Russia says decision not to extend Black Sea grain deal is final

No more talks planned, says official, despite Turkish leader expressing hope of progress at UN meeting

The UN secretary general, António Guterres has said he deeply regrets Russia’s decision to terminate the Black Sea grain deal, saying hundreds of millions of people facing hunger as well as hard-pressed consumers will pay the price for the Kremlin’s move.

The deal was designed to alleviate a food crisis sparked by a Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports that had frozen millions of tonnes of grain exports around the world, much of it to developing countries.

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Italian media more focused on foreign coverage of heatwave than its effects

Reporting of climate crisis has been lousy for years, experts say, in a country where rightwing press has been dominant

Italy is sweltering in abnormally high temperatures, but its media appear to be more interested in how the extreme heat is being reported in the foreign press than delving deeply into the effects in a country deemed to be among the most vulnerable in Europe to the climate crisis.

Over the weekend, several outlets picked up on reports on Italy’s heatwave in leading foreign news websites – including the Guardian, the Times and the BBC. They were particularly fascinated by a headline in the Times calling Rome – where temperatures are forecast to reach highs of 43C on Tuesday – the “Infernal City”, a play on the nickname “Eternal City”. So much so that it was still a talking point come Monday.

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France clamps down on dangerous drivers with new ‘road killing’ offence

No tougher penalties announces for offence formerly known as involuntary homicide by a driver

The French government has announced a clampdown on people who drive while unfit, months after a crash involving a high-profile comedian accused of drug-driving.

The prime minister, Élisabeth Borne, announced the creation of a new offence, of causing a “road killing”, specifically aimed at those who are unfit to be behind the wheel.

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Tunisia says it will not be ‘reception centre’ for returning migrants

North African country, which agreed €1bn deal with EU to stem irregular migration, says it will take back only Tunisians

Tunisia has said it will not be a “reception centre” for returns of sub-Saharan migrants from Italy or any other country in Europe despite a groundbreaking €1bn deal signed on Sunday.

Authorities in the north African country are determined not to enter a contract similar to that which the UK has with Rwanda and will take back only Tunisians who have made irregular entry to the EU.

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Two dead after explosions on Kerch Bridge linking Crimea and Russia

Only direct overland link damaged as Russia says it will pull out of UN-brokered grain deal

Twin explosions have damaged the Kerch Bridge connecting Crimea to mainland Russia, killing two people and closing the main conduit for Russian road traffic to the annexed peninsula.

The heavily guarded road and rail link is among the Kremlin’s most important and high-prestige infrastructure projects, and the only overland link that goes directly from Russia to occupied Crimea.

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Extreme heatwave live: Texas city confirms first heat death; northern hemisphere boils in severe weather – as it happened

Man in Houston died in house without air conditioning; mercury in parts of Italy is close to hitting 45C as wildfires ravage Greece and Spain

South Korean president blames botched responses for rising death toll

South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol has blamed authorities’ failure to follow disaster response rules as the death toll from days of torrential rain grew to 39, including a dozen people found dead in a submerged underpass.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 509 of the invasion

‘Fierce battles’ in eastern Ukraine as fighting intensifies, Kyiv says; Russia seizes control of shares in Danone and Carlsberg subsidiaries

Fighting in eastern Ukraine has “somewhat intensified” as Ukrainian and Russian forces clash in at least three areas, Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. Russian forces had been attacking in the direction of Kupiansk in Kharkiv for two successive days, she said: “We are on the defensive,” Maliar wrote. “There are fierce battles.” Maliar also said the two armies were pummelling one another around the ruined city of Bakhmut but that Ukrainian forces were “gradually moving forward” along its southern flank.

Russian president Vladimir Putin said the Ukrainian counteroffensive had been a failure in an interview broadcast on television. “All enemy attempts to break through our defences … they have not succeeded since the offensive began. The enemy is not successful,” Putin said.

The president also said Russia had a “sufficient stockpile” of cluster bombs and that Moscow reserved the right to use them if such munitions were used against Russian forces in Ukraine. He added that Russia had not yet used the weapons although Russia was accused of using cluster munitions in last year’s deadly Kramatorsk railway station attack.

The Russian state has taken control of French yoghurt maker Danone’s Russian subsidiary along with beer company Carlsberg’s stake in a local brewer, according to a decree signed by Putin. Danone said it was investigating the situation while Carlsberg said it had not been officially informed of the move.

The UN-brokered deal under which Moscow allowed Ukraine to ship its grain across the Black Sea is due to expire late Monday. The Kremlin has threatened to pull out of the agreement and said at the weekend it still had concerns that obligations to remove “obstacles to the export of Russian food and fertilisers still remain unfulfilled”.

Two people were killed on Sunday when Russia launched a series of missile and shelling attacks on the city and region of Kharkiv, beginning in the early hours of the morning and continuing into the evening. Kharkiv governor Oleh Synyehubov said a young man was killed in the city’s Osnovianskyi district and another civilian man was killed in a village in the Kupiansk area.

Ukrainian forces shelled the Russian town of Shebekino near the Ukrainian border with Grad missiles on Sunday, killing a woman riding her bike, the governor of Russia’s Belgorod region said. Vyacheslav Gladkov said the missiles had struck a market area, damaging a building and two cars.

Only a “few hundred” fighters from Russia’s Wagner group have so far relocated to Belarus, a Ukrainian official said, leaving the eventual fate of the fighting force unclear. “There are some groups of mercenaries on the territory of Belarus, but we are not talking about any massive or large-scale deployment … we are talking about a few hundred,” Andrii Demchenko, the spokesperson for Ukraine’s border guards, told Ukrainian television.

A Chinese naval flotilla set off on Sunday to join Russian naval and air forces in the Sea of Japan in an exercise aimed at “safeguarding the security of strategic waterways”, according to China’s defence ministry. Codenamed “Northern/Interaction-2023”, the drill marks enhanced military cooperation between China and Russia since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and is taking place as Beijing continues to rebuff US calls to resume military communication.

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair said it would be “completely disastrous” if the US rowed back support for Ukraine in the event of Donald Trump being re-elected as US president. He also told Sky News’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday programme that said Ukraine had done an “extraordinary” job in defending itself but when asked what the endgame looked like he said the path would be “extremely difficult”.

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Russians bombard centre of Kharkiv hours after earlier fatal attack

Latest missile strike part of series of attacks that began at 2am on Sunday, with one dead and four wounded reported

Russia has continued its assault on Kharkiv, with loud explosions heard in the central district on Sunday evening, just hours after one person was killed and four wounded in an earlier attack.

The governor, Oleh Synyehubov, urged people to take to shelters. Russia had began bombarding the north-eastern Ukrainian city at 2am on Sunday, firing four S-300 anti-aircraft missiles. No one was injured as two were intercepted and the other two landed in a courtyard.

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EU signs off €1bn deal with Tunisia to help stem irregular migration

Ursula von der Leyen hails deal as an investment in shared prosperity and stability

The EU has signed off on a €1bn (£860m) deal with Tunisia to help stem irregular migration, as the president of the north African country denounced those who offer migrants “sympathy without respect” for their goal to have equity in life.

Ursula von der Leyen, the European Commission president, hailed the deal with Tunisia, including significant measures to stem deadly irregular migration across the mediterranean, as an investment in shared prosperity and stability.

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Cage director banned from France as ‘threat to public order’

Human rights campaigner Muhammad Rabbani accused of spreading conspiracy theories about ‘Islamophobic persecution’

The director of the campaign group Cage was detained in Paris for almost 24 hours last week and then sent back to London after the French government accused him of spreading conspiracy theories about “Islamophobic persecution”.

In 2020, Cage, which campaigns on behalf of communities affected by the “war on terror”, overturned a French travel ban for its director, Muhammad Rabbani. But on arrival in Paris last Tuesday for meetings with French journalists and civil society leaders, Rabbani was told that the interior ministry had imposed a new travel ban preventing him from entering the country. He was questioned and then sent back on a flight to London.

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Jane Birkin, actor and singer, dies aged 76

Best known for the sexually explicit 1969 hit Je t’aime … moi non plus, her adopted France took her to its heart

France’s favourite “petite Anglaise”, the British-born singer and actor Jane Birkin, has died at her home in Paris aged 76.

The French president, Emmanuel Macron, paid tribute to Birkin, saying she “embodied freedom and sang the most beautiful words in our language”.

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Russia-Ukraine war live: drones shot down over Crimea, Moscow claims; Putin says Russia has stockpile of cluster bombs – as it happened

Russia says air defence forces intercepted attacks over port city of Sevastopol; Putin says Russia will take ‘reciprocal’ action if devices used on his troops

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair has said Ukraine has done an “extraordinary” job in defending their country but when asked what endgame looked like he said the path will be “extremely difficult”.

He told Sky’s Sophy Ridge on Sunday:

I think there are two issues … it’s extremely difficult to see how you get a solution to this unless it’s very clear that Ukraine has a clear path to European Union membership, and a clear path to Nato membership.

I think probably people will wait and see what happens after this Ukrainian counter offensive. The Ukrainians have done an extraordinary job in defending their country and by the way, defending us by defending their country, but I think it will be how you deal with those two issues together. This is going to be extremely difficult, but I do think once we take stock after the counteroffensive, we’ve got to see if there was a way to bring it to an end with a negotiated end to it.

Territory is going to be the most difficult thing because Ukrainians will never accept the territory that, from an international community point of view has being taken wrongly from them, should be left with with Russia.

Of course, if they are used against us, we reserve the right to take reciprocal action.

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Ukraine says ‘only a few hundred’ Wagner troops are in Belarus

Kyiv reports fighting has intensified on eastern front, with its forces on defensive near Kupiansk

Ukraine said fighting had intensified on the eastern front as further details emerged about the number of Wagner troops who had relocated to Belarus.

“The situation has somewhat intensified in the east,” the Ukrainian deputy defence minister Hanna Maliar said. She added that Ukrainian forces were on the defensive near the eastern city of Kupiansk but making advances near Bakhmut.

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Southern Europe braces for second heat storm in a week

New system pushing into region from north Africa could lead to temperatures above record 48.8C

Southern Europe is bracing for a second heat storm in a week, with Italy, Greece and Spain, along with Morocco and other Mediterranean countries, being told temperature records could be broken on Tuesday.

A new anticyclone that pushed into the region from north Africa on Sunday could lift temperatures above the record 48.8C (120F) seen in Sicily in August 2021, and follows last week’s Cerberus heatwave.

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French film-maker’s family fight to keep link to chateau that inspired his stories

Marcel Pagnol based his famous movies on a Provencal manor he’d known as a child. Now his legacy is at risk, says his grandson

In 1941 the French novelist, playwright and film-maker Marcel Pagnol bought a chateau in a Provençal valley outside Marseille on the advice of his solicitor without even seeing it.

He proposed to transform the property into a “cinema city”, a French Hollywood set in the hills and lavender fields of southern France where he had holidayed as a child.

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Russia-Ukraine war at a glance: what we know on day 508 of the invasion

Ukraine and Russia accuse each other of shelling civilians; Moscow issues criminal charges against seven in alleged plot to kill top Russian journalists

Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of shelling civilians in a village in Zaporizhzhia after three people were wounded in attacks. The head of Ukraine’s presidential administration, Andriy Yermak, said Russian forces bombed the village of Stepnohirske using multiple rocket launchers, hitting an administrative building. Moscow-backed officials claimed it was Kyiv’s forces that shelled a school in the village of Stulneve and air defence forces intercepted a drone over the city of Tokmak. Both sides have denied targeting civilians.

Russia has issued criminal charges against seven people who planned to kill two prominent Russian journalists in an alleged Ukrainian-backed plot, according to the state-owned Tass news agency. Russia’s FSB security service detained an unspecified number of people who conducted reconnaissance near the homes and workplaces of journalists Margarita Simonyan, head of state media outlet RT, and Ksenia Sobchak, who ran against President Vladimir Putin in 2018. The FSB said detainees had admitted preparing attacks on the two women on behalf of Ukraine and had been promised a reward of 1.5m roubles for each one.

South Korea’s president, Yoon Suk-yeol, has pledged to increase his country’s humanitarian and non-lethal military assistance to Ukraine after a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in Kyiv. Yoon said Seoul would “expand the scale of supplies from last year, when we provided materials such as helmets and bullet-proof vests”, adding that humanitarian aid would be increased to $150m in 2023, from $100m last year.

Vladimir Putin has said the main objective of the deal that allowed Ukrainian grain exports to resume was not achieved, in a call with his South African counterpart, Cyril Ramaphosa. The Black Sea grain deal that eased fears of a global food crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine is due to expire late Monday unless Russia agrees to renew it. “The main goal of the deal, namely the supply of grain to countries in need, including on the African continent, has not been implemented,” Putin said according to a Kremlin release.

Ukraine has criticised Bulgaria’s president over his remarks that Kyiv is to blame for Russia’s ongoing war and that supplying arms to Ukraine only prolongs the conflict. President Rumen Radev spoke about the recent Nato summit and said that he wanted “to make it clear that Ukraine insists on fighting this war … But it should also be clear that the bill is paid by the whole of Europe.” The embassy of Ukraine in Sofia rejected Radev’s stance that supplying arms to Ukraine fuels and prolongs the war, saying Kyiv was making all possible efforts to restore peace.

Ukrainians have reacted with bemusement, mild irritation and irony to UK defence secretary Ben Wallace’s comments that the country should be more grateful for the help it is receiving from the UK and other allies as it fights off Russian aggression. Kyiv previously regarded Wallace as a staunch supporter and friend. His remarks – on the second day of the Nato summit in Lithuania last week – mystified officials. “Whether we like it or not, people want to see a bit of gratitude,” Wallace said, asked about President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s frustration at not being given a formal invitation to join Nato.

A large convoy carrying fighters from the Wagner private army was spotted entering Belarus from Russia early on Saturday, according to independent monitoring group Belaruski Hajun. At least 60 trucks, buses and other large vehicles crossed into the eastern European country accompanied by Belarusian police. Belarus’s defence ministry said it planned for the mercenaries and Minsk’s own armed forces to conduct joint military drills.

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Ben Wallace to quit as defence secretary and stand down as MP at next reshuffle

Defence secretary rows back comments about Ukraine needing to show ‘gratitude’ and says he will not contest next general election

Ben Wallace is to leave government at the next cabinet reshuffle after four years as defence secretary and will not stand in the general election.

Wallace, who has played a key role in responding to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and was a close ally of Boris Johnson, told the Sunday Times he was “not standing next time” but he ruled out leaving parliament “prematurely” and forcing another byelection on Rishi Sunak, of whom he remains supportive.

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Woman dies two months after husband killed by suspected gas leak on honeymoon

Mary Somerville, 39, died in Edinburgh following loss of Jaime Carsi, 40, in Mallorca, which was blamed on a faulty fridge

A woman has died two months after her husband was killed by a suspected gas leak from a broken fridge while on honeymoon in Mallorca.

Mary Somerville, 39, was found unconscious lying next to Jaime Carsi at a holiday home on 6 May.

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‘I’ve never seen heat this bad. It’s not normal’: Italy struggles as temperature tops 40C

Anticyclone Caronte could send thermometer to 48C/118F as Mediterranean heatwave intensifies

Read more: Acropolis closes to protect tourists

A fierce anticyclone named after Cerberus, a three-headed monster-dog that features in Dante’s Inferno, had not even ended before Italians were warned that a more intense one called Caronte, or Charon, who in Greek mythology was the ferryman of the dead, was on its way.

Italy sweltered in temperatures reaching highs of 38C over the weekend, while Caronte will grip the country from Monday, sending the mercury beyond 40C in central and southern regions, with the islands of Sicily and Sardinia possibly hitting a peak of 48C.

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Hundreds evacuated from path of wildfire in Canary Islands

Fire started early hours of Saturday morning in wooded area in north-west of La Palma

Spanish authorities have evacuated about 500 people from the vicinity of a wildfire that has broken out on the island of La Palma.

The fire started in the early hours of Saturday morning in El Pinar de Puntagorda, a wooded area in the north-west of the island in the Canaries.

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