8 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

33 h. ago Heartbreaking pictures show mourners clutching teddy bears in tribute to tragic Angelyna, buried in rubble after deadly Russian strike killed the two

Heartbroken mourners clutched teddy bears tightly as they attended a funeral service for two-year-old Angelyna and her mother Nadiya Galych, who were killed in a Russian strike.

Events

33 h. ago The Guardian view on the killing of Gaza’s journalists: Israel wants to stop the world from seeing what it’s doing | Editorial

This is the most lethal war for the media in recent times. A generation of journalists is being wiped outDay by day, the death toll rises, the war crimes mount, and the outrage grows. Last Wednesday, the pope demanded that Israel stop its “collective punishment” of Gaza’s population. A day later, António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, warned that “the levels of death and destruction are without parallel in recent times”. More than 500 UN staff have pressed the human rights chief, Volker Türk, to call it genocide. Half of registered voters in the US have already concluded that that is what Israel is doing in Gaza.The agony is deepening. On Friday, the Israeli military declared famine-hit Gaza City to be a combat zone, intensifying its assault and ending “tactical pauses” that allowed limited – if utterly inadequate – food delivery. Many inhabitants are physically incapable of fleeing again, and fear that they would be no s...

Events

34 h. ago The Guardian view on GCSE resits: admitting the problem is just the first step | Editorial

The low pass rate in compulsory retakes is one of many challenges in 16-19 educationFor years, rigid rules and a shocking failure rate in compulsory GCSE retakes have been one of the exam system’s dirty secrets. At last this dire situation is getting some of the attention it deserves. This year, nearly a quarter of all maths and English language entries in England, Wales and Northern Ireland were for students aged 17 or older on a repeat attempt – with just one in six of those retaking maths managing to pass.By calling this a crisis, Jill Duffy, who heads the OCR exam board, has thrown a spotlight on the problem. But admitting that there is an issue with resits, as officials are now doing, is only the first step. There are differing views about what ought to happen next. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago The Guardian view on Trump and the Fed: independence is no substitute for accountability | Editorial

The US president’s move against Lisa Cook shows his despotic bent, but the Fed was never democracy’s guardian. It’s time to rethink who really controls moneyDonald Trump’s attempt to sack the Federal Reserve governor, Lisa Cook, is the familiar authoritarian trick of bending institutions to serve the leader’s immediate ends. The widespread condemnation is deserved. This is not some daring experiment in popular control of monetary policy. Yet what should follow censure is reflection. For the furore over Ms Cook has revealed a peculiar reflex: to defend the Fed’s independence as though it were synonymous with democracy itself.But is independence of the Fed, or central banks generally, really that? Eric Levitz at Vox thinks so, or at least that it is close enough. He argues that Congress sets the Fed’s objectives; independence applies only to the means. Without independence, politicians would be free to game rates for votes – as Richard Nixon did in 1972, leaning on the ...

Politics

3 d. ago The Guardian view on Christopher Marlowe: it’s time to read him and honour him | Editorial

England’s second most famous playwright is the star of a new play. But his own works should be staged more, and he should be commemorated betterFor a limited season this autumn, Christopher Marlowe will become a star of the London stage again. Enjoy it while you can, for Marlowe has become an ephemeral figure in Britain’s national culture. His plays, once staples, are now produced only intermittently, if at all. Today, Marlowe is probably better known for his dramatic death, stabbed in a London riverside tavern, than for anything he wrote or for being the literary pioneer that he was.From next week, however, the sexy and brilliant figure of Kit Marlowe will be the centrepiece character, played by Ncuti Gatwa, in Liz Duffy Adams’s two-hander, Born With Teeth, which is currently in previews in the West End, with its offical opening next week. The play teases with the possibility, first reported in this newspaper in 2016, that Marlowe and William Shakespeare, played by Edward...

Politics

3 d. ago EU accuses Putin of undermining peace talks after deadly strikes on Kyiv

All member states except Hungary back statement saying Russian ‘war crimes’ only increase EU support for UkraineEurope live – latest updatesEuropean leaders have accused Vladimir Putin of undermining peace talks, after Russian missile strikes on Kyiv this week killed at least 23 people and damaged diplomatic buildings, including EU and British Council offices.A day of mourning was observed in Kyiv on Friday, after the Russian air attack the day before that killed 23 people, including at least four children. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said eight people were still missing and 53 had been injured. “When instead of diplomacy, Russia chooses ballistics the world must respond accordingly,” he said, urging western allies to impose further sanctions. Continue reading...

Events

3 d. ago Inside Putin’s campaign of ‘psychological terror’ in Kyiv: Why Russia keeps bombarding the capital

Kyiv lies hundreds of miles from the frontline but residents have been forced to adapt to an endless cycle of missile and drone strikes. Ukrainians tell Steffie Banatvala that they would ‘rather die than submit’

Events

3 d. ago Peace efforts in limbo as Ukraine's capital mourns 23 dead after Russian attack

Officials say the death toll in a major Russian missile and drone strike on the Ukrainian capital has risen to 23, including four children

Events

3 d. ago Russia 'deliberately targeted UK and EU' on Putin's 'say so' in huge Kyiv drone attack

EXCLUSIVE: World-renowned war expert Professor Anthony Glees offered some insight into Russia's latest attack on Ukraine, which left four children dead in a direct attack on the British Council

Events

3 d. ago Outraged over Russian strike on Kyiv, European defense leaders pledge pressure to end the war

European defense ministers are meeting in Copenhagen to discuss the war in Ukraine

Events

3 d. ago Zelensky warns Russian strike an ‘attack on Europe and Trump’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has claimed Russia's major aerial attack on Kyiv shows President Vladimir Putin is “choosing ballistics” instead of "real steps towards peace".

Events

3 d. ago Putin accused of ‘sabotaging peace’ after devastating airstrike on Kyiv kills 23 and hits British Council building

Four children are among the dead after a massive wave of drone and missile attacks

Events

4 d. ago Attack on British Council is a 'clear message of hostility from Putin'

Vladimir Putin's attack on the British Council building in Kyiv is a 'clear message of hostility', foreign affairs experts have warned. 

Politics

4 d. ago Putin accused of ‘sabotaging peace’ after devastating airstrike on Kyiv kills 21 and hits British Council building

Four children are among the dead after a massive wave of drone and missile attacks

Events

4 d. ago The Guardian view on Russia’s strike on Kyiv: Putin is testing Trump’s will and Europe’s resolve | Editorial

The Kremlin sent a clear message with its lethal overnight raid on the Ukrainian capital. Will the US heed it?Wednesday night brought a grim return to Russia’s form: one of the heaviest air raids on Kyiv since the full-scale invasion began. Moscow eased off its strikes on major cities in the run-up to the Alaska summit, and it held off its attack on the Ukrainian capital until Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy, had finished his visit there. But within hours of his departure, at least 18 people, including several children, were dead in an attack on a residential block, and the European Union mission had been severely damaged.Donald Trump periodically suggests that he is drawing a line for Vladimir Putin. Yet each time he appears to set a limit, the Russian president breezes through it. The Kyiv attack shows that it is Mr Putin who is testing the US president. Mr Trump threatened “severe consequences” if Moscow did not immediately agree to a ceasefire – but in Anchora...

Politics

4 d. ago Putin sees British Council as 'nest of espionage' after 'outrageous' bombing

Russia’s deadly missile strike on Kyiv killed 18, damaged the British Council’s office, seen by Putin as a spy hub, in a deliberate escalation, Western leaders say.

Politics

4 d. ago Putin accused of ‘sabotaging peace’ after devastating airstrike on Kyiv kills 19 and hits British Council building

Four children are among the dead after a massive wave of drone and missile attacks

Events

4 d. ago CHRIS HUGHES: Desperate Putin's British Council attack was a massive escalation

The Kremlin attack on the British Council in Kyiv shows desperation by Vladimir Putin. If he cannot have Ukraine he wants to 'vandalise' its liberal society into oblivion

Politics

4 d. ago UK summons Russian ambassador over ‘senseless’ attack on Kyiv

The Prime Minister condemned the attack as senseless.

Politics