Sergei Lavrov dismisses Ukraine peace plan and UN effort to revive grain deal

Russian foreign minister says Zelenskiy’s 10-point proposal to end the war and resumption of exports from Black Sea are ‘not realistic’

Russia’s foreign minister has told the UN that Ukraine’s proposed peace plan and the latest proposals to revive the Black Sea grain initiative were “not realistic”.

Sergei Lavrov spoke at a press conference on 23 September after a week of intense global diplomacy at the annual gathering of world leaders at UN headquarters in New York where Ukraine and its western allies sought to drum up support for Kyiv.

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Dozens killed and injured by truck bomb explosion in Somalian city

Detonation took place at security checkpoint in Beledweyne, killing at least 18 people

An explosives-laden vehicle detonated at a security checkpoint in the central Somalia city of Beledweyne on Saturday, killing at least 18 people and wounding 40 others, authorities have said.

Abdirahman Dahir Gure, the interior minister of Hirshabelle state, announced the toll to journalists.

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Nagorno-Karabakh: food and other aid arrives as talks resume

Armenians in region have been without adequate food or fuel supplies for months due to blockade by Azerbaijani forces

A Red Cross aid convoy headed to Nagorno-Karabakh on Saturday, the first since Azerbaijan retook the breakaway region three days ago, as ethnic Armenians there complained of being abandoned by the world.

The Armenians of Karabakh, which is internationally recognised as part of Azerbaijan, were forced to declare a ceasefire on 20 September after a lightning 24-hour military operation by the much larger Azerbaijani military.

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The former refugee who wants to cut immigration, and become the first female Dutch PM

Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, new leader of the Netherlands’ VVD party, is a talk show darling. Will that be enough to take her to the very top?

She is a former child refugee who wants to reduce immigration, has opened the door to the far right and could be the Netherlands’ first female prime minister. At a packed party conference in Rotterdam on Saturday, Dilan Yeşilgöz-Zegerius, leader of the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), launched her campaign for November’s elections with a call for liberty and security.

“From my parents, I learned to cherish freedom and stand up for others when their freedom was threatened,” she said. “But we face losing ever more of this ‘oxygen’, with ever less understanding for one another and politics operating increasingly from distrust. It’s not for nothing that our manifesto is called: giving space, defining borders.”

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Russia-Ukraine war live: peace formula ‘completely not feasible’, Russian foreign minister tells UN – as it happened

Sergei Lavrov rules out any moves at compromise in speech that also addresses Nagorno-Karabakh dispute

Andrey Kortunov, an adviser to the Russian foreign ministry and director of Russian international affairs council, has been on the BBC Radio 4’s Today programme discussing the strike on Russian navy’s Black Sea HQ.

Kortunov emphasised the “psychological” importance of long range missiles being used in the strike. “I think psychologically it’s important because it’s a long range missile - its destruction power is pretty significant. But militarily, I don’t think it really makes that big a damage – after all it didn’t hit any really critical military targets and the damage at least according to the reports we received is quite limited.”

Who opened investigations? Germany, Denmark and Sweden, a the leaks happened in their exclusive economic zones.

What have they found? German federal prosecutors seized objects from a sailing yacht in January and found traces of explosives.

Meanwhile, Sweden’s public prosecutor said the “primary assumption is that a state is behind it”.

What has Ukraine said? The New York Times reported in March that US officials had seen information suggesting it was done by a “pro-Ukrainian group”, without Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s knowledge. Zelenskiy has repeatedly denied Ukraine was behind the sabotage.

Could it be a false flag? Andreas Umland, an analyst at the Stockholm Centre for Eastern European Studies, views Russia as “the most likely” culprit. The Kremlin has denied responsibility.

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Prize-winning Polish film on refugees opens to government backlash

Agnieszka Holland’s Green Border tells story of brutal treatment of a Syrian family trying to get to Europe

A prize-winning film sharply critical of the Polish government’s attitude to refugees has opened at cinemas across the country, after being attacked in the run-up to its release by members of the Polish government.

Green Border, a feature film by the celebrated director Agnieszka Holland, won the special jury prize in Venice last month. It tells the story of a Syrian family trying to get to Europe via the Belarus-Poland border in 2021, and the brutal treatment they receive at the hands of Polish border guards.

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Giorgio Napolitano, ex-communist who became president of Italy, dies aged 98

Party reformer was first former communist to become president and first person re-elected to post

Giorgio Napolitano, the first former communist to rise to Italy’s presidency and the first person to be elected twice to the post, has died aged 98.

A statement issued on Friday night by the presidential palace confirmed Italian news reports of the death of Napolitano, who had been in a Rome hospital for weeks.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 576 of the invasion

Zelenskiy speaks to Canadian parliament after Justin Trudeau announces training for F-16 fighter pilots

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy delivered an impassioned speech at the Canadian parliament on Friday in which he thanked Canada’s military support to Ukraine, as well as hailed the historic and communal ties between the two countries. “You’re always on the bright side of history … I have no doubt that you will choose the side of freedom and justice,” he said.

Prime minister Justin Trudeau says Canada is going to make a longer-term, multi-year commitment that provides steady support for Ukraine, including money for 50 armoured vehicles. Canada will give an extra C$650m ($482m) in military aid to Ukraine over the next three years, Trudeau told the Canadian parliament. He will also send F-16 trainers for pilots and maintenance so Ukraine is able to maximise its use of donated fighter jets.

A Russian missile strike on civilian infrastructure in Kremenchuk in the central Poltava region of Ukraine killed one person and injured 15 others, governor Dmytro Lunin said on Friday via Telegram. He said one child was among the injured and that Ukrainian air defences downed one of the missiles launched. These claims are yet to be independently verified.

The Russian deputy prime minister, Alexander Novak, held a meeting with Russian oil company managers on Friday to discuss the domestic fuel market, the government said. Russia temporarily banned exports of gasoline and diesel to all countries outside a circle of four ex-Soviet states with immediate effect, the government said on Thursday, without a specified end date.

US president Joe Biden has told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy that the US will provide a small number of long-range missiles to help in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, three US officials and a congressional official told NBC News on Friday. The officials did not confirm when the missiles would be delivered and remain anonymous as they have not been authorised to speak on the subject publicly.

A Ukrainian air force spokesperson reportedly said that he had hoped the missile strike on the Russian Black Sea fleet HQ earlier on Friday had left a bigger hole in the building. Air force spokesperson, Yuriy Ignat, speaking on Ukrainian television, said that while he was pleased by the result of the strike, he had hoped the effects would be more dramatic. “I wanted a bigger hole to be honest,” he said.

Ukraine’s military said its forces had “successfully” struck the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea navy in the Crimean port of Sevastopol on Friday. “On 22 September close to 12:00 (0900 GMT) Ukraine’s defence forces successfully struck the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea fleet command in the temporarily occupied Sevastopol,” Ukraine’s military said on Telegram.

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Biden and Harris unveil first federal gun violence prevention office, citing 100 people shot and killed daily – live

US president urges action as Kamala Harris says one in five Americans have lost family member to gun violence

Faced with the House stalemate over a government stopgap funding bill, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer on Thursday set up a path for the Senate to move first on a bill to fund the government beyond 30 September.

Senate aides told the Hill the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) bill could serve as a legislative vehicle to pass a continuing resolution to fund the federal government for a few weeks – but that it will likely not include money for the war in Ukraine or disaster relief.

This is painful. It gives me a headache. This is a very difficult series of missteps by our conference. If you can’t do [the defense bill], what can you do?

At this point, it seems like there are some people playing policy warfare, and I think we need to move our country forward.

For my colleagues, they have to come to a realization: If they are unable or unwilling to govern, others will. And in a divided government where you have Democrats controlling the Senate, a Democrat controlling the White House, there needs to be a realization that you’re not going to get everything you want.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: Zelenskiy says ‘Moscow must lose once and for all’ as Trudeau commits fighter jet training

Ukraine president addresses Canadian parliament; Canada will send F-16 trainers for pilots

Ukraine’s infrastructure minister confirmed on Friday the departure of the second cargo vessel with grain from Ukraine’s Chornomorsk seaport.

The vessel Aroyat “left the port Chornomorsk after loading Ukrainian wheat for Egypt,” Reuters reports Oleksandr Kubrakov posted to social media.

This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.

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Zelenskiy urges Canada to stay with Ukraine as he speaks to parliament

Ukrainian president thanks Canada for financial support and says ‘stay with us to our victory’

Volodymyr Zelenskiy has urged Canada to stay with Ukraine to victory as he went to the Canadian Parliament seeking to bolster support from western allies for Ukraine’s war against the Russian invasion.

“Moscow must lose once and for all. And it will lose,” Zelenskiy said during his address in parliament on Friday.

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Eliminate malaria once and for all or it will come back stronger, UN warned

World faces ‘malaria emergency’ from resistance to insecticides, waning efficacy of drugs, funding shortfalls and climate change

African leaders have warned that the world is facing the “biggest malaria emergency” of the past two decades.

Heads of state and experts came together in a show of unity to call for urgent action on malaria at the UN general assembly on Friday, saying progress on eradicating the disease faced serious setbacks from mosquitoes’ growing resistance to insecticides, and the decreased effectiveness of antimalarial drugs and diagnostic tests.

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Chinese dissident who held Tiananmen Square vigils flees to Taiwan

Chen Siming posts video from Taoyuan airport saying he is seeking asylum from political persecution

A Chinese dissident known for regularly commemorating the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square has fled to Taiwan where he pleaded for help in seeking asylum in the US or Canada.

In a video posted online on Friday, Chen Siming said he was in the transit area at Taoyuan international airport to escape Chinese political persecution.

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Scandal grows over children’s spinal surgery in Ireland

After focus on work of one Dublin surgeon, expert report sparks wider review of paediatric orthopaedics

Paediatricians and health executives in Dublin were aware that a leading children’s hospital in the city was using “unauthorised, uncertified” medical implants in surgery, a top health official has said.

Ireland is facing a growing scandal over paediatric spinal surgery. An independent investigation found that 19 children with spina bifida suffered serious complications after they were operated on by one surgeon at Temple Street hospital. One child was readmitted to the operating theatre 33 times after her initial operation.

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Pope Francis decries ‘fanaticism of indifference’ over migration

Pontiff says rescuing those making Mediterranean crossings is a ‘duty of humanity’ on first visit by a pope to Marseille in 500 years

Pope Francis has decried what he called the “fanaticism of indifference” as people risked their lives on dangerous journeys by boat from north Africa to Europe, amid growing political debate over migration.

Opening an overnight visit to Marseille, the pontiff presided over a silent moment of prayer at a memorial dedicated to sailors and people who died at sea, surrounded by faith leaders and migrant rescue organisations from the Mediterranean port city.

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Five siblings jailed for illegally extracting water feeding Spanish nature reserve

Farmers found guilty of crimes against environment for tapping aqueduct feeding Unesco-listed Donana national park

Five siblings have been jailed for more than three years for illegally extracting water from an aqueduct feeding a Unesco-listed Spanish nature reserve that is threatened by desertification, a court ruling showed.

The farmers – four men and a woman – were found guilty of crimes against the environment and causing damage through the “systematic and extensive extraction” of water supplying Donana national park, according to the ruling dated 18 September that was seen by Agence France-Presse on Friday.

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Ukraine mounts missile strike on Russian Black Sea fleet HQ in Crimea

Latest high-profile attack on Russian forces based on annexed peninsula targets base in Sevastopol

A Ukrainian missile attack has hit the headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea fleet in occupied Crimea, the latest high-profile Ukrainian strike on the annexed peninsula.

Russia’s defence ministry said that one military serviceman was missing as a result of the assault, which hit the navy headquarters in the port city of Sevastopol.

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Trial of Chinese #MeToo journalist and labour rights activist begins in secret

Huang Xueqin, a feminist who was due to move to UK, and Wang Jianbing charged with ‘inciting subversion of state power’

The trial of two prominent activists detained since 2021 has begun in secret in the Chinese city of Guangzhou, in a case that has attracted widespread attention to Beijing’s repression of civil society.

Huang Xueqin, a feminist activist and journalist who covered China’s #MeToo movement, and Wang Jianbing, a labour rights activist, were detained in Guangzhou in September 2021, shortly before Huang was due to move to the UK to study at the University of Sussex. The pair were charged with “inciting subversion of state power” the following month. The charge normally carries a sentence of up to five years, although terms can be longer in cases deemed severe.

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UAE oil company executives working with Cop28 team, leak reveals

Exclusive: two PR professionals from national oil firm listed as providing ‘support’ to team running UN climate summit

Senior executives from the UAE’s national oil company are working with the Cop28 team as the country ramps up its PR campaign ahead of the major UN climate summit later this year, leaked internal records show.

Two PR professionals from the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (Adnoc) are identified as providing “additional support” to the team running the summit, according to a Cop28 communications strategy document obtained by the Centre for Climate Reporting (CCR) and the Guardian. It adds to growing evidence of blurred lines between the UAE’s Cop28 team and its fossil fuel industry.

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European Commission announces €127m aid to Tunisia to reduce migration as rescue groups warn of death toll at sea – as it happened

Commission says it is ‘cracking down’ on smuggling networks as NGOs say more assistance is needed from Europe’s leaders. This live blog is closed

The Paris public prosecutor’s office said today that far-right leader Marine Le Pen and 24 others should stand trial over alleged misuse of EU funds, Reuters reports.

The Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, and the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, have used the situation in Lampedusa “for political campaigning,” according to Dutch European parliament member Sophie in ‘t Veld.

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