Ancient rituals and a profound respect for ‘Mother Earth’ bolster fragile Andean communities as the climate crisis and unchecked mining take their toll

• Words and photographs by Giordano Simoncini

In Cusco, the Quechua people are at the forefront of the climate struggle. Amid Peru’s sacred mountains and ancestral plateaux, they confront daily challenges, such as parched pastures, melting glaciers, disruptions to agricultural cycles and persistent mining that damages the land.

In this context, survival itself becomes an act of resistance.

Sheep grazing in the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, once the heartland of the Incas’ empire

Trump calls attacks on Iranian nuclear sites a success, but some US lawmakers immediately called the attack unconstitutional. Key US politics stories from Saturday 21 June

Washington was in a flurry late on Saturday as Donald Trump announced that the US had completed strikes on three nuclear sites in Iran, directly joining Israel’s effort to destroy the country’s nuclear program.

American politicians reacted to the news of the US bombing of nuclear targets in Iran with a mix of cheering support and instant condemnation, reflecting deep divisions in the country, as Washington grapples with yet another military intervention overseas.

‘Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports’, says Zelenskyy, condemning Moscow’s disorganisation in swapping of PoWs and troops’ remains. What we know on day 1,215

Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia sent Ukraine at least 20 of its own dead soldiers in recent exchanges with Kyiv, describing it as a result of Moscow’s disorganisation in carrying out large swaps of wounded PoW’s and remains of troops. Zelenskyy said that an “Israeli mercenary” fighting for Moscow was among the dead Ukraine had received. Officials did not disclose the identities of the bodies: “They threw the corpses of their citizens at us. This is their attitude toward war, toward their soldiers. And this is already documented. Sometimes these bodies even have Russian passports,” he said. He said the Russian side insisted the dead were all Ukrainians.

Zelenskyy has also accused western firms of supplying Russia with “machine tools” used to make weapons, in remarks made public Saturday. He said companies from Germany, the Czech Republic, South Korea and Japan were among them, as well as one business “supplying a small number of components from the United States.” He said most of the companies supplying tools to Russia were from China, but that dozens of western firms were also culpable: “We have passed on all this information to all countries, our partners, everyone … We strongly urge everyone to impose sanctions on these companies,” the Ukrainian leader added.

The Ukrainian president also called on Ukraine’s western partners to allocate 0.25% of their GDP to helping Kyiv ramp up weapons production and said the country plans to sign agreements this summer to start exporting weapon production technologies. In remarks released for publication Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine was in talks with Denmark, Norway, Germany, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Lithuania to launch joint weapon production. He also said on Saturday he was planning staff changes in Ukraine’s diplomatic corps and also in government institutions to boost the country’s resilience. He gave no time frame for the decisions.

Siarhei Tsikhanouski, a leading Belarus opposition figure, was freed on Saturday after more than five years in prison, in the most significant move so far by Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko to try to ease his isolation from the West. Lukashenko has been shunned by the West for years and faced sanctions after brutally crushing pro-democracy demonstrations in 2020 and then allowing Vladimir Putin, his close ally, to launch part of his 2022 invasion of Ukraine from Belarusian territory. The release came just hours after Belarusian authorities announced that Lukashenko met with US president Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, in Minsk.

In the Donetsk region, Russian strikes on Saturday on key towns on the eastern front of the war in Ukraine killed at least one person. The Russian military said its forces had captured another small village in its slow advance westward through Donetsk region. Russian forces struck Sloviansk and Kramatorsk – two cities that Moscow will target as its forces press on. Donetsk region Governor Vadym Filashkin said one person died and three were injured in Sloviansk. In Kramatorsk, officials said at least one person was trapped under rubble and a number of other residents were injured.

In the north, another person died in a drone attack in the north near the Russian border, Ukrainian officials said. A mass drone attack on the town of Nizhyn near the Russian border killed one person and damaged local infrastructure. Reports from Kharkiv region in the north-east suggested Russian troops were closing in on the city of Kupiansk. On Friday, the Russian Defence Ministry said it had captured the village of Moskovka, just outside the city of Kupiansk.

Deportation of Ukrainians is part of a continuing “cleansing” operation of the occupied territories, reports the Guardian’s Shaun Walker in Zaporizhzhia, which may accelerate if US-led attempts to push Russia and Ukraine into a peace deal result in the freezing of the current frontlines, solidifying Russian control over the territory Moscow has seized over the past three years.

Police say Arturo Gamboa was carrying a rifle when safety volunteer fired on him and accidentally killed bystander

A man jailed on suspicion of murder for allegedly brandishing a rifle at a “No Kings” rally in Utah before an armed safety volunteer fired and inadvertently killed a protester has been released from custody.

Local district attorney Sim Gill’s office said on Friday that it was unable to make a decision on charges against Arturo Gamboa after the 14 June shooting that killed demonstrator Arthur Folasa Ah Loo – but that the investigation into the slaying continues.

From dazzling debuts to unmissable memoirs, prize-winning novels to page-turning histories … Plus our pick of paperbacks and children’s fiction

• Leading authors choose their perfect holiday reading

• The 10 best audiobooks for summer

Dream Count by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
A rich exploration of female experience, Adichie’s first novel in 10 years charts the lives and loves of four women in Nigeria and the US, from a “dream count” of ex-boyfriends to a section inspired by Dominique Strauss-Kahn’s alleged rape of a Guinean hotel worker in 2011. Magisterial, wide-ranging and delicately done.

Annice, 30, an actor and voice coach meets Benjy, 30, a scientist

What were you hoping for?
Someone to give me a little bit of hope after dating app-induced burnout.

Need something brilliant to read this weekend? Here are six of our favourite pieces from the last seven days

State to argue in federal court that control of national guard – deployed to Los Angeles – should return to Gavin Newsom

California’s challenge of the Trump administration’s military deployment on the streets of Los Angeles returned to a federal courtroom in San Francisco on Friday after an appeals court handed Donald Trump a key procedural win in the case.

Friday’s hearing comes a day after the ninth circuit appellate panel allowed the president to keep control of national guard troops he deployed in response to protests over immigration raids.

Nesrine Malik and Jason Okundaye deliver your weekly dose of Black life and culture from around the world

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