Volodymyr Zelenskyy set to press case for using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine’s defences
A forthcoming trip by German foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, to China has been cancelled amid growing fears that Beijing’s restriction on semiconductor and rare earth exports could paralyse the country’s car industry.
“We are postponing the journey to a later time,” the spokesperson told a regular press briefing on Friday.
“The Chinese side was ultimately able to confirm only the appointment with the Chinese foreign minister, and could not confirm any other additional appointments,” a foreign ministry spokesperson said.
© Photograph: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock
© Photograph: Victoria Jones/Shutterstock
The Guardian’s picture editors select photographs from around the world
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© Composite: Various
© Composite: Various
© Composite: Various
Australia are dominant but Shaun Wane hopes some wise heads and exciting Mikey Lewis could cause an upset
It has been a long time between drinks – 22 years to be exact. The Ashes were last staged in 2003, meaning more than two decades have elapsed without international rugby league’s greatest rivalry, a wait which finally ends on Saturday at Wembley. For Shaun Wane, the wait must have felt like an eternity.
If you were fortunate enough to be there when Wane was appointed as England coach in February 2020, it is easy to remember that he could not hide his delight that his first assignment was an Ashes series that autumn. Of course, within weeks the world had ground to a halt thanks to Covid-19 and the chance of taking on Australia on home soil disappeared.
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© Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA
© Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA
© Photograph: Ben Whitley/PA
The singer learned early how to navigate pop feminism and the public’s insatiable appetites. Her new album bumps up against the limits of both
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned. Though it probably wouldn’t have occurred to the 17th-century playwright who wrote those words, scorned women write absolute bangers, too.
We have been reminded as much this week by Lily Allen’s new album, West End Girl, an explicit dissection of the singer’s recent divorce from the actor David Harbour, amid already swirling rumours of his infidelity. Allen here is high priestess of W1, sucking on a Lost Mary vape as she weaves us a tragedy of loss, betrayal and butt plugs.
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© Photograph: Charlie Denis
© Photograph: Charlie Denis
© Photograph: Charlie Denis
As president backs down on his federal ‘surge’, volunteers and demonstrators remain prepared to respond
It was a whirlwind, disorienting 24 hours in the San Francisco Bay Area for local leaders and organizers, who were expecting a major immigration enforcement operation in the region on Thursday.
But by mid-morning, Donald Trump announced he was calling off a federal “surge” – and telling residents to “stay tuned” for what would come next.
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© Photograph: Santiago Mejia/AP
© Photograph: Santiago Mejia/AP
© Photograph: Santiago Mejia/AP
Playing Fox Mulder made him a global phenomenon … then he walked away to save himself. As he stars in killer-nanny thriller Malice, David Duchovny talks art, his beef with Gillian Anderson – and being murdered by Jack Whitehall
Halfway through our hour-long conversation, David Duchovny slumps in his seat a little then gently chastises me. “I got tired while you were talking,” he groans. In fairness, I had been talking a lot, but only because I was trying to list everything he’s managed to do in the past year.
There’s his podcast, Fail Better, in which he’s wrung incredibly candid interviews from notoriously reticent stars like Alec Baldwin and Robert Downey Jr, more on which later. There’s his book of poetry, About Time, which came out last month. There’s his History Channel show Secrets Declassified With David Duchovny. As we speak, he’s just finished an eight-date tour, where he performed songs from the three folk-rock albums he’s released over the last decade. We are ostensibly here to discuss Malice, his new Prime Video series. Had we spoken a couple of weeks later, God knows how many new projects he would have flung himself into. In other words, no wonder he’s tired.
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© Photograph: Michael Wharley/Amazon
© Photograph: Michael Wharley/Amazon
© Photograph: Michael Wharley/Amazon
The president’s purges and attacks on his enemies have developed into a system in which injustice is made routine
Donald Trump’s voracious desire for retribution has quickly evolved into a regular and predictable system. In the year since his election, the president’s rage and whims have assumed the form of policies in the same way that Joseph Stalin’s purges could be called policies. Figures within the federal system of justice who do not do his bidding are summarily fired and replaced by loyalists. Leaders who have called him to account or are in his way may face indictment, trial and punishment. Opponents have been designated under Presidential National Security Memorandum No 7 as “Antifa”: “anti-American”, “anti-Christian” and “anti-capitalist”, and threatened with prosecution as a “terrorist”. Meanwhile, many aligned with him escape justice, whether through the hand of the Department of Justice (DoJ) or the presidential pardon power. Now, he demands compensation for having been prosecuted to the tune of $230m from the Department of Justice budget.
Each of the cases involving prosecution of Trump’s enemies and, on the other hand, the leniency extended to his allies has its own peculiarities of outrage. But whatever their unique and arbitrary perversities, they are expressions of what has emerged as a technique. These episodes are not isolated or coincidental. Trump’s purge of DoJ prosecutors and FBI agents, accompanied by his installment of flunkies in senior positions, started in a rush, quickly assumed a pattern, but has now been molded into a regime. The justice department and the FBI have been remade into political agencies under Trump’s explicit command to carry out his wishes. Injustice is made routine. It is the retribution system.
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© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
© Photograph: Evan Vucci/AP
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