His patience exhausted, the US president has taken action that could bite, but is unlikely to alter Moscow’s course in Ukraine
For once, a phone call with Vladimir Putin did not lead to a thaw.
By imposing sanctions on Russia this week, Donald Trump broke from his usual pattern of easing tensions with the Kremlin after conversations with the Russian leader, when threats of pressure often give way to talk of renewed dialogue.
Continue reading...US president accuses Canada of ‘egregious behaviour’ after release of ad featuring Ronald Reagan criticising tariffs
Donald Trump has announced an immediate end to “all trade negotiations” with Canada over a television advertisement opposing US tariffs that quoted the former US president Ronald Reagan.
The ad, which was paid for by the government of the Canadian province of Ontario, uses excerpts of a 1987 speech where Reagan says “trade barriers hurt every American worker”.
Continue reading...US vice-president suggests votes were ‘stupid political stunt’ as Israeli PM orders a stop to any further work on bills
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has ordered a halt to the advancement of parliamentary bills linked to the annexation of the West Bank after the US vice-president, JD Vance, described a vote on two bills in the Knesset as an “insult”.
The bills applying Israeli law to the occupied West Bank, which would be tantamount to the annexation of land Palestinians want for a state, won preliminary approval from Israel’s parliament on Wednesday, barely a week after Donald Trump pushed through a deal aimed at ending a two-year Israeli offensive in Gaza.
Continue reading...Trump administration hardens stance against the Kremlin day after cancelling a planned summit with Russian leader
The US has sanctioned Rosneft and Lukoil, Russia’s two largest oil companies, as the Trump administration increased pressure on the Kremlin to negotiate an end to its war against Ukraine.
The sanctions were the first against Russia since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January, and were targeted to cut key revenues from oil sales that finance the Russian war machine.
Continue reading...Elite helicopter unit’s part in military deployment comes as Donald Trump ramps up pressure on Nicolás Maduro
They call themselves the Night Stalkers and their unofficial motto hints at the group’s lethal nocturnal line of work: “Death Waits in the Dark.” “You can flee, but they will find you,” warns a rare book about the US army’s secretive 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment (SOAR).
Since the elite helicopter unit’s creation in 1981, its daredevil pilots have taken part in some of the most dangerous missions in recent US military history: battling Islamic State during Operation Inherent Resolve in Iraq and Syria, and Somali warlords during Operation Gothic Serpent; and spiriting Navy Seals into Pakistan to kill the al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden as part of Operation Neptune Spear.
Continue reading...Ukrainian president will seek to win security guarantees at ‘coalition of the willing’ meeting before any US-Russia talks
Volodmyr Zelenskyy will travel to London on Friday for a meeting of the “coalition of the willing” before an expected summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin in Hungary, amid mounting European disquiet over Ukraine’s exclusion from the Budapest meeting.
Posting on social media, Zelenskyy said the aim of the London visit was to win security guarantees for Kyiv and there would be “many meetings and negotiations in Europe” this week.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Trump’s stance on the war continues to oscillate while Zelenskyy’s infantry face gruelling stints at the ‘zero line’ amid increasingly lethal Russian attacks
Good morning. It looked, for a moment, as if Donald Trump had finally taken a clear side in the war between Russia and Ukraine: with hints that he might be ready to provide Tomahawk missiles, and a vaunted White House meeting with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, some observers thought he was on the brink of rowing in behind Ukraine in a decisive way.
Then he got on the phone with Vladimir Putin, and agreed to a face-to-face meeting within the next two weeks. And, after the White House meeting on Friday, Trump downplayed the idea that the missiles would be provided. Later reports suggested that the meeting was a “shouting match” in which Trump echoed Russian talking points and added: “If [Putin] wants it, he will destroy you.”
Israel-Gaza war | Israel launched waves of lethal airstrikes on Sunday and cut off all aid into Gaza “until further notice” after a reported attack by Hamas, in escalations that marked the most serious threat so far to the increasingly fragile ceasefire. Israel later said that it had “begun the renewed enforcement of the ceasefire”.
Royals | The Metropolitan police are looking into claims that Prince Andrew asked his taxpayer-funded close protection officer to uncover information about Virginia Giuffre hours before the emergence of a bombshell picture of them together. The news follows Friday’s announcement that Andrew had relinquished his royal titles.
China-UK relations | Approving a Chinese super-embassy in east London could be unlawful if ministers gave Beijing assurances about the project in advance, a top planning lawyer has concluded. The news came as the government denied any political interference in the decision to drop charges against two men accused of spying for China.
France | French police are hunting four thieves who carried out a highly professional daylight robbery on the Louvre, breaking into one of the museum’s most ornate rooms and escaping with eight pieces of “priceless” historic jewellery, including a necklace given by Napoleon to his wife.
Reform UK | The leader of Reform UK’s flagship local authority has told councillors that she has launched a hunt for the “cowards” who leaked a recorded meeting in which she said those who disagreed with decisions would have to “fucking suck it up”. Bitter divisions among Reform members of Kent county council were laid bare at the weekend by the Guardian.
Continue reading...Trump made the comments after a tense meeting with Zelenskyy in which the Ukraine leader failed to secure supplies of Tomahawk missiles
Donald Trump has suggested the best way to end the war in Ukraine would be to “cut up” the country’s Donbas region in a way that would leave most of it under Russian control, after reportedly pushing Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a White House meeting to give up swaths of territory.
“Let it be cut the way it is,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday. “It’s cut up right now,” he said, adding that you can “leave it the way it is right now”.
Continue reading...Ukraine’s president calls for meeting of European-led ‘coalition of the willing’ on his return from talks with Trump
Ukraine’s president has urged allies against appeasing Russia after returning from a trip to the US, where he failed to secure long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy had flown to Washington after weeks of calls for the weaponry, hoping to capitalise on Donald Trump’s growing frustration with Vladimir Putin after a summit in Alaska failed to produce a breakthrough in the war.
Continue reading...Prime minister says CGIL head is ‘clouded by resentment’ and accuses the left of hypocrisy towards women
Giorgia Meloni has condemned the boss of Italy’s biggest trade union after he referred to the prime minister as the “courtesan” of Donald Trump.
Maurizio Landini, the leader of CGIL, which organised several pro-Palestinian protests before the Gaza ceasefire deal, made the remarks on TV on Tuesday, the day after world leaders, including Meloni, met in Egypt for a Middle East peace summit.
Continue reading...US president has repeatedly hinted at supplying Kyiv with Tomahawks but some in Moscow say Kremlin sees it as negotiating gambit
Volodymyr Zelenskyy is to head to the White House on Friday for a crucial meeting with Donald Trump, hours after the US president said he planned to soon meet with Vladimir Putin in Budapest after a “very productive” call.
The possible supply of US Tomahawk cruise missiles to Ukraine is expected to top the agenda during the Ukrainian president’s visit. Trump has repeatedly hinted in recent weeks that he may deliver Tomahawks, which would give Kyiv its longest-range weapon yet that would be capable of striking Moscow with accurate, destructive munitions.
Continue reading...Hamas says it needs specialist equipment to recover remaining bodies as Israel’s defence minister threatens to resume fighting
Israel has threatened to resume fighting in Gaza after Hamas announced that it could not return any further remains of deceased Israeli hostages without specialist recovery equipment that is needed to retrieve the rest from the ruins of the devastated territory.
The threat from Israel Katz, the defence minister, came after Hamas handed over the remains of two further bodies late on Wednesday, bringing the total of known deceased hostages returned by Hamas to nine – along with a tenth body that Israel said was not that of a former hostage.
Continue reading...Treasury secretary Scott Bessent raises possibility of taking more direct stakes in companies to protect national security in wake of Beijing’s curbs on rare earths exports
The Trump administration has criticised China’s increased restrictions on rare earth exports as a threat to global supply chains, and said it would seek to tighten control over strategic sectors by taking more stakes in key companies to counter Beijing.
Treasury secretary Scott Bessent told an event on Wednesday that China’s dramatic new restrictions on rare earth minerals and magnets demonstrated the need for the US to be self-sufficient in critical materials or rely more on trusted allies.
Continue reading...US president says Middle East will ‘normalize’ before he boarded flight to Israel for world leaders’ peace summit
The war in Gaza has ended and the Middle East is going to “normalize”, Donald Trump said on Sunday as he flew to Israel, which was waiting for Hamas to release Israeli hostages as world leaders were gathering to discuss the next steps toward peace.
“The war is over, you understand that,” Trump told reporters onboard Air Force One as he began a flight from Washington DC to Israel.
Continue reading...Israelis gather to commemorate the second anniversary of the Hamas-led attack in which 1,200 people were killed. This live blog is closed
Deborah Cole is Berlin correspondent for the Guardian
Germany marked the two-year anniversary of the 7 October attacks with sombre commemorations across the country and official flags pulled to half mast.
Continue reading...In two years there have been many versions of a ‘day after’ plan for Gaza and many obstacles to overcome
George Mitchell, the great US advocate for the Northern Ireland peace agreement, described diplomacy as 700 days of failure and one of success. In Gaza, tragically, there have been 730 days of failure and none of success. Indeed, the destruction, the death toll and the spillover of the conflict into other countries is a monument to shame diplomacy and what remains of international law. Arguably, it is the profession’s lowest point since 1939.
Some will claim failure is inevitable since this conflict is now so embedded and impervious to compromise that it can only be settled at the barrel of the gun, in essence through the repression or erasure of one side.
Continue reading...Presidents spoke on a video call as expert speculates that Haiti could be an area where the two leaders can cooperate
Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has urged Donald Trump to scrap tariffs on his country’s imports and sanctions against its officials, as the two men held what the Brazilian presidency called a “friendly” video call, swapping phone numbers after months of friction.
Ties between the US and Brazil have nosedived as a result of Trump’s campaign to pressure Brazilian authorities into abandoning the coup trial of his far-right ally, Jair Bolsonaro.
Continue reading...Negotiators from the US, Israel and Hamas are set to begin talks, as the US president said the first phase should be completed this week
The UN commission of inquiry, several human rights groups and the world’s leading association of genocide scholars have concluded that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.
Despite the evidence, Israel denies the accusation and says it has only acted in self-defence.
Continue reading...Pentagon chief says strike – fourth by US military in recent weeks – targeted boat with ‘substantial amounts’ of drugs
The United States carried out a strike against an alleged drug-trafficking boat on Friday that killed four people, US defense secretary Pete Hegseth said, a day after the Trump administration told Congress it was entering a new “non-international armed conflict” with cartels.
The strike, which Hegseth said he directed on Donald Trump’s orders, appears to be at least the fourth in recent weeks. Hegseth gave few details about the boat or the evidence that it was carrying narcotics, other than saying the US had confirmed it was carrying drugs.
Continue reading...US president warns militant group will ‘pay in hell’ if it rejects the deal, which seeks to end two-year-long war
Donald Trump has given Hamas an ultimatum of “three or four days” to respond to his proposed peace and reconstruction plan in Gaza, warning the militant group would “pay in hell” if it rejects the deal, as the Israeli offensive continued, inflicting further civilian casualties.
Trump’s proposal was announced in a joint press conference in Washington with Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and seeks a definitive end to the relentless two-year-long war. At least 31 Palestinians were killed across Gaza on Tuesday, local hospitals said.
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