Religious site contains burial mound serving as a solar calendar as well as remains of about 60 people
Dutch archaeologists have unearthed an approximately 4,000-year-old religious site – nicknamed the “Stonehenge of the Netherlands” – that includes a burial mound that served as a solar calendar.
The mound, which contained the remains of about 60 men, women and children, had several passages through which the sun shone directly on the longest and shortest days of the year.
Continue reading...Ukraine president says war is not a Hollywood movie, as Putin announces nuclear-capable ICBMs will soon enter service
Volodymyr Zelenskiy has conceded that Ukraine’s counteroffensive may be going “slower than desired” but has insisted that he will not needlessly risk soldiers’ lives to meet international expectations.
The comments from Ukraine’s president came as Vladimir Putin suggested that there appeared to have been a break in the intensity of Kyiv’s long-anticipated counteroffensive.
Continue reading...UK foreign secretary says Ukraine has ‘evolved quickly’, as Zelenskiy tells summit it can be engine of green growth
The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said all Nato allies are backing a plan to give Ukraine a fast track to Nato membership of the kind offered to Sweden and Finland earlier this year.
Speaking on the margins of the two-day Ukraine Recovery conference in London, Cleverly said the UK was “very, very supportive” of Ukraine being able to join Nato without the usual need for it to meet the conditions set out in a Nato membership action plan (Map).
Continue reading...Previous error doubles in size but will mean a boost in weapons, ammunition and other equipment to repel Russian forces
The Pentagon says it has overestimated the value of the weapons it has sent to Ukraine by $6.2bn – about double early estimates – resulting in a surplus that will be used for future security packages.
A detailed review of the accounting error found that the replacement cost was used rather than the book value of equipment that was pulled from stocks, said Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh.
Continue reading...Decision comes after a government report found the hunt does not comply with Iceland’s Animal Welfare Act
Iceland’s government has said it is suspending this year’s whale hunt until the end of August due to animal welfare concerns, a move that is likely to bring the controversial practice to an end.
Animal rights groups and environmentalists hailed the decision, with the Humane Society International calling it “a major milestone in compassionate whale conservation”.
Continue reading...Largest amount of money Kyiv previously worked with was $6bn a year in 2014, Mustafa Nayyem says
Ukraine will struggle to absorb the expected billions of western private and public sector aid for its recovery not due to corruption, but a simple lack of capacity to process and invest such huge sums, a senior Ukraine official has said on the eve of the UK-sponsored Ukraine recovery conference in London.
“It is about the capacity to work with this amount of money,” said Mustafa Nayyem, the head of the Ukraine State Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development.
Continue reading...While the rate has fallen from its October peak of 11.1%, the figure for May is expected to stay stubbornly high
UK inflation is expected to have remained stubbornly high in May despite a string of forecasts earlier this year predicting a sharp fall in response to tumbling energy prices.
Official figures are expected to show on Wednesday that the UK’s consumer prices index (CPI) eased slightly last month, to 8.4%, from 8.7% in April.
Continue reading...Les Soulèvements de La Terre uses direct action aimed at big business interests
The French government is to shut down a climate protest group over a series of recent demonstrations citing risks to public safety, as the environmental activists called the decision “political and particularly worrying”.
Les Soulèvements de la Terre (Earth Uprising) is an umbrella group of several different environmental activist associations across France. It is seen as leading a new form of more radical climate action in Europe with high-profile direct action often aimed at big business interests, state projects and large-scale farming.
Continue reading...One person killed and seven injured while clearing mud, officials say; Air raids reported in Lviv, Kyiv and Zaporizhzhia
Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that yesterday Russia shelled 19 settlements in the Zaporizhzhia region, and that one person was injured in Orikhiv as a result. It cited the local authority. Zaporizhzhia is one of four Ukrainian regions that the Russian Federation claimed to annex late last year.
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Ukrainian mayor says there is no time to waste in drawing up vision for devastated city, which is under Russian control
A tram glides pasts cyclists and pedestrians making their way along green and pleasant streets. A submerged diver swims in clear waters by an underwater research centre while families enjoy a picnic at the nearby beach, gazing over at the yachts in the distance as they enjoy the afternoon sun.
It is a vision of a thoroughly modern coastal city, but two strangely familiar images in the bundle of architectural drawings hint at the identity of this place and its dark and troubling recent past: there is the “Memory Centre Dram”, an amphitheatre overlooked by a towering steel and glass structure in the shape of what was Mariupol’s elegant drama theatre, and then, on the following page, an industrial works given over to nature, now described as the Azovstal memorial park.
Continue reading...German Marshall Fund says oligarchs biding their time until after war ends to reassert their influence
Western powers will only protect Ukraine’s multibillion-dollar postwar recovery if they agree a unified strategy to make aid conditional on clear progress on combating judicial corruption, reinstating the obligation on Ukrainian public officials to declare assets and ensuring all recovery finds can be digitally traced, according to an authoritative report from the German Marshall Fund.
The US thinktank’s proposals, matching calls from Ukrainian civil society and G7 ambassadors in Ukraine, reflect a concern that donors have not yet assembled a strategy to ensure how recovery funds can be monitored in a country that has made progress in tackling capture by oligarchs since 2014 but still has many unreformed institutions.
Continue reading...Report comes shortly before an expected apology from King Willem-Alexander in a speech in Amsterdam
Inside the stables of Paleis Noordeinde in The Hague is a golden coach embellished with images of colonial offerings to Dutch rulers that many, including the current Dutch king, regard as a symbol of exploitation that, according to a new study, netted three Dutch rulers the equivalent of more than €545m (£465m).
Historians calculated the staggering value of colonial profit for Willem III (also king of England, Ireland and Scotland), Willem IV and Willem V for a report published at the request of the Dutch parliament last week before a widely expected apology over slavery from the Dutch king.
Continue reading...Menswear has moved away from logos to more refined silhouettes, with collections from Prada to Raf Simons ditching streetwear
Such is the piercing influence of Succession on the wardrobes of the rich and famous that its stars didn’t even need to make a front-row appearance at Milan fashion week to make their presence felt. Excess is out and elegance is in as designers pursue the “quiet luxury” look that owes much of its recent popularity to the Roy family stone.
At Prada, the bellwether of where the fashion mood heads next, the co-designers Miuccia Prada and Raf Simons used the humble white shirt as a springboard for “a reconsideration of simple things”, said Prada after the show on Sunday.
Continue reading...Poverty drove young men from small Kashmir town to board ill-fated fishing trawler, say families
The last time Mohammed Yousaf talked to his son, Sajid Yousaf, on 8 June, the son was waiting anxiously in Libya for smugglers to pack him and hundreds of others on to a boat bound for the other side of the Mediterranean.
Six days later, the overcrowded fishing trawler sank off the coast of Greece. Sajid, 28, a shopkeeper and father of two from the small town of Khuiratta in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, is among the hundreds missing, presumed dead.
Continue reading...Kremlin critic faces charges that could lead to a substantial extension of his jail time
A Russian court has ordered that the latest trial of Alexei Navalny be held behind closed doors, as the Kremlin critic faces extremism charges that could mean his prison time is extended for decades.
Navalny is being tried at the maximum-security prison where he is jailed: IK-6 penal colony, about 150 miles (250km) east of Moscow.
Continue reading...Ukraine deputy defence minister says Russia is continuing efforts to occupy the whole of the Donbas
Ukraine’s state emergency service has issued an image of firefighters battling a blaze in Kherson. Suspilne, Ukraine's state broadcaster, reports that “As a result of Russian shelling in Kherson, a gas tank at one of the city’s gas stations and a company warehouse were on fire at night. Three units of equipment and 15 personnel of the state emergency service went to the scene of the fire.”
This is Martin Belam taking over the live blog in London. You can contact me at martin.belam@theguardian.com.
Continue reading...The recent college graduates were visiting Neuschwanstein Castle in Bavaria when man allegedly shoved them down a steep slope
Two US women who had just earned computer-related college degrees had gone to southern Germany to celebrate when a fellow American whom they met while hiking shoved them both down a steep slope last week, killing one and seriously wounding the other, according to officials.
Eva Liu, 21, had received her bachelor’s degree in computer science from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in May. Authorities say she was sexually assaulted and pushed to her death near Neuschwanstein Castle, a famous tourist destination in Bavaria. Her 22-year-old friend Kelsey Chang had also just graduated from the same school with a bachelor’s in computer engineering – reports say she was attacked, too, but survived.
Continue reading...Suspected people smugglers to appear in court in Kalamata, as police in Kashmir announce 10 arrests
Nine suspected people smugglers are to appear before a Greek court accused of piloting the fishing trawler that sank off the coast of Greece last week leaving hundreds missing and presumed dead in one of the Mediterranean’s worst boat disasters.
Greek authorities have said 78 dead and 104 survivors – mostly from Syria, Afghanistan, Egypt and Pakistan – were brought ashore after the overcrowded boat sank about 50 miles (80km) off the southern Greek town of Pylos early on Wednesday, days after it set sail from Tobruk in Libya heading towards Italy.
Continue reading...UN says Russia blocking humanitarian aid deliveries following Kakhovka dam rupture; Death toll from flooding caused by collapse of the dam has risen to 16
Continue reading...Russian-installed official says Ukraine has made new gain on battle front since launch of counter-offensive earlier this month
The Russian military blogger War Gonzo has also reported that Russian troops have abandoned the village of Piatykhatky, on the Zaporizhzhia front. The writer suggests Ukraine has concentrated large reserves in the area, mostly infantry but also “heavy armoured vehicles”, and wonders if Kyiv will activate its reserves for what would probably be a major attack in the area.
If confirmed, it would be Ukraine’s first village gain for nearly a week, and significantly it marks an apparent escalation of the offensive on the most direct route to Crimea, although this is the area where Russian defences are believed to be strongest.
A Russian-installed official acknowledged on Sunday that Ukraine had recaptured a village in the southern Zapororizhzhia region, its first gain on that front since it launched its counteroffensive earlier this month.
The official, Vladimir Rogov, said Ukrainian forces had taken the settlement of Piatykhatky and were entrenching themselves there while coming under fire from Russian artillery.
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