12 h. ago Czechs begin voting in election that could return populist to power

Billionaire Andrej Babiš hands out doughnuts on first day of voting as polls predict his ANO party will winCzechs have begun voting in an election likely to oust their centre-right government, with polls favouring the populist billionaire Andrej Babiš to return to power on pledges to raise wages and improve growth while reducing aid for Ukraine.The change would boost Europe’s populist anti-immigration camp and could complicate consensus on climate policies in a country where no sitting government has won a second term since 1996. Continue reading...

Politics

13 h. ago Fears Quebec Starbucks gang shooting could signal shift to brazen tactics

Local media named victim as Charalambos Theologou, shot as groups vie for power after arrests of alleged mafia bossesThe brazen daylight killing of a prominent Quebec gang leader inside a suburban Starbucks in the outskirts of Montreal this week could signal a new, more chaotic and brash environment when it comes to organised crime, observers say.The arrests of alleged senior, older members of Montreal’s mafia in June has potentially left a chasm – meaning newer, younger gangs are attempting to gain a foothold. Continue reading...

Events

57 h. ago Ukrainian nuclear plant's longest power outage since war began is 'critical' moment

Concerns are growing over Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which has been without external electricity for over a week

Events

6 d. ago Putin preparing to attack another European country, Zelenskyy says

Ukraine’s president says Kremlin checking Europe’s capacity to protect its skies following new drone sightingsVladimir Putin will expand his war in Ukraine by attacking another European country, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has predicted, and accused Russia of recent drone incursions that he said were an attempt to test Nato’s defences.Speaking in Kyiv after his meeting with Donald Trump at the UN in New York, the Ukrainian president said Russia was preparing for a bigger conflict. “Putin will not wait to finish his war in Ukraine. He will open up some other direction. Nobody knows where. He wants that,” he said. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago EU to move forward with plans for drone wall amid Russian incursions

Ministers aim to bolster defences after spate of airspace violations, amid rising momentum for €140bn loan to UkraineThe EU has agreed to move forward with plans for a drone wall at the heart of its eastern defences, as momentum grows for a €140bn loan to Ukraine, based on Russian frozen assets.After a meeting with ministers from 10 mostly central and eastern European member states, plus Ukraine, the EU’s defence commissioner, Andrius Kubilius, said a drone wall to protect against incursions from the skies was an immediate priority and core element of the bloc’s eastern flank defences. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago European countries to hold talks on ‘drone wall’ later today to counter growing threat – Europe live

Numerous EU countries and Ukraine to discuss plans to counter growing threat of incursions from Russia and other actors Numerous European countries are holding talks this afternoon on the bloc’s plans for “a drone wall” to counter growing threat of incursions from Russia or other actors.The issue is seen as increasingly urgent after recent Russian drone incursions into Lithuania, Poland and Romania, and recent run of so far unattributed drone sightings over Denmark. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago Ukraine's front line grows bigger as Russia shifts tactics, top commander says

Ukraine's top military commander says the front line in Ukraine created by Russia’s full-scale invasion has expanded to nearly 1,250 kilometers

Politics

8 d. ago Ukraine war briefing: Trump ‘growing incredibly impatient’ with Russia over war, warns Vance

US vice-president says if Moscow doesn’t negotiate in good faith it will be ‘very, very bad for their country’ as Zelenskyy appeals to world leaders to stop Putin. What we know on day 1,310See all our Russia-Ukraine war coverageUS vice-president JD Vance has warned that Donald Trump is “growing incredibly impatient” with Moscow amid stalled efforts to resolve the Ukraine war. Trump “doesn’t feel like they’re putting enough on the table to end the war”, Vance said in North Carolina. “If the Russians refuse to negotiate in good faith, I think it’s going to be very, very bad for their country. That’s what the president made clear.” In a meeting earlier on Wednesday in New York, US secretary of state Marco Rubio apparently clashed with his Russian counterpart, calling for the “killing to stop” and demanding Moscow “take meaningful steps toward a durable resolution”.Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov fired back and “stressed the unacceptability of the schemes promoted by Kyiv and som...

Events

3 w. ago Pep Guardiola explains Man City plan for Gianluigi Donnarumma

Pep Guardiola will move from Ederson to Gianluigi Donnarumma in goal for Manchester City and it could require a tactical shift in the process.

Politics

3 w. ago How Russia is grooming Ukraine’s children to fight for it: ‘I understood it wasn’t just play’

Abducted children and those from occupied territories are turning up in Russia’s military-style training camps, with fears that some are already on the frontlineLast summer, Sonya*, aged 17 at the time, had endured more than two years of a difficult life under Russian occupation in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine. Her foster mother agreed that she needed a break.Growing up under forced assimilation had been scary, Sonya says, and her Russian-controlled school had offered to take her to a holiday camp in Crimea, a balmy peninsula once famed for being the spa of the Soviet Union. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Vladimir Putin threatens to open fire on NATO troops in Ukraine as WW3 fears grow

Russia would see Western forces as 'legitimate targets' if Europe's 'coalition of the willing' offer security

Events

4 w. ago Nature has a remarkable way of recovering from human catastrophe

We might picture nature as being better off without us. On the ground the story is more murky• Don’t get Down to Earth delivered to your inbox? Sign up here to get the newsletter in fullIf I ask you to conjure up a vision of “nature”, what comes to you? For most of us, I think our minds go to the pristine. Untouched rainforests, vast savanna grasslands, deep thickets, inaccessible mountains. Somewhere remote, somewhere uncontaminated, somewhere free of the touch of humans.But those visions only represent a tiny fragment of the world’s biomes. The vast majority of the natural world – including more than 90% of temperate forest – has now been occupied by humans for thousands of years. We’ve radically reshaped nature with our presence, often in catastrophic ways.In Ukraine’s bombed out reservoir a huge forest has grown – is it a return to life or a toxic timebomb?‘Landmines have become the greatest protectors’: how wildlife is thriving in the Korean DMZ Continue reading...

Politics