Other Ukrainian cities and regions also hit with nine people reported killed at the same time as Russia and Ukraine are conducting a major prisoner exchange
Russia has launched a second straight night of massive drone and ballistic missile strikes against Ukraine, with the capital city, Kyiv, once again the focus of heavy attack.
Across the country nine people were killed, including three children in the Kyiv region, and dozens more injured, according to reports on Sunday morning.
From a castle in Cumbria to a subtropical paradise in Cornwall, these are some of the top unsung gardens across the country
In the dash for Cumbria’s lakes and fells, the area’s other green attractions can get missed. On Knipe Scar, at the edge of the Lake District national park, Lowther’s acres sprawl around the shell of a ruined 19th-century castle. Wildflower meadows, bee-friendly tree hives and rambling woodland contrast with a parterre, sculptured hornbeams and a Sleeping Beauty-inspired rose garden designed by Dan Pearson. Bikes and ebikes can be rented for pootling around the estate’s trails or perhaps a five-mile cycle to Ullswater. There is a Lost Castle adventure playground and a cafe. Before leaving, visit the west terrace for views across the Lowther valley to distant fells. Open daily, adults £15, children £10, lowthercastle.org
An exhibition at the Welsh parliament from 24 May to 12 July will go on to tour Wales throughout 2025.
The project, by Vision Fountain, seeks to highlight the contributions migrants have made to Welsh society – particularly at a time when migration, and migrants themselves, are it seems increasingly demonised in politics and the media.
Wales was officially designated a ‘Nation of Sanctuary’ in 2019, but its tradition of offering refuge reaches back centuries. Italians settled in Wales in the 19th century, drawn not only by the familiar hills and castles but also the certainty of work and friendship.
Wales: A Home From Home brings together stories from Wales’s diverse global communities, from ‘heritage’ migrants, such as the Italians, to recent arrivals escaping trauma, such as Ukrainians, Syrians and Hongkongers.
While the project celebrates moments of joy and connection, it also gives voice to difficult memories: experiences of trauma, displacement and the challenges of starting anew in an unfamiliar land.
By weaving together these personal stories and images, the exhibition attempts to reveal how Wales continues to shape the lives of people from around the world.
Former US vice president tells conference ‘I do worry, frankly, about what’s happening right now in the world’
Kamala Harris has criticised Elon Musk, noted “it’s important that we remember the 1930s” and raised concerns about AI when speaking to an audience of 4,500 real estate agents at an industry conference on the Gold Coast.
The former US vice-president, who is visiting Australia for the first time, was the guest of honour at the 2025 Australian Real Estate Conference on Sunday.
Institute of Race Relations says MoD’s Channel role reflects global rise of ‘hyper-militarisation’ in law enforcement
The UK Border Force is in effect under military command, reflecting a wider increase of “hyper-militarisation” in policing, according to a new report on international law enforcement.
A report by the Institute of Race Relations (IRR), timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of George Floyd’s death, says the 21st century has seen the emergence of paramilitary and “political” policing across Europe, employed at borders, during civil unrest and against public protest.
Killings in a new Israeli offensive and depleted food and medical supplies are pushing people on to the streets of the once bustling hub of Gaza
On the streets of Gaza City this week, there were two sounds that never ceased, day or night. In the west, the Mediterranean breakers crashed on the rubbish-strewn shoreline. In the east, the shells, missiles and rockets exploded with dull thuds and occasional ear-splitting cracks.
At least 100,000 people have come to Gaza City, once the bustling commercial and cultural hub of the Palestinian territory. All are fleeing the new offensive – dubbed Gideon’s Chariots – recently launched by Israel into the ruined towns and neighbourhoods of northern Gaza.
The US president thought he could impose peace through sheer personality, but he didn’t reckon with two leaders with so much to lose
Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin enjoyed a friendly phone chat earlier this month, marking the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat. The Israeli and Russian leaders have much in common. Both claim to be still heroically battling Nazis, in Gaza and Ukraine respectively. This fiction is used to justify the mass murder of civilians, spiralling troop casualties and huge economic and reputational costs. Maybe it helps them sleep at night.
Bibi and Vlad: the world’s most wanted men – and possibly the most despised.
Simon Tisdall is a Guardian foreign affairs commentator
His is a cautionary tale of what happens when someone who feels inadequate listens to the new generation of masculinity salesmen
When I first met Nick in 2019, at a dating and self-improvement summit in Miami, it wasn’t immediately obvious why he was paying so much money to pseudo-authority figures from the manosphere. He had looks, cash and some of the easy swagger of London done good.
Nick was over 6ft tall and had nice white teeth, labrador eyes and a healthy quotient of melanin courtesy of the sunbeds at the health club he went to twice a week. Financially, Nick had done well for himself, creating a mobile phone app and selling it to a big company. He’d put some of the proceeds down on a small flat in west London – not bad for someone in his mid-20s with no family money. Nick had even helped his parents buy an apartment in Spain on the Costa Blanca where the family holidayed twice a year, frequenting English bars and greasy spoons with all the other English people. He bought a lot of designer clothes, too (Armani, Gucci, Louis Vuitton, Stone Island, Off-White, Hugo Boss). “Important to have the basics sorted,” he’d say, splashing Tom Ford cologne on his neck before a trip to Mayfair.
I have been dating my boyfriend (we are both in our 20s) for almost a year. I’m absolutely smitten. He makes me feel a better person, and I believe we are really good together.
Sadly, he doesn’t have a very good relationship with his family. I haven’t really seen this play out because I’ve not seen them together that often, but he’s told me about his childhood and that he discusses his family in his regular therapy sessions.
In the intervening years, science has not stood still. About 50 species have been discovered each year since 1999 and the advent of powerful imaging techniques and digital reconstruction have led to major advances in our understanding of what dinosaurs looked like and how they lived. Here are some of the biggest developments.
Norway’s traditional music scene gaining traction and been given a twist by a new clubby younger audience
Folk music is having a resurgence in Norway spurred by a reclamation of the genre among generation Z.
Norwegian folk music, which until recently was largely restricted to the countryside, has been gaining traction across Norwegian cities with sweaty club nights appealing to a younger audience.
In August 2017, four men were jailed for life at the Old Bailey for plotting a terrorist attack. They were caught in an undercover police sting, and their defence lawyers insist their case continues to raise troubling and pressing questions ...
On Friday 26 August 2016, Naweed Ali drove to his first day of work at a delivery company in Birmingham. His next door neighbour and close friend Khobaib Hussain had already been working at Hero Couriers for a month. The name seemed appropriate. There was something heroic about the work they did. Ali and Hussain were hired to drive around the country reuniting airline passengers with lost property. The pay was great, too – £100 a shift, cash in hand. It seemed too good to be true.
US coast guard says accident occurred while employees were doing work involving a flame or sparks
An explosion on a boat carrying raw sewage that was docked on the Hudson River in New York City killed a longtime city employee, authorities said.
Another worker on the city-owned Hunts Point vessel was injured and taken to the hospital after the blast about 10.30am Saturday near the North River wastewater treatment plant, according to city deputy assistant chief David Simms of the fire department. A third worker refused medical treatment.
Western quolls (Idnya) and brushtail possums (Virlda), once locally extinct, are flourishing in the Ikara-Flinders Ranges national park 10 years after their reintroduction.
“They’re pretty funny. We go spotlighting at night … you can spotlight at the campsite there and see them running around, looking for bits of food,” National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) reintroduction ecologist Talitha Moyle said.
Ministers told ‘symbols matter’ and move would give Palestine stronger footing in future peace talks
Ministers are under pressure from inside and outside Labour to recognise Palestinian statehood at a UN conference next month, with party grandees arguing it would bolster prospects for peace and demonstrate moral leadership amid escalating tensions.
Alf Dubs, the veteran Labour peer and Holocaust survivor, said the symbolic recognition of a Palestinian state would offer Palestinians “the self-respect they’d have if they had a proper state,” and provide them a stronger footing in any future peace negotiations.
“Even if it doesn’t lead to anything immediately, it would still give Palestinians a better standing,” Lord Dubs said. “Symbols matter.”
The former cabinet minister Peter Hain echoed the call, warning that “delaying recognition until negotiations are concluded simply allows Israel’s illegal occupation to become permanent”. Lord Hain argued that formal recognition should be “a catalyst, not a consequence” of peace talks.
Russian drones attacked the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, early on Sunday and injured at least seven people, as debris set an apartment building on fire and damaged homes, officials said. The head of Kyiv city’s military administration, Tymur Tkachenko, said “more than a dozen enemy drones” were flying around the capital early on Sunday. The Kyiv mayor, Vitali Klitschko, said the city was “under attack” but “air defences are operating”, telling citizens to stay in shelters.
A day earlier, Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 14 ballistic missiles and 250 attack drones on Kyiv, injuring 15 people in one of the biggest assaults on the Ukrainian capital since the beginning of the war more than three years ago. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said the attacks indicated Moscow was “prolonging the war … Only additional sanctions against key sectors of the Russian economy will force Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.” Patrick Wintour reports Trump’s refusal to impose the promised “bone-crushing sanctions” over Russia’s rejection of a 30-day ceasefire has left European leaders frustrated and despondent.
The UK foreign secretary, David Lammy, spoke of “another night of terror for Ukrainian civilians”, posting on X. “These are not the actions of a country seeking peace,” Lammy said of the Russian strike. Katarina Mathernová, the European Union’s ambassador to Kyiv, described the attack as “horrific”. “If anyone still doubts Russia wants war to continue – read the news.”
In addition, 13 civilians were killed on Friday and overnight into Saturday in Russian attacks in Ukraine’s south, east and north, regional authorities said. Three people died after a Russian ballistic missile targeted port infrastructure in Odesa on the Black Sea, local governor Oleh Kiper reported. Russia later said the strike targeted a cargo ship carrying military equipment.
On Saturday 307 Russian prisoners of war were exchanged for the same number of Ukrainian soldiers on the second day of an extended prisoner swap set to be the largest in the three-year war, according to announcements in Kyiv and Moscow. “Tomorrow we expect more,” Zelenskyy posted. The first part of the large-scale swap involved 270 soldiers and civilians from each side on Friday. More swaps are expected on Sunday to bring the total to 1,000 as agreed in talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul last week.
In north-eastern Ukraine, mayor Ihor Terekhov of Kharkiv, the second-biggest city, said drones hit three city districts and damaged a business. Terekhov said many drones remained in the air over the city.
Russian troops advancing slowly on the eastern front captured two settlements in Donetsk region as well as one in Ukraine’s northern region of Sumy, the Russian defence ministry said on Saturday. The claims could not be confirmed. A Russian defence statement said its forces had captured the village of Stupochky in Donetsk region, east of Kostiantynivka, a town under recent Russian pressure. It also said it had taken control of Otradne, a village farther west along the 1,000-km front and announced the capture of Loknya, a village inside the Russian border in Sumy region. Ukraine acknowledged no such losses.
Russia’s defence ministry said that early on Saturday its forces shot down more than 100 Ukrainian drones over six provinces in western and southern Russia. The drone strikes injured three people in the Tula region south of Moscow, local governor Dmitriy Milyaev said, and sparked a fire at an industrial site there. Andriy Kovalenko, of Ukraine’s national security council, said on Saturday the drones hit a plant in Tula that makes chemicals used in explosives and rocket fuel.
Thomas Barrack also stresses temporary lifting of sanctions for first time since 1979 after meeting with Ahmed al-Sharaa
Donald Trump’s old friend Thomas Barrack, now serving as the US ambassador to Turkey and special envoy for Syria, praised Syria’s interim president, Ahmed al-Sharaa, after a meeting in Istanbul on Saturday.
“I stressed the cessation of sanctions against Syria will preserve the integrity of our primary objective – the enduring defeat of ISIS – and will give the people of Syria a chance for a better future,” Barrack said in a statement, referring to actions taken on Friday by the Trump administration to temporarily suspend sanctions imposed on the government of the former president, Bashar al-Assad, who was deposed by rebel forces led by Sharaa late last year.
John Woeltz, 37, being held without bail after allegedly beating, shocking and dangling man from five-story home
A cryptocurrency investor was arraigned in Manhattan criminal court on Saturday morning and charged with kidnapping an Italian man and then beating and torturing him for several weeks, allegedly to extract cryptocurrency passwords.
The 37-year-old crypto investor, John Woeltz, was arrested on Friday after allegedly torturing the man in a swanky home in the upscale Manhattan neighborhood of Soho. The victim reportedly escaped the five-story home on Friday and sought help from the police, who later arrested Woeltz.
Kim Jong-Un vowed to punish those found responsible for ‘criminal’ damage to new 5,000-tonne naval destroyer
North Korea has detained three people over an accident that occurred during the launch of a new warship this past week, state media reported early on Sunday.
Pyongyang has said that “a serious accident occurred” at Wednesday’s launch ceremony in the eastern port city of Chongjin for a newly built 5,000-tonne naval destroyer, in which sections of the bottom of the vessel were crushed.
Liverpool coach went to see the Boss at Manchester
‘At 75, he does three hours on stage with no rest’
Arne Slot believes his Liverpool players can take inspiration from Bruce Springsteen as they aim to repeat the success of winning the Premier League next season. The Dutchman went to see the Boss behind enemy lines in Manchester on Tuesday night to witness a masterclass of a different kind.
Liverpool will be awarded the Premier League trophy by Alan Hansen after their final game of the season against Crystal Palace on Sunday. The next challenge for Slot will come when his players return for pre-season training on 8 July and the Dutchman waits to see if his squad can build on the glory days achieved during his first season in charge.
Head coach says Barcelona win was ‘above expectations’
‘We had to suffer but were spot on in crucial moments’
The Arsenal head coach, Renée Slegers, said her team’s performance was “above all expectations” after they stunned Barcelona to win the Women’s Champions League title in Lisbon.
Cited as the major underdogs before kick-off, Arsenal thwarted a Barcelona side who had won three of the past four finals, and won their first women’s European title since 2007 thanks to substitute Stina Blackstenius’ 74th-minute winner.
Veteran’s 88 was full of crisp cuts, punishing pulls and swingeing sweeps – delighting the visitors’ dancing, singing and chanting fans
On 11 June 1890 a column of three hundred colonialists crossed the Shashe River to begin the annexation of Mashonaland on behalf of Cecil Rhodes’ British South Africa Company. They brought cattle, horses and wagons, rifles, revolvers and field guns, a searchlight, a steam engine, tents, food and water. Each man carried a slouch hat, a spare shirt and pair of socks, a water bottle, a sewing kit, a belt, a bandolier, a hundred rounds of ammunition and a hand axe. And, of course, this being a very English endeavour, in among it all someone packed a bat and ball.
So the first game of cricket in what would become Zimbabwe was played just over a month later, on 16 August, between the Pioneer Column’s A Troop and B and C Troops, on a patch of land at Providential Pass at what would become Fort Victoria. Nobody knows who won. “Probably A Troop,” wrote one of the players in his memoirs 50 years later, since they had Monty Bowden, the England captain and Surrey wicketkeeper, playing for them. Within five years, the settlers were organising games between Bulawayo and Salisbury and within a decade, they had formed the Rhodesian Cricket Union.
Judge says Guatemalan’s removal to Mexico, despite fears of being harmed there, ‘lacked any semblance of due process’
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration late Friday night to facilitate the return of a Guatemalan man it deported to Mexico, in spite of his fears of being harmed there, and who has since been returned to Guatemala.
The man, who is gay, had applied for asylum in the US last year after he was attacked twice in homophobic acts of violence in Guatemala. He was protected from being returned to his home country under a US immigration judge’s order at the time, but the Trump administration put him on a bus and sent him to Mexico instead.
Pickleball might have developed legions of new Australian fans, but padel is snapping at its heels as a contender for the best tennis-alternative in town
It was Darren McMullen’s obsession with padel that led him to missing an audition and changing the course of his life. Known for his role as Alex Larden on House Husbands and for presenting shows such as The Voice Australia, he had increasingly been sucked into padel tournaments.
“My agent went crazy: ‘What were you thinking? What’s your bread and butter?’” McMullen says. “I was like, ‘God, you’re right. I should open a padel centre.’”
The British comedian and actor on encouraging hecklers, why Will Ferrell deserves an Oscar and his love for Kylie Minogue
In your first memoir, My Favourite People and Me, you picked Kylie Minogue as one of your favourite people – but added that you stopped loving her when I Should Be So Lucky came out.To make this a question: how dare you?
Ah, Kylie. She’s completely adored everywhere she goes, and I adore her as well. I fell for her when she was Charlene in Neighbours – I was a student studying drama in the 80s and the only drama that any of us cared about was Neighbours. Australian girls were the pin-ups for everybody in England.
In September 2022 my brother was murdered. A couple of months later my relationship of six years broke down. That summer was the darkest period of my adult life. It felt like the rug had been pulled out from under me and I was self soothing in ways that I’m not proud of. My mental health was spiralling. My morals were out the door and I hardly recognised myself.
By the next April things were turning around. I was seeing a therapist and working on getting my mental and physical health back.
When a rare weaving device was destined for the skip, a collective of artists, teachers and students united to rescue it. They bemoan how university course changes are replacing deep skills with competency checklists
“Rachel, bad news,” the text message read. “They’re disconnecting the loom tomorrow.”
Rachel Halton still doesn’t know who made the decision, in October 2022, to summarily decommission the $160,000 Jacquard loom that had been a cornerstone of RMIT’s renowned weaving and textile design courses for 20 years.
French club offer a blueprint for how to thrive in the modern game and it was all too apparent on and off the field in Cardiff
A new name is on the cup. They reckon Union Bordeaux Bègles are the best-supported rugby union club in the world. To be in Cardiff was not to be disabused of the notion. Rugby is massive in France, on a par with football, and bigger in the southern half of the country. It creates a different kind of animal.
Northampton were proud, brave, inventive – but in the end overpowered. The narrative was wild and, Saints might say, liable to have gone either way. A raucous stadium – for Northampton are one of the best supported in England – was treated to crazy fluctuations in fortune, tries scored and overturned, penalties, knock-ons and high tackles subject to review after review.
Mike Berners-Lee tells Hay festival audience to make spread of political deceit more socially embarrassing
People should confront their family members who read news from “nefarious” sources, suggests the environmentalist Mike Berners-Lee.
“Challenge your friends and family and colleagues who are getting their information from sources that have got nefarious roots or a track record of being careless – or worse – with the truth, because we need to make this sort of thing socially embarrassing to be involved in,” said Berners-Lee, the brother of the World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee.
Panahi, long censored and previously imprisoned in his home country, took top prize as Sentimental Value and The Secret Agent also honoured
The dissident Iranian film-maker Jafar Panahi has won the top prize at the Cannes film festival for his drama It Was Just an Accident, inspired by his stints of imprisonment at the hands of the Iranian government.
The film was the first made by the director after being released from prison in 2023 – although he has continued to direct over the years despite being expressly forbidden to do so.
Dr Alaa al-Najjar was on duty at Nasser hospital in Khan Younis when she received her children’s bodies
An Israeli airstrike on Gaza hit the home of a doctor, killing nine of her 10 children while she was on duty at her hospital.
Dr Alaa al-Najjar, a paediatric specialist at al-Tahrir hospital within the Nasser medical complex, was treating victims of ongoing Israeli attacks across the Palestinian territory on Friday when she received the bodies of nine of her children killed by a strike in Khan Younis. The eldest of the children was 12.
Only Connors (109) and Federer (103) have more men’s titles
Novak Djokovic claimed his long-awaited 100th title after producing a spectacular comeback to defeat Hubert Hurkacz 5-7, 7-6 (2), 7-6 (2) in a three-hour, five-minute battle at the Geneva Open final. “Incredible match,” he said. “Seven-six in the third with a full stadium, beautiful atmosphere. I’m just grateful to clinch the 100th here.”
Djokovic becomes the third man in the open era to reach the landmark achieved by Jimmy Connors (109) and Roger Federer (103). He isthe first to win titles in 20 seasons.
Police believe live facial recognition cameras may become “commonplace” in England and Wales, according to internal documents, with the number of faces scanned having doubled to nearly 5m in the last year.
A joint investigation by the Guardian and Liberty Investigates highlights the speed at which the technology is becoming a staple of British policing.
Police forces scanned nearly 4.7m faces with live facial recognition cameras last year – more than twice as many as in 2023. Live facial recognition vans were deployed at least 256 times in 2024, according to official deployment records, up from 63 the year before.
A roving unit of 10 live facial recognition vans that can be sent anywhere in the country will be made available within days – increasing national capacity. Eight police forces have deployed the technology. The Met has four vans.
Police forces have considered fixed infrastructure creating a “zone of safety” by covering the West End of London with a network of live facial recognition cameras. Met officials said this remained a possibility.
Forces almost doubled the number of retrospective facial recognition searches made last year using the police national database (PND) from 138,720 in 2023 to 252,798. The PND contains custody mug shots, millions of which have been found to be stored unlawfully of people who have never been charged with or convicted of an offence.
More than 1,000 facial recognition searches using the UK passport database were carried out in the last two years, and officers are increasingly searching for matches on the Home Office immigration database, with requests up last year, to 110. Officials have concluded that using the passport database for facial recognition is “not high risk” and “is not controversial”, according to internal documents.
The Home Office is now working with the police to establish a new national facial recognition system, known as strategic facial matcher. The platform will be capable of searching a range of databases including custody images and immigration records.
In the fifth of at least seven stoppage-time minutes, a few seconds that will for ever be frozen in the archives: Luke O’Nien, his right arm cradled in a sling after dislocating his shoulder barely a minute into this contest, racing down the touchline, punching the air with his left to celebrate Tommy Watson’s stoppage-time winner.
It was the moment that catapulted Sunderland back into the Premier League after eight years away and one that will live long in the memory for Watson, a 73rd-minute substitute, and the supporters who, of course, came in their droves. Half of this arena rejoiced, a seesawing contest over after 102 minutes. Sunderland return to the big time, the Tyne-Wear derby back on the menu. For Sheffield United, the playoff agony goes on, this their 10th campaign to end in tears.
Norris’s masterful drive narrowly edges out Leclerc
Hamilton fourth fastest but gets three-place penalty
Lando Norris has long been aware that if he is to revitalise his Formula One world championship challenge he has to click with his McLaren car in qualifying. So his pole position for Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix is a moment to savour, a performance he has been attempting to nail since claiming the No 1 spot at the season-opener in Australia.
On a curcuit that rewards confidence and commitment like no other, Norris had both in spades for a mighty lap in the final seconds of qualifying, threading the needle on the streets of Monte Carlo to beat the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc into second place by 0.109 seconds and his teammate Oscar Piastri into third. Lewis Hamilton suffered a crash in FP3 and Ferrari were able to repair the damage from which he recovered to a strong fourth place. However after the session was concluded the British driver was given a three-place grid penalty for impeding Verstappen in Q1.
The killing of two Israeli embassy staffers is unconscionable and does not advance the cause of Palestinian liberation
The killing of two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington DC on Wednesday night is unconscionable. The victims, Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Milgrim, should be alive, and justice must be meted out to their assailant. This brazen act of political violence in the heart of the nation’s capital only underscores the obvious: all this violence – whether it’s in Washington DC, Gaza, Jenin or Israel, and whether it’s by bullet, bomb or forced starvation – all of it must end, and it must end immediately.
What we know so far is that shortly after 9pm on Wednesday evening, a gunman approached a group of four people who were departing an event at the Capital Jewish Museum that had been hosted by the American Jewish Committee. (It’s been reported that the event “focused on bringing humanitarian aid to Gaza through Israeli-Palestinian and regional collaboration”.) The suspected gunman, identified in media accounts as 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, had been seen pacing outside the museum when he spotted the group of four leaving the building. He opened fire on the group, fatally wounding two at close range. He then entered the building, where he was detained by event security. He can be seen on video in handcuffs and chanting “free, free Palestine”.
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