Israel blocked Ukraine from buying Pegasus spyware, fearing Russia’s anger

Revelation of denial offers new insight into the way Israel’s relationship with Moscow has undermined Ukrainian objectives

Israel blocked Ukraine from buying NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware for fear that Russian officials would be angered by the sale of the sophisticated hacking tool to a regional foe, according to people familiar with the matter.

The revelation, following a joint investigation by the Guardian and Washington Post, offers new insight into the way Israel’s relationship with Russia has at times undermined Ukraine’s offensive capabilities – and contradicted US priorities.

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Russia-Ukraine war latest news: Nato puts Russian death toll ‘as high as 15,000’, as US says occupiers on the defensive outside Kyiv – live

Latest updates: death told could be as high as entire 1o-year Afghanistan campaign of 1980s; while the US says Ukraine has pushed Russian forces outside of Kyiv back

Russian troops continue to advance on key cities across Ukraine.

The latest conviction of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny on Tuesday reflects the Russian government’s intensified crackdown on dissent and free expression, Human Rights Watch has said.

This verdict is apparently intended not only to silence Navalny but to serve as a warning to Russian civil society and anyone who dares to stand up to the Kremlin’s policies.”

The cases against Navalny are part of the Kremlin’s grim landscape of repression against Russia’s civil society and peaceful dissent, which has drastically intensified since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The Kremlin seems determined to isolate Russian society from the outside world to cut Russians off from uncomfortable facts, including about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. So it’s hardly surprising that Russian authorities are doubling down on smearing and silencing Navalny and others who can tell people not to believe the Kremlin’s lies and that the world is watching.”

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Anne Frank: Dutch publisher recalls book on diarist’s betrayal after critical report

The book named a Jewish notary as a main suspect in exposing the family’s hideout to the Nazis, prompting widespread backlash

The Dutch publisher of a discredited cold case investigation into the betrayal of teenage Jewish diarist Anne Frank said it was recalling the book following a critical report on its findings.

The Betrayal of Anne Frank: A Cold Case Investigation by Canadian bestselling author Rosemary Sullivan has been widely criticised by experts since its release in January.

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Ketanji Brown Jackson says Roe v Wade ‘the settled law of the supreme court’ – as it happened

Asked about her views of the second amendment’s right to bear arms, Jackson said that the supreme court had already established it as a “fundamental right.”

“There is precedent in the supreme court related to various rights that the court has recognized as fundamental,” she told Grassley. She added: The court has said that the 14th amendment substantive due process clause does support some fundamental rights, but only things that are implicit in the ordered concept of liberty or deeply rooted in the history and traditions of this country, the kinds of rights that relate to personal individual autonomy.”

In that speech, I talked about my my parents growing up in Florida, attended and had to attend racially-segregated schools because by law when they were young, white children and black children were not allowed to go to school together.

And my reality, when I was born in 1970 and went to school in Miami, Florida was completely different. I went to a diverse public junior high school, high school elementary school. And the fact that we had come that far was to me a testament to the hope and the promise of this country, the greatness of America that in one generation – one generation – we could go from racially-segregated schools in Florida to have me sitting here as the first Floridian ever to be nominated to the supreme court of the United States. So yes, senator, that is my belief.

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UN head says time for Russia to end ‘unwinnable’ Ukraine war

Leaders from the bloc to meet on Thursday to discuss support above the €1.2bn emergency fund already agreed

The UN secretary general, Antonio Guterres, has said it is time for Russia to end its “absurd” and “unwinnable” war in Ukraine, as the EU prepared to set up a “trust fund” aimed at helping Kyiv repel the invasion and rebuild afterwards.

Speaking to reporters at the UN’s headquarters in New York, Guterres said the war was “going nowhere, fast”. For more than two weeks, the devastated southern city of Mariupol had been encircled by Russian forces, bombed and shelled, he said.

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Inflation raises cost of UK government borrowing in February; crude oil up again – business live

Analysts say chancellor has wriggle room for limited package of measures in Wednesday’s mini-budget, as US Fed chair signals more aggressive rate rises to tame inflation

Bethany Beckett, UK economist at Capital Economics, has looked at what the chancellor might do tomorrow.

Notwithstanding the deterioration in the public finances in February, large revisions to the back data mean that borrowing in 2021/22 is on track to undershoot the OBR’s October 2021 forecast by a huge £23bn.

Even so, we suspect the sharper rise in debt interest costs in February than many expected may embolden the chancellor to keep a fairly tight grip on the public finances in tomorrow’s spring statement.

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US condemns Russia’s refusal to rule out use of nuclear weapons – as it happened

Latest updates: Ukraine president says convoy seized near Mangush in south; US embassy in Kyiv says children ‘illegally removed’ from Russian-controlled territories

The Ukrainian military claims its forces have retaken the town of Makariv, just 50km west of Kyiv.

In an update provided by the general staff of the armed forces, officials said its forces pushed Russian troops out of the town.

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Syria using maze of shell companies to avoid sanctions on Assad regime’s elite

Exclusive: documents seen by the Guardian prove Assad minister’s boast that evading financial sanctions has ‘become a Syrian craft’

The Syrian regime is setting up shell companies in a systematic attempt to avoid sanctions, according to official documents obtained by the Guardian.

The documents, not publicly available, detail at least three companies established in Syria on the same day with the explicit purpose of operating as a shell to buy shares and manage other companies.

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Chechnya’s losses in Ukraine may be leader Ramzan Kadyrov’s undoing

Analysis: Putin’s ally needs to show enemies at home and abroad his strength, but needs his forces intact to prop up his brutal rule

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is primarily Vladimir Putin’s war, but if there is a second man whose name and reputation will be tied to the devastation unleashed by Moscow it is Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

His fighters were part of the first wave assault on the country, and died in large numbers around the Hostomel airbase, with one key commander among those killed.

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‘People feel suffocated’: cost of living tops French concerns before election

As prices rise, there are warnings president could face another protest movement like gilets jaunes

Outside Lidl, Isabelle Martin, a childminder from a village in Creuse, in central France, was loading discounted eggs, sugar and milk into her car. With prices rising, the 55-year-old couldn’t stretch to a full trolley and could rarely afford to drive to Guéret, her nearest town.

“I’m constantly thinking about my bank balance,” she said. At home she turned lights off and cut heating, and she never filled her car’s petrol tank completely “because the cost would be too much of a shock”.

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Researchers in Valencia pinpoint unwritten rules of paella

No fish or shellfish in Spain’s famous national dish says survey of 400 amateur chefs

Many crimes have been committed in the name of paella but now researchers in Valencia have laid down 10 commandments of what thou shall and shall not put in their national dish.

The ten permitted ingredients are: rice, water, olive oil, salt, saffron (or food colouring), tomato, flat green beans, lima beans, chicken and rabbit. No fish or shellfish. Ever.

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Russia threatens to cut ties with US after Biden labels Putin a ‘war criminal’

US ambassador in Moscow summoned for an official protest as EU ministers meet to discuss further sanctions

Russia has warned of a breach of its relations with Washington and summoned the US ambassador in Moscow for an official protest over Joe Biden’s labelling of Vladimir Putin as a war criminal, as the US president held talks with European allies on efforts to stop the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Biden talked to the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Italy on Monday as part of his effort to maintain a unified front to Moscow, amid signs of cracks within the EU on how far to go in imposing sanctions on Russian oil and gas.

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Video released showing Russian hoax call with UK defence secretary

‘Russian state actors’ blamed for prank call made to Ben Wallace

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

A video of defence secretary Ben Wallace being duped into speaking by phone to an impostor posing as the Ukrainian prime minister was published on Monday – hours after Downing Street said it believed Russian state actors were responsible for the hoax.

In the short clip, Wallace replies with scepticism and apparent confusion when the caller asks him questions.

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Ukraine says it will never surrender its cities as Odesa reports airstrikes on flats

Russia accused of striking residential areas in what would be first attack on Black Sea port

Ukraine has said it will never bow to ultimatums to surrender its cities, including devastated Mariupol, as authorities in Odesa accused Russian forces of striking residential areas in their first attack on the vital Black Sea port.

After his government rejected out of hand a 5am Monday deadline to cease fighting for Mariupol, Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said the country would no more give up the besieged southern city than it would Kyiv or Kharkiv.

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Russian attack on Kharkiv kills Holocaust survivor, 96

Boris Romanchenko died after rocket hit building where he lived in Ukrainian city

A 96-year-old man who survived a string of Nazi concentration camps including Buchenwald and Bergen-Belsen has been killed by an explosion during the Russian assault on the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, a spokesperson for the Buchenwald concentration camp memorial foundation has confirmed.

“We are shocked to confirm the violent death of Boris Romanchenko, whose niece informed us on Monday morning that he died last Friday after a bomb or rocket hit the multistorey building where he lived in Kharkiv and his apartment was burned out,” a spokesperson told the Guardian.

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Trolls and traffickers target Facebook group for Ukrainian refugees

Technology firm should help spot Russian-based users, says founder of group matching up with UK hosts

• Russia-Ukraine war: latest updates

One of the largest Facebook groups matching Ukrainian refugees with UK host families has warned of the dangers of infiltration posed by Russian trolls and traffickers.

Room for Ukrainians in the UK is a Facebook group that was set up little over two weeks ago and already has 12,500 members. Most of those posting are Ukrainians in need of sponsors and British people who want to open their homes to the new arrivals.

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Egypt fixes price of bread as Ukraine war hits wheat supply

Commercially sold bread set at 11.50 Egyptian pounds a kilo as Russian invasion sends wheat prices soaring

Egypt has fixed the price of unsubsidised bread amid a global surge in wheat prices since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The move comes after war shut off access to cheaper wheat from the Black Sea region, particularly affecting exports to the Middle East and north African region. Egypt is the world’s biggest wheat importer, bringing in about 60% of its grain from overseas. Russia and Ukraine accounted for 80% of the country’s imports last year.

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Russia-Ukraine war: US sees ‘clear evidence of war crimes’ as Boris Johnson said to be ‘desperate’ to visit Ukraine – live

Pentagon spokesman says it will help gather evidence of crimes; while senior Conservative says UK PM has ‘real emotional connection’ to Ukrainians’ plight

Ukraine’s armed forces are reporting artillery fire in Odesa this morning.

The force published a short video purporting to show a series of explosions hitting the water along the coast.

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Berlin Krautrock exhibition celebrates groundbreaking genre

Posters of Kraftwerk, Neu! and Can span movement’s roots in the counterculture scene of 1968

A motley train of shaggy-haired musicians is gliding into the future on a hastily sketched highway, brandishing bongos, vegetables and flaming guitars.

The poster for a 1971 gig by German-English-Swiss trio Brainticket, on display at Berlin’s small Bröhan Museum until 24 April, visually sums up the essence of a German musical movement so forward-looking at its height, its country of origin is only now starting to recognise its legacy.

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