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Russian general killed by car bomb in Moscow, say investigators

A Russian general has been killed after an explosive device detonated beneath his car in what Moscow described as a likely assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services. Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov, the head of the operational training directorate of the Russian armed forces’ general staff, died of his injuries, a spokesperson for Russia’s investigative committee said in a statement. “Investigators are pursuing numerous lines of inquiry regarding the murder. One of these is that the crime was orchestrated by Ukrainian intelligence services,” the spokesperson said. Russian Telegram channels with links to the security services reported that Sarvarov’s car exploded while driving along Yaseneva Street in Moscow at about 7am on Monday, killing the driver inside. According to reports, the vehicle had travelled several metres before the blast went off. Sarvarov, who oversees combat training and readiness for Russia’s armed forces in the war in Ukraine, has extensive experience in the Kremlin’s post-Soviet wars. He took part in both Chechen wars and later played a role in organising Russia’s 2015–16 military intervention in Syria. Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesperson, described Sarvarov’s death as a “terrible murder”. Other officials and prominent pro-war voices have called for swift retribution for the attack – the third bombing in Moscow in the past year to claim the life of a senior Russian officer linked to the invasion. “We need to identify and eliminate the entire chain of those who carried out the operation. I don’t think they should be taken prisoner at all – they should simply be destroyed on the spot, as is done with terrorists,” Andrey Kolesnik, a member of the Duma’s defence committee, was quoted as saying by the news site Lenta.ru. Starshe Eddy, a popular pro-war blogger, called for Moscow to assassinate Ukrainian officials inside the country. “Only the destruction of targets on the enemy’s territory can first disrupt the wave of terrorism and then significantly reduce it, giving our security services breathing space and making their work easier. These targets, of course, include the enemy’s military and political figures,” he wrote on Telegram. Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attack. Ukrainian intelligence agencies have targeted dozens of Russian military officers and Russian-installed officials since the start of the war, accusing them of involvement in war crimes. Little is known about the clandestine Ukrainian resistance cells believed to be behind assassinations and attacks on military infrastructure inside Russia and in Russian-controlled territories. Last December, Kyiv claimed responsibility for the assassination of Lt Gen Igor Kirillov, the head of the military’s nuclear, biological and chemical protection forces, who was killed by a bomb concealed in an electric scooter outside his apartment building, a day after Ukraine levelled criminal charges against him. His assistant, Ilya Polikarpov, was also killed in the attack. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, appeared in September to signal that further attacks on senior Russian military figures could follow, warning that they “have to know where their bomb shelters are”, and adding: “If they do not stop the war, they will need it in any case.” Ukraine’s continued targeting of senior Russian military figures has underscored failures within Russia’s security services. Vladimir Putin last year described the killing of Kirillov as a “major blunder” by the country’s security agencies, saying they should learn from it and improve their effectiveness. It is unclear whether the high-profile killing of Sarvarov will have any impact on the peace talks, as Ukrainian and US officials are holding discussions in Florida aimed at ending the nearly four-year war between Russia and Ukraine. Late on Monday, Zelenskyy told reporters that initial drafts of US proposals for a peace deal met many of Kyiv’s demands, saying: “Overall, it looks quite solid at this stage. There are some things we are probably not ready for, and I’m sure there are things the Russians are not ready for either.” Russia is holding separate talks with the US in Florida, which are expected to continue on Monday. Keith Kellogg, Donald Trump’s appointed special representative for Ukraine and Russia, criticised Ukraine’s killing of Russian generals last year, saying such actions could violate the rules of warfare.

Boiling lobsters alive to be banned in UK animal cruelty crackdown

Boiling lobsters while they are alive and conscious will be banned as part of a government strategy to improve animal welfare in England. Government ministers say that “live boiling is not an acceptable killing method” for crustaceans and alternative guidance will be published. The practice is already illegal in Switzerland, Norway and New Zealand. Animal welfare charities say that stunning lobsters with an electric gun or chilling them in cold air or ice before boiling them is more humane. A ban would build on a law introduced by the Conservatives in 2022, which stated that invertebrates including octopus, crabs and lobsters were sentient and felt pain as much as other animals. Ben Sturgeon, chief executive of the charity Crustacean Compassion, welcomed the plans, saying: “When live, conscious animals are placed into boiling water, they endure several minutes of excruciating pain. This is torture and completely avoidable. Humane alternatives, like electrical stunning, are readily available.” Other changes in a long-awaited Labour strategy announced on Monday include outlawing hen cages and pig farrowing crates, ending puppy farming, consulting on banning electric shock collars for dogs and introducing humane slaughter requirements for farmed fish. The proposals also tighten the rules on hunting, with a ban on shooting hares during the breeding season and an end to trail hunting, where an animal-based scent trail is laid for dogs to chase while riders follow on horseback. Labour pledged in its manifesto to extend the 2005 foxhunting ban to trail hunting. Animal welfare charities say trail hunting is being deployed as a “smokescreen” to carry on killing foxes. Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK, said the move was “authoritarian control freakery”. He added: “You might as well ban walking dogs in the countryside as they chase rabbits, hares, deer and foxes.” Polling suggests that voters overwhelmingly support tougher rules on hunting, although Reform voters are more divided. According to findings from YouGov last year, 29% of the party’s voters thought that hunting wild animals was acceptable, compared with 65% who thought it was not. Just 21% believed hunting with dogs should be allowed. A Labour source said: “When it comes to being in touch with the priorities of working people, the horse has very much bolted for Nigel Farage. Time and again, he’s putting himself on the wrong side of issues which will keep the former Tories he’s stuffing his party with happy, but will do nothing to deliver a fairer future for Britain. “While Farage focuses on defending hunts that are often used as a smokescreen for killing wild animals, Labour is dealing with outdated laws which permit poor animal welfare practices. And at the same time we’re cutting the cost of living, reducing waiting lists and delivering the change working people voted for.” The Green party largely welcomed the government’s plans but said ministers could go further by ending greyhound racing, which faces a ban in Wales by 2030.

Ecuador court sentences 11 air force troops over disappearance of four boys

A court in Ecuador has sentenced 11 air force personnel to decades in prison over the forced disappearance” of four Afro-Ecuadorian boys aged between 11 and 15 during security operations in the country’s largest city last year. The case of the “Guayaquil Four” is widely seen as the starkest example of human rights abuses under the iron-fist security policy pursued by the rightwing president, Daniel Noboa, who placed the armed forces at the centre of the fight against drug trafficking. Eleven servicemen were sentenced to 34 years and eight months in prison. Five others, who confessed and cooperated with the investigation, received reduced sentences of two years and six months, and one was acquitted. “The cruelty with which the four minors were victimised has been proven,” said the presiding judge, Jovanny Suárez, who was joined by two other judges. It remains unclear who exactly killed the boys. The trial focused on the crime of forced disappearance, and the public prosecutor’s office is still pursuing a separate investigation into kidnapping resulting in death. On 8 December last year, Steven Medina, 11, Nehemías Saúl Arboleda, 14, and brothers Josué and Ismael Arroyo, aged 14 and 15, were returning from a football match in Las Malvinas, an impoverished neighbourhood in southern Guayaquil, when they were stopped by air force personnel – who have been deployed on street patrols since Noboa declared a state of “internal armed conflict” two years ago. For more than two weeks, their families had no news of them, until charred bodies were found on Christmas Eve about 25 miles away. Noboa’s defence minister, Gian Carlo Loffredo, repeatedly denied the involvement of the military and said instead that the youths had been victims of “criminal groups”. But CCTV footage later emerged, capturing the moment the boys were assaulted and forced into vehicles. The case has also been seen as an example of how Afro-Ecuadorians are particularly vulnerable to human rights violations: after their abduction, the boys were taunted with racist insults and beaten with punches, kicks, and blows from belts and gun barrels. They were stripped naked and abandoned far from home, at a location where one of them managed to call his father to ask for help. By the time the father arrived, however, the boys were no longer there. Their bodies were eventually discovered on Christmas Eve. Forensic examinations concluded that all four had been killed by gunshots at close range to the head and back. Their bodies were then burned and dismembered. The defence teams for the servicemen, including those who confessed to taking part in the abduction and torture, deny that they were responsible for the killings. One of those who confessed, Christian Eduardo A. Q., said during the trial that troops were being sent to patrol the streets without any training to do so. “I never received any training in human rights or operational procedures. I worked in the control towers in Quito as a weather observer and air traffic technician. I should never have been sent out on to the streets. They took untrained personnel, because of staff shortages, and sent us to patrol,” said the soldier. One possible line of investigation is that, after being tortured and abandoned naked miles from home in an unfamiliar area with high crime rates, the four were killed by local criminals. Suárez, the presiding judge ruled: “The abandonment of the minors in a dangerous and desolate place was the cause of the victims’ deaths.”

France’s national post office hit by suspected cyber-attack

The websites and apps of France’s national post office and its banking service have been hit by a suspected cyber-attack, disrupting deliveries and hampering online payments and transfers at the busiest time of the year. Three days before Christmas, La Poste said on Monday that a distributed denial of service incident, or DDoS, had “rendered its online services inaccessible”. Customer data was safe, it said, but mail distribution, including parcels, had been slowed. French media reported that customers wanting to send last-minute parcels or collect items from post offices were being turned away. The postal service sorts and delivers more than 2m items in the immediate run-up to Christmas. The group’s banking service, La Banque Postale, said on social media that the incident was “affecting access to online banking and to the mobile app”. Card payments at in-store point-of-sale terminals were still functioning, as were ATMs, it said. Online payments also remained possible but had to be authenticated via text message, it said. “Our teams are mobilised to resolve the situation quickly,” the bank said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the suspected attack. The BPCE group, which includes the Banque Populaire and Caisse d’Épargne banks, also experienced an IT malfunction on Monday morning but it was resolved by midday, the company said. The incident came a week after the French government was targeted by a cyber-attack that disrupted the interior ministry, which is responsible for national security. A 22-year-old suspect had been detained in relation to that incident, French media said. The interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said the suspected hacker had extracted several dozen sensitive files and obtained access to data relating to police records and wanted persons. He blamed “imprudence” at the ministry for the incident. Anonymous hackers boasted of having gained access to nearly 70m confidential data records from various police files in a data breach that they claimed affected 16.4 million French citizens whose details were recorded in numerous state databases. Private companies including the mobile operator SFR and DIY chain Leroy Merlin have also been the victims of attacks in recent weeks. Prosecutors said last week that France’s counterespionage agency was investigating a suspected cyber-attack plot involving software that would have allowed remote users to control the computer systems of an international passenger ferry. A Latvian crew member is in custody facing charges of having acted for an unidentified foreign power, officials said. France and other European allies of Ukraine allege that Russia is waging “hybrid warfare” against them, including cyber-attacks.

Collecting memories and stories of feminists | Letters

We write as “members” of the women’s liberation movement (WLM) since the earliest days in London in the late 1960s, and we read Susanna Rustin’s long read with interest and appreciation (‘Pretty birds and silly moos’: the women behind the Sex Discrimination Act, 18 December). We were drawn to the liberation politics of the new WLM (no membership forms available or needed). Rustin refers briefly to WLM statements and conference resolutions in a way that might lead younger people to imagine a more formal organising force than ever existed. The WLM was a movement, not an organisation or a party. The national women’s liberation conferences that happened in those years often functioned as national “consciousness-raising” exercises. The most important “votes” were often about adding demands to our growing list, sometimes after long and volatile debates and discussions of emerging issues. Rustin is so right that the struggles (we all spoke of struggles) taking place both around the law and equal rights, and among the women who considered themselves more radical, are fading from living memories via lived experiences. For an inclusive history’s sake, it’s time to record as many of those voices, including grassroots ones, before it’s too late. We belong to a small, voluntary group of old feminists aiming to do just that. We call our group Howl (History of Women’s Liberation). We’re now online and have some wonderful, varied stories, fabulous photos and illustrations, and a significant amount of resource material. We want more! Sue O’Sullivan and Miriam David Members, History of Women’s Liberation organising group • Having read the long read on the background to the Sex Discrimination Act, I was astounded that there was no mention of the wartime Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) led by Pauline Gower, who pioneered sex equality in the workplace in the ATA, equal pay for male and female pilots, and equality of opportunity based on merit. To the female pilots who joined the ATA this was astounding, given the sex discrimination and misogyny that they were subjected to in their prewar flying careers. These women are the subject of an excellent book by Becky Aikman that I have just finished reading: Spitfires – The American Women Who Flew In The Face Of Danger During World War II, which tellingly recounts how their experiences in the ATA opened their eyes to the need for sex discrimination to be eliminated in the US. They aspired to serve on the frontline, but this was prohibited by the ATA and United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) as they were not part of the armed forces. They looked to the postwar world in the US for their flying futures in civil airlines, but this aspiration was stifled by the unchanging sex discrimination, coupled with a large cadre of demobbed male USAAF pilots seeking civilian careers. Unfortunately, much the same was true here in the UK. Sadly, Gower died in 1947, aged only 36. One wonders what might have been had she lived longer and been able to continue promoting workplace equality for women and the banning of sex discrimination. Paul F Faupel Somersham, Cambridgeshire • Have an opinion on anything you’ve read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.

You cannot annex other countries, Danish and Greenlandic leaders tell Trump

The prime ministers of Denmark and Greenland have demanded respect for their borders after Donald Trump appointed a special envoy to the largely self-governing Danish territory, which he has said repeatedly should be under US control. “We have said it very clearly before. Now we say it again. National borders and the sovereignty of states are rooted in international law … You cannot annex other countries,” Mette Frederiksen and Jens-Frederik Nielsen said in a joint statement. The two leaders added that “fundamental principles” were at stake. “Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders, and the US should not take over Greenland,” they said. “We expect respect for our common territorial integrity.” Trump on Sunday appointed the governor of Louisiana, Jeff Landry, as US special envoy to the vast, mineral-rich Arctic island. The US president has on several occasions said the US needs to acquire Greenland for security reasons, while refusing to rule out the use of force. The US president wrote on social media: “Jeff understands how essential Greenland is to our National Security, and will strongly advance our Country’s Interests for the Safety, Security, and Survival of our Allies, and indeed, the World.” Landry, a former state attorney general who took office as Louisiana governor in January 2024, thanked Trump, saying it was “an honour to serve you in this volunteer position to make Greenland a part of the US”. Denmark’s foreign minister, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, told Danish television on Monday he would summon Washington’s ambassador to Copenhagen, Ken Howery, to the ministry in the coming days “to get an explanation”. Rasmussen said he was “deeply upset by this appointment of a special envoy”, and “particularly upset” by Landry’s statement, which he said Denmark had found “completely unacceptable”. He added: “As long as we have a kingdom in Denmark that consists of Denmark, the Faroe Islands and Greenland, we cannot accept that there are those who undermine our sovereignty.” Arctic security remained a key priority for the EU, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and the European Council president, António Costa, said on Monday. “Territorial integrity and sovereignty are fundamental principles of international law. These principles are essential not only for the European Union, but for nations around the world,” they posted on X. Von der Leyen and Costa added that the EU stood “in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland”. Sweden “will always stand guard over international law”, the Swedish foreign minister, Maria Malmer Stenergard, said. Her Norwegian counterpart, Espen Barth Eide, said Oslo “stands 100% behind Denmark”. He said it was clear that the appointment underscored Trump’s intention to make Greenland part of the US. “The purpose of this job, which Jeff Landry is to perform, is to make Greenland American,” Barth Eide said. The vast majority of Greenland’s 57,000 inhabitants want to become independent from Denmark but have no wish to become part of the US, according to a poll in January. The territory has had the right to declare independence since 2009. Frederiksen said in a social media post that Denmark’s “ally of a lifetime” was putting it in “a difficult situation”. But she said the Nordic country would “not deviate from our democratic values”. Nielsen said in a separate post that the appointment “may sound big”, but “does not change anything for us at home. We have our own democracy, our own decisions and a strong community that stands firm. Greenland belongs to the Greenlanders.” Aaja Chemnitz, a Greenlandic member of the Danish parliament, said the appointment of a US envoy was not in itself a problem. “The problem is that he’s been given the task of taking over Greenland or making Greenland part of the US,” she said. “There’s no desire for that in Greenland. There is a desire to respect the future that a majority in Greenland wants, namely to remain their own country and develop their independence over time.” Strategically situated between North America and Europe at a time of increasing US, Chinese and Russian interest in the Arctic, Greenland is also on the shortest route for missiles between Russia and the US. Denmark summoned the US chargé d’affaires in August for an urgent meeting over an alleged influence campaign after at least three US men with ties to Trump and the White House were accused of trying to infiltrate Greenlandic society. Several high-profile American politicians and business people have travelled to Greenland since Trump’s election. Donald Trump Jr visited the capital, Nuuk, in January and the vice-president, JD Vance, toured a US military base in March. Earlier this month, the Danish defence intelligence service said in its annual report that the US was using its economic power to “assert its will” and threaten military force against friend and foe alike.

Russia ‘ready to legally confirm it has no intention of attacking EU or Nato’ – as it happened

The Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, reportedly said that Russia is ready to confirm in a legal agreement that it has no intention of attacking either the EU or Nato. A Russian general has been killed after an explosive device detonated beneath his car, officials said, in what Moscow described as a possible assassination carried out by Ukrainian intelligence services. Lt Gen Fanil Sarvarov, the head of the operational training directorate of the Russian armed forces’ general staff, died of his injuries, a spokesperson for Russia’s Investigative Committee said. Ukraine has not commented on the car bombing, which reportedly took place in Moscow. The EU Council says it has extended economic sanctions against Russia for six more months, in response to Moscow’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine. The measures will remain in force until 31 July 2026, the council said. Russian state media quoted the Russian deputy foreign minister, Sergei Ryabkov, as having said on Monday that there was “slow progress” being made over a plan to end the war in Ukraine after talks in Miami. “Slow progress is being observed,” Ryabkov was quoted as saying, after Russia and Ukraine sent negotiators to Miami for separate talks with Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff, and Jared Kushner, the US president’s son-in-law and adviser. There remain several major hurdles in the negotiations, including Vladimir Putin’s insistence that Russia control the entire eastern Donbas region as part of any peace deal – which would see Ukraine cede territory it controls. Thanks for following along today. We are now closing this blog. You can read all our Ukraine coverage here.

What is the status of Islamic State, the group linked to the Bondi attacks?

Following police claims that the two men accused of the deadly antisemitic Bondi beach attack, Naveed and Sajid Akram, may have been inspired by Islamic State ideology and had recently visited a Philippine island where an IS affiliate is believed to have operated, what do we know about the group and its aims? What is Islamic State and what are its aims? Emerging in Iraq and Syria IS, also known as Isis or Isil and colloquially by its opponents as Daesh, was originally an offshoot of al-Qaida in Iraq and emerged as a serious security threat after taking large amounts of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014 to establish its short-lived but hugely violent self-styled “caliphate”. Unusual among jihadist groups with broadly similar backgrounds was its attempt to take and hold territory at a time when it had thousands of followers under arms and several million people living in the band of territory it controlled. During the time of the IS caliphate it also exported its violent ideology to a number of associated “provinces” and affiliates who carried out attacks in Europe, the US and elsewhere, including the Abu Sayyaf movement in the Philippines. By the end of 2017 IS had lost 95% of the territory it controlled, and its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was killed by the US in October 2019. The Pentagon estimates there are at most only a couple of thousand fighters remaining in Iraq and Syria. However, where IS does remain effective, say experts, is in terms of its continued reach online, where it is still able to attract followers to plan, launch and claim lone wolf attacks inspired by its propaganda. What is IS’s ideology? While IS initially differed from al-Qaida in focusing on local enemies in the Muslim world (unlike “far enemies” like the United States), since the fall of the caliphate IS’s attacks abroad have tended to be characterised by radicalised individuals who have come across its propaganda. Its early focus under Baghdadi was to target Shia Muslims as well as rival Sunni groups, those working for the security forces in Iraq,and minorities such as the Yazidi. What do we know about IS’s antisemitism? The police investigation in Australia has revealed that the Akrams allegedly made statements – including videos with the IS flag – condemning the acts of “Zionists”. While many of its antisemitic tropes about Jewish influence and power are shared with other strands of antisemitic thinking, IS framing has been defined by the US Congressional Research Service as “a uniquely hardline version of violent jihadist-Salafism” which is coloured by an obsessive concern with the end of days. That world view saw IS’s former online magazine Dabiq (itself named for an apocalyptic prophecy) justifying its killings of Shia Muslims by defining Shia Islam as a Jewish plot in a world which it divides into two camps. In one camp is its own extreme version of Islam, while the rival camp encompasses “Jews, the Crusaders, their allies [including Muslims], and with them the rest of the nations and religions of kufr [disbelief], all being led by America and Russia, and being mobilised by the Jews” who it calls to be killed. Where do pro-Palestinian protests fit into this? While there have been efforts to make a connection between protests against Israel’s actions in Gaza and the Bondi beach attack, it is still not clear what precise path the radicalisation of the alleged shooters followed or what impact events in Gaza may have had. During the 2014 Israel war against Gaza, however, IS used the conflict as a rallying cause. But it is important to note that while IS endorses the “liberation” of Arab lands, it is explicitly opposed to the notion of nation states, seeing them as a foreign colonial imposition in conflict with its idea of a perfect Islamic community under its brutal rule. In other words, IS does not believe in the idea of Palestinian national self-determination espoused by mainstream Palestinian activism, but rather in the context of an expanded caliphate under its rule.