Ukraine-Russia war latest: UN to hold emergency meeting over Russian Oreshnik missile attack
Attack killed at least four, wounded more than 20, and left nearly 6,000 apartment buildings without heating

© Russian Defense Ministry Press Service
Attack killed at least four, wounded more than 20, and left nearly 6,000 apartment buildings without heating

© Russian Defense Ministry Press Service
Independents muscle in on craze for the black stuff with dark beers that use same nitrogen process as Irish favourite
Famously, according to the advertising slogan anyway, Guinness is good for you. But for the past couple of years, Guinness has been practically inescapable.
Backed by its owner Diageo’s £2.7bn marketing war chest, the brand has shaken off its “old man” reputation, becoming a staple of gen Z pub culture, exploiting its Instagrammable colour scheme and social media trends such as the “splitting the G” drinking game.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian

© Photograph: Linda Nylind/The Guardian
The president’s inability to tell right from wrong fuels his increasingly dictatorial, illegal and erratic behaviour
Donald Trump made 30,573 “false or misleading” claims during his first term, according to calculations published in 2021 by the Washington Post. That’s roughly 21 fibs a day. Second time around, he’s still hard at it, lying to Americans and the world on a daily basis. Trump’s disregard for truth and honesty in public life – seen again in his despicable response to the fatal shooting in Minneapolis – is dangerously immoral.
Trump declared last week that the only constraint on his power is “my own morality, my own mind”. That explains a lot. His idea of right and wrong is wholly subjective. He is his own ethical and legal adviser, his own priest and confessor. He is a church of one. Trump lies to himself as well as everyone else. And the resulting damage is pernicious. It costs lives, harms democracy and destroys trust between nations.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters

© Photograph: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Photojournalist Julia Kochetova and reporter Dan Sabbagh stayed with Da Vinci Wolves battalion as infantry and drone pilots rotated from Ukraine’s eastern frontline
It is just before dawn, the December temperature a couple of degrees above freezing; time for troop rotations to start across Ukraine’s 750 mile front.
A crew of four from Da Vinci Wolves battalion are loading up into an M113 armoured personnel carrier at a secret location ready to be driven out to a safe point. From there they will walk to their position and remain on the front for 10 or 12 days.
Drone pilots of Da Vinci Wolves battalion prepare to return to the frontline.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian
Residents battle bitter winter cold inside unheated apartments; Ukraine confirms UN to hold emergency meeting Monday on Russian ballistic missile attack. What we know on day 1,418
Engineers in Kyiv scrambled on Saturday to stabilise a power grid brought to the brink by a campaign of Russian strikes, including one two nights ago. The city’s residents huddled against bitter winter cold inside their unheated apartments on Saturday as engineers worked to restore power, water and heat. Prime minister Yulia Svyrydenko said that the power situation in the capital was still difficult, as the grid was badly damaged and people were using more electric heaters because of the cold.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha confirmed Saturday the UN security council would hold an emergency meeting on Monday to discuss Russia’s latest large-scale attack on Ukraine, which used an Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile. “The meeting will address Russia’s flagrant breaches of the UN Charter,” Sybiha wrote on X.
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesperson for the UN secretary-general, said major attacks by Russia on Friday “have resulted in significant civilian casualties and deprived millions of Ukrainians of essential services, including electricity, heating and water at a time of acute humanitarian need.”
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s lead negotiator Rustem Umerov spoke with representatives of the United States on Saturday as Kyiv and Washington seek to agree on a framework to end Russia’s war in Ukraine. “We continue to communicate with the American side on practically a daily basis,” Zelenskyy wrote on the Telegram app.
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod region, which borders Ukraine, said on Saturday that 600,000 residents were without electricity, heating and water after a Ukrainian missile strike. In a statement posted on Telegram, Vyacheslav Gladkov said that work was under way to restore supplies, but that the situation was “extremely challenging”.
A Ukrainian drone strike sparked a fire at an oil depot in Russia’s southern Volgograd region, officials said Saturday. Ukraine’s General Staff said Saturday it had struck the Zhutovskaya oil depot overnight. In a statement on Telegram, it said the depot is supplying fuel to Russian forces, adding that damage was being assessed. Ukraine’s military said that besides the oil depot in Volgograd, it had struck a drone storage facility belonging to a unit of Russia’s 19th Motor Rifle Division in Zaporizhzhia, southern Ukraine, as well as a drone command and control point near the eastern city of Pokrovsk.
An overnight Ukrainian drone attack injured at least four people and damaged several buildings in Russia’s southern city of Voronezh, the governor of the Voronezh region said on Sunday. An emergency service facility, seven apartment buildings and six houses were damaged as a result of the attack, the governor, Alexander Gusev, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia’s defence ministry said Saturday that its forces used aviation, drones, missiles and artillery to strike Ukrainian energy facilities and fuel-storage depots on Friday and overnight. It did not immediately specify the targets or damage.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Andriy Dubchak/Frontliner/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andriy Dubchak/Frontliner/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andriy Dubchak/Frontliner/Getty Images


© PA Images / Icon Sport
Jacques Moretti, who is in custody, told Swiss prosecutor’s office he forced door open and found people lying behind it
The French owner of the Swiss bar where 40 people died in a fire during new year celebrations has told investigators a service door had been locked from the inside.
Jacques Moretti, co-owner of the Constellation bar in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, was taken into custody on Friday, as prosecutors investigated the tragedy.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters

© Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters

© Photograph: Ümit Bektaş/Reuters

© Icon Sport / Icon Sport / PA Images / Icon Sport / Brian Lawless

© Sportsfile / Icon Sport

© PA Images / Icon Sport

© PA Images / Icon Sport

© Icon Sport
Hopes that tougher sanctions and lower oil prices could derail Putin’s war effort underestimate how far the Kremlin has rewired its economy
Pacing inside the Kremlin last weekend, as news feeds churned out minute-by-minute reports of Donald’s Trump’s Venezuelan coup, Vladimir Putin may have been wondering what it would mean for the price of oil.
Crude oil has lubricated the Russian economy for decades – far more than gas exports to Europe – and so the threat of falling oil prices, prompted by US plans for control of Venezuela’s rigs, will have been a source of concern.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin Pool/Planet Pix/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin Pool/Planet Pix/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Photograph: Mikhail Metzel/Kremlin Pool/Planet Pix/ZUMA Press Wire/Shutterstock

© Capture d'écran beIN Sport
The U.S. president shows no signs of backing down on his desire for Greenland, but he is facing resistance from its citizens

© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved
Demonstration follows similar actions in Poland, France and Belgium as EU states approve accord
Thousands of Irish farmers are protesting against the EU’s trade deal with the South American bloc Mercosur, a day after EU states approved the treaty despite opposition from Ireland and France.
Tractors streamed into the roads of Athlone, in central Ireland, for the demonstration, displaying signs bearing the slogan “Stop EU-Mercosur” and the EU flag emblazoned with the words “sell out”.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

© Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters

© Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters
Swedish producer is trying to to accelerate the process of extracting the elements vital for hi-tech products
It is deep winter with temperatures dropping to -20C. The sun never rises above the horizon, instead bathing Sweden’s most northerly town of Kiruna in a blue crepuscular light, or “civil twilight” as it is known, for two or three hours a day stretching visibility a few metres, notwithstanding heavy snow.
But 900 metres below the arctic conditions, a team of 20 gather every day, forgoing the brief glimpse of natural light and spearheading the EU’s race to mine its own rare earths. Despite identification of several deposits around the continent, and some rare earth refineries including Solvay in France, there are no operational rare earth mines in Europe.
Continue reading...
© Photograph: ED Torial/Alamy

© Photograph: ED Torial/Alamy

© Photograph: ED Torial/Alamy
The Oreshnik, whose name means Hazel Tree, is an intermediate-range hypersonic ballistic missile

© via REUTERS
Ukraine's long-range drone strikes on energy sites aim to deprive Moscow of the oil export revenue it needs to pursue its invasion

© Photo: Security Service of Ukraine
With temperatures as low as -15C in some parts of Ukraine, vulnerable residents tell Alex Croft that life under Russian assault is as difficult as ever

© Ukrainian Armed Forces
‘We must decide the future of our country ourselves’

© Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved