Facilities damaged at Taman port while power and water disrupted in Odesa as new round of trilateral talks to begin on Tuesday. What we know on day 1,454 A Ukrainian drone strike ignited fires at one of Russia’s Black Sea ports, officials said on Sunday, ahead of fresh talks aimed at ending the war. Two people were wounded in the attack on the port of Taman in the Krasnodar region, which damaged an oil storage tank, warehouse and terminals, according to regional governor Veniamin Kondratyev. Falling debris from Russian drones, meanwhile, damaged civilian and transport infrastructure in Ukraine’s Odesa region, officials said, disrupting power and water supplies. The attacks came ahead of another round of US-brokered talks between envoys from Russia and Ukraine on Tuesday and Wednesday in Geneva, days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February. Ukraine has agreed with European allies on “specific packages” of new energy and military support for Kyiv by 24 February, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday. He had said earlier after a meeting of the so-called Berlin Format of about a dozen European leaders in Munich that he had hoped for new support, including air-defence missiles. “I am grateful to our partners for their readiness to help, and we count on all deliveries arriving promptly,” Zelenskyy said, adding that Russia had launched about 1,300 attack drones, 1,200 guided aerial bombs and dozens of ballistic missiles at Ukraine over the past week alone. European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Russia was hoping to win diplomatically what it had failed to achieve on the battlefield, and was banking on the US to deliver concessions at the negotiating table. But Kallas told the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Sunday that key Russian demands – including the lifting of sanctions and unfreezing of assets – were decisions for Europe. “If we want a sustainable peace then we need concessions also from the Russian side.” Zelenskyy suggested at the Munich conference earlier that there were still questions remaining over future security guarantees for his country. He also questioned how the concept of a free trade zone – proposed by the US – would work in the Donbas region, which Russia insists Kyiv must give up for peace. He told the conference the Americans wanted peace as quickly as possible and that the US team wanted to sign all the agreements on Ukraine at the same time, whereas Ukraine wanted guarantees for the country’s future security signed first. Russia will not end the militarisation of its economy after fighting in Ukraine ends, the head of Latvia’s intelligence agency said. “The potential aggressiveness of Russia when the Ukraine war stops will depend of many factors: how the war ends, if it’s frozen or not, and if the sanctions remain,” Egils Zviedris, director of the Latvian intelligence service SAB, told Agence France-Presse on the sidelines of the Munich conference, which ended on Sunday. He said lifting current sanctions “would allow Russia to develop its military capacities” more quickly. Slovak prime minister Robert Fico accused Ukraine of delaying the restart of a pipeline carrying Russian oil to eastern Europe via Ukraine in order to pressure Hungary to drop its opposition to Ukraine’s future membership of the European Union. “We have information that [the pipeline] should have been fixed,” he said after meeting US secretary of state Marco Rubio in Bratislava on Sunday. Russian army chief Valery Gerasimov visited Moscow’s troops in Ukraine and said the Kremlin’s forces seized a dozen eastern villages in February, the defence ministry said. The claims could not be independently verified. Continue reading...

Gathering of world leaders in Germany has disbanded for another year, but many of the issues remain unresolved The Munich Security Conference has been a news-making forum for decades – a place where world leaders meet other politicians, as well as journalists and civil society groups, to discuss the biggest issues facing the planet. In recent years, it has been the site of seismic speeches that redefine the shape of global politics. From a public spat between Nato allies over Iraq in 2003, to Vladimir Putin’s 2007 address that signalled the start of a new cold war, to JD Vance’s blistering attack on European nations in 2025, each moment had an impact that echoed long after the weekend came to a close. Continue reading...

Year of the horse signals optimism and opportunity, with authorities keen that the extra day of holiday this year provides an economic boost Chinese officials are hoping that this year’s extra long lunar new year holiday will provide a boost to the country’s economy, where increasing domestic spending has been identified as a key priority for the year ahead. The government expects a record 9.5 billion passenger trips to be made across China during the 40-day spring festival period, up from 9 billion trips last year. Hundreds of millions of people will be crisscrossing the country to make what is often their only trip home to see their families for the Chinese new year celebrations. Continue reading...

Researchers say limited eating approaches such as 5:2 diet not a ‘miracle solution’ amid surge in their popularity Intermittent fasting is no better for shedding the pounds than conventional diets and is barely more effective than doing nothing, according to a major review of the scientific evidence. Researchers analysed data from 22 global studies and found people who are overweight or living with obesity lost as much weight by following traditional dietary advice as when they tried fasting regimes such as the 5:2 diet popularised by the late Michael Mosley. Continue reading...

Category describes people who have little or no language, an IQ of less than 50 and require 24-hour supervision When it comes to autism, few questions spark as much debate as how best to support autistic people with the greatest needs. This prompted the Lancet medical journal to commission a group of international experts to propose a new category of “profound autism”. How many children met the criteria for profound autism? Were there behavioural features that set this group apart? Continue reading...

Shipwreck hunter found Lac La Belle steamer, one of ‘most sought-after missing ships’, after nearly 60-year search Searchers recently discovered the wreck of one of the “most sought-after missing ships” in Lake Michigan, that had sunk to the bottom of the lake over 150 years ago. A shipwreck hunter and scuba diver named Paul Ehorn made the discovery after having searched for the Lac La Belle passenger steamer for nearly 60 years. Shipwreck World, a group that works to locate shipwrecks around the globe, announced on Friday that the team led by Ehorn found the wreck about 20 miles (32km) offshore between Racine and Kenosha, Wisconsin. Continue reading...

Starmer to announce ‘crackdown on vile illegal content created by AI’ after scandal involving Elon Musk’s Grok tool Makers of AI chatbots that put children at risk will face massive fines or even see their services blocked in the UK under law changes to be announced by Keir Starmer on Monday. Emboldened by Elon Musk’s X stopping its Grok AI tool from creating sexualised images of real people in the UK after public outrage last month, ministers are planning a “crackdown on vile illegal content created by AI”. Continue reading...

Keeper did not think Guardiola would sign Italian ‘It’s football, you’ve got to keep grafting every day’ James Trafford has admitted he did not expect Manchester City to sign Gianluigi Donnarumma after his transfer from Burnley last summer, with the deputy goalkeeper potentially leaving this summer. Trafford returned to City after two years at Turf Moor on 31 July in a deal worth £31m before Pep Guardiola informed the club executive that the manager also wanted Donnarumma. The Italian joined on 2 September from Paris Saint-Germain for £26m and became Guardiola’s first choice. Continue reading...

It is like House meets Elementary for this show about the sidekick of Conan Doyle's detective, who investigates a different medical mystery each week – when he isn't having tastefully lit horizontal time Go to 221B Baker Street and the Sherlock Holmes fans you meet there will be American, not British – and while the BBC’s Sherlock might be the most famous Holmes revival on TV this century, the US has us beat when it comes to volume. Stateside telly responded to Sherlockmania with Elementary, which relocated Jonny Lee Miller’s Holmes to New York and made Watson and Moriarty female, but was in many ways a more faithful sleuthfest than the overblown Benedict Cumberbatch show and ran for scores more episodes. Long before that, the biggest drama in the world was House, which was set in a hospital but featured a mercurial genius solving baffling mysteries – once the House-Home-Holmes penny dropped, you knew you were watching Sherlock in disguise. Watson is the latest attempt by US network television to keep the Conan Doyle canon firing, and it’s a straight cross between House and Elementary. Morris Chestnut is Dr John Watson, who is an American practising medicine in present-day Pittsburgh, but is also a war veteran who, when the show aired its first season last year, had just finished a stint cracking crimes in London with Sherlock Holmes. Showrunner Craig Sweeny, formerly a writer/producer on Elementary, gave his new Watson a litter of eager doctor pups who, like the gang who used to trail around behind Dr House, were always a step behind their boss when it came to working out which arcane condition was about to kill that week’s patient. Watson aired on Sky Witness and is available on NOW. Continue reading...

Britain win mixed snowboard cross then mixed skeleton Eve Muirhead lauds ‘just incredible’ performance Team GB chiefs have hailed Britain’s greatest day at a Winter Olympics after celebrating two gold medals, in the mixed snowboard cross and mixed skeleton in Milano Cortina. Super Sunday started with Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale storming to a surprise victory in Livigno, with Bankes dramatically overtaking the French team with four turns remaining to take mixed snowboard cross gold. Continue reading...

Exclusive: Research suggests official statistics could track as few as 10% of the true number of cases The number of women who are driven to suicide by domestic abusers is being under-reported, and their cases overlooked by police, in what has been described by experts as a “national scandal”. Domestic violence suicides are already growing at such a rate that a woman in an abusive relationship is now more likely to take her own life than be killed by a partner. Continue reading...

After her death, police dropped a case examining Katie Madden’s former partner, despite evidence he had repeatedly told her to kill herself Revealed: The true toll of female suicides in UK with domestic abuse at their core Hours before Katie Madden took her own life, she had a tense phone call with her former partner Jonathon Russell. Russell was on bail after allegedly assaulting Madden – he was banned from contacting her – but the conversation took place nevertheless. There was a witness to the call who gave evidence to the inquest into Madden’s death. Mason Jones, a friend of Madden’s, said Russell was “vile” and “abusive”. Although Jones said he could not remember the exact words Russell used, he said: “I recall Jon saying at least once that he was in control of the town and would end her life if she didn’t do it herself.” Continue reading...

UK Health Security Agency urges parents in Enfield to get their children vaccinated as Easter holiday travels approach A big measles outbreak in north-east London is affecting unvaccinated children under the age of 10, the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) has confirmed. UKHSA previously reported 34 laboratory-confirmed measles cases among children who attend schools and nurseries in Enfield from 1 January to 9 February, with some requiring hospital treatment. Continue reading...

Emails suggest former prince leaked information about RBS bailout and held meetings suggested by convicted sex offender The UK’s top prosecutor has said that “nobody is above the law” amid growing pressure on police to fully investigate Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor’s links with Jeffrey Epstein. Thames Valley police said earlier this week that they were in discussion with the Crown Prosecution Service over allegations against the former prince of misconduct in public office. Continue reading...

Unclear how meeting between Britain’s shortest serving PM and US president was initiated and how long it lasted After spending time and resources crisscrossing the Atlantic to cultivate the support of the Maga faithful, Liz Truss has finally got the prize she apparently craved: a photo with Donald Trump. Britain’s shortest serving prime minister tweeted a photo on Sunday showing her in the company of the US president at his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. Continue reading...

British pair triumph in mixed team skeleton event Bankes and Nightingale win mixed snowboard cross Great Britain had their greatest day at a Winter Olympics, after Matt Weston and Tabby Stoecker won gold in the mixed team skeleton in a combined time of 1min 59.35sec. It was the British team’s second gold medal in the space of just a few hours, following the victory by Charlotte Bankes and Huw Nightingale in the mixed team snowboard cross earlier in the afternoon. Weston has now become the first British athlete to win two medals at the same Winter Olympic Games, and only the second Team GB athlete, after Lizzy Yarnold, to win two winter gold medals in a career. Continue reading...

Jamie Bell and Elle Fanning lead a starry cast in this clumsy satire that provides little fascination in a wealthy family’s suffocating lives Since Jesse Armstrong’s Succession and Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn, wealthy, spoilt, dysfunctional siblings are the new rock’n’roll, and now here is a film from Greek screenwriter Efthimis Filippou (co-author of Yorgos Lanthimos’s Alps and Dogtooth) and directed by Karim Aïnouz. It is a weird-wave contrivance concerning a messed-up US plutocrat clan living in Spain, freely remade from Marco Bellocchio’s 1965 film Fists in the Pocket. Their bizarre and cartoony secrets, involving sex abuse, manipulation and self-harm, are satirically symptomatic of capitalism and the patriarchy, and how the rich, however entrepreneurial and smart, create a next-gen class of useless drones, on whose behalf all this wealth has supposedly been accumulated. I have to admit to finding it heavy-handed and clumsy more often than not, although there are some good performances, notably from Jamie Bell and Elle Fanning. A strange extended family lives in a luxurious modernist house; the father (Tracy Letts) is a blind widower haunted by the memories of his late wife (Pamela Anderson) who was savaged by wolves in a nearby forest. His grownup children, infantilised by wealth, all live there: highly strung Robert (Lukas Gage) has epilepsy, and is entrusted with supervising his father’s horse riding; Anna (Riley Keough) is a talentless singer-songwriter; and Ed (Callum Turner) is a would-be fashionista. First among equals is Jack (Jamie Bell), who has the intimate honour of helping his father with his nightly teeth-cleaning; their mother’s teeth were always dazzlingly white. Continue reading...

It has been a testing few months for the man who scored the winner for Crystal Palace in last season’s FA Cup final. But after being hooked at half-time during the disappointing draw with Brentford on Thursday when Mikel Arteta said he is still adapting to life in north London, perhaps this competition could help breathe new life into Eberechi Eze’s Arsenal career. As well as providing assists for Noni Madueke and Gabriel Martinelli’s opening goals – albeit against a poor Wigan side who are languishing in League One’s relegation zone – the England midfielder’s swagger was back for the first time since he scored a hat-trick in the north London derby in November. Continue reading...

This proved the game of Scotland’s top-flight season. The seriousness given to it by Rangers, plus their scale of full-time celebration, said much about the progress of their opposition. Hearts’ lead at the summit has been cut to two after the Edinburgh side lost out by two goals. As the scoreline suggests, this was pulsating stuff. Youssef Chermiti was once ridiculed in these parts. His £8m arrival for Everton was used as a stick with which to beat Kevin Thelwell, the now departed sporting director. Chermiti’s hat-trick against Hearts, added to a recent double at Celtic Park, means he at least has a useful knack of standing up on the big occasion. Rangers’ next task is simple; to build on recent progress and overhaul Hearts. Continue reading...

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Dark forces give new parents more than they bargained with in this unsubtle Finnish horror from Hanna Bergholm Finnish director Hanna Bergholm made a witty and unnerving baby-body-horror movie with her 2022 debut Hatching about a creepy giant egg, a complex, psychologically plausible study of family dysfunction in which the idea of fertility plays an important part. And now … she has given these ideas a retread with this programmatic and unsubtly acted film, a scary movie about a monstrous newborn that is very much less interesting and original than Hatching; the paganism is cliched and the element of black comedy – so often the alibi for not being scary in films like this – is really not all that funny. The face and body of the screeching VFX model devil-baby itself is mostly never shown to the audience, an omission that does not seem disturbing but rather an admission that this prop wouldn’t look convincing in plain sight. Saga (Seidi Haarla) and her stolid British husband Jon (Rupert Grint) have come to live in Saga’s dilapidated family home in the remote Finnish forest, planning to fix it up so that it can be a lovely place to bring up what they hope will be a big family. (Fixing up this place would in the real world take a couple of years while they lived somewhere else, but they more or less manage it unaided in about two weeks.) Saga is obscurely moved and excited by the vital subterranean forces throbbing in the dark depths of the forest that surrounds the house. They have passionate sex there but the resulting baby is a brutal, hirsute, bloodsucking troll that destroys Saga’s marriage and happiness. Continue reading...

Ofelia Torres, 16, spotlighted her dad Ruben’s illegal detention last fall during Trump’s crackdown in Chicago A Chicago teenager, whose father was detained by immigration authorities while she navigated cancer, died on Friday, a family spokesperson said. Ofelia Torres, a 16-year-old in Chicago, had been undergoing treatment for an aggressive and rare form of cancer since late 2024. As she and her family struggled with the medical procedures, her father, Ruben Torres Maldonado, was detained by immigration authorities while at a Home Depot in October, leading to a contentious and public case that highlighted the human effects of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown. Continue reading...

Azu adds 200m gold to 60m title in Birmingham Issy Boffey wins 800m after Hodgkinson withdrawal Amid a raft of high-profile absentees from Birmingham this weekend it was quite the surprise to see Jeremiah Azu’s name on the 200m start list for the UK Athletics Indoor Championships on Sunday. The 200m is not contested internationally during the indoor season so elite athletes almost never race it, and Azu had already won the 60m title a day earlier. In an era where world-class athletes tend to wrap themselves in cotton wool for fear of injury it was unusual to see one so accomplished run an additional three times in three hours when there was no particular need. Continue reading...

Defence chiefs write joint appeal urging public to prepare for threat of war with Russia with attendant costs As defence chiefs, we must warn you about Russia and say this: rearmament is not warmongering | Richard Knighton and Carsten Breuer Britain and Germany’s highest ranking military chiefs have made an unprecedented joint appeal to the public to accept the “moral” case for rearmament and prepare for the threat of war with Russia. The pair said they were making the plea not just as the military leaders of two of Europe’s largest military spenders, but “as voices for a Europe that must now confront uncomfortable truths about its security”. Continue reading...

Our security is more uncertain than in decades. But by working together, and by showing strength, Britain, Germany and the rest of Europe can preserve peace Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton is UK chief of the defence staff. Gen Carsten Breuer is German chief of defence Top British and German military chiefs press ‘moral’ case for rearmament We write today not merely as the military leaders of two of Europe’s largest military spenders, but as voices for a Europe that must now confront uncomfortable truths about its security. Through the early years of our careers, Europe was emerging from the shadow of the cold war. Governments of all political colours chose to take what was known as the “peace dividend” – investing in public services and reducing spending on defence. That was an understandable choice at the time. Now it’s clear that the threats we face demand a step change in our defence and security. European leaders, along with military and civilian officials, have just discussed necessary consequences at the annual Munich security conference. As military leaders, we see every day from intelligence and open sources how Russia’s military posture has shifted decisively westward. Its forces are rearming and learning from the war in Ukraine, reorganising in ways that could heighten the risk of conflict with Nato countries. This is a reality we must prepare for; we cannot be complacent. Moscow’s military buildup, combined with its willingness to wage war on our continent, as painfully evidenced in Ukraine, represents an increased risk that demands our collective attention. Air Chief Marshal Sir Richard Knighton is UK chief of the defence staff. Gen Carsten Breuer is German chief of defence Continue reading...