Death toll rises to 28 after Russian attack on Kyiv apartments; Zelenskyy planning to attend Nato summit in The Hague. What we know on day 1,212
Vladimir Putin said on Thursday he was ready to meet with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyybut only during a “final phase” of negotiations “so as not to sit there and divide things up endlessly, but to put an end to it”. Putin made his customary false accusation that Zelenskyy is not Ukraine’s legitimate president.
In a round-table interview in St Petersburg with international news agencies, Putin said on Nato:“We do not consider any Nato rearmament to be a threat to the Russian Federation, because we areself-sufficient in terms of ensuring our security.” Russia has brought in thousands of North Korean soldiers to help defend Kursk; and has relied on a flood of arms and ammunition from North Korea as well as Iranian drones and missiles to wage war on Ukraine; while also receiving suspected help from China to continue arming a “special military operation” that Putin thought would be over in three days. The potential collapse of the Iranian regime would be a serious blow to Putin, Russian affairs reporter Pjotr Sauer writes.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is scheduled to attend the Nato summitin The Hague on 24-25 June, a source in the Ukrainian presidency told the AFP news agency on Wednesday. “The decision will be made on the eve of the summit. This is just the schedule,” the source said, describing the meeting as “an opportunity to maintain support and promote a ceasefire”. Nato leaders want to keep the summit brief so as not to aggravate Donald Trump and his short attention span, the Times has reported (£).
Senior Ukrainian officials at the G7 summit in Canada discussed with US counterparts the possibility of supporting defence projects in Ukraine under a joint investment fund set up in May, Kyiv’s first deputy prime minister, Yulia Svyrydenko, said on Wednesday. The talks included the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, Svyrydenko said.
The death toll from Tuesday’s Russian attack on Kyiv stood at 28, with more than 130 injured, as the recovery of bodies continued at destroyed apartment blocks.
Russia’s defence ministry claimed its forces hit a Ukrainian troop positionin the Sumy region with an Iskander missile. The Reuters news agency said it could not independently confirm the battlefield report, or determine exactly when it took place. Ukrainian authorities on Monday reported an Iskander missile strike on Konotop damaged flats in multi-storey buildings with no casualties. Ukraine is trying to drive Russian forces from the Sumy region where border areas are gripped by heavy fighting.
Slovak police have detained eight people, including defence ministry officials, in an investigation by the European Public Prosecutor’s Office intopossible misuse of €7.4m for military aid to Ukraine at the start of the war in February 2022. Jaroslav Nad, who was Slovakia’s defence minister at the time, has called the police action “theatre”. Slovakia’s pro-Russia current prime minister, Robert Fico, has taken sharp policy turns since taking power in 2023 – stopping military aid to Ukraine and making a trip to Moscow that fuelled large and widespread protests in opposition to his stance on Ukraine.
Michigan wildlife experts surprised by the bear’s ability to eat and sleep despite the uncomfortable accessory
Michigan wildlife experts finally were able to trap a black bear and remove a large lid that was stuck around his neck – after two years.
“It’s pretty incredible that the bear survived and was able to feed itself,” Cody Norton, a state bear specialist, said Wednesday. “The neck was scarred and missing hair, but the bear was in much better condition than we expected it to be.”
Wellington says it has paused payment of some funding until Pacific island nation takes steps to ‘repair the relationship and restore trust’
New Zealand has halted millions of dollars in funding to the Cook Islands over the “breadth and content” of agreements the smaller Pacific nation made with China, officials from the New Zealand foreign minister’s office has said.
New Zealand, which is the Cook Islands biggest funder, won’t consider any new money for the nation until the relationship improves, a spokesperson for foreign minister Winston Peters told the Associated Press on Thursday. Cook Islands prime minister Mark Brown didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The border dispute has led to a surge in nationalist sentiment and tit-for-tat actions by both governments
Cambodia has banned imports of fruit and vegetables from Thailand, the latest escalation in a series of retaliatory actions sparked by a long-running border dispute between the South-east Asian neighbours.
Tensions flared in May when troops briefly exchanged fire at a contested area of the border, killing a Cambodian soldier.
The meeting in Geneva would be the first face-to-face diplomatic communication with Iran since Israel’s attack
The foreign ministers of the UK, France and Germany are planning to meet the Iranian foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, in what could represent a potential diplomatic breakthrough after five days of Israeli bombing.
The meeting is due to take place in Geneva on Friday but final confirmation from Tehran is still pending; if confirmed it would represent the first face-to-face diplomatic meeting since Benjamin Netanyahu launched Israel’s attack on Iran’s military and nuclear sites.
Breaching threshold would ramp up catastrophic weather events, further increasing human suffering
The planet’s remaining carbon budget to meet the international target of 1.5C has just two years left at the current rate of emissions, scientists have warned, showing how deep into the climate crisis the world has fallen.
Breaching the target would ramp up the extreme weather already devastating communities around the world. It would also require carbon dioxide to be sucked from the atmosphere in future to restore the stable climate in which the whole of civilisation developed over the past 10,000 years.
Campaign group accuses Holyrood of ‘intolerable’ delays to new policies required after landmark case
The Scottish government has been given a deadline to implement the UK supreme court’s ruling on biological sex across all public bodies or face further legal challenges.
Sex Matters, the UK-wide gender-critical campaign group, has threatened legal action in 14 days if ministers continue “intolerable” delays to new policies and guidance required by April’s landmark ruling that the legal definition of a woman in the Equality Act 2010 does not include transgender women who hold gender recognition certificates.
The Buss family is entering an agreement to sell a majority stake in the Los Angeles Lakers at a $10bn valuation, ESPN reported on Wednesday, marking the end of an era for one of the NBA’s most influential families.
Mark Walter, the CEO and chair of holding company TWG Global, is set to take the majority ownership under the agreement, ESPN’s NBA insider Shams Charania said in a post on X. Walter was already a minority owner in the Lakers and is also primary owner and chair of the Los Angeles Dodgers of Major League Baseball, and the Los Angeles Sparks of the WNBA.
England 1-2 Germany (Scott 76; Knauff 3 Weiper 33)
Lee Carsley’s side face quarter-final against Spain
When Lee Carsley expressed his hope that England’s Under-21 players could give Thomas Tuchel “something to ponder” with their performances while defending their European title in Slovakia, their first-half showing against Germany’s second-string side probably wasn’t what he had in mind.
Needing a point to guarantee their place in the quarter-finals and trailing 2-0 at the break after goals from Ansgar Knauff and Nelson Weiper, Slovenia’s defeat to the Czech Republic in the night’s other match ensured they made it through anyway.
Gp H: Real Madrid 1-1 Al-Hilal (G García 34; Neves 41pen)
Federico Valverde’s 92nd-minute penalty saved
Xabi Alonso said in the buildup he was going to “ignite” his players at this Club World Cup, that Real Madrid were ready to rock’n’roll. In the event this was something more downbeat in Miami, 90 minutes of pub-rock, at times even a meandering shoe-gaze as a well-drilled Al-Hilal kept the new-era Madrid at arm’s length.
Madrid had a chance to win it at the death, but Federico Valverde missed a dubiously awarded 92nd-minute penalty. A 1-1 draw felt fair at the end of a Group H opener that flickered but never caught fire.
This tonally uncertain revival mixes folk horror and little-England satire as an island lad seeks help for his sick mum on the undead-infested mainland
Here they are again, Danny Boyle and Alex Garland’s zombies – though unlike the usual stumbling slow-movers, of course, these things can sprint like Tom Cruise on steroids. Back in 2002, screenwriter Garland and director Boyle had a monster hit with their post-apocalyptic horror thriller 28 Days Later, about a “rage” virus that leaks from a lab and, turning people into aggressive zombies, causes a complete law-and-order breakdown in 28 days; Boyle famously made smart use of then-new lightweight digital tech which let him bring off miracles of unlicensed guerrilla shooting at dawn in the deserted London streets.
That was fierce, muscular film-making, though I have never been a fan of zombies whose massed presence (then as now) requires silly, gurning, ketchup-strewn extras who can’t be clearly looked at for any length of time without laughing. (For my money it was only Edgar Wright’s zombie horror comedy Shaun of the Dead, which came out two years afterwards, which fully explored the real, intimate horror of zombie-ism: the gap between being bitten and transforming.) In 2007, a lacklustre sequel, 28 Weeks Later, brought the franchise stumbling to a halt.
Diplomats to look for ‘indications of hostility towards citizens, culture or founding principles of United States’
Foreign students will be required to unlock their social media profiles to allow US diplomats to review their online activity before receiving educational and exchange visas, the state department has announced. Those who fail to do so will be suspected of hiding that activity from US officials.
The new guidance, unveiled by the state department on Wednesday, directs US diplomats to conduct an online presence review to look for “any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States”.
Juventus players and staff were involved in an awkward encounter at the White House on Wednesday when Donald Trump attempted to get them to enter into a debate on transgender women in sport.
The Italian football giants are in the US for the Club World Cup, and are due to play Al Ain of the UAE at Washington DC’s Audi Field on Wednesday night.
Both teams critical of officiating during Fever win
The WNBA has upgraded the technical foul on Connecticut’s Marina Mabrey for shoving Caitlin Clark to the floor during Tuesday’s night game against Indiana to a Flagrant-2, a source told the Associated Press on Wednesday.
Any flagrant foul comes with an automatic fine. The person also said the league has fined the Fever’s Sophie Cunningham for her role in the on-court melee that occurred after she fouled Jacy Sheldon with 46.1 seconds left. Cunningham received a Flagrant-2 during Tuesday night’s game, which Indiana won 88-71.
Hours before the decision, the president called the Fed’s chair, Jerome Powell, ‘stupid’ for anticipated rate hold
The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates on hold, but signaled it might make two cuts this year,as Donald Trump continues to break with precedent and demand lower rates.
Policymakers at the American central bank lifted their projections for inflation this year, as the US president stands by his controversial tariff plans, and downgraded their estimates for economic growth.
Draper battles through but admits ‘I wasn’t my best’
In the final throes of a tense, uneasy tussle with one of the bigger servers in his sport, Jack Draper was fading. The British No 1, and second seed, had started poorly: he had struggled to find his range on his groundstrokes for much of the occasion and then two match points passed him by. Deep in the third-set tie break, he trailed 2-4.
Over the past year, though, a period during which he has established himself as one of the best players in the world, Draper has continually shown his ability to find a path to victory no matter what. In the first week of his grass-court homecoming, the 23-year-old offered a forceful demonstration of his supreme competitive spirit as he recovered to defeat Australia’s Alexei Popyrin, the world No 21, 3-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5) to reach the quarter-finals at Queen’s Club.
The words are written in bright red letters at the top of posters hanging on lampposts and storefronts around Los Angeles. At first glance, they appear to be from worried relatives seeking help from neighbors.
Pep Guardiola was pleased with the first three points and bemused at Rico Lewis’s 88th-minute straight red card for which the player will receive a one-match ban – at least.
Lewis protested yet the VAR upheld Ramon Abatti’s odd decision: City’s 20-year-old right-back swept the ball away and then – unluckily – booted Samuel Obeng’s face. Guardiola said: “
Germany have made 11 changes to their side. They are already through, so it’s no surprise they have decided to swap everyone out.
Looking forward to the fun of Hutchinson and Nwaneri playing together. Surely England will be a bit sharper than last time out when they could not find a way past Slovenia.
‘We want freedom on our own terms,’ says one Tehran resident, while another writes, ‘Someone is helping us’
Despite a substantial internet blackout, news spread quickly in Iran on Tuesday night: the US was considering joining Israel in its war on Iran.
The US president, Donald Trump, wrote on Truth Social: “We know exactly where the so-called ‘Supreme Leader’ is hiding. We are not going to take him out (kill!), at least not for now … Our patience is wearing thin.” Three minutes later, in a second post, he added: “UNCONDITIONAL SURRENDER!”
When Mehnaz*, a 24-year-old student activist in east Tehran, heard the news, she did not think of Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Instead, she thought of her fellow students who were detained, shot and executed by Iranian security forces during the “woman, life, liberty” protests in 2022.
The age of disarmament is over. But military action only increases the dangers instead of ending the threat
Eighty years after the US dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and 40 years after the US and Soviet Union pledged to reduce their arsenals, the threat of nuclear war has resurged with a vengeance. The age of disarmament is over, a prominent thinktank warned this week: “We see a clear trend of growing nuclear arsenals, sharpened nuclear rhetoric and the abandonment of arms control agreements,” said Hans M Kristensen of the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.
The world’s nine nuclear-armed states have amassed the equivalent of 145,000 Hiroshima bombs. Israel’s illegal attack upon Iran is purportedly a last-ditch attempt to prevent it joining this club – as Israel did long ago, though does not admit it. While Tehran possesses the capacity to develop a nuclear weapon if it chose to, US intelligence believes it has not made that decision – and would still need up to three years to build and deploy one. Israel does not appear to be striking Iran because US nuclear diplomacy has failed, but because it fears it might succeed. Many of its targets are unrelated to the nuclear programme, and some even to Iran’s military. Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly invoked regime change: more honestly, regime collapse.
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
Killing of Canadian national was ‘significant escalation in India’s repression efforts’ but leaders shake hands at G7
Canada’s spy agency has warned that the assassination in British Columbia of a prominent Sikh activist signaled a “significant escalation in India’s repression efforts” and reflects a broader, transnational campaign by the government in New Delhi to threaten dissidents.
The report was made public a day after Mark Carney shook hands with Narendra Modi at the G7 and pledged to restore diplomatic relations in a very public attempt to turn the page on the bitter diplomatic row unleashed by the murder of the Canadian citizen Hardeep Singh Nijjar.
As many as 70 said to be planning to show solidarity at LGBTQ+ march after Hungary’s PM tried to ban it
Dozens of MEPs are expected to attend the Pride march in Budapest this month, in defiance of the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who has tried to ban the event.
In a debate in the European parliament in Strasbourg, MEPs from liberal, left and green groups pledged to be in Budapest on 28 June for the parade to show solidarity with gay Hungarians.
Together with Sonia Friedman and Ian Rickson, the Hollywood star has helped to create a new initiative aiming to provide high-quality theater for a low price
One night last month in the West Village, I had the pleasure of being nervous for Hugh Jackman. On stage at the Minetta Lane Theatre, the 56-year-old movie star and Broadway veteran appeared startlingly undefended and vulnerable. In character as a middle-aged university professor infatuated with his 19-year-old pupil, Jackman addressed the audience for a play called Sexual Misconduct of the Middle Classes with the lights up, as if helming a lecture full of shy students put on the spot; when one viewer sneezed during Jackman’s monologue, he paused to say bless you.
I fretted a few rows from Wolverine, more aware of my fellow audience members’ faces and cellphones than I’ve ever been at a New York show and acutely attuned to the fact that this all could go awry at any moment. Theater is always a contract between audience and performer, but years attending big Broadway shows have inured me to its fragility. At the Minetta, with just the commanding presence of Jackman and the lit audience at his feet, that contract felt thrillingly, temporarily exposed.
The oil shocks of the 1970s-90s had brutal economic impacts. As Israel attacks Iran, a moderate rise in oil prices rests on questionable assumptions
Financial markets picked up the clear message when Donald Trump cut short his stay at the G7 summit in the Canadian Rockies this week. Despite calls from fellow western leaders to de-escalate the crisis, the president’s early return to the White House was taken as a sign that the US is considering joining Israel in its military action against Iran. Trump says he wants Iran’s unconditional surrender.
This is where modern summitry came in half a century ago. In 1975, the first meeting of what eventually became the G7 was convened at Rambouillet in France in an attempt to work out a joint response to the oil shock that accompanied the Yom Kippur war between Israel and its neighbours.
Larry Elliott is a Guardian columnist
Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.
The actor seems to have inspired a generation of young chaps to grow wispy caterpillars on their upper lips. When it comes to facial hair, I’ve learned it’s best to go big or go home
What is it with all these wispy moustaches suddenly decorating young men’s faces? These things, which have crawled their way on to so many upper lips, aren’t fully formed moustaches. There’s no depth to them. They’re straggly, patchy, with skin showing through them. They look as though their owners aren’t fully committed to them. Or, worse, that they are trying their best, but this apology of a moustache is all they can manage. It’s the kind of moustache you grow when puberty first makes it possible to do so, the debut facial hair with which you aim to convince publicans that you’re old enough to be served alcohol.
The only thing I can say in their favour is that they are at least equal opportunity moustaches, in that even those who can’t muster much in the way of facial hair can have a fair crack at producing one of these. But otherwise, my firm view on moustaches, for the infinitesimally little it’s worth, is to go big or go home. I’m working on a documentary about Sir Edward Elgar. Now that’s what I call a moustache. Full, bushy, yet neat. A veritable symphony of bristle. It may be that spending so much time with Sir Edward lately is what led me to suddenly start seeing these miserable creepy-crawlies sullying faces everywhere.
Investigators reportedly examining whether ‘last resort’ ram air turbine functioned after takeoff
The sole survivor of the Air India crash has helped carry his brother’s flower-heaped coffin to a crematorium in the western Indian coastal town of Diu, days after they plummeted into the ground shortly after takeoff.
With bandages still on his face and arm, Vishwash Kumar Ramesh, 40, who was discharged from hospital on Tuesday, broke into sobs and was consoled by relatives.
Phil Foden struck early and Jérémy Doku added a second before Rico Lewis was shown a late red card
After both sets of players are introduced to the crowd one by one, we kick off a couple of minutes late.
It’s 26 degrees and overcast in Philadelphia this afternoon, with similar conditions in my spare room some 3,500 miles away. Don’t worry, I’m hydrating. While we wait, here’s the latest Football Daily:
A fake dentist and two assistants who treated dozens of patients after learning the trade on the internet have been charged in the Czech Republic.
The three family members opened a fully equipped dental practice, without a licence or the necessary expertise, in the central Czech town of Havlíčkův Brod in 2023, police said on Wednesday.
Chelsea winger was provisionally suspended last year
‘Presence and/or use of a prohibited substance’ alleged
Chelsea’s Mykhailo Mudryk could face a lengthy ban after being charged by the Football Association with doping offences. Under FA regulations the winger could be banned for as long as four years after providing a positive A sample last year. It is believed the banned performance-enhancing substance meldonium was found in Mudryk’s system.
The Ukraine international has not played since last November and was provisionally suspended while he and Chelsea waited for the results of a B sample.
Prosecutors had expected to rest case by Friday but delay means they are unlikely to finish until Monday
A juror’s vertigo on Wednesday ended another day of the sex-trafficking trial for music mogul Sean “Diddy” Combs before it began.
Prosecutors had expected to rest their case by Friday after presenting evidence for the last six weeks, but the delay means they are unlikely to finish until Monday.
While some in Moscow have tried to put positive spin on Israel’s assault, Kremlin risks losing key strategic partner
When a group of Russian and Iranian foreign policy officials arranged to meet in Moscow for a conference titled “Russian-Iranian cooperation in a changing world”, they probably did not anticipate just how timely that phrase would turn out to be.
Seated around a table on Wednesday at the President hotel near the Kremlin, officials from both sides were forced to confront a stark new reality: Iran’s regime – a key ally of Moscow – is facing its most serious threat in decades.
Production of staple crops projected to fall by as much as 120 calories per person per day for every 1C of heating
Some of our critical staple crops could suffer “substantial” production losses due to climate breakdown, a study has found, even if farmers adapt to worsening weather.
Maize, soy, rice, wheat, cassava and sorghum yields are projected to fall by as much as 120 calories per person per day for every 1C the planet heats up, according to new research in Nature, with average daily losses that could add up to the equivalent of not having breakfast.
Forensic scientist says ‘strong evidence’ links Ryland Headley, 92, with murder and rape of Louisa Dunne
A forensic scientist was able to produce a full DNA profile for the suspected murderer of a woman who died in 1967 after examining her skirt and hair that had been kept in police storage for almost 60 years, a jury has been told.
Andrew Parry told the court there was “strong scientific evidence” to link the skirt Louisa Dunne was wearing when she was found and hair police took from her body with 92-year-old Ryland Headley, who is on trial for her rape and murder.
BBF has not endorsed Manchester for Champions League
Lions, Eagles and Flyers also blocked from competing
The civil war engulfing British Basketball has intensified with the British Basketball Federation attempting to block four of the country’s leading clubs from competing in Europe next season.
The Guardian has learned that the BBF is refusing to endorse applications for European places made by Manchester Basketball, London Lions, Newcastle Eagles and Bristol Flyers, which has put their participation at risk.
Anger is rarely thought of as positive – but the emotion itself exists to protect us, says author of Good Anger, Sam Parker
My friends and I sometimes rank the seven deadly sins in order of personal relevance. For me, “wrath” always comes last. (I shan’t say what’s first – too revealing.)
Anger doesn’t feature in my day-to-day life. I even struggle to feel wrathful when it’s appropriate. World events make me fatalistic and depressed; when my gym instructor says to “let loose” on the ski machine, my effort remains constant. The time I visited a rage room, my main takeaway was that the Metallica song I selected as the soundtrack sounded fantastic on big speakers.
A majority of supporters of Donald Trump are against US military involvement in Israel’s conflict with Iran, a poll published on Wednesday found, reflecting a growing Republican backlash to the president’s threats to utilize American firepower.
A wide-ranging Economist/YouGov poll conducted over the weekend revealed that 53% of voters who backed Trump in the 2024 presidential election do not want the country to join in Israel’s strikes.
Connexion
