaire Britain: tax wealth fairly or face democratic unravelling | Editorial

Without bold reform which makes the rich pull their weight, rising inequality risks eroding public trust and fracturing social stabilityBritain for the last decade has experienced a bleak paradox: rising child poverty alongside a dramatic increase in billionaire wealth. This inequality has been tolerated partly because greed has been rehabilitated as virtue. The Billionaire Britain report, published this week by the Equality Trust, reveals what many instinctively feel but few in parliament will admit: the UK economy has become a machine for the upward redistribution of wealth.Using Sunday Times Rich List data, the report found that the 50 wealthiest UK families now own more than the poorest half of the population combined. Their opulence is no accident. It’s largely built on the labour and consumption of those 34 million other Britons. The gains of society are being hoarded by those least in need. There’s a lexicon that sells it all as “entrepreneurial spirit” and bus...

Economics

7 h. ago The Guardian view on the BBC World Service: a boon to the UK, as well as audiences elsewhere | Editorial

Britain would benefit from pledging more sustained and committed support in this age of disinformation and global turmoilTwo years ago, BBC Arabic radio left the airwaves after decades. Soon afterwards, Russia’s Sputnik service began broadcasting on the frequency left vacant in Lebanon. That detail illuminates a larger picture. China, Russia and others see global-facing media as central to their global ambitions and are investing accordingly – pumping out propaganda to muddle or drown out objective, independently minded journalism. These outlets are state-controlled as well as state-owned.Meanwhile, conspiracy theories and disinformation proliferate online, attacks on press freedom intensify and the Trump administration is dismantling media organisations including Voice of America and Radio Free Asia (RFA), which have been essential sources of information for audiences under repressive regimes. Official Chinese media were gleeful at what RFA’s president, Bay Fang, cal...

Events

28 h. ago G7 ministers threaten more sanctions against Russia over Ukraine war

Summit makes little progress on how to respond to Donald Trump’s trade war

Politics

31 h. ago The Guardian view on the US and South Africa: Trump looks to his base and partners look elsewhere | Editorial

The president’s cynical ambush of Cyril Ramaphosa was not about American interests but racial grievancesThe most telling moment of Donald Trump’s meeting with Cyril Ramaphosa was not the cynical screening of footage promoting false claims of “white genocide” in South Africa. It was when a reporter asked the US president what he wanted his counterpart to do about it. Mr Trump replied: “I don’t know.”Leaders enter the Oval Office uneasily, especially since the kicking administered to Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The South African president came armed with gratitude, two golf stars, a billionaire and compliments on the decor – and kept a cool head and a straight face as he was ambushed. Mr Ramaphosa later described it as “robust engagement”. But, in truth, it was a clash of two worlds rather than an interaction.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, ...

Politics

55 h. ago The Guardian view on Russia sanctions: a brittle economy is Putin’s weakness | Editorial

Ukraine’s allies must dial up sanctions to expose the fragility of the Kremlin’s strategy for perpetual warDonald Trump’s pledge to end the war in Ukraine on the first day of his second term as US president was a sign of his unsuitability as a peace broker. A clearer sign was his apparent sympathy with Vladimir Putin. Mr Trump’s tone regarding the Russian president has cooled somewhat on the discovery that the conflict cannot be frozen by White House diktat. There are hints of recognition that the peace process is failing because the Kremlin is cynically playing for time. Sadly, any such insight hasn’t evolved into outrage at the criminal aggression that started the war in the first place.Accounts of a telephone call between the two leaders earlier this week indicate no increase in American pressure on Russia. Mr Trump’s impatience with the whole issue seems likelier to result in him walking away. Mr Putin relishes that prospect.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this ar...

Politics

55 h. ago The Guardian view on social cohesion: too many of us are still ‘bowling alone’ | Editorial

Three decades on from Robert Putnam’s account of fraying social ties in the US, new research in Britain identifies similar dangersThirty years after writing Bowling Alone, the famous essay in which he diagnosed a dangerous crisis of social cohesion in the United States, Robert Putnam has a right to feel vindicated. In a lecture this spring, Prof Putnam, now 84, warned his audience that, amid levels of polarisation and distrust higher than at any time since the civil war, the US was “in danger of going to hell in a handcart”.Britain is still, thankfully, a long way from the poisonous toxicity of Trump-era America, notwithstanding the ominous rise of Reform and Nigel Farage. But research published this week by the More in Common polling group paints a worrying portrait of communities in which there is a widespread sense of social disconnection, high levels of distrust among the young and a felt loss of shared spaces and rituals.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in ...

Politics

58 h. ago European unity against Putin in peril if Trump moves to ease sanctions

EU’s hopes of US increasing pressure on Kremlin have been dashed, and Hungary could yet make situation worseEuropean leaders – who have promised to impose “massive” new sanctions on Russia after Vladimir Putin’s rejection of a ceasefire in Ukraine – face the prospect of having to introduce their planned expansion of economic restrictions on the Russian war economy without the United States.European hopes that Donald Trump might increase the pressure on the Kremlin were dashed after the US president’s two-hour inconclusive phone call with Putin on Monday. Trump did not follow through on previous threats to introduce “large-scale” sanctions on Russia if there was no ceasefire, but instead extolled the prospect of restarting trade with Moscow. Continue reading...

Politics

61 h. ago Russia’s new sanctions explained: Ukraine’s allies target Moscow as peace talks stall

Kyiv’s European allies have slapped new sanctions on Moscow, a day after a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce a breakthrough on ending the 3-year-old war in Ukraine

Events

63 h. ago UK government announces 100 new sanctions on Russia days after huge aerial bombardment

Russia carried out the biggest drone onslaught of the war so far on Ukraine last weekend

Politics

2 d. ago Russia sanctions emptied these London mansions. Now they’re falling apart.

Russia sanctions emptied these London mansions. Now they’re falling apart.  politico.eu

Politics

3 d. ago Rubio says US will impose new sanctions on Russia if no progress on peace deal

Secretary of state defends Donald Trump’s handling of call with Vladimir Putin

Economics

3 d. ago Rubio says US will impose may sanctions on Russia if no progress on peace deal

Secretary of state defends Donald Trump’s handling of call with Vladimir Putin

Economics

3 d. ago Rubio says US may impose sanctions on Russia if no progress on peace deal

Secretary of state defends Donald Trump’s handling of call with Vladimir Putin

Economics

3 d. ago The Guardian view on the calls to save Gaza: Palestinians need deeds, not words | Editorial

Israel faces growing international condemnation. But more is required to restore aid and bring a ceasefireThe UN humanitarian chief Tom Fletcher fears that thousands of babies are at imminent risk of death in Gaza unless aid reaches them. Benjamin Netanyahu fears that foreign politicians could see too many pictures of Palestinian children like these.Two months after all supplies were cut off, the Israeli government denies the obvious truth: that Gaza is on the brink of famine. But on Monday night the prime minister announced that “minimal” aid deliveries would restart, saying his country’s “greatest friends in the world” had told him that they could not “accept images of mass hunger”. His entirely cynical response saw a handful of trucks permitted to cross; reportedly, 100 a day will now be allowed – grotesquely inadequate given the vast scale of need. Reaching the most vulnerable will be perilous and difficult anyway amid Israel’s intensified offensive. Mr Netanyahu vowed that Isra...

Politics

3 d. ago The Guardian view on protecting the Amazon: forest defenders must have support | Editorial

Dom Phillips’ posthumously published book is an urgent reminder of why this unique landscape matters so muchIt doesn’t start for six months, but the build-up to the UN’s annual climate conference is already well under way in Brazil. Hosting the tens of thousands of delegates who make the trip is a big undertaking for any city. But the decision to host Cop30 in Belém, at the mouth of the Amazon river, has multiplied the complications.After three consecutive Cops in autocratic nations, the stated aim of Cop30’s chair, André Aranha Corrêa do Lago, is to make this year’s event a showcase for civil society, including the Indigenous groups and forest defenders who play such a vital role in conservation. But the lack of affordable accommodation and other infrastructure, as well as the distance that must be travelled to reach the Amazon port, mean this commendable ideal will be hard to realise. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago With little progress after phone calls and talks, Ukraine's allies hit Russia with new sanctions

Kyiv’s European allies have slapped new sanctions on Moscow, a day after a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce a breakthrough on ending the 3-year-old war in Ukraine

Events

3 d. ago New EU sanctions target Russia's shadow fleet of tankers illicitly transporting oil and gas

The European Union has agreed fresh sanctions to impose on Russia, notably targeting almost 200 ships from the shadow fleet illicitly transporting oil to skirt Western restrictions imposed over the war on Ukraine

Events

3 d. ago UK imposes sanctions on British accountant over Russia shadow fleet deals

John Michael Ormerod was allegedly involved in the procurement of oil tankers

Economics

3 d. ago UK and Europe target Russia with major sanctions after Putin

Sanctions are aimed at entities supporting Russia’s military machine after call failed to deliver meaningful concessionsWar in Ukraine – live updatesThe UK and Europe have announced major sanctions against Russia as it became clear that Monday’s call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had failed to deliver any meaningful concessions from Moscow.The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accused Russia of “trying to buy time in order to continue its war and occupation”. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago The Guardian view on the EU trade deal: a rational step forward | Editorial

Tangible gains from these negotiations will be limited, but the prime minister has at last set a positive toneSo much remains to be worked out in Sir Keir Starmer’s deal with the EU that it must be regarded as a staging post rather than a final destination. In several key areas, the agreement announced in London on Monday is really a commitment to have more meetings at which negotiators will try to make more agreements.On the issue of visas for young people and the UK’s mooted return to the Erasmus university-exchange scheme, there is little clarity beyond the rebranding of “youth mobility” as “experience”. A decision on the level of fees that European students must pay has also been booted forward. So have some details of how the UK will work with the bloc on policing and security, including the use of controversial facial-recognition technology in tackling drug and people smuggling across borders.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you wo...

Economics