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Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy hints June deadline for peace with Russia could be linked to US midterms

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has hinted that a new June deadline from the US for peace between Ukraine and Russia could be linked to Trump’s midterm elections campaign. The Ukrainian president on Saturday told reporters that both sides had been invited to further talks next week. Zelenskyy said the Trump administration “will probably put pressure” on Ukraine and Russia to end the war by the beginning of the summer. “They say they want to get everything done by June,” he said. He told reporters the Trump administration was proposing to host the next round of trilateral talks in the US, probably in Miami, in a week’s time. “We confirmed our participation,” he said. “The [midterm] elections are definitely more important for them [the Americans]. Let’s not be naive.” He added: “If the Russians are really ready to end the war, then it is really important to set a deadline.” US and Ukrainian negotiators had discussed how to secure a quick deal, according to sources familiar with the matter quoted by Reuters. Ukraine had suggested a sequencing plan, Zelenskyy said, but he provided no specific details. The Ukrainian president has also criticised Russia for an overnight attack on Ukrainian energy facilities areas, saying in comments posted on X that Moscow must be deprived of the ability to use the cold winter weather as leverage against Kyiv. A “massive attack” by Russian forces on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Saturday caused power outages across the country, the state grid operator said. There are clear signs the Russian economy is finally running aground, as the Kremlin faces its most precarious economic position since its tanks first rolled into Ukraine. Growth has slowed to a crawl amid falling oil prices – a key source of government revenue. Russians face tax hikes while funding for welfare, education and healthcare is being crowded out by defence spending. Trade with key allies has become more muted, corporate bankruptcies are rising and labour shortages are severe. Experts say how the malaise affects the conflict in Ukraine will depend on Russia’s recent macroeconomic manoeuvres, and whether global events continue to drive down oil prices. The UK is threatening to seize a Russia-linked shadow fleet tanker in an escalatory move that could lead to the opening up of a new front against Moscow at a time when the country’s oil revenues are tumbling. British defence sources confirmed that military options to capture a rogue ship had been identified in discussions involving Nato allies – although a month has gone by since the US-led seizure of a Russian tanker in the Atlantic. In January, 23 shadow fleet ships using false or fraudulent flags were spotted in the Channel or Baltic Sea, according to Lloyd’s List Intelligence. Many are linked to the export of Russian oil, largely by water to China, India and Turkey. President Donald Trump has taken what some experts have said is an unusual step of tapping military leaders for high-level diplomacy, positioning the Army secretary as a key negotiator on ending the Russia-Ukraine war and sending the top US commander in the Middle East, Adm. Brad Cooper, to talks about Iran’s nuclear program. As Army secretary Dan Driscoll reprised his role at Russia-Ukraine talks this week, he worked to keep the conversation going with Ukrainian officials in the downtime between sessions, according to a person familiar with the negotiations who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive talks.

‘Sea puppy pancakes’: what it’s like to pat a 300kg wild stingray

In a shallow reef close to New Zealand’s east coast shore, a group of 30 people wearing khaki overalls and boots huddle together like a crescent moon, waiting for the stars of the show to arrive. They don’t have to wait long. Six eagle rays and short-tailed stingrays – some weighing over 300kg - glide through the green waters to the group where they brush up against legs and, with the force of a vacuum-cleaner, slurp fish off submerged hands. If the group had initially felt trepidation about encountering these animals in the wild, their minds are soon changed. “Stingrays are like big sea puppy pancakes,” says Bella, 19, who in January joined New Zealand’s only wild stingray experience, run by Dive Tatapouri near Gisborne. “They were all so loving to the people and the staff, they just wanted pats and cuddles,” she says. “It was the coolest thing I’ve ever seen.” Bella, who wished to give her first name only, said interacting with the species was “unreal” and had changed her perspective on the creatures. “I would never expect to have a stingray literally right by my feet and petting it, it was honestly breathtaking.” New Zealand is home to three coastal stingray species, which are abundant and frequently spotted cruising harbours and coastlines. There are few places around the world where people can safely interact with the creatures in their natural habitat. Owner of Dive Tatapouri Dean Savage – a former commercial diver and underwater cameraman – started the business more than 20 years ago but his affinity with stingrays developed much earlier as a child watching his father, another diver, interact with the animals. “He knew the image of the stingray and the reality of the stingray were two different things,” Savage says. With a desire to share this knowledge, Savage and his wife Chris turned their former kina – or sea urchin – processing facility into an eco-tourism business. The nearby shallow reef, home to a stingray nursery, made it uniquely located to develop a wild stingray experience. For Savage, the stingrays are “not just a performing animal”. They are free to come and go, or interact with people as they please, he says, adding that he ensures the animals do not become dependent on the business for food by limiting the number and length of interactions during the year. “There are times during the year when we may not interact with animals for a month or six weeks, or limited times during the winter so that they can look out for themselves,” Savage says. “We never get to the point where they totally rely on us. “They actually live in this environment, so its not hard to get them to come and hang out with the crew,” Savage says, adding the stingrays pick up on the movement of people into the water and will come to investigate. The group then has the option to feed the stingrays a piece of fish. Visitors are instructed to stand still and allow the animals to leave when they are ready. They are briefed on how to handle the stingrays gently and if anyone disrespects the animals, they are removed from the tour. “All the reef animals must be treated with respect – it is our responsibility as kaitiaki [guardians].” The resident stingrays, some of which are more than 20 years old, have become so familiar to Savage they now have names, including Pancake, Waffle, Hine and Charlie. “They all have different markings and traits – Charlie likes climbing up on you and getting a bit bloody boisterous; some are very laidback and just sit at your feet.” Concerns over wildlife tourism have emerged in recent years, with communities and scientists fearful too much human contact could disrupt eco-systems and animal behaviour, introduce infections, or compel animals to become too reliant on people for food. But if the animals and environment are handled with care and the tourism operator informs visitors of the threats species face, it can be a “good conservation advocacy tool”, says Clinton Duffy, the marine biology curator at Auckland Museum. “As long as people get some sort of education through these sorts of experiences, there should be an overall benefit to the species,” Duffy says. It can also help humans engage more deeply with the world around them. “It’s very hard for people to feel any empathy for animals that they have no knowledge of or no direct contact with,” he says. “Species like [stingrays] can be good ambassadors for marine conservation generally.” The perception stringrays are aggressive has likely been influenced by the death of Australian naturalist Steve Irwin, who was killed by a stingray in 2006. But while they can inflict nasty wounds, and in some cases, kill, they are curious, gentle creatures, and “really intelligent for a fish”, Duffy says. Stingrays, or whai in Māori language, hold significant cultural, spiritual and ecological importance to Māori. The North Island, or Te Ika-a-Māui – the fish of Maui – is likened to the shape of stingray, while for many communities, stingrays are viewed as protectors of the coast and shellfish. Educating visitors about the stingrays’ importance to Māori and how to treat them with respect, can help instil a deeper care for the creatures, while allowing people to reconnect with nature, Savage says. “It’s a deep experience for a lot of people,” he says. “There are not many places you can go and have a 300kg animal nudge your feet with no ill intent, while genuinely wanting to be there.”

Veteran French politician quits as head of prestigious institute after Epstein links revealed

Jack Lang, a former French culture minister, has resigned as head of Paris’s prestigious Arab World Institute after revelations of his past contacts with the disgraced financier and sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and the launch of a financial investigation by French prosecutors. Lang, 86, resigned on Saturday night before he was due to attend an urgent meeting called by the French foreign ministry to discuss his links to Epstein. Earlier on Saturday, the rench financial prosecutor’s office opened an investigation into Jack Lang and his daughter, the film producer Caroline Lang, on suspicion of “aggravated tax fraud laundering” after they were referenced in the Epstein files. Both denied any wrongdoing. Lang’s departure is the latest example of the fallout in Europe from files released on 30 January by the US Department of Justice, many of which showed Epstein’s social, networking and financial links. Lang is the most high-profile public figure in France caught up in the latest release of private messages from the convicted sex offender. Lang was culture minister under the Socialist president François Mitterrand in the 1980s and 90s, and oversaw major modern architectural projects such as the building of the Louvre Pyramid. Since 2013, he has headed the Institut du Monde Arabe, or Arab World Institute, a cultural and research institution that promotes understanding of the Arab world and is supervised by the French foreign ministry. Lang was shown in the Epstein files corresponding intermittently with the financier between 2012 and 2019, when Epstein died by suicide in jail. Lang was mentioned more than 600 times in the files, according to news agencies. His daughter was also repeatedly mentioned. Caroline Lang resigned this week from France’s Union of Independent Producers after the emails showed she had founded an offshore company with Epstein in 2016 to invest in the work of young artists. She said she had resigned from that offshore company when further allegations were made against Epstein in 2019. She denied any wrongdoing. Caroline Lang also appeared in Epstein’s will as a beneficiary of €5m, according to the French investigative website Mediapart. She told the French public broadcaster France 2 this week that she had never heard of the will and had never seen any such document or received any funds. Jack Lang has denied any wrongdoing, saying he was “shocked” that his name appeared in the statutes of the offshore company in 2016 and that he had appealed to Epstein only as a philanthropist. Laurent Merlet, a lawyer for Jack and Caroline Lang, told Agence France-Presse: “There has been no movement of funds … But I think it is normal for the justice to want to verify this.” He said Caroline Lang was “serene” because she had received no funds. In a defence used by other Epstein associates, Lang insisted he was unaware of Epstein’s criminal behaviour despite his conviction in 2008 for soliciting a minor for prostitution. “How could a man so courteous, so charming, so generous have perpetrated such abominations?” Lang told the French public broadcaster, France 2, this week. He said he had been shocked to learn of the allegations against Epstein in 2019. A video showed Lang with Epstein in front of the Louvre pyramid in Paris in March 2019, months before he was charged with sex trafficking girls as young as 14. Le Monde newspaper and Mediapart, which investigated the files, said no documents released by the US justice department suggested either Lang or his daughter had been implicated in Epstein’s sex crimes. Earlier this week, Lang had insisted he would not resign, despite calls for him to quit from all parties, including his own. Lang has said he was introduced to Epstein by the American actor and director Woody Allen. Epstein owned a vast apartment in the west of Paris and was a frequent visitor to the French capital before his death in prison in 2019.

Albanese says Isaac Herzog’s visit will bring unity – but to many Palestinian Australians it’s a ‘slap in the face’

It’s been more than two years since Shamikh Badra last heard from his brother. He presumes his brother, sister-in-law and their four children lie buried under the rubble of their home in Gaza. He fears they were buried alive. Badra told his family’s story at a march in Sydney last Sunday organised by the Palestine Action Group, protesting against Israeli president Isaac Herzog’s upcoming visit. “This is what genocide looks like in real life,” he bellowed into a microphone to the crowd of at least 2,000 people. “This is what incitement produces, this is what dehumanisation does. “And now, we are told the man who defended these policies is welcome in Australia.” Badra is among many Palestinian Australians shocked Herzog will land in Australia on Monday for a four-day visit. In the words of Palestinian Australian Raneem Emad, it’s “a slap in the face”. Sign up: AU Breaking News email Amid the outpouring of grief and anger over December’s terrorist attack at a Hanukah gathering on Sydney’s Bondi beach, much of the political focus – including Herzog’s invitation – has, justifiably, centred around antisemitism and the treatment of Jewish Australians. But many Palestinian Australians grieving for their loved ones in Gaza feel that new anti-protest and hate speech laws are unfairly targeting them. ‘Our lives are worth less’ The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, invited Herzog after the 14 December antisemitic attack at Bondi, saying his visit was intended to foster “a greater sense of unity”. Major Jewish organisations and federal and state governments have welcomed Herzog’s visit as a moment of profound significance. Other groups, including some Jewish Australian organisations, say the Israeli president should be barred from entering the country. They allege he incited genocide against Palestinians, pointing to a UN commission, which does not speak on behalf of the UN, which concluded in September 2025 that Israel had committed genocide in Gaza and that Herzog, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, and the then defence minister, Yoav Gallant, “have incited the commission of genocide”. Israel’s foreign ministry rejected the commission’s report, calling it “distorted and false” and claiming it “relies entirely on Hamas falsehoods”. Herzog has called the genocide case against Israel in the international court of justice a “form of blood libel” and pushed back on criticism of his 2023 statement that “it is an entire nation out there that is responsible” for the 7 October attacks on Israel. He claimed he had been taken out of context and noted he had said in the same media appearance that Israel would respect international law and there was no excuse for the killing of innocent civilians. The ICJ is yet to issue its final ruling. Badra, who moved to Sydney 11 years ago and is undertaking a PhD, has sent a letter urging the government to assess its legal obligations under international law before Herzog arrives in Australia. “We should not be encouraging people who incite genocide by rolling out the red carpet,” Badra says. “What is the value of celebrating someone like this? What really can you gain?” To Emad, “being a Palestinian with heritage in Gaza is such a significant part of me that this visit really does feel like a slap in the face. “It’s just this reminder that, no matter how many speeches or statements the Australian government makes that it wants us to be united in social cohesion, our lives are worth less.” She plans to be at a protest against Herzog’s visit on Monday. The rallies create “so much sense of community”, she says – but are also part of a push for concrete goals, including for Australia to end weapons exports to Israel and to implement boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. “So many of us have lost tens, if not dozens, of family members in Gaza and no one understands that feeling like another Palestinian mother or someone else who has unfortunately had to face such traumatic loss,” she says. The right to protest Badra has barely missed a Palestine Action Group rally since 7 October 2023. He marched that December after news his father died in Gaza amid a lack of food, medication and clean water. He marched throughout 2024 and 2025 as he fought to get his mother out of Gaza to Sydney. They were finally reunited in October; he hasn’t told her Herzog is visiting because he does not want to upset her. And he marched in August after he was verbally abused on a train because his brother was wearing a Palestinian scarf. On Monday, he says he will be protesting. This is despite a new New South Wales law passed after the Bondi terror attack, which curtails the ability for demonstrators to march, and an additional “major event” declaration that further adds to police powers to restrict protest. On Saturday, the police commissioner, Mal Lanyon, confirmed the protest’s planned route from town hall through the CBD was “unauthorised”. Three NSW Labor backbenchers have said they will protest on Monday, with one stating he will be attending because Australia should not be welcoming the head of a state engaged in an “ongoing genocide”. A group of 13 MPs on Saturday wrote an open letter to Lanyon calling for them to permit the march. As the premier, Chris Minns, announced the “extraordinary powers” to restrict protests after a terrorism declaration, he claimed the “implications” of pro-Palestine rallies could be seen in the Bondi terror attack that killed 15 people. The federal government’s special envoy to combat antisemitism, Jillian Segal, said in the hours after the Bondi massacre, “this did not come without warning.” “In Australia, it began on 9 October 2023 at the Sydney Opera House,” she said at the time. “We then watched a march across the Sydney Harbour Bridge, waving terrorist flags and glorifying extremist leaders. Now death has reached Bondi beach.” The Greens recently warned the Albanese government’s new hate speech laws could see critics of Israel’s government targeted for prosecution. A NSW parliamentary inquiry – called after the Bondi attacks – has recommended banning the phrase “globalise the intifada” when it is used to incite hatred, harassment, intimidation or violence. Badra says he is shocked that a parallel has been drawn between the attack on Bondi and protesting against the murder of his family and what the UN commission has called a genocide. “The criminals who attack people in Bondi are not Palestinians. They are not a part of the solidarity movement,” he says. “We oppose antisemitism, we oppose Islamophobia, we oppose racism.” Dalia Ahq, who has been protesting on Sydney’s streets for a free Palestine for two decades, agrees. She says the movement’s concerns have always been dismissed, but this has been exacerbated over the past two years and has again after the Bondi tragedy. She called on the police to let protesters march peacefully against Herzog’s visit on Monday. “The risk is not us protesting but the police not allowing us to,” she says. “If they let us, it would minimise the risk of any arrests, any injuries in doing what we have the democratic right to do.” The Palestine Action Group has launched a legal challenge against NSW’s anti-protest laws passed after the Bondi attack. The group’s Josh Lees says some of the prominent Palestinian advocates in the movement have withdrawn from the public eye because of doxing and safety concerns. Lees fears the Bondi tragedy is being exploited to try to silence the movement. “It’s just an upside down world we’re living in, where we are just trying to protest on the streets against a genocide, and yet constantly the government or the media are trying to make out that we are the bad guys,” he says. The president of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, Nasser Mashni, has said that “Australia’s political elite is siding with genocide” by welcoming Herzog. “For every Australian who says they believe in democracy, human rights, a fair go, free speech, then you simply must protest Herzog’s visit.” Badra has urged the police and Minns government to let him, and an estimated 5,000 others in Sydney, march on Monday without fear of prosecution. He says he will be there, and any protests, for the same reason given in his speech to the rally on Sunday: “I stand here for my father, for my brother, for his family, and for every Palestinian life.”

Use of Irish airport for US deportation flights to Israel called ‘reprehensible’

Politicians in Ireland have said the use of an airport in County Clare by planes deporting Palestinians from the US to Israel is “reprehensible”. A private jet owned by the Donald Trump donor Gil Dezer was chartered by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) for two separate flights that took detainees to Israel, a Guardian investigation revealed this week. The flights left the US on 21 January and 1 February. Both made refuelling stops at Shannon airport in the west of Ireland. Dezer’s family property company has built a series of Trump-branded residential towers in Miami. He recently spoke of his “love” for the US president, with whom he claims to have had a 20-year friendship. Some of those onboard the flights on Dezer’s jet said they had their wrists and ankles shackled for the duration of the journey. After arriving in Tel Aviv, they appear to have been taken to the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The Irish government said in a statement that as the flights stopped in the country for “non-traffic purposes” and were “not picking up or setting down passengers” they did not require prior approval from its transport department. However, on Friday, opposition politicians expressed concern to the Irish Times about the practice. Duncan Smith, foreign affairs spokesperson for the Labour party in Ireland, said: “It is absolutely reprehensible that any ICE deportation flights would be allowed stop and refuel in Shannon. The taoiseach and minister for transport must intervene and ensure this ends.” He added: “Ireland cannot in any way be complicit in these ICE flights.” Roderic O’Gorman, leader of the country’s Green party, said that it was “deeply disturbing” to learn “that Shannon is being used to facilitate the cruel actions of Donald Trump’s ICE”. Patricia Stephenson, foreign affairs spokesperson for the Social Democrats, said the government “must make a statement on whether it knowingly facilitated these flights”. She told the Irish Times that she believed the human rights of those onboard had been violated. Dezer’s aircraft was chartered via Journey Aviation, a company based in Florida that is regularly used by the US authorities to source private jets. It declined to comment on the flights to Israel. According to Human Rights First (HRF), which tracks deportation flights, Dezer’s jet – which he has described as his “favourite toy” – was first chartered for removal flights last October. The organisation said the plane had been used to fly detainees to Kenya, Liberia, Guinea and Eswatini, before its recent trips to Israel. One of those onboard the first flight was Maher Awad, 24. Originally from the West Bank, he has lived in the US for almost a decade. He has a partner and baby in Michigan. “They dropped us off like animals on the side of the road,” Awad said. “We went to a local house, we knocked on the door, we were like: ‘Please help us out’.” In an email, Dezer told the Guardian he was “never privy to the names” of those who travelled onboard his jet when it was privately chartered by Journey, or the purpose of the flight. “The only thing I’m notified about is the dates of use,” he said. He did not respond to further questions about the use of his jet by the Trump administration to deport Palestinians through Israel. Aviation industry sources have estimated the flights would have cost ICE between $400,000 and $500,000. A spokesperson for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not answer questions about the deportation flights to Israel, but said: “If a judge finds an illegal alien has no right to be in this country, we are going to remove them. Period.”

Zelenskyy says US has set June deadline for Ukraine-Russia peace deal

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said the US has given Ukraine and Russia yet another deadline to reach a peace settlement, and is now proposing the war should end by June. The Ukrainian president also told reporters that both sides had been invited to further talks next week. Zelenskyy said the Trump administration “will probably put pressure” on Ukraine and Russia to end the war by the beginning of the summer. “They say they want to get everything done by June,” he said. “They will do everything to end the war and they want a clear schedule of all events.” He told reporters that if the new deadline of June was not met, Washington would probably put pressure on both sides to meet. Before Donald Trump took office, he promised to “end the war in 24 hours”. Later, his special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, suggested both sides could reach an agreement within 100 days of Trump’s inauguration. After this failed to occur, the US president set a new deadline for a deal in August last year, which also passed without any sign of peace, and in December he said a draft agreement to end the war was nearly “95% done”. Two days of US-led peace talks to end the war took place this week in Abu Dhabi but did not produce a breakthrough, although Kyrylo Budanov, the head of Ukraine’s presidential office, said the trilateral negotiations had been “genuinely constructive”. Zelenskyy said on Saturday that the Trump administration was proposing to host the next round of trilateral talks in the US, probably in Miami, in a week’s time. “We confirmed our participation,” he said. He hinted that the new June deadline for peace could be linked to Trump’s midterm elections campaign. “The [midterm] elections are definitely more important for them [the Americans]. Let’s not be naive.” He added: “If the Russians are really ready to end the war, then it is really important to set a deadline.”

Where’s Evo? Missing Morales mystery as Bolivia’s ex-president goes to ground

For more than a year, he stayed hidden in plain sight: despite an arrest warrant for human trafficking charges, former president Evo Morales moved freely in at least one region of Bolivia, attended rallies, received foreign journalists and went to the polls to cast his vote in the 2025 presidential election. But shortly after the United States attack onVenezuela – and the detention of Nicolás Maduro – Morales disappeared from view; a month later his whereabouts remain a mystery. Bolivia’s first Indigenous president immediately criticised the attack on Caracas as “brutal imperial aggression”, both on social media and, the day after the strike, on his Sunday radio programme broadcast from the heart of the Chapare, a coca-producing region in central Bolivia. Since then, however, the man who was once one of the most recognisable faces in Latin America has not been seen either on his programme – missing four editions – or at the public events he used to attend. His disappearance has fuelled a flurry of theories, including claims by a conservative MP that he has fled the country. The disappearance comes as the centre-right president, Rodrigo Paz Pereira, tightens ties with the US in search of support for the battered economy and an acute dollar shortage. One of Paz Pereira’s main aims is to bring back the US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), which, after violent incursions in Chapare that led to clashes and dozens of coca growers’ deaths, was expelled by Morales in 2008. Although the coca leaf has widespread legal and cultural uses in Bolivia as a stimulant, digestive aid or treatment for altitude sickness, it is known that part of the crop grown in Chapare is diverted for cocaine production. The official version – put forward by political allies and the coca growers’ unions – is that Morales has not fled but is instead ill. On the first edition of his radio show without Morales, the presenter said the former president had “caught dengue”, a mosquito-borne viral illness common in Latin America. The following Sunday, the former evista senator Leonardo Loza fuelled the rumours already gaining traction and declined to disclose his whereabouts, saying only that he was “in some little corner of our Patria Grande”, a term used by some to refer to Hispanic America. His supporters made fun of the mystery, wearing masks of his face and even producing a song, Where Is Evo?, which lists his achievements as Bolivia’s longest-serving president and concludes that he is “with the people. The swirl of theories intensified in late January, when the conservative MP Edgar Zegarra Bernal said the former president was in Mexico – something that would not be unprecedented: after Morales was accused of rigging elections in 2019, he fled to Mexico before later moving on to Argentina. But Bernal gave no details or evidence and instead demanded that the government prove otherwise. “Why has the arrest warrant against Evo Morales not been enforced so far?” he said. Since October 2024, Morales had been entrenched in a small village deep within the Bolivian jungle, where hundreds of coca farmers prevented police from executing an arrest warrant against him over allegations that he fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl during his presidency in 2016. Morales has always denied the accusations, saying they amount to political persecution orchestrated by the then president, his former protege Luis Arce, with whom he broke after returning to Bolivia in 2020. Deeply unpopular amid Bolivia’s worst economic crisis in four decades, Arce did not seek re-election. Paz Pereira won but did not move against Morales. Instead, he had Arce arrested on accusations that he had “enabled illicit enrichment” while serving as Morales’s finance minister. Paz Pereira has not commented on Morales’s whereabouts, but his government minister, Marco Antonio Oviedo, said that “the information available” suggested Morales remained in the Chapare. A coca growers’ leader who requested anonymity told the Guardian that “Comrade Evo is already in full recovery and will soon resume his public agenda,” without offering a timeline or location, adding only: “There will be a surprise soon; he has already overcome dengue.” The former president has also resumed posting on social media, criticising Paz Pereira’s government. “But that is no guarantee that he is here or elsewhere, because it’s well known that he does not usually write his own tweets,” said the political analyst José Orlando Peralta. As dengue symptoms, at least in milder cases, do not usually last more than a week, Peralta believes that “either Morales has fled or he is more seriously ill – it is not typical of him to disappear from the media agenda for this long”. Given the relationship Paz Pereira has sought to establish with the White House – this week, the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, praised the US “friend Bolivia” – and the emphasis Trump has placed on a so-called “war on drugs”, Peralta believes that “it’s surely only a matter of time before the DEA returns to Bolivia, and that will obviously complicate Evo Morales’s political and private life.” Additional reporting by Thomas Graham in Mexico City

Ukraine war briefing: Russia launches ‘massive attack’ on energy sites, triggering widespread blackouts

A “massive attack” by Russian forces on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure on Saturday caused power outages across the country, the state grid operator said. Energy minister Denys Shmygal said Kyiv had requested emergency assistance from Poland after Russia hit the Burshtynska and Dobrotvirska power plants in western Ukraine overnight. “Russian criminals carried out another massive attack on Ukraine’s energy facilities. The attack continues,” Shmyhal said on Telegram. “Energy workers are ready to start repair works as soon as the security situation allows.” Due to the damage, emergency outages had been applied in most Ukrainian regions, grid operator Ukrenergo said. Two airports in Poland were suspended from operations as a precaution due to the Russian strikes on nearby Ukraine territory, Polish authorities said on Saturday. “In connection with the need to ensure the possibility of the free operation of military aviation, the airports in Rzeszow and Lublin have temporarily suspended flight operations,” the Polish Air Navigation Services Agency posted on X. Both of the south-eastern cities are close to the Ukrainian border, with Rzeszow being Nato’s main hub for arms supplies to Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier called for faster action in boosting Ukrainian air defences and repairing damage to electricity grids and heating systems after huge Russian air attacks in freezing temperatures. The Ukrainian president said personnel changes would be made in areas where air defences had less than satisfactory results. Kyiv has been hit particularly hard and Zelenskyy said more than 1,110 apartment blocks remained without heat in the aftermath of an assault on the Ukrainian capital last Tuesday. Night-time temperatures have eased somewhat but were still due to hit -8C (18F). “The small-scale air defence component, specifically countering attacks drones, must work more efficiently and prevent the problems that exist,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Friday. Donald Trump has said “very good talks” are ongoing over Russia’s war in Ukraine and that there could be movement as a result. “Very, very good talks today, having to do with Russia-Ukraine,” the US president told reporters on Friday. “Something could be happening.” The Kremlin said earlier that a third round of peace talks should take place “soon”, although there was no fixed date yet. The latest round of talks this week resulted in the two agreeing to a major prisoner swap but failed to yield a breakthrough on the thorny issue of territory. A top Russian military official who plays a major role in the country’s intelligence services has been shot in Moscow and hospitalised, Pjotr Sauer reports state media as saying. Lt Gen Vladimir Alekseyev, 64, was shot several times on the stairwell of his apartment on Friday by an unknown gunman in the city’s north-west and was in critical condition, according to reports. Oleg Tsaryov, a pro-Kremlin Ukrainian figure close to Alekseyev, said the general had undergone surgery and remained in a coma. No party has claimed responsibility for shooting Alekseyev but Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov accused Ukraine of being behind it, while Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine had nothing to do with the shooting. The European Commission has proposed a sweeping ban on any services that support Russia’s seaborne crude oil exports, going far beyond previous piecemeal EU sanctions in its effort to stunt Moscow’s key source of income for its war on Ukraine. Russia exports over a third of its oil in western tankers – mostly from Greece, Cyprus and Malta – with the help of western shipping services. The ban would end that practice, which mostly supplies India and China, and render obsolete a price cap on purchases of Russian crude oil that the Group of Seven western powers have tried to enforce with mixed success. EC president Ursula von der Leyen said on Friday the ban would be “in coordination with like-minded partners” and that Russian LNG tankers and icebreakers would encounter “sweeping bans” on maintenance and other services.