World news | The Guardian

Broadcaster struggling to retain talent when big pay rises and faster career progression are on offerWhen asked why Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel had quit the BBC to host a new podcast for LBC owner Global Radio, one BBC employee who has worked with them responded: “How would you like more money and more freedom, all without the Daily Mail criticising you every day?”As the corporation prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary later this year, its position as the dominant broadcaster in British political news and debate programming is starting to look shaky. Although the total audience for its radio and television channels and website remains far ahead of the competition, it is being chipped away around the edges. Continue reading...

UK foreign secretary would support Britons who volunteer to join fight ‘for freedom and democracy’

People are fleeing to Ukraine's borders with EU countries as they try to escape the invasion from Russia. The UN refugee agency is warning that as many as 5 million Ukrainians could leave

As former supermodel Linda Evangelista reveals her years of anguish after operations, history shows that nature usually winsI’m actually rather sorry for Linda Evangelista. Everybody wants to feel acceptable, after all, and she exists in a world where, despite all the modern declarations of diversity and body positivity, when the woman hits the catwalk she still has to be slim.In her 50s, and gobsmackingly pretty, Evangelista chose to get a treatment called cryolipolysis, where body fat is frozen till it dies, and you poop it out. It went wrong, and though she doesn’t look particularly unusual to me, she – much because of the world she’s always lived in – feels brutally disfigured. Continue reading...

Ukrainians and Russians stand together in Cambridge to denounce the invasion

The Indian journalist Rana Ayyub speaks about the campaign to silence her that has led to charges of sedition and ‘defaming Hindus’When I talked to the journalist Rana Ayyub in her Mumbai home last Wednesday she was calmer than she was when I had spoken to her three days earlier. But that is not saying much. Last Sunday her words were jumbled, her voice on edge. She said she had not slept. That she could not eat or keep food down. That she had had thoughts of self-harm.“I was on a plane yesterday and I said to my brother, ‘Can you feel me sitting next to me?’ And he said, ‘Have you completely lost it?’ And I said, ‘No, I’m just not sure I’m sitting next to you. I feel like I’m in a dream.’ And afterwards, I spoke to my psychiatrist and she said, ‘You’re dissociating. You’ve had a traumatic experience –that’s your brain shutting down.’” Continue reading...

Social media lit up with messages and videos decrying the war, ignoring the risk that comes with speaking against a Russian dictatorSocial media influencers are often maligned for their vapidity, but as the Russian army moves across Ukraine some of Russia’s biggest digital influencers have become beacons of resistance. Many are speaking out about their unease at the speed and brutality with which the Russian president is leading his country to war. Ukrainian influencers, meanwhile, are also braving the risks of attack from the advancing army to make sure to document the horror of war in mainland Europe.Some of Russia’s biggest names in the digital sphere have spoken out against war. The daughter of Dmitry Peskov, Vladimir Putin’s press secretary, posted a message reading “No to war” on her Instagram story, before quickly deleting it. Max Galkin, the husband of Alla Pugacheva, and one of Russia’s biggest stars, posted a black square on Instagram and the message “Нет войне!” (“no to war!”) to his 9.4m followers. Fashion designer Svetlana Taccori took time out of Milan fashion week to post a photo holding a Ukrainian flag and the same message. Influencer Lova Olala painted the Russian and Ukrainian flag on each cheek and the caption “I have nothing to say”. The independent Russian journalist Ilya Varlamov has posted regular photos and videos highlighting Russian brutality, calling for a cessation of violence in Ukraine. Continue reading...

Even the worldwide smash Encanto failed to satisfy millions of cinemagoers who now demand homemade fareMatt William Knowles, a 36-year-old Hollywood actor, has been packing for a forthcoming trip to China in the past week. He’s looking forward to his first China visit since the pandemic. “The last time I was in China was late 2019 when I served as the honorary mayor for a village in southern China.”While his career in Hollywood continues to blossom, finding work in China hasn’t been easy these past few years for Knowles. The pandemic changed the film industry, and the deteriorating diplomatic relations between America and China sandwiched individuals like him who straddle both nations. For a period of time in 2019, amid a souring trade war between the two countries, Chinese studios put an informal ban on American actors. Continue reading...

We must keep cool heads and wise counsel as we face down Vladimir Putin on the frontline of democracyThe frightful noise of gunfire, bombing and children’s screams in the cities of Ukraine reverberates across Europe. The full-scale Russian invasion launched last week is an unprovoked, heinous crime perpetrated against Ukraine’s citizens, their sovereign democratic state and all the free peoples of the world. The 24th of February is a day that will live in infamy. It will not be forgiven. It will surely never be forgotten.Reports so far suggest Russia has failed to gain the swift victory it expected. Fierce street fighting in Kyiv and other cities speaks to the bravery of the country’s soldiers and ordinary Ukrainians determined to defend their land. In the east, the invaders are pinned down. But they are better equipped and armed. They have control in the air. If a thwarted Kremlin orders its forces to step up attacks, a bloodbath of Ukraine’s citizen fighters could ensue. Continue reading...

The loneliness that triggered this was not your fault, says Philippa Perry. Have self compassion and get professional helpThe question In the 1970s, I was anorexic and was in hospital for months as a teenager after being admitted as a medical emergency weighing just 5st. In those days, treatment was harsh, drug-based and punitive in tone.I recovered to live a fulfilling life. I was married for 30 years, raised two children, worked as a teacher and ended my career as head of a large comprehensive school. Continue reading...

Prime minister says Moscow ‘must pay a heavy price’ after Labor warns China it should not ‘take comfort’ from attack on Ukraine

Pipeline in Kharkiv and oil terminal in Vasylkiv believed hit as US, UK and EU move to exclude ‘selected’ banks from global payments system

The annual festival that celebrates a hairstyle that’s all business at the front and party at the back returned to Kurri Kurri over the weekend. Contestants of all ages flocked to the New South Wales town for the chance to show off their quintessential Aussie hairstyles and compete for the best ’do in categories including ‘grubby’, ‘ranga’, ‘vintage’ and ‘extreme’ Continue reading...

Selected Russian banks are banned from global payments system, while Russian central bank will find it harder to spend $500bn war chest

The US, Canada and key European countries, including Germany, have agreed to remove ‘selected Russian banks’ from the Swift international payments system. UK prime minister Boris Johnson welcomed the move, saying: 'More countries are joining the call of the UK to use Swift … to tighten the economic ligature around the Putin regime'. European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen said that cutting off some Russian banks will 'effectively block Russian exports and imports’. The move was welcomed by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy. ‘This is billions and billions of losses for Russia, a tangible price for this vile invasion of our country,’ he said

Prime minister says UK has to do everything it can to change ‘heavy odds’ country faces

Partial ejection from global payment system expected in days as part of new sanctions against Moscow after attack on Ukraine

Two studies released by scientists but yet to be published in journals say virus did not emerge from Wuhan Institute of VirologyInternational scientists on Saturday released two major studies which one participant said made it “extraordinarily clear” a market in Wuhan, China was the source of the coronavirus which fueled the Covid-19 pandemic – and not a Chinese government laboratory, a theory championed in the US by rightwing campaigners, columnists and politicians.The question of where Covid-19 came from and how it spread has proved divisive. Continue reading...

The prime minister’s stirring rhetoric on the crisis in Ukraine earns him a reprieve from his woes… for now at least

A Ukrainian citizen confronted Russian soldiers after their armoured vehicle broke down on a country road in the Sumy region, close to the border with Russia.After spotting the hapless soldiers, the driver pulled alongside them, and asked: 'Can I tow you back to Russia?'Further along the road at another broken down vehicle, a Ukrainian told the Russians that the invading army were lost.Read more in Luke Harding's latest report from Ukraine.

Staffordshire police say man was driver of a stationary ‘highway vehicle’ in a cordoned-off area of roadworksA road worker has died after a car police were chasing crashed into his vehicle on the M6. Staffordshire police said the man who was killed was in his 40s and was the driver and sole occupant of what they described as a “highways vehicle”.It had been stationary and in a cordoned-off roadworks area of the carriageway when the crash happened on Saturday morning. Continue reading...

Private jets will become much less attractive benefits – but there is also bad news for companies and private schools• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live news• Russia sanctions – at a glanceFrom Vladimir Putin’s former son-in-law to the chairman of Russia’s second largest bank, more than 100 individuals and entities have been added to the UK sanctions list, in what Boris Johnson has billed as the “largest ever” set of financial measures against Moscow, designed to “squeeze Russia from the global economy”.The foreign secretary has promised that a further 570 names – elected politicians from the Duma and the Federation Council – will soon be added to the list. Continue reading...

Russian forces have pressed towards the capital, Kyiv, as the death toll in the conflict rose to at least 198

A man who claimed to be Russian was filmed apparently reprimanding a group of Russian soldiers in Melitopol, Ukraine. Russia has made claims to have taken the coastal city, where an airbase and a hospital were hit on Saturday morning.

Russia seeks explanation after ship thought to belong to company targeted by US and EU sanctions is held

Where is fighting happening and how did we get here?

The departures of Emily Maitlis and Jon Sopel for Global, which operates LBC, are part of a wider talent drain as other broadcasters offer more independenceOh!” said Emily Maitlis’s jumper. You have a feeling that the producers of Newsnight might be saying something stronger. Last Tuesday a photo showed the jumpered-and-jeaned Newsnight lead presenter Maitlis alongside her fellow Americast host, BBC North American expert Jon Sopel (suit, no tie), in a radio studio. Nothing unusual there… except that behind them was a Global logo, instead of a BBC one. That was a surprise. And the tweet that accompanied the picture, announcing that Maitlis and Sopel are joining Global to host a new podcast and a show on LBC? Well, that was a complete shock. Not just to the public, but to BBC management. “Everyone was completely blindsided,” says a BBC source. “It’s a massive blow.”It is. Both Sopel and Maitlis are BBC “big beasts”: high profile, highly experienced, strong personality-ed political journalists. Maitlis, best known for presenting the BBC’s flagship news analysis show, Newsnight, has been a star for a while, but she became even more so when she pulled in the “no sweat” 2019 interview with Prince Andrew. Sopel was the BBC’s well-respected North American editor for eight years, and considered to be one of the frontrunners for the BBC political editor job when Laura Kuenssberg steps down in April. Both had established a strong following for their Americast podcast, launched to cover the last US elections and continued afterwards, due to its popularity. Continue reading...

‘We are successfully holding back the enemy,’ says Ukraine’s leader amid fierce fighting around the city

Fierce fighting broke out in Kyiv as Russian forces failed to push their way towards the city centre from multiple directions in the early hours of Saturday. An airstrike hit a residential building in Lobanovsky Avenue 6, in the centre of Kyiv. Video shared by the Ukrainian president's press service showed the missile exploding in a private flat

Queeny Singh transformed the lives of desperate mums at a homeless hostel in London. Now it’s her turn to be treatedDuring her first year in the England’s Lane homeless hostel in north London, Queeny Singh barely left her room. She didn’t speak to her family, or the other residents. “I was embarrassed,” says the mother of three from south London.It was 2018. Singh had just been made redundant from her job as a deputy manager at the clothing chain Dorothy Perkins. She couldn’t find another job that would accommodate childcare. Singh fell behind on her rent, and lost her home. She moved into England’s Lane with her baby daughter Anyah and was also pregnant with son Zavier. Continue reading...

Five Ukrainians share their experiences since the Russian invasion• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live newsAt least 198 Ukrainians, including three children, have been killed, according to the head of the Russian health ministry. A further 1,115 people, including 33 children, have been wounded. Reuters said it was as yet unclear whether the ministry was only referring to civilian casualties.There was heavy fighting in Kyiv on Friday night as Russian ground forces attacked on multiple fronts across the city. Ukrainian armed forces said they resisted Russian advances on an army base and a major road. Continue reading...

One is a breakout poet, the other is a Booker-winning champion of Black talent. They swap notes on class, impostor syndrome and the day pop’s biggest star came knockingWhen an email from Beyoncé’s office first landed in Warsan Shire’s inbox, she assumed it was some kind of prank. It wasn’t. Beyoncé – the real Beyoncé – was inviting Shire, a 27-year-old British-Somali poet from Wembley, north-west London, to collaborate. The result was the revolutionary 2016 visual album Lemonade, on which Shire is credited with “film adaptation and poetry”; her verses are read aloud between songs. Shire has also since contributed work to Beyoncé’s 2020 film Black is King and wrote a specially commissioned poem, I Have Three Hearts, to announce the singer’s 2017 pregnancy with twins.But even before Beyoncé came knocking, Shire was starward bound. After a responsibility-laden adolescence, spent combining writing with co-parenting her three younger siblings, Shire published her debut chapbook of poems, Teaching My Mother How to Give Birth in 2011, aged just 23. In 2013, she was appointed the first Young People’s Laureate for London and in 2015, her poem Home became a viral anthem for the refugee crisis. Shire’s first full poetry collection, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head, comes out next month. In between these professional milestones, she also found time to meet and marry a Mexican American charity worker called Andres, move continents, and have two children. Continue reading...

The photographer and cooking show host on food poverty, learning to appreciate her looks and missing her motherBorn in London, Mary McCartney, 52, is the daughter of Paul McCartney and his late wife, Linda. She forged a career as a photographer, and some of her Off Pointe pictures of the Royal Ballet are in the permanent collection at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. In 2015, she was chosen to take the official photograph of the Queen to mark her becoming the longest-reigning British monarch. The cooking series Mary McCartney Serves It Up! is streaming on Discovery+. She is married for the second time, has four sons and lives in London.What is your greatest fear?

The steamy lockdown smash turned the actor into a star overnight. Just one problem: she couldn’t leave the house. Can she belatedly adjust to fame?‘I’ve been told,” says Daisy Edgar-Jones, “that the trick for posing at film premieres is to put one foot forward, lift your chin, and basically try to emanate with your face that you’re a top-class lawyer who’s won a big case.”We’re standing together in a London park, not far from where the 23-year-old actor grew up, on a cold but sunlit morning in February. Soon, Edgar-Jones will fly to Los Angeles for the premiere of a gory and provocative new thriller she has made called Fresh. Although her career exploded in spring 2020, when she starred with Paul Mescal in the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, the years since then have been Covid-straitened and quite weird (“smudged” is how Edgar-Jones puts it), and she has not yet had any red carpet practice. This will be her first premiere. Continue reading...

Defence forces wage ferocious resistance in the capital as Zelenskiy says ‘we will not lay down our arms’

My first girlfriend said she either wanted to sleep with ‘a girl or a Black guy’ – since then my experience of dating has been tainted by toxic stereotypesMy first serious girlfriend was a year older than me and educated at an expensive private school in south London. She had recently broken up with her long-term boyfriend. I was still a virgin, although among my teenage peers I maintained the fiction of being an experienced conqueror of the opposite sex. After our first meeting at a Saturday music course where we sang a duet of The Lady Is a Tramp, the flirtation graduated from MSN Messenger nudges and hour-long conversations, to texting, to kisses on an ice rink in west London, to finally being welcomed into her empty house. Her parents were away at a function in the country.Armed with a bottle of port pilfered from my parents’ drinks store, we loaded The Notebook into the DVD player, valiantly attempting to uphold the pretence that the very thing we had spent hours late at night discussing and imagining was definitely not going to happen. Soon enough, small talk began to peter out. So it was that Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams became muted witnesses to my deflowering. Continue reading...

The Fox News host has defended the Russian leader’s invasion of Ukraine, saying ‘Has Putin ever called me a racist?’As Russian troops encircled Ukraine, politicians and media pundits in the US were largely united in their condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s imminent attack.Tucker Carlson, however, took a different approach. Hours before Putin ordered his forces into Ukraine, Fox News’ biggest star was still praising the Russian president. Continue reading...

Julia, 28, arts and learning manager, meets Dean, 34, actor and writerJulia on DeanWhat were you hoping for?

Larisa Kalik documents the Russian invasion of Ukraine and being forced to leave the city she loves• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live newsWhen Vladimir Putin announced he would recognise the Luhansk and Donetsk “people’s republics”, I was in the centre of Kyiv. I read the quotes from his speech, but I could not bring myself to look at his face or listen to his voice. It had seemed that he would declare war that very evening, so many people initially exhaled when they heard his words. But then they realised that he would not stop there. Continue reading...

The Russian leader’s pretext for invasion recasts Ukraine’s Jewish president as a Nazi and Russian Christians as true victims of the HolocaustWhen Russian president Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s invasion of Ukraine at dawn on Thursday, he justified the “special military operation” as having the goal to “denazify” Ukraine. The justification is not tenable, but it would be a mistake simply to dismiss it.Vladimir Putin is himself a fascist autocrat, one who imprisons democratic opposition leaders and critics. He is the acknowledged leader of the global far right, which looks increasingly like a global fascist movement. Continue reading...

Airline says cyber-attack is not responsible for problem affecting its website and airport operationsBritish Airways has said “significant technical issues” resulted in a number of flight cancellations and disruption across its operation on Friday.The airline said the problem, which was affecting its website, app and airport operations, had not been caused by a cyber-attack. Continue reading...

Bombing intensifies as Volodymyr Zelenskiy warns ‘This night will be the hardest’

Latest updates: PM also urges leaders to take ‘immediate action’ to ban Russia from Swift payment system; sending Nato forces to Ukraine would risk leading to ‘existential’ threat, says minister

Despite a narrow escape from last month’s tsunami and the arrival of Covid in Tonga, Ha’atafu owner Moana Paea is determined to rebuild her resort once againWhen the Ha’atafu beach resort was levelled by the tsunami that hit Tonga last month, it was the third time that the family-run business had been completely destroyed by a natural disaster.In 1982, the resort was wiped out by Cyclone Isaac and a year later by Cyclone Kina. Continue reading...

Chris Mullin is challenging action by West Midlands police at Old Bailey to make him reveal source’s identityA former MP and investigative journalist has refused to divulge the sources of his information about the 1974 Birmingham pub bombings in a hearing at the Old Bailey.Chris Mullin, 74, is challenging an application by West Midlands police to require him to disclose source material dating back to his investigation in 1985 and 1986. Continue reading...

Analysis: President makes appeal to Ukraine’s military to abandon its ‘drug-addicted, neo-Nazi’ leaders• Russia-Ukraine crisis: live newsLooking dead-eyed into the camera on Friday, Vladimir Putin gave one of the most bizarre speeches of his 22 years as Russia’s leader, a directive that managed to sound alarming even in a week when he has ordered tanks into Ukraine and missile strikes on Kyiv.“Once again I speak to the Ukrainian soldiers,” he said, addressing his enemy. “Do not allow neo-Nazis and Banderites to use your children, your wives and the elderly as a human shield. Take power into your own hands. It seems that it will be easier for us to come to an agreement than with this gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis.” Continue reading...

It’s two months since a minister known for making headlines was given NSW’s most troubled portfolio. Some colleagues now agree with the opposition that he should go

Forces not being sent to Ukraine itself to avoid ‘existential’ war with Russia, say UK ministers

Analysis: whether tapping other suppliers or switching energy sources, there is no quick and easy option to loosen Putin’s economic grip

Russian forces enter outskirts of Kyiv and – according to the US – launch amphibious assault from Sea of Azov