2 h. ago Residents to fight on in row over mountain path blocked off by security gates

A petition calling has had more than 3,000 signatures since the gates appeared two weeks ago, angering the village's residents

Events

16 h. ago No Other Land: Israeli Oscar winner says US policy 'is helping to block' Palestinian freedom

Israeli journalist Yuval Abraham spoke out on the conflict in the Middle East as he picked up the gong for Palestinian-Israeli film No Other Land at the 97th Academy Awards

Politics

16 h. ago Trump administration briefing: Israeli hostage to visit White House; Russia admires US foreign policy

Eli Sharabi expected to meet Donald Trump on Tuesday; Kremlin says US views now ‘largely’ coincide with Moscow’s own foreign policy vision – key US politics stories from Sunday at a glanceThe freed Israeli hostage Eli Sharabi has been invited to meet Donald Trump on Tuesday in Washington, his brother Sharon has said.When Sharabi and two other hostages, Or Levy and Ohad Ben Ami, were released on 8 February after nearly 500 days in captivity, their physical condition outraged Israelis, which Trump echoed. Sharabi has since told Israeli media of the severe hunger and violence he endured in captivity. Continue reading...

Events

18 h. ago US foreign policy blocking path to Palestinian freedom – Israeli Oscar winner

No Other Land, about the disputed West Bank, picked up the Oscar for best documentary feature film.

Politics

30 h. ago Trump said Zelenskyy ‘does not have the cards’. But how well is he playing his own hand? | Olga Chyzh

The US president has no interest in countering aggressors. His short-termist game plan will cost America dearThe White House meeting between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy will be remembered as far more than just a diplomatic disaster. It marked the end of international politics as we know it, and was a harbinger for the sunset of Pax Americana. Zelenskyy, reeling from the meeting, arrived in London on Saturday to attend a defence summit with other European leaders. Thanks to Trump’s performance, those leaders now have clarity on where the US government stands on the war in Ukraine – and, more broadly, on how US foreign policy may look in future.It is hard to overstate what a departure this is. Since the end of the second world war, the US has been the primary architect and guarantor of an intricate network of global institutions anchored by Nato, the World Trade Organization, and the International Monetary Fund. Together, these partners crafted a security umbrella whose benef...

Politics

2 d. ago ‘Free world needs a new leader’, says EU foreign chief after Trump Zelenskyy row

The EU foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said ‘the free world needs a new leader’ and that it was up to Europeans to take this challengeLive updates The EU foreign policy chief has declared that “the free world needs a new leader”, as European leaders threw their support behind Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after the stunning White House confrontation between him and Donald Trump.Leaders from across Europe expressed their solidarity with the Ukrainian leader after the fractious exchange with JD Vance, the US vice-president, and Trump, who claimed he was not “ready for peace” and accused him of “gambling with world war three”. Continue reading...

Politics

3 d. ago The UK has a history of coddling authoritarian leaders – now it’s happening again | Andy Beckett

British politicians think they exercise a moderating force on strongmen. In practice, ‘diplomacy’ and ‘pragmatism’ only ease their pathWhy is Westminster, supposedly one of the world’s great centres of democratic moderation, so welcoming to far-right foreign governments? For more than a century, since the dictatorship of Benito Mussolini, authoritarians have often found allies, apologists or a deliberate absence of criticism in the Commons, despite our parliament’s self-image as a historic enemy of fascism.One reason for this forgiving attitude is that foreign policy is a pragmatic business, and Britain has increasingly become a country that can’t afford to make enemies. The Starmer government’s determination to see no evil in the Trump administration can be partly explained in those terms.Andy Beckett is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Culture

4 d. ago Family who put up gates that 'cut off' community say they had 'no choice'

The controversial installation of a set of huge gates, blocking a popular mountain path, has caused division and upset but the family behind it have said a list of problems led to the decision

Politics

5 d. ago Trump's AI Gaza video dubbed 'bizarre clickbait' which 'increases power of dictators'

EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump's bizarre video which shows off his vision for the Gaza Strip suggests his foreign policy favours 'increasing the power of dictators and further enriching the wealthy', an expert said

Politics

5 d. ago Britain may have to quit the ECHR if it continues to act against the national interest, Kemi Badenoch warns

In her first major foreign policy speech, the Tory leader said it was time to take a 'cold, hard look' at many agreements the UK signed up to decades ago.

Events

6 d. ago UK defence spending to rise to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 with aid budget slashed to help fund move

Keir Starmer says now is the time to deepen European security, as he announces move in the CommonsThe rightwing historian Niall Ferguson is in the audience for Badenoch’s speech, according to James Heale from the Spectator.Niall Ferguson spotted at Kemi Badenoch’s big speech on foreign affairs hearing we might get some policy tooTractors’ horns interrupt Badenoch’s speech shortly after she begins speaking. Attendant spinner heard swearing furiously Continue reading...

Economics

6 d. ago Starmer to make surprise announcement on ‘defence and security’ in Commons, ahead of meeting with Trump – UK politics live

Starmer is to give a statement to MPs at 12.30pm the Commons authories have announcedThe rightwing historian Niall Ferguson is in the audience for Badenoch’s speech, according to James Heale from the Spectator.Niall Ferguson spotted at Kemi Badenoch’s big speech on foreign affairs hearing we might get some policy tooTractors’ horns interrupt Badenoch’s speech shortly after she begins speaking. Attendant spinner heard swearing furiously Continue reading...

Politics

6 d. ago Kemi Badenoch blasts Donald Trump's Ukraine peace plan saying it rewards Putin's 'aggression' as she warns era of US world leadership may be over

In a hard-hitting foreign policy speech the Tory leader warned that the era of 'Pax Americana' - world peace underwritten by the US - was 'evolving, potentially even ending'.

Politics

6 d. ago Watch live: Tory leader Kemi Badenoch advocates putting Britain first in foreign policy speech

Watch live as Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch advocates putting Britain first in a major foreign policy speech on Tuesday (25 February).

Politics

6 d. ago Badenoch to advocate putting British interests first in foreign policy speech

The Tory leader will also advocate a ‘need to disengage’ from international bodies if they are ‘taken over by activists or by autocratic regimes’.

Events

7 d. ago 2,000 year old book about Roman emperors enters bestseller charts

The Lives of the Caesars, translated from Latin by The Rest Is History podcast co-host Tom Holland, details everything from ancient policy failures to sex scandalsA gossipy account of the lives of Roman emperors has entered the bestseller charts – 2,000 years after it was written. Sex scandals and foreign policy failures don’t only beleaguer the modern politician, it turns out: in the early second century, the scholar Suetonius chronicled the dramas of the first set of Roman emperors, and now, their indiscretions and eccentricities have been dug up in a new translation which is proving popular in bookshops.The Lives of the Caesars, translated from Latin by The Rest Is History podcast co-host Tom Holland, made the Sunday Times hardback nonfiction chart this week. Publisher Penguin Classics said that the book is the first of their hardback nonfiction classics to appear on the list. Continue reading...

Politics

7 d. ago Mansion owner builds massive metal gates and hires security guards as he goes to war with locals over path through his land

Villagers in Cwmparc, near Treorchy in Wales, gathered in numbers to protest against the new resident who moved in and quickly set about blocking the accessible walking path.

Events

7 d. ago ‘No more excuses’: Europe under pressure on defence spending three years after Russian invasion

Continent is being told to take more responsibility for its own defence in light of US president’s overtures to PutinA few days after Vladimir Putin sent Russia’s invading forces into Ukraine in February 2022, the EU’s then foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, asked his staff for an urgent military aid plan. They came up with €50m (£41.4m) to help Ukraine.“And I said: ‘Are you crazy? We are talking about a war,’” Borrell recounted in late 2024, shortly before standing down. “Do you know what does it mean, a war? Put three zeros behind! And then we started taking things seriously.” Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago New York City’s Ukrainian community ‘disappointed’ after Trump’s ‘betrayal’

As the US upends decades of foreign policy, those watching the war unfold from miles away resolve to stand strongMembers of New York’s large Ukrainian community expressed a mix of disillusionment, betrayal, defiance and acute uncertainty about what the future holds for Ukraine after tensions escalated this week between Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Geopolitical events in the last week have shocked Ukrainians at home and overseas as well as US lawmakers and allies, as the US president appeared to heavily favor the Russian president Vladimir Putin to dictate peace terms on the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Federal workers brace for more firings after judge lifts block on Trump administration job cuts – US politics live

Trump administration expected to continue its mass downsizing of the federal workforce amid warnings of unlawful terminations and a ‘monumental’ billMass firings could cause ‘monumental’ bill, say expertsWe expect Britain’s prime minister Keir Starmer to soon visit Donald Trump, at a moment when the American president is upending much of America’s foreign policy with his embrace of Russia’s position in the war in Ukraine. The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour looks at whether Starmer’s visit might reassure a rattled Europe:In November 1940, Winston Churchill sent a telegram to Franklin Roosevelt expressing relief both at the US president’s re-election and the victory of his anti-appeasement policy. “Things are afoot which will be remembered as long as the English language is spoken in any quarter of the globe, and in expressing the comfort I feel that the people of the United States have once again cast these great burdens upon you, I must now avow my sure faith that the lights by which we...

Politics