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Zelenskyy says Trump exerting undue pressure on Kyiv as Ukraine-Russia peace talks enter second day – Europe live

Zelenskyy has described the talks with the US and Russia as “difficult” and accused Russia of “trying to drag out negotiations” when then could have reached the final stage. In a social media post, the Ukrainian president said: Yesterday there were meetings in different formats – both bilateral between Ukraine and the United States and multilateral formats. In particular, there were talks between Ukrainian, American, and Russian representatives … The Ukrainian delegation, together with the American team, also met with European representatives – from the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. We consider Europe’s participation in the process indispensable for the successful implementation of entirely feasible agreements – Ukraine has no doubt that partners are capable of ensuring the constructiveness of the negotiation process and, therefore, a dignified result. Yesterday’s meetings were indeed difficult, and we can state that Russia is trying to drag out negotiations that could already have reached the final stage. I thank the American side for its attention to detail and patience in conversations with the current representatives of Russia.

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Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte announces 2028 presidential bid

Philippine vice-president Sara Duterte, daughter of the imprisoned former leader Rodridgo Duterte, has announced she will run for president in the country’s 2028 election. Sara Duterte, 47, said she would offer her “life, strength and future” in service of the Philippines, in a speech on Wednesday that accused President Ferdinand Marcos Jr, of presiding over a period marked by rampant corruption. Sara Duterte was once allied with Marcos Jr, and ran on a joint ticket with him in the 2022 election, where they won a landslide victory. However, she resigned from the cabinet two years later, after the two politicians became embroiled in a bitter feud. Relations between them reached rock bottom last year after Rodrigo Duterte was arrested in Manila and dramatically flown to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity at the international criminal court (ICC). At the time, Sara Duterte condemned his arrest as “oppression and persecution”. Rodrigo Duterte will appear before the ICC next week for a pre-trial hearing. The case relates to killings committed during his anti-drugs “crackdowns”, where thousands of people were gunned down in the streets, many of them men in poor, urban areas. Duterte said after his arrest that he would accept responsibility for the crackdowns. In 2024, he told a senate inquiry into the killings that he offered “no apologies, no excuses” for his policies, saying: “I did what I had to do, and whether you believe it or not, I did it for my country.” In her speech on Wednesday, Sara Duterte apologised for once running in tandem with Marcos, her ally-turned-nemesis, saying she was sorry she had once helped his election bid. “I am sorry if there is blatant abuse of our institutions for the personal interests of politicians. I am sorry that the prices of basic goods continue to rise while the income of every family remains insufficient. I am sorry that we do not even have genuine food security. I am sorry that some are falling ill and losing their lives because of the lack of a proper and effective healthcare system,” she said in a press briefing. Polls suggests Sara Duterte would be a strong contender in a future election. Her father, who styled himself as a straight-talking everyman, remained popular throughout his presidency, despite international condemnation over his so-called “war on drugs”. Sara Duterte is also facing legal troubles. Impeachment cases have been filed against her, including most recently by a group of nuns, priests, and lawyers, accusing her of misuse of funds as vice-president and when she was previously education secretary. She has also been accused of threatening to assassinate president Marcos. She has previously denied such allegations. Sara Duterte was impeached last year, though the case was later thrown out by the country’s supreme court over procedural issues. Like her father, Sara Duterte has been known for her extreme rhetoric. She once threatened to dig up the remains of Marcos’ dictator father and throw them into the sea. Speaking on Wednesday she explained her decision to run for the presidency, saying: “It took me 47 years to understand that my life was never meant to be only mine. Unlike others, I may not have been born just to chase happiness. For a long time I questioned the weight of responsibility to my family, to my country, to everyone who called upon me. Today, I have peacefully accepted that my life is unlike any other.” President Marcos cannot seek re-election because he is limited to a single six-year term under the constitution. He has faced increased pressure over a corruption scandal, after it emerged billions of dollars had allegedly been misspent on bogus flood relief projects. Marcos has pledged zero tolerance for corruption and said those found to have misused funds will face jail.

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Wednesday briefing: Why ​suicides ​linked to ​abuse ​are ​going unpunished

Good morning. Last year, research found that in the UK suicides following domestic abuse outnumbered homicides by partners for the second year in a row. These deaths reverberate. They leave a mark on the responding officers first called to the scene, the grieving families and the community that rally around afterwards. They also have potential ramifications. If victims are being pushed to suicide as a result of domestic abuse, alleged perpetrators could go on causing harm if not held accountable. Yet something seems to be going wrong in how we account for these deaths. There is evidence they are chronically under-reported. In cases where there is a strong history of domestic violence, charges have been quickly dropped after an alleged victim takes their own life. And manslaughter charges where a suicide is involved are incredibly rare. So what’s going wrong? How does a system tasked with looking after women seem to be failing them so badly that experts are calling it a “national scandal?” And would a law change help? I spoke to our North of England correspondent, Hannah Al-Othman, about her joint investigation into domestic abuse suicides. That’s after the headlines. Five big stories Flooding | One in nine new homes in England built between 2022 and 2024 were constructed in areas that could now be at risk of flooding, according to new data. Crime | Child sexual abuse in the UK is soaring, police have said, with 1,000 paedophile suspects being arrested each month and the number of children being rescued from harm rising by 50% in the last five years. Jeffrey Epstein | British police have expanded their interest in the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s links to Britain, by admitting for the first time they are looking at claims he used dozens of private flights into UK airports to traffic women. Reform | Nigel Farage has unveiled the first part of Reform UK’s frontbench team, saying it shows that the party is no longer reliant entirely on him – while also warning that he will not tolerate any dissent from his colleagues. Gaza | Medics in the UK and US believe they have been denied re-entry to Gaza after speaking out on the ongoing conflict. In depth: ‘There’s often a failure to recognise the deep, deep impact domestic abuse has’ Georgia Barter (pictured above) and her mother were very close. Georgia would call her mother, Kay, three or four times a day just to see how she was. After every phone call, she remembers her daughter would end the call with the same “I love you, Mum.” When Georgia began a relationship with Thomas Bignell, Kay Barter noticed how quickly their relationship became “intense”. A decade or so later, after years of a tumultuous relationship with Bignell, Georgia, took her own life at 32. “There were many, many times throughout the relationship where I noticed he had marked Georgia,” Barter told a court last September during an inquest looking into Georgia’s death. Once, she says, her daughter “looked like a victim of a road traffic accident”. Guardian reporter Hannah Al-Othman was there, listening at the side of the courtroom as Kay Barter gave evidence. Hannah had been told to attend by a source who knew Georgia’s case would make waves nationally. They were right. Coroner Dr Shirley Radcliffe came back with an unlawful killing ruling in the case – the first time ever in an inquest with a coroner sitting alone. Although Hannah has reported on many inquests, she remembers feeling shocked at the weight of the evidence regarding Bignell’s alleged abuse. It included GP reports, physical injuries, personal testimony, and hospitalisation. But Bignell was never charged with any violent offences against Georgia. Nor did he face charges relating to her death. In other cases, such as that of Katie Madden, her partner admitted to an inquest court that he’d told Katie to “go kill yourself” in the hours leading up to her death. He also told the inquest he then “went back on” himself and told her not to. In the end, he also faced no charges. Two weeks after Katie died, domestic abuse charges against her partner were dropped. *** Problems from the outset An inquest has a different burden of proof than a criminal court, looking “on the balance of probabilities” rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt”. So while coroners have made two unlawful killing rulings in relation to a suicide, these have no real bearing on the criminal justice system. But Hannah believes the issues with these cases start even before they get to court. “It’s often about police officers turning up and saying, ‘this is a suicide’ and not even starting to treat it as a crime scene so later down the line, even when they know or have been called out before to a domestic abuse incident … they’re not sealing it as a crime scene or collecting any evidence,” she says. Once a suicide has been noted as the cause of death, other issues can come later down the line. Coroners, for example, decide in advance what evidence they want to hear during an inquest. “In some cases, coroners are saying ‘this looks like a suicide so we’re only going to hear about the weeks before, not the months or years of [alleged] domestic abuse’.” The dropping of domestic abuse charges following a suicide is also perplexing, as a suicide does not mean the abuse didn’t happen – on the contrary, it could be further evidence. In Georgia’s case, it seems multiple agencies failed to pass on information about suspected abuse at the hands of Bignell while she was alive. Georgia’s family wanted this to be reconsidered after the unlawful death ruling, but ultimately, the Crown Prosecution Service declined due to insufficient evidence. Katie Madden’s partner, Jonathan Russell, was already being investigated on suspicion of assault when she died. He was also forbidden from contacting her. And yet, even amid evidence that he had called and texted telling Katie to kill herself in the hours before her death, two weeks after she died, a letter arrived saying the assault case against Russell was being dropped. *** Cuts to services There are now more cases where someone commits suicide after having experienced domestic abuse than there are cases where they are killed by their partners. The Domestic Homicide Project found that between April 2023 to March 2024, 98 people were suspected to have killed themselves after experiencing domestic abuse, while 80 people were killed by a partner during the same period. The problem runs so deep that some experts believe we aren’t properly accounting for it. One suicide prevention programme in Kent found that about a third of all suspected suicides in the area between 2018 and 2024 were affected by domestic abuse. If that finding is reflective of the national picture, it could mean as many as 1,500 victims of domestic abuse taking their own lives every year – up to 15 times as many as previously thought. “There’s often a failure to recognise the deep, deep impact that domestic abuse has, and the challenges it can present across someone’s whole life,” says Hannah. She points to the many cases where a person who has experienced abuse develops mental health or addiction problems. “Then their problems are blamed on them, and they feel judged.” I ask her whether she thinks the sheer volume of cases – in a context where 20% of all crime in most police forces now relates to domestic abuse – alongside a backdrop of austerity is to blame. Charities have been raising the alarm for more than a decade that women and girls would bear the brunt of cuts to vital services. And with so many services involved in these cases from GPs, to hospitals, to police forces, it is hard to feel frontline cuts wouldn’t make a difference. “It’s partly driven by austerity,” says Hannah. “If people have nowhere to go, they stay in the household longer and they are more likely to be a victim of more serious abuse … these things mean there are more opportunities for perpetrators to offend.” *** Change in law? Some campaigners believe a new law is needed to better account for a suicide that was urged on by domestic abuse. “They point at cases where prosecutors have tried to get a conviction and have failed,” says Hannah, adding that there is a lack of public awareness of how to convict such cases. “A jury is made up of the general public, and in the same way that police and coroners may not understand it, the same goes for a jury. [Campaigners] think giving a specific offence may make it easier to secure a conviction,” explains Hannah. But it also seems the legislation may already exist to convict these crimes, with a handful of cases where an allegedly abusive partner was taken to court for manslaughter following a suicide. In 2024, Ryan Wellings was charged with the manslaughter of Kiena Dawes, who took her own life, leaving a note on her phone saying: “Slowly … Ryan Wellings killed me.” He was not convicted of manslaughter, but was convicted of assault and coercive and controlling behaviour, and jailed for six and a half years. “Lots of lawyers say this legislation already exists. What we need is a shift in professional curiosity and public attitude,” she says. They recommend, among other things, that in any suicide where there is a history of domestic abuse, it should be treated as homicide from outset. “So if the police turn up and it looks like a suicide but they know they have attended that address previously due to domestic abuse, they gather evidence in a way they would if they suspected it was a murder,” says Hannah. • In the UK, Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123 and the domestic abuse helpline is 0808 2000 247. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14 and the national family violence counselling service is on 1800 737 732. In the US, the suicide prevention lifeline is 1-800-273-8255 and the domestic violence hotline is 1-800-799-SAFE (7233). Other international helplines can be found via www.befrienders.org What else we’ve been reading The prominent American civil rights leader Jesse Jackson died on Tuesday at 84. Ewen MacAskill’s obituary recounts a singular career in politics and activism and academic Saida Grundy remembers his “unapologetic” rebelliousness in this column, while our picture desk pulled together this stunning gallery of his extraordinary life in pictures. Charlie Lindlar, newsletters team Lucy Pasha-Robinson’s opinion piece about being affronted by three men recently, and her creeping suspicion that it relates to entitlement over public spaces and their desire to teach women a lesson, is deeply important. Poppy In this week’s TechScape newsletter (sign up here!) Blake Montgomery introduces Reworked, a new Guardian series all about “what’s at stake as AI disrupts our jobs”. Charlie There is no cushion, no seatbelt, no airbag in a bobsled. So I loved, and was equal parts horrified and in awe of the heroic Team GB bobsledder who races with her eyes closed. Poppy “Damned nuisance” or “just perfect”? Elle Hunt investigates an unlikely cause of turmoil in Norwich: the city’s pigeons. Charlie Sport Winter Olympics | Who knew the ice could get so hot? The Olympic curling community is still all in a twist about everything that’s gone on in the sport since a row broke out between the Sweden and Canada sides on Friday. Rugby union | Henry Pollock has been handed his first England start against Ireland while Steve Borthwick has recalled Tom Curry and Ollie Lawrence as he seeks to get his side’s Six Nations campaign back on track. Cricket | Australia have been knocked out of the T20 World Cup after Zimbabwe’s match against Ireland was washed out. With each side taking a point from the rained-off match it means Australia can no longer catch Zimbabwe, even if they win their final match against Oman on Friday The front pages “One in nine new homes ‘built in areas of flood risk’”, is the lead story on the Guardian on Wednesday. “Labour may drop youth wage pledge to boost jobs,” says the Times. “Reeves blocking defence cash boost,” has the Telegraph. ‘Millions are crying out for reward of hard work’,” writes the Express. “Third police force examines Andrew’s links to Epstein - as MPs threaten enquiry,” is the lead story at the i paper, while the Sun has “Cops in Andy sex probe,” and the Mail: “Pressure piles on Andrew as FOURTH police force probes Epstein claim.” “Plug pulled on high-tech bid to ease trade flows at border,” has the FT. “Putin critic: I never touch a door handle,” says the Metro. Finally, the Star with “Tough childhood made me better Dad.” Today in Focus Why did Labour Together orchestrate a smear campaign against journalists? A thinktank called Labour Together, linked to Keir Starmer and Morgan McSweeney, has been exposed for investigating journalists who were looking into the group’s funding. One of those journalists was the Guardian’s Henry Dyer. He tells Helen Pidd how he found out and why it matters. Cartoon of the day | Ella Baron The Upside A bit of good news to remind you that the world’s not all bad When James Balmont joined the band Swim Deep 13 years ago, he never dreamed they would find a fanbase in China. But there is a growing interest in the country for grassroots UK indie bands. “In September 2019, our biggest UK festival show took place […] in front of a crowd of 500,” says Balmont. “A few months later, we played to 10,000 people […] in Guangzhou.” It is a trend that has proved a financial lifeline for many musicians as returns dry up back home. For Craig Dyer, frontman of The Underground Youth, touring in the UK is no longer financially viable, with accommodation and food often costing more than gig fees. But in China, tours are often all-inclusive offers, with promoters booking large venues and covering internal travel, hotels and hot meals on top of the performance payment. “We’re no longer desperately trying to break or grow,” adds Jan Scott Wilkinson, frontman of Sea Power, who played six headline shows in China last year. “It’s a nice surprise to do something like this and be treated like kings.” Sign up here for a weekly roundup of The Upside, sent to you every Sunday Bored at work? And finally, the Guardian’s puzzles are here to keep you entertained throughout the day. Until tomorrow. Quick crossword Cryptic crossword Wordiply

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Beats and throat singing: Sámi DJs tap into growing pride in Indigenous identity

“We both live in maybe the most impractical place if you want to be a successful DJ,” laughs Alice Marie Jektevik, one half of Article 3, a Sámi female DJ collective. Jektevik, 36, and her collaborator, Petra Laiti, 30, reside in a rural village in the far north-east of Norway. But living in Sápmi – the region across northern parts of Sweden, Norway, Finland and Russia traditionally lived in by Sámi people – has proven to be central to their success, providing the inspiration for much of their work. Laiti says a discussion during a typical coffee meetup between the two goes from mixing and DJ gear to fishing, hunting and traditional handicrafts, and back to planning the visuals for a gig. “Everything is inspiring another area,” she says. “It is very holistic in that sense.” The Sami, with roots going back between 3,000 and 10,000 years and recognised as one of Sweden’s official national minorities, are the only recognised Indigenous people in the EU. Article 3, formed by Jektevik and Laiti’s predecessors in 2018, was thought to be the only female Sámi DJ group when the duo got together. Before then, there were a tiny number of Sámi DJs playing gigs, all of whom were male. Now, the culture has shifted dramatically: there are many other female DJs on the scene and a big and growing appetite for Indigenous music-focused club nights. Like much of their generation, Jektevik says they live in a mixture of old and new. “We want that traditional knowledge that we never got and we want that connection, but we also live in a world where you go and be hyper-modern or travel around a lot and DJ for money.” Article 3 mixes blend joik – a traditional Sámi vocal style – beats and throat singing. With the emergence of Sámi DJ culture, there are many more opportunities for DJs to perform. “Outdoor raves in a forest or out in the snow in the winter darkness, as well as dark indoor club spaces during summer festivals,” Laiti says. On Saturday the duo are bringing their night, which includes Sámi music and Indigenous music from around the world combined with live visuals, to Kirkenes, a Norwegian town close to the border with Russia, for the art festival Barents Spektakel. They are also like to feature some “guilty pleasure pop” – not least because it makes mixing tracks easier. “The main point of all of it is to promote this very Sámi-safe, Indigenous-safe club space that people can freely enjoy themselves and feel secure and confident in,” Laiti says. A well-known joik over a good beat can create an incredible feeling on the dancefloor, she says. “That usually gets people so overjoyed and wanting to enjoy themselves and that’s a very contagious atmosphere to be in. It’s one of the biggest sources of professional joy I’ve had, for sure.” The rise of Sámi DJ culture is in a large part driven by a wider newfound pride felt by younger Sámi people, Laiti says. “People our parents’ age were raised with shame and assimilation and other problems and social issues that made people suppress their identities.” At their nights, they find young people in their 20s talking about handicrafts and traditional Sámi garments in an aspirational way and as sources of pride. “You can really see in multiple levels of society that young people take pride in their identity and have a stronger sense of belonging and stronger understanding what their rights are, also put that work and passion into creating arts and culture,” Laiti says. The theme for this year’s Barents Spektakel, which runs 19-22 February, is “the border crossed us”, to mark the 200th anniversary of the northern border that today separates Finland, Russia and Norway. Laiti, who is from the Finnish side of Sápmi, and Jektevik, who is from the Norwegian side, are all too aware of the day-to-day complications caused by borders to Sámi people in the region, affecting everything from arts funding to choosing where to build a career. “You could call it forced mobility,” Laiti says. “That it causes artists to have to move between countries and strategise on which nation or nationality you want to build your career under because it gives you the best opportunity to make a living out of it.”

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Wealthy Americans top ‘golden visa’ surge in New Zealand and applications from China double

Wealthy Americans are dominating applications for New Zealand’s “golden visa”, driven by a love for the country’s natural beauty and entrepreneurial spirit, as well a desire to escape Trump’s administration. New rules for the Active Investor Plus visa came into effect in April 2025, lowering investment thresholds, removing English-language requirements and cutting the amount of time applicants must spend in the country to establish residency from three years to three weeks. Successful applicants can only purchase homes in New Zealand worth more than $5m. Immigration New Zealand said the new scheme offering residency to wealthy foreigners has attracted 573 applications, representing 1,833 people. Before the changes, the visa attracted 116 applications over two-and-a-half years. The most recent data released by the government showed that investors from the US made up nearly 40% of applicants, followed by China and Hong Kong. Since August 2025, the number of applications from China more than doubled, from 45 to 95. The remaining top 10 countries in order included Germany, Taiwan, Singapore, Vietnam, Japan and South Korea tied, and Great Britain. There are two categories of “golden visa” in New Zealand. Most have applied under the “growth” category, which requires a minimum NZ$5m ($3m) investment over three years. A smaller group applied under the “balanced” category, which sets a minimum investment of $10m over five years. The previous scheme required an investment of $15m. Courtney and Jim Andelman, a couple from California who run a venture capital firm, were, alongside their twin daughters, the 100th family to be granted a visa. The visa provided an opportunity for the family to spend more time in New Zealand – a country Courtney fell in love with during a backpacking trip 30 years ago, while being an opportunity “give back” to the community, she told the Guardian. The visa was also good for business, she said. “This is not just about fun and games and having a chance to live in one of the most amazing countries on the planet – this is also a really smart investment scheme. It’s smart for us.” New Zealand was an “underserved” market with “incredible entrepreneurial habits, history and technologies”, she said. The family has invested in various venture funds and is also eyeing up companies for direct investment. They are particularly interested in New Zealand’s “deep-tech” industry, including artificial intelligence, robotics and biotechnologies. The couple have decided not to buy a home in New Zealand, in part because the $5m price tag is too hefty, and because they do not want to add strain to the housing market. Meanwhile, they will split their time between New Zealand and Santa Barbara, where they live. “We feel a real responsibility to participating, not just in one country, but in both countries.” Robbie Paul, the chief executive of the Auckland-based venture capital firm Icehouse Ventures, has worked with more than 30 people who have applied for a golden visa. Paul helps applicants fulfil their visa requirements by assisting with their investments in New Zealand. Many of the Americans Paul has worked with have said the visa provides an opportunity to escape Trump’s administration. “I’ll put it this way, never in my time in New Zealand, did I have an applicant reference Biden or Obama … and then, absolutely, a lot of references to people’s feelings towards Maga and Trump,” he said. New Zealand had become an appealing option for those investors because it is English-speaking, political stable, beautiful and “very connected to the world”, Paul said. It is not the first time New Zealand has attracted the interest of Trump-weary Americans and other wealthy foreigners seeking to make New Zealand their “bolthole” at a time of societal division. After Trump election victory in 2016, visits to the country’s immigration website rose almost 2,500%. After the US supreme court ruled there was no constitutional right to abortion – upending the landmark Roe v Wade – visits to New Zealand’s immigration site quadrupled to 77,000. After Trump’s 2024 election win, there was a surge of interest from the US in New Zealand’s property market. Billionaires acquiring residency or citizenship in New Zealand have been subject to controversy in the past. After Peter Thiel, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal, was granted citizenship in 2017 despite spending only 12 days in the country, the former Labour prime minister Jacinda Ardern tightened the rules on investment visas. Ardern also banned foreign home ownership in 2018, because of concern that foreign buyers were driving up prices during a housing crisis. In 2025, the government announced that while the ban largely remains, holders of a “golden visa” would now be able to buy homes valued at more than $5m. At the same time wealthy investors are flocking to the golden visa, New Zealand citizens have been leaving the country in record numbers in recent years, due to a weak economy, high living costs and high unemployment. The most recent migration statistics released in February, however, show signs of improvement, with 66,300 citizens departing in 2025 compared with 67,200 in 2024. The Active Investor Plus visa scheme has generated $3.39bn investment in New Zealand, Immigration NZ said. The immigration minister, Erica Stanford, said the new visa settings are helping to open up investment in New Zealand. “International investment is critical for lifting productivity, supporting jobs, and helping New Zealand businesses to expand,” she said in a statement.

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Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy says Trump exerting ‘unfair’ pressure on Kyiv during Geneva talks

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Donald Trump was exerting undue pressure on him in trying to secure a resolution to the nearly four-year-old Russia-Ukraine war. Zelenskyy also said any plan requiring Ukraine to give up territory that Russia had not captured in the eastern Donbas region would be rejected by Ukrainians if put to a referendum. In an interview with Axios, Zelenskyy said it was “not fair” Trump kept publicly calling on Ukraine, not Russia, to make concessions in negotiating terms for a peace plan. “I hope it is just his tactics and not the decision,” Zelenskyy said in an interview conducted as Russian, Ukrainian and US negotiators held talks in Geneva. Trump has twice in recent days suggested it was up to Ukraine and Zelenskyy to take steps to ensure the talks proved successful. “Ukraine better come to the table fast. That’s all I’m telling you,” Trump said on Air Force One on Monday. Ukraine’s lead negotiator, Rustem Umerov, said the opening day of talks in Geneva had focused on “practical issues and the mechanics of possible decisions,” without providing details. Negotiations would resume on Wednesday for a final day, he said. Russian officials made no comments on the talks but Russian news agencies quoted a source as saying that the talks were “very tense” and lasted six hours in different bilateral and trilateral formats. Both sides agreed to continue the discussions on Wednesday, the source told the agencies. Ukrainian drones hit the Taman oil terminal in Russia’s southern Krasnodar region and a chemicals plant in the Perm region near the Ural mountains overnight, Ukraine’s SBU domestic security service said on Tuesday. An official said the attack on the Taman terminal was the agency’s second on the facility since 22 January. SBU drones also attacked the Metafrax Chemicals plant in the Perm region, about 1,600 km from Ukraine, a facility the official described as one of the biggest methanol producers in Russia and Europe. Ukrainian drones have struck nine oil refineries across Russia since the start of the year, the commander of Kyiv’s drone forces said on Tuesday. In a statement released on Telegram, Robert Brovdi said the refineries were among 240 facilities in Russia and Russian-occupied territory hit by Ukrainian forces. Lithuania’s Vilnius airport has resumed operations after a short closure due to weather balloons from Belarus entering its airspace on Tuesday night, officials said. The airport, located about 30km from Belarus, has been closed more than 10 times since October 2025 over similar incidents. Traffic at the airport was restricted for 75 minutes after the Baltic country’s crisis management centre notified the airport of weather balloons posing a risk to aviation. France on Tuesday released a tanker called Grinch suspected of being part of Russia’s sanctions-busting “shadow fleet” after its owner paid a multimillion-euro fine, a minister said. French forces and their allies boarded the oil tanker last month between Spain and Morocco after it started its journey in Russia. Starlink terminals used by the Russian military have not been in operation for two weeks, but the disconnection has had no effect on its drone operations, a senior Russian military official claimed on Tuesday. “Starlink terminals have been down for two weeks, but this has not affected the intensity or effectiveness of the troops’ unmanned systems, as confirmed by data from objective monitoring of damage to enemy equipment and personnel,” the deputy defence minister, Aleksei Krivoruchko, told state television. The Ukrainian defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, said the effect on Russian operations had been considerable. Ukraine recaptured 201 sq km from Russia between Wednesday and Sunday last week, taking advantage of the Starlink shutdown, according to an analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War. Russia has stepped up its hybrid threat activities and seems willing to take greater risks in the area surrounding Sweden, the head of Sweden’s military intelligence told Agence France-Presse on Tuesday. Thomas Nilsson, the head of Sweden’s Military Intelligence and Security Service (MUST) said he believed Moscow would “unfortunately” continue doing so – regardless of whether it succeeds in Ukraine or not. Nilsson did not cite any particular attacks, but MUST said in its yearly threat review released on Tuesday that Russia “has developed a wide range of methods that can be used within the framework of hybrid warfare,” including disinformation, cyber-attacks, economic sanctions, intelligence operations, and election interference.

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Peru’s president ousted in ‘express impeachment’ after just four months

Peru’s interim president has been forced out of office in an “express impeachment” after a political scandal over his secretive meetings with Chinese businessmen. Lawmakers voted by 75 votes to 24 to proceed with the removal of José Jerí, who had been at the helm for just four months. He had become embroiled in a scandal dubbed “Chifagate” after security-camera footage emerged showing him in clandestine meetings with Chinese businessmen outside his official agenda, including one visit in which he appears to try to conceal his identity with a hooded top. Jerí, 39, was Peru’s eighth president since 2016 amid oustings, resignations and interim terms, in an unprecedented period of political instability. The acting speaker of Peru’s congress, Fernando Rospigliosi, said lawmakers would vote on Wednesday to decide who would replace Jerí just months before the country’s presidential elections in April. Jerí was initially popular but his approval rating collapsed amid the Chifagate controversy and other scandals. Political parties that had backed him began to call for him to quit, seeking to distance themselves as election campaigning got under way. Prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into alleged influence-peddling linked to the meetings with Yang Zhihua, known as “Johnny”, a well-connected Chinese businessman who has lived in Peru for decades. Prosecutors say another Chinese citizen, Ji Wu Xiaodong, who was present at one of the meetings, is accused of belonging to an illegal timber-trafficking network known as Los Hostiles de la Amazonia and had been placed under house arrest for two years. Jerí also faces scrutiny for allegedly hiring unqualified young women who secured government jobs after late-night meetings at the presidential palace, based on its official entry-and-exit log. Several of them had also accompanied Jerí on multiple official trips on the presidential plane. Jerí has denied wrongdoing and said the appointments were legal. The shake-up at the top of Peruvian politics comes amid a tit-for-tat row between the US Trump administration’s newly appointed ambassador to Peru, Bernardo Navarro, and China. Navarro, who began his diplomatic duties in Peru this month, lambasted “cheap Chinese money” in a post on X – adding that there was “no higher price to pay than losing sovereignty”, in what appeared to be a pointed reference to the port of Chancay, which is majority-owned by the Chinese firm Cosco Shipping Ports. The fully automated port is located about 50 miles north of Lima. Previously, US officials have suggested that the deepwater port could be used for naval activities, which Peru has denied. In response, China’s foreign ministry decried what it called the US’s “false accusations and disinformation against China’s cooperation with Peru” concerning Chancay port. Keen to deflect the US’s diplomatic broadside, Peru’s foreign ministry posted a photograph on X of its minister shaking hands with China’s ambassador to Peru, Song Yang, to mark the lunar new year and praising Chinese investments and bilateral trade relations.